#this was my first time animating and i used basic CSP as my software so i was limited to a 24frame loop

[flawlessflesh]

i animated this to celebrate thistle's anime debut in february, so it felt appropriate to post it today for thistle thursday!

[berrysemifreddo]

First of all I need to thank my artist friends @meizze-art and @annarielmidori for leading me into this brilliant software... (it's so much better than Photoshop goddang)

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was doing a "research" this morning...😂I took notes of artworks that I really love the style of, and then also took notes of the ones that I wasn't a fan of. I also wrote what feature I'd like to learn. My note looked like this... (please don't misunderstand, these artworks are all amazing in their own way, I'm only making notes on their artstyle to decide my personal preference)

And second of all sorry it's not a Hogwarts Legacy character😂When it comes to the process of learning, I'd prefer practicing on the faces I'm most familiar with, and...that's just Dan. I'm not sure if I should switch to my Dan Stevens content only account because if I tag my friends there it'll be a bit weird...so...

Anyways, because this is literally the first time I actually do a rather "serious" colored digital art (previously my experiences in drawing are only limited to traditional methods, and most of them are either b&w pencil sketch or copying manga panels/manga art with colored pencil/copic marker), and I just got this pen tablet a week ago, so umm...I'm still exploring. This one took me too embarrassingly long, idk exactly when did I start but probably 6 hours or something. I used this photo (my favorite screenshot from "The Guest"...) as reference:

I admit that I acturally traced some part of it (like the sihoutte of his hoodie, and hair shape overall), however during my drawing I realized I actually cannot directly follow his face's jawline's contour, because the proportion would look a bit weird...so I sort of redrew that. Also on the eyes, originally I wanted to do a full realistic size, however I noticed that if I used the actual eye size, there won't be enough space for me to emphasize his eyes, so I enlarged them a little bit. I guess I'm still...leaning towards modern anime style more?

I checked my "research notes" (🤣) for many times and in the end I basically just did a 4:6 mixture of Vinland Saga and Variable Barricade (???), I wasn't planning to reference Vinland Saga in the beginning but I really really want to add his unique "aegyo-sal" in my drawing but most of the works mentioned in my notes don't really have it, so I experimented a lot and...well, Vinland Saga's method sort of works...

Managing layers is a real pain in the ass. Like previously when I was only working on Photoshop I didn't really have to deal with so many layers that constantly requires modification, and now it's like...I need to remember which is which and the logic and order of putting different parts into different layers.

(This screenshot was taken before I changed the gaze direction. In the original screenshot he was not actually looking at viewer, but I feel like it's gonna be more "fetching" (???) if he's looking at viewer, so I basically just cropped out the eyes and paint the area white and masked the cropped out eyes and fixed some details )

Well, this is only my day 2 of using CSP and I haven't even watched any tutorials of what's the proper way of drawing this kind of anime...hopefully I could get the hang of it soon.

[kineticallyanywhere]

Heyyy just wanted to jump in here to say that i love your art so much and also what program do you use to do your animatics?? Like not where you animate it but what do you use to edit it along with the audio? Your animatics are really inspiring and have motivated me to try to do one of my own!!

aaa thank you!! AND IM SO GLAD YOU'RE GONNA DO ONE THAT'S THE BEST NEWS my biggest goal for my stuff is always to get more people to do it too, lets have a PARTY in here

as for programs, I'm an incredibly basic individual, and so I stich audio and video together in an old copy of Windows Movie Maker that I downloaded off the internet because the program was discontinued like years ago but it's the one movie editor I reliably know how to use thank you 7th grade computers class ^u^'

here's an example of what my current project looks like

you drop in an image or video first, and then the audio file you want to use. the audio is that green bar on bottom, and then the movie clips I've made in CSP are on top. I just keeping adding and it lines it all up with the audio. like, the audio file it's pulling from is something like 3 minutes long, but it only shows the first 30ish seconds cause that's all the visuals I have to work with so far. it just stacks your videos back to back. OO and if you put still images in there, you have total control of how long that image plays for, down to the fraction of a second. (the Tower of Terry video was made like that, just thousands of still images imported to movie maker and timed out with the display timer function, RIP past me, what an icon)

