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Drawing on a graphics tablet - programs, settings, tips. How to make a graphics tablet from a tablet? Useful applications

You learned what the Wacom Intuos 5 graphics tablet is and how to set it up to work. In this lesson, we will draw an octopus from a scanned drawing, with just a few tools in Adobe Illustrator. We will create the shape, edit, color and finalize small details.

A graphics tablet is essentially like a mouse. The only difference is that the pen conveys the line more accurately and you can change its thickness by pressing the pen. Therefore, it is better to start with a sketch on paper. And then transfer the scanned drawing to the computer and.

Our sketch looks like this:

Take the pencil tool and draw a head; to correct the unevenness of the line, hold ALT. In the pencil settings (double-click on the tool), check the "Keep path selected" and "Edit selected paths" checkboxes. This makes it possible to edit the line as you draw, drawing a more correct one on top of the old one.

The octopus tentacles gradually taper towards the end, so we will use a blob brush. In the settings of this brush (double-click on the blob brush tool) you can set the thickness to change depending on the pressure on the pen.

Place your cursor on the tip of the octopus tentacle. Barely touching the tablet, draw a line, gradually increasing the pressure to maximum.

Some elements of the drawing always have the correct symmetrical shape, so it is better to draw them with the standard Ellipse and Rectangle tools.

The ellipse tool is suitable for drawing octopus eyes. While holding down the SHIFT key, draw three circles of different diameters and paint them with different colors. To make the eye look more beautiful, add a highlight.

Coloring a drawing of an octopus

Color the drawing. You can use standard colors, choose your own, or from ready-made sets in the color swatch library.

Perhaps the sequence of arrangement of the elements is not correct and the eyes, for example, may appear under the body of the octopus. Therefore, going to wireframe mode (CTRL+Y), select the eyes, raise them to a higher level and exit back out of wireframe mode.

We use the "Clipping Mask" to add shadows to the drawing or hide the visibility of some elements. For example, the shadows on the octopus's body that extend beyond are cut off using a clipping mask.

Having adjusted the desired diameter of the blob brush, we add suction cups on the tentacles and texture to the body of the octopus.

Finally, the finished drawing:

Video tutorial: How to draw an octopus with Wacom Intuos

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Working on a tablet in Photoshop. Video lesson.
Drawing shadows and highlights in Illustrator. Video lesson

A real whiteboard for notes, drawings and photos with export to PDF or Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. The set of tools is not as large as in other applications, but they are all implemented almost perfectly. You can create various notebooks and keep lists of tasks in them or make sketches - everything in one place and always at hand. All popular styluses are supported, including Apple Pencil.

The application is completely free, monetization through the sale of styluses.

Tayasui Sketches

The favorite drawing tool of all artists who create content using tablets. A special stylus is also sold for Tayasui Sketches, however, it is quite possible to do without it.

It has everything you need for professional painting: layers, brush editor, color eyedropper, export of individual layers and backups. You can create using 20 realistic tools with easy control and access. The interface adapts to the current mode and does not interfere at all while drawing.

The application is available for free, but with a basic set of tools. The rest are offered to be purchased as needed.


Autodesk SketchBook

The mobile version of Autodesk SketchBook is almost as good as the desktop version. It is a sophisticated drawing and sketching tool that boasts an advanced processing engine that delivers smoother strokes and a more natural-looking experience. For advanced users, there is a layer editor with 16 blending modes, pressure sensitivity, and symmetry and proportional transform tools.

Autodesk has taken care not only of the convenience of creating content, but also of storing it: there is a built-in gallery, albums, and even integration with Dropbox for organizing sketches. Not all Pro features are available in the free version; you will have to pay extra for them.

Adobe Illustrator Draw

Another drawing app from a renowned developer, and this, in addition to high quality, means integration with the proprietary ecosystem. With vector format support and advanced layering, Illustrator Draw lets you create stunning illustrations. The toolbar can be customized to your liking, and finished projects can be exported in any convenient form. For real artists, there is support for popular styluses, including the Apple Pencil.

Procreate

An application for professionals, created taking into account all their needs. With it you can create both complex images and simple sketches. Procreate has over 120 different brushes, huge resolutions (up to 16K x 4K) and an exclusive layer engine optimized specifically for 64-bit iOS devices. There are over 30 customizable settings for each of the 128 brushes, and a history of as many as 250 steps to undo and redo. 64-bit color, autosave, cinematic effects and much more. This is truly a tool for the most demanding!

A tablet is a portable computer that has many different useful functions. Of course, it is convenient to use it for simple tasks: surfing the Internet, watching movies, doing office work (if a keyboard is connected), etc. And most importantly, you can take it with you anywhere. Unfortunately, if there are functions that even the best devices cannot do.

