Visual Techniques and Resources(may become image intensive)

[Oregano]

This is a thread designed to index any little tricks or tips to making art look nicer, this isn't necessarrily limited to OOTS art either. It's for more advanced tricks and tips.

I'd like for any artists and avatarists to list some of the tricks they use to make there work clearer and nicer, of course you don't have to tell any secrets.:smallwink:

It'll also be a nice place to index guides and other important information about art, My apologies if this has already been done but I didn't see a thread for it.

I would appreciate if any tips or tricks that were submitted could have images to accompany them and maybe a small tutorial.

Useful Art guides
Adobe Illustrator Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8742)
Trazoi's Guide (http://trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/index.html)
Guide to Making Avatars in MS Paint and (Irfanview) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33471)
Echowind's Quick Guide to Colouring Anime Eyes with Photoshop (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4525274&posted=1#post4525274)

Inkscape techniques
Speech Bubbles (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4520835&postcount=3)
Vael's Guide to making an object in inkscape with perfectly shaped stroke lines on only one or two sides. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3665578&postcount=12)
Vael's guide to shading. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4540459&postcount=24)

Free Hand technique and tips
Flickerdart's tips to free hand drawing (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4521394&postcount=6)
Bayar's Guide to freehand drawing and Graphic Tablet use (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4523100&postcount=12)

Fireworks
Nameless' guide to Fireworks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4522695&postcount=10)

Resources
Serpentine's OOTS major race templates (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4522616&postcount=8)

[Oregano]

[Post reserved just in case]

[Oregano]

Inkscape - Speech Bubbles

First draw a Circle(or square) with the appropiate tool, then draw a V shape using the Pen tool. Overlap the V shape and the circle like this:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8066/threespeechbubbletb3.png

Now, highlight both the circle and the V and go to the "path menu" on the toolbar and select union. This will merge the V and the Circle and make it appear like a classic Speech Bubble, like so:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8239/secondspeechbubblexw3.png

[Lyinginbedmon]

Hmm...it's kinda hard to pick out tricks when for the artist they're just the standard case...

Off the top of my head, when you're designing a new character or creature design it with 2 points in mind: One is to look good (Or else there's little point to making it) and the other is to make it poseable, make it suitable for a useful amount of motion.

If you make someone with really pretty arm-guards, it's useless if you can't make it point or hold something or even just flail around in terror.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Ah, so that's how speech bubbles are done. *d'oh* I never thought of using union.

[Flickerdart]

Practice hands and faces. Go out right now, buy two sketchbooks, and fill one of each. Do the same for bodies. If you need to, buy one of those little dummies. Practice makes perfect, and anatomy is more important than anything else.

Working with physical media does better for your skill than any computer implement. I recommend pencil, though mastering pastel is a nice thing to have too.

Learn the difference between drawing how it looks and drawing how it's supposed to look. It'll save your hide.

Edit:

More on freehand drawing.

1) Learn how to make precise, long strokes. Sketchy lines are fine and all, but this will make everything a lot easier. Practise on a computer, where Ctrl+Z is your friend for all time.
2) Don't hold your pencil like you're writing when drawing. Instead, hold it almost horizontally from the top, resting it on your 3 useless fingers and holding near the point with thumb and forefinger. This helps with making fast, loose lines, and helps a lot when shading. Control is an issue in this style, and I prefer doing detail the old fashioned way.
3) When drawing a body, remember the proportions. Draw the head first. Shoulders are one head width each, arms are 2.5 heads long, legs are 4 heads long, palms are one face size (try it, palms are biiiig), feet are one head long. Torso is usually about 2 heads long. For men, hips and shoulders will be about the same width, for women, hips will be bigger while shoulders smaller.
4) After you have your "skeleton" from point 3, draw in rough shapes to act as a guide to where everything is. Put circles on joints, give your creation a neck, accent where muscles should be, etc. The torso is made of two bits, the chest and the abdomen. Then you have the pelvis and legs. Knowing muscle structure is very useful at this point.
5) Face proportions. Ears are located right above the jaw hinge. Divide the head into thirds. The top third is the hair line. The middle third is the eyebrow line. Eyes are one eye apart, and one eye from the side of the head. The bottom line is the nose bottom. Divide the last third into thirds. The first line is the top of the mouth. Obviously these things differ for different people, but these are just guidelines.
6) Hand proportions. First of all, make sure to indicate the wrist. That's the point where the hand will go outward. At a certain angle, there's a handy bone that helps a lot with this. The palm's size is from your chin to the tip of your nose, just about. This is only a bit longer than the middle finger. All other fingers are a little bit shorter, and curve slightly inward. Remember to keep joints in mind, one at the base, another one the same size after that and one close to the nail. The thumb doesn't start in the middle of the hand, it starts at the wrist, though the first bone is part of the palm (and very handy for grabbing things).
7) Tips and tricks
~If in doubt about hands, you own a pair. Look at them.
~When doing foreshortening, enlarge the limb slightly as it nears the viewer.
~Cast shadows from the body on the body help a lot with killing flatness.
~A thick line flattens. Since thick lines are also hard to erase, be careful.
~Folds, folds and more folds. Clothing folds make you look like you know what you're doing.
~When shading, don't forget that you have three areas, shadow, midtone and highlight. Many people only do shadows, and that's wrong.
~Always sketch out the body naked first, then clothe it. Hiding poor positioning with clothes doesn't work.
~If you find, in practise, any of these to be incorrect, trust your own experience over this guide. I don't know anything and you shouldn't listen to be. When you were my age, you had to walk 7 miles to school and 10 back, through the snow and uphill both ways, and I respect that.:smallyuk:

