Digital Art Tech Talk

[matt0]

Incoming rant.

 

Just updated Photoshop and of course spent most of the morning trying to fix everything it broke with my Wacom tablet. Next week it will be a Windows update that mysteriously turns on or off all the arcane Windows Ink and Pen and Touch settings that you have to tweak to get everything to work properly. Or the Wacom driver will mysteriously act up without any updates or changes. It's driving me insane. Normally I'd just ignore the Photoshop update but the last one broke the keyboard short cut for Copy Merged (but only on one of my computers...) and I was gambling that this would fix it...  but of course it fucking hasn't!

 

One of the reasons I've stuck with Photoshop is it's easy to quickly configure and re-configure it for painting, sketching and pixel art and I don't know how other paint programs handle clean single pixel editing for pixel art and I also have a good work flow figured out with it. But if my work flow is constantly disrupted that last point doesn't count for anything.

 

It's also impossible to google for specific problems. Like my problem with the copy merged shortcut, you either get a generic suggestion to reset your preferences (more time wasted restoring everything and usually doesn't help) or a discussion about someone else's hyper specific but slightly different problem with the same tool. Or support forum threads about the same problem that stretch off back in time over 10 years which all have an Adobe Tech Support worker post the same generic "We'll look in to it message, have you tried reinstalling your drivers?" message.

 

Photoshop in 2020 is a mess. Wacom's drivers are a mess. Windows 10 tablet support is a mess. I doubt I'll ever ditch Windows but I'm going to start actively looking for alternatives for the first two.

 

I've downloaded a trial of ClipStudio Paint and something called Pyxel Edit to start off with. Pyxel Edit has all sorts of fancy tile editing tools which might come in handy in the long run...

 

Anyone else had similar problems and looking for a change or already made the leap?

[c-cat114]

Funnily enough picked up Photoshop for the first time in ages. Oh my blimey what a bloated laggy mess. Great in places but a whale, struggling to walk imo. Not that it was even on an old machine per se. Was running it on an Alienware i7 although one with a mechanical hdd which they assure me is the reason why Win 10 runs so slow. Its such a wretched beast at times I often choose a Surface Go for work. Definitely tarnished the AW brand for me. 

 

A number of years ago I gave up on computers, swapping to phones and tablets and loved it. Brought back to pc to use Paint 3d and ArtRage almost exclusively but yes, there are sometimes when Photoshop is the most neccessary evil. Not that I'd pay the sub that said. Only picked it up as work pays for an at home sub for me.

 

Anyhow personally if I could go all phone and tablet I'd not be at all upset. 

[matt0]

There's a lot of settings tweaking you can do to get Photoshop running smoother and reduce lag depending on your set up and what you're using it for. My desktop was a 10 year old i7 860 with 8gb RAM until a couple of months ago (although with an SSD for the system drive) and performance was okay, the above issues not withstanding.

 

A lot of the input lag comes from Windows 10's pen and tablet settings acting as a middle man and a layer of abstraction between the tablet and the Photoshop. 

 

I tried ClipStudio the morning of my rant and it was comfortably lag free but with the default settings had all sorts of weird quirks like causing streaks at the end of brush strokes when you lift the pen off the tablet. It does give you pages and pages of fine tuning settings though so I'm going to have a play around with it.

 

I struggle to get much done outside of being sat at a desk with a traditional desktop set up unfortunately. I need all my keyboard shortcuts.

 

[moosegrinder]

Clip Studio, by and large, is a massively superior alternative to photoshop. The thing that pisses me off the most about it is they haven't put any kind of alignment function in, despite people crying out for it for, literally, years.

[NexivRed]

I need a bit of help from digital artists. 
 

My partner has an Adobe account, and I’ve been trying out a couple of the programs on the iPad. 
I ditched Photoshop because it didn’t have the ability to lock transparent pixels and/or a magic wand tool. Really fucking annoying. 
 

So I’ve been using Fresco, as that at least has the former. And I also enjoyed the live brushes for a while, although I’m not too sure I fully understand how the watercolour one works. It’s very, very wet. 
 