It's difficult to use a tablet to create new content. This is hindered by inaccurate lines and inconvenience in drawing. Many devices are not designed for these features, unlike But many users try to add features to their device and make it unique. Let's look at how to make a graphics tablet from a tablet.

Transformation of the tablet

As we have already found out, these portable devices are designed to use ready-made content. This could be games, movies, music, or office work, and many would agree that this is quite enough for a comfortable pastime.

But today we are trying to improve our device, so we are looking for a solution that will allow us to learn how to turn a tablet into a graphics tablet. Nowadays you can find many applications that will add functions to our device.

iOS

First, you should consider a more popular and expensive device. So, how to turn an iPad into a graphics tablet? Consider the Sketchbook Ink editor, which was developed by the fairly popular company Autodesk. This application will allow us to save money and add many of the functions that a graphics tablet has.

This company produces many different applications for private and commercial use. Autodesk products have already been appreciated by millions of people around the world.

This popular company has also reached Apple products, which have a rather unique operating system - iOS. Sketchbook Ink graphics editor provides people with a complete set of tools to create quality content. The application is great not only for people who decide to learn to draw, but also for professionals. Probably, many will agree that it is much more convenient to draw on one prepared device than to carry a set of pencils and paper with you.

The application can turn your device running the iOS operating system into a graphics tablet that will use vector graphics. This is the right choice, according to many experts. It is vector graphics that will not lose image quality even with large magnification of the drawing.

Sketchbook Ink contains a large set of tools that allow you to create high-quality images. Various brushes, pencils, erasers, and a palette of colors will help you create a masterpiece. For drawing, you can use a special thin stylus.

Is it possible to turn a tablet into a graphics tablet? Certainly! As you already understood, the image quality is quite good. This is possible thanks to image scaling and high-quality fill. You can use multiple shades or fill the area with your chosen color.

This app has quite a useful feature. You can use layers to create a higher quality image. Only thanks to this can you get a fairly realistic image.

Android

How to make a graphics tablet from a phone or tablet running the Android operating system? Of course, many more people use Android devices, this is due to the price of the devices and the variety of choices. That is why application developers for this operating system are not inferior to iOS. Many different applications have appeared in the Play Market that will allow you to create fairly high-quality images.

You can use any application that you like best. They contain a standard set of functions. You will also need a stylus for more productive work. The operating principle of these applications is similar to Sketchbook Ink.

Android applications

What utilities should you use?

  1. PaperSimple. At first glance, it may seem that this is a rather simple application that is not capable of satisfying the user. But this is not true at all. Once you get the hang of the app and start drawing, you'll begin to see your first high-quality images. Using vector graphics, you can bring images as close as possible without losing quality for further editing.
  2. Skedio. A good application for creating images using vector graphics. However, it is more suitable for beginners; professionals will find it quite uncomfortable to work in it.

Of course, these are not all applications, but only they will allow you to truly plunge into the atmosphere of creativity. So we learned how to turn a regular tablet into a graphics tablet.

Received images

After drawing, you can upload your masterpieces to a special Dropbox service to later send the images to your computer. You can also send pictures to social networks immediately after drawing so that your friends can appreciate them.

Conclusion

Drawing on a tablet can sometimes be quite a challenge. You have the necessary programs, and that’s basically it, you can start drawing. All the tools, even the most powerful ones, are all at your fingertips. All colors are ready to use, no need to mix anything. If you've just switched from traditional drawing to Photoshop, it's not that difficult; you just need to find copies of your favorite instruments. However, if you are new to both types of drawing, the first stage turns into a nightmare in which you do not realize that it is a dream!

The trick to Photoshop is its apparent simplicity: here's a set of brushes, here's all the colors, and here's an eraser, and here's the Undo command. You start drawing and the result doesn't look good, so you start fumbling around with tools to try to fix it. And just look how many of these tools there are! You try them all, one by one, and magic happens.

However, "magic" means you let Photoshop do the painting for you. You have no control over it, but the result looks better than you, a beginner, could do (at least you think so). So you allow things to happen, create a bunch of drawings in the hope that one day they will turn into works of art.

Professional tablet artists use Photoshop to bring their imaginations to life, but they view it as just a tool, not a production machine. What is the difference?

  • Professionals imagine the effect and force the program to recreate it
  • Beginners force the program to create something, and if they are satisfied with the result, then they leave the resulting effect.

