Tips on New Art Program?

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:49 pm

Another thing to note is the community support. There's a pretty huge community around photoshop, and acquiring plugins, tutorials, etc. that cater to your needs is really easy.

See:

http://www.brusheezy.com/patterns
http://www.psbrushes.net
THE WHOLE GODDAMN DEVIANTART PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES LIST

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Also, dude. Learn on paper before tablets. At the end of the day, tools are just tools, and the overall sum of your work will largely depend on how good your art skills are.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:04 am

wp wrote:I've been thinking about setting up my tablet on a linux machine, and it seems GIMP has the most support for it.

GIMP will treat a wacom tablet like a mouse unless you specifically split the mouse and the tablet definitions up in your xorg.conf. You probably won't have tools like wacdump as described in the link, though. It CAN be done, but I currently don't have it working.

http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/main

I once had my Wacom setup with absolute positioning and pressure, but I had limited it to the drawing window. GIMP automatically selects the stylus, eraser or regular mouse, so to change your stylus brush you have to hold the stylus just above the tablet so GIMP activates it and use you regular mouse to select a new brush. It can be done. It's a pain, but it can be done.

I'm using the wacom like a mouse for now because I can move the cursor off the drawing area and select a new brush with the stylus. The problem is, I have no pressure sensitivity and the positioning is relative.

Ladycheru · Post by **Ladycheru** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:36 am

I've never owned Photoshop. I've had PSP 7 for about 5 years. I can tell you about that.

The good things...
Lots of features
Has layers
Lots of different background techniques for the lazy artist (such as myself)
Sorry... I can't think of a lot of good things to say about it. I mean, I like it. It's good. It's been very useful to me. However, I just can't think of what to say. >_<

The bad things...
Most tutorials are aimed a Photoshop, nowadays. Unless you're really good at PSP, it can be hard to interpret from Photoshop to PSP. If you have the time to experiment, great. But if not, and you need the tutorials to save you time, PSP might not be the best route to go.
A lot of features take up a lot of memory, especially when using them. This tends to slow down an already slow computer.
A lot of brushes, effects, etc. are made exclusively for Photoshop, and cannot be used, or even viewed, in PSP.

A few more things I have to say... Transitioning from MSPaint to PSP (and presumably Photoshop) can be difficult, if you don't know your stuff. I didn't, and when I first got PSP, I hated it. Seriously, I would do all my work in MSP, and only use PSP to save it, because the saving was higher quality. In fact, there are a few things (like sprite-making) that I still do in MSP, because it's easier. Some things that will help you with transitioning greatly...
Know the tools. I, personally, always have the Tool Options window open when I use PSP. Until I learned that you could change the attributes of certain tools (paintbrush sizes, hardnesses, etc.) I couldn't even use PSP. I was used to having a very solid paintbrush, so when all I got was one that made a gradient (for lack of a better term) I got frustrated, and gave up. Do play around with the tool options, and do learn what works best.
Learn layers fast. You will need to use layers, whether you get PSP or PS. Possibly any art program at all. But layers are really great. In my opinion, the best part about layers is that you don't have to dilute your inked pic to 2 colors in order to color it well. Your inked picture will blend a lot better with your colors/shades/tones/whatevers. Layers used to piss me off, because I didn't know how to use them. And masks. I tend to use masks a lot, too. I didn't know that you had to use a combination of layers, masks and blend modes to get anything good. So play around with that.

Erm, I think I'm doing more rambling about the product more than actually helping... Well, there's some stuff you know now that you didn't before. :D

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:08 am

A bit late but I'll throw this in anyway...

NakedElf wrote:Thankfully, licenses aren't legally binding.

Yes they are. It's a legally binding contract, just the same as signing a long document. Breaking it is a breach of contract.

Funny thing, though. Put an End-User License Agreement in a software installer and everyone will just click "I agree" without a thought. Give it to them on paper and ask them to sign and they'll call the lawyers.

Yet it's the same thing.

- Joel Fagin

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:55 am

Joel Fagin wrote:A bit late but I'll throw this in anyway...

NakedElf wrote:Thankfully, licenses aren't legally binding.
Yes they are. It's a legally binding contract, just the same as signing a long document. Breaking it is a breach of contract.

Funny thing, though. Put an End-User License Agreement in a software installer and everyone will just click "I agree" without a thought. Give it to them on paper and ask them to sign and they'll call the lawyers.

Yet it's the same thing.

- Joel Fagin

Contracts aren't law, and breaking them isn't illegal. You are not legally required to obey a contract you've signed, and you don't go to jail for breaking them. There are penalties if you break the contract, and the other party may have legal recourses (if I agree to pay you money, you can sue me to get your money,) but if I sign a contract with you agreeing to, say, never use the word 'blop' in exchange for a cupcake, and then break it, there's really nothing you can do about it except not give me the cupcake.

And of course, <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/articles/we ... >sometimes courts decide that EULAs are crap</a>, and there's no requirement for users to follow them. See also <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... 229&page=1"> Bauer & Cie v. O'Donnell</a>, <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... 0&page=339"> Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus</a> and Novell, Inc. v. CPU Distrib., Inc., 2000 U.S. Dist. Lexis 9975 (S.D. Tex. 2000) (sorry, can't find a link for that one.)

Hi, I'm NakedElf, and I've lived with IP lawyers for pretty much my <i>entire life</i>.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:26 pm

If you do get a tablet, Inkscape is an awesome program:

http://www.inkscape.org/

Turning on the pressure sensitivity takes some hunting but once you get 'er started, ROWR!

Vector based, it really delivers a smooth ink experience which can be exported at any resolution, from ultra-crisp print to down and dirty 320x180. I've yet to use it for my main comic, but for sketching, it's got unparalleled intuitiveness and flair.