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The EATPOO GUIDE for ART NOOBS

By the people of Eatpoo.com forums / edited by Ken.

Welcome to the Eatpoo Guide for Art Noobs. If you are new to art, or to digital art, we highly recommend you read this before posting your work. Here we will show you the most common mistakes beginners make, and the fastest ways to improve your art. Then intention of this document is:

- to summarize the most common comments and criticism given to beginners
- to provide a basic technical guide for beginner artists, and
- to thereby increase the standard of art posted in the forums.

Keep in mind at all times that there are always exceptions to rules, especially in art. However, you must first learn the rules you intend to break. All explanations and suggestions are intended to be as clear and practical as possible, and to apply to a broad range of styles and disciplines.

If you have any questions about or suggestions for this document, please private message Ken or one of the other moderators.

GOOD ART PRACTICE
Just like an athlete, an aspiring artist must learn to train themselves, to regularly exercise their skills, reduce distraction, and push themselves to new levels. This section contains advice generally relating to your daily life and approach to art, rather than what to do with a pencil, paintbrush or stylus.

Practice! Practice, practice, practice. The more you draw, the better you will become. Do not practice blindly, repeating your mistakes over and over again. Try and see what is weak in your art (or ask others), and work on those areas. Keep a series of sketchbooks, so you can see your improvement over time. Draw at every possible free moment. During school and lectures is a popular time. Force yourself to draw every day, if only to do a ten minute sketch.

Start with the basics! Many beginner artists attempt to copy their favourite cartoon and comic characters without understanding how they were created by the original artist. Most of these artists took years of practice and study to get to where they are now. Copying your favourite art might be fun, but if you want to be a better artist, learn fundamentals like anatomy, color theory, perspective and composition. Read books! Take art classes or courses. Pay attention to what the experienced artists say to the beginner artists on online forums like Eatpoo. Beginners often tackle coloring before they are really ready. Practice form first - learn how to capture the shapes of objects using lines (ie learn how to draw before you try painting). Then progress to value and shading - adding light and shadow, and exploring texture and edges, before you tackle color. Start by drawing simple objects like fruit before tackling more complex forms like the human body.

Draw from life. It might be fun to draw anime chicks and beefy dudes with swords, but remember that the basis of all fantasy is reality. Drawing from real life will greatly improve the way you draw from your imagination. Enrol in figure drawing classes. If that's not possible, just go out in public and draw people as they go about their business, or draw your family, friends and pets while they are reading, sleeping, or watching television. Draw the things around your desk. Draw buildings. Even drawing from photographs is a lot better practice than drawing from your mind.

Learn anatomy. Even if you only draw cartoons or anime, basic knowledge of anatomy is essential to drawing humans. Almost every beginner artist needs to improve in their anatomy. Borrow or buy a book, and study the muscles and bones of the body. You don't need to know every single part and its name - just the big bits will do. Remember that you have a body too - get naked and pay attention to the where the muscles are and how they change shape as you move.

Study master paintings. At times their work might seem boring or outdated, but keep in mind that the art of today was built on the art of yesterday. There are certain fundamentals that form the basis to all art as a visual medium, no matter what the subject matter is or when it was created. These include composition, color, edges, and more. By studying the fundamentals of master painters you will come to a greater understanding of these aspects, and learn how to apply them to your own art. Visit art galleries in your area, borrow books about great painters and art movements.

Learn multiple disciplines. Every creative activity you pursue will enhance your knowledge of this world and the way you and others see it. The study an activity will improve your skills in others. For example, learning sculpture can improve a 3d modeller's perception of form, and learning photography can improve an illustrator's perception of light. It is not uncommon to find artists who work professionally in multiple fields.

Do not dwell on a single inspiration source. Many beginner artists try and mimic a single artist - Frank Frazetta, Joe Maduriera and Masamune Shirow are popular idols. There is only so much you can learn from a single artist, and your art will probably look like a pale imitation of their work. View work by as many artists as you can, and try and see what makes each unique. Eventually your own style will develop.

