Learning to paint.

There is a time in every boy's life... when he decides to man the fuck up and learn how to paint awesome.

This thread is to share and discuss what painting tips or techniques you are currently learning, have learned, want to learn, have found, etc. any and all things painting technique.

I have kick started my painting training by getting the hang of black and white shading, and thoroughly manipulating blobby forms into crisp points. If somebody wants me to illustrate and explain it, I will.

Currently I am practicing the process of doing a color painting. For a while now I've been in the dark about how to start a color painting with basic lines, without making it into a line art piece, but I have recently found some guides by this artist that simplify it rather well. Here's a snippet of one of his guides that is sums up the painting technique that I was looking for really well:

short instructions:

little bit of my attempt:

I still am not getting the results I want, but that's to be fixed with repetition

gaaaaaaah, I can draw basic people with no real details of the face, and ive been practicing hands lately, I would really love to learn to draw awesome. I think that it would be good if this was also a thread for people to give advice and point out flaws (sorry if you meant that when you said discuss painting tips). I would like to learn basic details of the human body, correct shapes, that stuff, and them move on to stuff like clothing, then bigger things like creatures.
Ive found nothing significantly useful for drawing, as my school isn't really filled with artists or people good at art.I think ive got the hand of shading,except for stuff like shines.
so yeah.

I want to man the fuck up and learn how to paint awesome

</super late reply>

Sure, submit anything you want in here. I'd say just post your paintings in here that actually have to do with learning. You feel me?

On the topic though, I created a guide myself based on what I learned recently, to organize my understanding of how to work on a painting, and hopefully yours too. Enjoy.

Guide by yours truly:

Gonna try posting this on reddit...

@Edyrem: +1 Achievement Points.

i seeeeeee the magic, ive never used photoshop or paint tool sai, so ima have to get used to that first.
ALSO, do you use multiple layers for some thing like sketching and all those steps you did?
(soooo new to all this, Ive only drew on flash and paper.)

@Amf; you could totally do all of that on a single layer if you want. There's no masking shit going on in here, and you don't technically need the bottom layers for the top layer to look good.
However, it's good to use different layers when you want to make sure that if you screw up, it wont stain something else.
It's okay if you're new, ask any questions you want, no matter how stupid. I'll try to help.
Do you have any painting programs, then? Also, a tablet?

/e: If anyone wants me to type that tut properly, I'll make a new version. I know my handwriting sucks, but I'm working on it haha

to add to this already great topic, here's a list of tutorials you'll definitely want to check out!

www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials

Tom wrote:

to add to this already great topic, here's a list of tutorials you'll definitely want to check out!

www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials

Wow, are these all free?! Absolutely golden find, I'm bookmarking the FUCK out of this. Omfg this is gonna kill so many hours of my time, haha.

I'm so mind blown that this is free. Nowadays, who the fuck needs to pay for a formal college education? What mindfuckery it is to ignore these goldmines of insight and yet, still yearn for a college education. I say, learn things yourself on the internet, and get right to business.

Hey, I have an idea... what if we got involved in the learning process together by collaboratively reading the same tutorials and exchanging what we learned and attempts we made based on the lessons?

If anyone here truly wants to become a master at art and animation, then I truly believe that discussing and participating on individual tutorials we read together is the best learning this site will ever have to offer. An easily superior learning experience to most college educations, no doubt. Consider this an open invitation to journey with me towards mastering our craft, and far beyond.

Psudans, will you join me?

Imagine me like this:

I know, right ?!

seriously awesome stuff, everyone here should check it out!

I found it through StumbleUpon, never expected to find anything really useful from there lol

De8 has said on a few occasions that he thinks it's a good strategy to paint your darkest darks and lightest lights on a painting, then doing your midtones. I have come across a page on another forum (albeit for traditional painting but still relevant) where people discuss their painting approaches. One of the ways was like how de8 said, which I found interesting. Here's the thread where they talk about their workflow:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=959626

ALSO:

Edyrem wrote:

Hey, I have an idea... what if we got involved in the learning process together by collaboratively reading the same tutorials and exchanging what we learned and attempts we made based on the lessons?

If anyone here truly wants to become a master at art and animation, then I truly believe that discussing and participating on individual tutorials we read together is the best learning this site will ever have to offer. An easily superior learning experience to most college educations, no doubt. Consider this an open invitation to journey with me towards mastering our craft, and far beyond.

Psudans, will you join me?

Imagine me like this:

Edyrem wrote:

@Amf; you could totally do all of that on a single layer if you want. There's no masking shit going on in here, and you don't technically need the bottom layers for the top layer to look good.
However, it's good to use different layers when you want to make sure that if you screw up, it wont stain something else.
It's okay if you're new, ask any questions you want, no matter how stupid. I'll try to help.
Do you have any painting programs, then? Also, a tablet?

/e: If anyone wants me to type that tut properly, I'll make a new version. I know my handwriting sucks, but I'm working on it haha

I have a normal bamboo pen and I got the trial for photoshop, although the pressure sensitivity hasn't been working for the past week.
Would you guys prefer paint tool sai or photoshop? I know amazingly simple stuff in it like drawing tools, layers, and how to change brush size/hardness, so nothing big

Also, I like the learning together thing, except the only problem is that some of us are much farther progressed than others, like I'm very new to all this, while edyrem is very far (in comparison to a begginner)

Hmmm. I've never used paint to draw or well .. paint anything. Every time I go to paint or draw something on my pc its in photoshop. but I am thinking of installing adobe illustrator, because I think i have a disc somewhere for it.
I have my sisters Wacom tablet, and it is reaalllyyy amazing, really good range of pressure.

