Drawing with a Stylus

[SallyPlatte]

Hello, I have been a colored pencil artist all my life but for the last couple of years I have have been drawing on the computer using Photoshop and a Wacom tablet and stylus. It is sooo addictive and I can't tell you the freedom that I have being able to finally but white on top of black! :clap:

I am still a BIG fan of colored pencil art and as a matter of fact people that are part of the digital art community have commented that my work looks like colored pencil and they have no idea that is my medium. (You can view both my cp work and my digital using the link below)

Anyway, just wanting to know if there were other digital dabblers out there.

[KarenCardinal]

Sally!!!!! (((((((((((Big Hug))))))))))))))

It's been so long... how have you been? How are all the kids?

I wondered what you'd been up to.

Whoa! Your digital work is amazing! And I thought you were something with those pencils. I LOVE "My Man"! There is so much going on in that face. :D

Well I can't even cut and paste in photoshop so all I'm going to do is just sit back and enjoy watching you work.

Sooooo glad to see you again! :D

[Brenda]

What amazing work!! Your color pencil art is just beautiful but your digital artwork.... I'm just in awe.

That does it. I'm saving my pennies for a wacom tablet. I've been thinking and thinking about it and you've inspired me!

[Dorell]

Your artwork is beautiful :clap:
And what an easy-to-navigate website - A joy to visit!

No idea what a thingumy bobber tablet is, but I shall certainly be looking into it :D .

Dorell.

[SallyPlatte]

Hi Karen it is so nice to come and visit. I miss all my cp friends. All is well here thanks for asking - as you can see I have picked up on another medium but I will always feel at home here.

The Wacom tablet is a flat artboard that comes in many sizes from 4X5 to 9x12 (I have a 6x8 and that is perfect - it seems pretty big...almost too big). They have different style tablets for different needs but I have an Intuos that is perfect for art. The (wireless) stylus is pressure sensitive and acts very natural to a pencil at all angles, it really didn't take long to get used to the feel of it and you can set it on your lap and work, oh it also has an "erasure" at the other end (you can program it to do other tasks) and has a button on the pen to quickly select brush sizes and other features. It also have an overlay for tracing. Oh this also comes with a wireless mouse that doesn't need batteries and some great software. (you can use this on any paint program)

Well, if this sounds like fun to you check out all the features and options at www.wacom.com , I think a cp artist has the advantage over a painter because we are used to using a pencil instead of a brush.

Thanks for checking out my art, I am planning to revamp my website again soon. Glad to be back and will be interested to hear from others!

[Gemma]

First off........ (((((((Sally))))))):hug:

Sally, your work is just incredible. Someday you'll have to explain to us how you do it. Do you start with a photo and enhance it or are these from scratch? It looks like it would be fun to try!!!

I'm so glad you decided to join us here at Scribble Talk. For those of you who don't know Sally she is the person who actually started Scribble (http://www.glassgems.net/scribble). She decided she had too much on her plate so she sold Scribble to me at the end of 2001! Sally was a great mentor to me!

Gemma

[baquitania]

Hey Sally:

Pleased to meet you, I too am a digital artist who's background started in traditional medium. I love my wacom and my borrowed copy of photoshop, and wouldn't trade them for the world. My wife Diane has all but stolen the M. Graham watercolors that she bought me for my birthday last year, but it's okay I have Painter IX now, so ha!

I'm curious, do you make your own brushes, I've only started to do this in photoshop, here is an old piece I did last year with some Photoshop brushes I made...

Kyudo Archer (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/baquitania/KyudoArcher2004.jpg)

If you haven't tried Painter, you'll love it, it has a whole other learning curve, but the translation to traditional medium is way closer than Photoshop, well for me. Hope to see you around, I only lurk here, don't tell TJ or Arlene :eek:

B:Dbby

[Katydid]

Fascinating. I can’t believe that is done on a tablet. I have seen them around the school district where I work, but I had no idea you could do this type of art on one.

The only thing I dislike is the lack of texture. The portraits are wonderfully rendered, and the likeness is perfect, but for some reason it make me think “plastic”. It must be the lack of “support” or paper/canvas texture?

Please don’t take this as a negative comment. I think you digital art is amazing, and your CP is beautiful.

