Digital Drawing

The Digital Medium

The digital medium requires just as much skill to utilize as any other.I do all my painting and drawing in Photoshop 7, Photoshop CS2 and Painter IX. Photoshop is 7 dated, but it caters entirely for what I need to paint on my computer.

I use this software consistently infact, much more than the other two packages.

The same applies to the hardware I use; a pretty dated and basic Wacom tablet.

The truth is, there’s no need to sell the dog to buy top of the range software and hardware to start painting on your computer; the most crucial investment is practise.


What do you need?

I draw on my computer with a tablet. This is a simple digital interface that converts my pen strokes into mouse movements. However, the advantage of being able to move your mouse in this fashion is massive. The level of control you can exert using your fingertips is naturally much greater - just open paint and try and sign your name as it would appear written on a piece of paper.

Consider trying to draw or paint with the mouse and the advantages of a tablet are even more obvious. Most tablets are now also pressure sensitive, recording your pen pressure as you draw. You’ll be surprised how natural and real your strokes appear on the screen as you start drawing with a tablet, and interfacing with your pc no is no longer a hindrance to your creativity, but completely natural, and a pleasure.


Which Digital Tablet?

The more you spend on a tablet, the more useful extras or surface area you gain - however these aren’t essential for drawing great images.

All the tablets below are made by “WACOM”, the choice of professional artists and designers alike, and range from the moderate to the expensive. They are all solidly built, and of the highest quality.

You do not need a bigger tablet to accommodate a bigger display. The “Wide” variations of the tablets listed below cater for those with widescreen or dual display set ups.

A bigger tablet does give you more room to move if you enjoy drawing more erratically, but I have used tablets ranging from 4″x5″ to 9″x12″, and find in all cases I adjust within a few minutes to the tablet I’m using, and the process becomes completely natural again. 4″x5″ tablets do not feel constrictive to me at all, and also posses the advantage of mobility.

Wacom Graphire4

The Graphire series misses a few of the extras which makes the Intuos expensive, such as the strips on the side of the tablet used to adjust brush size etc, 512 pressure sensitivity levels instead of 1024 and so on. You can find a comparative review here if you would like to know more, however both tablets are great fun to use and only someone relatively experienced might fully appreciate the extras offered by the more expensive tablets.

4"x5"


6"x8"


Wacom Intuos3

Wacom's latest and greatest. The touch feels very smooth and paper like, and the pen is very comfortable to use.

4"x5"


6"x8"


6"x11" WIDE


There are many more tablets available, but personally I'd stick with WACOM, since you can't go wrong with them.

Software

I use Photoshop 7 to paint on my computer. I've also given ,Photoshop CS2 and Corel Painter X a try - which you can do by downloading trail versions from their websites. Photoshop is truely a massive program, easy to get lost in. The basic functions that I use to draw and paint are largely unchanged in the newer versions of photoshop - which is why I've stuck to Photoshop 7 all this time.

The Gimp (yes really) is a free, fully featured "General Image Manipulation Program", and a great alternative to photoshop or painter if you'd like to try your hand at drawing on your pc at minimum cost.

Once you've got your hardware and software together, familiarize yourself with their nature. Try and write a legible letter in photoshop, so that you can begin to appreciate how your tablet works by doing something familiar.

Streaming Soundtracks

I listen to StreamingSoundtracks.com whilst I'm drawing, or sketching, or painting or generally making a mess with charcoal. It's a must for any film buff too, a huge library of soundtracks you can pick and choose to listen from.

I've been listening to this station for years. I enjoy familiar stuff - Ennio Morricone (Good, Bad & the Ugly), John Williams (Star Wars, Jurassic Park) and James Newton Howard (Sixth Sense) equally as much as unfamiliar music I'd never heard before - such as Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to Spirited Away.



Internet Radio is under threat. Some Yank somewhere seems to think they can make a shit load of money out of it, and they're going to ruin our enjoyment. Be a pain in their pen-ol (ass in Welsh, sounds better!) and make your voice heard! Leave a message on your Senator's phone, find out more here.

Potty

Potter's in the air again! I went to see the film, and I read the last volume, decorated in Harry Potter paraphernalia: wand, hat, y-fronts and scarf. I was disappointed on neither occasion, sad only to reach the end of Harry's adventures.

I wish for something heavy to hit my head. I wish to forget Harry Potter, and enjoy it all again..

Here's my little take on Hermione Granger. I don't like Daniel Radcliffe that much, although he was pretty damned good in the latest film. Regardless, I chose Emma Watson, probably because I fancy her. Mmm yes.

Bruce Willis

Saw the new Die Hard. BEST BADDY DEATH EVER. Had to draw the man himself.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise! Great actor, interviewee and teeth. I decided to post this as a general representation of where I am now in terms of drawing ability. As you can see, I'm getting there, but I'm no guru yet - and I never feel satisfied with my work, but that's just part of drawing.



Hopefully this will be an incentive for you non-believers! Drawing is a skill such as driving or riding a bike. Being artistically creative is another matter entirely. It is possible to teach one how to draw correctly, but not how to paint a masterpiece; the former being much more straighforward than you might believe.

Yes, believe it or not (you better!), but learning to draw is no more difficult than learning any other skill. This does not imply that it is easy, it just means that learning to draw well is within the reach of anyone that perseveres.

I'm confident saying this because I've been able to increase my skillset considreably - and if I can.. well then so can you :D.

Perseverence implies a certain amount of "work" - but progress was quick for me, and the rewards plentiful, I promise. Regard it as a hobby, and it will reward you so - I was certainly.

The first time someone saw one of my paintings and said, "Hey that's Keira Knightly!", I became quite teary.. Well, I was quite pleased at least. Many of the techniques involved in learning how to draw focus on seeing things as they are.

If you ask any artist how do they draw so well, nine times out of ten they'll respond (rather unhelpfully) - "I just draw what I see..". But that's the catch, drawing is all about drawing what you see, not what you think you see.

If you can write legibly, you possess all the motor functions you need, and your ready to start learning! That'll be the next post then. Sorry if you read this far expecting something more than a pep-talk! :D

Welcome to Electron Fish

Electron Fish is an anagram of my name, and unfortunately, that was enough to justify it as a decent title for me.

I was originally inspired to start painting digitally by an artist called Nicco Di Mattia, who regularly posts amazing work on YouTube.



This, my personal favourite is beatifully done, and I challenge anyone not to pick up a pencil and start doodling after watching it.

I did so, but the frustration soon set in, as the "my little pencil drawing looks like crap" notion sunk in.

This feeling was reinforced having watched a masterpiece emerge within minutes on YouTube, and I was soon wondering why my portrait's nose still looked sausage-y after an hour's hard work.

This is where someone less stubborn than I would have the good sense to quit, and resign to the notion that artists are born with it. Those blessed few who possess that elusive talent of being able to transmit what they see onto the paper below them.

However! I'm quite proud to say I did not, and I will use this blog to share my experiences of learning how to draw.

It's true! I can draw now, nothing stellar, nothing groundbreaking - nonetheless, worlds apart from my feeble scribbles hence I came from. I was even accepted into an art college a few weeks ago, so you it can't all be bs!