Into The World Of Digital Painting

You can draw,
look at the things in my drawing, it is all super simple.

We are all Artists,
and it is very important FOR OUR HEALTH that we create art.

You are sure to create countless works,
there is an organization principle that will help you keep things tidy.

Always sign and date your works,
even if it is just a crooked circle.

Seemingly unfinished or broken things are very important for your art book,
they will show your beginnings, your progress and serve as icons or decorations in your book.

But your Art Book comes second to your Portfolio,
and the portfolio is the organizational principle.

Take good care of everything you create and upload it to
a popular online portfolio site.

Over the years,
you will create a fascinating catalog of all your art.

People will love to visit your beginnings,
and contrast them with your later works.

As a side note if you ever try to sell your art,
the company doing hosting and payment processing may ask to see your portfolio.

If you are in High School,
your art portfolio will become much more important then the diploma.

No matter your age,
find a coffee shop that will exhibit your works.

Print them out on shiny paper,
and make some sticker versions to give away.

Don't worry if people scribble on your art,
they are really busy in their minds, and more than anything they need your help.

Give the troublemakers plenty of stickers,
and encourage them to become artists too.

If you aren't sure what you want to create,
there is this amazing art movement called Low Brow, or Pop Surrealism.

To me low brow is about cute strange things, that make people of all ages smile,
like the silly cat I drew for you.

I suspect, that Low Brow is the greatest form of art,
ever created.

Flow, the biggest part of the reason why you may feel that you are stuck,
is that you are forcing the creation of something that can't be.

Don't try to paint a portrait of your Aunt for her birthday,
not at first anyways.

Paint the birthday,
if only the local cats showed up.

Start with the eyeballs of the first cat,
make one bigger than the other... give the cat an adult beverage.

And flow to the next cat,
your aunt will love that more than her portrait.

She will recognize that you were overflowing with silliness and creativity,
that the artwork you create for her, will only exist one time in this universe.

The program you should use is called Krita,
and you need the $40 XP-PEN 640.

In digital painting,
you are tasked with managing layers of your painting.

That means that eyes live on a different layer,
than the tones of a face.

You can spend an afternoon painting eyes,
and it will not warp or influence any of the other layers.

One of my favorites is the Q-Tip that does blurring and blending,
in a way, it almost acts like a gentle eraser, kind of.

It gives you the might of tweaking details,
there are a few tools that let you move the paint around, but the Q-Tip is the coolest.

The way you find in-between colors for blending,
is just by using the eye-dropper on whatever you already have on your screen.

The right mouse button will give you the popup menu,
and it is quite enough to adjust colors.

But if you need more control,
change to Wide Gamut Selector under Configure Krita > Popup Palette.

The first thing you will face is the choice of brush,
and I know exactly what it is: The Air Brush!

It seems like it is meant to spray large areas,
but no! that is the main drawing tool, it is for me anyways.

You have to make it spray small, or course,
but your edges will always be neat and soft.

I used the flow brush at first,
but it makes visible layers that need blending, use a small Air Brush.

Remember to make sure that all your layers are locked,
except for the one you are working with.

This cuts down on confusion,
on busy days.

Paying extra attention to your layers,
means you will never mix them up.

Always name your layers well,
be it Krita or Blender good organization keeps confusion away.

Once you are done painting the outline of the thing,
lock the transparency.

For example, go the extra step to just create the outline of a cats head,
if you lock the transparency your brushes will only work on the existing paint.

This is a wonderful way of masking everything away,
now you can spray around the edges without ever going outside them.

Tab will put your user interface into full screen,
so that you can focus on art.

Bring whatever it is that you are working on into the center of your monitor.
this way you will always work in the center of your tablet.

Zoom is how you draw perfect lines,
if you are working on an eye, zoom all the way in and make your brush bigger.

If you have difficulty drawing hair right to left,
hit the M button, this will mirror your drawing allowing you to flick hair left to right.

My final words of advice to you is to get really, reallllllly mad,
you've been born an artist, and nobody told you.

Rage, rage,
and RRRRRRRage.

Paint everyone that has ever stood in your way,
with shiny googly eyes, in strange places, and above all strange positions.

Turn them into animals,
that they really are.

And if you ever paint yourself kicking their butts,
I hope you paint yourself with a shiny crown.

Because you are Royalty,
you are... An Artist.