TENTATIVE Sketchbook of eyrebrush

[Rebeccak]

Ronnie, welcome 'aboard'! :) Glad to see you've started up a sketchbook!

I think with respect to digital painting, the key thing is that you don't need a ton of brushes - just try the round soft and hard brushes, that should be plenty to get you started. Using the tablet takes some getting used to. This thread may be of interest to you:

Digital Painting: Tips and Techniques for Beginners With David René, Matellis, LotekK (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=199&t=369421)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=199&t=369421

Hope to see some of your traditional and digital work here! Your contributions as a model are most appreciated. :)

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi...Ron...:)
GREAT to see you starting a sketch book thread..:thumbsup:
You'll get used to that tablet....Just kick back in your chair,...a couple of feet away from the screen,...rest the tablet on your lap,..that way it is out of your line of sight, and mind.
Just don't look at it while your painting, pretend it doesn't exist...just look at the screen is all you have to do..:scream:
Your mind will ajust to the boundries of the tablet...just like a blind person knows how many steps there are from the front door to the curb kind of thing...:)
I think you will do great drawings and paintings, once you find and settle on the tools that fit your need...most of them are pretty close to the real deal, as far as when you apply pressure on your pen and tablet...there are only two brushes that I use on a regular basis in my paintings, one gives a very airy or atmospheric stroke when the brush size is made large..I use it largely to just block in the colors, lights and darks, then make the size of that same brush smaller as I go for the details...same brush goes all the way down to a very fine line. The other brush I use is just a soft blender, to smooth out some of the rough edges were needed...I just vary the size of that blender brush the same as the other brush according to the size of the area that I want to blend...The painter #9 program that I use, has some fancy colored spotlights in it..don't know if your program has them or not..I use them as a tinting method, instead of brushing on a tint with a brush, works the same basically..:)
ANYWAY...GREAT TO SEE YOU IN HERE ..RON...LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR JOURNY AND ADVENTURE IN DIGITAL..:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

[Intervain]

Ron fantastic!! Having seen your sketch before I'm really looking forward to what you'll post here!

[NR43]

looking forward to see your sketchbook develop sir...

[eyrebrush]

Wow. Where do I start? You'll have to forgive this ol'-timer, new to this sort of thing! (I'm 70 next month! - perish the thought!)

First, thank you Rebecca for your invite to open my own sketckbook here, and the link to "Tips and techniques for beginners"! (for digital stuff). I will take the advice offered here as I can.

I'm only afraid I might not be able to do justice to this new venture. Thank you, Glenn, for your encouragement and advice. In response to this I have TRIED to have a go this morning to develop something, using the tablet and the brush tool. Not sure if the software at my disposal is ideal for this media. The 'brushes' that I've used SEEM to be ok at this stage. Having said this, I'm really only scratching the surface of Coral Photopaint! For want of having something to have a go at, on trial, at the spare of the moment, I'm using one of my OWN poses, :scream: Ahggg! Sorry for this!

Thanks, also, to Magdalena and Johan for your welcome and encouragement!

Johan, less of this 'Sir' stuff! LOL! I'm just as much as a novice with this digital stuff as YOU are to drawing and painting! It does not matter at what stage of life we are at - we are ALWAYS learning! I shall probably make a right 'show' of myself with this new medium!

Yes, I've had a go at viewing your OWN - and other's - sketch books! I have to say that some of them are NOT easy to navigate! The 'field' is SO vast! I feel like a bather, in my swimming trunks, paddling about on the beach - and suddenly losing contact with the sand below me! There is SO much to take in!

Anyway, here's my first effort with this digital stuff:
Trial, stage one ........ first stage.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Photos/Digital%20Art/TrialA.jpg

[Rebeccak]

Ronnie,

Pretty great for a first effort! :) Must be fantastic to have a great model, lol! Hope to see you do more of this if you enjoy it. :)

[eyrebrush]

Ronnie,

Pretty great for a first .effort! :) Must be fantastic to have a great model, lol! Hope to see you do more of this if you enjoy it. :)

:D Thanks, Rebecca. I've tried to develop another stage with this today. I've saved it and uploaded it to my webspace in order to provive an URL to it. However, I'm finding this part of the proceedure extaordinarily difficult! I'll suss it out, EVENTUALLY! LOL.

Ronnie.:scream:

[Rebeccak]

Heh, no worries Ronnie - here's the link to the image posting tutorial: :)

New to CGTalk? Learn how to post IMAGES here! (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=177&t=267088)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=177&t=267088

Looking forward to seeing your update!

[eyrebrush]

I'm a little puzzled here, Rebecca. Your links refer to photobucket. They don't allow nude images, Do they?

[Rebeccak]

Ronnie,

See these posts specifically:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=2541098&postcount=6

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=2541101&postcount=7

You don't have to use photobucket as an image host - it's just the example I used in the tutorial. ;) Since you have your own web host, simply copy paste the image URL as shown in the above links. :)

So, for example, the URL of the first image you posted was:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Photos/Digital%20Art/TrialA.jpg

Just post that URL into the yellow mountain / sun icon when you are creating a reply, then your image will appear. Just be sure to give your new jpeg image a new name so you do not overwrite the first image. :)

[eyrebrush]

Thanks, Rebecca. However, what you are referring to is not the problem that I have. It's actually creating the URLs themselves on my webspace that I'm having difficulty with! It's proving a long laborious process! It's a problem I have to sort out for myself. The images I upload to my webspace just don't appear if there is the SLIGHTEST mistake: it might just be a capital letter somewhere when it should be lower case!

Be patient with me. I'll get used to this procedure, eventually! LOL.

