Help needed in Digital Colouring

[Shiiro]

My art skills are okay... But I have a huge problem in colouring. Last week my friend recommended me to download GIMP but I have no idea how to use it!

I want to colour some sprites I've drawn, but I can't seem to do it properly. It always turns out ugly...

My ultimate weakness is in colouring the hair and the eyes, and the clothes (Yes I have a lot of weaknesses). But my ultimate weakness is IN THE HAIR!! I CAN'T COLOUR THEM PROPERLY!!

No matter how much I try...

Are there any tutorials in colouring awesome hair with GIMP? And awesome clothes? And skin? And eyes?

(Frankly, any tutorial that can help me colour professionally... But I really need the hair tutorial!!)

Thank you for helping!! Sorry for bothering...

[Sin]

Why do people keep recommending Gimp? It may be free but it's not designed to be user-friendly and is a really terrible recommendation to make to someone not already familiar with other art tools, like Photoshop. In my opinion Photoshop is much easier to use than Gimp.

Digital art is all about the tools you use and it's crucial that you find one that you're comfortable to work in. If you don't like Gimp then don't use it. It's as simple as that. There are plenty of options and you should try to find something that suits your needs.
Once you're comfortable with a tool, you can start worrying about techniques and such. Experimentation is the best and fastest way to learn art.

My favorite tool is OpenCanvas, which I use for both drawing and coloring. Some people prefer Photoshop. I usually recommend OpenCanvas because it doesn't cost much more than an Xbox game, but I just read that the developer has decided to discontinue the english version.

[Jake]

Why do people keep recommending Gimp?

It seems to me there are two reasons.

One is that it's free, and recommending free things is generally more useful to more people than recommending things which cost $60 (or whatever) for the cheapest version of.

Secondly, though, is that it's GPLed, and [Crazy] Open-Source people are willing to be forgiving of a lot of flaws just to get GPLed software... and quite frequently hate Microsoft enough to not recommend things like Paint.NET because they don't want to further the evil world-domineering goals of the .NET framework or some such rubbish.

I guess it's cross-platform, too, but... hey, it seems to me there are often better alternatives on platforms which aren't Linux.



(Disclaimer: I haven't really touched GIMP in several years, so it may have improved. On the other hand, the main reason I haven't touched it in so long is because it was so horrible to use the last time I did try seriously.)

[PyTom]

Having used GIMP since it was based on Motif, I find it easier to use that Photoshop, at least for the sorts of things I use it for. (Basic editing with layers, adjusting photos, etc.) When I eventually tried Photoshop, I found the thing confusing, and had trouble accomplishing some of the things I did easily on the GIMP. (It's been quite a while, so I don't recall what those things are, offhand.)

From what I understand, when working in the RGB colorspace, as with web or VN work, the GIMP is often enough to accomplish what's needed. Given that it costs $699 less than Photoshop, it's fairly easy to recommend to people who are unlikely to make substantial software investements.

[KimiYoriBaka]

...there's also GIMPshop, which is supposed to look and feel more like photoshop, but using the gimp's code. think gimp but with more of an attempt to be user friendly.

[Jake]

Having used GIMP since it was based on Motif, I find it easier to use that Photoshop, at least for the sorts of things I use it for.

OK, but here's the thing: Photoshop behaves more or less like every other piece of image-editing software in existence, they nearly all share a common approach to a lot of things... GIMP does not. So by recommending people use GIMP, if they get used to it, they're being crippled in their ability to use any other software... while someone who gets used to any regular image editing suite is likely to find it easy to transition to any other regular image editing suite.

From what I understand, when working in the RGB colorspace, as with web or VN work, the GIMP is often enough to accomplish what's needed.

Yes, but that's ignoring ease of use and concentrating on featureset. I realise that this is a bit of an ingrained habit of the Open Source crowd (possibly because they have very few usability experts amongst their number) but honestly - from what I understand, when trying to get from one place to another, a Model T Ford is often enough to accomplish what's needed. But man, I wouldn't recommend anyone try and drive one.

And persisting in comparing it to only Photoshop is disingenuous in the extreme - that's like saying "you can have a Model T Ford that's really cheap/free, and sure - it's not the easiest car to drive on the planet, but when the alternative is a 1.4 million dollar Lamborghini, it's fairly easy to recommend the Ford". You're ignoring the fact that there are plenty of other cheap or even free image-editing suites around that are far easier to use... and honestly, given that they get mentioned in threads like these all the time, the only reason I can think of for this persistence in ignoring them is to push a FOSS agenda.


(And GIMPShop? A friend and I who both use Photoshop gave it a brief go, and we were both extremely hard-pressed to notice any differences at all [between it and GIMP]. As far as I could tell they just re-mapped all the keyboard shortcuts? That doesn't help new users at all.)