Also, in response to the whole darks or lights of a painting first.... You can do it anyway you want. Oil paints allow you to go over anything u want basicly, and with gouache, you can do the same with water colour.
I don't think there is any good way to do things. Just do it the way that feels natural to you, or you find gets the best results. you're gonna have to try all the styles to find your favourite.

@amf; don't let the progress of different people phase you, the essence here is in discussing what each tutorial teaches, and mimicking its drawings. Doesn't matter what you already know, the purpose is to go over one thing at a time together. If we successfully learn together like this, Psuda will be a truly scholarly environment.

@louch; Illustrator is a vector art software, it's not what you need for painting.

You guys, if you have photoshop, that'll do just fine for painting. People make amazing shit with photoshop. The programs I have are Photoshop and Corel Painter (the second one seems to be considered the best painting simulator out there).

I personally can't draw with photoshop right now, because it's having pressure sensitivity glitches, but the lessons wont discriminate between software. Whatever you wanna use, be it painter, photoshop, gimp, sai, opencanvas, sketchbook pro, whatever, dudes. Most of these lessons will apply more to your core as an artist rather than your software techniques. Because of this, I personally prefer to use the most authentic-looking painting software (corel painter). But seriously, you'll be fine with photoshop or anything else for these drawing/painting tutorials.

Again, I'm sticking with photoshop and corel painter though. Photoshop is industry standard for image editing, and corel painter is even better for illustration.

Back to the learning thing, though... we'll start with simpler stuff and pick it up in the future.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH i had a decently mediocre painting going on.. and then RIGHT when i was typing the file name to save it, sai crashed. FMFL.

Sorry for your loss, brother.
I'd tell you to always ctrl+s, but it seems like you were just at the stage where it was worth saving
I know that feel, bro...

So uh, *ahem* anyone willing to participate in discussing and following tutorials with me, or should I do that in private? God I hope at least somebody else on Psuda is on board with this...

I'd love to be following the tutorials and participating in this magic. (so yes, im on board homie G dawg fuh hizz shizzels)
I cant figure out how to make photoshop read my pressure sensetivity either. :c

I have this little button there, that's just a little pen with circles around it. Its at the very end of the brush table at the top. That's how I activate/deactivate the pressure tool.

Is your pressure tool working in other programs?

Awesome, amf. This will most assuredly make a painter out of you

@lel; Even then, I only experience it working, like, every other stroke. The frequency of the pen stroke sensitivity not being registered is about ... 30-40% of the time, and it's unpredictable. I'm adapting to corel painter, which has a superior drawing experience to photoshop either way, and now I have no excuse to stick with photoshop. Oh, and yes, this problem only happens on photoshop for me. In fact, the pressure senstivity pretty much never fucks up on any other program I use, haha.

@amf again; do you have the exact same problem as me? Or is it slightly different? Are your answers to lelouche's questions both yes?

Edyrem wrote:

@amf again; do you have the exact same problem as me? Or is it slightly different? Are your answers to lelouche's questions both yes?

yup, i must have accidently clicked the pressure sensetivity button. woopsies... So yeah, my pressure sensetivity works perfectly now C:

Excellent. Okay, look through these tutorials and pick whichever one you want to do first.

www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials

Oh shit Edy. That's odd, because Photoshop works perfect for me.
Oh well. And your using corel? I found that program a bit annoying. Can't really explain why. But I prefer Photoshop for all my drawing needs.

I might do some of these tutorials. Although I don't really like following tutorials exactly. You know, drawing them the way they do. I prefer to just take the key points, and then try and apply them to a series of drawings.
If we do do some tutorials, should we post them in this thread?

Im still trying to get simple anatomy of the body correct (just hands and feet are my main problem). But I think the hand would be a nice place to start on, its something I need to work on, I dont know about the rest of psuda though.
( hands )

@lel; I thought about making a new forum for this, creating a different thread for each tutorial we do, But I don't yet know that it's going to have a lot of activity, so for now we'll just stick to this thread, which is perfectly sufficient for one-by-one tutorials.

On your tutorial comment, I support the mimicking of the tutorial sketches, both in order to expand your style and, even more importantly, to hammer the key points into your mind. It's an effective training technique that will get great, timely results. I'm sure of it. So I encourage you to draw the demonstrations in the tuts.

@amf; I would have recommended you start with a tutorial that outlines the basic proportions of the human body. Not the individual muscles, but the basic proportions. But I specifically let you get first pick for being a champ and participating

We will view the tutorial now. When you're done reading, summarize what you learned as if you were teaching Psuda. Additionally, draw the demonstrations. The point is that everyone participating "remakes" the tutorial. Not only is this the most effective way for you to learn the tutorials, but you also get to compare your understanding to how well other people understood the tutorials, and perhaps discover a disagreement. You never know.

It's new years eve, so if you're gonna be busy the next couple days, that's okay. Otherwise, do it now or schedule it for later today/tonight. I'm about to play some minecraft with my friend, so I'll read/emulate this tutorial later tonight.

If your body is ready, take this portal!

/e: Looks like I'm going to be doing this tomorrow night.

Badda bing badda boom.

this is everything I learned from the tut, amazingly useful. Neato cableato!

Spoiler:

I was kind of taking notes, I put photoshop on the blank part of the page and scrolled down after reading every section. Doodling and writing it on something makes it alot more entertaining and fun c:

Spoiler: