o hai
Photoshop's rotation feature kind of blurs pixels which aren't rotated by 90/180/270/360 degrees so I try to avoid rotating on images. Unless there's this really gratuitous error I made while trying to make a straight line (this happens often enough when I'm actually drawing on paper...)
If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page
you'll see a bunch of higher quality gestures, so you might get an idea of the different styles and what you're trying to convey. It's not important that your work be awesome right away. Starting off, just getting an idea of what gesture is is a huge step forward. You don't need to blow huge amounts of time on it for right now, either, just 15 minutes a day or so.
For me, learning to pose characters well, was part gesture and part reading a lot of Mentler's threads on Concept Art, particularly his teeny weenies learning some basic construction methods, etc.
Also, there are a lot of techniques for drawing from life. To start off, doing blind contour drawings or copying things that are already drawn or photographed is a good start, particularly if it's so intimidating that it's drawing from a picture or not drawing from observation at all.
edited 8th Dec '10 7:10:33 PM by Roman
| DA Page | Sketchbook |
I've had my tablet for about three years now. I ADORE it for colouring, but I still can't use it for lineart! When I draw, my hand spasms ever-so-slightly to the side at the end of every line (I have no idea why); the friction of pencil/pen on paper is enough to keep it reasonably still, but on a sensitive surface with next to no friction, the damn thing slips everywhere and all my people end up looking like shredded omelettes.
My more dextrous friends got used to theirs in about a month. So yes, definitely worth an investment.
I keep hearing this from people but I never needed to get use to a tablet. Perhaps its the mapping? Depending on what size your getting you might be use to drawing within a small frame, that can customized if it is an issue. Or the friction, I'd recommend Wacom Bamboo since it has a more tactile feeling to it. At least a wacom in any regard.
I think the Graphire might have a slightly-textured surface. The thing is, for me that's underneath the tough smooth plastic hardcover that came with it.
My kludgey solution: masking tape a square of paper cut out of my sketchbook over the top. Works well, though I don't think it may need to be replaced often.
I finally bought myself a "Wacom Bamboo Pen&Fun" tablet (for... for Christmas?), and finally finally tried using it.
Don't be ridiculous. It clearly says "Spacky"!
... why do you ask
My character Sparky is my Author Avatar, so I'm kinda protective of him.
Okay. I... I'm not sure what that has to do with the picture, which was addressed to a guy I call Sparky, who I'm pretty sure is not your author avatar, but okay.
Anyway, I tried inking a sketch with the tablet. It went less than well. I have no idea why GIMP refuses to work properly when I set the tablet to mouse mode. The pen tool cursor will still appear in the spot corresponding to where I have the pen on the tablet, while my mouse cursor is in an entirely different place.
With the tablet in pen mode, it's next to impossible to draw straight or slightly curved lines beyond a certain length. I'm used to making very small movements when I draw, and moving the picture around so I can better draw curves...
edited 26th Dec '10 1:15:49 PM by Fawriel
True, the undo function is a godsend. It's just awkward, though, and so much easier to rotate stuff in real life.
In fact, often whilst drawing I used to have the habit where I'd rotate the entire page around once or twice in the middle of drawing. I'd do this repeatedly. (Usually when drawing on a sheet of paper)
Also: cheers for mentioning that posemaniacs thing. I just did 10 minutes or so of the 30-second drawings; most of them look pants, but they're at least recognisable poses. So if I keep doing these I'll become a master of poses?
It says you should keep the pencil on the paper, though; I can't do that, unless I'm working on a single line. I have to lift it off the page, my style is lots of short strokes.
Argh. I'm just no good at observational drawing; I have no sense of scale when I'm drawing from life, so everything ends up warped and squished like it's being viewed through a fun-house mirror.
edited 8th Dec '10 6:08:07 PM by EthZee