Help: art tips needed 🤍

[LiyahxWrites]

Hi, I have been trying to work on art for the longest, but for some reason uh I can’t get the grasp of it? I use/own the apps photoshop, procreate, and ibispaint x. When I try to create outlines, the lines aren’t always that good looking, but that could be due to my shaky hands. My other problem is when I start to color the outlines, the outline looks pixilated I dunno… can someone jot down some tips/tricks? Help a gal out. Shading, outlining, idk, etc.

[Chel_C]

For lines to be smooth , I guess you should use stabilizer.
I recommend using canvas of larger size , it will make the drawing look clear.
I would recommend using some special effects, filters , though not too much.
Perfect amount can bring really good results.
For spreading colours evenly and light shading , use airbrush
If you need any more tips , you can pm me . I would love to help a fellow artist

[agkhaliq]

On Ibis paint X I use Dip Pen hard with the stabilizer on max and Force Fade on, this really helps with great outlining! For shading I add a darker colour on the skin and then use the blur tool to blend it

[_haruka]

Hello

I’ll be talking about Ibis Paint since I don’t own any other apps lol.

When you outline, do fast strokes. If there’s a particularly long line you need to do, break it up and join them later. Here’s an example:

The top line was drawn slowly, and the bottom was one fast stroke. If you do it fast, it won’t pick up on your shakiness. I have low iron and my hands are shaky af (sometimes I can’t even hold a glass of water without it spilling) but generally if I draw fast, it helps.

Also always have stabiliser on. I find it helps if you turn it onto real-time correction rather than after. Using force fade when outlining can also help make it steadier, even if the fade is set to 0% (although I set it to about 40% when outlining).

What canvas size are you using? I use 3000x3000 which is huge but since I started doing that, I have never had an issue with pixelated-looking art. Maybe you could try making it a little bigger and see where that gets you?

You probably already know these, but some general tips for basic shading;

• If you use bucket, that tends to leave white unfilled holes, so double check and make sure it’s all filled.
• When colouring, have the colouring layer under the outline. If you’re shading a specific area, rather than using magic wand, which can make it look pixelated and messy, try isolating where you’re colouring on one layer and clipping it, example below

exampleee

So here, I’m colouring an eye. In the image below, I used magic wand to select and shade over my base layer.

As you can see, the magic wand didn’t select it all and made the edges pixelated.
In the image below here, I clipped the shading layer onto the base colour layer.

Here, you can see that everything is selected smoothly. Clipping basically means that on any layer that is clipped to a base layer, you will only be able to colour within what is on the base layer. That probably made NO sense but it’s basically a smooth magic wand.

Also, instead of using magic wand, it can be smoother to just fill it in by hand using dip pen hard or something like that. This is what happened when I magic wanded and bucketed it;

• I’d also recommend changing the canvas background to the grey grid I have in the pictures above. When I used to have it as white, I would always keep missing any uncoloured bits.

I hope this helped
If you have any questions hmu

[LiyahxWrites]

Omg! This is so detailed! The canvas is automatically set to 2000x2000 whenever I bring an imagine in. Those examples you showed is so helpful because I noticed as well that the bucket tool doesn’t grab everything which always infuriated me. I will definitely be using these tips! Thank you so much

Same goes for @Chel_C & @agkhaliq - Thank you I wasn’t expecting to get any replies, haha

@Chel_C

For spreading colours evenly and light shading , use airbrush

Does it matter what airbrush? Soft, normal airbrush.

[_haruka]

You’re welcome!
2000x2000 sounds pretty big, it’s weird that it is sometimes pixelated. If it is only when you’re colouring, it could be a bucket/brush/selection issue?

Again, feel free to PM me or @ me somewhere if you have any questions

[xetic]

IbisPaint tips: (Comic Shading)
I personally use Dip pen Hard or Dip pen soft depending what part of the body I’m drawing or part of the face. If you have a hard time drawing lips then for that certain aspect I suggest using Dip Pen soft. To have the outlines smooth I suggest turning the stabilizer on and have max force fade on. To fill in the outlines you must have all sections closed off, I use the brush Felt Tip Pen Hard to fill it in. Now if you’re someone who starts out by drawing sketches first rather than the outline (aka me) then don’t do everything on the same layer and turn the brush opacity down and make several strokes. Now to shade in the drawing or edit, I go with a color 2-3 times darker than the base to give it that look. So basically if you go a little darker you can always turn the layer opacity down.

IbisPaint Tips: (Realistic art style)
For this it may sound a little tricky, but don’t use black for anything unless it’s outfits, accessories and etc. Most people when doing realistic art prefer not to use outlines while some do so if you want to use an outline then you have to make the color of the outline the same as the base (skin color). You still use dip pen hard when making an outline but you don’t use it for shading. For shading you go for 3-4 and 5-6 as well 1-2 times darker than the original skin tone because you need to give your art piece shadows and contour and blemishes, or whatever you envision a character as. When shading you use Any airbrush and blur it all when ur done. You keep going over it till ur satisfied. hope this helps!
[**PS I tend to use 640 by 1136 as my canvas size since everything I make is for my story]

Will be giving you Procreate/pocket tips later as well

[LiyahxWrites]

Thank you so much, and looking forwarded to the tips

[xetic]

Of course not a problem! I personally recommend Procreate for realistic shading rather than IbisPaint but both work amazing!

[Chel_C]

You can try both and see the difference but for me soft works well.
Dont be afraid to try new things (though at starting I was😅 but belive me, trying different things bring out extraordinary results)

[LiyahxWrites]

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[LiyahxWrites]

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[LiyahxWrites]

Can someone give me hair tips on how to shade? I mainly use procreate, but I do have ibispaint.

[Awae]

I use both custom brushes and the default ones, here’s the link to the custom hair brush that I use (I did end up modifying it a little for my taste + I use hair 6 and 4), and I also use the acrylic (under the painting category).
I start out by sketching the direction I want the hair to flow (usually there would be multiple directions that he hair flow). I then lay out a flat base color for the hair underneath the sketch layer using the acrylic brush and choose a slightly darker shade to mark where I want the shadows to be. Next, I add a layer above the sketch, and start adding onto the shadows and the general thing using the custom brush. I like to add highlights onto the lighter part of the hair and have a few strands go into the darker shaded areas (make sure to not use pure white). I then add a color dodge to some of the highlights and in other places, you can just have fun at this part and maybe add sparkles. I dunno if this is specific enough, I suck at explaining.

[LiyahxWrites]

Thank you so much for the tips and the link! I’m going to try this method.

[LiyahxWrites]

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[LiyahxWrites]

@Sydney_H, @Nick can you close this?