Does the second one remind you of anything? If yes, then keep reading. In this article, I'll show you how to improve ten aspects of your workflow so that you can become a conscious Photoshop artist. With these ten simple tips, you will understand the mistakes that may have been holding you back for a long time!

Please note that the problems I have described concern situations where the artist achieves the effect unconsciously while trying to achieve a realistic style. If something was planned, then this is not a mistake!

1. Wrong canvas size

Starting a new job is easier than taking candy from a child. You press File > New(File > New) or Control-N if you are more or less comfortable with Photoshop. It seems that everything is so simple that sometimes people do not notice mistakes at this stage.

Here are three aspects of this problem.

1. Canvas size is too small

Just like objects are made of atoms, every drawing in Photoshop is made of pixels. You probably know this. But how many pixels do you need to create a detailed drawing? 200 to 200? 400 to 1000? 9999 to 9999?

A common beginner mistake is choosing a canvas size that matches your screen resolution. The problem is that you never know what resolution someone viewing your work will use!

Let's imagine that on your screen the drawing looks like in example 1. It is open to the full height of the screen, and there is no need to scroll it to see it completely, and you are happy with that. This is the largest size for your resolution, 1024 by 600. Users with screen resolutions of 1280 by 720 (2) and 1366 by 738 (3) also have nothing to complain about. But pay attention to what happens for users with higher screen resolutions - 1920 by 1080 (4) and 1920 by 1200 (5). The drawing takes up less and less space on the screen. And for these users, you actually didn't make the drawing long enough!

And it's not just about the "white space" around your drawing. “Higher resolution” does not always mean “bigger screen”. Your smartphone may have more pixels on its small screen than your computer! Just take a look:

  1. Same size, different resolution
  2. Different size, same resolution

What does this mean? For other observers who see your work, the entire screen might look...like this:

But the size of your drawing isn't just about that. The higher the resolution, the more pixels the screen has. In a small resolution, the eye can take up 20 pixels, while in a large resolution, the eye alone can take up 20,000 pixels! Imagine the tons of cool details that can be created in such a large area!

Here's a cool trick: when you draw something small in high resolution, no matter how messy it gets, chances are it will look cool from a distance on purpose. Try it!

Higher resolution will allow you to bring even the smallest details closer.

2. Canvas size is too large

Does this mean you should always use a huge resolution to give yourself more freedom? Theoretically - yes. In practice, this is not always necessary, and sometimes it is completely impossible.

The higher the resolution, the more pixels there are in a typical stroke. And the more pixels it has, the harder it is for your computer to process it, especially when it comes to sitting on pressure levels with varying amounts of paint. And this is the practical argument against such a solution - you need a very powerful computer in order to be comfortable working with high resolution.

The second argument is related to the fact that high resolutions are needed for highly detailed work. Contrary to popular belief among newbies, not every job needs to be detailed. Even if you want to draw realistically, you can safely ignore the huge amount of information contained in a photograph, because what we see in life does not look like a photograph at all.

When you're using more resolution than you need, you might want to add a couple of details here and there, just because you can. And once you start doing this, there is no turning back. There are many levels of detail, but a given design only needs to fit one of them at a time. If you want to quickly create a beautiful coat, don't spend hours on the eyes and nose - this will only make the whole pattern look fragmented and unfinished.

3. Final size is too large

Let's imagine that you have found the perfect resolution for your work. It's not too big, not too small, and just right for the level of detail you need. But there is still room for one more mistake - that resolution was your working size. It may have taken you a lot of pixels to get to those tiny details in your eyes, but those details will still be visible from afar.

Why let them see these unpleasant details...

…if you can only make visible what needs to be seen?

Before saving the file, change its size. I won't tell you the most optimal resolution, because it simply doesn't exist. The rule is: the more detailed the image, the less detail will be lost if shown in high resolution. The more a drawing looks like a sketch, the better it will look at a low resolution. If you want to learn more about this, check out what resolution your favorite artists use when posting their work online.

One more thing: when resizing an image, check which resampling algorithm works best for you. Some of them make the image sharper, and you may not want that.

2. Start with a white background

This may seem trivial - what's wrong with the white background? Well...he's neutral, right? Looks like a piece of paper.

The problem is that there are no “neutral” colors. "Transparent" is the closest to this, but it's impossible to paint. Color is color. When two colors appear, a certain reaction occurs on its own. For example, if it is white + color A, the relationship will be “color A is dark.” No matter what you set out to do, you will start with a dark color just because you chose the brightest background possible! All looks dark in comparison.

The same color changes its relative brightness on each background

In traditional art we use a white background because it is technically easier to place dark on bright than vice versa. But when drawing on a tablet there is no reason for this! In fact, you can even start with a black background, but it's just as bad as pure white. In practice, the most "neutral" color is 50% gray (#808080).

