If you dream of being able to draw but don't have a lot of experience, chances are you associate it with a pencil. But if you really want to put your thoughts out there, one pencil is not enough. A drawing tablet, with good software, is the best - it has all the colors you need and it allows you to remove any errors without leaving a trace.
There is one big problem with this. The pen for the tablet, despite the fact that it resembles a pencil, can be used as a whole set of various brushes, pastels, charcoal, markers, and even an eraser. You can use it to "cover" the screen acrylic paints, oil paints and ink, and mix it all up into something completely new. This is one great versatile tool - and therefore, can't be used as a pencil!
If you have some experience with a pencil, even with early age and you want to make good use of your graphics tablet, you can struggle with finding good learning for you. This is because in traditional art, “drawing” and “painting” are two completely different things, with different tools of use. In digital art, you only have one tool, the brush, so digital drawing and digital painting are combined into one. So if you're reasonably comfortable with a pencil but struggle with digital art, it might not be because you "can't draw". The problem is, you're mixing a lot of techniques, some drawing, some painting, so when you try to search for "digital drawing" you end up with fully painted portraits.
In this article, I will explain the difference to you, so you can know exactly what you want without wasting time on learning that you are not ready for. This way you will progress faster and with less unnecessary frustration.
traditional drawing
You can draw with many tools. You can even use your finger as long as you have a surface to mark on. The most basic definition of drawing is simply making a line with a pointed tool. “Sharpness” is scale dependent, so the larger your drawing, the more blunt the tip is allowed. You can even paint with a brush!
Regardless of which tool you use, the method is very similar. All you can do is lead lines, straight and wavy, in various relationships to each other. Optional feature, depending on the tool, is the darkness of the line. Markers and narrow lines give you perfectly black lines every time; soft pencils (Class B and below) allow you to choose from a whole gray gradient; hard pencils (HB and above) limit you to light grays. The lines themselves do not exist in reality. No object is made of them, but our brains, which are very efficient at pattern recognition, don't need much to see reality in a cloud of lines. And because lines are so easy to make, drawing has become the most popular and accessible form of art. And because lines are so easy to make, drawing has become the most popular and accessible art form.
In order for a drawing to mimic reality, it must resemble the patterns that the brain expects. Therefore, a successful artist must know what these models are and how to create them.
This is why realistic drawing transcends the normal meaning of definition: it's no longer about leading lines, but about building meaningful patterns out of them. This skill is identical for a traditional artist and a digital artist. You don't need a graphics tablet to learn how to draw animals or how to work in perspective. And How digital artist You can successfully use tutorials for pencil users, too.
The difference lies in the tool itself. They all make lines, but they may use different methods to do so. For example, some pens may need to control the ink flow, and soft pencils give you different shades of gray depending on the pressure. If you are able to use soft pencil, switching to ink can be very inconvenient, and vice versa. There is another kind of pattern that you can create with drawing tools. Our brains are very sensitive to light and shadow. In the drawing, we can model shadows with the darkness of the line and lightness with the absence of it. Because in reality light and shadow are made from spots, not lines, work methods (eg shading) must be used to model them.
This effect requires a different skill: an understanding of light and shadow and practice in volume, mimicking only with lines. To summarize, we have received five different skills that graphic drawing is based on:
- creating intentional lines with a pointed tool
- achieving different shades
- hatching with lines
- construction of meaningful line-based patterns based on reality analysis
- understanding light and shadow
You can also be a great artist by only mastering the first three skills when you're just copying links, but to become a developer you have to focus on the last two with even more effort.
If you choose to use colored pencils, you will also need to understand color, which is another big task and not as easy as it may seem.
traditional painting
Painting is not different from drawing just because you use different tools. The purpose and effect are also completely different. The paintings are created with patches of color whose form cannot and should not be fully controlled. You can use different pigments for this purpose. They have different densities and blending properties, so each requires a different treatment.
Patches of color can model to great extent the way our brain sees the world. Paintings can be photorealistic, but they can also achieve realism with a variety of other styles. Because you can paint large areas at a time, there's no need for artificial tricks like shading, and some pigments also blend very well without much effort.
