ArtCtrl

Nibs for my Wacom tablet arrived on Tuesday so I’ve had a couple of days praticing… oh boy it’s nice to use over my old one. So much control. I’ve been focusing on taking the Levin street drawings into GIMP, using them both as reference and paint overs. I’ve been trying to take the computer out of the house more as well - setting up in the local library and at my brothers place.

Though I haven’t done any of the SketchDaily themes these past few days (busy with Python and the street paintings) I plan to get back into them'

Here’efs some recent work:I

This was with my old tablet. I did this over the weekend, before my new nibs arrived. The reference I used for this painting was a drawing in my sketchbook I did in the new Levin library, looking outside.

Now here’s a painting I did with my new wacom. Notice much of a different? I used much the same techniques as the previous painting but get a much nicer outcome. For this work I took a digital painting I had done and worked on it further, something that I need to do more. I could even scale this down and extend the painting further. I think this scale down technique will help me develop detail in my works.

This is with the old wacom but I have managed to get color in there. I like to use the multiply brush effect. It allows me to layer up those colors without losing the grayscale tone underneath. In the past if I wanted to show the under layers I would drop the opacity or use the eraser and cut back into the painting  I’ve been using the screen option as well, but not in this one.

Zombie girl for skethdaily. I got some feedback for this:

– louisecyphre

So, do you want some help with your painting?

I don’t know what you’re drawing with, do you use a mouse, a trackpad or a tablet? If you use a mouse, and can afford it of course, switch to a tablet. If you already do, you’re off to a good start.

I’d try to reduce the palette. Choose three to four colours and stick with them. Keep a neutral background, so far the black background smothers all the details you put in. As far as I can see you use Gimp for your paintings. That’s totally okay - at least it’s a lot better than Paint! If I were you, I’d try using a smaller brush - or even a pencil tool. Start by learning to draw outlines, do colour as a secondary step or not at all. But for the sake of practice, I’d abstain from using colours until you get the basics down.

I don’t mean to offend, but so far one can’t really make out what you’re trying to paint. As I can see in your videos, you do have an idea you want to put down, but ultimately struggle with the outcome. Some more refined edges would help in the long run. Try using bigger areas of colour, if you must. As far as I can see, you also always use the same brush size. Use bigger sizes for the foundation, and smaller ones for details! Right now, everything blends together to a conglomeration of similarly sized lines, which lack definition.

Anyway, keep doing what you’re doing! Only practice makes uses better!

They made some good points. In terms of the comment about brush size, using the new tablet has this feature so won’t be a probem now, it’s also much easier to draw with it. I need to use more of a range of brush types in my paintings. I guess that’s one thing I’ve been working on. Maybe release a brush pack once I’ve made a few.

Since I’ve been getting back into using Python again it’s time I wrote scripts for GIMP. One script I had in mind would do this. Open a file, divide it up, export the divided pieces as brushes. This could be a great way to produce 50 or so brushes quickly.

Here’s the final SketchDaily - Demon:

I used a World of Warcraft reference for this. Again multiply color brush used over the grayscale underpainting.