Why? The background color transforms your vision of other colors. Against a white background, dark colors will appear too dark and you will avoid them. On a black background the same thing will happen, only with bright colors. The result in both cases is a weak contrast, which you will notice when you try to change the background. Here's the proof:

I started this drawing on a background that was too dark and then I wanted to change it to something brighter and it just blinded me!

Experienced artists can start with whatever background they want and make it work to its maximum, but unless you feel confident in your knowledge of color theory, always start with something neutral - not too dark and not too bright.

3. Avoiding strong contrast

Of course, sometimes your perception of bright and dark can be skewed by poor screen quality. If you use a laptop, then you may have noticed how the contrast changes when you look at the screen from different angles. How to achieve contrast that everyone will see correctly, regardless of the screen?

Even if you have a good screen, after a long period of time at work, your viewing experience won't be perfect either. If you change tones gradually, step by step, the contrast may look good just because it's better than five steps back. The item below might look good...

...until you compare it to an object with a stronger contrast. And who knows, maybe if you compared the second with the third, then maybe its contrast, as we perceive it, would decrease automatically?

Photoshop has a tool that helps in this situation. It is called Levels(Levels) and this is actually a histogram - it shows how much of each color is in the image. You can open this window by clicking Image > Adjustments > Levels(Image > Adjustments > Levels) or Control-L hotkey.

How it works? Take a look at these four samples:

  • Almost equal amounts of white, black and midtones
  • Only blacks and midtones
  • Only whites and midtones
  • Only whites and blacks, almost no midtones

Can you read this from the histogram?

You can change the levels by dragging the sliders. While this reduces the overall number of tones, it helps place them in the correct place in the histogram.

The histogram shows us that our subject has a lot of midtones, but also a visible lack of dark and light areas. It doesn't matter what we see - that's what our computer says! While there is no perfect recipe for levels (it depends on the lighting of the scene), a severe lack of dark and light areas is a bad sign.

Just look what happens if we move the sliders closer to the center!

Contrast has changed well, but blending has suffered as a result, as there are now fewer midtones. But it's not difficult to fix it manually!

Is there a way to use the right tones from the start so that all this isn't necessary? Yes, and it will actually take you less time than usual! The solution is to use fewer tones - dark, bright, mid-tone, and a little black and white.

To do this in practice, before you start drawing, plan the lighting on the sphere:

  • Draw a circle and fill it with the darkest color (black is not recommended).
  • Add a mid tone.
  • Add your brightest color (white is not recommended).
  • Add one or two midtones in between.
  • Add some white and black.

See all these parts in the histogram? When we combine them, this is what happens. Use this sphere as a set of references for your subject, shading it in the same way - darkest shadow, mid-tone, brightest highlight, darkest areas and brightest highlights. And then you can mix it all up!

And one more thing. If you compare these two heads again, one with the contrast correct from the start and one with the contrast corrected, you will see the difference. So increasing the contrast won't actually fix your drawing if you used the wrong colors in the first place - every material has its own spectrum of tones. For example, the darkest part of a white surface will be much brighter than the darkest part of a black surface. This means that you should prepare as many spheres as possible, since there are many materials involved in your drawing.

Remember: a light object with a dark shadow is just as wrong as a dark object with light tones!

4. Using brushes that are too complex and strokes that are too big

When you compare traditional brushes to Photoshop brushes, the difference is so great that you might be surprised that they have the same names. After all, with classic brushes you can only create more or less chaotic strokes, while brushes in Photoshop create a work of art in themselves.

Here comes the key point. If they create something on their own, you are no longer in control. Professional artists work most of the time with simple strokes, periodically supporting themselves with more complex ones. Using complex brushes on a daily basis will not only make you lazier - it will also prevent you from learning how to achieve the effect yourself, since there is no need to!

At the beginning of your tablet drawing adventure, it's natural to try to grow as quickly as possible. You want results here and now. Custom brushes are the answer to this question. If you want fur, here's a fur brush; If you want scales, here's a brush like this. You can't draw something - download a tool that can.

Custom brushes aren't a bad thing and are actually quite useful. The problem comes when you use them as the basis of your "abilities." If you actually spent time trying to figure out how to quickly draw fur, you would realize that it is not actually made up of hairs that need to be drawn one at a time. You would understand that our vision of something often does not coincide with reality. You would learn how to look and how to create what you see, not what you think you see.

Instead, you give up after spending half an hour painting the hairs and look for a brush that will do it for you. You find it, you're happy, you're ready to move on. It's so easy that it becomes a habit and you stop learning altogether - you'd rather download all the features if it were possible.

