Art/Design Help!

[Slash]

I need help in drawing hands. I draw them horribly! I try to hide them in any way!

And I have a question in photoshop..I am also noob in using it. I can't even use a single tool properly T_T I have a scanned drawing but it's in pencil. Do I have to ink it or not so that I can color it once I've learned how to.

Sorry for the late reply. Works been getting busy as it's getting nicer out and people want to wrap their cars >.< At any rate, you have a few options available to you.

The best option, which will probably also be the most difficult for you (But will help you immensely), is to grab that pen tool and trace it in Illustrator first (Photoshop is meant for raster images, such as photos for retouching. Illustrator is great for drawing vector objects, which is line art.) The nice thing about the pen tool is it will keep all lines straight, circles will be perfect, and so on. With inking by hand, it's often times hard to draw without "sketching" lines over a few times, of course it all depends on style.

Another alternative, which is easy and will turn your drawing into line art WITHOUT using the pen tool is using a tool called live-trace. This is ridiculously simple to do and will turn all of your lines to 100% black. The downfall is that it will follow your exact pencil lines, so if your line is crooked, the live-trace vector image will be as well. The Live-Trace tool is in Illustrator as well (Not Photoshop). All you have to do is go to Object>Live Trace>Tracing Options. From here, you'll want to tweak the threshold so that it picks up all of your lines (Make sure preview is on so you can see the changes). You can also play around with the corner angles, path fitting and all the other options to the right. They'll help fine-tune the final output.

Don't have Illustrator? I highly advise getting it. Illustrator is my baby, while Photoshop is like the snotty cousin to me. I <3 Illustrator moreso than Photoshop, if ya couldn't tell. Anyways, if you don't have it, that rules out both options above. Your only other alternatives are to either ink it and scan it, or if you have a nice scanner, play around in the settings and see if it will be able to darken your lines for ya.

The pen tool is, by far, the most professional way to go though.

[scorpionwarrior]

Hmmmm handy Info there Slash. I'll definitely have to try some of these techniques when i get my Photoshop, Illustrator, etc up and running.

[divinephoenix]

Thanks a lot Slash, I'll try looking for one since I don't have Illustrator. But after than, I can color it in Photoshop, right? or still in illustrator. I have no knowledge of Illustrator as of now.

[Slash]

Well, I'd save the line art as a .tiff and then import it into Photoshop. You can color it in Illustrator, but it's lacking in the photo manipulation tools that Photoshop has, and the big kicker, it doesn't have the dodge/burn tools for easy shades/tints/tones.

[divinephoenix]

K. Thanks again Slash. I gotta try this things out, but first must look for illustrator.

Thanks again ^^

[Slash]

No problem, if you decide to try it out, think about posting some of your stuff, I'd love to see it. I looked over your stuff in the talent section and you have great art skills. If you can utilize the electronic part to its fullest, you'll be well on your way.

[divinephoenix]

Sure, I'll post some of my stuff after I've done some. I think I've found an Adobe illustrator, I just hope it works.

[Goldenwolf]

i have photoshop wo0t!!

I have been messing around on it with Lazerus. He does not mind. Anyways this is the first stage of my colouring @_@ Its two layers, the main block colour the bottom layer, the shading and highlights the second layer. I havent finished the shading/highlight yet

http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/ ... rusps1.jpg

(original: http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/ ... azerus.jpg )

[Trishina]

Just a suggestion golden, the details was clean which is good but I always consider balance when it comes to artwork I don't know if it is drawn that way but I can see that it was tilted a bit, so I have to ask. Also the wings are not the same in size I think you can still fix it.

[Goldenwolf]

yeah i can fix that easily and it was originally hand drawn as you can see i jus scanned it and are now colouring it on photoshop

[Slash]

That's not too bad at all for a first go at coloring in PS. The only real advice I can give is to ease up a bit on the shading. Right not it seems all of the shades consist of hard lines. Turn down the opacity or strength (The both generally do the same thing, I'm not sure why the have both options available), to get more subtle shadows, where need be. You could also do some pretty cool shading stuff with the folds in the baggy pants, although I'd look at some source images for that. Took me about a year until I could do realistic folds in clothing and understand how to shade 'em appropriately.

And I forgot to mention this, this is for anyone that wants to do some coloring in Photoshop: If you want to ink or color a straight line, click once, hold down shift, and then click again where you want the line to end. Magically, a straight line appears without and jagged edges. Looks like you did fine without it though GW. Keep up the great work!

[Gaming Goddess]

It's spelled 'ascended'

And the lines were weak. But, the hair was decent.

I have to disagree with Slash, the amount of shading okay, but you lack highlights on the clothing and therefore lack depth.

[Slash]

I havent finished the shading/highlight yet

That's why I didn't address highlights, or at least that's the excuse I've dug up that seems appropriate enough to compensate.

[Queen-Mion]

I'd like to receive criticism on what I design. I don't want criticism on anything for school, but I am taking Graphics Design to learn better designing techniques and the like. I'd like to also improve, so criticism and telling me what is wrong and what I'm doing right is extremely helpful. I have no current design pieces to receive criticism on, and since I'm taking Graphics Design, I may be able to offer amateur criticism; it isn't necessarily helpful in the long run.

[Slash]

Make sure to post some of your stuff whenever you get it. I don't want to take away from the Talent Section, although sometimes I feel like I am, as it sorta doubles as the same thing I'm doing here.

I'd post your stuff in the talent section, and then post a link to that thread here. You'll get criticism in both, but I guess the big difference is that this section is also for those wishing for help in color theory, design skills, layouts, and of course help with utilizing Adobe products xD

[Goldenwolf]

http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/ ... sps1-1.jpg

update....added some more shading and highlights @_@ and did detail on the wings and rotated him so hes more straight and tried to even out the wings