Elentari on 11/9/2006 at 00:12
Just out of curiosity, for those of you coming up with this awesome artwork by tablet. . .
What program are you working in with your tablet? IE, how do you compose/work with the picture?
I normally use PSP for my graphic work, but while I have a small tablet, I've never managed to figure out how to get it to work well in PSP. The pressure sensetivity settings are in there, but seem a bit weird. After seeing a lot of tablet work lately, I thought I might like to plug mine in and start trying to do something with it (although. . .learning to draw first, might be an asset. . .I don't see it happening in the near future, so I may as well learn to play , right? :) ) Do you use one program to draw, then another to do the post work in? Or do you do most of it in one program? Or do you outline with the tablet then colour with another program?
Any info that'd help me start using my tablet would be much appreciated! Thanks.
And yes, my tablet did come with a bit of software, but it was demoware, of all the . . .dumb things. :P
Poison Ivy on 11/9/2006 at 17:20
Hm....(Answering in this thread doesn't count as self-promotion, does it?;) ) I use PSP8, and until very shortly I used a really cheap, tiny A6 tablet that kept malfunctioning constantly, but otherwise was fine. I didn't have any problems with the pressure settings, although I usually used only two of them - size and width sensitivity. Now I've a new Wacom tablet, slightly bigger (A5) that's expensive as hell but a pleasure to work with and well worth the money.
As for your other question, I normally do 100% of the work in PSP, with the tablet, that is, I start from scratch and battle till the end. I never had reasons to do it otherwise...
Usually I start with a very rough sketch on one layer, then refine it on another layer. When I start the painting, I tend to begin with the foreground... Very often I alter the original plan while painting. Quite often, when I start something, I have absolutely no idea what kind of background it'll have, or what colour scheme I'll use for this or that, etc... When the time comes, I decide on the spot, possibly experiment (the great advantage to digital painting is the 'undo' option that allows you to experiment without fear of ruining the whole picture), and then go for whatever looks best/right/whatever I have the mood for at that moment. :D It's a pretty chaotic process.
Elentari on 11/9/2006 at 22:33
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I use PSP8, and until very shortly I used a really cheap, tiny A6 tablet that kept malfunctioning constantly, but otherwise was fine. I didn't have any problems with the pressure settings, although I usually used only two of them - size and width sensitivity. Now I've a new Wacom tablet, slightly bigger (A5) that's expensive as hell but a pleasure to work with and well worth the money.
Yeah, I have PSP9 and love it, for most things. But till now, I mostly do tags, stats, wallpapers and some editing of my own digital photographs (which I'm just getting into. I've had the Wacom tablet for. . .I dunno. Five years or so. Its fairly small, about the size of a mousepad and came with a pen and a mouse. Works quite well. Probably would be better to get a bigger one, but for now the small one will do. Not like I'm planning on making gargantuan paintings anyway. :) Just want to learn how and see how well I like it. Not sure what 'version' of the tablet it is. . .don't think I even have the box anymore. It only has a 5" x 33/4" area to actually draw in but hey. Its better than a kick in the mouth with a frozen mukluk. :) Good for learning and deciding if I want to invest further (that and this was a gift, so. . .there. lol)
Hmm. Ok, if you use PSP happily for the tablet, I'm going to have to get in there and figure out those pressure sensitivity settings then. Since I AM familiar with the program it would be best to stay with it rather than having to learn a new one, on top of learning to use the tablet too. I just didn't think it was 'suitable' to actual art, so I am pleased to hear it is!
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As for your other question, I normally do 100% of the work in PSP, with the tablet, that is, I start from scratch and battle till the end. I never had reasons to do it otherwise...
If it works, then why change it?
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When the time comes, I decide on the spot, possibly experiment (the great advantage to digital painting is the 'undo' option that allows you to experiment without fear of ruining the whole picture), and then go for whatever looks best/right/whatever I have the mood for at that moment.
Thats one thing that has always appealed to me. Even with using other people's art to make tags and such. . .that undo process is a Godsend. Plus layers. . .as you can do something, turn it off, and do something else without ruining the first thing, then either keep both or pick and choose. Or if you're working with something you can duplicate the layer and play with it without worrying about hitting save (or the program crashing) and deleting your undo data.
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It's a pretty chaotic process.
Heh Moreso if you are like me and don't name your layers. lol Then things are every which way.
Thank you so much for answering this. I shall plug in my tablet and hopefully get PSP configured to take the pressure settings and- maybe - hopefully come up with my own thiefy art (among other things?) in the near future. *crosses her fingers and runs off to play*
Keeper Anakara on 12/9/2006 at 02:26
I use photoshop CS. Great program to use for layers...only down side is that it's expensive.
I also use Illustrator CS (vector art) sometimes. Good program to do line art in.
Elentari on 12/9/2006 at 03:15
CS? Aren't those the cut down versions you get with some hardware?
I've been meaning to teach myself illustrator for awhile now. Though my copy is ancient by now. :)
Gestalt on 12/9/2006 at 03:30
Photoshop CS is Photoshop 8. Adobe dropped the old version numbers in favour of a unified naming scheme for the products included in their Creative Suite bundle. Photoshop CS2 would have been Photoshop 9 under the old naming scheme.
The cut-down version they released is Photoshop Elements, aimed at average consumers who want to do a bit of photo editing without paying crazy amounts of money for it. The Photoshop Elements line replaced Photoshop LE as the cheap image-editing software that sometimes comes as a pack-in with scanners and digital cameras.
