*raises hand*
I started out in paint. I think it was a good experience, really. I figure this-- from paint, the only way you can go is "up," y'know?
Beginning in paint early on helped me learn to steady my hand, helped me learn the importance of zooming in for detail work and showed me just how much clean lineart can make or break a picture. I see people now who just scan in lineart, slap some colours on and call it a day, and it quite frankly looks bad because they're too lazy to clean up their lines. Starting in paint gave me really no choice, because unclean lines+lack of layers makes colouring impossible.
Also, paint helped me learn to do shading-- and I mean, actually -do- shading. People who start out in fancier programs often just dodge & burn, but with only a pencil tool and a paint bucket I was forced to actually -think- about what colour the shadows really were and such. Plus, the importance of shading in gradation, as opposed to more advanced programs where you airbrush on one colour and it's all gradated automatically. Assuming I had started out with a more advanced program, I doubt I'd be able to do anything with paint at all-- it'd simply drive me nuts. But tedious pixel art allowed me to build up the tolerance to do things like dragon scales and individual chain links, and, yeah-- grass. That photoshop grass brush, in my opinion, usually ruins an otherwise good picture, simply because the artist couldn't take the time to draw the blades individually.
Here is my first ever real computer drawing:
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v45/h ... a/dmg1.gif">
Yeah, it kinda sucks. But it taught me a lot, working in such a limited program. Everything gets easier after that, y'know? Working in paint made learning more sophisticated programs a breeze, so that -this- was my first ever layered picture:
<img src="http://jeti.jeeran.com/thiefbakurasama-nrml.gif">
And I am still proud of that picture, to this day, mistakes and all. If you start out with the difficult stuff, then you can do anything, I think. :3
Art Tips
I started out in paint too, but I found it so incrediably restricting, and it wasn't until I was able to actually scan in hand drawn pieces and use layers that I got the look I'd been after from the offset.
I could not do any of the art I do now in paint, for example.
Im a clean freak (possibly something to do with the ocd, I don't know) and I've never really liked jagged pixelated art. I like things smooth and disney-ish (for wont of a better word).
A lot of artists DO abuse the dodge and burn tool, do sloppy colouring and all sorts of faux pas, but I don't think thats anything to do with the programme they use. A sloppy artist is a sloppy artist, whether they're using paint or photoshop. You can only do so much in paint, and you're restricted to a certain style. In photoshop or psp, you can do the pixel look if thats what you're after, but you can also do a piece that looks as if it was done with oils, a pencil, or as if its right out of a disney/don bluth film. I just don't see that restricting your options is ever a good thing as an artist. I'd personally prefer to have all of them available to me and then I can choose which style or look I want to persue.
Using psp or photoshop is not the easy way out or a way of making art without effort, and any artist will tell you that something just looks shit if its peppered with photoshop filters and effects. Its all about balance and learning to use the filters/brushes/effects so they look natural. Its all about HOW you use the tools available to you.
I use the grass brush from time to time because I think it looks GOOD. Of course, I've seen many pics in which it has been used badly and looks awful, but just because its a custom brush it doesn't mean its instantly crap. Thought DOES have to be given to light, shding etc. You can't just choose green and splash the grass brush over a piece.
I personally feel that paint didn't really teach me much of anything. I've always known lighting, shading, composition etc were important to get right long before I even started doing digital art. If you set out with the mindset that you're going to do things throughly and properly, I don't think it matters what programme you use since you'll make sure its right regardless.
I guess I just think its better to start out with ALL the options and tools you might end up using and get used to them from the offset. I wish I'd first learned in a more complex programme.
I messed about in paint for a few months then I learned about layers and such in psp7. I've since tried to get to grips with photoshop but I don't find it as easy to use. Im told by people who STARTED in photoshop that psp is harder for them to use. Its all about what you first learned in. If you start off learning about layers and layer styles and how to correctly use things such as dodge, burn, soften, smudge etc then you don't HAVE to use them, but you'll know how if you ever want to.
I could not do any of the art I do now in paint, for example.
Im a clean freak (possibly something to do with the ocd, I don't know) and I've never really liked jagged pixelated art. I like things smooth and disney-ish (for wont of a better word).