Build a collection of images. Exposure to the creative fruit of others will often inspire you and open your mind to the ways others see the world. Don't just collect art like yours or art that you'd like to create - try and get a range of styles, and of different media. Photography can also be very inspiring, and will teach you a lot about framing, light and color. The internet is the cheapest option, but it can be limited in terms of quality and range. Art books are notoriously expensive, but can sometimes be found discounted. National Geographic magazine is worth subscribing to.

Getting inspired. Many beginner artists complain that they lack inspiration. There are many things you can do to inspire yourself. The most obvious is to experience the creativity of others - watch movies, listen to music, read books, view art and photography. Visit the zoo, toy store, or antique shops, or any place you seldom or never go to. Do something differently from the way you normally act. Get away from the television - the TV is usually telling you what to think, rather than stimulating your creativity.

Save and backup! When working digitally, save you work to the hard drive every few minutes. If you have the room, create a backup copy of your file at important stages, in case your current file corrupts or you screw it up (happens to the best of us). To protect against hard disk failures, you should burn your work to CD as often as possible. There have even been cases of years of work vanishing when CDs are stolen or lost, so you may want to create a backup set to store at a different location. There's nothing worse than losing several years of portfolio work just before applying for an art college.

Experiment. Be daring in your art! Try new techniques. Mess around with your brush settings in your paint program.

Set yourself exercises. A good way to improve yourself is to do the same drawing or painting exercise day after day. For example, you could set yourself to copy a particular photograph or master painting, or do ten figure sketches, or a storyboard.

SETTING UP FOR DIGITAL ART
While digital artists save a lot of money on materials like canvas, paint and brushes, the cost of hardware and software quickly makes up for this. This section is a quick rundown of what you'll need for digital art.

Software. The two most common programs for 2d digital art are Adobe Photoshop (latest version is 7.0) and Corel Painter (previously known as Metacreations Painter); latest version is 8.0). Photoshop, or PS is more common, and was originally created for editing photos. It has powerful selection tools and image manipulation techniques, but its painting capabilites are still improving. Painter has a much better brush engine to produce amazingly natural looking strokes, emulating a range of media from watercolors to chalk. Older versions suffer from a clunky interface and steep learning curve, but the latest version has resolved these issues somewhat.

One isn't better than the other, you must find out which program is better for you. Many professionals are excellent in both, and can even use them together to get the best of both worlds. Other popular programs include Painter Classic, a reduced version of Painter distributed with some graphics tablets, OpenCanvas, which has the capability of networking with multiple artists over the internet, and Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Flash for vector drawings. All these programs, with the exception of OpenCanvas are available in both PC and Mac format.

Hardware. The hardware you require for digital art largely depends on what software you are using. The latest versions require fairly powerful computers. A modest computer (say, Pentium 2) equipped with modest software can still produce great art. Remember that the computer is a tool, like any other medium, the images you produce depend far more on your skill.

PC or Mac? The computer system you use is really up to you. In the graphics industry Macs are more common, so if you want to practice digital art professionally you should at least learn how to use one.

RAM is perhaps the most important issue - the more the better. Many professionals are using computers equipped with 1GB RAM or more. More RAM allows you to work with bigger images, and use more layers. You'll probably need at least 128Mb for a modest setup. Get a good monitor. A monitor should last you several upgrades, so its worth investing in the biggest, clearest monitor you can afford. LCD monitors have problems with viewing angles and color reproduction, so they aren't recommended, but the technology is getting better. Many artists buy video cards which can connect to two monitors, doubling the space you can work on. This is really cool, do it if you can afford it. Digital images take up huge amounts of space, so get a big, fast hard drive, or several in a RAID array for security if you can afford it. And because hard drive crashes will make you cry, get a CD burner.

