So hey there readers! I know a lot of you do art, and sometimes post it in the comments, so why not an open thread where you can post it to your heart’s content.
Also I thought maybe we could talk a bit about the hardware and software and other resources/websites you all use and/or recommend for doing digital graphics and art.
Ok, I have an eensy teensy bit of an ulterior motive for that last bit. See, I would like to up my graphics game (and do some other computery art stuff too) and I thought you all might have some good recommendations. One basic thing I need is a drawing tablet. Any suggestions for decent ones that don’t cost too much?
And while I’m at it here are some other recent filter experiments of mine to accompany the kitty above.
oooo, art! I don’t have any to share right now (unfortunately) but I can talk a bit about tablets.
I don’t have any personal experience with anything other than wacom, but they’re pretty solid. I’m a little less happy with their black stylus (this one) than the others I’ve owned, because it feels like the part you draw with gets loose after a year or two of regular use. My first one that I got with my cintiq (a 21 UX I bought quite a few years ago now for just under 2000$ CAD on sale) broke within the year. Luckily they replaced it, as it was still under warranty!
That being said, a cintiq is pretty overkill for what you’re trying to do. Art programs and tablets won’t make you a better artist, unfortunately. But they will mean you aren’t fighting the input devices you’re trying to use. Drawing with a mouse! Gah!
A bamboo might be right up your alley. It’s not super big or sensitive, but it is pretty good for just starting. I had my graphire (the predecessor to the bamboo) for years, and it was fine.
Edited to add: Huh! Looks like they got rid of the bamboo and now there’s a lower price Intuos tablet? You could probably buy that through their site, or possibly find a local dealer so you can actually look a the tablet. Looks like comes with Corel Painter Essentials, which might be enough? I’m not sure what that program includes.
I use photoshop, but I don’t really use any of the fancy things, just the paint brush and eraser. There are some great tutorials out there! And the creative cloud isn’t a baaad idea (though I definitely prefer owning my programs instead of renting them). I don’t think getting the one program is terribly expensive, so that could be an option.
There are also free programs out there, paint.net and Open Canvas (I think?) could be something to look into.
If I ever get around to finishing my lengthy fanfic writing project and posting it on, say, Archive of Our Own, should I promote it on WHTM?
I may post the rare doodle here now and again for fun, but have alas largely abandoned traditional/graphic art in recent years in favor of huggly flufflestuff.
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j108/kitsunenokiba/samplepicprintable.jpg
May I one day manage to escape the cutsie craft fair vortex that vacuumed me away on the tail of the completion of my illustration degree.
I’m at my day job right now, so I can’t post any art. But my second job is as a freelancing graphic designer, I do e-book covers on commission primarily (if anyone has read the Axton and Leander trilogy by SP Wayne, I did the covers for all three books) and products for my redbubble and so6 shops. I’m branching out soon into a couple of additional areas – microstock sales and enamel pins.
For most of my paid work I’m working in vector (infinitely scalable images). I’ve used the free program, InkScape, as my primary vector program for years. I do have Adobe Illustrator now but I mainly use it to put on final touches. I know it’s more powerful than Inkscape but I haven’t had the chance to really sit down and learn it yet. I use a mouse when I’m working in vector – just a regular wireless mouse, but it has to be one with good sensitivity.
When I’m doing raster illustrations – usually for fun (or for study, etc) – I almost always use Paint Tool Sai, with a tablet. My tablet is a monoprice, I’ve had it for years and I love it, but I will say that getting it installed onto a new computer is much more technically involved than it would be with a more mainstream tablet. I’m not sure I would recommend it for a professional illustrator, the only paid work I’ve done with it has been little $5-$15 pieces that aren’t meant to be viewed at a large resolution.
I have Photoshop Elements as well, but I never draw or paint directly in Elements. I use it primarily to edit my photos from my DSLR camera, and to produce the final raster file for certain projects that I did the bulk of the work in vector. When I’m creating an e-book cover, I create the final design in Elements, with the title and so on. It’s easier to be sure of the final image this way because converting from a vector file to a raster file in Inkscape can sometimes have unpredictable results – things can be one or two pixels off.
