Lychee got a tablet!

[Lychee Fruit]

I love watercolors, but using them exclusively has held me back professionally and artistically. I've known that ever since I began using them, and always wanted to learn how to work with a tablet. A friend hooked me up with her old Bamboo, and now.... well, I don't know a thing about digital painting! What frustrates me most is opacity and blending. Got any tips or tuts to share with me, guys~? heart

Mini-rant: Also, man, I know they don't mean to, but a few people are being insensitive about the whole thing. "Why would you do digital art? Don't sell out!" "Real artists don't use a computer to paint for them!" I'm already feeling insecure, I don't need that! >.<  

[Szen]

My advice, if you're using Photoshop, is to do everything with the paintbrush tool, and ignore all the other tools' existence. I think that using any of the other tools is what makes digital art look like it was done on a computer. The brush tool has a lot of flexibility, and you can create your own texture brushes, adjust flow, etc. If you use Painter, it has settings which mimic traditional media. I know a lot of traditional artists prefer it for that reason.

The opacity thing is really frustrating. Whenever something happens that causes my settings to reset, I nearly rip my hair out trying to figure out how I had it. You'd think I'd learn, and write down the settings or something. xp I'm not on my work computer, but I think I have both opacity and flow set around 20, and the opacity set to vary with pen pressure. I can look up my exact settings if you want, but you probably want to play with them yourself to find what works for you.

And screw art snobs. People were the same way about digital cameras, and now pretty much all professionals use them. It's not as if you haven't already proven yourself with traditional media, which is more than many digital artists can say.  

[Junimaia]

I'd share tips but I'm getting re-aquainted with Photoshop after abandoning srs digital drawings for like years. So I'm like at the same spot you are cause I don't remember nothin' xD Except for maybe the fact that layers are mah buddy. heart  

[Undead Honey Cake]

my advice is to download "Easy Paint Tools Sai" it's free and a chinese program, but a quick search on Youtube will show you how to install and change it to english.

I find it to be a better program for drawing in, it has better pressure sensitivity and more tools. There are a lot of good tutorials on DA too for using it, and the blur tool is lovely for shading.

i still use photoshop for somethings but i do most of the drawing in Sai.