[Rebeccak]

Ah, gotcha, no problem. :)

When naming your images, you can't use ; ' [ ] or any unusual characters. If you have a space in the name, for example, Test 1, try naming it Test_1 instead. I have a feeling it's something to do with the characters you are naming your files with. Let me know if you have additional problems, and I will try to help. :)

[anandpg]

Hey Ron! Its great to have you here!!.:applause: looking forward to lots of great stuff from you!:bounce:

[eyrebrush]

At last! Got myself sorted - I think:bounce: LOL!
I've tried using thin lines to consolidate the drawing - well, I've made a start in the time that I had today. I find it very weird drawing with this instrument. However, no doubt I'll get used to it. The one annoying problem is my chair. It's comfy enough; it swivels and it tilts back; BUT it has arm rests. The one on the right is perfect for giving my working arm support while working my roller-ball mouse. (Don't like the normal type of mouse. Keep running out of space on the table, which is irritating, and can't get the same amount of fine cursor control). However, to use my drawing tablet in the same manner as I would with a pencil on a sheet of paper I need free arm movement. This arm rest restricts my elbow, and I have to lift the pen off the surface, leaving the cursor where it is, and relocate further over to the left on the tablet. When drawing with fine lines the cursor is impossible to see as it is the same colour as the background and is so small!

Anyway, here is my second stage, using the fine lines. Thought I would use a light colour. I think I'll work into this now using a dark colour.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/TrialB.jpg

Hello, anandpg. Thanks for your welcome.

Ronnie.

[kary]

You could try putting a few mouse pads under your tablet. I'm not sure that you'd have a lot of extra mousepads laying about (as you're not likely as firmly ensconced in the geek camp), but maybe a large book would work. If you put something under it would it give you a few extra centimeters to clear the arm rest and get the motion you'd find comfortable?
(A great use for an encyclopedia brittanica in this wikipedia age ;)). The bit with the cursor sounded a bit odd; is your tablet mapped to the tablet, or set up to mimic a mouse?

Working digitally requires a huge expenditure of patience early, mainly when you're learning to do the same thing you could do traditionally and it takes 3 times as long. It does pay off though. It's a truly non-linear medium, with an incredible number of approaches to any visual problem -- well worth the time, but a bit of a pain to (re)learn.

Lovely life and energy in your piece so far. With a start like that I imagine it's going to feel natural for you very quickly :).

[Knilblink]

Hi Ron!

First, thank you for the anatomy references you have provided to this community. I'm glad to learn that you'll be participating in the painting side of things as well! Your traditional art experience already shows in your earliest digital efforts, I can't wait to see more!

Working on a wacom should feel fairly natural soon enough! I have no tips on the arms of your chair and lack of space, but I will acknowledge the fine balance between comfort and functionality! Personally, I can't stand my wacom in mouse mode, I keep it in pen mode where the upper right portion of my wacom tablet is mapped to the upper right corner of my screen.


Keep up the good work!

-Adam

[Thomasphoenix]

Ron ,You will be up an running with the wacom,I predict, in a week at most! I think Knilblink made a valid point regarding the mouse and pen mode in wacom.
And the approach u mention is the exactly the approach how it needs to be done,(along with free elbow movement!)
Also try and make sure u have all the drivers set up correctly,I think the white lines dont have opacity jitter,
What software do u use ,You can choose your cursor to be visible like a brush icon or something, most softwares have such options!
Wacom has wacom properties settings where u can customise the settings for each application u use.

But having said all that the pencil is the pencil!



Cheers and Welcome!:)

[NR43]

Ron (everyone seems to call you Ron so I will too :D )

check out your chair... you might be able to remove the left chair arm.
It's imperatave that you have no restrictions whatsoever concerning movement of your arm and hands. If you feel uncomfy when moving your arm/hand in certain directions or ways, you will subconciently adjust your arm/hand position, which is the exact thing to avoid, even if it is only the slightest change.
The thing is this causes extra pressure/stress on tendons and muscles.

Believe me, a comfortable position to work is so very important to stay healthy.
---
About the image hosting problem you seem to have:
sometimes when you resize images (eg in ACDSee), the .jpg file extension might suddenly be transformed into .JPG
Case sensitivity can be a pain sometimes but as you said you'll get used to it ;)
---
About your painting:
man it really shows you have a history in traditional media.
I don't know if this photopaint software supports layers but if it does you could add your lines to a different layer and lower the opacity of it or change the blending mode, so the lines blend in a bit more.

Here's a tutorial on how to use layers in case you are not familiar with it. It's for photoshop but the principe is the same...

http://www.le.ac.uk/webcentre/downloads/advanced_graphics/advancedgraphics_pdf5.pdf

[Gord-MacDonald]

Hi Ron
I visited your website - really good work!
Looks like you have got a really full life with lots of activities happening :thumbsup:
IMHO - Getting a really good tablet is essential to do drawing in CG. I hummed and hawed over getting a 9"x12" wacom intous - I will never regret that decision - the bigger the tablet area, the more like traditional drawing it is. Good luck - I will be watching this thread.

Gord

[eyrebrush]

You could try putting a few mouse pads under your tablet. I'm not sure that you'd have a lot of extra mousepads laying about (as you're not likely as firmly ensconced in the geek camp), but maybe a large book would work. If you put something under it would it give you a few extra centimeters to clear the arm rest and get the motion you'd find comfortable?
(A great use for an encyclopedia brittanica in this wikipedia age ;)). The bit with the cursor sounded a bit odd; is your tablet mapped to the tablet, or set up to mimic a mouse?