But how do artists overcome this? They don't have that big a set of brushes. How do they draw fur? The answer is simple - the same way you would do it if you didn't have the appropriate brushes. If you want improvement, if you want to overcome this beginner's curse, forget about complex brushes for now. Work with a simple set like this one and learn how to get the best out of it. Don't take the easy way out when things get difficult. Go through this and you will gain invaluable experience instead of cheap tricks.

No fur brush used here

Too big strokes

Another common mistake with brushes is using strokes that are too large. This, again, has to do with impatience. The rule is that 80% of the work takes 20% of the time spent on it, which means you need to spend 80% of the time finishing your drawing. If you've done the sketch, base, flat colors and simple shading in two hours, there's still eight left. Moreover, you will see less progress in these eight hours than in the first two! How daunting does this sound?

You can clearly see this in the intermediate pieces of work that artists sometimes show to their audiences. The first steps are huge - creating something out of nothing. And then the process slows down. You can barely see the difference between the last few stages, and yet this tiny change may have taken longer than all the previous ones!

At what point would you stop?

That is the problem. When your drawing almost completed, you feel the urge to finish it quickly and look at the result. But at this point, in fact, you should begin! I remember one comment under a screenshot of the work process: “I would stop at step four [out of ten].” This is the difference between a beginner and a professional! Because the second part of the rule is this: that last, slow and unnoticeable 20% of the work affects 80% of the final effect.

The solution is simple. You should not complete the work with large strokes (unless you are painting at speed). They are appropriate at the beginning, for that 20% of the time. Use them to sketch out shapes, determine lighting, and add large areas of color. And then gradually reduce the size, zoom in on the image, clean it up, add details. You will see that the work is coming to an end when you work with a very small brush with a very enlarged design. In general, the more areas of your painting you touch with your brush (and the more you change them, such as adding a slight difference in brightness or hue with a very small stroke), the more perfect it will appear.

This rule also has a pleasant side. Since 80% of the work doesn't really contribute to the final effect, there's no need to concentrate too much on it. Get started quickly, easily, and save your efforts for later. Remember: not every drawing needs to be completed just because you started it. By discarding something you don't believe in, you'll save four times the time you've already spent!

5. Using too many colors

There are not many “ready-made” colors in traditional art. Artists need to learn how to mix these colors to achieve the desired effect. This inconvenience is actually wonderful. They have no choice and have to learn color theory. As a budding artist working on a tablet, all colors are available to you in all their glory. And this is a curse!

We don't understand colors intuitively - there's no need for that in our daily lives. But as an artist you have to completely change your perspective. You can no longer rely on intuition because it doesn't work well in this topic. You need to stop thinking about color the way you are used to and understand the concepts of hue, saturation, brightness, and lightness.

Colors do not exist by themselves. They are based on relationships. For example, if you want to make colors brighter, you can either increase their brightness or decrease the background brightness. Red, being a warm color, becomes warm or cool depending on the adjacent color. Even the saturation changes due to relationships!

Even the color tone can change depending on the environment. And this knowledge is very important for drawing, and not just for design, as you might think!

A beginner, not knowing all this, fills his drawing with a set of random colors. They choose some kind blue then some kind green, completely unaware that they are choosing from thousands of other colors with greenish and bluish tints, and that they all have a certain power!

This is how a beginner sees colors:

  1. Blue
  2. Dirty blue
  3. Gray
  4. Black

But...why do we need so many flowers if they are useless? The answer is: they are not useless at all. You just need to understand where they come from and what they mean. Let's look at an example of a professional choosing colors:

  1. Desaturated blues
  2. Rich blues
  3. Vibrant blues
  4. Dark blue

Looks too complicated? Maybe, but that's no reason to ignore this aspect! If that's too difficult, stick with grayscale for a while. Get a handle on lighting, shading and blending and you'll have a good foundation for the future. Moreover, colors (or rather color tones) are the icing on the cake that is your work of art. They can make it sweeter, but cannot be its basis. No amount of frosting can turn a bad cake into a good one!

6. Select colors straight from the source

It is very difficult not to give in to this temptation, so difficult that you want to cry. I'm familiar with this. However, if you really want to learn how to draw on a tablet, you should not use the tool Eyedropper(Edropper) to select a color from the source. Why is this so important?

Beginners often use a desaturated orange/pink as their skin color. This seems obvious, but the effect will be far from natural. However, if you use the source...it's a completely different story! Almost every pixel has its own color, not just pink - you can find reds, yellows, oranges and even cool purples, greens and blues. Saturation and brightness can change all the time, and yet the final effect does not look like chaos.