This does not mean that painting is easier. Using large plots requires a completely different type of analytical thinking. It's still about creating meaningful patterns, but this time it's all about light, shadow and color. Therefore, painting is based on three skills, each one quite difficult to master:
- creating intentional areas of color (pigment flow control, color mixing)
- understanding light and shadow
- color understanding
While in drawing you can create fantastic animals after learning about animal anatomy, in painting this will not be enough. Understanding light and shadow is essential here if you don't want to be abstract artist. Because some people think that spots can actually be easier, but for most of us who are used to the shape of the lines, it takes a long time to get used to.
From traditional to digital art
When you switch to Adobe Photoshop, there is only one a big difference between drawing and painting that counts. Drawing is lines that you control, and painting is spots that cannot be completely controlled. In the end, even the size of the brush does not matter, but its hardness. If you can foresee the shape of the drawing before, it is probably drawing. If you are planning something unexpected, it should be painting.
This distribution is as perfect as it can be because it takes different methods of creation into account. When you draw, no matter how chaotic, you expect some lines to appear and you will be able to outline them strongly in in general terms at the end. Even when you use big, colorful strokes, you still know exactly where you want to place them. When you paint, you mix a lot of spots together. You use the chaos your unpredictable brush creates to create something new. Painting is a process of constant fixation and adjustment - there are no perfect edges and the final effect cannot be 100% planned. That's why we can't draw in vector (vector software can't handle chaos).
Both of these approaches require different methods. If you're familiar with drawing, your first step into painting might be to try to draw lines with an unpredictable, textured brush. You literally choose a brush that is difficult to manage and try to manage. It has little to do with painting!
However, having the habits of drawing you are not doomed to strict lines and flat colors forever. You just need to understand how to mix both methods in a convenient way.
Extended drawing
You can enhance your drawing in Photoshop with other tools that have nothing to do with painting - or also by painting. They don't exist in "traditional" reality, but they can be easily used if you're familiar with drawing.
transformation
There are several tools in Photoshop that can be used for this purpose:
- Free Transform (Control-T) in Warp Mode
- Plastic (Control-Shift-X) Warp
- Editing - Puppet Warp
All of these tools allow you to do something powerful enough to be called cheating. Once you draw something, you can change it, either completely or just part of it. You can create a completely new sketch after it's been drawn! You can even draw a bunch of chaotic lines and transform them into flesh. You only need your analytical thinking that the drawing was based on it.
Color Fill
If you wanted to fill in an area by drawing traditionally, then you would have to spend a lot of time carefully crossing the lines to get that effect. You know exactly what you want to do - it just takes a lot of time. In Photoshop you can draw the areas you want to color with the Lasso Tool (L). Did you notice I said “draw?” The Lasso Tool works the same way - you draw the area you want to select. Later, you can fill the area with color using the Paint Bucket Tool (G), all without a single brush stroke.
Hatching (shading)
By shading flat colors in a convenient way, you can simply draw shadows on separate layers, just like before - draw with the Lasso Tool and fill them. Then by changing the Blending Mode and/or Opacity, you can make the shading match the flat colors below.
Mixing
To conveniently blend the border between colors and shading, you can use one of the many methods. They may be considered "fake" by art style fans, but that's not a bad thing.
It's just a different style, more intuitive for people who have experience in drawing.
While this is your desire, you can safely use:
- Blur Tool
- Mix Brush Tool
- Use the Lasso Tool to select an area, then Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur
Mixing drawing and painting
Drawing and painting can be successfully mixed together to create great work art. There is no need to limit yourself to just one of them!
clipping mask
Painting does not know the right edges. Picturesque touches go where they want, and trying to control them you kill their spirit. In Photoshop, you can find a compromise - you can paint an area that the strokes won't cross, no matter what.
Just draw a shape with the Lasso Tool (L) and fill it with any color. To cut another layer, hold Alt and click the border between the two. Now you can draw anything without slowing down the outlines!
picturesque blending
After drawing and coloring something, you can turn it into painterly style simply by using the right kind of mixing. This time, instead of using the "blend tool", use a textured brush with variable Flow (the harder you press, the harder the stroke). Use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to select a color from one area, and then place a thin layer of that color on the edge. Pick a color closer to the edge and repeat.
The better it looks without outlines, the further away from drawing and closer it is to painting.
