#my super secret advice is winging it because that's hwhat I did to get better but that is unhelpful to people that don't know

[sumplysilly]

hey there, I’ve been trying to get back into digital art and started using a photoshop, but I’m struggling to get the same smooth and exaggerated lines I’ve done before. I also find that my pen pressure won’t transition very nicely from thick to thin. I was wondering if you had any tips for this stuff because I see your lines and they’re so bold and crisp and delicious and smooth :o

Feel free to message me if you don’t want to post this ask, any tips would be very appreciated! I also may be in need of a tablet upgrade if you think it’s a hardware issue.

1st off I use an ipad, & I draw in procreate, I've never had an actual drawing tablet so I have no idea about better drawing devices

I can't help you with pen pressure because I never use it. But if you want smooth lines, doing long fast strokes helps. I do this 99% of the time, I do a huge stroke & overshoot my line & just erase the extra bits of lines at the ends. You could also slowly chickenscratch your lines & clean up the edges, like frankensteining a bunch of lines together. I do this sometimes if I'm making circles (because I fucking suck at drawing circles). & idk if photoshop has these but apparently there's line stabilizers that automatically smooth your lines as you draw them (I've never used this, I'm not sure if procreate has stabilizers)

My true advice is your lines don't need to be smooth to be good. You can have wiggly lineart or no lineart at all they're all good & it's really that sumple. If you do want your lines to be smooth, practice plenty. People hate when u tell them to practice but it is shrimply how you get better. I've been doing lineart obsessively since middle school when I wanted to be an inker for comic books, I love doing lineart so I became better at it

I trained for 15 years in the mountains. I lived on a diet of pencil shavings & pen ink. But for u I'd just do some quick sketches & practice doing fast broad strokes over them until you get comfortable with forming lines that capture the energy of the sketch whilst being smooth. Use a stabilizer if u need to, there's no shame in using the digital tools given to u to make the process easier. You should feel proud of your art but also be critical enough of yourself to know when you could push further. Good luck random person