Beginners Artists - new to art, need some advice? Step right in!

I like the look of coral painter 12 what do you think of that, i see you mentioned it already. Ill try there trial and see how i get on. Also its a lot cheaper at £270 but theres also a anniversay edition that cost £30 more is that worth for the extras?
 
bakes0310 said:
I like the look of coral painter 12 what do you think of that, i see you mentioned it already. Ill try there trial and see how i get on. Also its a lot cheaper at £270 but theres also a anniversay edition that cost £30 more is that worth for the extras?
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Don't quote me on this, but you can buy the student and teacher edition of CS5 and use it no probs. Like MS Office S&T edition, I don't remember having to register it or nothing, I'll wait for someone else to deny/confirm this.

As for Painter, it's decent software, it's not as 'clean' as photoshop, but a 'painted' esque quality can be had pretty easy. It is however a lot more resource hungry then Photoshop and less reliable. As for the difference between the 2 editions, I have no idea:/ I rarely use Painter, When I started Digital work 18 months back, I used to use it for cleaner line work, but when I got hold of CS5.1 I found that the canvas rotation feature and cleaner brushes made Painter(for me) pretty much redundant.
 
I think before people take the plunge with expensive software such as CS5 and Painter they should try some free software first to see how they get on.

Try GIMP - it's completely free and mimics many of the functions of Photoshop (though to be honest I have no idea how good it would be for painting)...definitely worth a go for the price though!
 
bakes0310 said:
Heres the tablet im thinking of getting which has already been recommended.

http://uk.shop.wacom.eu/detail/index/sArticle/443/sCategory/138090#

Is that the right one for me to get, it seems very nice and a good price for someone who wants to get started. Is the size ok, there is a bigger one but it cost £100 more.
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The Bamboo is a great starter unit, my first was a Bamboo to but, for me, it was way to small. I then bought a Trust TB-7300 as it was a lot larger, that served me well for just over a year and now that I'm doing a lot more 2D stuff I splashed out and bought the Cintiq 24HD.

Size is personal preference, I draw by keeping my hand still and moving my shoulder/elbow for gestural strokes, others use their wrist more. I would personally start small though, you don't want to overspend on a larger tablet and find you're only using a 1/4 of the space available.
 
TheBigCheese said:
I think before people take the plunge with expensive software such as CS5 and Painter they should try some free software first to see how they get on.

Try GIMP - it's completely free and mimics many of the functions of Photoshop (though to be honest I have no idea how good it would be for painting)...definitely worth a go for the price though!
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All the BIG software has free trials though, so it's easy to try them for 30 days and then assess their value, Also a good foundation in something like Photoshop means you can pretty much jump into any other program imo. But each to their own ofcourse ^^
 
Oops, completely forgot about that post, I'll try and finish it today with a lot more information and screen grabs.

Art rage is a great tool for painting, I've seen many of the pros use it because of the paint mixing capabilities. There's also Pixelmator and if anyone buys a Wacom Bamboo, Corel Painter comes bundled with that.
 
bakes0310 said:
Heres the tablet im thinking of getting which has already been recommended.

http://uk.shop.wacom.eu/detail/index/sArticle/443/sCategory/138090#

Is that the right one for me to get, it seems very nice and a good price for someone who wants to get started. Is the size ok, there is a bigger one but it cost £100 more.
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I got a Wacom Bamboo in a sale for around £50. It's still going strong, I love the little thing. Those who think you're limited by the size of your tablet are being ridiculous, it's how you use it.
 
LanceCrossfire said:
Don't quote me on this, but you can buy the student and teacher edition of CS5 and use it no probs. Like MS Office S&T edition, I don't remember having to register it or nothing, I'll wait for someone else to deny/confirm this.
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Can someone tell me if thats a 100% accurate i hope so. But i was reading that the serial number doesnt come with it you need to send away for it with proof of being a student or teacher.
 
Well in Biology we just found some old books with 'proper' drawings in them. I love them. The history, the application, the attention to detail... our teacher said he had to learn them for his A? Level, but they aren't on the syllabus any more. I'd still like to learn though.
 
bakes0310 said:
Anyone?
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I would just give the trial a shot first, aswell as the trials and the other pieces of software that have been listed, Photoshop might not even be the software for you. So give the trials a shot then worry about buying it later when you have more experience or more info can be provided:D
 
Calabi said:
Just get a Wacom Bamboo pen and touch.

Thats what I've got it works perfectly.

Artrage is pretty good.
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I bought a wacom bamboo but I find it really difficult to coordinate between the tablet and the screen, there's a small delay and always seems to some out totally differently to how I think it is going to. Total nub at drawing, would love to be able to do something.
 
piggeh said:
I bought a wacom bamboo but I find it really difficult to coordinate between the tablet and the screen, there's a small delay and always seems to some out totally differently to how I think it is going to. Total nub at drawing, would love to be able to do something.
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The disounance between the tablet and the screen is one of the biggest things to overcome. There are ways to minimise it, you could try and buy a tablet which is a similar size to your monitor, or isolate your tablets mapping to a certain area of the monitor.
The lag can be caused by a lot of things really, dodgy drivers, to large a brush/file size or your system can't keep up with what you're putting onto the canvas.
It's just one of those things that you eventually get used to, my advice would be to get a tablet that you're really comfortable with.
I didn't like drawing a 2 inch line on my tablet and have it turn out a lot larger on my canvas so I took the dive and bought a Cintiq for 1:1 mapping.
Keep practising :D
 
LanceCrossfire said:
The disounance between the tablet and the screen is one of the biggest things to overcome. There are ways to minimise it, you could try and buy a tablet which is a similar size to your monitor, or isolate your tablets mapping to a certain area of the monitor.
The lag can be caused by a lot of things really, dodgy drivers, to large a brush/file size or your system can't keep up with what you're putting onto the canvas.
It's just one of those things that you eventually get used to, my advice would be to get a tablet that you're really comfortable with.
I didn't like drawing a 2 inch line on my tablet and have it turn out a lot larger on my canvas so I took the dive and bought a Cintiq for 1:1 mapping.
Keep practising :D
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I'll try and get used to the bamboo, will need to reinstall, maybe it will improve after a few recent upgrades. Hoping this thread gives some inspiration.
 
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