Drawing / Sketching / Digital Painting

Affinity just came out for Windows. It is a popular and long time Illustrator alternative on the mac.
I have been meaning to try it out but haven't gotten the chance.

muraii wrote:

Does anyone here use something for digital art other than Photoshop or Illustrator with a tablet and really like it? I'm pondering trying PS CC for a month to see if my tablet works more smoothly with it. Of course at this point that's like buying running shoes without first starting a running habit but….

There are two open-source alternatives I can think of: GIMP and Krita, both available for Mac, Windows and Linux. GIMP is a clone of Photoshop that looks pretty bad but seems fairly powerful. Krita is more a digital painting program. I'm not a big user of either, so I can't say anything about their quality, but they're free.

Thanks y'all! I've tried Sketchbook (free version) and while I liked it, I guess, it seemed difficult to get smooth lines with my tablet. Maybe that's because I was using an old GTX 460 and now that I have a 950 maybe it'll render better. (I would assume this phenomenon doesn't have anything to do with GPU but I have sufficient RAM and a non-suck CPU so....)

I've used GIMP on and off for at least a decade but never really dug deep into it. I was watching videos from CTRL + PAINT and just marveled at how nice the PS UI is.

Bought Sketchbook Pro 6 for like $12 at Amazon on sale a few years ago, and really enjoyed it, and have a copy of Corel Painter 8 somewhere from when I used to use my tablet a lot. That's better for stimulating oil on canvas, watercolor, etc..., but can't go wrong with either.

OT - If Jeff66 is still reading this thread, could they please, please, please edit the title to include a space or something in the "Drawing/Sketching/Digital" part of the title? On some mobile platforms (like my iPhone using LastPass) it screws up the page that it is on and makes it impossible to click on "x New posts" on the right hand side of the page.

Thanks.

For smooth lines wouldn't a pen tool be better? The best thing I remember about Painter was the color wheel

Songbird wrote:

For smooth lines wouldn't a pen tool be better? The best thing I remember about Painter was the color wheel

Not smooth as in vector, but smooth sketch strokes. If I sketch back and forth the lines get a little jaggy, like the tablet or the PC can't keep up and catches up.

I guess, it seemed difficult to get smooth lines with my tablet.

What tablet are you using? some tablets are literally not able to draw straight lines at certain drawing speeds due to various hardware glitches, even when following a ruler.

krev82 wrote:
I guess, it seemed difficult to get smooth lines with my tablet.

What tablet are you using? some tablets are literally not able to draw straight lines at certain drawing speeds due to various hardware glitches, even when following a ruler.

I'm not describing this well. I'm not going after straight lines, but a smooth sketch line. Something like these lines (not my graphic):

IMAGE(http://www.yjstudios.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/double-click-large.jpg)

When I try something like this with my Wacom Bamboo (which admittedly is not a high-end tablet but would seem capable of this basic performance) the lines are overly straight, like somewhere along the stroke the tablet or PC got overwhelmed and then some milliseconds later caught the new position and linearly interpolated the intermittent stroke.

I'm just going to fiddle around. I had thought maybe it was the engine inside GIMP or whichever app I was using, but it might just as likely be that I need to learn better how to sketch with a tablet.

Ah, I see. I cannot speak from experience with this product but others seem positive about it. I do not know whether this could resolve your issue, but it might be nice to know about
https://lazynezumi.com/home

Best of luck

Obliged!

muraii wrote:

I'm just going to fiddle around. I had thought maybe it was the engine inside GIMP or whichever app I was using, but it might just as likely be that I need to learn better how to sketch with a tablet.

I'm not familiar with GIMP, but are there fidelity options for various tools? I wonder if that might help?

In Illustrator, for example, there is a pencil tool fidelity slider for balancing accuracy and smoothness with hand drawn lines.

I used to get the same blotchy lines with the bamboo so that might be either a quirk of the hardware or of smaller tablets. One of the things I think that is helping me get smoother lines now is simply moving to a bigger (roughly A3 size) tablet.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

In Illustrator, for example, there is a pencil tool fidelity slider for balancing accuracy and smoothness with hand drawn lines.

I still use an aging bamboo and yeah, if want smooth lines in illustrator have to play with the fidelity.

I'd like to upgrade at some point.

I finished that Illustrator course and wouldn't change my initial comments that I wrote before: really good on specific skill instruction but weak on application of the learning. Overall I'd give it four stars out of five, though, and I'm glad I took it.

I've been thinking about how to apply and practice the learning a bit, and am leaning toward one of two options. Apple iOS introduced stickers to their iMessage functionality a while back, and the current geocaching sticker set is weak. I'm thinking to practice my Illustrator skills by creating an improved sticker set for iOS and toss it up in iTunes, either for free or for 99 cents. A second idea is to attempt some of the drawing and design job contests on freelancer sites like Freelancer.com. The goal with both of these wouldn't be to make money, but to get practice applying drawing and design skills in Illustrator.

Bubblefuzz wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

In Illustrator, for example, there is a pencil tool fidelity slider for balancing accuracy and smoothness with hand drawn lines.

I still use an aging bamboo and yeah, if want smooth lines in illustrator have to play with the fidelity.

I'd like to upgrade at some point.

I've been using my Intuos this week to do some online grading of written submissions from students in a Chrome extension, and I noticed that I have fidelity issues when I do that. I haven't had any issues using the Intuos anywhere else, which makes me think that either fidelity is kind of messed up over an internet connection or the Chrome extension has fidelity issues interpreting the tablet.

working on some iterations of a steam mech type deal.
IMAGE(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn175/Rob_Anybody_82/steambotideas_17.01.18.jpg)
the second is neat, but it's a little more sci-fiey than I want to go.

Thanks!!!

I always feel like my bluelines get too detailed. I need to keep myself in check and remember to just use them for general placement, but I keep developing the idea on the fly, and don't want to forget later on down the line.
IMAGE(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn175/Rob_Anybody_82/steambotideas3_24.01.18_1.jpg)

Nice work Rob! I like the cybernetic blend.

Anyone tried any drawing figures with this much poseability? https://sugarandcotton.com/collectio...

(It's a limited- time-only kinda thing but I'm sure it'll be back around.)

muraii wrote:

Anyone tried any drawing figures with this much poseability? https://sugarandcotton.com/collectio...

(It's a limited- time-only kinda thing but I'm sure it'll be back around.)

I like how the stand gently cradles the taint.

"Ssssssh. I'm here for you."

I have not, but I did back THIS in indiegogo, which should *hopefully* be finished some time this year.

That looks hawt.

Just finished another drawing. Took forever on this one since I kept having to miss class. Still was fun and turned out alright. Do hate leaves still and circles are a pain.

IMAGE(https://preview.ibb.co/jiF54a/IMG_20170713_194414810.jpg)

Circles in perspective are definitely a pain.

School is done, and now I can get back to my second favorite time waster, drawing robots.
IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ebhybpwa12mvbjx/domebot_05.09.17.jpg)

Progress is slow, but it is progress.
IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hdwk8kyk4750zju/domebot_08.09.19.jpg)

Anyone using a display tablet that doesn't cost a lot? I was just looking at some and the price range is all over the place.

Decided to change up the hands to actual articulated fingers rather than copping out and doing clamps. Also wanted to make some changes to the way the arms were structured. I think it looks better.
IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/pukt41e8o1oumrm/domebot_23.09.17.jpg)