Factory Mockup By AlbertoV Http://ift.tt/2rf1Mj6 14, 2017 At 02:36AM

Factory Mockup by AlbertoV http://ift.tt/2rf1Mj6 14, 2017 at 02:36AM

Lemon Cheese Cake by luffie 

A portrait practice on skin colors and realism, I quite like this 

What do you need to start doing digital art? 

The ultimate comprehensive guide for the absolute beginners. 

Now, you’ve probably decided to venture into digital art, or digital painting to be more precise but you are a little unsure what you need to get a good start without making too many mistakes. 

I am a digital artist myself, so this guide will be very practical and based on my experience and also many other artists, not just some guide you find on a tech blog. And also, this guides assumes that you want to be serious in digital art, not some casual hobby.

Now without further ado, let’s dive in to the important parts shall we? 

EQUIPMENT

1. A laptop 

When looking for one do take note that it should have 

About 8gb ram or more 

Minimum of 1gb dedicated ram on graphics card, preferably 2gb.

Screen size about 14-15 inch is good.

You might be thinking why not a tablet? Most tablets do not have the computing power to handle large files, which you will do, when doing nice digital illustrations. The screens are too small, forcing you to zoom in and out often, disrupting workflow. And keyboard shortcuts saves a lot of time. 

Of course if you don’t mind, a desktop or workstation with large monitors of even Cintiq (tablet monitor) will be the best ideal solution. But that will add up to quite a lot of budget. And a desktop is not portable. Laptop nowadays have enough power to do some heavy digital art. The ram are what is important to work with digital art in a reliable speed, if you get anything less than that, then you might encounter some major annoyances in speed when your file size starts to get big. Besides, those specs are readily available and will last you for quite some time without needing to upgrade. 

2. A graphics tablet 

There’s not much brand available in the market of tablets, the most popular on is of course Wacom. But there is also various chinese/taiwan brand available in the market. 

My recommendation is: Wacom Intuos 

Preferably A4 size. Unsurprisingly, wacom is also the most expensive brand there is. If budget is a little tight, you can get wacom bamboo that is cheaper, with less sensitivity pressure, but you probably won’t notice it anyway. If you get smaller than A4, your wrist might get sore/tired easily after prolong hours of painting. 

The other brand are actually really usable too, but they require batteries on their pen, and I hate having to forget replacing them and having them dying on crucial moments. Of course, they are much cheaper than wacom, so there’s that. 

In my experience, a wacom intuos is very durable, and will last you a very long time. I am using an old version that is wacom intuos 3 A4 size. It has dropped on the side before, thereby having a crack, but the tablet is still functioning fine, and I haven’t replaced a nib for ever. So I think in the long run, it is a very good investment. Get a good tablet, and if you take care of it, it will probably last you many many years. 

SOFTWARE 

Now there are several popular brands in the market, and from time to time, I always found people asking which software they should use and buy. While different software cater to different needs, not all software are made equal. 

The software that you often hear are probably: 

Photoshop (PS)

Sai 

Clip Studio Paint (CSP)

Corel Painter 

Procreate and Medibang etc 

You can read my detailed review of PS and Painter here. 

But let me throw a short gist here: You want to get serious and go far in digital painting, so you want a software that is robust, reliable and provide powerful tools for professional work. 

In the end, only 3 remain: CSP , PS, and Painter. 

I won’t delve in to the rest, but simply, they don’t have enough professional features to carry you far. 

Now don’t get me wrong, anyone can create great art with whatever tools, hell some can even paint with MS Paint and Mouse. But the appropriate and powerful tool can carry your skills far than MS Paint and mouse will ever do. 

This is not a debate about good art, it’s a guide on the most useful tool for the job. So let’s move on, and I’ll give you a brief description on what each software does. 

Corel Painter: 

If you want to emulate traditional media look and artistic brushes, Painter is easily the king. Here is what painter can do (all my art): 

That oil painting look can be achieved in Painter easily, and it has much more tools like Palette Knife, Watercolors and Pen etc. 

Plus Painter can also create some very sleek line work like this: 

Painter has a “paint on a path” feature, that allows any kind of brush to produce very sleek line work. 

So, line art and Traditional look: Use Painter

Though I have to warn you, the brush control panel is extremely robust and can seem quite daunting at first. And Painter has many annoying quirks and glitches that can be annoying, which you can find out in detail in my review. 

Photoshop 

In summary Photoshop is king, you can read a detailed review here. 

If you are looking to create art like this: 

Or this (and also top banner art): 

Then PS is the answer. It has all the tools you need to do from A to Z. 

Concept art, speed painting, character design: use PS

If you want to do line art though, PS is quite bad at line stabilization, it will look like this at best: 

As you can see it’s not bad, but it can’t produce that sleek and cleanliness that Painter can. While Painter can do it in one stroke, PS needs to do it with multiple stroke and eraser. So if the lines are only used for sketching like me, then PS is fine, otherwise it’s not. 

Clip Studio Paint 

I haven’t dabbled very long in CSP to produce a complete art with it. But CSP is very geared towards those who wanted to create manga in it’s purest form. 

It has multiple options to create Manga panels, it also have plenty of options for those half-tone shadings. The brushes provided within are also catered to making manga. While CSP can also be used to make paintings, it doesn’t have features as robust as Painter or PS. CSP also has good line stabilization. There’s one thing it stands out though. CSP is cheap. So in summary: 

If you want to make comic/manga: Use Clip Studio Paint. 

CONCLUSION

“In summary, get a decent laptop, an A4 intuos tablet, and Photoshop to get started. If budget is an issue, save on software first. PS uses subscription for $20 a month, CSP standard version is only $50 (cheap!).” 

Now that you have everything ready, let’s get started on learning how to create digital art..... on another tutorial! If you found this helpful, please reblog, thanks!

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