Details
When the painting is almost done, you can give the final shine by painting in the details. You can take a fine, hard brush and add some elements that wouldn't be possible in traditional painting. You can harden the outline, add fine hairs here and there, and make the surface shiny by adding a white dot to it. In fact, digital painting is all about mixing both methods. When you hear the term, it's rarely about work mimicking the traditional method.
So we can say that digital drawing is about being limited to line oriented processes, while digital painting uses every possible technique.
Mixing process
The Photoshop artist can use the painting and drawing method freely in any suitable phase of the creation process. For example, if you want to create a living being, the phases might look like this:
- Drawing indeterminate sketches to get an idea (painting)
- Adjusting lines to the form (figure)
- Line cleaning (figure)
- Create a mask (drawing)
- Light blocking (drawing or painting)
- Blending (painting)
- Adding details (drawing)
Am I drawing or painting?
Let's sum it all up:
- The drawing is based on lines. You plan the skeleton as a structure according to your analysis of reality, and then slowly create more and more lines to create a pattern that your brain will recognize.
- Painting is based on spots (short, voluminous “lines”). You start with a rough estimate of the final shape and then sculpt it, adjusting the shape with each step and making the brush smaller as you go.
The most important skills for realistic drawing:
- understanding the structures that build reality (for example, the skeleton and muscles of a dog)
- transformation of structures to the form of lines
In painting these skills are:
- understanding of light, shadow and color.
- understanding the 3D shape of objects
- mixing different sized and colored areas to recreate true-to-life patterns
If you can manage all this, you need to mix both methods in order to increase your technological process, For example:
- starting with a sketch and a "red" line (drawing) and then coloring and shading (painting)
- starting with a rough shape (painting), using it as a base for line art (drawing), and then coloring and shading (painting)
Conclusion
Most important lesson The thing you should take away from this article is that the process of digital creation is not uniform. Because in Photoshop you use so many different tools with various features, they should also be used differently. By treating them all as a way of drawing (or painting), you unnecessarily limit yourself and your success.
Be flexible. Use drawing techniques when they are beneficial to you and switch to painting when it can give you more. Digital creation is not the only technique, and you can make the best of it if you figure out which one to use in any phase.
And, again, pay attention to your weaknesses and learn from them. If your shading looks bad, don't blame the colors you're using, but instead go back to basic lighting principles. If you can draw nicely, but the proportions are always off, pay attention to drawing for a while. The key is that you can see where your mistakes are coming from and what technique will exactly damage them.
Now let's think about art style. It just so happened that the moment has come to decide what exactly and how exactly I want to portray. I think I'm beginning to understand what I want. Here are the works of my favorite digital artists. I hope they inspire you and help you catch your wave. What follows are my judgments, based on purely my preferences - we are talking about how I would like to draw, and not whether someone draws badly. In addition, the works presented here belong to an artist of such a serious level that I, in principle, have no right to judge them.
So, let's start with my eternal favorite in terms of technique, mood and plots - tebe_interestingno .
My favorite method of pronounced strokes:
Clouds are drawn norms:
Light abrasions - good:
From what I found on the net:
(Unfortunately I couldn't find the author)
Here I would have worked the face properly:
Something crazy:
This pins me, but it would be too lazy to work it out myself, I would generalize:
Too little detail:
Great:
I really like this kind of detailing with careless strokes. But not all work is done like this! From which we conclude that I want more centralized compositions. And in principle, landscapes are not for me - except perhaps with some kind of main object, so that in the end the environment is only outlined, focusing on the main object.
Gorgeous, but the look is too wandering. I would concentrate more on this mechanical thing and the girl, even cut off part of the environment. I really like how neatly drawn the girl.
And here, in my opinion, there are two main objects - so I would also draw the animal more carefully. Well, the environment is still more careful) And yes, I understand that the concept art, all the things that may have had a different task - but this does not prevent me from thinking, as if it were just an independent illustration.
Okay, but I don't like such an explicit use of textures in the works. Not mine, apparently.
Little detailing = (The muzzle in general could be cool to do, wool, highlights, all things ...
Super, but again - the girl would be more detailed ... Especially her elongated leg.