Buy a graphics tablet. The most common brand is Wacom. In case you don't know, a tablet is like a mouse pad which you can draw on using a pressure sensitive stylus, or pen. The strokes you make will appear on the screen. Almost all the artists on this forum use a tablet. They range in size and price, but you can often find them reasonably cheap on ebay. The size you should get depends on your drawing style. If you use large, sweeping strokes, you will probably find the smaller sizes cramped. Different levels of pressure sensitivity don't really make too much difference, especially to beginners.

You will need a scanner to scan your drawings in, don't think you can give up your pencil and paper just yet. More expensive scanners are usually just better at scanning photographs, so a cheap scanner will do for your drawings. A printer isn't really a must-have item. Most 'amateur' digital artists just publish their works on their websites and online forums. If you need to print an image, burn it to CD and take it to a print shop. For a few dollars you'll get a professional quality print on whatever paper you want.

BEFORE YOU DRAW
This section contains advice related to planning out your pictures and art theory.

Communicate. Art is a communication between the artist and the viewer. You work need not contain explicit or literal messages - sometimes leaving the viewer asking questions can be very helpful. Usually however, you are trying to tell a story or make the viewer feel an emotion or understand an idea. Think about how you will design your picture to best get this message across. What colors are suitable? Should the viewer be looking down on or up to the scene? Do the objects in your scene symbolise anything? Do you need to emphasize speed or height or size? Remember that empty space is just as important as filled space.

Draw from general to specific. It is usually best to develop a painting as one, rather than work on one section heavily, then the next, then the next. This way your painting will appear more cohesive - more like one piece, rather than a collection of objects. Start with a framework of lines or areas so you can see the composition of your piece immeadiately. Don't paint a subject first and a background later - plan your piece as a whole.

Use references. When drawing anything, it helps a lot to have the object in front of you, or at least photographs of it. For example, you may think you know what clouds look like, but there are many types of cloud, and their color and texture is always different. That doesn't mean you have to copy the photo or object exactly, but a reference always helps your depiction of lighting, texture and form.

About tracing. Tracing is a much-debated technique on Eatpoo. It is accepted and even encouraged to various degrees in many professions and schools. Often the quickest way to produce an image is to directly trace it from a resource, and in many professional situations where speed is a priority, it makes a lot of sense. Others see it as a form cheating. The bottom line is that if you want to be able to draw without tracing in the future, it's best not to rely on tracing as a crutch. Traced artwork is acceptable on this forum as long you clearly state you used it, and preferably if you post the original photo.

Learn composition. Composition is the arrangement of objects, values and color in your picture. The composition should be used in such a way to get the viewer's attention and move their eye through the picture. It is usually better to plan the composition of your pictures using pencil or paint sketches before you go into detail. If you are planning on adding a background, include it in the plan, rather than adding it after you have finished your subject. Composition can get very complicated, but here are a few pointers to get you started:

- Focal points are areas in your picture that attract the eye and demand the most attention. If your picture is mostly dark, small areas of light will draw attention. If your picture is mostly green, small areas of red will draw attention. If you picture is fairly flat and smooth, small areas of texture will draw attention. The focal points should be arranged around your picture so that the eye travels across the page. Symmetrical compositions often fail because the eye has nowhere to move but up and down.

- Edges are where two or more areas of different color, or different value (lightness/darkness) meet. Edges can vary between hard, soft, and non-existant (or lost). A hard edge is where the two areas meet at a line. In a soft edge the transition is more gradual, like a blur. Hard edges attract more attention, so you should design your image so the hardest edges fall where you want the viewer to look. If you have a row of dark figures, placing a light background behind one will make him stand out.

- Blur your eyes to see the composition of your work better. With your eyes unfocused, you'll be able to see the picture as areas of light and dark, of texture and shape. Does this blurred image seem unbalanced? See if you can introduce, subtract or modify elements to rectify this.

Draw using traditional media. As fun as it is to draw and paint using a computer with a tablet, most people cannot achieve the same grace of stroke or versatility as with a pencil. Line weight is crucial to inked lineart, and is almost impossibly to control digitally without using vectors. Beginners will improve their drawing faster if they practice with a pencil rather than a tablet.

