#opencanvas tutorial

[zeezaibtech]

OpenCanvas is a painting software tailored for the Windows Operating System, catering to users ranging from beginners to advanced. It features analog-like brush strokes and a user-friendly interface, enhancing its basic performance. The software stands out with its unique “Event” function that records and replays the drawing process, aiding users in visualizing their creativity with ease.

[bonbonbunny]

Omg omg I downloaded the old 1.1 version of OpenCanvas and it’s so nostalgic!!!  The brush panel in the bottom right resurfaced such STRONG memories lmao. 😆😭😭

This (and oekaki boards) were how I first learned how to digital art!!!!

Here is where it can downloaded: http://wistinga.online.fr/opencanvas/

And here is a tutorial (since the brush and layer options are super weird compared to modern software), hosted on Angelfire for maximum nostalgia: https://www.angelfire.com/anime/Jessjessica/oc/oc.html

OpenCanvas was very popular among anime artists of the 90s/00s because it was very close to a downloadable version of an oekaki board (which was used in your browser).

Oekaki was drawn on a webpage that looked like this:

It only allowed two layers and there were very few tools, but I always liked the kind of pastel default color palette.  And you couldn’t save your progress; when you done you basically just clicked “done” and your finished work was published to the BBS (bulletin board system) where it was hosted.  Sometimes people even left comments!

Did anyone else here ever use oekaki boards or OpenCanvas? 🤗

[funymony]

I made a quick tutorial on getting connected with Drawpile so you can doodle with your friends! GET DRAWPILE: https://drawpile.net/

Join my Drawpile group on discord! https://discord.gg/9GpdRgx

Have fun!

[beanaroony]

Bean’s 15 tips for beginner (digital) artists...

TO THE ANON WHO SENT ME THAT ASK FOR BEGINNER TIPS~ 

I drafted my reply stupidly and tumblr ate it. Oops.

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means excellent with digital art. I’m deficient with color schemes/the concept of “color” in general (I’m definitely not colorblind, but there’s definitely a screw loose somewhere,) I rarely if at all have the patience to line my art, and forget painting altogether because I don’t get it. So I’m flattered you’re asking me for advice even though I consider myself the last person you should (haha~.)

TIP #1: TL;DR it took me years to get to where I am. Some people don’t need that long. Change may not happen on a day to day basis. Try to be patient. 

We hear it all the time, “practice makes perfect.” It’s actually “perfect practice makes perfect” and I don’t believe there is such a thing as “perfection” when it comes to art. When people say it’s “all practice,” they’re full of nonsense. There is definitely a role for talent, in that some artists pick up on stuff really quickly and advance at unreal speeds. I am not that. I started with mouse drawing before I got my first tablet in 2005, followed by the second around 2013-ish (maybe.) I’ve been art-ing in general since I was a wee bitty toddler.

Here’s my progression over the 10+ years I’ve been doing this: 

MOUSE PIECE, 2005 (age 14:)

FIRST TABLET PIECE, 2005 (age 15:)

COMPARISON PIECE FROM 2011 (age 20...so about 5-6 years of practice:)

RECENT PIECE, 2017 (age 26...another 5-6 years later:)

TIP #2: Appreciate even the slightest improvements. Maybe it’s easier for you to draw out a smoother line. Maybe you figured out how to use a new tool! Maybe one tool works better than another. Maybe the software needs to be simpler to use. I’ve never been comfortable with Photoshop; I’ve instead used OpenCanvas or Sai. 

TIP #3: Please, please, please don’t expect to learn new tricks in a day. If you do, then awesome! If you don’t, then keep trying and you WILL get there eventually. If you’re frustrated, move on to something else. Getting comfortable with digital art isn’t about getting the hang of all of it in one day. There’s a lot to absorb. 

TIP #4: Try tutorials. There’s a bajillion out there. They’ll help you work towards “mastering” a skill, or maybe even a few skills, at a time. Once you’ve gotten the hang of a skill, you can then work towards molding it into something of your own. 