If you're looking for a program where you can also edit the audio within the same software... I guess let me know if you find a good and easy one? I think I heard Blender can do that and I do have that downloaded, I've just never had the motivation to give it a shot since I tend to animate to complete audio. when I do edit audio, I use Audacity, and I also open audio files in Audacity so I can have a better view of the timeline of the audio, so I can give my animations the same timing. you can also stick labels in there, which is a handy thing I need to use 500% more often

here's a picture of my current project there. very boring, but very handy

I hope this helps!! please feel free to ask more questions I love to over share

[cqtlatte]

damn your art style is so pleasing to the eye :0

do you use any particular art software, brushes or technique? I'm a beginner at digital art, so I'll take all the advice I can. thank you for your time!

Hi anon!! Thank you so much, it really means the world to me <3

There’s so many tangents I can go on to give different advice for you, I think because we often think there’s a concrete formula to improve. I hope the advice I give here will help down the road, and that I don’t sound too all over the place here! (lol)

As for programs and such, I use Clip Studio Paint EX. I used to be a PRO user for quite some time but upgraded for the extra features (mostly for webtoon creators/animators), it isn’t a necessary switch at all if you only want to focus on illustration.

Paint tool SAI is also a good lightweight alternative! Before I got a better laptop, my old HP couldn’t really handle CSP; it lagged a whole bunch.

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I tend to jump around a LOT between brushes to toy around with effects and stuff, so it’s hard to give a specific set, however I use these the most:

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1697201

https://graphixly.com/products/theonewithbear-sumi-brush-pack-for-clip-studio-paint

Along with the darker pencil (default brush in CSP)

and a few brushes from the DAUB brush pack.

I don’t use every single brush in every set all the time either though! Usually when it comes to picking brushes for yourself, it 100% relies on how comfortable you are with using them. You'll definitely know what feels good for you, and what doesn't when you try them out!

Some people (like me) enjoy more textured brushes, and others are comfy with clean brushes for lineart, and others like soft watercolor brushes or oil brushes.

Don’t be afraid to tweak brushes either! It takes some time to learn how to do this, but there are lots of tutorials out there.

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I think the most important thing is to first find something that you enjoy drawing/painting a lot, and experimenting a bunch on that. Don’t be afraid to try new things!! You don’t always have to follow the basic workflow of sketch > lineart > color > shading. Mix it up a bit! Include colors in your sketches, paint over your sketches if you don’t like doing lineart! If you do like making super clean lineart, work on different types of lines to make it more fun! Art is like a form of play and messing around, it shouldn’t feel stressful. Be willing to make lots of bad art (even though that can be hard sometimes), so that in the future there’ll be less bad art and tons of good art! Don’t worry too much on developing a style, since this will come naturally the more you draw.

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(also, a word to those who post art on social media!) -

Don’t ever forget to draw what YOU enjoy, rather than focusing on what you think others would like to see!

For a long time before this year I felt like I was constantly hitting a brick wall, and I didn’t know why I didn’t like drawing as much as I used to, and why my character art felt so boring to me. When the covid pandemic hit, I was forced to take a loooong look at my art, and decide ‘I still have a long way to go..’

Something clicked when I sat down to work on some acrylic paintings on canvas for my uni portfolio: I wasn’t allowed to include fanart, since the university didn’t accept that. I also didn’t want to only include digital art either, so that I could add some variety! So, I painted.

I was forced to think more about colors (something I was neglecting, since it’s much easier to color digitally and hit the undo button 10000000 times when I wasn’t happy with something)

During that time, I found that I really REALLY liked painting landscapes and working with bright colors, so I also started to incorporate that into my digital art. Turns out other people enjoyed that as much as I loved creating it, so from there on out, I’ve just been toying around and experimenting on new things ever since!

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Anyway I hope this doesn’t sound too abstract. This is my first time giving formal advice so my brain is going into overdrive mode.

[spiffyworks]

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching

SSSo recently, after finishing (an admittedly long-overdue) a piece, I decided to download a trial of the new Corel Painter 2019. I hadn’t used Painter since my old DeviantArt days (circa 2005) and wanted to see how it felt with more digital art-veteran hands. Loaded it up, started sketching my default doodle-muse and wow, that “Real 2B” pencil feels great. I loved it so much, and wondered why. 