I wonder if it looks that way in rl, or if it because I am viewing on a monitor?

[baquitania]

K, it's kind of hard not to read that comment, and not be offended. It's a perfect likeness, the rendering is nice, BUT the texture of your paper isn't real enough?

Seriously does that make sense to you? How is it in any way related to being plastic or have the implication of NOT being a real portrait, in execution, or convincibility?

She may not be insulted, but I am.

I can draw rings around you people on paper and on the monitor, and I know people who can do the same to my talent level, but not once have I ever given the review, you just did.

When you bandaid something with "don't take this as a negative comment", you're probably better off just saying, "I hate it". Atleast that is more honest and understandable.

[Toni]

Bobby Aquitania you apologize right now!!!! :annoyed:

She may not be insulted, but I am.

Well that makes two of us but for different reasons! :mad: :mad:

I understand what Katy is saying. I found nothing offensive for you to take personally. Yes, I did read it.. several times!!!! :annoyed: Maybe it would have been a good opportunity for you to educate some of us that are not familiar with the digital art process instead of puffing up like a big ol toad.

I say this with love... you shud know better instead of being a big ol brat.... :bangin: (and yes, mal agreed with me)

TJ

[baquitania]

grrrrrr.... okay okay take the handcuffs off.

Katydid: my apologies, I've been corrected about your intentions and your general knowledge. I just get really worked up over the digital art isn't real art debate, and I realize now that's not what you were saying.

This "plastic" feel you mention though, could you elaborate? Are the colors too bland for you, cause that's a personal preference... I myself paint incredibly light having to force myself to paint darker and darker.

Texture is possible in digital art, some programs let you place a "paper" layer with all the feel of a canvas or rough surface, infact designers have made strides to incorporate that for traditional artists who want that feeling of impasto.

Here are 3 portraits I did personally:

This appears to be pencil, but is infact layers of grey lines that were intentionally built up on each other to make darker greys. A pencil effect that Photoshop allows you to do called "multiply". Where it increases the tone of your initial color over itself, more and more as you cross lines, much like a pencil would...

My Wife Diane (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/baquitania/Diane2003.jpg)

Here I wanted to try a similiar effect in color, but I also did alot of smudging, placing a patch of color down, and moving it around in varying degrees to simulate what pastel artists do. There is also color over color here, none of this was done over a photo.

R&B singer Aaliyah (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/baquitania/Aaliyah2004.jpg)

Lastly here I took an old rembrandt and used the same color palette by clicking around with the eyedropper on the reference. I made some colors more intense, but it was done in the same way, with a simulated star pattern as my brush, the kind you could get from dry brushing with ink. Except I used digital colors as a kind of digital ink.

My point is, the traditional methods are the same, the thinking is the same, what digital artists do is adapt what they know into the program, it's not just clicking buttons. I've seen that kind of digital art, those are manipulations, not what I do.

Dave "rembrandt" (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/baquitania/RembrandtmeetsEngland2003.jpg)

Tj told me I should educate you instead of attacking you, and again I'm sorry I went off the deep end. The word plastic is just a red flag to me. Hope that helped you understand some of the process. And again, I apologize.

B:bangin:bby

[baquitania]

Hey wait a minute, YOU called me a toad!!!

Them's fightin words!

[Toni]

Hey wait a minute, YOU called me a toad!!!

Them's fightin words!

LOL..

nooooooooooooo I said you puffed up *like" a big ol toad...... what I called you was a brat, but then I call you that all the time. ;), so what else is new?

Thank you for the insite to the digital world, although it's still greek to me. Helps to appreciate it a little more though.

((((I'm sorry I called you a brat)))

TJ

[baquitania]

Yeah to be truthful, the bold letters were for you TJ, cause I knew you'd see that. I had edited my post a 3rd time, and was thinking, yeah this'll get TJ's attention, why not?! So again I'm sorry. And you did too call me a toad!

[Katydid]

I am sorry – I was afraid I was not making the question clear?

Your work is amazing. I loved everything about it (likeness was dead on, shading and tone perfect). I have played with a Tablet and can understand how truly difficult what you do is AND I admire it. I did not any any way mean to offend.

