Art School

[Amer]

I use "Normal" colour layers for the base colours, then there's two different ways to add light and shade.

If you create a normal colour layer above the base colour, then you clip it and set it to "Multiple", and use the same colour as you did the base, it'll automatically darken it down, then you can use that for basic shade.
If you do the same thing, but set it to "Add", it should create light.

Sometimes that doesn't work though (okay, quite a bit of the time - especially if you're using fully-saturated colours, but still... ); I've found that certain colours look weird with those kinds of effects (either that or the effects don't work).
So, in that case, you'd have to choose your own shading colours. Which is pretty easy, because all you do is shift hue slightly, add in more saturation, then darken it up a bit, and voila.

View attachment 1421511
There's my usual kind of set up.
I always, always put the light above the shade. Because, usually, if you look at light in real life, it cuts through shadows and shade.

About your lineart problem, keep your lineart in a separate layer at the top of the list. That should keep it above the colours, so you don't have to keep drawing it in. :3
If you meant about colouring and having to trace the colour's edge to get rid of white patches: Expand your paint bucket. I'm not sure if you're using the computer version or the mobile version, but somewhere in both of those you have the opinion to make the bucket fill in an extra pixel - so find that and it'll fill properly.

Honestly, poke around with your tools a bit more. Try different layer types out, different effects, all the different things. You'll get to know what stuff does what and you'll get to know where stuff is. :3

(I'm glad I can be of help. :3 I'm not the best artist, by far, but I know some tips and tricks that might help. XD)

Thanks with the lineart thing, it will definitely help.

 

[Amer]

Voila!

Wheaten Ameraucana rooster!
*attempts to steal more critique from @TamingMaster*

 

[TamingMaster]

Voila!View attachment 1421621
Wheaten Ameraucana rooster!
*attempts to steal more critique from @TamingMaster*

Ooh, fancy fancy! That's definitely looking better! :3

More critique... hm... If anything, I think you should look into shade and light. If you look through references, see how shade and light affects things like the feathers, eyes, and beak (or whatever subject you're drawing), that'd help with texture. (^-^)

 

[TamingMaster]

Also, y'all, I finally got myself a fancy drawing tablet and it is so beautiful.


There's just one problem: I don't know what to draw. XD

 

[TamingMaster]

Just a sketchy, but this was done on the new tablet. I'm so proud. XD

 

[Yowza Wowza]

 

[TamingMaster]

:3

 

[Rose Quartz]

WHYYYYYY no notifications!!! sorry this is going to be long. I thought that we were all waiting until a full week had gone by before posting so I haven't been checking in.

View attachment 1418924
I don't even know. XD

I love this.

I finished my thingy. It turned out better than I expected too
View attachment 1419400

look at the fire-y!

View attachment 1419426
Magical winged cat thingies: A mommy and her baby.

aww

View attachment 1419599 View attachment 1419602
View attachment 1419603 View attachment 1419604

are you happy now?

oh wow! hehehe new person is being sucked in.

I'll repost it so it is easier to access.View attachment 1420255
I'm assuming the black lines are undesirable?

I think the black lines look fine, the only thing.... aside from all the awesome stuff TM says. it's rare to find straight lines in nature.

Here's my critique:

Overall, it's a nice picture, and the problems are simple ones. :3

1. You should be using more layers. (Trust me, it helps!)
You should have one for lineart, one for colour, one for the sketch, and one for the background, at the very least. (And name them, if you can!)
Most new digital artists think that they only have to use one or two layers, but most art apps let you have up to 100+ layers.
With layers, you can clip other layers to a main layer, which helps so much with shading and lighting; and also with colouring lineart.
And, if you mess up, you can usually just erased or delete the bad layer and try again on a new one.
Layers can be merged, duplicated, and separated colours can be changed if the hue, saturation, or light isn't right.

I separate each individual colour (and sometimes each line) to their own layers, and I cannot tell you how many times that has saved my art. XD

2. Expand the bucket tool.
I can see that you're using the bucket to fill large areas of colour, and that's great, but you've left a broken white edge between your lineart and your colour. That's caused by the lineart having small opaque pieces (which help make the lines look smooth). To fix it, you'd have to expand your bucket fill by one pixel, or colour in the patches manually.

3. Don't be afraid of shade.
You've got little bits of shade here and there, which is good to see (it looks like you've shifted hues too - which is also good), but you should try throwing bigger bits of shade in there; especially since it's a night picture.
Use small amounts of light to highlight the areas that are illuminated by the moon (check out rim lighting), and also any details you want to draw attention to (like eyes).

4. Look into the blur tool and the blur pen.
Blurring the background, even just a little, can give the effect of distance. It also allows the eyes to focus more on the main subjects (eg. the cats).
The blur can also be used to blend colours and make a gradient (like on the wings).

5. Use references. For the wings, the moon, the cats, everything.
The more references you have, the more you can look at them and see where you're going wrong, which colours look the best, what kind of shading looks best, and general anatomy.