And here it is very interesting to see a mixture of styles. I like neat strokes on the towers, textures and cartoon characters- No. But it's interesting, yes.
And on the page of this artist, I found a cool GIF:
(very unusual artist Gloom82)
Very curious work with portraits, in addition pronounced strokes - like it.
My favorite Windrunner is a character from DotA:
Traxex, from the same game:
Strokes, shape - like:
The characters work just fine. So, I think I found someone to focus on. I think he's awesome.
He has cool clouds (the cat shits on the tablet, and I circle, yeah):
And yet I never managed to understand the logic of his strokes. Here, try, for example, to draw a similar scarf:
In general, the work is very emotional. There is something to see.
Also in terms of emotionality and swiftness, I like leventep. He has chaotic (as it seems) lines, strokes often go out of shape. He is more into mett painting than painting - but he paints well and blends everything perfectly. I advise you to study.
Again, in DotA (only in the first one), I spotted the work of kunkka, who drew illustrations for each map update. He draws well, but in terms of composition for a long time came out porridge:
Now he has upgraded, and he has something to look at:
And here it feels like the detail is expressed through a linear drawing. Also interesting to see (Kerem Beyit):
(artist
Without textures:
And amazing in contrast to the rest of the work, these are stylized things:
(in general, please love and favor, artist DavidRapozaArt)
There are also works based on 3D models, with the addition of textures and all sorts of effects. These works are very clean, but this is not for me.
I analyzed various styles for myself and decided on what I want. Maybe it helped you too.
Here I brought the work of those artists who stare at the last year and a half. This is my collection =)
I look forward to your links, your views on styles and your preferences. I'm really interested.
Company last week Wacom, a virtual monopoly in the world of digital painting, introduced a new technology WILL– Wacom Ink Layer Language. This is a new universal standard that enables cross-platform and collaboration on premises or in the cloud, regardless of device and ecosystem. The technology involves the use of not only specialized tablets for digital painting, but also smartphones and conventional tablet computers equipped with styluses.
Digital painting, that is, the creation of electronic paintings using computer simulations of artistic tools, is very interesting area. We don't hear every week big news about the new graphics tablet and do not wait with bated breath for new tools, however, this area of consumer electronics is steadily and continuously developing. not at all as highly specialized as, say, programming. The availability of technologies and tools allows even non-professional artists to create their own digital paintings. How has this industry developed and what can we expect in the future? Let's try to find out!
The direction of digital painting is quite young, which is obvious - for its appearance, a sufficient development of computers and devices for input and output of information was necessary. The exact date of the first computer drawing, in general, is not known to anyone. And what can be considered as such? Should pseudographics be classified as digital drawing or not? The first noticeable and colorful works made on a computer appeared in the mid-90s of the last century, when the widespread use of SVGA monitors and video cards capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.
Interestingly, the ancestor of the modern digital artist's toolkit, the first drawing tablet, appeared long before the development of personal computers. Elisha Gray patented the first drawing tablet in 1888. But the first device, really similar to modern ones, consisting of a pen and a flat pressure-sensitive device, worked in conjunction with a computer Stylator and was used for handwriting in 1957.
In 1964, a graphics tablet was introduced, which used a grid of semiconductors below the input surface to which ternary Gray-coded electrical impulses were applied. The pen received this signal, which could then be decoded back into coordinates.
But the first consumer graphics devices called KoalaPad were designed to work with Apple II computers, their history began in 1984. Along with the tablet, the user was offered special drawing software. Over time, Koala tablets began to work with other computers (the graphics program for the IBM PC was called PC Design), and soon the market for consumer tablets expanded - new firms entered it.
Since the end of the twentieth century, the rapid development of digital painting or CG art(Computer Graphics Art). The reason for this was, firstly, accessibility. In order to draw on a computer, in addition to the computer itself, it was necessary to purchase only a graphics tablet and software. The second reason for the growth in popularity was the increase in the speed of the artist's work. Graphic programs offer a large number of tools, not to mention the color-rich palette. For a contemporary artist it is enough to make two clicks with the mouse to select the desired color - there is no need to buy and mix paints. And do not forget about the biggest plus of the computer - any erroneous action in the program can be easily undone. IN digital drawing it is easier to make changes, and you can send it to the destination immediately upon completion - there is no need to wait for the paint to dry and transfer the canvas to digital media.
