Computer Art Tutorials
Here you'll find everything you need to do computer art in order. Scanning techniques, how to use the pen tool or trace your image by hand without it looking bad, and how to do CG colouring and shading. A lot of what's listed here will work with any art program that uses layers, can support very large pictures without crashing (itself or your computer), and in some cases has a pen tool type function that will allow you to draw vector based lines, but for the most part these tutorials assume you're using Photoshop. There's a lot of redundancy here because there's only one real way to draw with the pen tool, or one way to colour with layers, but there's a couple dozen ways of telling you how. Each way may reveal some different technique that another doesn't cover, some small nuance that another doesn't that to you will instantly mean enlightenment to that technique.
Here's a bit of a quote I find appropriate:
"J. Cathryn Feinberg from Start Art"
When using these tutorials please keep in mind that there is no one "right" way to do most creative things! These tutorials are not intended to be used as exact directions but rather as guidelines for developing your own techniques.
In other words, don't learn by rote, learn by understanding.
GENERAL CG:
SCANNING
This is where it all begins, unless you're working straight off the computer. Most of you will have some line art of some kind to work with which you put time and effort into. Tired of seeing the scanner butcher it like 4kids has your favourite anime? Well these tutorials will help sew some of the meat back on.
LINE ART
You've got your drawing and it's come through with just a few scrapes on the scanner, now you can ink it on the computer to make it look better. There are three methods available to you: Inking by hand, inking by path (pen tool, or paths in the GIMP), or auto tracing as done by programs like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator (or many others, one of which is built into Inkscape and is actually a stand alone program developed seperate of it called potrace). From most organic to least respectively, your lines will come out a solid black which will make your future work on the picture easier (or maybe this is the last step for your picture).
Some of these assume you start here. Perhaps you're playing the
oekaki scene, or perhaps you're confident that today your stylus will dance and a beautiful picture will appear without ever needing the paper and scanner step. Whatever the reason, these tutorials are all about making lines on the computer with a mouse or a tablet.
COLOURING/SHADING
So now you're done with the fancy lines and all is crisp and pretty... and mono-colour... What follows handles CG colouring and in most cases shading as well (hence why it's a two for one heading). The topics range from the mundane (simply adding colour and shadows) to the advanced (those hair gloss lines, natural ambient lighting in shading, and adding texture to skin, hair, and clothing).
And with that you're done, you know all you need to know to produce great artistic pieces (assuming you start with a great artistic drawing) on the computer. A wise person once said, "don't make things harder than they need to be, they'll get that way without your help," and they were right. It's really not that difficult once you know what you're doing, people just make it seem that way.
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