Working digitally requires a huge expenditure of patience early, mainly when you're learning to do the same thing you could do traditionally and it takes 3 times as long. It does pay off though. It's a truly non-linear medium, with an incredible number of approaches to any visual problem -- well worth the time, but a bit of a pain to (re)learn.

Lovely life and energy in your piece so far. With a start like that I imagine it's going to feel natural for you very quickly :).

Hi, Kary. Mouse pads? What are they? LOL. Never use them. I DO have one, somewhere. Geek camp? What's that? I'll never get used to you youngsters' lingo! Heh heh!
Na. Can't be doing with lot's of that extra weight on my lap! I think, eventually I'll be investing in a new swivell chair, with NO arm rests, but a nice padded back, possibly with a nice soft cushion at the back of my neck!:D. This could be very good for me, actually, lol, sitting back in my chair, legs up, with my digital drawing board resting on my knees, and my arms nice and relaxed round my waist. The more I think about this the more attractive it becomes!
Thanks for your words of encouragement.

Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

Hi Ron!

First, thank you for the anatomy references you have provided to this community. I'm glad to learn that you'll be participating in the painting side of things as well! Your traditional art experience already shows in your earliest digital efforts, I can't wait to see more!

Working on a wacom should feel fairly natural soon enough! I have no tips on the arms of your chair and lack of space, but I will acknowledge the fine balance between comfort and functionality! Personally, I can't stand my wacom in mouse mode, I keep it in pen mode where the upper right portion of my wacom tablet is mapped to the upper right corner of my screen.


Keep up the good work!



-Adam

Thank you Adam. I'm not sure that I provide the same inspiration, as a model, as my younger contemporaries, with their well defined musculature! Also not as supple as they! LOL. I do hope, though, that some people find me useful for something in the course of their work.
I AM starting to feel more at home with my Wacom. I have just been having a go at another quick sketch, just to get used to the feel of the pen. Quite enjoyed it. I just did it, though without any reference; just did it out of the top of my head.

Ronnie.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Sketch%20from%20my%20head.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Here's my 'workspace'! lol. :). Thought you might like to see it. Bit confined! I have to slide the Wacom in alongside the PC tower, when not in use, in order to open the curtains during the day.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/MyWorkspace.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Ron ,You will be up an running with the wacom,I predict, in a week at most! I think Knilblink made a valid point regarding the mouse and pen mode in wacom.
And the approach u mention is the exactly the approach how it needs to be done,(along with free elbow movement!)
Also try and make sure u have all the drivers set up correctly,I think the white lines dont have opacity jitter,
What software do u use ,You can choose your cursor to be visible like a brush icon or something, most softwares have such options!
Wacom has wacom properties settings where u can customise the settings for each application u use.

But having said all that the pencil is the pencil!



Cheers and Welcome!:)

Hi, Thomas. Thank you for your encouragement. I think I AM getting the hang of it now. (As you predict! lol). I think the tablet is already set up in pen mode - by default. I have discovered that if I lift the pen off the tablet and place it down again somewhere else the cursor appears in exactly the right place in relation to the position of the pen. In fact it appears when the pen comes within a centimeter of the surface.

As a matter of interest, HOW do I bring up the window - as depicted in the Intuos tutor - that has the mapping tab to change modes? Doesn't seem to be available anywhere!

I haven't a clue what you mean be opacity JITTER. lol. It's ME that's getting the jitters! Hehe. (only joking).

The software that I'm using is Coral Draw 13. It comes with three packages - Coral Draw, Coral Photo-paint, and Coral Capture. I Haven't a CLUE what Coral Capture is all about - too complicated for the likes of me! lol. I use Photo-paint mostly. The package is soooo vast; I'm really only just scratching the surface with what this has to offer! It has all the paint brushes that I have shown above, red-eye, a clone tool - which uses all the variations of the paint brush, layering - which can vary degrees of transparency between different objects (layers), cut-out, copy and paste, colour fill, - etc etc etc.
I use this program a lot for renovating old photograhs, like family photographs.

Coral Draw I use a lot, also. Very good for design work. Can work with pictures and letter fonts, of which I have HUNDREDS - including some lovely illuminated letters. Have produced Greeting cards, Christmas cards, wedding and anniversary albums, and even a valentine card to my lady friend in Toronto! Heh heh!

I have JUST rediscovered the litterature that came with the Intuos tablet - in the overcrowded conditions of my room - (lol) AND a second CD that came with it! - Coral Painter Essentials 2! Watch this space! Heh heh. I shall be exploring this tomorrow! Can't do it now; getting close to 11.00pm; getting bog-eyed!

Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

Thank you, Johan. You can call me Ron or Ronnie - whichever. I'm usually known as Ronnie, actually; it's part of my email address.

I HAVE checked out my chair, today, after your advice. LOL! I unbolted one of the arms, and the whole chair started to fall apart! The arms hold the seat and the back together! So much for THAT idea! LOL! I am thinking seriously now of investing in a new chair - a decent one - that will be comfortable and suits my purpose!

Thank you for the link for the layer tutorial. I have bookmarked it, and will study that tomorrow.

Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement, Gordon. My tablet IS a fairly large one, as you can see from the photograph that I've posted.
All the best,
Ronnie.

[kary]

Ah my "put a book under it" was with your work area assumed to be more like mine. I didn't catch that you use the tablet in your lap instead of on the desk ;) I have about the same desk space, but a smaller tablet (6x8), so I can put the keyboard and tablet side by side, then and throw a mouse pad (:)) onto the tablet and able to work with my mouse.