I sent links to several other artists and all comments were positive…which I intended mine to be as well. (not that means anything other then showing my true feeling)

A better way for me to of stated it would have been:
How does the art go to the client when they purchase it? Do you print it? Send a file? Is it art I could hang up on my wall or do I just pull up the file? I think maybe what I am missing the "support" behind the work.

Geesh that sounds bad again do you understand what I am trying to ask??? Edit to add: Plastic was a very bad discriptive word - i should have thought of way to express my question better

[Katydid]

Ok I just realized you were not Sally - Your work is nice as well. I just pulled up the links. Thanks for sharing it and giving me some info.

Maybe you can answer the question?

How do digital artists present the art work to a buyer??? I do consider it art by the way. I just have a lot of questions.

[baquitania]

Happy to answer those questions. Unlike traditional work that hangs in a gallery, someone goes in, sees it, asks the price and buys... Or a corporate sponsor doing the same with traditional art for their offices... High end digital art is printed, matted and hung in several galleries both in NY, Philadelphia and I imagine Los Angeles as well.

Last year several galleries in Philly we visited accepted digital art much like you would send in an email, in place of traditional slides, they even took burned CDs of a portfolio if you had one.

I see no reason why the bright ads you might see on a building done in lights and poster sized prints could not be full time images in a slide show. A great deal of the industry translates perfectly into film, video game production, packaging design and ofcourse commercials and TV.

Storyboard artists now can work digitally, print out their work for the client, and change it on the fly faster than before.

And ofcourse a great deal of print media is dependent on graphic designers who can tweak bad photos... or imperfect ones. You'd be surprised to know when you open a magazine how much of the image is real and how much is altered by a qualified digital artist.

[Arlene]

LOL..

nooooooooooooo I said you puffed up *like" a big ol toad...... what I called you was a brat, but then I call you that all the time. ;), so what else is new?

Thank you for the insite to the digital world, although it's still greek to me. Helps to appreciate it a little more though.

((((I'm sorry I called you a brat)))

TJHe was a brat and I'm glad he was big enough to see it and apologize. Thank you Bobby.

Both Sally's and your work is beautiful.

[baquitania]

I resent this brat line.

Wouldn't your hockles be up if someone described your medium as "plastic"?

Sure I shouldn't have gone off the deep end, but I'm a passionate person, if you poke us, do we not bleed? I'm kidding, but to clarify, I'm not sorry I said those things, I'm sorry I wasn't more thoughtful and expressive of my opinion, when clearly after calming down I could have been.

This isn't an issue for anyone else on this board. You're all safe, well respected traditional artists working with traditional methods. I have to prove myself all over again. So when my medium is attacked, I feel attacked. Especially by people who know nothing about it, that's seems unfair to me.

I do apologize to Katydid for my overzealousness, but I don't think I was being bratty. Bratty would imply I didn't care if I hurt her feelings. That wasn't my intention, even with the "harsher" words I used. I did choose my words carefully, I disagreed with her vehemently, and she got that I was hurt. (ok I didn't need the bold, but that was for TJ)

I could have done alot worse if I was a brat. You'd have seen more asterixes if I didn't care to be nicer. Let's just say in the future this won't happen again, cause I'll just keep it to myself.

I'm not a brat... I'm a moper. :p

[Katydid]

Bobby – thanks for the answers. That helped me visualize the end product.

You misunderstood my use of “plastic”. I am going to try once more to phrase what my original comment meant. Since you used the Rembrandt I will follow that line. When I pull one up on the computer my mind supplies some things for me, like the texture of the canvas and the way oil paint glows on the canvas. I see a CP drawings my mind tosses in paper, or board. When I see a photo of skin my mind translates the shades as pores and body hair.

I have never seen this kind of digital art, so the vision my brain is plugging in is “plastic” as to the textural (not the best word) look. Plastic was never meant in the sense of cheap imitation, but a visualized …texture? I wish there was another word besides texture, but can’t think of any. Plastic is the still the best descriptive word I can find to describe the visualization. I sure wouldn’t call it flat, or lacking in shading because it has both. The Bruce W. portrait was when my brain popped the plastic vision into my head because it had no other association to put there. That is a perfect dead on likeness that looks like someone has molded him in a smooth somewhat translucent material. I truly wanted to know what it looks like rl.

I am not closed-minded, and would never attack someone art because it was not to my taste. I can, and do appreciate all types of art even when it is not my style. (AND NO I am NOT saying DO NOT LIKE IT- I DO.)

