Need Digital Painting Advice

Hathnuz

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So... I've always wanted to learn digital painting, and I finally have bought a cheap tablet to start out. To veteran digital artists out there, what advice and tips would you give to beginners like me? What are the common mistakes? And how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?

Thanks in advance.
 
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EternalSunset0

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Marking for tips from artists, too. Drawing digitally is so different from paper and pencil.
 

lnv

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So... I've always wanted to learn digital painting, and I finally have bought a cheap tablet to start out. To veteran digital artists out there, what advice would you give to beginners like me? What are the common mistakes? And how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?

Thanks in advance.
First of all, what do you mean by "cheap tablet". In digital art, cheap tablet means $500 Huion tablet with a pressure sensitive stylus. For average people, cheap tablet means a capacitive stylus tablet.

It is also important to note what software you plan to draw, then based on that it would make sense to ask the local community. For example, for free software you can use Krita which has Krita-Artists.org community.
 

Plantorsomething

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So... I've always wanted to learn digital painting, and I finally have bought a cheap tablet to start out. To veteran digital artists out there, what advice would you give to beginners like me? What are the common mistakes? And how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?

Thanks in advance.
Well, I’d try to experiment with the brushes rather than just going straight to airbrush only and falling into that habit like I did. For shading, try to use a dark shade of the same or opposite color (from what I remember) rather than just using a desaturates black. Remember to save periodically!!!
For anatomy, reflect the drawing sideways to easily spot mistakes. Play around with lineart thickness rather than just sticking to a solid thickness the full way through. When lighting, make sure wet and metal stuff is really shiny and not too soft. You don’t have to be overly meticulous on making seemless gradients for ahading unless that’s your style. Cell shading is fun and looks great!
If you want to get better at one thing specifically, then practice on it specifically for hours with a few exersises like in art books. Works wayy better than you’d think, my anatomy went from 6 to 8 in two days from what I remember.
 

Hathnuz

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First of all, what do you mean by "cheap tablet". In digital art, cheap tablet means $500 Huion tablet with a pressure sensitive stylus. For average people, cheap tablet means a capacitive stylus tablet.

It is also important to note what software you plan to draw, then based on that it would make sense to ask the local community. For example, for free software you can use Krita which has Krita-Artists.org community.
I got Huion H430P for like 25 bucks + painting glove. That's cheap, right?

I'm still trying out the softwares, though I'm liking Krita so far. And thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
 

owotrucked

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Here some tip from Marc Brunet:
Have some sort of goals. This is to focus your efforts to where it fits you.

For instance, if you look at some arts and think "I really like that anatomy style, I want to learn how they do it", it will naturally direct your training towards it. That way you will never stagnate because you'll always have a 'problem' to solve. Things to consider in art are anatomy, perspective, environment, shading, color.

Dont have a time limit: it takes time to integrate new techniques and knowledge into your repertoire. You'll get burnt out if you're constantly at the edge of your skills, out of your comfort zone.

Regularly look at new arts to motivate you. You can watch youtube art tutorials to stumble on new knowledge that can trigger paradigm shifts in your drawing.

Manifest your jealousy of other artists as hope and motivation (you'll catch up and be even better)

Drawing is a marathon but for only 666 bucks and 80% of your braincell, I can endow you with the eldritch knowledge of waifu drawing.

Edit:

how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?
If you're doing lineart you don't.
If you're painting you just put brushstrokes on the two sides of the edge to refine it

Technical advice: find the key bind for "trasnsparent color". It turns your current brush into an eraser
 
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Alkareel

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First of all, what do you mean by "cheap tablet". In digital art, cheap tablet means $500 Huion tablet with a pressure sensitive stylus. For average people, cheap tablet means a capacitive stylus tablet.

It is also important to note what software you plan to draw, then based on that it would make sense to ask the local community. For example, for free software you can use Krita which has Krita-Artists.org community.
$500 being the cheap option was two years ago. Since school is now going online, students have found a need for drawing tabs.
Almost all the stock of drawing tablets have had their prices halved. $500 is now a bit on the higher end. Huion stuff even is nowadays comparable to Wacom tablets—both leading the market—so the cheaper priced huion is a smarter buy. Starter tablets for beginning digital artists now start at $100.

If you're looking for a free software, go with Krita. It's beginner friendly and incredibly convenient. Look for David Revoy's Krita Tutorials in youtube.
I've tried Clip Studio Paint as well, and I found a lot of things lacking which often use in Krita. Of course, Clip Studio paint does have its advantages as well—though locked behind either a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase.
 

tiaf

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And how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?
Find a brush with good settings/set up a brush
adjust pen pressure in your program
Practice, practice, practices

idk what style you’re aiming for cause different style needs different approach
though locked behind either a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase.
Their sale is pretty cheap for one time payment. I’d say it’s the cheapest software out there

also krita is more for painting
CSP is more intuitive for anime artists
 

Hathnuz

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Find a brush with good settings/set up a brush
adjust pen pressure in your program
Practice, practice, practices

idk what style you’re aiming for cause different style needs different approach

Their sale is pretty cheap for one time payment. I’d say it’s the cheapest software out there

also krita is more for painting
CSP is more intuitive for anime artists
Thanks!

