Best approach for drawing ponies in Photoshop?

[skbl17 199]

Hey everypony!

 

Since mid 2013, all of my OC vectors have been designed in Inkscape and its Ponyscape derivative. However, I also own Adobe Photoshop CS6, and I've been considering learning how to draw ponies in Photoshop, be it digitally (tablet) or using a sketch pad and a camera or scanner.

 

So my question to those who have worked in Photoshop before: what's the best way for a total Photoshop noob to approach drawing ponies in Photoshop? What Photoshop tools are essential for creating high-quality digital artwork? Are there any similarities between Photoshop and Inkscape? For beginners, is it better to use the tablet or just sketch things out first?

 

Thanks!

[SFyr 1,982]

@@skbl17, 

 

Hey there!

 

I personally have zero experience with Inkscape, so I can't make much of a comparison, but I've been using photoshop for at least a year or two now for my art--I'm using CS6, actually. From what I hear, it can be a good bit confusing if you're unfamiliar with it, but ultimately it has a lot of cool features, and you may find yourself only using a handful. Anyways, for the longest time I practically needed to draw/scan, as despite having a tablet, it can take a long time be confident enough with using it to match the same level of detail when you're not looking at where you're drawing. To this day, I still go back and forth, as sometimes I just want to plan things out physically and use it as a guide.

 

Anyways... from what I understand, Inkscape is a vector program? I've played with Illustrator, which also relies dominantly on vectors, and I've found coloring to be easier there, but lineart was more fun to do in Photoshop after getting some solid experience. "Easier and faster to do, but harder to get clean" probably sums up my comparision, and hopefully it might still apply. As much as a love Photoshop, it was so much easier to mess up and not realize it.

 

Also, just as an example, here's a few things I did through Photoshop CS6:

 

 

 

 

Personally, I rely dominantly on a default hard round brush, and let my tablet take care of the stylization of the lines and such. Even for coloring or finer details, I tend just vary the size and layer properties. Some playing around should yield some good results, especially if you focus on the basics and slowly branch out to gradually include new things, as to not get overwhelmed.   The pen tool can be useful to know how to use as well, but yeah, ultimately I use just the default brushes and play with layers.

 

...Sorry this has been rather haphazard of a reply, haha. Umm. Do you have any specific questions about PS?

Edited August 5, 2015 by SFyr

[skbl17 199]

Thanks for the reply, and might I say that your art is very good! So I should essentially just start with the basics of brushes and the pen tool before digging deeper? Also, if I use the brush tool to draw lines, how do you go about coloring them in?

 

Yes, Inkscape is a vector program similar to Illustrator (which I also have but rarely use - except for stuff I have to load into After Effects).

[SFyr 1,982]

Thanks so much!

And yeah, I mean how you approach it may vary pretty heavily with what you plan on doing. I ended up just going simple and finding out how to make it work. And, as I said, the default hard round brush pretty much met my needs.  It then just became a matter of learning to properly control thickness via pressure, and learn a few tricks. Though, I'm sure an afternoon (or even an hour or so) browsing around tutorials would be well worth the time, but yeah, it's all dependent on what you're going after.

 

I use a brush for my lines, and ironically, that same brush is how I'll then color it in.  I usually work on around a thickness of 5-10px for my lineart, and 15-22px for my base coloration. THAT is one of the key stages that vector artwork is so much easier to work with, as in Illustrator I can just define paint forms and use the drop bucket tool. In photoshop, I have to do it all by hand--thankfully my thicker lined style makes it not terribly painful though, and overall I consider PS easier to work with still.  :grin2:

 

As for the pen tool... I don't use it much nowadays, but I find it to be a great thing to fall back on if you need it. Heck, theoretically it could also be a sometimes better way to color, as you could just trace the lineart and get a very clean base layer out of filling the defined shape. It was also how I originally did lineart before getting a tablet, as you could patiently create the effect of varied line thickness without a pressure sensitive input device.