5 ways to avoid smearing when you draw.

5 ways to avoid smearing when you draw. No matter how good of an artist you are, accidental smear and smudge will happen when you are drawing with graphite pencil or chacoal. It is hard to avoid, all we could do is to be careful and keep the accidental smearing to the minimum. The more experience you are, the more you will learn how to deal with it. I just got a few e-mails asking me this obvious question that I've never occurred to me in a long time. Anyway, there are 5 tips I can tell you and will keep your drawing clean and keep the smear and smudge to the minimum.


1) Be careful where you rest your palm, try not to rest your palm and drag it against the paper you drawn on. As you move across the paper, be alert and lift your palm instead of rub it against the paper. What I usually do also is I will try to work from left to right since I am right handed. So my palm will be less likely to rub against the already drawn graphite. If you are left handed, you probably want to work from right to left.


2) If I am doing a 3-5 hours drawing and shading (which is rare nowadays), I will put a piece of clean smooth white paper in between my hand and the drawing. This helps reduce the accidental smearing really well, just make sure the paper stays in place and don't drag it along as you draw.


3) Get a can of Workable Fixatif. You have to make sure you get the workable kind. It is a really great tool when spray coating which prevents smearing. Once spray the drawing can still be erased, and you can draw over it. Though make sure you spray it thin enough. If you spray too much coat the drawing can be very difficult to work on.





4) On sketchbook page, if you finish a page, make sure to coat it with matte finish. It is different than fixatif. This spray will permanently coat your work. It is a very good material to keep your sketchbook clean and your sketches will last longer and never get smeared.


5) Do not erase so much because it can ruin your paper surface. And it is better to clean eraser crumbs with brush rather than wipe them off with your hand.


Hope these tips help,

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Digital Painting Technique, using brushes in Photoshop

Digital Painting Technique, using brushes in Photoshop.
Brush is a very essential tool for painting. Without it, there would not be a painting. In traditional oil painting, there are many different kind of brushes for you to pick from. Though the most common brush many painters use are simple round and flat brushes. With just two simple kind of brushes, good painters can achieve an amazing piece without having to have any special fan brush or other texture creating tools.
The same principle apply in digital painting. Basically in most painting program (Photoshop CS, Painter series, Gimp, etc.), we have default round brush soft and hard. And with just these default brushes, we should also be able paint a good piece without having to use any fancy custom brushes. I am not suggesting that we should not use custom brushes. I use a lot of custom brushes in my painting, and I strongly encourage you guys to use them in digital painting. Only one thing, I believe we should be able to paint well with the basic tools first and foremost. Most of all we should understand the core principle of painting such as shapes, values and edges.  See "three important rules for paintings" for more detail.
What custom brushes do best is creating interesting edges and textures in Photoshop and Gimp. Sometimes it mimics the look of the oil painting with beautiful strokes and textures.
Anyway, I just lost my train of thought. I just remember that I just want to talk about "edges" in this post. Any brushes, no matter how awesome it looks, will not be much use if we do not understand edges. In painting, digital or traditional, we use edges to bring out an image from the empty canvas. Painting with great use of edges often look really powerful. I would love it if I can be better at applying edges in my own painting. It takes me years to try to understand edges. To me, the concept is very abstract and often difficult to apply and master. There are three type of edges; hard edge, soft edge and lost edge.
We can achieve these edges using just default brushes (soft and hard). Hard round brush can easily create a really strong hard edge. And soft round brush is perfect for soft edge and lost edge.



Below are the sample of edges in digital painting.


*In some case value range, color range, softness and hardness could fall in between.


Here is the image I've been working on, still very rough.  But it can still roughly demonstrate edges.


Enjoy the post, peace!

