Question for graphic artists

[TheSilverKnight]

Ok I am really getting into the graphic arts little by littl but I have 2 problems and one solution for both of them. 1) I am a horriable drawer in my opinion I have the creative mind I just lack technique 2) I suck at photoshop

So here is the solution I have come up with I wanna by a drawing tablet for my pc so I can kind of tackel 2 birds with one stone.

http://www.wacom.com/graphire/4x5.cfm this is the tablet I am looking at 1) becuase I lack funds and 2) I really don't need some $2000 lcd with a pen on the side.

So my question is 1) is this a sound investment 2) is this pen compatable with photoshop cs2 just through instaling the tablet because it doesn't seem to say what it works with. 3) any other advice besides drawing something every day to get better.

I decided to put some art online of a race I created for D&D but I think it will suffice to show my level of drawing

http://geocities.com/nicolasparadise/Emong-v1.jpg
http://geocities.com/nicolasparadise/Emong-v1p1.jpg
http://geocities.com/nicolasparadise/Emong-v2.jpg

I would have just put image tags but they are huge images

[Azrael]

Haven't ever used it. But a $99 alternative to a $2000 product is gauranteed not to be satisfying.

If you suck at drawing, go back to basics: Paper. Pencil. No color. Practice. Lots. Once you feel confident with your sketching, move to more complicated things.

As for photoshop? Saying you suck at photoshop is kinda like saying you suck at living -- it's too broad of a statement to garner any real advice. So, in broad strokes: Take a class, practice re-creating good design from scratch and start small. Oh. And stop doing photochops, those aren't helping you develope your design habits -- although they probably are helping you learn the programs capabilities, so nevermind.

[Medieve]

..... how does buying a tablet fix your problems?

1.) A tablet does not improve your ability to draw. It makes it works in a different way, but it won't make what you are drawing look more like what you want to be drawing.
2.) Photoshop is probably the second of two programs which is most used when using a tablet.

And just emphasizing Rael's point, you are pretty general about what your problems are. I'd like to help you, but you are going to have to give us a better statement about what exactly you want to do.

[Gengy]

Without disregarding the good advice already given, I shall answer your questions.

1) Yes. I like my tablet. I got it for Christmas a couple years ago.

2) Of course it works with CS2. You still have to learn HOW to make it work the way YOU want it to, but it does function. Heck, I've used the pen to play Halo, lol.

3) Ummmm... draw TWO somethings every day?

[TheSilverKnight]

Haven't ever used it. But a $99 alternative to a $2000 product is gauranteed not to be satisfying.


The reviews beg to differ the only disadvantage this has over the more professional ones is less work space and less short cut buttons.


..... how does buying a tablet fix your problems?

1.) A tablet does not improve your ability to draw. It makes it works in a different way, but it won't make what you are drawing look more like what you want to be drawing.
2.) Photoshop is probably the second of two programs which is most used when using a tablet.


It may not fix my drawing problem but as digital editing is also something I want to do better which would mean photoshop haveing a tablet will make wanting to learn alot easier. Also I feel personally with the way I learn having
a device like this which is more natural than a mouse especialy to me because I hand wright ALOT of stuff I hate typing.




3) Ummmm... draw TWO somethings every day?

Even tho I said any advice besides drawing everyday as it is a habbit I alrady do but it mostly doodles in class when I should be taking notes :D.

Besides that I just want a tablet because pointing and tapping is easier than pushing a mouse around and clicking.

[Ishukira]

My suggestion: Make a sketch. Scan it into your computer. Put it into Photoshop.

Then put a layer over the sketch, and try tracing it in Photoshop. If you can trace an image, then you don't suck at photoshop. (The rest is coloring in the lines, lol)

One tip on drawing lines (If you have a twitchy mouse hand, as I do), if you click a starting poing for a line, then hold SHIFT and click at another point, a strait line will be drawn between the two points. All of my graphics are nothing but strait lines. Lots of strait lines.

For learning to draw, I would suggest grabbing a how-to manga book. The shapes are simple, and you can do poses without actually doing any detail. This is good because you'd likely add details in PS.

That's about it.

Oh, and my friend has a waycom tablet. That exact model.

It worked for two days, and it really screws with your mouse.

[TheSilverKnight]

It worked for two days, and it really screws with your mouse.

WHAT! thats really odd I know more then one person that have had Wacom tablet and they are the most reliable ones you can get not this model in specifc model but still. And as long as the sofware is installed properly it shouldn't mess with the mouse as it is your mouse.

As for tracing in photoshop I can't do it It just never turns out right I can trace really well in illustrator but its hard to get depth in the lines in illustrator.

I must admit tho with illustrator you can make really cool looking cell shaded figures with out outlines.

N e who athouh manag is simple because of its shading styles which are limited it makes things look either shiney or flat. Also I hvae heard from more than one artist that learning anime or manga styles are useless if you don't learn normal drawing first becuase once you learn thoes styles it hard to draw nomaly afterwerd if you didn't alread know how.

Edit: Also I noticed no body had ne thing to say about my drawings which means they are either really bad or better than I though !_! n e who I realiesd when I drew them I wasn't thinking lines and shapes I was thinking "Draw a leg, no thats not what a leg looks like" as opposed to draw a line and define the space. But I found a cool technique yesterday that drawing all the nagative space instead of the positev space has the same result minus the inside result and I want to try it.

[Azrael]

Also I noticed no body had ne thing to say about my drawings which means they are either really bad or better than I thought...

Azrael's Completely-Tangential Life Lesson #517: Never ask for input twice.

[Brickwall]

I loved my Wacom before the cord got slightly damaged and now has to be positioned properly for it to work.

Before that, tracing and filling my hand sketches was easy as anything. I could even draw freehand certain things on the comp and make them look pencil-drawn.

Wacom tablets are good. Just be very careful with them. Very careful.

[TheSilverKnight]

Azrael's Completely-Tangential Life Lesson #517: Never ask for input twice.
I never asked for input on the pictures so I only asked for input once.

I loved my Wacom before the cord got slightly damaged and now has to be positioned properly for it to work.

Wacom tablets are good. Just be very careful with them. Very careful.

That kind of sucks. Judging by the fact that you hvaen't bought a new you either don't need it that badly or can't afford it.

ohh and I am gonna try a trace and sketch on this pic http://geocities.com/nicolasparadise/Emong-v1p1.jpg

I'll post it when its done.

[Ishukira]

I saw the pictures, and didn't see anything wrong with them. Of course, they're sketchy, but probably because they're sketches. But the proportions look fine, and the posture's okay, and the hands aren't on backwards (A problem a lot of beginning artists seem to have).

[TheSilverKnight]

and the hands aren't on backwards (A problem a lot of beginning artists seem to have).

Hands have always been my bane I alwyas have them on the right way because I always put my hand in the same position and see where the thumb should be. But I can never get fingers and dimensions right.

Any way to motovate me to actually learn in photo shop I asked a friend who had used photoshop before if we could vs each other and see who came out with a better result on one of my drawing apparently he forgot everything about photoshop and I stayed up all night doing it and when I showed him the end result he gave up n e way here is the finished ink and flat color

Ink and Flats (http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f139/TheSilverKnight/Photoshoped/Emong.gif)
and the origonal for refrence
Origonal (http://geocities.com/nicolasparadise/Emong-v1p1.jpg)

I have never used photoshop for any thing before besides resizing images and separating sprite sheets any time I tried to do any thing else I got frustrated and stoped. let me know what you think.

Note: Why is it that the preview in photoshop looks like crap I thought I did really bad or something but when I saved it out and looked at it I was like "Wow did I do that?"