What program do you use?

[Sarah Badr]

What computer software program does everyone use to create all of this beautiful artwork? I am also an artist, and am stuck inside pretty much 24/7 and alone and don't have too much to fill my time. I would love to try my hand at creating this beautiful artwork on my computer.

Is it just a program you can purchase and use with your mouse or are there additional attachements like computer paint brushes or airbrushes that you use like a mouse?

Are they sketched by hand then scanned into the computer and color added there?

I REALLY want to try this out. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sarah Badr

[Sunchaser]

I use gimp mostly. Its free to download and easy to use

[Sarah Badr]

Are you "painting" them using your mouse?

And, are you sketching them by hand then scanning them onto your computer to paint?

I've never tried to do artwork on the computer.

[YourLoveOnly]

What people use to create their adoptables is very different for everyone. For example, Saturnalia has an adoptable that features both digital images and images that are handdrawn and then scanned in. I don't draw my own art, but purchase shaded lineart sets and color them using GIMP. I know people who do draw their own art have various methods, some people draw a sketch on paper and scan it in, then ink and color it on the computer. I've even heard of people inking on paper and only coloring on the computer. A lot of artists also have a tablet instead of a mouse, but some people just use their mouse and there are even those rare people who only have a laptop's touchpad! Programs used are different too, most common ones are Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, SAI and GIMP. I think only GIMP is free.

[Sunchaser]

for the most part I am using at touchpad(i have a laptop) but now i have a tablet I use. But it comes with a set of brushes that you use to paint with. You can download more if you wish.

[Sarah Badr]

Thank you all soooo much! I go a little stir crazy here all day long alone.

When you say touchpad you are talking about the little tablets that everyone has now? And when you say "paint brush" you mean on the computer. I have photoshop on my laptop. I think the little tablets aren't too expensive anymore. Might have to pick up one when I go visit my family. I'm downloading GIMP as we speak.

Also, thinking of trying my hand at sculpting my horses that I draw and getting an airbrush set to airbrush them just like my watercolor photos.


Guess for now I need to start getting more practice in with my mouse...lol.

Sarah Badr

[YourLoveOnly]

No touchpad means the thing that is on the keyboard for laptop's, that you can use to move around if you don't have a mouse attached to the laptop. A tablet is just called a tablet. I do recommend getting one. For just coloring it's not really neccessary, but for drawing your own artwork it's very very useful, it can be quite hard to handdraw artwork or ink a sketch just using your mouse.

Paintbrush means the brush you select in the art program, in your case photoshop, that determines what drawing will look like. There are brushes with hard/smooth edges, or soft/blurry edges and also brushes with all sorts of shapes and textures. Some come with your program, but you can easily download more online.

If you just want to practice coloring some templates with your mouse I don't mind emailing you some. Also me and other users frequently do joinme sessions where you can view what the host is doing on their computer screen. This way you can see how others draw and color their artwork, which is fun to watch and can also be very helpful!

[Sarah Badr]

  Yeah okay I see!!!

LOL, I went to Walmart online and looked it up. I have a laptop, but I think I'd want the big touchpad you can attach to it. Walmart has them for like $50, not too bad. Will definately be getting one. Do they come with pointers?

I don't really understand what "inking" means either. When I scan in my sketches the edges don't look smooth like all of your artwork...I assume inking is cleaning up the rough edges.

Oh, I would welcome some of your's to practice on. I have so many different watercolors already done at home, of course already colored in, so I will have to do them all over again without color. Already starting that in my head. LOL.

Sarah

[YourLoveOnly]

Inking means tracing over your sketch using your art program, usually in pure black. You also clean up any flaws the sketch may have had while inking. Basically when you're done inking you will have smooth lineart ready to be colored, like what you would find in a children's coloring book. This is an example of an inked sketch: http://neonmars.deviantart.com/art/fox-lineart-210652082 Lineart is just that, clean lines. No shading or coloring is added yet.

[Kadana Sorano]

Photobucket can be expensive, but if you are a student you can sometimes find places that offer copies really cheap with proof of you being enrolled somewhere.  I had a friend a few years back that got a copy for around 30 or 40 dollars, after combining a coupon with his student discount.

Just something to think about, if cost is a factor.

Personally I have tried Gimp, and I know it is supposed to be simpler and more user friendly, but it confuses me.  Photoshop confuses me too, but no where near as badly as Gimp does.

And for an alternative "keep busy" suggestion, I picked up a cheap (10 dollars) lap loom at  Walmart last year, and have been making hand made scarves for family, friends, and coworkers ever since.  They are simple to do, and can be worked on while watching tv (or watching leafy, sunchaser etc live stream lol).  The actual work has helped my hands (which ache quite bad usually) and the end result makes for somethign nice you can put away and use for Winter time gifting

[Silvanon]

I've used various methods over the years.  I used to run adoptables where I'd hand-draw the pet, color it with colored pencils, scan it into the computer, and then use a graphics program (Paint Shop Pro at the time) to clean up the background and edges of the outlines.

In other adoptions, I drew just the outlines on paper, scanned them in, used an art program (Paint Shop Pro and later Photoshop) to clean up the outlines, and then colored them on the computer.  I colored with a mouse, and later using a graphics tablet.

For Quinsta/Little Horses, I do everything on the computer - I use my graphics tablet (I've got a Wacom Bamboo Pen) to draw the outlines, shading and coloring in Photoshop (version CS2 is what I have).

It took me awhile after starting to use my graphics tablet before I was able to produce the same quality of outlines that I could do with a paper & pencil, but after some practice I got to where I could draw equally well in either medium.

[Sarah Badr]

Thanks Silvanon.

That's my thing, using the mouse even just for the coloring is very clumsy and not smooth. It's very frustrating! Even using the touchpad is not flowing like a pen, I definately need something like that. I have Photoshop 7 on my laptop and I downloaded Gimp 2, they seem pretty much the same to me.

As I'm sitting here all the time on the computer, and I love to do art, I want to incorporate them together.

Sarah