Photoshop Help

[Ventara]

Hi, I've recently started working on my drawing skills and am looking to get help/tips/advice. I'm using Photoshop CS5 and a Bamboo Pen Tablet (btw, is there a better pen tablet to use? I only got this recently and it seems fine). Anyways, on to the questions.

1.) How do you guys get all those perfect curves and straight lines? I've tried using the pen tool, but it's either useless or I don't know how to use it (probably the latter), because it's just showing up as completely separate from anything I draw.

2.) How do you cut and move parts of your drawing? or rotate them?

3.) Can you transfer a layer (of whatever drawing) to a different drawing? If so, how?

4.) I've been using the smudge and blur tools for shading. Is there anything else to use for shading, or is that it?

5.) How do you get additional colours for your palette (yes, I'm an idiot)?

6.) Do you have any tips for a photoshop user? Stuff that made you go "Ohhh" or would've been really useful had you known earlier.

7.) Are there any other drawing programs that are better to use?

Thank you in advance for any help. I hope I didn't come off as lazy or too stupid with my questions.

[EternalDream]

Oh I happen to have the same tools as you xD Pen Tablet is good for me at least~ I mostly use SAI these days but I do know how to use a bit of photoshop... at least the basics.

1) Ah... I think there's a setting you have to change. I usually draw in SAI rather than photoshop because of this so I can't answer this question. ; v ; But I think an option would be the vector tool. Google it to find out more since I've never really used it before. OTL

2) Lasso or selection box (the 2nd and 3rd tool on toolbox) To move, select what you need to be moved, then click on the first tool in the toolbox and move it to where ever you want.

3) Yup although it's a bit troublesome, you can click on the eye icon beside your layer box of all the layers you don't want to "transfer" and then save the picture as .png. Then open the picture you want the layer to be transferred on and then go to file > place. Rest should be easy...

Or you can just paste the image you want to put the layer on as the most bottom layer. But using this method means that you assume that the image is not in layers.

4) Hm... Well when I used photoshop, I didn't use the smudge at all. But I did use the blur tool... sometimes. I guess another way of shading would be to change the density and hardness of the brushes (like I did). OuOb There's also the burn tool but I didn't like that one much either since you couldn't control the colors it was giving off.

5) Have the color you want to fill as your foreground color (the box on top of the bottom box) and then hover your mouse over an empty swatch and click it. Then it asks to confirm if you would like a certain color to be in that box.

6) No... I mostly have those ohh moments when I accidentally colored something and then realized it looked pretty good lol (at least better than before). Actually, in the beginning before I even started coloring I watched a ton of youtube videos on cging in photoshop. Because for me graphics beat reading a wall of text any day ~v~

7) I really like Paint Tool SAI. It's faster than PS since PS is pretty slow. However I still have to use PS since on SAI you can't really edit or render photos and stuff =u=/

I hope I understood what you were asking properly;; And I hope I helped haha because I know my answers aren't that good. OTL I'm basically just saying how I used to do these kinds of tasks on photoshop. I have no idea if it's the best way or not lol... and don't worry about it at all. I've asked stupider question before so it's all good. =u=b

[sorani]

Well, I'm not very familiar with Photoshop, but there are some questions that are easy for me to answer:
1) I suppose the line tool? Or maybe you want to try vector lines? But if you mean but freehand line art, that comes with practice, other than that, idk.

2) I know that the transform key does that, [ctrl+t] I suppose. Another way is by using the dotted square or the lasso tool to circle the object to select it, then you can transform it using the shortcut [ctrl+t].

3)If you mean by placing a regular picture file, like .png or .jpg onto a .psd file, then you have to go to [File] and click on [Place], then you chose your picture file.

4)I've never used blur or smudge, well possibly since I don't use Photoshop often, unless editing pictures.
I would just shade it by filling in the color, click opacity lock on the layer, then use a hard brush to shade it, like cell-shading. I prefer defined shading over smudged shading since for me it's quicker.

5) Go to your swatches and add a color? For me (I'm using Photoshop CS4), swatches is on the right-hand side. Click there and there should be a paintbucket icon which will allow you to add a color and name it.

6)I have no tips, since I too am a beginner and I don't use Photoshop often, but I guess it's handy to know that you can add textures to your drawings to give it some quality. Another would be that Photoshop is good when putting finishing touches on drawings and scanned drawings.

7)There are a lot of art programs that can be used, most of them are not free, like Paint Tool Sai. There's a trial version if you want to try it out.
Another would be Paint.Net, which is freeware. Another free program would be Gimp, which can act like Photoshop, but you already have Photoshop. There's opencavas, Art Rage, Coral painter, Adobe Illustrator, and some others I didn't name.
I prefer Paint Tool Sai, since it's easy to use, but that's just me.