Make your picture interesting! Many beginners draw a beautiful girl or mean looking dude standing there and leave the background blank. Where's the interest? Think about ways you can get the viewer to ask questions. Where did you character come from, what are his/her intents, why are they where they are? Try to avoid cliches - we've all seen a barbarians carrying a big sword. How about a barbarian carrying a surfboard? Or a barbarian surfing through space?! With a 70s disco motif?!

(DIGITAL) ART TECHNIQUES
This section contains advice dealing with the practical end of art - things to do when you're actually drawing/painting.

DON'T PAINT ON A WHITE BACKGROUND. This is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners - they draw their linework, lay it on top of a white canvas and start to add color. The color and value surrounding any area you are working on affects your perception of color and value. A red background makes your subject look green, a light background makes your subject appear dark. Because a lot of beginners use brushes with low opacity, the color of their canvas often shows through without the them realising.

Rather than a white canvas, start with a neutral tone, like a grey or beige. If your picture is going to have a lot of red in it, you could start with a medium red. Some people start with a gradient fill, so they have a range of values to work with. Once you have a background color in place, lay down flat areas of color for each object in your picture. By defining the correct colors as early as possible, you can see how the colors will interact when the picture is finished.

Draw what you see, not what you think you see. This is one of biggest barriers than artists fight against. We tend to rely on preconceived notions of how things look, a function linked to memory and recognition. More often than not, however, this impression is simplified and inadequete for drawing realistic looking pictures. Grass is not always green. Eyes are not always almond-shaped. Water is not always blue (it's clear, silly! If you think water is blue, it's because you're thinking of the sea reflecting a blue sky). When drawing a person from life, don't think of arms and head and torso and muscles and hair. Just draw the areas of light and dark and edges as you see them.

Desaturate. Many beginners' paintings are too saturated. Saturation is how 'intense' a particular color is. The less saturated a color, they closer it is to grey. Most of the colors on the swatch (the little grid of colors in Photoshop or Painter) are very saturated, and lead to unrealistically saturated pictures. Try mixing colors before you apply them to your subject, in a spare area of the canvas. If your painting is looking too saturated, don't be afraid to decrease the saturation using adjustments (Ctrl-U in Photoshop).

Do not create lights and shadowed areas using white and black. Many beginners lay down a base color (let's say, red for an apple), then create shadows by lightly shading with black, and lights areas by lightly shading with white. This creates a very dull and artificial appearance and assumes that the light source is pure white. Most light is colored. The highlights on an object will be tinted with the color of the light, and the shadows will be tinted with the complementary or opposite color. Afternoon sunlight, for example is yellow, and will cast blue-purple shadows. Fluorescent light is blue-green, which casts a slightly orange shadow. When drawing with reference or from life, carefully measure the color with your eyes. Isolate a light or dark area and try to ignore the surroundings. Color your picture accordingly.

Don't abuse filters. Photoshop was primarily intended to be a photo manipulation program. To that end, it is packaged with a range of filters - special effects to change the look and texture of pictures. While some of these can be very useful, most will make your picture look artificial or cheap. Other Photoshop features that one should generally avoid early on are the burn, dodge and smudging tools. A photo with a few filters on it is NOT something to be proud of.

Mirror your image often. Every few minutes, flip (mirror) your digital canvas horizontally. If you are working traditionally, look at your picture in a mirror, or hold your paper up to the light backwards. You will see errors that are not otherwise visible. Often your picture will look skewed (pushed diagonally). Many Japanese manga (comic) artists remark on this when they see their work flipped for translation purposes in Western countries. In time, your eyes will be able to pick up these mistakes without having to flip.

No one part of an image is more important than the image as a whole. Do not sacrifice the rest of your picture because one part of it looks particularly good. In great pictures, everything should look 'together' and consistent. If you have drawn one part amazing, but it doesn't fit with the rest of the picture, you'll simply have to do it again. As you get better, you'll start to draw things 'correctly' the first time more often, so you'll have to correct less.

 

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