@Kyllorac Actually with a pencil I for the most part have mastered the art of smooth lines, however I have yet to figure it out when drawing with a mouse, which is what all of these things are drawn with. I don't know how I can feasibly draw smooth lines or control their weight with a mouse.
Last edited by Zolen on Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What program are you using to draw these? I also do my drawings with a mouse or a trackpad (which I find even harder to use than a mouse, but I'm drawing with a laptop while lying down... I ain't gonna use a mouse!) And with photoshop and some time I find I can vary the weights of my lines by just making them look different. Of course, I actually don't use outlines that much so what do I know? I would understand though if you're using paint or some other inferior drawing program that it take WAY too long to try to make anything look really wonderful.
Instead, he said, Brother! I know your hunger. To this, the Wolf answered, Lo!
There are a few ways to get smooth lines with a mouse. The simplest is to zoom in and slowly freehand. The easiest is to use the bezier tool to draw curves, but slowly freehanding gets better results.
To get different line weights, basically you can make a really thick line and erase, or you can layer thin lines close together. I prefer the the erasing method, though others prefer the layering method.
Actually, the method I use can best be described as scribble-scribble-erase. I'll scribble a bunch of lines so that the lineart is dark, and then I'll erase the mess in a smooth sweep with the eraser. It's really time-consuming and a PAIN with a mouse, but I always get really smooth lineart with it.
I made these years ago with a mouse using the scribble-scribble-erase method, so you can see the results for yourself: Toned Dragon and Black Phoenix
@Kyllorac Wow that's one of the most annoying ways to color that was ever invented, I am amazed you were willing to do it.
Hmmmmm, that is a tad long process of line art, and my goal is to create something both high quality and can be done quickly, because one of my goals beyond cover art, is to try my hand at web comics, I need something nice as well as quick. With that method it would take me a day just for the line art.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
Then the bezier tool will be your best friend. However, lineart takes a long time to do with a mouse whichever way you do it. If you really want to go into webcomicing, I'd recommend investing in a graphics tablet. Wacom makes a good entry-level tablet called the Bamboo for about $80. It has all the features you need like pressure sensitivity and a pen stylus, so it's great for someone just starting out with digital art.
@Nelly101 joining 50 websites won't help me improve any in art, writing seems to be best to have a lot of people reading to help improve, art on the other hand seems to improve best (at least for me) under the supervision of those better then me, rather then random thoughts, a skilled opinion seems to fit better.
@Kyllorac there are some very sexy graphics tablets (I am a tech nerd) that I have wanted to buy, but collage so far has made me too too poor to buy any. Also, I worry that since I am so used to coloring/drawing at this point with a mouse, I might have to relearn quite a bit to match the quality I have now.
Hm, however I found one as low as 60 though googling....
Last edited by Zolen on Mon Dec 09, 2013 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
My first attempt at making a personal symbol for my drawings:
You might be asking yourself "what is that ugly mess" the answer is that is what happens when you take a perfectly smooth icon and try to turn it into a brush in gimp. I am going to see about vectoring a remake of it in Inkscape I guess.
Attachments
failed icon.png (75.94 KiB) Viewed 600 times
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
random fun fact, at one point I was going to make a texture pack for minecraft, and then my hard drive died and I lost all of the work when I was almost done. So I never bothered again.
Only thing left are prototype images
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