[adrix89]

Is it me or the software isn't really relevant to his question?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWKECLQhNc

[Jake]

Is it me or the software isn't really relevant to his question?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWKECLQhNc

Depends. If the question is "how can I do this one thing, after I've done this one thing once then I never want to touch digital art again", then sure, the software is irrelevant.

If the question is "I want to get into digital art, here's where I want to start, can anyone help", then the software is relevant. It would be irresponsible to fail to point out that the GIMP is not the most friendly place to start. As Sin said, it's important to be comfortable with your tools, so it makes sense to try out a few different options before settling down and learning one thoroughly.

Not to mention that the more "high-end" you want to get with your art, the less likely you'll find tutorials or helpful articles that cover the GIMP. Why? Because pretty much nobody who produces high-end art uses it, and as far as I recall from the last time I tried, with good reason.

[adrix89]

Since when are the BASICS irrelevant depending on the software you use?
Both photoshop and gimp have brushes and layers and masks and blend modes
What do you NEED more for coloring sprites?
Sure photoshop is good with brushes and effects and other stuff ,this I can understand but none will help if you have no idea how to color and use layers properly which probably is where he fails
Sure he can try all software he likes but the BASICS are not dependent on software you use
What I'm saying is quit your yapping about software and go find some useful tutorials which that is what he asked

Heres some more tutorials I have found
http://cynder-and-spyro-fan.deviantart. ... l-97848854
http://ramy.deviantart.com/art/Anime-Ha ... ?offset=20

[Shiiro]

Is it me or the software isn't really relevant to his question?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWKECLQhNc

Finally! Thank you for understanding the purpose of this topic!

[Shiiro]

Since when are the BASICS irrelevant depending on the software you use?
Both photoshop and gimp have brushes and layers and masks and blend modes
What do you NEED more for coloring sprites?
Sure photoshop is good with brushes and effects and other stuff ,this I can understand but none will help if you have no idea how to color and use layers properly which probably is where he fails
Sure he can try all software he likes but the BASICS are not dependent on software you use
What I'm saying is quit your yapping about software and go find some useful tutorials which that is what he asked

Heres some more tutorials I have found
http://cynder-and-spyro-fan.deviantart. ... l-97848854
http://ramy.deviantart.com/art/Anime-Ha ... ?offset=20

The second tutorial is VERY VERY useful! It's exactly how I want to learn to colour hair! Thanks a lot pal, may God bless you.

[Jake]

Since when are the BASICS irrelevant depending on the software you use?
Both photoshop and gimp have brushes and layers and masks and blend modes
What do you NEED more for coloring sprites?

Sure. But if you get into the habit of using one piece of software - particularly one which doesn't do things the same as every other piece of software, as PyTom has demonstrated - you'll have trouble changing to other bits of software later. And if someone wants to become a digital artist and is going to look at tutorials a lot, it's probably better to not use a piece of software which is going to become a serious limiting factor in the future.

If I want to learn programming, I don't start out with BASIC, because while the concepts of control structures are the same, it will teach me bad habits that aren't useful in other languages. If I want to learn to ride a motorcycle, I don't start out driving a car, because while the road laws are the same, there aren't so many transferrable skills in controlling the vehicle and I'd be better off just learning to ride the bike in the first place. If I want to learn Italian, there's little point in learning German first just because the basic concepts of verb conjugation and so on are the same across all Western European languages. So yes, it's entirely reasonable to mention it - it doesn't directly answer the question, but it's an important thing for someone new to digital art to consider. If you only ever answer direct questions in as short a way as possible, then people trying to learn things will have a lot harder a time of it.

[Sin]

Is it me or the software isn't really relevant to his question?

Yes and no. It's not important which software you use, as long as you're comfortable using it. That was the only point I was making.
Software is just a tool and tools are supposed to be transparent. If you're spending too much time fiddling with settings or trying to find the correct brush or menu then that will impede on your productivity and in the end your creativity.

Gimp is probably okay once you get over the learning curve, but you can say that about any software. I've seen better and "free" is not a redeeming quality.

[Wintermoon]

Gimp is probably okay once you get over the learning curve, but you can say that about any software.

No, you can't. Some software just plain doesn't have the necessary functionality, and no amount of learning is ever going to overcome this. Nobody is recommending MSPaint, even if it is free.

I've seen better and "free" is not a redeeming quality.

No, but it is a prerequisite for many people. A useless program isn't going to become useful just because it's free, but if the program costs more than one is willing to pay, then it doesn't matter how useful it is.

Which free programs would you recommend over Gimp?

[KimiYoriBaka]

Nobody is recommending MSPaint, even if it is free.

Which free programs would you recommend over Gimp?

I prefer mspaint to gimp. I only use gimp if I need to resize something or make a background transparent.