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Achieving looseness in painting, digital painting thought

Achieving looseness in painting, my thought on digital painting.
Many people asked me how did I make my digital painting in Photoshop looks so traditional like and loose. How do I make my piece look so analog instead of look very digital? Well, I've been thinking about it for a long while. As I analyzed how I paint and doodle around in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet and pen. I was thinking possible because I used to paint in gauche and acrylic before I even know digital painting exist? I don't really know, but I know what should my painting look like in the end. And possibly because I admire many oil painters such as John Singer Sargent, John Williams Waterhouse, Ander Zorn, Rick Berry, Richard Schmid, and Frank Frazetta. They are master oil painters and I always hoping that some day I could do something as great or somehow close to that caliber of work.
Anyway, I think the work of most artists often reflect their taste, influences or mentors. I love having brush strokes in my piece, not all of us like that. Some like their art work to be smooth and tight, some love airbrush work. But me, personally, I am not a big fan of airbrush or art work that are really tight. Though more often than not, I really love a lot of them and always wonder how they achieve such effect. But my most favorite remains painterly effect or looseness. And most painters who paint from light or "Direct painting" like Sargent, Mullins and Schmid are always my most favorite.


In humble my opinion, if you try to achieve looseness of traditional medium look in digital painting.  I would suggest play around with brush strokes.  And more importantly, you have to know how and where to define edges.  There are hard edge, soft edge and loose edge.  Don't try to make your painting looks too smooth.  If you can do that, then your digital art work would definitely look more like traditional work.
*More on edges go read "Three important rules for painting."


Craig Mullins once states, "So in digital terms, leave the airbrush and smudge tools alone and use a flat brush. I think the give-away for digital is the slickness. Finding the edge of forms is the first step to good shape design. Hope this helps!"


I was reading "Alla Prima" by Richard Schmid last night. He said something that I think you guys might find really useful. You can also apply that to practice of painting. To get your painting to look loose is not to let yourself loose.
He said, "Looseness is NOT a frivolous departure from control, quite the opposite. It arise from the freedom which comes with superb control." It is true in my opinion. Art, like many things I practice, the more discipline you have, the better you will get. If you constantly practice and treat it seriously with respect then you will achieve your goal.


Not much going on here, I've been busy moving all the video files from Payloadz to E-Junkie. Tons of work still left to do. All I want to do is paint, not moving files around and changing servers.
Here is the latest, It is still a long way to finish line.  I am hoping to finish it soon.  Step by step will come when it is done.  ;-)



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10 ways to overcome artist's block, get back creativity!

10 ways to overcome artist's block and get your mind back to creative spot. It’s very common, but devastating moment for an artist to feel they’ve lost their inspiration, to encounter a creative block. But suffering from artist’s block doesn’t mean you’ve lost your imagination or ability to execute cool stuff. Good news is, over years of working in professional concept art environment I found that there are many ways that you can beat it permanently. :)

There are 10 simple ways that I usually do to beat artist's block and kill the beast once and for all.
1) If you cannot think of what to draw or paint, try study or copy from master artists. This is a good opportunity for you to challenge yourself and you will discover new things along the way copying the work of artists you like and admire such as John Singer Sargent, Frank Frezetta, or any great artists. There is no shame, all the great artist study or copy the master artists before them, it's true! :)



2) Life drawing session, just go draw from live models or go outside and do some landscape sketch, composition, study trees, leaves, building, people. Just draw!
This one is easy. But I often choose life drawing session because there are people there and it motivate you to draw faster and more. (thanks Luca for reminding me) :)

3) Change mediums. If you draw with tablet, start random doodling with pencil in the sketchbook. If you use pencil, try markers, charcoals, brushes, ect. Explore with new materials and use new tools. You can just doodle random shapes to get your frustration out, it doesn't need to make sense. Though you might find some cool shapes randomly that will give you idea to develop further.

4) Go for a run! That what usually works for me, get sweat and you will be rejuvenate. Believe it or not, your brain will function so fresh after a good long (at least 20 minute) sweat. If you don't run, get into the habit! It's good for your health and cheap. Or you can punch the bag or any exercise you might prefer...as long as you get sweat you will get the same result. Slow walk does not count!