I'm not sure what Corel Photo Paint is, but the Corel Painter Essentials (that comes with your tablet) should be a good experience for you to get started with. In my experience Painter is an amazing program to work with (for painting, when doing image editing Photoshop is king, but painting is Painter country -- convenient how the naming conventions worked out on that).

To get to your tablet properties (assuming a PC, which could be a bad assumption as there is an Apple monitor in that photo, but the screen content looks PC >.<):

Start > Control Panel > Wacom Tablet Properties

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6959/clipboard01in2.jpg


And it's under the mapping tab from there, in the "Mode" area on the right.

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi...Ronnie..:thumbsup:

Had to laugh about the chair falling apart...would make a great cartoon..:scream:
I think an armless chair is what's in order..that's what I have...old kitchen chair, with a couple of pillows to sit on, which also gives me the advantage of being in a position where I am sitting up straight, looking down at the screen, instead of even with it. The even with the screen position I have found, leads to a slumping over and getting too close to the screen after a time, which leads to a painful stiff neck, and bug eyes..:)
The armless chair will let you relax your shoulder, let your arm hang loose, and enable your wrist to move freely, which is key to getting good results.:)
You might take that line drawing, save it as a version so you don't lose it. Just press SAVE AS...Give it a name and #...like self portrait #1
Then when you call it back up, you can modify it, say with a blender brush, just to experiment,..if you like the results of the experiment, just press SAVE AS ..SELF PORTRAIT #2...and so on. MAKE A FOLDER FOR THEM.
SOME OF MY PAINTINGS GO UP TO 100, EVEN MORE SOMETIMES, DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH EXPERIMENTING I'VE DONE..:scream:
This method allows you to save where you have been...which is the great thing about digital...you can always go back to a verson that you like, and take it in a totally different direction at will, which is not that easy to do when working in a traditional manner...Allows for much more freedom to experiment and explore with a piece, without losing the piece in the process as happens too often when working in a traditional manner..:)
ANYWAY Ronnie...Glad to see that you are starting to have fun, and beginning to enjoy this new adventure you have entered into .
LOOKING GREAT SO FAR..:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

[eyrebrush]

Hi, Glenn. Hey! Your notion of my computer chair falling apart WOULD make a great cartoon! Are you any good at that? I am not a cartoonist myself, but would love to have that as my - what do you call it - signiature picture!:D

Hay, I've just spent the WHOLE day exploring Coral Painter Essentials 2! It's fantastic! I've spent the whole day - well, about four hours, lol, SEEMS like a whole day - developing an imaginary portrait - making it up as I go along, saving each stage, trying to work as I would with a real canvass on an easel in front of me. Wonderful as Coral Photo-paint is, it does NOT have the facility of working like as if one was working with real paint - as in my case here - OIL PAINT, which is my prefered medium. Looking forward to trying water colour, as well!

Here is my first adventure into digital oil painting! Aghhhhh!. Had an AWFULL struggle with the ear! HATE painting ears! Despite my art school training and experience I STILL can't draw one properly from memory! Had to resort to photographic reference from magazines! Afterwards, I realized, after a lot of searching, WHY didn't I use one of my own pose references? - OR, better still, one of Ben Millers?

For what it's worth, here is my first experience with Coral Painter, using oil paint:



http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face01.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Having a bit of difficulty here following one image on from another! Wondering if they are too big. Can't join all the stages of the painting together into the same post.
Stage two:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face02.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Stage three -

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face03.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Stage four. I darkened the painting here;

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face04.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Stage five:
http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face05.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Stage six:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face06.jpg

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi....Ronnie..:thumbsup:

Can't talk to much at the moment...getting ready to go to my figure drawing class.
You might try making a simple colored layer, say deep purple or black, and then place and merge what you have so far onto that colored background layer...might really make those colors in your portrait pop...:)
That way you can branch out in two directions...one with a dark background, and one with a light background....just a thought.
You would be working from dark to light in the one, and from light to dark in the other...good way to experiment..:)
I'm not that good at as a cartoonist myself,..but Gordum whose thread is on here is...you might run that idea past him...you never know..:)
Well I have to get going, and get ready for that class now...8 degrees out there, going to be a cold trip to and from class..LOL :scream:
LOOKING GREAT SO FAR ..Ronnie.....Each day will bring new discoveries your way, while you explore this new frontier...can't beat that, now can you...:bounce:
TAKE CARE, AND HAVE A GREAT ONE...:thumbsup:
Glenn

[eyrebrush]

Stage seven:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face07.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Eighth, and last:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Face08.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Hi, Glenn. Lol - you caught me mid-stream there - two more images to go! LOL. I'm TRYING to take on board this concept of coloured layers. Not latched onto this yet! All I've been doing is developing a painting on ONE layer - as I would on a real canvass, using my natural techniques with a brush.

Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

LOL. Don't know how long this will last, but I'm in full flow here! Hehe. Thought I'd try a real portrait. A few months ago last Autumn I was chatting to the kids next door, over the garden fence, and I happened to have my camera with me. (I'd been filming some of the wonderful plants in my garden, in their autumn glory). I tried to do some portraits of them as they played. This wonderful little creature rose to the occasion beautifully! LOL! What a wonderful subject for a painting!

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Ellie.jpg

[FateBringer]

Hi Ron

amazing to see how you are bringing this portrait together, great job.:thumbsup: sooo... I'm guessing you'll have the wacom mastered by the end of the week :applause:

Mark

[eyrebrush]

Here goes! Thought I'd rough it out on a darkish canvass before I packed up for the night. I'm just about ready for my bed, to be honest. Been a busy day; it's getting late and I'm whacked! I'm looking forward to continuing with tomorrow.