The growing popularity of technology has allowed the development of the corresponding tools - in the arsenal of a modern digital artist, illustrator or graphic designer a huge number of effects, brushes and filters that are simply not available in traditional painting.
At digital painting great prospects, but also great limitations. Since the 18th century, there has been practically no technical development in traditional art, modern artists create with almost the same set of tools as their colleagues a hundred years ago: canvas, brushes, oil ... But at the same time, the resolution and pixel density of displays increase every year, the quality of color reproduction improves, computing power is growing, software is developing - all this is a determining factor for the development of digital drawing. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, the resolution of modern monitors is still far from the resolution of the human eye, the monitor is not able to display such a number of details and details that live observation of the same size section of the canvas can provide. classical painting.
Another modern problem of digital painting is simply the lack of appropriate educational institutions. digital artist today it is, in fact, self-taught. Most famous digital artists have graduated educational establishments in traditional painting and only then independently switched to digital art.
Although there are very few digital painting tutorials, there is a wide range of drawing tablets on the market. Models of companies are popular in Russia Genius And . The cheapest model costs a little more than a thousand rubles, but a professional tool with a large diagonal and functionality can cost 200 thousand rubles.
Digital painting- the creation of electronic images, carried out not by rendering computer models, but through the use of human computer simulations traditional instruments artist.
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Creating a drawing / painting from start to finish on a computer is a relatively new direction in fine arts. It makes no sense to establish the exact date of the creation of the first computer drawing (you can get bogged down in determining what is artistic and serious enough for a drawing as such); however, the approximate date for the wide appearance of impressive and colorful works made on the PC is 1995-1996 (this date accounts for the appearance and wide distribution of relatively affordable SVGA monitors and video cards capable of displaying 16.7 million colors). The computer in digital painting is the same tool as a brush with an easel. In order to draw well on a computer, it is also necessary to know and be able to apply all the knowledge and experience accumulated by generations of artists (laws of perspective, color theory, glare, reflexes, etc.).
Hybrid technologies are also used in the visual arts (in addition to cosmetic correction or improvement of a manual original). Two main directions: first, a manual image is made, which is not brought to completion (mostly limited to a drawing), but work is completed on a computer; modification of the completed hand-drawn image using a computer editor. In the latter case, the range of processing depth is very wide: from changing only the mood (through color scheme) through the modification of the image to a complete change in the original image - beyond recognition.
The progress of digital painting
At the end of XX - early XXI centuries, digital painting is booming and takes a strong position in the design of books / posters, prevails in the industry computer games And modern cinema, popular in amateur art. The reasons for the rapid displacement of the old funds from these areas:
Availability
In order to create digital works of any level, it is necessary to purchase / have a personal computer of sufficient power, a graphics tablet and several programs for computer painting. All this will cost ~$1500 in the initial version (professionals buy more expensive computers, monitors and tablets that increase the convenience of work).
Great work speed
Specialized programs for CG artists (such as Painter) contain a large number of tools that speed up work. Choice desired color- a matter of seconds (unlike traditional painting, where you have to mix paints to get the right color - it takes experience and time), choosing the right brush / tool is also an almost instantaneous operation. The ability to undo your actions, as well as the ability to save at any moment of your work and return to it later, and even a large list of features and benefits - all this makes the work of a professional artist several times faster with the same quality. Besides, computer work immediately ready for use in digital technologies movies, games, layouts - work done on the material with paints must first be transferred to digital form.
Unique Toolkit
Unlike traditional painting, digital painting has progressive and high-tech features and super-developed artistic capabilities such as: working with layers or applying textures from photographs to the areas of the picture you need; generation of noise of a given type; various brush effects; HDR pictures; various filters, transformations and corrections; a huge number of shades of colors and textures; various line structures.
prospects
Traditional art practically reached its limit in terms of perfection of technique and means as early as the 18th century. Since then, almost nothing new has been added - as before, the artist has paints, pigment, oil (or a mixture of them), canvas and brushes. Modern computer painting is already far from the best paintings of the geniuses of the past in terms of quality and scale of work - and it has room to develop further. The resolution of displays is growing, the quality of color reproduction is increasing, the power of computers is increasing, programs for digital painting are changing and improving, there is a fundamental possibility of creating new methods and devices for working with color / color output (projectors or holography).
