akita-ken

Starting out with a tablet you say? Get a Wacom Bamboo, they come cheap and get the job done. They've recently refreshed the product line with some new names and such, but the Bamboo Pen I got last year was the best hundred dollars I've spent so in a long while. (And the tablet area is really not that bad, it's small but definitely adequate enough for drawing) Have you tried drawing with a mouse though? Don't underestimate the mouse, I started off with my mouse and I can safely say that while a tablet is something that is nice to have, it is not a necessity for you to generate results, all it does is just make life slightly easier once you're used to it. You don't have to master it, but it definitely helps if you can adapt to either. You will be surprised at how much control you can get with a well-calibrated mouse with a decent-dpi, nearly all gaming mice meet the mark. As far as drawing programs are concerned, if you're using a tablet, you'll definitely want to take a look at Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop. Both are paid programs. Otherwise if you're looking for free, then you'll have to settle with GIMP or some other alternative. Of course, if you're thinking of going into vector art then that's a different ball game, for that you'll be looking at Illustrator as a paid option and Inkscape as a free one. Take the time to experiment and choose your starting path

Forgive me, but what you're describing sounds a lot like Gentoo It certainly meets the 'home-made' criteria, if you get my drift Vanilla Debian is actually pretty clean if you install only the base system :3

Coffee is my favourite beverage at any time of the day (except night time, for obvious reasons). I'm rather standard though, I get my supply of caffeine from a jar of coffee powder in the kitchen. As a rule of thumb, I'll drink it hot in the morning, and iced in the afternoon. Gets me through the day without having to nod off and waste precious daylight! :3 (Oh hear me I sound like a friggin coffee ad right now )

Indonesia's government is too corrupt to pass legislation fast enough anyway let alone enforce it effectively. Not surprising that there's no trust whatsoever in the bureaucracy.

Hey yeah, my version of SAI has an option to export to PNG too, along with a whole bunch of other file types, but it doesn't give me a PNG options dialog box like yours. It just saves it without asking anything :

"What? The explosives were going to expire anyway! We just made use of it to blow up some old cars !"

Well, Photoshop is really an all-rounder when it comes to raster image editing and post-processing. If you're comfortable with Ps then you won't have a problem using SAI. That being said, SAI was built from the ground up with only one thing in mind: drawing. The interface, toolset, and features in SAI are all geared towards drawing with either mouse or tablets (it has very good tablet support). You won't find image editing tools like magic wands and clone stamp tools in SAI for sure, if you need those you'll have to export to Ps first. One thing SAI has that Photoshop doesn't is the pen stabilizer tool, which is great for making smooth curvy lines that have literally no jitter whatsoever. Even so, Photoshop is still the king when it comes to amount of customization you can have for the tools and is able to do most of what SAI's tools can do to some extent. It does have the ability to smooth a line if you configure the brush preset correctly, and it has decent enough support for pen tablet pressure as well. Thanks!

I actually chuckled for quite a while when I opened this thread, and then I felt guilty immediately after Stick with pencil and paper, it's a much easier medium to learn and practice on

Hey that's actually pretty good! You should make a full-length song from that scene Damn it is there anything you can't do Holosnipe! Me so jelly

Well first of all, doing a recolour is one step up from using the Pony Generator. Sure, it may not be as customized or original as you would hope it to be, and some might even see it as a being a plain rip off, but think about it, you actually need to have some skill and a fair bit of effort to pull off a successful recolour. Seeing that you've already recoloured RD to PF quite well, how about taking in another step higher on the rung of original OC art if you're worried about it not being original? Since you say you are not good with doing the shapes of the characters, why not start with something a little easier: Get rid of RD's mane and tail, and draw in your own mane/tailstyles. If you're feeling adventurous, erase her wings and draw in your own design. There's lots of things you could do to make it a more credible OC without having to draw it from scratch!

Got it! I'll make sure to take note of that the next time I do a piece in SAI Both of you have caught me, haha Yes, I was trying to add a little shading to them by using the brush tool to do their fills. Was going for the 'fur' kind of texture on their coats but that didn't turn out too well Thank you both for the helpful tips! I'll be sure to keep them in mind if and when I do another raster piece

As some might know, I'm primarily a vector artist and do my stuff in Illustrator, but I've expressed my interest in learning how to draw in raster on more than one occasion. I've heard a lot of good things about Paint Tool SAI so naturally I went for that first, add to the fact that from playing around with it a couple of times I found it to be much more 'drawing-oriented' than Photoshop. (Not to say that Ps is a bad tool for drawing, the learning curve is just much higher) First thoughts: (Okay I'll put this in a spoiler cuz I've begun my essay mode ) For some background about the picture, it's from a fanfic that I read called "Colours of the Heart" by Azu on FIMFiction In one of the extra chapters, Sweetie Belle gives the protagonist (Prism) a drawing after watching her perform her rainbow-coloured magic. Prism is an albino (hence her all white coat) pony and has never had any friends because everyone in her old city shunned her and treated her differently. So when Sweetie Belle tells her that she's cool and is her new friend, she's so touched that she starts crying and hugs her :3 Easily one of the most d'aww moments in the story (Prism is lifting a cabbage using her magic in SB's drawing, read the story to find out why ) ((Yeah I know I screwed up her eyes and part of her mane, but oh well not too shabby for a first try innit ))

You know what I thought when I first looked at this? So I guess you're not too far off by calling it a spacelamp Ahaha nice lamps though, wish my room had one like that, instead of a boring old white fluorescent tube =_="

I used to work in the military, but my term of service has ended. Now I'm taking a breather before doing some work at an IT firm. Ah how I wish I were in school again so I wouldn't have to worry about money..

I'm not one to turn down an interview, so if you need someone I'm all open for questions! But of course its all up to you, just thought I'd join in the fun!

Here here here do mine do mine!!! I rarely ever make it in time for request threads! Either that or I'm usually the one drawing OCs for people You can do any pose you please! :3

Known for being ~ds8~

Known for friggin having an actual picture of a pony in Fluttershy's colours WTF!

I think the poll might encourage viewers to just cast their vote and then leave the topic, or something like that. If the poll doesn't have enough options, then some will take the trouble to type it out in a reply. Though the 100 char min again kind of puts a cap on that, so yeah. The poll might indeed have a negative effect on the number of replies a thread gets. Unless of course, the subject-matter of the thread is that good

It happens quite often in Fan Art as well Thankfully I've only had one or two art threads that I've posted which have garnered a grand total of 0 replies T_T Nowadays I just try to predict what people would like and am thankful if they at least brohoof Speaking of titles, I'm still waiting to see if someone manages to pull off a OMG SEASON 4 SPOILERS in the title and then starts talking about what they had for lunch in the thread before being pwned by the mods

Known for having a blank flank :3