the difference a background will make for the atmosphere of a drawing!
(I made these for the cover of a publication – the full colour version was on the front cover, the simple line version was a small vignette for the back cover.)
[INKTOBER '22 - DAY 17 - Salty] "Valuable treasures are rarely unguarded… or uncursed. When you found the 'Cave of the Drowned', there was not a soul there. But that changed as soon as you pulled out your treasure map."
heyyy I'm new to digital art, would you mind sharing some tips regarding programs and tutorials and etc? also on how to turn a real life piece into a beautiful and clean digital piece... really love your art
oh good luck with your art journey!
my experience with digital art is pretty dated (as in a decade + levels dated) and i might be too out of touch to give beginner tips but regardless, allow me to attempt
Programs: it would help to know which hardware you have for digital but ill put down some i have experience in
1. Clip Studio Paint Pro - PC/Android/ipad/everywhere i think? unfortunately they betrayed humankind and its now a subscription everywhere but on PC. i bought a one-time license years years years ago on sale and its probably the best available on my end. I also got it on subscription on android so i can sync works between my PC and tablet. its very flexible in a way that you can draw with it in the most basic way single layer sketches or whatever but they have so many features and keep adding more.
2. procreate - ipad only
never been an apple user but my friend is, and he's been a procreate user forever. he recently tried CSP on ipad though and he still claims he likes procreate better for ease of use and compatibility with tablet ergonomics and apple pen
3. medibang paint - pc/android/ipad
free forever. and out of all the free programs i recommended my other digital art newbie friend this is what he liked best.
4. adobe photoshop - dont even look at this the only reason i have one is im leeching off company license. its still unfortunately the industry standard tho but CSP is much cheaper and has the same controls and most of the basic functions
5. Paint Tool SAI - my first art program but i haven't tried it again. honestly still think this has the best brush flexibility and pen pressure control
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As for tutorials, i find digital art has such a steep and high skill ceiling and its a challenge im still tackling and probably will forever tackle haha. I'm trying to osmosis painting techniques from splash art painters from League of Legends who most of them post complete timelapses (my favorite being Bo Chen) where you can study not just their techniques but like, art directions that make their pieces striking.
Anyway, I also promised a friend I would make a simple coloring tutorial so maybe after inktober hustle, I would look for a piece there I'd use for the guide.
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Traditional to digital is never a satisfactory process to me but if you can, invest on a scanner. I use an epson v39, had it for years.
scanned vs edited. the goal is to at least get the white of the paper as white as possible and the blacks the blackest, without whitewashing/burning the rest of the colors. Level correction function is your best friend here and most art programs have that.
Then i just clean dust and errors and slide the contrasts around until it looks as close to the original piece
If you have a decent phone camera, you can get away just posting instagram aesthetic pics with materials framing it or smth and just edit as usual. natural light tends to be a lot more forgiving than the harsh light of scanners anyway.