Anyway, I was hoping to use just the basic paint brush to colour this next project, and then blend the colours together. As the oil live brush (which I’ve been using up till now), has a horrible tendency to create bright edges when you erase or blend. It was doing my head in. 
 

However, the smudge tool is doing what the smudge tool always does, and is creating over exposed looking extra colours when trying to blend. 
 

Is there a photoshop program for the iPad where I could take this image and blend the colours into one another nicely?

 

[JoeK]

Procreate? I believe it'll accept Photoshop files. 

 

Haven't used it in years, mind - my idle dreams of using my ipad as a digital doodlepad crashed and burned a long time ago unfortunately.

[Pug]

Pixelmator?

[NexivRed]

Thanks, I’ll take a look!

 

For now, I just blended the hand and tidied up the rest. Hell, it’s a different style lol. 
 

[velma]

@NexivRed I've just started using procreate, it's my first time digital drawing so can't profess to know what it'll do, but there's tonnes of tutorials online that'll give you an idea. 

Your drawings are lovely, very talented! 

 

@JoeK that's my lockdown goal, what stopped you? Its fun but it is a time thief. Its more realistic for me than getting the paints out though. 

[JoeK]

25 minutes ago, velma said:

 

 

@JoeK that's my lockdown goal, what stopped you? Its fun but it is a time thief. Its more realistic for me than getting the paints out though. 

 

I'm very much someone who hate things that distract from what I want to do, right at that moment I think. I still find the best way of drawing and getting ideas out there is on a scrap of paper really. I usually end up going onto Photoshop and fiddling with it, but the majority of the work has to be done with a nice pen and a clean sheet of printer paper . 

 

My chronic lack of patience means that whilst I have a decent enough working knowledge of something like PS, I'll never be in a position to properly use anything more than an amateur really!

 

That, and you nailed it with the whole 'time thief' aspect - never enough time to spend!

[Petrousgyre]

16 hours ago, NexivRed said:

I ditched Photoshop because it didn’t have the ability to lock transparent pixels and/or a magic wand tool.

 

I'm no fan of Photoshop, I find it an archaic shambles and I reckon there are better apps out there for paint but it's worth pointing out that it does have both of those features. 

[milko]

I'm not sure those features are in the iPad version in question. Fresco has the lock transparency if that's any help!

[NexivRed]

4 hours ago, petrolgirls said:

 

I'm no fan of Photoshop, I find it an archaic shambles and I reckon there are better apps out there for paint but it's worth pointing out that it does have both of those features. 

The iPad version doesn’t. I used to use it on P.C. That’s why I switched to Fresco. Still no magic wand tool though sadly. 

[Petrousgyre]

Ah, I see - as you were.

[NexivRed]

Trying out Art Set 4 now. 
 

Ffffffuuuuuuu...... this was practically effortless. 
 

 

 

[max renn]

Not sure if this is the correct place to ask but my 9 year girl has expressed an interest in digital drawing. I have photoshop for work on both mac & pc and was looking at the small wacom intous (small).

 

I'd really appreciate guidance on apps / hardware as it looks a bit of a minefield!

 

Many thanks

[Naysonymous]

My daughter (now 14) was in the same boat a couple of years ago so I got her a Wacom Intuos S (the 7" tablet) which came with a two year license of Clip Studio Paint and she's used it pretty much every day since.  It runs fine on an ancient (circa 2014) netbook which we plugged into an external monitor at some point.  My main issue is that when she got a new computer it seemed practically impossible to transfer the software license to it from the old machine, the Wacom website and customer support just pass the buck from one department to another to the point where I just gave up and the netbook lives on.   The license for Clip Studio expires in a few months and at that point I'll figure out what to do next as she's used the thing pretty much every day since we bought it.  (in fact that's the reason I'm looking in this thread!) 

[max renn]

That's grand thank you

[yakumo]

11 hours ago, max renn said:

Not sure if this is the correct place to ask but my 9 year girl has expressed an interest in digital drawing. I have photoshop for work on both mac & pc and was looking at the small wacom intous (small).