Again I am sorry if expressed it badly. I asked because I was truly interested in your art form not attack it.

Edit to add: Don't pout come back here and tell me more. Maybe some links where I can find more info???

[baquitania]

Happy to oblige. This is Mr. Craig Mullins, he is the industry standard, and he makes it look effortless.

http://www.goodbrush.com/

You could click on that for days and never get tired. He truly is a visionary.

Your new explanation is much more clear, now I get what you mean. I think the only way to have a corollation with digital art is to immerse yourself in it like the kids of this generation have.

IN their video games, their animated movies from Japan, a good start would be the Academy Award winning, "Spirited Away" from Hayao Miyazaki... who will soon have a new movie called, "Howl's Moving Castle". Here however is an aussie site on SA and then the trailer for his new movie.

http://www.spiritedaway.com.au/#

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/howls_moving_castle/

All of the examples you gave in relating medium to human experience were very good, and I put to you that the experience of the digital world is a moving one, you have to play it, see it on screen, be behind the scenes of the creation of it...

Ultimately the competent excellors in digital art, move on into CGIs (computer generated images) Here is a timeline of these effects used in alot of modern day movies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_CGI_in_movies

Here too are the job listings at the creme de la creme of the Digital Art World, George Lucas' ILM or Industrial Light & Magic:

http://www.ilm.com/jobs.html

A knowledge of industrial science, various computer softwares, these are just the underbellies of a career based in the CGI field. If you speak in textures, consider that the main texture for digital art is light. That maybe the "plastic" truth of it, but it as an evolution brought about by animation, so if we have to blame someone, blame Mickey Mouse.

[Katydid]

i copied the links and will look at them in more depth from work. i tried surfing but i am on a dial up which is slow. what i did get to load was very interesting.

i now undersatand it a little of what i am viewing. your explinations helped to put digital art in the correct context.

thanks for taking time to explain it and the links. it is amazing work.

[Katydid]

Bobby – if you are still around reading this thread I wanted to thank you for all the great links. I spent a delightful weekend clicking and learning. I was aware of the use for computer generated graphics in film and games, but had no idea how advanced it had become. Nor had I seen “traditional” pieces created on computers until I came across Sally’s post . Craig Mullin’s work is great. I particularly love the “Chef” his rendering captures the spirit of a jovial baker perfectly.

Even with the “puffing toad” and “annoying fly” I hope this thread is saved for the information it contains. :D

but I still think it is eerie to see a face you recognize generated on a computer, and without any texture I still see plastic.. (said as I run for cover.) :eek:

[baquitania]

Nice try... I'm glad you enjoyed the links, now...

Cross over to the dark side, put those pencils down, they're obsolete. Together we can take over the Galaxy, join me Katydid, only with you by my side can Colored Pencils be put to rest! :devil: :devil2: :scared:

[Brenda]

Oooohhhh, run Katydid!!! RUN!!! I'll try to hold off the evil baquitania with my trusty laser while you make your escape.

[Katydid]

Oooohhhh, run Katydid!!! RUN!!! I'll try to hold off the evil baquitania with my trusty laser while you make your escape.

too late Brenda - i have a tablet sitting her waiting for me to get up the courage to try something.

i'll let all you non-geek types know how the other side really is:D

[Rose]

Go Katy, Go!!! I can't wait to see your first masterpiece!!! Let us know how you like the digi-art world! Brenda, she'll be back, don't worry... she's multi-talented! ;-)

[Katydid]

the tablet must be defective - it is not doing what i tell it to do. ;)

at this rate i may be able to sign my name in a year or so. the masterpiece may take a little longer.

i think i will hang on to my pencils for awhile, they behave a little better.

[baquitania]

Check your drivers...

http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/select.cfm

Also what graphic software are you using? MS Paint? Photoshop?

[Katydid]

lol, i think the only driver problem is the human :D
photoshop elements is the software that came with it along with pen pallete, and procreate painter clasic. the Wycom actually belongs to a friend who hasn't used it in quite awhile. if i learn how to use it and like it i will go ahead and buy it or a new one for myself. so far it is fun. i appreciate the quality of art you are doing even more and it will be a long time if ever i get there!