Learning to Draw Digitally?

[Jamesabels]

This might be more for the tips and tricks section, but I figured most people here doing any kind of drawing will be trolling this section as well.

Anyhow, I think I'm finally going to man up and learn to draw properly. I have been drawing very off and on and probably wrongly all of my life but mostly just messing around and doing nothing too serious. The last few years I have been messing with art but all things that didn't require me to draw so it is kinda my big elephant in the room right now.

I'm not trying to switch to drawing or even illustrating as a job or anything, at 24 I'm way too late to the party for that, I'll be 50 before I'm any good, haha. Though I would like to be able to sketch up some creatures or something and digitally paint them one day or do some concept style sketching, ect.

On to my question, I have everything set up well digitally, I have an intous 4, Sketchbook pro, a laptop, an ipad, a Griffen stylus in the mail right now for it, and mutiple capable computing devices laying around. Though is it ok to learn digitally? I'm sure I will do things on paper and get a nice pencil set eventually if I do indeed get better and do it a lot, ect.

Just wanting to know if doing things digitally will slow me down in learning, or speed me up, or be the same? I have copies of all the loomis books, ect so I guess my question lies in the physical act of putting pencil to paper, or lack there of.

[Jasen Smith]

Well that depends. Personally, I can't draw from tablet to screen. I have to feel the texture of the paper just cause it feels weird on a tablet but that's just me.

I've seen artist do it all on the tablet and it looks great. So it is possible but that's something only you can answer.

[Jim_Campbell]

Well that depends. Personally, I can't draw from tablet to screen. I have to feel the texture of the paper just cause it feels weird on a tablet but that's just me.

Here's a handy hint I picked up from Matt (D'israeli) Brooker… he tapes a piece of his preferred art paper over the drawing area of his Wacom. I've tried it, and it's a brilliant tip. The Wacom functions exactly as normal, but the tactile response when using the tablet feels much more natural.

Sadly, however, this hint did not help me draw like D'israeli.

Cheers

Jim

[Jim_Campbell]

Oh… and one other thing that might be worth mentioning: it seemed natural to me to put my tablet where you would normally have had a mouse mat, ie -- to the left or right of your keyboard. It wasn't until I saw this illustration, again by Matt Brooker, that I tried putting the tablet directly in front of me.

That direct line of sight across the tablet to the drawing goes a long way towards counteracting the sense of disconnect you get when first learning to draw with a tablet.

Cheers

Jim

[Jamesabels]

Well that depends. Personally, I can't draw from tablet to screen. I have to feel the texture of the paper just cause it feels weird on a tablet but that's just me.

Here's a handy hint I picked up from Matt (D'israeli) Brooker… he tapes a piece of his preferred art paper over the drawing area of his Wacom. I've tried it, and it's a brilliant tip. The Wacom functions exactly as normal, but the tactile response when using the tablet feels much more natural.

Sadly, however, this hint did not help me draw like D'israeli.

Cheers

Jim

That sounds so weird, but I tried it and it works so good!

[Dean Welsh]

Just a heads up, if you feel like you're eating through more stylus nibs than usual with that technique, It's 'cause the paper is chewing the nylon down as you rub it.

Not that they're that expensive or hard to come by, but just FYI.

-dean

[Jim_Campbell]

Just a heads up, if you feel like you're eating through more stylus nibs than usual with that technique, It's 'cause the paper is chewing the nylon down as you rub it.

You're right -- I should have mentioned that… sorry!

Cheers!

Jim