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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
And it’s under the mapping tab from there, in the “Mode” area on the right.
Had to laugh about the chair falling apart…would make a great cartoon…
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…
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…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
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!
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:
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:
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
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…
Glenn
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.
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!
amazing to see how you are bringing this portrait together, great job. sooo… I’m guessing you’ll have the wacom mastered by the end of the week :applause:
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.
