Hi,
i just registered. I follow this forum since a year and you are all very talented and creative artists i think, but me not.
I can’t draw and i can’t paint, but… i want to paint a picture.
So i thought of how i can do it. I could learn painting but i have no time.
So i thought of this procedure:
i choose an object; for example i take a woman.
I make a photo of her with a digital camera; then i need a program which just generates me out of this image the contours. I print it out and glue the papers together. So i have the big picture with contours. But now comes the question: How to paint it; i dont know how i have to mix the colors to get a specific color. I mean is it possible to paint a picture without knowing how to paint. Is there a program which tells you which of the contoured segment has which color and which (oil-)colors you have to mix to get this color. And you tell just the depth of the color space and the program tells you how often you have to mix a new color. I dont want the picture to be really realistic. It just has to be that you can see who this person is? I mean i want to have a big picture of something but i dont want to print it out; i want it to be painted. Can you help me, are there some programs out there which makes it possible to let you paint even if you can’t?
Thank you
Paint even if you can't
what you’re asking is for a shortcut around the hard work required to paint, but there isnt one. if you want to paint something but dont want to put the time into learning how to do it, whats the point? learning is all the fun. no computer program can paint for you.
You could use filters in photoshop to make a photo look like a painting but you would be cheating and whats the honour in that.
If you can’t draw or paint, it’s not that hard to learn. What takes time is mastering it. Try taking some beginner classes. If you want to paint, that’s the easist way to start.
You will have to make time to learn and practise. Because painting and drawing are time consuming activities.
If you really want to learn. My advice is to enrol on a drawing or painting class at a local college, one day or evening a week will do. Lots of Art colleges run summer schools. The reason I suggest this. Is that having someone with experience, on hand to point out mistakes and suggest remedies, will soften your learning curve considerably. Furthermore you could participate in some of the drawing workshops you can find around this forum, it is a huge resource, with many, many tutorials for digital painting techniques. How about taking a painting vacation? There are a lot of holiday painting courses, run by artists in beautiful locations.
The bottom line is that you will need to allocate a slot in your day for practise and study. remember, even one hour a day adds up to seven hours a week.
As BenDstraw mentioned you could use Photoshop Filters on an image to give it a painterly look. But that is very unsatisfactory, and not much more fun than not painting at all.
Good luck with your quest
Like I keep telling people, I really couldn’t paint to save my life back in 2000. But after years of practice, I see myself improving so much–that is really the fun of doing art! It’s certainly possible to start from scratch now if you are willing to work hard. All you need is a lot of patience and determination.
I’m a uni student holding down a part-time job, and I don’t have too much time on my hands either. But I just invest two to three hours a week on drawing and painting–that’s really not that much to ask for.
I’m gonna say painting in Photoshop helped me–instead of being frustrated staring at the mistakes I made on paper or on a canvas, I can easily change stuff on the computer. I’d recommend starting with Photoshop cuz of the layer function which allows you to be brave and try new things without fear of screwing up.
And if you’re really keen on, you can learn how to use real paint after you’ve gotten the gist of painting.
Good luck.
Thank you all for writing your opinions.
I tried my method and i learned one thing: dont use the same brush when changing to a brighter color when painting with oil 
I would like to learn drawing and painting.
When i see the pictures in the gallery here, i think i want to learn this too.
I also found here a lot of usefull links for learning how to draw.
I would like to draw with photoshop, but is it a good idea to start directly with a computer and not drawing on paper?
If it is ok, then i think i should buy a graphics tablet. But i dont know which one. Are there some which when you use them feel just like a pencil or so?
maxwelleb,
Right now we are running a beginner’s drawing workshop:
BEGINNERS’ Drawing Workshop - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - With Stipick_S
[left]It requires that you buy the book, “The NEW Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, by Betty Edwards ~ details about the book can be found on the thread above.
Basically, this Workshop, which only started last Monday, is for the very beginner artist ~ you are welcome to join us!
The first exercise is described on the thread above. You will not really need the book right away, as the exercise is pretty self~explanatory ~ HOWEVER, I strongly urge you to buy the book, as it is a tremendous resource for new artists, and will teach you many valuable lessons about Drawing.
The Workshop follows the book’s exercises, and Shaun (Stipick_S) will provide the majority of the feedback, along with myself.
The Workshop is free and open to anyone. If you have pencil and paper, you may join in.
I hope you will be able to join us!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
[/left]
Thanks for the offer. I first have to get the book. It takes here in Germany 2 weeks to get it. So i don’t know if i can hold the time limits.
I also wanted to buy a graphics tablet. I’ve read the wacom Intuos3 is good. Is A5 enough, because i mean they are really expensive. How does it feel to work with it. Is it like drawing on paper?
maxwelleb,
You can email me at rebeccak4@gmail.com or send me a PM regarding the Workshop. A few others had problems getting the book in time, but the first exercises are pretty simple and self~explanatory, so it’s no big deal.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
If an Intuos3 is too expensive for you to start with you can go for a Wacom Volito, it’s about 50 €, it’s smaller that A5, only A6, a very basic model, but good to get a feeling for the pen. And no, it’s not like drawing on paper because of the mighty, mighty CRTL+Z function in the paint application.
start with drawing, move on to painting later.
Dont worry about the computer right now.
Get a sketchbook, whatever size you will actually carry around with you ALL THE TIME.
get a regular ol’ no#2 pencil and a pocket pencil sharpener…
now draw…every day…all the time…everything you see.