As for tablets, I have the same one as yours, a Bamboo Pen, for about a year now. It only broke down once, but I had it fixed. It works perfectly fine and I feel no urge to get another.

I hope this helps you or has answered all your questions, and also, I believe there are other topics on lemmasoft that have similar questions about tablets and art programs, so you can go search and read those.

[LVUER]

1. People usually work with insanely high resolution (ranging from 1000s to 5000s). So when they shrink/lower the resolution, all those lines looks smooth.

2. You could use transform or free-transform... or you could rotate the entire canvas.

3. Different drawing, you mean different layer or different file? Anyway, you could use copy layer or you could use the old trusty couple: ctrl+A and copy+paste (no matter it's to other layer or to different file)

4. I don't think there's anything else. What's more important is the technique, not tools. You could use dodge or burn, but not recommended.

5. You can, but I forget the exact way. Have to mess Photoshop again to refresh my memory (and I use Elements 5, not CS5, so the exact way is a little bit different)

6. I don't think so... you could always try tutorial that you could found everywhere in internet. Try them.

7. Yup, there sure are. In fact, Photoshop is not the best software out there to draw. Photoshop is an IMAGE-EDITING program. It's neat to color and it's EXCELLENT to do some filtering or other effects... but it does poor job at drawing itself. Try SAI Paint Tools. It's very good and very cheap.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Bamboo is fine for your purposes now. There are more sophisticated tablets, but they are also a lot more expensive.

1. You have to stroke the lines when you use the pen tool. I don't use it however as it kind of makes a tablet redundant because there is no line variation. You can hold the shift key to get straight lines. As for curves, the best you can do is have a high resolution (300 dpi minimum) and try to draw with confidence from the elbow.

2. To cut away a part you can use the selection tool (looks like a rectangle that is made up of dashes) or one of the lasso tools. You than select the area and you can use the move tool (looks like an arrow) or you can press Ctrl T for transform the area and rotate it. This will only work on one layer at a time. You can rotate and transform multiple whole layers though. There is also a tool to rotate the entire page which is very useful when drawing clean lines. It looks like a hand with a rotate arrow.

3. Yes. You can move one or more layers to another drawing by having both windows open and using the move tool (Arrow) to drag and drop the layers.

4. Yes, brushes, lower opacity and the eye drop tool are most commonly used. Smudge and blur are not very good options.

5. I just click on the little coloured squares that signify which colour I use and select a new colour from there. You can also set up colour palettes as well. There is a little downward arrow and some lines in the corner of the colour palette menu that can be used as a drop down menu.

6. Liquify filter can do miracles when used sparingly. Also the airbrush is awesome. And the layer modes are really good, definitely try them out. Frankly there are A LOT of good things once you know photoshop.

7. Sai is quite popular, but I still prefer photoshop. Coral also has really nice natural painting tool. Photoshop is just so useful though and is very flexible once you get used to it. Most professional digital artist tend to use photoshop or coral.

[Ventara]

Thank you everyone for all the help!

I'll try drawing in a higher resolution from now on, and now that I know how to cut and move, I might just use MS Paint for all the lines and curves. I'll also check out the trial for Sai and see if I find that a bit better.

You guys have definitely given me a lot to check out and look into for the next few days, what with opacity and airbrushes and everything else.

Thanks again! I really appreciate it. Hopefully I'll be able to show my gratitude by one day making a VN you guys enjoy.

[lordcloudx]

I use both SAI and photoshop. If you're familiar with how the line tool works in MS Paint, you should have no problem adapting to SAI's line tool since it's pretty much the same. Photoshop is a whole different animal altogether. I personally prefer it to SAI because I like having transparent layers and being able to output transparent sprites. The pen tool isn't that hard to use. As a non-tablet-user, I use it for doing pretty much everything. Here's an image tutorial from deviantart that should get you started on the right track: http://acaraluv.deviantart.com/art/line ... l-21814747

[Ventara]

Thanks for posting that link, but I can't seem to follow it past the Stroke Path part. I'm selecting Brush and clicking ok, but nothing happens to the line. Any help?

[lordcloudx]

we're getting a bit off-topic so I'll limit the reply to this one time since it might be useful for others too. We can take it to PM after this: I think you might be making a newbie mistake? Check that you've changed the foreground color for your brush to black or something. If you have a white background and you're stroking it with a white foreground brush, then you won't see a thing coz you're just painting white over white.

this.png (7.19 KiB) Viewed 2396 times

Of course, it would help if you have a screenshot of what's wrong.

[Elze]

1.) Higher resolution, like everyone else said. By default, I work at a4 300dpi. If it has a lot of details and a bg, then a3. Also make sure your brush size is set to pen pressure.

