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meatwagon aka Sloyman Uriyams is 33.17 years old, has been a member since January 1, 2009, has scored 60 submissions, giving an average score of 3.23.
  Jan 04 '09 by meatwagon        5 Comments        Watch this      Share:  Share on facebook    Share on delicious    Share on digg    Share on MySpace    Tweet this    Stumble this    Share this on Kaboodle   
beginning in digital illustration
I do most of my work in pencil. I am trying to make the move to digital illustration, but I am having trouble figuring out how to make my digital work look like my pencil work. Right now I have Photoshop Elements as well as GIMP.

My problems aren't so much to do with the interfaces of the programs, but more with how to emulate my pencil sketches when I am drawing digitally. Is it just me, or is digital simply unable to capture the nuances that you get when you draw in pencil? Whenever I try, things just look bumpy, lines too hard, etc. I suppose I could go in there and manipulate shit pixel by pixel, but that seems like it would take days to get even the most simple project done.

Does anybody know of any good websites or instruction books out there for people just beginning with digital illustration?

Thanks!

Malcolm Man
Malcolm Man on Jan 04 '09 at 11:24pm
You can either scan your drawing, live trace and vector, or get a wacom tablet.

Google wacom and also search it out in the blogs.

You will become enlightened.
NiNTH WHEEL
   NiNTH WHEEL on Jan 04 '09 at 11:27pm
It's never going to look exactly the same but if you have a pressure sensitive tablet and the right brush (search pencil brushes if you don't want to make your own), you can come pretty close.
meatwagon
meatwagon on Jan 04 '09 at 11:38pm
I bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet a few months ago. Unfortunately one of my kids did something to the pen, so I have a replacement pen on its way in the mail. Is this tablet any good?
NiNTH WHEEL
   NiNTH WHEEL on Jan 04 '09 at 11:45pm
It's a good starting point to see if it's a preferable way for you to work. There's a bit of a learning curve, but tablets are really nice once you get used to them.

I haven't used PS Elements or GIMP so I don't know how well they integrate with a tablet, but wacom's page should have some info.

You may have to sort through a lot of useless stuff but there are decent tutorials to be found on youtube and also video podcasts that are helpful.
Malcolm Man
Malcolm Man on Jan 04 '09 at 11:47pm
I've had to use Elements on a few unfortunate occasions. The lack of control was mind blowingly frustrating.

I really suggest buying both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop if this is something you're serious about.
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