Stage one:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Ellie01a.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Hello, Mark. LOL. I think we bumped into each other there! Thought my last message was never going to upload. Turns out you were sending yours at the same time!

Thanks, Mark. I'm starting to get the hang of this digital drawing board now. Really enjoying it!
Ciao.
Ronnie.

[Rebeccak]

Wow, you're really picking this up fast! :) Hope all of the issues have been resolved...I also think you're off to a much better start when painting on a non white bkgrd - should cut out about 50% of your work even. Keep going!

[eyrebrush]

Wow, you're really picking this up fast! :) Hope all of the issues have been resolved...I also think you're off to a much better start when painting on a non white bkgrd - should cut out about 50% of your work even. Keep going!

Thanks, Rebecca. I do prefer working into a darker background. I've always done it with a real canvass. Ready made canvasses always come primed with white, and I always cover the whole surface with turpsy washes using greens blues and browns.

I had 45 minutes to spare this morning before I had to go out. Started to block more areas in:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Ellie02a.jpg

[SylvanMist]

Hi, welcome eyrebrush!
Wow for only just starting to use a tablet you're off to a great start! I really like that portrait you did, is that using one of those special artist brushes in painter? I don't think I ever saw anyone use it..it looks really neat :)

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi...Ronnie...:)

Was thinking that the nice thing about digital, is that it allows you to break the rules, BIG TIME...For instance, you can mix water color and oil in the same painting, without having to worry about the disasterous results that would happen if you did it using traditional paints. What you posted about starting out with a washed out color background brought that to mind...I wish that you had Painter #9...the water colors in that program act just like the real thing..randomly expand on the canvas ect., really amazing when you see it happening, on the computer no less. ANYWAY, was thinking how nice that watercolor effect would look as a background for a portrait done in oils as you are doing now..just a thought that popped into my mind as I was looking at that little girls face, which is fantastic by the way...she looks like she just saw Santa Claus for the first time...GREAT photo and expression captured there...:thumbsup:
I like the brush effect your getting in the last step you posted...Van Goghish look to it...:bounce:
Can't wait to see the end result...:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

[Elliepower]

Hi Ronnie,

great to see your sketchbook and there are many grandiose works onto your website. Try to use really big brushes to feel more comfortable, just a suggestion.

Ciao,
Ellie :)

[eyrebrush]

Hi, welcome eyrebrush!
Wow for only just starting to use a tablet you're off to a great start! I really like that portrait you did, is that using one of those special artist brushes in painter? I don't think I ever saw anyone use it..it looks really neat :)

Hi, Roja. Thanks for the welcome. This IS quite a new venture me, and I have to say I'm quite enjoying it! There are still a lot of things that I have to suss out yet with Coral Painter. I do NOT have the full version at this stage, only Coral Painter Essentials 2 - that came with the Intuos tablet. I Imagine it'll have the whole range of brushes that the full version's got. I have to say I have not tried other brushes yet; I just chose "oil paint" and used the first brush that it came up with. I have to say it's not QUITE like a real hog hair brush that is normally used with oil paint. A real one wouldn't leave those spots and splodges that become more obvious when you increase the size of this particular digital brush. I think I'll investigate some of the others.

Having just finished my 'chores' for the day, (2.30pm) I'm just about to start work again
on this portrait of little Ellie. I'm BOUND to be interrupted a few times while I'm working on it, so I'll save it in several stages - as I did with the other one.

Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

Hi, Glenn.
After I had finished the day's chores yesterday at about 2.30pm I tried to continue with little Ellie's portrait. I started running into great difficulty. I was in full sun the whole afternoon. I tried closing the curtains a bit because I could not see the screen properly. That didn't really work either. I was struggling to see the cursor; had to have it pretty small to draw in the eyes. I kept losing it altogether! Felt very handicapped. I gave it up in the end, after about 45 minutes, and went out to do some gardening! I wasn't going to WASTE all that lovely sun! LOL. Unfortunately I wasn't able to work on it in the evening either; I had another urgent job to do.
Anyway, here's that disasterous attempt yesterday! LOL. Scary, man! Will continue with it later on today.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Ellie03a.jpg

[Gord-MacDonald]

Hi Ronnie - the lighting is great - obviously carries over from you trad. work

Gord

[eyrebrush]

Ahgggg! Oh MAN! This painting has driven me crazy today! I've found it soooo difficult to find the right colours at the right intensity and tone. Spent most of the day exploring all the different brushes. DID dabble for a while with layers, but give that up; couldn't see the need for them. I prefer - at this stage of my learning at least - to stick to the single canvass, and try to blend the colours together with the brush. The brush that I've used here throughout has been the same one - the artist's brush - for oil painting. I REALLY wanted the SLAB brush, that I've seen other people use in their sketch books. I normally use a square or filbert shaped hog brush when painting on a real canvass. The slab brush would have suited me perfectly here, but it does not seem to be available to me here in this 'small' version of Coral Painter. I would like to have the full version of Coral Painter 9, but I can't really afford it at the moment.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with today. Will try to continue with it tomorrow when I feel more refreshed. SOOO many adjustments to be made, and modelling.


http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Ellie04a.jpg

[Dreamy Kid]

it's getting better and better ronnie, it reminds me of that classical impressionist painting of renoir & monet. good job