Availability of training and work
If the user knows how to work on a computer and has drawing skills or has an art education, it will not be difficult for him to understand the interface of computer painting programs - it is the same as in most Windows programs and has a completely logical digital artist's toolkit. Video tutorials on working in a particular program are available on the Internet, containing a record of all stages of the artist's work on a digital painting.
Disadvantages of digital painting
Difficulty of development
At the moment, there are very few schools or more serious educational institutions that teach in this specialty - mostly the most energetic and inquisitive people, and especially children who can learn on their own and find information on their own, become digital artists; designers and printers (who have experience working with graphics on a PC); Most of the well-known digital artists graduated from educational institutions in traditional painting and only then independently switched to cg-art. Also, a modern digital artist is unthinkable without the Internet (communication with colleagues, employers, searching for new programs or ways of drawing, etc.) - and again, not everyone has it. There are practically no books on creating drawings on a computer, but the situation is gradually improving.
As of 2007, the situation is in a fairly good position - at this moment there are quite a few different educational resources to prepare future teachers of fine arts to work with digital devices. Techniques for working on a computer with graphics tablet and various programs that allow you to engage in media drawing. In the near future, similar courses will be launched in major pedagogical universities countries, which in turn will subsequently have a positive impact on schools and other universities when hiring new teachers who have good experience with media drawing and digital painting.
The current limit of computer technology
Modern monitors still do not work at resolutions close to the resolution of our eyes. That is, the monitor is not capable of displaying such a number of details and details that a live observation of the same size section of a classical painting canvas can provide. You can print your picture on a printer - but this gives rise to the third problem of cg-art:
The problem with the output of a computer image to a physical medium
Most monitors work in color model RGB with an sRGB color space whose color boundaries do not match those of a typical CMYK printer that has own restrictions by color gamut. As a result, some colors visible on the monitor are not printed on paper, and at the same time, the full potential of the printer in terms of its coverage is not used. To solve this problem, professional monitors are used with an ARGB (Adobe RGB) color space, specially designed to accommodate almost all colors available for the printer, and color profiles are used to best match the images on the monitor and print media. However, 100% match cannot be achieved, because even the worst sRGB space is wider in some color areas than many CMYK spaces. Another problem is that monitors that can show all the colors of the picture (and have brightness, contrast, color settings) usually have too low a resolution that does not allow showing all the details of the picture (they do not show it in full size without interpolation - more than 1-2 megapixels). the monitor cannot display at the same time, special and rather expensive LCD monitors can display about 8 megapixels).
Copyright issue
Whoever has the original (source) drawing file is the owner of the drawing. But, like any digital information, a file can be copied and replicated in unlimited quantities without any tangible costs. The simplest example protecting your drawing - posting a reduced copy on the Internet (usually professional artists they draw in high resolution - 6000 × 10000 pixels and even more - it is convenient to draw details, and a small version is posted on the Internet - 1600 × 1200 or less; or even a fragment). In this case, whoever has a large version of the drawing is its author and owner. Copyright on a digital drawing is easy to change and real help its presence can only be felt by well-known artists.
Programs for digital painting
Free Software
- GIMP is a raster graphics editor, also suitable for drawing.
- MyPaint is a drawing program, an endless canvas, lots of brushes and a minimum of features.
- Deadline from 1 day!
- The price is lower than for an oil portrait, and the quality is no worse
- Deadline from 1 day!
- you came new idea? It can easily be added to a digital portrait! Make changes to the details as many times as you like? Easily! When writing a portrait by hand, this is impossible.
- You do not need to sit in front of the artist for hours, you do not need to think about how to make a surprise, just one photo and you will have an original present from our masters
- The electronic version of the portrait, which will remain with you, can be printed many times without losing quality and without paying for the artist's work again.
- No image cracks or paint peeling, only best materials for printing, while the effect of strokes is preserved!
- This Newest technologies because we live in modern world, is not it? Our artists have higher education in the field of art, hands from right place, creative thinking and the sea useful ideas! Do you want a piece of our positive? Order a digital portrait right now
