Does my Art look big in this?

[Jon]

Jon many thanks for the detailed description and information on your workflow and how you create an image. That is really really useful to me.
I think my problem is I can do the basics quite successfully using traditional media but when transferring to digital, even though I understand and use layers in their simplest sense, it is the blending, multiply, and overlay of layers which confuses me as knowing when to use which option for what effect / benefit. Plus also as stupid as it is, knowing the best type of brush and the relative settings of that brush e.g. opacity etc to create the painted effect I want!

By the way best of luck with the baby. I can only sympathise as my wife is due to give birth to our third tomorrow!!  So I am currently sat in work a little distracted awaiting a phone call at any time!

Thanks. She's amazing, but it's all a bit new and terrifying.

In terms of layers and stuff, I wouldn't really worry about it too much. People seem to think there's a right and wrong way, but there really isn't. There are tricks to save time, and accepted studio practices, etc, but really just mess around and use the things that you discover work for you. Do a lot of work you're happy to throw away, and just play with different brushes - use a really intractable one and force it to work for you.

The trick is to work out where you're going and then discover the best way to get there, and the other stuff will come along as you go.

All the best of luck with number three!

[pictsy]

Sorry Pictsy forgot to mention yours as well! 
Also stunning and the same comments applies to yours as it does to Jon above. 

Thanks.

For what it's worth, my two pennies on how to improve as a digital artist is find good tutorials.  I got a copy of Digital Art Masters Vol 1 and I would thoroughly recommend it for learning brushes and layers (among other things).

For me, I use a limit selection of brushes these days.  Mostly I use a custom hardbrush (an oval rather than a true circle) at a low opacity (10%) to sketch out the rough positioning of things and then turning the opacity up to between 40% and 70% to fill in - I use the eyedropper (the keyboard shortcut - alt) to grab colours right off the canvas to use for blending.  I have another custome brush that is a little more textured or doing details but essential it's a continuation of building upon the foundation by filling in shadows and bringing out highlights.

I do use layers as well.  These I use at the end to provide a little more depth to an image.  I have a multiply layer that provides shadows and an overlay layer that provides darker shadows and highlights.  These layers rarely go above 30% opacity because their influence on the image should be subtle.

Anyway, I would recommend checking out Digital Art Masters and looking at other publications as well. 

[amines2058]

Pictsy many thanks as well, that is also very helpful, especially the description on brushes and the recommendation for Digital Art Masters this sounds like exactly what I would be looking for.
Both of your comments are greatly appreciated, and who knows maybe one month I will submit a full colour image to the monthly art comp rather than my usual black and white affairs!! 

I am excited to get going now perhaps with my forthcoming 2 weeks paternity I will get the chance to sit down and work through what you have said and start having a play around..

[pictsy]

Pictsy many thanks as well, that is also very helpful, especially the description on brushes and the recommendation for Digital Art Masters this sounds like exactly what I would be looking for.
Both of your comments are greatly appreciated, and who knows maybe one month I will submit a full colour image to the monthly art comp rather than my usual black and white affairs!! 

I am excited to get going now perhaps with my forthcoming 2 weeks paternity I will get the chance to sit down and work through what you have said and start having a play around..

Cool  
Hope you have fun and looking forward to seeing what you produce

[Dark Jimbo]

...even though I understand and use layers in their simplest sense, it is the blending, multiply, and overlay of layers which confuses me as knowing when to use which option for what effect / benefit. Plus also as stupid as it is, knowing the best type of brush and the relative settings of that brush e.g. opacity etc to create the painted effect I want!

Don't stress too much about learning the 'tricks.' Everything I've ever done digitally has been done using the exact same Photoshop brush. I don't even know what it's called - it was the default brush that was opened when I installed the program for the first time and I've used it ever since, for just about everything, on my increasingly rickety and buggy copy of Photoshop CS.

Layers are key, though, they really do revolutionise how you work. They should be your first focus.

[Professor Bear]

It sounds like you might get along much better with Manga Studio, Jimbo.  It sucks as an all-round comics creating tool (the colouring and lettering aren't there yet, and the panel cutting is pretty basic), but for linework/inking, I've been floating towards using it over CS steadily as time goes on, and I'm a pretty obstinate luddite when it comes to my workflow.

[Bhuna]

You need to try Manga Studio 5 Mullah, it's a completely different kettle of fish to MS4

[Professor Bear]

Sadly true - I was - ill-advisedly - posting the contents of my digital sketchbook over on the old blog and I was posting something like 20-30 pages a month until I upgraded to MS5, at which point I dropped to something like five pages a month as I kept fiddling with it trying to do stuff I'd been doing in MS4, and when I switched back to MS4 my quote-unquote productivity went back up again so I've stuck with that ever since - though MS5 remains installed.
The addition of new layer blending options was welcome, as was the ability to directly open image files without having to import them to a pre-existing file as a separate layer, but apart from that things were oddly fiddly and not quite the all-round package CS is.  Lettering is still a dreadful experience in MS5, too.

[Jon]

Pictsy many thanks as well, that is also very helpful, especially the description on brushes and the recommendation for Digital Art Masters this sounds like exactly what I would be looking for.
Both of your comments are greatly appreciated, and who knows maybe one month I will submit a full colour image to the monthly art comp rather than my usual black and white affairs!! 

I am excited to get going now perhaps with my forthcoming 2 weeks paternity I will get the chance to sit down and work through what you have said and start having a play around..

Heh. Lots of advice. Just pick the art you like the most, and off you go....

For what it's worth I too come from a traditional background (I got my degree as a painter) and I came to have digital somewhat thrust upon me through my career path. I found initially that it helped greatly to try and use the tools in much the same way as you would traditional media, e.g. use a brush or layer blend that best emulates a something such as a glaze or wash, use a brush that feels like blocking in oil paint, etc. I can't really give you any specifics because it all feels such a long time ago now but, for instance, using a multiply layer is the closest thing to watercolour washes as it is effectively light (not blending) subtractive. If you play with a few brush options on top of that (I'm assuming Photoshop and some sort of pressure sensitive tablet, otherwise - Kudos!) then setting pressure to drive opacity better emulates hard media such as pencil and pastel (and angle can replicate various tips pretty well); pressure driving size better emulates a brush with wet media, etc. It's worth creating a few things you like the feel of, and then saving them as tool presets (like a brush preset, but you can save additional options).

I have a few ink brushes and pencils I've created specifically to feel more like working in a sketchbook if you fancy importing them for a play around.

[amines2058]

Hi Jon and thanks again. Yes you are right am paying about on photoshop and a wacom bamboo, and I would love to take you up on your offer of the brushes and pencils to have a play with. This is very appreciated.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Jon, you're awesome.

Also, great to hear of your family's new arrival, and amines, best of luck with yours!

[Jon]

Jon, you're awesome.

Also, great to hear of your family's new arrival, and amines, best of luck with yours!

Wow, thanks very much.

She's sat next to me as I work, it's great.

[pictsy]

Under 30 minute sketch for a daily sketch challenge I found over at DeviantArt.  Apparently this character is called Dark Angel (I have no idea, I just worked from the refs they provided).  Good exercise in quick painting, might do some more in the future.

[Heath C Ackley]

Dark Angel was a Marvel UK strip from the 90's and recently resurrected in a mini series featuring other characters from the same era like Death's Head and Warheads.

[Jon]

More stuff.