2.) Lasso + transform.

3.) Select layer you want. Use arrow key and drag your picture over to the new picture(different psd window)

4.) Try not to use smudge and blur tool for shading. You have a tablet. Use it. Brush dynamics > Other Dynamics > Opacity (set to pen pressure)

5.) I don't have the colour boxes. I'm using CS3, which has this big box and I can just pick a colour. But I usually just move the values for the colour to get exactly what I want.

6.) Layer locks and the clipping mask. Saves me so much time. It's all under the blending mode and layer sections. Go experiment.

7.) I've never used SAI but it seems to be the popular alternative. A lot of anime artists use them. I think they're supposed to be easier for lining too. Personally, I hate doing my lines in PS but I don't have a choice since I use a Mac.

[Ventara]

I indeed was making that mistake. Urgh, I'm such an idiot.

Anyways, now that that's solved, OMG, YES! This is so useful! My straight/curved line troubles are all over! Seriously, yes! I'm so glad I found out how to do this. Thank you so much. This solves so many things...I just...YES!

Edit: Seriously, this kind of info needs to be stickied somewhere. What took me hours was done in a few minutes. This makes things so simple it's crazy. I was drawing the same line 10-20 times just to get it right, but with this, there is no need for that. Unbelievable.

Edit 2: I just realized that my wording for my fourth question was off. I didn't actually mean shading (though it still kinda worked out since I learned about opacity, which is awesome), but the blending of two colours. Like having a red colour slowly becoming darker until it's black. Is there a tool to help make that look smoother?

[lordcloudx]

@Ventara: Aside from the blur tool, you can also use the eraser and set it to opacity 20% with a big soft brush.

Also, there is a tool that does what you might be thinking of. It's the gradient tool and is available if you right click on the paint bucket tool.

[Fawn]

Some things not mentioned:

3.) Can you transfer a layer (of whatever drawing) to a different drawing? If so, how?

The easiest (and cleanest) way to do that is right-click your layer and go to "duplicate layer". You'll then get a box with a drop down menu where you can choose where to duplicate the layer. Simply have the image you want to copy the layer onto opened in another canvas, and choose it's file name from the duplicate layer's drop down menu and it will perfectly copy itself in the same area onto the other canvas.
Here's a visual of what I mean (No, I didn't draw the tree, but horrible handwriting is definitely mine):

As you can see it copied perfectly in the same place. It's much more convenient than dragging the layer over because it will be in the same spot; there's no danger of having to drag it all over the place to get it in the right position.

6.) Do you have any tips for a photoshop user? Stuff that made you go "Ohhh" or would've been really useful had you known earlier.

All I can say is have a field day with it. Mess with it, just have fun. I've taught myself almost all the stuff I know in photoshop just from messing around and enjoying myself. A background in art doesn't hurt but, even a non-artist can make pretty cool stuff.

Also, if you want to paint digitally, try not to use the basic brushes! Use the dry media brushes, they're the best and have great textures. And never, EVER use the burn and dodge tool. They make your art look super tacky.

7.) Are there any other drawing programs that are better to use?

I personally use Sai to draw because I have a crappy computer with not enough ram and a crappy graphics card. Drawing in photoshop is horrible for me because it lags... a lot. Sai is great in general for drawing; but if you wanna be a true master and you don't have a crappy computer like me, use photoshop as much as you can!

[Ventara]

Thanks for the help. I'll definitely give some of the other brushes a shot, I'm kind of intrigued at how my drawings will look different with a different brush. All you guys are seriously awesome for all the help you've provided. Today has been a wealth of knowledge for me.

Anyways, I've been drawing a head using the tools you guys told me about. I'll post it here (or should I make another thread?) once it's done so I can get some of your opinions.

While I was doing this though, some more questions popped into my head.

1.) I've seen some people on youtube colouring hair in a much more efficient way than I am. It looks like they outline the hair, delete the background, colour messily, and then do something that deletes all the colour outside the hair. Right now, what I'm doing is just colouring messily, and then slowly going around erasing outside the hair. Is there a better way to colour (like what I've seen on the youtube vids)?

2.) I'm still a little confused on how to rotate a drawing. I've understood that you can select the portion you want to move/rotate with the lasso, and then move it with the move tool. But how do I rotate? Say I just want to rotate it 10 degrees. Can I do that?

[LVUER]

1. Perhaps there is, but different way is better for different people. Find the coloring style that suit you most (experiment), and stick to that style. Since all style eventually leads to one common goal in the first place.

2. Yes, you can. Use transform (rotate) from the menu, don't use free transform or CTRL+T (the menu could be a little different since I'm not using CS5, but I believe you know what I mean).