I mostly do crafts, and my tentative return to drawing hasn’t involved digital techniques at all.
But here, have a photo of a needle-felted whale.
Art:
I also use a Wacom tablet, but the thing I want to mention is how much of a life-changer Photoshop is with how you can use multiple layers and resize or rotate parts of your drawing. So different from paper, where you may have to worry about leaving an imprint from the crosshairs during the sketching process that will still remain after you’ve erased them and be seen when you try to color. With it, I’ve been able to apply some of the things I learned in art classes like shading, perspective, gesture drawings to make poses, experimenting with color schemes, etc.
I would post some art here, but it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any of my drawings online, like on my Deviantart account. And that’s mainly fan art.
OH! I forgot to mention a super sweet thing in photoshop, being able to twist the canvas.
I wish they had put it into Flash, because it is super frustrating to be working on something and need to contort your body to draw it. ;__;
@Sarity: …. Oh my god those are all so adorable. I love your designs!!!!!!
@artic ape: I don’t see why not.
Does Ice cream count as art? Cuz I make it, and I feel food is the most ephemeral kind of art, beautiful sensual and we literally destroy it and turn it to literal shit. Any how. Question would you eat Lemon-curd-Lavender Ducle de Leche swirl ice cream?
@Alexandra Moore, as long as it’s not too sweet, I would eat that now.
I am a fool for sharp-sweet and bitter-sweet – blood orange sorbet with little pieces of zest giving it a hint of bitterness …
@Sarity I also absolutely require all three of the canine stuffed toys at the very least (the arctic fox/wolf, the ruddy fox and the black wolf) plus a time-machine so I can give them to the Spawn when they were little. Total <3
@Arctic Ape, it's not for me to say but personally I would vote for linking to it, yes.
Also I love the blue-and-yellow and the pink print thingies in the OP. (that's the technical term, right?)
I can't art, except for having written a few odds and ends of fanfic, but I shall enjoy everyone else's!
At this point I’m still incredibly bad, the most I can do is 30 minutes of figure gesture drawing a day.
Rather than buying a low-end tablet new, maybe look for a better Wacom used? I haven’t checked the used market, but I’m willing to bet that a lot of people think “I’m gonna try making art!”, buy an Intuos, then it gathers dust for a while when they find that it doesn’t magically give them talent.
@Alexandra: I would eat it sparingly, because, well, I am diabetic (but I have quite the death wish in the form of a persistent sweet tooth). But more on point, I would love to try it and I would try not to gobble it down!
@Moggie is right about there being second-hand intuous out there – some people also upgrade (to the super high-end pro intuous tablets) and sell their gently-used old tablets as well. I sold my old original Bamboo when I got my monoprice.
I would check for cord fraying on any second-hand tablet before purchasing. Especially near where it connects to the tablet.
I am about as amateur as they come, but I use a Wacom Bamboo tablet and Sketchbook Pro. I want to learn Photoshop, but Sketchbook is a lot more intuitive in terms of knowing what the brushes do and how to use them. It’s not as ideal for delivering a super polished finished product, but I could learn it on my own and turn out decent looking stuff a lot easier. If you’re looking more at photo manipulation than hand-drawing, Photoshop is definitely a better choice. If you’re looking to draw, but with the benefit of layers and ctrl + z, Sketchbook is a pretty good, accessible and affordable way to start learning how.
I made this on it just this week…
http://kootiepatra.tumblr.com/image/159430024348
I just purchased one of the monoprice tablets (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=12077) for my sister, helping her potentially get started doing freelance art stuff. I got it for $215 shipped, it’s refurbished but looks to be in great shape. Hopefully it’ll work out well for her.
Does major electronics/carpentry projects count as art? I’ve got a project in the works, no progress yet but I’d love to show off what I’ve got and what I’m going to be doing.