[Dallas-Dakota]

Practice hands and faces. Go out right now, buy two sketchbooks, and fill one of each. Do the same for bodies. If you need to, buy one of those little dummies. Practice makes perfect, and anatomy is more important than anything else.

Working with physical media does better for your skill than any computer implement. I recommend pencil, though mastering pastel is a nice thing to have too.

Learn the difference between drawing how it looks and drawing how it's supposed to look. It'll save your hide.

:smallfrown: I suck at drawing IRL, unless I take a long time....

[Oregano]

This a great template I found of Serpentine's, it's male and female versions of Orc/Half-Orcs, Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halfling's rendered in OOTS style, it's really useful and great for reference material.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1723/templatesqu7.gif.

[Serpentine]

Just a note on that: Some of them, especially the human males, varied slightly between individuals. Specifically, some were relatively short and wide, and others were long and thinner. This particular template is somewhere in-between. So the proportions are right, but they can be varied a bit.

Also: Aw, well ta ^_^

[Nameless]

I made these for Fireworks quite a while ago, it's just the core basics.
I might make a newer and better version soon, but I don't know if you want to use this:

It's basically colouring, how to manipulate lines, nothing fancy.
Imagine the horrible typos and spelling Errors aren’t there. :smalltongue:


http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt0.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt2.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt3.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt4.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x203/tomshaer/fireworkstutorialpt5.jpg

[Oregano]

Thanks for the advice and stuff guys, hopefully this thread will prove useful to any newbie artists and even experienced artists will learn a thing or two from all the guides.

[Bayar]

When drawing with a pencil, make sure to sketch everything in your head first. Then do a draft of the picture. Be sure not to press the pencil to hard on the paper, and have a good eraser at hand (Herlitz tools work for me :smallbiggrin:). Dont worry about the details for now. Erase, redraw, get the proportions about right now (although it still doesnt matter), and after that add some details.

I'd reccomend drawing the head first so that you can make the torso at a scale.

Make sure that you dont press the pencil on the paper when drawing eyes, or it will be almost impossible to rescale them later.

After drawing most of the picture, fill some areas with the pencil, like parts of the armor, the pants, the shoes whatever you think that needs filling. Dont overdo it though, or you will not be able to erase it later.

Now, how to get it on the computer?

Either try to redraw it with the mouse, either use the tablet. I wouldnt reccomend actually buying a tablet to draw oots-style. It's just not worth it. Unless you want to practice other styles that is :smallbiggrin:

And a quick rundown from sketch to finished product:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/bayar_m2003/tablet%20art/untitled.png


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/bayar_m2003/tablet%20art/1.png


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/bayar_m2003/tablet%20art/2.png


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/bayar_m2003/tablet%20art/3.png

Edit: and I also printed Serpentine's template picture for proportion reference. It helps :smallbiggrin:

[Beholder1995]

Now, how to get it on the computer?

Either try to redraw it with the mouse, either use the tablet.