6. And the the most important thing: Draw what you want. Don't force yourself to draw things you don't want to draw. If you don't enjoy drawing it, people won't enjoy looking at it.


At first, most of that will seem overwhelming or overkill, but that's the stuff that'll help most, IMO.

And don't worry about black lines; lots of art is done with a dark edge. :3
If you wanted to change anything, try making the lines thinner (and maybe try turning up the correction).

Try everything, see what stuff you like, watch tutorials and professional artists on YouTube (TsaoShin is a good one), try other art apps (MediBang and AutoDesk are both free and work really well), explore all the possibilities. \(^-^)/

And I think that's all I've got. XD

View attachment 1421068
How does this look? (I like how the moon glows)

oooooo

e any white parts, you could colour them in (if the bucket thing doesn't work)?

What kind of layers do you use for each color, and is there a way to paint without tracing the lineart over for each color? (I'm eating this up, this is extremely helpful.)

Same!

I use "Normal" colour layers for the base colours, then there's two different ways to add light and shade.

If you create a normal colour layer above the base colour, then you clip it and set it to "Multiple", and use the same colour as you did the base, it'll automatically darken it down, then you can use that for basic shade.
If you do the same thing, but set it to "Add", it should create light.

Sometimes that doesn't work though (okay, quite a bit of the time - especially if you're using fully-saturated colours, but still... ); I've found that certain colours look weird with those kinds of effects (either that or the effects don't work).
So, in that case, you'd have to choose your own shading colours. Which is pretty easy, because all you do is shift hue slightly, add in more saturation, then darken it up a bit, and voila.

View attachment 1421511
There's my usual kind of set up.
I always, always put the light above the shade. Because, usually, if you look at light in real life, it cuts through shadows and shade.

About your lineart problem, keep your lineart in a separate layer at the top of the list. That should keep it above the colours, so you don't have to keep drawing it in. :3
If you meant about colouring and having to trace the colour's edge to get rid of white patches: Expand your paint bucket. I'm not sure if you're using the computer version or the mobile version, but somewhere in both of those you have the opinion to make the bucket fill in an extra pixel - so find that and it'll fill properly.

Honestly, poke around with your tools a bit more. Try different layer types out, different effects, all the different things. You'll get to know what stuff does what and you'll get to know where stuff is. :3

(I'm glad I can be of help. :3 I'm not the best artist, by far, but I know some tips and tricks that might help. XD)

I now realize I have no idea how to use medibang. there's so many things here you've mentioned that I've been frustrated with it not doing what I want. but I just figured they were things that I would have to deal with because that's just how it works. the white lines with the fill bucket is what's really been bugging me. I had no idea it was something I could change in the settings. I'm going to have to go and read the whole medibang manual or something. lol.

Voila!View attachment 1421621
Wheaten Ameraucana rooster!
*attempts to steal more critique from @TamingMaster*

he's gorgeous! about the feet. they're kind of like fingers they have knuckles and scales, and claws. look up some reference pictures and try drawing some super detailed feet and then when you move it to digital simplify it and see how it turns out.

View attachment 1422360
Just a sketchy, but this was done on the new tablet. I'm so proud. XD

WOAH......

View attachment 1423526

he's havin a bad day.

View attachment 1423607
:3

Raptor!




-----

now I'll post my assigned work.

 

[Rose Quartz]

 

[TamingMaster]

WHYYYYYY no notifications!!! sorry this is going to be long. I thought that we were all waiting until a full week had gone by before posting so I haven't been checking in.



I love this.



look at the fire-y!



aww



oh wow! hehehe new person is being sucked in.



I think the black lines look fine, the only thing.... aside from all the awesome stuff TM says. it's rare to find straight lines in nature.





oooooo





Same!



I now realize I have no idea how to use medibang. there's so many things here you've mentioned that I've been frustrated with it not doing what I want. but I just figured they were things that I would have to deal with because that's just how it works. the white lines with the fill bucket is what's really been bugging me. I had no idea it was something I could change in the settings. I'm going to have to go and read the whole medibang manual or something. lol.



he's gorgeous! about the feet. they're kind of like fingers they have knuckles and scales, and claws. look up some reference pictures and try drawing some super detailed feet and then when you move it to digital simplify it and see how it turns out.



WOAH......



he's havin a bad day.



Raptor!




-----

now I'll post my assigned work.

Thanks. XD

I recommend looking for MediBang tutorials on YouTube. They can show you where the stuff is, what settings to change, what stuff you can use each tool for, etc.
Also, check out the official Medibang site. They have visuals and tips from great artists. :3
Or, my favourite advice: Press every button and see what they all do. XD

Thank you. XD

And, yes, Indoraptor. From the new Jurassic World movie. :3

View attachment 1424896

Oh wow!
A fish, a frog, and a fly? XD