BY ALICE FONTAENESI
STAFF WRITER
Hi, you’ve read the title and know what’s going to happen. I just want to say before I start that depending on the art program you use you might not be able to use some tips. I use ibisPaint X on android for digital art and most of the tips here can be applied to the program.
- Reference
A bad tip for artists is to stop using references. Before you start your piece, try to collect some reference to help. The internet has many references you can find like anatomy, clothing, hair, and et cetera. Sometimes real-life references help like your own hand. People think that for some reason if you keep using reference you’ll never improve and that those professional artists never use reference because they don’t need it. Those professionals have an entire library of references they keep inside their minds, but I would recommend staying with physical and visual references if you’re new.
- Sketch On Paper
When starting digital art it’s hard to sketch in the art program. You’re not used to the new way of drawing. You can draw on paper and import the picture into the program. Sometimes some poses or specific parts like the eyes just need the traditional art to perfect it. Once you get used to drawing digitally you’ll be able to sketch in the program.
- Different Colors For The Sketch
When you’re finally able to sketch digitally things can get really messy. An easy way to keep things organized is sketching with different colors. That way it doesn’t feel like everything blends together and you can tell which part is which. I would recommend using color for anatomy, facial features, objects, guidelines, and patterns. Use bright colors that aren’t next to each other on the color wheel, so each part will stand out.
- Sprucing Up Line Art
An easy way to make line art is tracing the sketch, but how to make the line art a bit more interesting? Depending on where the light is coming from you can make the lines thinner for lighter areas and the darker areas thicker. You can use just about any brush for line art, but most of the time I like to use a thin pen with smooth edges. When you finish coloring and shading you can put a clipping mask over the line art and color it. Coloring the line art makes the art feel more realistic and just better in general.
- Easy Shortcuts For Line Art
All of us have struggled with line art at some point. Short cuts and easy tricks can help a lot. If you’re having trouble drawing the other eye then you can copy-paste the other eye and adjust it. Most artists think that the longer it took for a piece to be made the more appreciation and gratitude they would receive, but I think it’s better to spend less time on a piece and have better quality than the other way around.
You can apply the eye trick to just about any part of the piece like face and foreground objects like plants. Obviously, you can adjust them, so it isn’t as recognizable. Sometimes it’s better to not copy and paste because it just feels more organic, but that is up to you.
Another good idea is to put your line art on multiple layers. Usually, this might not be mandatory because most of the adjusting goes into the sketch layer, but we all make mistakes. You could have a layer for facial features, hands, and et cetera. This way it’ll be easy to adjust the line art without interfering with anything else.
- Smooth Line Art
Clean line art is desired most of the time, but it’s a struggle to get it to the way you want it. Draw in long strokes and not small ones to avoid uneven lines. If your program has a stabilizer tool then use it; it’ll save you, I promise. Zooming in to get little details is also recommended, but you can get confused about where you are. A good way to keep you from getting confused as to use the navigator. A navigator is a little box that shows a zoomed-out view of your piece. It’ll show where you are with a small box.
Not everything will be good on your first try, so don’t get frustrated when a line isn’t how you wanted it. We all make mistakes.
- Coloring and Clipping Masks
Once you’ve got line art you’ll add color. An easy way to color is filling the area you want and then applying a clipping mask on it. Clipping masks are extremely helpful because if you draw on a clipping mask the color will only show up in the area that is colored on the layer below. You’ll want to have a clipping mask for skin, clothes, hair, and any other area you want to color. You can also easily put soft shadows in those areas without worrying about going outside of the lines or interfering with other parts of the piece.
This does not apply to backgrounds and you’ll probably want to do this with characters or objects in the piece.
- Hair Highlights
Hair can be quite tricky when it comes to highlighting and shadows. The way I usually add highlights to hair is like this. First, I create a layer above the hair (a clipping mask is preferred). I choose a light color (preferably a lighter version of the hair color, but depending on the color of the lighting and stuff like that then choose any color you want), and color in small areas of the hair in the direction the hair is going. Then I blur the color and use the smudge tool to move the color inward in the direction the hair is going. I change the layer to Add, and everything is done. Sometimes I’m not satisfied with the color, so I adjust it with the filter tool in ibisPaint.
Of course, there are many other methods you can use, but this is my way of doing it.
- Airbrush Shading Mistake
A mistake that many beginners make is using airbrushes to shade everything. Airbrush is a good tool for soft shadows and other details, but doing just that will make your piece seem unnatural. If you do that on a person it’ll make them look like a bad plastic figure. The next tip shows an easy way to shade, but there are many different methods to shade depending on your technique.
- Easy Shading Trick
After you have the coloring done it’s time for shading. Put a clipping mask for all of the color and color everything in dark purple. Change the layer to Multiply and lower the opacity. I usually lower the opacity to 49%, but you can choose your preference. Erase the parts of the piece that don’t need shading, and you’ve got your shading done. Again, most artists think that the longer it takes, the more appreciation they will get, but I prefer less time and better quality.
- Magic Wand and Transform
The magic wand and transform tool can help you a bunch. If you use the magic wand on an area of your piece then only that area can be color/erased/just about anything. This is a great tool to keep your colors in a single area.
The transform tool is mostly recommended for sketching, but you can use it for other things. Transform can be used to change a part of your piece. You can make it longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, and et cetera. This can help with the pose of a character or the perspective.
- Expensive Tablets and Programs
If you go on the internet you can find a lot of artists that use expensive tablets and art programs, and most people think that to create great art that’s what they need. That is a complete lie. Art is a skill that you acquire and good quality tablets might help, but it’s how you use it that counts. I downloaded a free app on my phone and used my finger to draw in the program. That cost me zero dollars, and that goes to show you don’t need expensive programs or tablets.
Now that you’ve got all that in your head I hope creating digital art will be at least a bit easier. No matter what medium you use art will be hard at first, but once you practice things will feel easier. Also, remember that digital art is real art.