A lot of artists DO abuse the dodge and burn tool, do sloppy colouring and all sorts of faux pas, but I don't think thats anything to do with the programme they use. A sloppy artist is a sloppy artist, whether they're using paint or photoshop. You can only do so much in paint, and you're restricted to a certain style. In photoshop or psp, you can do the pixel look if thats what you're after, but you can also do a piece that looks as if it was done with oils, a pencil, or as if its right out of a disney/don bluth film. I just don't see that restricting your options is ever a good thing as an artist. I'd personally prefer to have all of them available to me and then I can choose which style or look I want to persue.
Using psp or photoshop is not the easy way out or a way of making art without effort, and any artist will tell you that something just looks shit if its peppered with photoshop filters and effects. Its all about balance and learning to use the filters/brushes/effects so they look natural. Its all about HOW you use the tools available to you.
I use the grass brush from time to time because I think it looks GOOD. Of course, I've seen many pics in which it has been used badly and looks awful, but just because its a custom brush it doesn't mean its instantly crap. Thought DOES have to be given to light, shding etc. You can't just choose green and splash the grass brush over a piece.
I personally feel that paint didn't really teach me much of anything. I've always known lighting, shading, composition etc were important to get right long before I even started doing digital art. If you set out with the mindset that you're going to do things throughly and properly, I don't think it matters what programme you use since you'll make sure its right regardless.
I guess I just think its better to start out with ALL the options and tools you might end up using and get used to them from the offset. I wish I'd first learned in a more complex programme.
I messed about in paint for a few months then I learned about layers and such in psp7. I've since tried to get to grips with photoshop but I don't find it as easy to use. Im told by people who STARTED in photoshop that psp is harder for them to use. Its all about what you first learned in. If you start off learning about layers and layer styles and how to correctly use things such as dodge, burn, soften, smudge etc then you don't HAVE to use them, but you'll know how if you ever want to.
I don't think its an argument, just offering the pros or cons from each side. Nothing wrong with that.
When you say shading, do you mean you don't know where to put the shading or you don't know what colour to make the shaded areas or you don't know how it works? What specifically about shading is the issue?
When you say shading, do you mean you don't know where to put the shading or you don't know what colour to make the shaded areas or you don't know how it works? What specifically about shading is the issue?
One thing I've found even more useful than studying animal anatomy, is studying your own. People often think that animals are built differently from us, but they're the exact same! They just use their bodies differently. Then again, I'm mostly an anthro/were artist, so I have to study human anatomy anyway. For instance, when I started getting frustrated with how legs and paws looked on quadrupedal characters a few years ago, I just bent up my arm the way they would. I think it was a canine, so I rested the flats of my finger up until the first fleshy part of my hand on the desk, tilted the heel of my hand as far as it would go, and followed through. You just need to mentally recalculate the lengths, and voila, an instant mannikin made by yourself. Showed a friend this week how to draw bird's wings, she was amazed that they were built like human arms. Dur.
Another thing. Click every bloody button in your program. Every one. You never know what neat filters, brushes, gradients, or tools you could find by clicking buttons. And, even if you use dodge/burn, know how shadows work. Dodge/burn help me, since I'm a very impatient person and generally use neutral lighting anyway, but I know that if I use orange lighting I better use purple shadows. Understand and manipulate textures. Always pay attention to the outdoors when you go out, whether it's suburbia or not.
Oh. And use stick figures. Non of this, "I'm too good for stick figures," bull. Stick figures are gods when it comes to figuring out position, even if you end up redrawing them.
Another thing. Click every bloody button in your program. Every one. You never know what neat filters, brushes, gradients, or tools you could find by clicking buttons. And, even if you use dodge/burn, know how shadows work. Dodge/burn help me, since I'm a very impatient person and generally use neutral lighting anyway, but I know that if I use orange lighting I better use purple shadows. Understand and manipulate textures. Always pay attention to the outdoors when you go out, whether it's suburbia or not.
Oh. And use stick figures. Non of this, "I'm too good for stick figures," bull. Stick figures are gods when it comes to figuring out position, even if you end up redrawing them.
<B>highly</b>FLAMMABLE<I>animal</i>
<a href="http://subeta.org/userinfo.php?user=158800">See: Feezl</a>
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