Unless you have a scanner, of course. :smalltongue:

[Serpentine]

Edit: and I also printed Serpentine's template picture for proportion reference. It helps :smallbiggrin:Really? Yay, I'm useful! :smallcool: I'm pretty much using those templates for what you described. Sketching out avatars is good entertainment in a boring class, though. Speaking of which, I should finish that pirate platypus series...

[AmberVael]

I've definitely got some things I could add to this...
There's one post where I showed how to make a shape in inkscape with two stroked sides and two non stroked sides.
I'll look it up.

I should make something for how I shade, too.


Edit: Here's the demonstration of how to make full objects with partial, perfectly conforming strokes: linky. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3665578&postcount=12)

[Oregano]

Thanks Vael, that's really useful and I didn't know how to do that myself sdo I've learnt something new from this thread already. I'm probably going to submit something else later.

[Gael_Judicium]

Using these guides, I've made my first avatar. Don't really plan on using him, and the hair is messed up, but here he is.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/Airdreann/g3300.png

Started off making a male pirate, then I just started messing around with it. I think I'm going to make an avatar of Sarah from my story....

[Elder Tsofu]

Nice one, but be sure to enter the correct height and width when you put it as your avatar - or it will become stretched like it is now.

[Oregano]

Nice, it's good to see this thread is already useful for people and that's a great avatar but you need to sort out the dimensions as has been stated. I'm going to try and make another mini-tutorial for tomorrow of a feature of Inkscape or of Paint.NET.

[Free Hand]

I have a question. Does anyone know how Rich does that low resolution blur (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0027.html)? And if it can be done with inkscape?

[Oregano]

I don't know how that's done, that might be something illustrator does that Inkscape doesn't but you could open the image in Paint.NET and do it that way but that's a compromise, and that would require a lot of going back and forth if you were making a comic.

@V: Sure, I'd be happy to.

[Free Hand]

Thanks anyway maybe I can figure something out, if I do maybe you could add it to the thread.

[Bayar]

Think it is done in photoshop.

[AmberVael]

Okay, so here is how you shade something.

It's pretty simple. First, you make the object that you want to be shaded. For my example, we're going to use a red circle.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h107/sjunderw/Other/exampleshade.png

Now, the first step is to make a duplicate of the object you want shaded. Just select the object and press "Ctrl + D" and a perfect copy of the object will appear exactly on top of the first one. For this example, I have colored the duplicate blue.
After you've made the duplicate, you also need to make a shape that overlaps the area you want shaded. Make sure it only touches that parts you want shaded on the object you have. Beyond that object, it can be messy and touch anything, it won't matter later, because you're about to use the intersect function, and anything beyond that object won't be there anymore.
To use the intersect function, select the objects you want intersected (in our case, the unfilled frame and the blue circle), and go to Path/Intersection.
Here is my example:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h107/sjunderw/Other/exampleshade2.png
Note that only that tiny crescent intersection is what I want.

Once you hit the intersection function, you should get the area you want shaded perfectly lined up on top of your original shape. Example:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h107/sjunderw/Other/exampleshade3.png

After that, you can turn it into nice shading. I usually turn the fill of our new little object black, and set its transparency to 50%, like so:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h107/sjunderw/Other/exampleshade4.png
Also, if you're perfectionistic (AND using stroke lines), you should remove the stroke lines from the shading object at this point. The reasoning for this is that when you have two perfectly overlapping shapes, the stroke lines tend to get messier for some reason, and removing those stroke lines from the shading object will prevent that from occurring at their overlap.
If you're not using stroke lines, you'll need to remove the stroke lines anyways.
If you're using COLORED stroke lines, you'll need to keep the stroke lines on your shading at the exact thickness as the object it shades, otherwise the stroke will not be shaded exactly.

But anyways, that's how to shade.

[Oregano]

Nice tutorial Vael, that's exactly how I shade, but I usually don't shade everything, especially not in my comic, it can be overdone. Atleast I know I'm doing it right.

Anyway, I'll add that to the index now.

[Gael_Judicium]

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii319/Airdreann/g3409.png


Here's another one. Its supposed to be a funny take on Sarah from my story, but I don't like her hair at all....

[Oregano]

The best way to do hair in my opinion, in Inkscape this is, is use the pencil tool to get the geeral shape, do multiple shapes for detailed hair, after you have the general shape delete nodes(make sure not to hold ctrl) then move the nodes until you get a good shape. That's how I do hair now.

I'll turn this into a tutorial when I have the chance(with images).