5) Find new inspiration pieces, I do this a lot. Internet is a HUGE collection of information. I usually visit darkroastedblend.com, englishrussia.com, or cghub and look for something cool. Or to avoid the computer, go visit to a local gallery or museum often helps. Or go through art books and magazines. Take the pressure off of yourself and just enjoy other artists' work.

6) Take a new direction with your approach. If you usually start using lines, try start using shapes. If your approach is realism, try cubism. If you start with monochrome, try using color right away. Anything that get you away from your habit or comfort zone.

7) Studying anatomy, just draw random part of the body as studying, something you don't usually pay attention to. Make it a mission of studying just hands for a few days or feet or hair, ect. It's always good to do some review and study.

8) Read cool stuff that will stimulate your visual cortex. I usually go read Greek mythology, Hindu's god, goddess and deities, Chinese mythology and ancient tales like "Journey to the West" or any contemporary science-fiction like Cthulhu, Dune, any zombie story. Then make your own vision of whatever that might be creatures, demons, etc. Watch some visually kickass movies also works.

9) Re-design old cartoons, comics, Manga, or Anime, movies you like. Look at them again, read, browse, then recreate them as your own vision. It's all for the good fun and it can be long and challenging. Kinda similar to #7

10) Sleep, maybe you should get a good sleep possibly. You might be working too hard and your brain don't function anymore. So give it a break. :)


If these 10 tips do not help, it is possibly that you are burnt out. so...you could do #11

11) There are times that the pros called it, "burn out"! If that is the case, it's not your creativity. It's your fire that is slowly going out of flame. It's time to take a break from art totally for at least 3-7 days. Go do something else. If art is your profession, you will have to find a hobby, for real. If not, then it's easier for you. If you are an art student, well this one doesn't apply to you because you have not earn this batch yet. Don't even draw, browse art forum or do anything that relate to what you do everyday art wise. You will come back with all the new idea and possibly OVERLOADED that you cannot wait to get it out of your head.

Hope this information are helpful :)
Art is coming soon. Cheers!!!



PS: if you have any tips that you do to help get a rid of artist's block, feel free to share on the comment. Thank you guys.



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Separate line drawing layer in Photoshop from scanned drawing, tips for artist.

Separating lines from scanned drawing in Photoshop, tips for artist.

This technique you won't need to set the layer with the lines to multiply and you'll be able to change colors to the lines very easy later on. Very useful when you want to do comics book with outlines style and anime with outlines. Especially if you have a solid black ink drawing your art will turn out sharp and clean!

I receive this suggestion from e-mail from a fellow artist so all the credits go to him.
Submitted and written by Otoniel Duran

1.Select the layer with the lines (make sure the whole layer background has a color "whatever color" or just the corners).

2.Ctrl+A to select the whole layer.

3.Ctrl+C to copy the layer.

4.Alt+click on the layer mask to edit it.

5.Ctrl+V to paste the image there.

6.Ctrl+I to inverse the colours of the image on the layer mask.

7.Now Click on the normal Layer to edir the original image with the lines.

8.Select all and Delete the whole layer.

9.Now paint bucket the whole layer with black.

***Also you guys can make an action buttons for any of the technique. Then when you have to do it again you just click the button without having to go through the whole thing over again.

And there you go... Paint anything under the layer with the lines without havint to set it to multiply.
And if you want to paint the lines just paint on the black layer where the lines were originaly.

You can also make a copy layer with all the colours of the drawing, Gausian blur it around 10 or more, make a layer on top with a dark hot color, color burn it for 80% opacity something like that, merge it...
copy it... paste on top of the layer that had the lines once... and merge it down .. hit preserve :)... and there you go lines with similar colors of the drowing but darker... can always get darker~to~black with the burn tool ;p

Submitted and written by Otoniel Duran

If you have any suggestion and tips on Photoshop technique or anything drawing related that we should share. Feel free to submit your article via email (xiataptara@hotmail.com)

Thanks for sharing and have fun

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Concept artists VS Illustrators, what make them differ

I just found a really good article today. I thought about it accumulate some thinking write some stuff and thought I would share it with you guys.