Do these count as art?
http://i.imgur.com/7zW5V0c.png
@Schnookums: I for one would be interested in the carpentry & electronics, for what that’s worth.
Wow, there are some amazingly talented people here. I’m really envious.
@Schnookums von Fancypants: I’d love to see that project. Carpentry can look really beautiful.
I don’t do much visual art, but I do make music! I recorded a new video just the other week which you can check out on my brand-spanking-new YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC36Oa0PMn1wVgi_R3UitTig). I have a small backlog of older videos that I should be uploading relatively soon, plus many many more to record when I find the time.
I’m not much of a “hardware person” but if anyone is interested I can share my limited knowledge on my recording setup/software/process, and my experiences trying to record music in a bedroom on a budget.
That’s a smart-looking guitar, dlouwe 😀
I’m a musician as well and just got around to recording my first full album last year – https://albion.bandcamp.com/ . It’s a bit dark, though, because it’s based on a friend’s dystopian novel – I’m trying to do something lighter next time.
My metal-archives entry at http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Albion/3540414519 describes our theme as “Concept albums based on literature”, which is true but you’d think they could have made me sound slightly less of a wanker.
I, er, also lend some colourist skills to some NSFW artwork over on furaffinity.net – my tool of choice is Paint.NET even though I think I might be the only one. It’s good to learn with a subject matter that holds my attention 🙂
Huh! I love the internet some times. Here’s a website about graphics tablets, and this particular link is about choosing the right one for you.
If you like woodworking, you might enjoy this documentary which I’ve just watched:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYf_EmyYQY
It’s more soothing than informative, so just relax with a glass of wine. Particularly if you’re an ASMR person!
I do draw, but I’m not precisely the best at it–and I never could figure out how to work a drawing tablet.
However, most of my contributions, as you all know, come in lyric form.
I’ll post down something unrelated to WHTM, since we’re posting stuff we already did.
I intended this as sort of a metal ballad, if that makes any sense at all.
[THIS IS IN 3/4 (or maybe 3/8)]
[Extended intro]
When I was a child, I listened to tales of old
Of monsters slain by heroes with hearts hewn of gold
And every night I would tick off a day
One less I had to wait before the beasts I could slay
For all that talk of the wretches’ wealth
I swore to the gods and my father
That I’d get some for myself
[16 measures between]
And then came the day! But an old man came to me
To lay out some twisted prophecy
“If you are one to unsheathe your blade
The kingdom will be drenched with shade!”
What fool stood between me and the date!
I’d already chosen my fate
[4 measures between]
I went out in the wilderness to find the roaming beasts
But not one man dare tell me of a qualm
I braved freezing nights, unending heats
The beasts could not be gone!
[2 measures between, accelerando, switch to 4/4]
Tracked them to the valleys
Where legends said they fell
Took my trusty sword and
[screamed] SENT ‘EM ALL TO HELL!
[insert wild guitar solo here]
[with the final chord, re-establish 3/4]
With all done and said, I looked over the dead
And called it a job well done
But somethin’ wasn’t risin’ over the horizon
The elegy of the sun
I refused to belive that the old man spoke truth to me
I denied the dying of the light
My actions had doomed me, and madness consumed me
As the world was plunged into the night
I beg of you, sweet summer child, now that what’s done’s been done
If the sun rises, leave this place, and tell them this fight’s been won
But do not raise your blade against those who never troubled you
Don’t chase the figments of the past, you know not if they’re true
Oh, toast my death, and toast to your health, but tell them,
He who fights monsters must beware
[rit]Of becoming one himself!
It could use some editing, but that’s the contents of the Notepad file at the moment.
This comes just in time to shamelessly advertise my very new blog
It contains poems and fiction and rants and thoughts and fotos. But it is mostly in German, so maybe only partially interesting to this community.
I also do all kinds of crafts, but I have to sleep before I can find any useful fotos. Maybe tomorrow.
I pretty well have the purple thumbs (ie not green) equivalent for art, but I’m loving the incredible skills Mammotheers are demonstrating.
Yay!