TIP #5: Practice motions, whether it be with a mouse or with a tablet pen, with doodles. Try doodling different things. Focus on those subjects or themes that are in your comfort zone when using traditional media. Getting used to the feel of the hardware, the texture of the drawing surface, and the motions your fingers need to go through to click or flip through swiftly takes practice. 

TIP #6: If you’re not sure how to draw something, use references! Trace over the references at first if you need to for your own benefit (don’t be tracing over other people’s art and posting it as your own, of course.) Sometimes we need to learn from example to get the hang of new skills. 

TIP #7: When using references, you may try to mimic different styles. That’s how I started. It took this long for me to finally say, “hey, I think I have my own style and man, I’m actually happy with it!” The whole style business was the bane of my existence as an artist. When you finally find your own way, drawing will come a bit more naturally. 

TIP #8: Take breaks. I took a 2 year break. It doesn’t have to be that long, of course, but it actually allowed me some new perspective. I started fresh. Do what you need to do. Don’t overload and crash. Frustration just makes it that much harder to progress. 

TIP #9: Set small, achievable goals. “I want to shade hair in *this* way.” Work towards that. If you get the hang of it, then move on. If you don’t, that’s okay! Maybe there’s another method that you may find more achievable. Maybe you’ll achieve a different kind of result that appeals to you more. 

TIP #10: EXPERIMENT! There’s more than one way to draw lines. There’s more than one tool you can use to color. If there are rules then I don’t know them nor do I care. YOU DO YOU!!

TIP #11: Take your time, please. Art isn’t a race. Yes, it’s annoying to spend hours on something that doesn’t look the way you want it to. Yes, it’s unbelievable that so-and-so artist painted a masterpiece that could rival the entirety of the Sistine Chapel in a matter of 2 hours. If they got there overnight, then...savants are few and incredibly far between. If you enjoy creating art, then use that extra time you spent as a learning opportunity. If you’re frustrated enough, make the next thing you draw quick and simple. You might surprise yourself.

TIP #12: This is a more personal thing, but one of the most important things I’ve come to accept is that my art WON’T AND SHOULDN’T BE PERFECT. Those little scribbles I leave in my linework are the motions made my by hands, by my own design. They’re an expression of what I’m feeling and thinking. Who cares if my lines are not thin and pretty? I got my message across in my own way. That’s what matters the most. It took me this long to realize that. =P 

TIP #13: CREATE YOUR OWN DEFINITION OF “IMPROVEMENT!” Becoming the next Michelangelo is admirable and all, don’t get me wrong, but if YOU feel like you haven’t gotten there despite all you’ve practiced, then it doesn’t matter how much praise you get. Don’t put yourself down, either. I’m so guilty of this and set an awful example. 

TIP #14: I cannot emphasize this enough - use software that you can understand and adapt to first, then work your way up. If you use like...3 things to make traditional art, maybe Photoshop is going to be kind of a lot. I mean, I used to draw with a mechanical pencil and eraser. To go from that to Photoshop 7 was mindboggling. Baby steps. 

TIP #15: Consider yourself awesome for even trying. When I told job interviewers that digital art is one of my hobbies, they were amazed. Like woah, what a concept. Digital illustration? “I can’t even draw a stick figure!” We’ve all heard it, and well, y’all could if you tried hard enough, I mean it doesn’t have to look one certain way to be a stick figure. 

...My point is, digital art is HARD. But listen, people go to school for this stuff. Give yourself some credit. 

[dewa-chan]

Do you have some digital art tip posts? I'm just starting out and have no idea where to start (aside from weird 2d cats that look HORRIFYING), and I was just curious if have anything I could use! :3

hMMMM well let’s see

Do you have a drawing tablet? If not then i reccomend buying one, they’re handy!

Get a program you feel comfortable drawing with. May it be Photoshop, Krita, SAI, Paint, OpenCanvas, whatever. Try testing a lot of programs, and see which one feels more comfortable. It doesn’t have to be the fanciest, it just has to be the right one for you.

Explore your program, try using all of its features. Brushes, layer modes, anything. It’s good to know your program from head to toe.

I like using the Brush tool for lineart, rather than the Pen tool. Which one feels better depends on you though.