When you choose colors from the source, your drawing takes on new life. The problem is that this is not all that different from direct copying. When you copy, you end up with lines that you wouldn't replicate on your own, and when you take colors from the source, you end up with beautiful shades that you couldn't match on your own. The effect is amazing, but this is not your fault.

There is something else. This color selection slows down your progress. You can "buy" a set of colors instead of learning how to create them yourself. You have a color wheel with all the sliders; Every color you choose can be repeated by yourself, without prompting. But you still decide to use those that have already been created - it’s fast and effective, but you know what’s even faster and more effective? To photograph.

To one day become independent of sources, you need to learn to see colors. Look at any object near you - what is its color tone, brightness, saturation? Incredibly difficult to say, isn't it? But if you keep picking colors with an eyedropper, you'll never get the hang of it. You cannot start a race if the car is still wearing practice tires.

All these materials were drawn by me from the source, but without the eyedropper. As a beginner, start with simple things - the fewer colors the better

7. Adding colors to grayscale with incorrect brightness

I drew this picture in 2011. It is, of course, a sweet, kind picture, and I still like it. I remember drawing her in grayscale and then adding color using maybe a couple of blending modes ( Color, Multiply, Overlay) (Color, Multiplication, Overlay). I also remember having one pesky problem - how to get the yellow right when painting in shades of grey?

I don’t have the original, but this is what the drawing most likely looked like in shades of gray. Notice that both the yellow and green areas are equally dark. In reality this is not true!

When I was a beginner like you, I thought that light made all colors lighter equally and shadow made all colors equally darker. That's why the grayscale drawing seemed so convincing. I could concentrate on the shading and add color later. Unfortunately, this trick didn't work, and it took so long (mostly because I didn't try hard) to figure out why.

The simple answer is that different colors have different brightness, which is independent of lighting. When you ignore this, you end up with muddy colors. The colors you add directly to a grayscale drawing are missing an important component.

Both heads have the same colors, added using color mode. Please note that it is not the color layer that is important, but what is underneath it

8. Shading with the Dodge and Burn tools

Tools Dodge(brightener) and Burn(Dimmer) are almost always a beginner's favorite. These tools fit the belief that Photoshop is a "coloring program." All you have to do is select the main colors and then the areas you want to shade. The rest is controlled by complex algorithms, and not by you, which is great - you wouldn't know what to do anyway.

However, it's not easy. These tools aren't completely useless, but if you're a beginner, it's best to stay away from them. These are not "shading tools". The Dodge tool does not equal "add light" and the Burn tool does not equal "add shadow". The problem is that they match the beginner's vision of shading so well that it is very difficult to avoid the temptation.

The problem is not with the tools, but with a lack of understanding of shading itself. Beginners often believe that objects have a certain color, and that color becomes darker in the shadows and brighter in the light. It is not so easy. It might work with cell shading or when drawing cartoons, but even then it's just a little trick.

If it “seems” to work, why not use it?

  • This is another technique that slows down your progress. When you use it, you don't even notice what you're missing. Shading is a complex issue, and you limit it to the “darker-lighter” rule, because it’s easier. Photoshop needed to work For you, not instead of you. Don't let this stop your learning.
  • This makes the object flat. No matter how much texture you add later, it works exactly like a big brush, which means you can start a painting with it, but definitely not finish it that way.
  • This distorts the colors; they should depend on the environment (direct light, ambient light), but neither Dodge nor Burn has any idea about the background you're using. They shade everything equally!

There is a year difference between these drawings. I shaded the first one using Dodge and Burner, and the second one only with color understanding.

Shading with white and black

An extension of this technique is shading, using white for highlights and black for shadows. This comes from the belief that every color begins with black (in the shadows) and ends with white (in the light). While this may be true for under- or overexposed photographs, it should not be a rule that applies to painting.

We are all looking for simple rules, something easy to remember and use. But that doesn't mean we should invent simple rules that have no relation to reality, like: “add white to make it brighter and add black to make it darker.” It only applies to grayscale drawings!

Uniform shading

When you deal with the previous problem, you may encounter another one. Let's imagine that you have chosen orange as the main color for your character. You also decide that the light source will be yellow and the ambient light will be blue (sky). According to this, you shift the hue of the base color to yellow in the highlights and blue in the shadows, and that's it. Of course, the shading will be much more interesting if you use black and white, but it's still a trick that won't necessarily produce the desired result.

Why is this a trick? By choosing only three primary colors for your character, you automatically place him in an artificial environment where everything reflects color in a 100% predictable way.