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi...Ronnie...:)
LOOKING GREAT SO FAR...:thumbsup: ...The colors are starting to get that vibrant look to them, as when they are in harmony with and next to each other..NICE GOING..Ronnie.:)
I know what you mean about the glare,...I have to pull all the curtains shut whenever I work during the day, then I still end up getting some glare, so most of the time, I get up and do my computer painting way before the roosters crow, no light, and even better, no distractions.:scream:
You might ask MR MU, Pushav or Rebecca about how to import brushes into your program, from another program...They are pretty savy when it comes to the technical stuff in these different programs. Awhile back, Pushav gave me a couple of great brushes from his photoshop program, that I was able to import into my painter program.I can't remember how it was done now though...was not that hard though, that much I do remember..:)
If you find out how and if it is possible, I will be more than happy to export you whatever brushes you need and want from my painter #9 program..just let me know how it's done.:thumbsup:
HEY...I just went out this morning and spent way to much money and bought a set of 90 assorted colors of Rembrant soft pastels in a wooden box kind of setup...and 20 sheets of very expensive paper. Now all I have to do is learn how to use them..LOL I never tried them before..SO I GUESS WE ARE NOW BOTH ENTERING INTO THE UNEXPLORED, AND UNKNOWN..:eek:
If my first efforts with them come out half as good as your first efforts with digital, I will be happy, and also very surprised..:)
HAVE A GREAT ONE ..Ronnie..:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

[NR43]

Hey Ron

the painting is looking great sofar...

you could try a 30 day trial version of Corel Painter X if you'd like to see what a full version has to offer.

Also, I bought my full version of painter for the price of the upgrade version last year in May, when they had a promotion for Painter IX.5
I believe Corel does these kind of promotions every now and then so it might be worth checking their website (http://www.corel.com/index.html?reset=1) every now and then. (saved me about 50% of the price)

[Rebeccak]

Impressive progress! I think the trial version of Corel is a good idea. Looking forward to more. :)

BTW Corvax just posted a painting he did using your reference:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=4251057#post4251057

Cheers!

[eyrebrush]

Thanks, Rebecca. Will have a look now.
I've actually downloaded Coral Painter X this afternoon, on trial! Been looking at Zhuzu's sketchbook for the last few hours! I'm totally in awe of his work, and his talent. It's that beautiful free style that I want to emulate. Trying to find that lovely threaded bristle brush that he uses so much. He uses Photo Shop, though. Not sure if I can find that brush setting in Coral Painter X. I tried to work some more on the portrait of Ellie, using a bristle brush, and ruined it. Saved it separately, though. Can still work on it from it's original state. Getting a bit despondant, though.
Ronnie.

[Rebeccak]

Ronnie,

Heh, digital painting has it's pros and cons. Programs can crash and you can lose work, but a good habit to get into is not only saving iterative saves but actually saving a file as a different name so you have an altogether different version of an image once you get it to a point where you wouldn't like to lose it.

Corel is actually much more flexible and more like traditional media than PS, but if you can afford both apps I'd recommend both. However for general painting purposes Painter is actually better.

Cheers :)

[eyrebrush]

Well, I have been exploring Coral Painter - at least the brushes anyway. I can't say I'm too impressed with the watercolor brushes and effects. There are many features of real watercolor that can't be simulated here, like washes collecting in odd corners, which is one of the distinctive features of a watercolor sketch.

I tested all the available brushes, first, with Photo Paint:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Photopaint%20brushes.jpg

The effects are great for some purposes, but not really for simulating real paint.
THEN I went back to Painter and tried every one of the oil brushes. These were much more to my liking: clump brush - very good, and impasto palette knife - excellent:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Bristle%20brushes%20for%20oils_900.jpg

Many brushes were so similar I couldn't tell the difference. I've made a note of the most effective ones.
Then I tried the blending brushes - dry bristle (very good), dry PALETTE KNIFE (!) (excellent), grainy blender (excellent!) and oil palette knife , excellent for fine blending:


http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Blending%20brush_900.jpg

[eyrebrush]

Here is Painter X's screen space and tools. I guess I'll be very similar to that of Photoshop.

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/P3120201_800.jpg

LOL - and here's the state of my desk! All the wiring is a pain! I'm an untidy blighter amyway! LOL. -

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/P3120200_700.jpg

Well, that's me caput for tonight! I've got a lot of pain down my neck and right shoulder; I can't tilt my head back at all! Dying to get my head down on the pillow. If it gets worse tomorrow I won't be able to sit at this computer desk.

'night all.
Ronnie.

[batte812]

Hi Ron, great to see you have started your own sketchbook as well. Great start; i mainly like the portrait of the little girl. Have fun and thanks for the poses you shared with us!

[Rebeccak]

Ack! The last thing I want to do is cause you ergonomic pain, Ronnie. Whenever you experience discomfort, definitely take a break, stop for days or weeks if things bother you. Sitting in the wrong way or spending too much time at the computer can cause problems if you're not careful, and I certainly don't want that to happen to you.

[eyrebrush]

Hi Ron, great to see you have started your own sketchbook as well. Great start; i mainly like the portrait of the little girl. Have fun and thanks for the poses you shared with us!

Hi, batte812, and thank you.
I'm not sure I can continue with the portrait of the little girl using that style of brush; can't find it in the full version of Painter. I might have to start afresh using these new bristle brushes.
Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

Ack! The last thing I want to do is cause you ergonomic pain, Ronnie. Whenever you experience discomfort, definitely take a break, stop for days or weeks if things bother you. Sitting in the wrong way or spending too much time at the computer can cause problems if you're not careful, and I certainly don't want that to happen to you.