That’s the story that is spawning this weird personal series of Software Surfing. I wanted to write little notes to future-me on how it felt using my favorite sketching tools in each program I have, and after the sixth one I thought it might be a good idea to check out inking, colouring, painting, etc. and writing those down as well.

So I’m writing this series for myself, but making it available in case anyone else can benefit as well. Thanks for sticking with the intro, let’s get into it.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

There are many ways to sketch, but this is specifically the classic “pencil” or “drawing” form using the tools with the program’s default settings.

As an introduction, this is my doodle-muse, Cloey. She was my first original character, and though I don’t usually share my anthro art on here (I know that’s not everyone’s thing) I do have a separate blog for that stuff that you can find here if you’re so inclined. If you’re familiar with Artgerm (and you should be), she’s basically my Pepper.

Corel Painter’s “Real 2B”:

The one that started it all. The pencil just GLIDES, and I’ve always loved when you can tilt a pencil tool and it will shade just like tilting a real-life pencil. The only thing I want from a program now is to be able to bind touch to blenders so I can use my finger to smudge-blend the scribbling. (I tried drawing that fist so many times /fume)

Likes: Tilt functionality, line width variance, stroke speed, eraser Dislikes: Rebinding Rotate Canvas tool was a pain. I like Shift+Space, and that key combo is reflected in the shortcut panel, but it just continued to pan. Never worked for me, and rotating or flipping the page quickly is crucial for my sketching process. Also sometimes if I quickly resize the eraser and mash it down to use, it won’t detect any input.

Photoshop, Kyle Webster’s “2B” & “Animator Pencil”: 

**Disclaimer** Firstly, I’ve used Photoshop for over 15 years now, and it’s a great digital art tool, but for drawing and painting I find it’s sorely lacking. It’s slow, expensive, and unintuitive. That being said, there are some things this program does exclusive to others so I’m still clinging to it (desperately) and while I would definitely recommend something else for budding digital artists, I have to supplement my misgivings by purchasing additional plugins and tools, such as the famed Kyle T Webster’s Ultimate Megapack for Photoshop (

which is now complementary with Photoshop CC, damnit

). Unless otherwise noted, all the brushes I use in Photoshop will be from that pack. **End Disclaimer**

Following off the heels of Corel, I remembered messing around with another “2B” (which btw is my personal favorite traditional pencil to sketch with) in Kyle Webster’s Drawing Box in Photoshop. It felt a bit similar, but with no tilt functionality and it really lacked the chunky-thickness (a scientific term) I enjoyed with Painter’s pencil. I switched to my favorite (and the favorite of MANY digital artists btw) his “Animator’s Pencil”. So chunky, but the ability to shade lightly... It’s really a fun brush to use for sketching digitally. Still one of my absolute favorites.

Animator Pencil Likes: Line width variance, texture fills in and scales perfectly Dislikes: It’s a photoshop exclusive, a program that for some reason you can’t bind shortcuts to whatever you please, takes forever to load, and WAY too often suffers input lag while drawing. Also no tilt shading, :’( aw

Paintstorm’s “Textured Pencil” & “Pencil Tilt”

As a bit of an aside, I love Paintstorm, Paintstorm is what got me back into digital drawing and painting after doing 3D and game design for 7 years. I bought it for the very low price of entry (2 licenses for $30) and was impressed by its ability to customize literally anything in the program. You can create your own tool/brush boxes, bind any shortcut to any key combination, and every single brush tool adjustment comes with the most customization control of any program I’ve come across since Photoshop set the bar way back in the day. Out of the box a lot of the basic brushes have that old OpenCanvas or PaintTool Sai feel, but more recently they’ve added some very textured default brushes you can play around with. It’s also hands-down the FASTEST program I’ve ever worked in. I highly recommend giving it a try, it’s great for learning and experimentation. I grew a lot working in Paintstorm.