What's the approach for anime style? I want to focus on that.
 

Alkareel

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also krita is more for painting
CSP is more intuitive for anime artists
I got so irritated using CSP cause every tool has a different key binding. You have to rebind everything manually. And the convenient tool palette right click from Krita is missing, I keep trying to use it. Layer renaming, changing, and modifying is incredibly tedious as there are no shortcut keys for most of it. The keys have been delegated to who knows what.
If not for the Clip studio assets, then I wouldn't use CSP. However, that is my opinion having used it for a few days. Take it with a grain of salt.
Thanks!

What's the approach for anime style? I want to focus on that.
It's cause of the Clip studio assets and 3d Modelling feature of CSP. If you're starting out however, I recommend learning the basics first. Draw a few pieces in Krita, then try to check out CSP.
 
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So... I've always wanted to learn digital painting, and I finally have bought a cheap tablet to start out. To veteran digital artists out there, what advice and tips would you give to beginners like me? What are the common mistakes? And how to draw neat strokes without having to erase stray lines countless times?

Thanks in advance.
Here you go,
also, use light blue to draw a line on a white canvas so you don't think to much about accuracy
 
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Thank you so much for posting the guide! I really, really need this lol
Be sure to zoom out from your canvas more often to spot any mistake, and you should flip the canvas often too.
After using light blue, use red or any color with huge contrast for accuracy in your drawing
 

LinXueLian

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Umm... I'm not sure if it helps, but I use Medibang for drawing anime. I noticed from your post that that's what you want to focus on.

Medibang's the program that was recommended to me by other anime artists on Reddit(?) or a forum, I can't remember. It's that thing a number of anime artists seem to be using on Pixiv, so I just hopped on to it. The developers were the ones who created Open Canvas, so I'm pretty used to the strokes. As you can see from below, the layout is very simple.

slowly.jpg



Cheap tablets are fine imho. I started off with a cheap Genius tablet. As far as I've experienced, there was no difference in line quality. I still drew at the same or similar level.
The current tablet I have is free. So it's the cheapest....
 
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Cipiteca396

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Seems like a useful thread. ptw

I haven't been able to draw in a long time, so my advice is all rusty, but... Make sure to use layers. They're probably the biggest difference between digital and traditional art, so if you aren't making extensive use of them, you may as well toss everything in the Recycle Bin.
 

Minx

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I'll say practice drawing traditionally before you go digital, and if you already got that part developed, then you only need to get used to the tools for digital art.
 

tiaf

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Layer renaming, changing, and modifying is incredibly tedious as there are no shortcut keys for most of it. The keys have been delegated to who knows what.
That’s customizing. I had Sai before and the shortcuts also differed. Photoshop also has different shortcuts, so that’s a general problem not only a CSP problem. :blob_hmm:
The preset shortcuts of my wacom tablet also don’t work for photoshop although they were meant for ps ._.
I blame it all on different languages and keyboard settings :blob_pout: but you can assign the same shortcuts for different tools and switch between them:blob_aww:
Thanks!

What's the approach for anime style? I want to focus on that.
The basics first! Idk know how far you’re with anatomy, but anatomy study is always important.

Knowing your program is important to get good results, that takes time.

I guess anime style = cel shading. From my experience, the tools you need to get familiar the most are bucket tool, lasso selection, wand tool, transform tool, brush tool, blender, airbrush, sketch pen and ink pen.

You don’t need fancy brushes for the beginning, unless you want to draw more painterly like WLOP.
 

lnv

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That’s customizing. I had Sai before and the shortcuts also differed. Photoshop also has different shortcuts, so that’s a general problem not only a CSP problem. :blob_hmm:

I wouldn't say that, it all depends on the software vendor and how welcoming they are to others. In the case of Photoshop, they pretty much have a global monopoly and being the standard where everyone expects psd files, they don't care for supporting others. The same applies to Sai and CSP, which have a duopoly in Japan.

In the case of Krita for example, they offer Photoshop and Sai shorcuts as an option. Which was helpful since I came from Photoshop.
 

tiaf

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I wouldn't say that, it all depends on the software vendor and how welcoming they are to others. In the case of Photoshop, they pretty much have a global monopoly and being the standard where everyone expects psd files, they don't care for supporting others. The same applies to Sai and CSP, which have a duopoly in Japan.

In the case of Krita for example, they offer Photoshop and Sai shorcuts as an option. Which was helpful since I came from Photoshop.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I customized all my shortcuts. I’m peculiar and need my own shortcuts to work comfortably.
 

EternalSunset0

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Here you go,
also, use light blue to draw a line on a white canvas so you don't think to much about accuracy
Why blue specifically? I've seen a lot of people sketch with blue or other non-black colors, and it's something that I've been curious about for a while.
 
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