Hi, Rebecca. Thanks for your concern. I took two co-codamol tablets as I got into bed last night, and as soon as my head was supported by the pillows I was much more comfortable. This morning. I'm thankfull that it is considerably better - more mobile. I don't think it's sitting at the computer that brings it on. I've had problems with my neck now for many many years. The doctor tells me I have some artritis in this area as well as in my lower spine and knees. These bad spells flare up from time to time.
Will be having some more practice with the oil painting brushes today, hopefully.
God bless,
Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

As I am more confident painting landscapes, I thought I would try one, as a means of getting used to handling Painters' brushes and blending tools. Eventually I'll graduate to figures and portraits, hopefully. Started this yesterday. Will try to develop it more today:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Landscape02_780.jpg

[Rebeccak]

Wow, Ronnie, that is impressive work, you're really ripping it up! There's a great thread here with some tremendous landscape work toward the back in which I think you will be interested:

Demo's from some Idiot: Step by Steps, PSDs and Videos - Nudity - Constant Updates! (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=433174)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=433174

Keep up the great work, if anyone has taken to water like a frog, I think it's you. :)

[eyrebrush]

Wow, Ronnie, that is impressive work, you're really ripping it up! There's a great thread here with some tremendous landscape work toward the back in which I think you will be interested:

Demo's from some Idiot: Step by Steps, PSDs and Videos - Nudity - Constant Updates! (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=433174)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=433174

Keep up the great work, if anyone has taken to water like a frog, I think it's you. :)

Thanks, Rebecca. I'll look those up!
I have plans for this landscape that I'm doing! During my years of Walking in the English Lake District I've often watched the odd raven or two effortlessly floating about high in the air over the valley, while having my sandwiches on the mountain side. I've always wished I could do the same! LOL. (In my dreams!) Heh heh. I've had this notion to inlude myself - from one of my poses - in this picture, frolicking in the air with a pair of wings! Hehe. Watch this space!

I've done some more work on the scene, including widening it:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/Landscape04_1000.jpg

[NR43]

wow...

just wondering... did you do the grass in the front right with a custom brush or did you paint it one by one?

you know you really make me want to do a landscape myself as I've never done this before but been wanting too...

[SpiritDreamer]

HEY.....Ronnie....:applause: :thumbsup:

TAKE CARE
Glenn

[eyrebrush]

wow...

just wondering... did you do the grass in the front right with a custom brush or did you paint it one by one?

you know you really make me want to do a landscape myself as I've never done this before but been wanting too...

Hi, Johan. I couldn't find a suitable custom brush in Painter to do this job to my satisfaction, so I chose the 'clumpy brush' and took it down to a very small size, then 'drew' each blade of grass, trying to group them together a bit to make it look tufty. I used that brush a bit larger, first with a darker colour to block in the 'interior' of the grass, then over painted. It WAS a bit time consuming (about an hour and a half). I think it is worth going to this trouble in the foreground.
Here is a painting from my website showing this technique. It was done with the traditional Canvass the oil paints. It's a large painting: 36 X 27 inches:

http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/MyPaintings/Landscape/EskdaleNeedle.jpg

[anandpg]

Hey Ron!! Its a great thread you are putting up here! keep going!:bounce:

[NR43]

Thanks for elaborating on this Ron.
I agree that even though it's a lot more time consuming than using custom brushes, it pays off when it's in the front...

Thanks again :)

[Rebeccak]

Ronnie, that is a beautiful painting. I have a feeling you will be kicking out digital beauties in no time. :)

[eyrebrush]

Thanks, Rebecca. Don't hold your breath though, at least not yet (LOL). I'm still feeling very frustrated with the brushes at my disposal in this digital software. Finding it SO difficult to mix exactly the right tint and tone, and finding the best brush effect to respond to my needs. My main problem is handling DETAIL! When I take the chosen brush down to a suitable size for this I have great difficulty making a mark on the screen! Maybe I can solve this problem by working with a much larger canvass, and then reducing the work down to transmittable size when finished? I am striving for that wonderful loose style of Zhuzhu, who's talent I admire so much. I am so ingrained with my training at art school, that to achieve a sense of space and depth in a painting one has to have regard to three things:

Linear perspective, where things appear larger in the foreground than in the distance,
Areal perspective, where things appear lighter and bluer the further away they are,
and the fact that foreground features should reveal more detail.

I ALWAYS tend to get bogged down with detail, using a tiny brush. WISH I had the ability to 'open up' and make detailed statements with such economy of line and brush stroke, in the way of Zhuzhu's work! I admire his work so much! I have saved some of his work with the intention for printing some of it out, to serve as a reference while using these digital brushes. Is this in order, do you think? They say that immitation is the best way to learn. I'm wondering if Zhuzhu would mind?

Ronnie.

[Torch]

Try some natural media app, like Painter. Play with watercolor, oil, charcoal. You'll love these brushes.

[SylvanMist]

Wow that's a beautiful oil painting! And the one you're donig in painter is coming along really nicely, can't wait to see it finished :)

[kary]

Lovely landscapes, the oil is particularly nice.

Ron: Working on a very large canvas, and then scaling it down is a very common workflow digitally. When intending a web version of 1024 I would not blink at working at 2048, or much higher. On the last thing I tried to paint I; roughed in at 1000 high (broad strokes sketch and tone), then took it to 5000 high, detailed it, and now can save it out to whatever resolution I care too.

Getting used to the brushes is probably going to take awhile, but some of the features that don't have a real world analog (outside of the darkroom anyway) should be a lot of fun for you. The multiply / overlay / soft light / etc layer types all open up a lot of options when you are playing with light in a piece. Really it's just a question of enormous patience as things slowly start to become expected... reaching for a piece of conte and getting the digital equivalent is a little weird for a long time (but the undo button is always welcome ;)).