In reality, light is constantly bouncing off everything around it, including the “hills and valleys” of your 3D object. Consequently, shading can rarely be limited to a couple of colors. The blue color of the sky may make some shadows on a subject appear blue, but in other dark areas they may appear greenish due to the light reflecting off the grass. Moreover, some shadows can even be bright and saturated due to the light that has passed through through obstacle in the “shadow”.

If you take this into account and decide to use indirect light sources to create more variety in your shading, you'll have to draw more consciously - and that's great! You should not use a large brush here as it will mix the colors and you will end up losing them. And a small brush means you're creating texture on the fly!

9. Blending with a soft brush

There are two main methods that beginners use to mix shades, and they are both designed to create a quick effect:

  1. Blending with a soft brush
  2. Mixing with tools Smudge/Blur(Finger/Blur)

As we have already learned, quick results often imply lack of control. In this case, blending with large strokes makes the object look flatter and unnaturally smooth. Even if you add a photo of the texture after, it will not hide this “plastic” effect. I repeat, this method is only good for the initial stage.

If you want a cool, subtle texture (which is good for almost all natural materials), use a stiffer brush where the amount of paint is controlled by the pressure of the pen (the harder you press, the denser the brushstroke comes out).

This type of brush allows you to control the amount of color you need.

Thanks to this property, you don't have to blend the border between two colors. You just start with a base color and then slightly cover it with something else. Next you can add another layer of the same color, making it denser.

If you want to make the whole thing smoother, just pick a color somewhere in the middle and lightly brush along the border between the colors.

To enhance the texture, use a textured (hard-edged) brush.

According to the 80-20 rule, don't worry about mixing in the beginning. Use a large brush to sharpen the edges, creating a sort of exaggerated shading.

Later, you can use a smaller, textured brush to blend the edges of the colors. No tool Smudge(Finger), no soft brush, just a tool Eyedropper(Pipette) and your hard brush with a varying amount of paint. Remember: mixing depends on the surface texture, so you can't use the same type of mixing for all materials!

10. Using 2D textures for 3D shapes

Texture photography for a beginner is the most extreme measure, where the object is theoretically finished, painted and shaded, but still looks like a plastic toy. However, texture itself can make things worse.

Let's imagine that we want to add texture to this big cat.

The object must be shaded before we add the texture. The subtlety is that it does not have to be complete shading. The blending method depends on the texture - if you blend without thinking about the texture, you will end up with a no-texture (smooth surface) blending type.

You can download a texture from the Internet or use a Photoshop pattern - there are many presets available. This is my favorite pattern for creating scale texture - inverted window mesh ( translator's note: we are talking about the texture of a door with a mesh, which in American homes is usually located in front of the front door, the texture is equivalent to a mosquito net).

If you change the texture blending mode to Overlay(Overlap), you'll see how it works with shading. However, note that some parts are brighter. This may work to your advantage if you haven't done a very good job with the shading, but it's another example of losing control of the situation. In most cases we don't want the texture to do its own shading. While Overlay mode isn't the best solution, it does allow you to see how the texture looks on an object.

Now, the most important part that is always overlooked. If an object is supposed to be three-dimensional, it cannot be beautifully covered with a two-dimensional texture. We need to change its shape according to the figure it fits on. There are three main ways to do this - experiment and you will find your favorite:

  • Tool Free Transform(Free Transform) (Control-T) mode Warp(Deformation)
  • Filter > Liquify(Filter > Liquify)
  • Edit > Puppet Warp(Edit > Puppet Warp)

For spheres it is best to use Filter > Distort > Spherize(Filter > Distort > Spherize)

Before using puppet warp

After using puppet warp

The Overlay mode brightens the parts of the layer that are covered by white areas of the texture. We could use the mode instead Multiply(Multiply) (it makes the white areas more transparent) but it would make the gray tones darker than needed. There is another tool for adjusting the transparency of the texture.

Double click on the layer and play with the sliders Blend If(Overlay if). In short, with them you can adjust the transparency of white and black.

Hold Alt to "break" the slider for a softer effect

We need to understand that there is texture. It is not a "rough pattern" placed directly on the object. In fact, this is an uneven surface. When light hits a smooth surface, it is reflected holistically. If the surface is rough, for example, made up of small bumps and depressions, light falling on it will create many tiny shadows - this is the texture we see.

One more conclusion can be drawn from this. If light creates visible texture, without light there can be no texture. What is shadow if not a lack of light? Therefore, we need to reduce the visibility of the texture in dark areas (if there is reflected light), or remove it altogether (no light - no texture). You can use a layer mask for this or play with the sliders Blend If(Overlay if) (second row). Remember that the dimples in the texture are actually shadows, so they shouldn't be darker than the "regular" shadow area.