Dont ever stop.
edit: oh yeah, read “Drawing on the Right side of the Brain”…seriously.
if someone looking at u drawing. And laughing at u to stop drawing sh!t… DAT IS THE MOST powerful motivation… in vice versa, u will stop shaking ur pencil forever.
be stubborn & self-centered… Ignore the ignorance people…they are the poison to make u weak. They are jealous in ur determination.
Human figure is a hard thing for beginner… try some lifeless objects as beginning stage. such as APPLE or HEAD SKULL…haha…Rebecca will be happy to see u over der.
Skulls!!
I spent a year drawing the same bloody skull over and over again! All different styles.
Anyone can draw. It’s just what level your at. I hate it when people say they can’t draw, like it’s a god given gift.
Practice, Dedication, Determination and Practice are the 7 key elements you need to be able to draw.
mookids syllabus;-
squares
grids
circles
circles rendered into spheres
spheres rendered into apples
bowls of fruit
perspective
SKULLS
left hands
composition
windows
faces
figures
horses (still can’t draw horses!)
paint;
light
colour
layers
blending
chop chop!
two ideas, glue a pen to your hand, draw with your other hand, or put a pen on a loop on your hand and paper to your pants/skirt leg, Always have those two together…
Also , DOnt start from scratch, copy stuff, photocopy your own stuff make templates, and draw draw draw all over them, make drawing over lap alot, tons of stuff will show up, Chaos ! Hell I can barely ever finish anything, just look at my mess of crap I made is a few minutes on my tablet
http://tripdragon.deviantart.com/scraps/
just keep drawing from everything 
:curious:
Hi, again. I think i’ll first try with paper and pencil. If i make progress and don’t loose motivation i’ll buy the wacom tablet. Is it also ok to buy the VHS -Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain; Seven Lessons to Enhance Creativity and Artistic Self-Confidence -instead of the book? I’ve found the link to the Loomis books. I’ve read it a little bit. He seems to follow the idea to teach basic ideas and building blocks of drawing while all stuff i read about “drawing on the right side of the brain” seems to be more drawing by seeing and feeling.
So are there two ways of drawing: the first is to learn all the theory about perspective, lightning and so on; the other is just to relax and draw by feeling and not thinkg so much.
(I hope you know what i mean) What is the better approach?
Hi there, and welcome to the wonderful world of drawing. Be warned that when you do decide to start drawing and painting, or any kind of expressing yourself creatively, there is no turning back. It’s addictive as ****, and brings both pleasure and pain. But oh is it worth it! 
Anyway, just thought I’d give my two cents on your last question. I believe different people on this forum, and elsewhere, will have widely different opinions of this - there is most probably no “right answer”, but for myself at least they are not two different approaches, and one is not better than the other. My experience, and my belief, is that you have to mix your approach to drawing all the time, depending on how you feel there and then.
Sometimes you will need to sit back, relax, and just let your hand, eyes and mind run free - draw things in front of you, trying to put what you see onto paper. The book suggested to you earlier, written by Betty Edwards, is a great help in this. And draw from memory or imagination, draw silly figures, crazy patterns, anything. Just waste away pencil after pencil, sheet after sheet of paper. Have fun.
Other times, you will definetly need to get into some “theory” and “technique”. An understanding of perspective will make it easier for you both to draw from imagination and from life. Human anatomy, the same.
I suppose you could compare it to music - in order to succeed a musician needs to know both her/his instrument and general music theory like scales and rythm.
The bottom line, I guess, is this: In order to really develop sound drawing skills, there is no doubt you will need to get into perspective, tone variation, line rythm, positive/negatve space blahblahblah. BUT - the most important thing when learning to draw is to keep drawing (and almost every reply before this on this thread has said the same), so do things in a way that makes you feel good about drawing. You don’t have to rush into any kind of theory. You just have to draw.
Oh, and if I can give a small piece of advice - the sketchbook you get? Make yourself a promise not to show anything in it to anyone, at anytime. That way, you couldn’t care less if you draw something really horrible one day. Noone’s ever going to see it. Of course, you don’t have to always keep that promise And don’t stop drawing for the day after an unsuccessful sketch. Keep going till you have something you like - it’s easier to get going the next day
Good luck!
So are there two ways of drawing: the first is to learn all the theory about perspective, lightning and so on; the other is just to relax and draw by feeling and not thinkg so much.
(I hope you know what i mean) What is the better approach?
Well I would say you are already off to a good start as you have the “want” to learn how to draw/paint, you will get frustarted along the way and that is natural so pleease do not give up or loose heart.
I would recommend trying to draw by not thinking too much and try to have just an idea of what you want to draw in your head and just go mad with the pencil in a sort of scribbly manner, and don’t worry about clean lines or hard edges just get your general shapes down and then try adding more definition as you progress, and try drawing something simple don’t bite off more than you can chew, and remember your first drawings will probably look crap to you and this is also natural, in fact when you do your “first” drawing put it away somewhere safe and after you have been practicing for a few weeks(every day) or a month, take out your first sketch and compare it to your latest and that will give you a good indication of how far you have or have not progessed.
And YES buy that video, and any other books or DVD’s you can handle, and maybe you should participate in The DSG(see sig), anyone can draw as long as they have the “want” and you seem to have that in buckets so get sketching with that pencil and paper…go for it.
hey … check my signature to see that u can soon be able to draw like u never thought
but u have to comment my thread , and if u didn’t u won’t be that much of a fast learner …
hey just kiddin … LOL :deal:
That sounds like so much MORE work than simply learning to paint by practice!!
I had the same problem until I bought a wacom and started painting. I am getting better with each painting. I am learning so mucha and my mind is growing and I am able to better discern what looks and feels right as apposed to what doesnt.