The Textured Pencil is a fun sketching brush, you can get as think or thick as you’d want and it keeps a clean outline. The Pencil Tilt really blew my mind the first time I used it. YOU CAN SHADE! It was the first time I had ever seen a program do that. The tilt has a great texture, fantastic control, and gets just as dark as you’d need. I’d recommend using them both, the Textured Pencil for a cleaner sketch, and the Pencil Tilt for something more expressive or loose.

Krita’s Ink-Tilt & “Sketch”:

I’ll be honest, I have almost no experience in Krita despite having downloaded and given it a try back in 2014. It was a hell of a time to figure out how to rebind my usual shortcuts (flip horz, rotate canvas). I couldn’t even rebind colour grab/eyedropper. Yikes. I opened up the “Sketching” brush box and there were only two options, made worse as one was a sketch pen... That lacked the flexibility of ballpoint. 

First I grabbed the pencil dubbed “Sketch” and was bewildered why the size of the circle was so large compared to the mark it made. Very confusing. Feeling intimidated, I abandoned it immediately to try out the “ink_tilt” (which by the way there’s no tilt functionality??) and hated it. I reluctantly went back to the pencil and just started trying to make marks. Wow. It’s weird, but surprisingly fun. You have to be willing to relinquish a LOT of control, but the shapes the brush makes while moving and tilting during a stroke can yield some really interesting and suggestive shapes. I would say great for early concepting or making something really loose and expressive. Fun to play with, but not really practical.

Clip Studio Paint’s Real Pencil & Rough Pencil

I’ve been wholly immersed in CSP since I purchased the program back in late 2016. It goes on sale often, so you can pick up a nice fully featured program for ~$35. I’d had my eye on it for a while and still really want to get into self-publishing comics, so I picked it up, bought a couple of brush packs for it (it’s pretty lacking in default painting tools) and I’ve been illustrating in it ever since. The brush creation isn’t as fun as Paintstorm, but brushes are quite customizable. I usually like to use the “Rough Pencil” if I want just a little texture and line variance, or the “Darker Pencil” for something cleaner. Trying to be different, I just jotted out a couple heads in ones I don’t normally use, the Real Pencil and Design Pencil. The Real Pencil has a lot of texture, but for some reason in CSP the textures don’t seem to scale with the brush, so I tend to avoid using it in most cases. I hate the design pencil, I just could never get dark enough. I guess that’s probably the point, though.

Well, that definitely wraps this digest up. I feel refreshed after trying out a lot of new digital sketching brushes. I was really reminded of how much I enjoyed drawing in Paintstorm. I hope someone other than me found this useful or otherwise inspiring! Sometimes, especially if you’re stuck in some art blockage, it’s a good idea to try something new, and for me digitally that’s hopping programs and trying new brushes.

I’m thinking about doing inks, colours, and painting at some point. Let me know if anyone’s interested in those! I’m planning on doing some for myself eventually, but I might expedite a post if anyone is interested. o/ Take it easy,  y’all.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

[axenbrie]

Started for the second time

JUNE 2020

I bought a WACOM INTUOS CTL4100WL as a birthday present to myself. It’s my first ever digital tablet and I’m truly enthusiastic about using it.

I was skeptical about what software to use for my journey but after thorough reviews, I finally decided to opt for CLIP STUDIO PAINT.

Photoshop was actually my first choice but it’s specs exceed the capacity my hardware could properly function therefore, I went with CSP.

When I was still a 2nd year high school student, I actually had the opportunity to experience digital painting. But because the computer frequently breaks down, the tablet I’m using is not mine, parents’ firm decision in pursuing a different career, and I’ve utterly no idea what I’m doing that time-- I let the part of me who wants to be an illustrator/animator/concept artist, end. That was a blessed blissful week, btw.

I never learned photoshop back then but I was taught by my little sister how to edit images, create posters and add filters. Truthfully, I didn’t find the need to learn about it and its uses since I can gracefully manage creating posters in MS Word. But by watching my sister work, means that I’m quite familiar with how the basic process flows; from brushes to layers to modes. So I’ve got no problems with using CSP for the first time.

The only dilemma I’ve had when everything was set up is how to stop my fingers from shaking because I’ve never been this happy my entire life.