Texture mapping will be quick and easy once you figure out what to do after you select it. However, this is not the end. All textures are different, and while some of them look great when applied directly, most will still need some work.

The 80-20 rule applies here again. Adding texture is easy, but it takes time to make it look nice. In my example, I blended the edges of the shading using individual flakes. Things like these take a lot of time, but they make a difference. All!

On the first overlay sphere, the texture is in Overlay mode with low transparency so that it is not too noticeable; the same with the second one, but distortion is applied. Compare these to the last one, which applied a custom Blending If setting and manually corrected the blending.

Conclusion

As we have noticed, most beginner problems stem from the desire to achieve great results without any effort and as quickly as possible. So it's not a lack of skill - rather, it's about the belief that Photoshop is an art-making program. This leads to a constant search for tools and tricks, rather than putting in more effort and trying to understand and solve the problem.

You can't become a digital artist overnight just because you bought professional graphics editors. Photoshop is just a tool, it's certainly more convenient to use than brushes and paints, but it's still a tool. He can do more than you want! If you want to get the most out of it, treat it like a digital canvas for digital paint. Forget about all those fancy tools, filters, brushes or blending modes. Just draw as you would on paper.

Learn color theory, perspective, anatomy - all these things that "regular" artists need to understand. Over time, you'll understand how to use Photoshop's tools to do the same things easier and faster—but don't get ahead of the curve trying to create cool effects without really understanding them. Patience is the key to everything!

Have you become the proud owner of a graphics tablet, but haven’t figured out how to properly use it? In this article you will learn.

How to draw on a graphics tablet?

Familiarize yourself with the basic principles of work to make your desire come true. Choose your favorite picture on the Internet. It doesn’t matter at all what is depicted on it, but for example, let’s assume that it will be a puppy. Now you should create a document, its size should be 800x600 pixels and in no case smaller. You want your work to look well-drawn, right? In the case of a fluffy puppy, you will need individual hairs of fur, so make the document size larger. Drawing on a graphics tablet- it's simple and exciting.


How to draw on a graphics tablet: step-by-step instructions

Open the created file in Photoshop and double-click on the document. This way, you will be able to create an additional layer, editing which you can make the necessary changes. The program has a moving tool, find it and move the puppy into a new document for editing. Don't forget that the transparency of this layer should be fifty percent. Now you need one more additional layer, the transparency of which with the help of the brush tool you should set to about twenty percent. Then trace the outline of the puppy and save it in this layer. You can call the resulting layer an outline, since you outlined the puppy. So as not to get confused in the layers later. Make a new layer again, placing it lower than the previous one for the correct result. This layer can be called the base. Well, you can remove the picture completely. To do this, next to the main photo, click on the image of the eye. Choose the color of your drawing that will be the main one. Use the soft brush tool and set the opacity to thirty percent, matching the original image, and paint in the lighter areas and highlights. Now you should repeat the whole process, but this time using a soft dark brush tool.

Next you need to apply a pattern of villi, you can do this using a special shaped finger tool, set the intensity to sixty percent. Just don’t forget to fill in the background before doing this, otherwise the fibers won’t be so noticeable. Go to the menu, set the scattering by selecting this item in the shape dynamics on the left, and using a brush with an opacity of ten percent, apply shadows and highlights to the image. Again you will need to create another layer, which you can call wool. And be careful when working with the tablet, since repairing a graphics tablet will cost more than repairing laptops. Let's continue. Using a very thin brush with a transparency of twenty percent, draw hairs of different colors and, for greater elegance, spread everything through a filter, then a blur, then a Gaussian blur, and set the blur radius to half a pixel. An important aspect of the drawing is your puppy's eyes. You will have to increase the scale to three hundred percent to make it convenient to work. Paint the pupils and iris of the eye with the colors you like using a brush. Draw with high quality, for better rendering, create another layer with scattering and opacity of thirty percent. Use a brush to paint over the highlights on the eyes. For expressiveness, create another layer and use a black translucent brush to draw the outline of the eyes. Now start drawing in the details of the muzzle using shading.

Drawing on a graphics tablet:

1. Select a picture;
2. Create a document;
3. Open it in Photoshop;
4. Make additional layers with the specified transparency;
5. Trace the outline;
6. Draw the eyes;
7. Tackle wool;
8. Draw the details.
Now you have seen for yourself that drawing on a graphics tablet is not something incredibly difficult and you can create your own works.

Video about drawing on a graphics tablet.