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LoTekK · Posted: Thu May 30, 2002 7:55 pm

hey everyone,

had a couple of questions concerning everyone's paint techniques in photoshop... currently i'm working myself out of my art slump, and i figure now would be a good a time as any to try out new techniques and whatnot...

so anyways, i'm now working with some custom brushes courtesy of mr t, and i'm setting my pressure setting to size only, with a fixed opacity of 50%...

with black and white i've been trying to use only black and white, with no greys whatsoever, using only the 50% opacity to work the greys...

so i guess my questions would be:

1. what do you normally have your pressure setting at? size, opacity, color, some or all of the above?

2. do you set up your custom brushes in sets of different sizes of the same shaped brush, or do you simply rely on the pressure size setting?

3. what kind of opacity settings do you use, if you turn off pressure opacity?

and any other things anyone might come up with... anyone else with concerns, ask away...

eyewoo · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 5:04 am

I think I work quite differently...

I have a brush window containing 50+ brushes. It looks like this:

Each brush has the spacing set to 1, not turned off. I mainly use the pencil brush and when painting, frequently press the right mouse button to display and pick a different size brush.

I use combinations of preasure settings for both size and opacity, but primarily I keep the size preasure setting off and the opacity setting on. That is why I keep so many brushes available with the right mouse click.

I rarely use the paint brush or the airbrush... but I do use them on occasion.

One of my main techniques is to use the lasso tool to draw (select) areas to either paint in or adjust with LEVELS or COLOR BALANCE. I often use the lasso tool in conjunction with QUICK MASK. In fact, in QUICK MASK mode I do use the airbrush tool quite frequently, and then paint or adjust the resulting select area.

'course this may all change once I get PShop 7 installed...

[ May 31, 2002: Message edited by: eyewoo ]

LoTekK · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 8:50 am

yeah, i've been looking at the stuff you do and the way you work... i'm really liking your paintings (and congrats on the tutorial chapter in that book

), but i was definitely intrigued by your paint techniques... i've never seen that kind of use of the lasso tool before... was that an original technique, or was it inspired by someone else?

as for the brushes, once i find the ones that i use the most, i'll probably just create a set with different sizes of those brushes, much like how the default brushsets are set up...

at this point the main reason i'm using pressure size only, and fixed opacity, is because it feels a little more like real painting, at least as far as my limited experience tells me... and i love those custom brushes, as they give an even more painterly look to the pics...

eyewoo · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 9:03 am

I worked out using the lasso tool on my own, so in that sense it is original, but I can't help but believe there are many others doing the same thing in various forms.

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, is because it feels a little more like real painting,

hmmm... you see... that's where I think people get slightly off track when digitally painting. Rather than trying to simulate or make things look and feel like traditional media, my feeling is look for what this new medium can do... capitalize on it's strengths. That is certainly why I rely on the lasso tool as much as I do... It is about as "digital" as you can get... and there ain't nothing like it in the traditional world, including masking while doing traditional airbrush work. The lasso and QUICK MASK combined allow you create very complex masks with gradations that would not be possible with traditional masks.

Digital's cool....

[ May 31, 2002: Message edited by: eyewoo ]

sfr · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 9:17 am

eyewoo, you really only use flat round pencil at various sizes? That's very oldschool, it's essentially the same as painting in DeluxePaint over ten years ago. With the minor differences that you're using 20x more resolution, and of course DP didn't have any pressure or opacity and you had to make your own 16-256 color palette...

Anyway, it's pretty cool that someone does that, while many others seem to be going into grunge overdrive with the new PS7 brush engine. (Of course I don't have anything against that either, in fact I'd love to see spooge going into full Jackson Pollock mode soon

)

I agree about the usefulness of quick mask and selections. But most of the time I save my selections as masks, so I can keep them editable. I love painting masks

Saffron

eyewoo · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 10:10 am

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That's very oldschool

Well... I just installed my new version of PShop 7. I did some beta work with it, but didn't really switch over back then... but now's the time.

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in fact I'd love to see spooge going into full Jackson Pollock mode soon

Yep... think he's definitely using PS7 brushes. His Dune Baron speed thread pic has that look for sure...

[ May 31, 2002: Message edited by: eyewoo ]

LoTekK · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 10:29 am

quote:
hmmm... you see... that's where I think people get slightly off track when digitally painting. Rather than trying to simulate or make things look and feel like traditional media, my feeling is look for what this new medium can do... capitalize on it's strengths. That is certainly why I rely on the lasso tool as much as I do... It is about as "digital" as you can get... and there ain't nothing like it in the traditional world, including masking while doing traditional airbrush work. The lasso and QUICK MASK combined allow you create very complex masks with gradations that would not be possible with traditional masks.

Digital's cool....

i do agree with you in a sense, though i still like the whole "looks-like-traditional" kind of look... as for the whole purely-digital look, i'm still experimenting as of now, to see what i like better... hell, best-case scenario is that i'm able to switch styles at will...

but i'm definitely a big fan of the whole spooge school of digital painting...

at the same time i also love enayla and merekat's stuff, both of which definitely look digital... again, best case scenario is the ability to switch at will...

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Anyway, it's pretty cool that someone does that, while many others seem to be going into grunge overdrive with the new PS7 brush engine.

heh, funny that i'm still using ps 5.5 and going into "grunge overdrive"... imagine what happens when i get ps 7 this weekend!

more tips and advice and techniques, please!

Vhy · member Member # Joined: 04 May 2002 Posts: 101

I doubt many people are taking very good advantage of the digital tools because they are still changing so fast.

Digital allows a more straightforward approach to everything except looking like real materials.

I have yet to be consistent in how I set up brushes to respond to pressure. I wonder if I could get good at controlling opacity with my other hand while pen pressure controls size, but first there needs to be a tool for that.