 

I'd really appreciate guidance on apps / hardware as it looks a bit of a minefield!

 

Many thanks

Wacom all the way if she's invested in art. Intuos would be overkill but she wouldn't need to upgrade for years. I'm still on the Intuos 3 and that's well old. I do have a small Intuos Pro5  as back up but much prefer the 3 for build, and really couldn't notice much in the massive touted pressure sensitivity upgrade from 5.

 

There's Huion, and such and I have tried them but sent them back because the activation force i.e the pen hitting the tablet and activating seemed higher and not as good as the Wacom. Wacom just felt good, but its personal preferences. 

[max renn]

Thanks Yakumo that’s great info. Any apps you’d recommend ?

[yakumo]

8 minutes ago, max renn said:

Thanks Yakumo that’s great info. Any apps you’d recommend ?

On the PC?, I say if you have Photoshop then she's all set. Its the industry standard but if the subscription based model of Adobe is frustrating for you're wallet, then I highly recommend Clip Studio which can you get on sale sometimes for £30 to own. You really can't go wrong with either of the programs, but I do prefer Photoshop for painting, and doodling while Clip I found is much better for line work, drawing. However, that's probably because I used Photoshop for years trying to learn how to draw and paint with it, so ignore my slight bias. But if I was stuck with Clip I wouldn't feel like I was using something which was second best. Hope that makes sense. 

 

 

What type of stuff does she draw btw?

[max renn]

Yeah I’ve got photoshop and I’m an intermediate user so can show her the basics for starters I’ll  also have a look at clip studio  

 

She’s really into anime and stuff like pusheen etc I’ve given her a few more formal bits to look at like posing and basic anatomy but it’s all about the stylin at the moment! 
 

great info and thanks again

[yakumo]

14 hours ago, max renn said:

Yeah I’ve got photoshop and I’m an intermediate user so can show her the basics for starters I’ll  also have a look at clip studio  

 

She’s really into anime and stuff like pusheen etc I’ve given her a few more formal bits to look at like posing and basic anatomy but it’s all about the stylin at the moment! 
 

great info and thanks again

 

Stick to Photoshop and you can teach her the basics. All she needs to know is how layers work, the brush system and then to more advanced stuff like transparency layers and masking.

 

Clip is more designed for drawing and painting, but its down to personally preferences. I see more young people using Clip now because its became the de factor alternative to Photoshop and its that damn good, and affordable. Plus Clip Studio has 3d Models which she can pose and then draw on top over, to help her pose and learn anatomy and stuff if she wants.

 

Again more or less the workflow is entirely the same though, hope that helps.

[velma]

I posted upthread about just starting digital drawing (iPad + procreate) just wondered if anyone has any tips for a beginner - 

Best way to keep/organise art? I'd quite like to keep track of progress/ideas and perhaps have the ability to organise chronologically/thematically. It'd be nice to have the option of publishing things eventually but most of what I'm drawing now is following tutorials or making notes of different techniques. It'd be nice to look back and have a record. Obviously procreate has a gallery but I wondered if there's preferred sites for uploading to. 

 

- screen protector, yay or nay? Heard they were recommended but have seen a lot of mixed reviews. 

[yakumo]

4 hours ago, velma said:

I posted upthread about just starting digital drawing (iPad + procreate) just wondered if anyone has any tips for a beginner - 

Best way to keep/organise art? I'd quite like to keep track of progress/ideas and perhaps have the ability to organise chronologically/thematically. It'd be nice to have the option of publishing things eventually but most of what I'm drawing now is following tutorials or making notes of different techniques. It'd be nice to look back and have a record. Obviously procreate has a gallery but I wondered if there's preferred sites for uploading to. 

 

- screen protector, yay or nay? Heard they were recommended but have seen a lot of mixed reviews. 

 

I can't comment on the organisation aspect, however, sis has an Ipad and has those paper texture screen protectors and by gawd it feels great. Its not perfect but I enjoyed the tactile feeling of pencil on screen. No issues with touch too.