Draw with multiple layers. I know that there are artists out there that can do masterpieces with only one layer, but if you’re just starting then i reccomend using multiple layers.

Don’t shade stuff with black and white don’t do it. It looks pretty bad most of the time. Try using a layer mode with “Multiply” (or Luminosity/Overlay for highlights and then use actual colors to shade/highlight.

Avoid using the airbrush tool for shading. Instead, use a normal pen/brush tool, and use the blur tool if you want any shadows to look ‘softer’.

For shading and adding details without having to spam the selection tool every 5 seconds, use clipping layers/masks! Those are really handy and easy to use. I’m sure there are tutorials around about those.

Go easy on the colors, try to not use neon everywhere.

Go easy on the shading/lightning too! Control the layer opacity to make the shadows/lights look darker or lighter.

Ctrl+Z is your friend.

Try to not use super big canvases when it’s not necessary? I find it annoying to work with canvases that are too big. 

Use the merging layer tool if you have too many layers. I use that thing everytime fffft.

Free Transform tool is also your friend. This one can save your lineart tbh.

If you want to Scale something but you don’t wanna squeeze it, hold Ctrl + Alt while scaling the selected part.

It’s okay to mirror some things, such as ears or eyes-- but avoid doing it on the entire drawing.

Speedpaints. Watch a lot of those, very carefully.

Stabilizers. If your hand/lineart is shaky, try getting a program that has one such as Krita or SAI. SAI’s stabilizer is great in my opinion.

SAI’s Linework tool and Photoshop’s Ruler are pretty helpful.

Using layer/brush textures can help a lot!

Use a lot of layers modesss a lot of them. Photoshop’s layer mode list is HUGE.

Try flipping your image sometimes to check if there’s anything crooked. If there is, try redrawing it with the image still flipped. Don’t worry if anything looks crooked though! It’s a common thing that happens to artists.

Check if your program has any kind of tab named “Adjustments” or “Filter”. Something like that. In here you’ll be able to adjust the image’s saturation, brightness, hue, etc.

Drawing with a smaller brush size allows you to add more details. However, this really depends on your art style- and on yourself! Some people prefer drawing with bigger brush sizes, and that’s ok.

The Magic Wand tool can help a lot when it comes to selecting stuff.

Overlay and Screen layers can help with color adjustments.

I guess it’s just that? Those are based off my own experiences, so sorry if some end up not working for you ;0; I hope this can help you!

[kimquatz]

was your icons hair always pink? anyways, it looks so cute!!!!!!! btw, could i ask where do you take the textures (from the last tutorial) from?do you just google them??

u caught me 👀 i updated it just earlier LOL i dyed my hair pink again recently :P

Also, funny thing, i actually got that texture a long time ago by taking it from OpenCanvas... 😂

[ladybuvelle]

// Maybe it’s a bit early in the day to ask, but...

If I were to start up a Patreon, what would incentivize you guys to become patrons? Obviously I’d be drawing, but I would have to offer special stuff. Making videos of my work is super easy with OpenCanvas since the program records everything drawn. So I can easily make speed-draw videos of things I work on if you guys would like to see those.

I can say for certain if I had enough people to at least provide me with $100 a month I’d totally have a raffle every month for a free full-color drawing. But that’s only if I got that far, so that’s not much “incentive” I guess... That’s more like a stretch-goal that benefits everybody.

If you guys have any ideas I’d be more than happy to hear them. I’ve been thinking about these sort of things a lot more seriously lately because, frankly, I can’t really get other kinds of work. Health issues prevent me from doing a lot of things, and these days it’s hard to even go outside for long periods of time without having small or major anxiety attacks. I’m trying to work on it with my doctor and I’m seeing a therapist, but I know for a fact that if I could at least provide just a little for myself and my mother I’d feel so much better about a lot of things. I love drawing. I’ve loved drawing all my life. And I know I’m not the best artist on the market, but I know I can provide and I know I can only improve. I’ve been improving every day, and a lot of that has been thanks to being here on Tumblr.

So hit me up with stuff you’d be willing to plonk a dollar or two down for every month! Special request streams? Drawing videos? Tutorials? Other??