[eyrebrush]

Thank you, Kary. I will go large. I have not discovered, as yet, though, how to increase in size, using Painter. As long as I save my work as JPGs I can bring them up in Coral Photo Paint. There, I have the facility of resampling up or down, placing my work on a larger canvass in order to extend my picture - as I've done with this landscape, and COMPRESSING work for transmission.

I obviously have a lot to learn with Painter; I haven't delved into layering at all yet. Thanks for your help and encouragement.
Ronnie.

[eyrebrush]

I'm afraid I've not had time to do much in the way of painting for the last few days; had sooooo much to do! Another of my hobbies is bookbinding! Just been rebuilding a hymn book for a local priest :). STILL got two more jobs to do also for our parish priest! :scream:. No rest for the wicked! LOL.

I've also been waiting for well over a week now for the full version of Coral Painter X to arrive - special delivery! It arrived today! HIPPEEEEE! :bounce: It's now installed, and I've spent much of the day studying the hand book! It's going to take me a month of Sundays to get familiar with the whole program! I've started to have a go at a portrait, and in order to get used to the techniques involved I've taken the liberty to study one of Zhuzhu's portraits! I hope he doesn't mind. He is my idol at the moment! He is SO talented; I love his technique. They say that the best way to learn is to copy the masters! It remains to be seen if I succeed!
Here is the work of Zhuzhu, followed by my first rough-out:


http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/image_586072_400.jpg



http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/trial-1_800.jpg

[Rebeccak]

How exciting Ronnie, congratulations! Very cool news, I am sure you are in for a lot of fun. Happy Painting! :)

[eyrebrush]

How exciting Ronnie, congratulations! Very cool news, I am sure you are in for a lot of fun. Happy Painting! :)

Thank you, Rebecca.
I had another half hour or so on this portrait early this morning. Quite a bit to do yet, as you can see, to get more of a likeness. HOPE to get back to it later today. Might try a dry palette knife to work some of the colours together.


http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/trial-1b_800.jpg

[anandpg]

Yoohooo... Ron! awesome progress with Painter! :bounce:

[eyrebrush]

Yoohooo... Ron! awesome progress with Painter! :bounce:


Thank you, anandpg, for your encouragement. :) Much appreciated. However, I'm still struggling. I wanted to create more space round the portrait - in other words place it onto a bigger canvass. Couldn't find a way of doing it with Painter. I have now got into the habit of always saving my work at each stage as a JPG, so that I can bring it up in Coral Photo Paint, so that I can enlarge the canvass or paper without enlarging the painting or drawing with it - also to RESAMPLE it down to a smaller size and compress it for ease of transmission to my web space and for other sites (like CGSociety) to down load it. Lot of work. Can you, or anybody, tell me if it is possible to do these things directly with Coral Painter? I have studied the manual, (partly - lol), but haven't found answers to this yet.

I found time today to do some more work on this face. I've worked some of the colours across each other, using a dry palette knife, added some cool colours into the darker areas, and then increased the size of the canass. Here is my third effort: not happy with it a the moment.


http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/trial-1c_800.jpg

[eyrebrush]

This is later in the day - after many other diversions! (lol).

I've filled in the outer parts of the canvass, and tried to work the colours into each other, TRYING to acheive a better likeness!



http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/trial-1d_800.jpg


STILL not happy with the way it is going. Even with my "so called" experience with oil painting I'm still on a learning curve!

[NR43]

Hey Ron

you're doing absolutely great with Painter!
just keep experimenting to get to know all the tools in there...

To change the size of the canvas in Painter (I'm doing this by heart from my office at work, so things might be named slightly different, I'll correct tonight if needed):

make sure the canvas layer (first layer) is selected in the layers dialog.
In top top menu go to:

[Canvas][Canvas Size]

and a popup menu will appear, allowing you to add a certain amount of space as follows:

add ... to top
add ... to left
add ... to bottom
add ... to right

Just add the amount of pixels you want in each direction and click ok

If you want to remove space from the canvas you can use a negative amount

Hope this gets you on your way with this lil issue...

EDIT: the struggling you mention... it might be a pen pressure issue...
you could (and you should) experiment with this a bit to setup your brush according to the pressure you usually work with on traditional canvas.
You can read about it in Painter's excellent help files if this is of your interest and then try it by going [Edit][Preferences][Pen Pressure] in the top menu.

The reason why I'm saying this is that once you set the pressure for your pen (for the particular brush you are using) you will get a much more comfortable feeling when making the actual brush stroke

[eyrebrush]

Thanks, Johan. I shall be investigating this concept of layering. This is something I have not really understood yet. I shall also look into pen preasure.

In the meantime, Here is the result of my latest session with this Zhuzhu portrait. I really enjoyed it. This is probably as far as I'm going to take it. I'd like to get back to the portrait of little Ellie now.



http://www.eyrebrush.free-online.co.uk/Drawing/trial-1e_900.jpg

[Rebeccak]

That's lovely and really has a lot of feeling to it Ronnie - looking forward to more. :)

[eyrebrush]

Thank you, Rebecca.

I'm afraid I have not been doing much in the way of drawing and painting this past two or three weeks. I've been suffering with back problems and have found it too uncomfortable to sit at the computer. We also have problems here at home, with mum now 91. Some of my time has been taken up with bookbinding! Had three books to repair for our local church; that is not a job I can do sitting down. I think it was the leaning over the work on the bench that aggrivated my back problems.
I'll try to get back to art work soon. Still waiting for my new computer swivel chair to arrive. It will have arm rests on it that can fold down out of the way when I'm using the Wacom tablet.

Thanks for dropping by.
Ronnie.

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