[velma]

Thanks @yakumo that's interesting. The reviews I've come across are mainly for one called 'paperlike' but it describes it as feeling more like sketchbook paper, ie with a strong grain. I would like something with some texture but that seems a bit too far (and has quite a big impact on screen display for everything else, as you might imagine)

[yakumo]

9 minutes ago, velma said:

Thanks @yakumo that's interesting. The reviews I've come across are mainly for one called 'paperlike' but it describes it as feeling more like sketchbook paper, ie with a strong grain. I would like something with some texture but that seems a bit too far (and has quite a big impact on screen display for everything else, as you might imagine)

 

Yeah that's the one she has, but before she bought a generic one from Amazon which also has texture. It wasn't as strong as the paperlike in terms of feel but it was far better for drawing. I guess you're worried about color?, while it does seem duller without it, I didn't feel like the colors were so desaturated it was a significant factor compared to the benefits. But it really depends on you're needs, she draws on Procreate, and reads comics if that helps.

[velma]

7 minutes ago, yakumo said:

 

Yeah that's the one she has, but before she bought a generic one from Amazon which also has texture. It wasn't as strong as the paperlike in terms of feel but it was far better for drawing. I guess you're worried about color?, while it does seem duller without it, I didn't feel like the colors were so desaturated it was a significant factor compared to the benefits. But it really depends on you're needs, she draws on Procreate, and reads comics if that helps.

 

I'll have a look at generic ones as I think they do tend to be less 'grainy' (and they're cheaper so no harm trying them) It's not so much that colour that bothers me, more the effect on the resolution. I've seen some in videos where the protector makes the screen look almost pixelated, which isn't great for using other apps/browsing, but also affects drawing apps if using fine detail. I don't rely on my iPad for anything so I'm not worried about a bit of an effect on the display but maybe not as much as some of the ones I've seen reviewed. I'll have a look, but good to know that it adds to the drawing experience. 

[yakumo]

1 minute ago, velma said:

 

I'll have a look at generic ones as I think they do tend to be less 'grainy' (and they're cheaper so no harm trying them) It's not so much that colour that bothers me, more the effect on the resolution. I've seen some in videos where the protector makes the screen look almost pixelated, which isn't great for using other apps/browsing, but also affects drawing apps if using fine detail. I don't rely on my iPad for anything so I'm not worried about a bit of an effect on the display but maybe not as much as some of the ones I've seen reviewed. I'll have a look, but good to know that it adds to the drawing experience. 

 

Hers doesn't look pixelated at all but I can see where you're coming from. The real pain in the arse is applying the protector on without getting any air bubbles. 

 

Good luck in you're search.

[NexivRed]

Dabbling in Procreate now as well. Got a commission to do a gecko with a galaxy as its body. 
 

Procreate literally has a “nebula” brush. It’s just pure cheating. I played with some brushes and knocked this out in 20 minutes without bothering much. But it accidentally turned out probably good enough to use to some extent. Ridiculous short cuts. 
 

Spoiler

 

Where I’m up to experimenting with it  not sure how much of the body I will replace with galaxy. Got a version where part of the arm is faded into it. I’ll draw a new one for the eye that’s to scale.

Ignore the colours. It was a red gecko originally, but I’m going to play with the hue and saturation to see where I need to be for a gecko to have a galaxy colour not look too daft. I turned it greyish pink to work on.

 

I’ve had a fair bit of work now. Definitely getting more confident with different briefs. 

I’ve created some guy his business cards. Accidentally stumbled on the fact I’d need to print them out CMKY and not RGB. And he gave me truly awful reference pics. But I think it came out okay. 

 

What I’m really obsessed with doing though, are these:

 

Spoiler

 

 

I’m going to get the last one printed on a roll of stickers. To put on the tubs couriers deliver geckos I’ve sold in. Be a bit more professional than just a post it note. 
 

People collect them though. Stickers seem to be big news in gecko land. It’s like a cross between my Premiere table ‘96 football sticker album (no, I never got the Man U shiny), and Pokémon. So tempted to try some vinyl ones too.