The line often blur half of the time between being a Concept artist and an illustrator.
Good illustration doesn't make it a good concept art piece to solve the puzzle.
Likewise, great concept art piece doesn't make it a decent illustration either.
So what make them differ?
What define concept art?
What define Illustration?


Concept Artist vs. Illustrator

Concept Art define:
Concept art is a form of (rough or detail) illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in movies, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design.
A concept artist is an individual who generates a visual design for an item, character, or area that does not yet exist. This includes, but is not limited to, film production, animation production and more recently video game production. A concept artist may be required for nothing more than preliminary artwork, or may be required to be part of a creative team until a project reaches fruition. While it is necessary to have the skills of a fine artist, a concept artist must also be able to work to strict deadlines in the capacity of a graphic designer. Interpretation of ideas and how they are realised is where the concept artist's individual creativity is most evident, as subject matter is often beyond their control.
Term of concept art is base on reference to preproduction design is ambiguous at best, but it may have come about as part of automotive design or as part of the animation industry. Certainly, both industries had need for people who did this job even if the term had not come into use.

Illustration:
An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information (such as a story, poem or newspaper article) by providing a visual representation.
An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, or the illustration may be intended for entertainment, as in greeting cards, or cover art or interior art for books and magazines, or for advertisement, as on posters.


In the game industry and elsewhere, there is a position called "concept artist". The job responsibility for a concept artist is to communicate to the development team what the game will look like. It is a simple task to define, but there are few people who excel at it. Even worse, most people who are hiring or working with concept artists don't really understand what makes good concept art.
The root of this problem is that most people do not understand the difference between a piece of concept art and an illustration. Yes, they are both static, graphic depictions of something. But the difference in intent could not be larger.
An illustration is an end in itself. It is meant to be presented directly to the final audience. The audience is meant to see an illustration, and come away with a certain feeling or understanding of a visual event. This directly implies a hard division between what is and is not important in illustrative work.
It is important that an illustration be attractive. It must use color and shading in a way that evokes the desired response in the audience. It should been constructed so that line weight and spatial contrast work to convey certain feelings about the different portions of the drawing.
More cool thoughts and reading on MollyRocket.com

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Drawing to Painting transition Mass drawing method

How to transition you drawing style into painting.
A lot of people having a hard time transitioning from drawing into painting.
I can really understand because drawing and painting to me use different mentality to execute.

* Drawing (verb) is the act of making marks on a surface so as to create an image, form or shape. Mostly using define lines.
* The produced image is also called a drawing (noun). A quick, unrefined drawing may be defined as a sketch.

In simplistic terms, drawing is distinct from painting, perhaps more so in the Western view. Drawing is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper. The term drawing suggests a process and intent that is distinct from the traditional act of painting. While there are drawings that are finished artworks, drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem solving and composition, often as a means of preparation for a painting. In contrast, traditional painting is often a means of execution or finishing an artwork. It is fair to note that modern painters often incorporate methods of drawing in their painting process, particularly in the early stages of a painting.

There is a particular type of drawing that will get you closer to the painterly result and will help you translate your pencil mark into analytical thinking method of painters.
Mass drawing refers to rendering the solidity of the subject by masses of tone or color, without emphasizing lines or edges.

Mass drawing in monochrome oil paint is one of the transitional steps from drawing to painting. The purpose of mass drawing is to bring students “from simple outlines to approach the full realization of form in all the complexity of light and shade.”

In this demonstration, four logical steps by Horold Speed:

Step 1. The blocking in of various areas in charcoal.
Step 2. Middletone block-in with lights painted into it
Step 3. Shadows added with dark paint.
Step 4. Refinement and completion.

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