Drawing with a mouse

[Alex The Earth Pony 72]

Sadly I cannot afford a nice tablet to use to draw. Instead I usually have to draw things using my mouse. Usually when I do the lines always appear choppy. I was wondering if there was a way to make it so that they looked less choppy and jagged?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to go, but it the only place I could think of to ask this.

[Genepool 224]

Sadly I cannot afford a nice tablet to use to draw. Instead I usually have to draw things using my mouse. Usually when I do the lines always appear choppy. I was wondering if there was a way to make it so that they looked less choppy and jagged?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to go, but it the only place I could think of to ask this.

 

Best thing I can recommend is using the pen tool if you are using a program that has that capability. Otherwise you can try to do short strokes. Know in photoshop you can click on an area, move your cursor and then press shift + left click to draw a nice straight line. Doing short strokes using the click then shift+click method is time consuming, but produce some nice clean lines.

[MelancholicMemory 2,022]

On the rare occasion that I do digital art, I draw the picture on paper first, put the image on my computer, and then trace the lines. It is a lot easier to make smooth lines when you are tracing rather than starting from scratch. This turns out pretty good for me,and I use my laptop's mouse pad, so it might work even better for you if you have a good mouse.

[leogal 74]

On the rare occasion that I do digital art, I draw the picture on paper first, put the image on my computer, and then trace the lines. It is a lot easier to make smooth lines when you are tracing rather than starting from scratch. This turns out pretty good for me,and I use my laptop's mouse pad, so it might work even better for you if you have a good mouse.

 

I do the EXACT same thing! I always draw a sketch first, it makes it a whole heck of a lot easier to get the lines right afterwards! For this though, you need a program that you can have multiple layers, like PS or Illustrator (the two I generally use)

[Lightning Fluttershy 1,844]

Everything I ever draw is with a mouse. I use the program Inkscape and it's really quite easy. I drew this using a mouse and it didn't turn out half bad,

[RD82 28]

That's cool. That's pretty cool. That's nice. That's fairly nice. That's fairly cool. Interesting. Good opinions guys. I will keep reading.

Edited May 22, 2015 by RD82

[DireDoe 48]

Even after buying a tablet, I tend towards using the mouse more often than not, haha! Anyway, the secret to using the mouse is to use a lazer one and to make sure that the sensitivity is turned down, that way when you're doing skinny lines it doesn't look like an EEG readout. Also, zoom in a good bit, and make the lines as long as possible, moving as slow as you need to keep it straight. Don't let anyone tell you that you cannot draw well with a mouse - they liiiieee...

[Reversalx 129]

Sadly I cannot afford a nice tablet to use to draw. Instead I usually have to draw things using my mouse. Usually when I do the lines always appear choppy. I was wondering if there was a way to make it so that they looked less choppy and jagged?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to go, but it the only place I could think of to ask this.

 

hmm well depending on what program you use, u could turn up the smoothing. And honestly, i got a tablet, and although it does feel more natural, i find very little difference in terms of outlining lol. i mainly use it for sketching, and nowadays, i just outline with the mouse.

[Pix3M 607]

Some mediums don't really need fancy motor skills. Death the Kid apparently draws vectors which I hear is more usable with a mouse than a tablet. I personally draw all my stuff with a mouse, but pixel-by-pixel as a way of having complete control of everything instead,

[Alex The Earth Pony 72]

Alright guys here's what I got.

 

 

 

Before -

Here you can see how choppy the lines are where I just used the mouse.

 

After -

 

Now it looks so much better thanks, the lines now are a lot smoother now, and the cords to the head phones look much better now.

Again thanks for all the help. is there anything else I should try an fix?

[leogal 74]

Is that in paint? It's amazing if it is!! I could never get anything that good coming out of paint! Kudos to you my friend! You are supreme!

[DireDoe 48]

A great upgrade! The only thing I can see that needs a fix is the hood: if you look at someone wearing a hoodie, the folds of the hood wrap forward to the front and almost touch. Also, the hood itself seems a bit small - the way you've drawn it makes it seem like once she decides to flip the hood up, it'll go about up to her neck and then stop. Here's a good reference attached to show you what I mean. The one thing to keep in mind is that proportions are going to change when transferring a hoodie meant for people to a hoodie meant for ponies - their heads are huge and so the size of the hood needs to change with it.

 

http://www.google.com/url

[Naphthol 7]

I found a marked down version of the bamboo tablet on the corel site for 70$ just now, that might be within range for a tight budget.

 

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4850073&cid=catalog50008&segid=7500012#tab2

[JeanHover 326]

Mouse drawings aren't necessarily bad, the lines are just kinda wavy. You could still make a wonderful work of art without a pen. After all, it's your style, and other people are nobody to be judging how you make art.

[Acoustic Cloud 2,202]

Sadly I cannot afford a nice tablet to use to draw. Instead I usually have to draw things using my mouse. Usually when I do the lines always appear choppy. I was wondering if there was a way to make it so that they looked less choppy and jagged?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to go, but it the only place I could think of to ask this.

 

I have the answer for you my friend. Path tools, enough said, that will solve anyproblems you might be having with whatever program you are using. If you want 2 programs that you need to pay for to use paths, get Ps or Illustrator, if you want free and just as good, download GIMP. Watch a few tuts on paths, and never worry about a choppy line again.

voila, free solution.

[Evilshy 5,089]

The pen tool is pretty easy to use with a mouse. Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, Inkscape, any decent graphics program will have it.

 

I remember back in a high school class we'd always sketch it out on paper, then scan it into the computer and select all the pencil strokes, then widen the selection by a few pixels (depending on how well the auto-select got everything), then colored in the whole selection on a new layer, so we had nice, crisp lines to work with. Then, depending on what it was, I'd usually use the pen tool to re-line it again, just because it's a lot easier to edit like that.

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

Yeah not much digital art used the paintbrush tool anymore haha. I'd imagine that almost everything vector is done with the good old pen tool. It's a bit of a learning curve but it pays off on your work.

[Apple-Jack 312]

i suggest using vectoring ...im adicted to photoshop and inkscape both really good programs but if you can buy a tablet then i sugest you get gimp

 

The pen tool is pretty easy to use with a mouse. Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, Inkscape, any decent graphics program will have it.

 

I remember back in a high school class we'd always sketch it out on paper, then scan it into the computer and select all the pencil strokes, then widen the selection by a few pixels (depending on how well the auto-select got everything), then colored in the whole selection on a new layer, so we had nice, crisp lines to work with. Then, depending on what it was, I'd usually use the pen tool to re-line it again, just because it's a lot easier to edit like that.

 

yep actually i keep sketching on paper first then after i finish it on paper i come and make it from vectors on the pc i love drawing in both ways