Question about Digital Drawing

[LWulf]

for more clarity. maybe?

Simon, to answer simply, "shading" with virtually any program (with a mouse), is done by "click and drag." meaning you click the active mouse button (mostly everyone uses left mouse button), keep it clicked and drag the mouse in the direction you want to go.

A "hard edge" will very clearly show a wavy path. A "soft edge" will obscure such waviness depending on the brush, and "pressure" you choose. You have to choose these things before you start drawing a line, otherwise, whatever default values are preloaded, will go into any lines you draw.

Until I post my step by step tutorial, hopefully my words and Throbbs brief tutorial above will explain what you need to know to get started.

**The nomenclature may be different, but the tools in photoshop essentials should be about the same. You don't have to download Gimp to draw...

 

[THROBBS]

Simon, to answer simply, "shading" with virtually any program (with a mouse), is done by "click and drag." meaning you click the active mouse button (mostly everyone uses left mouse button), keep it clicked and drag the mouse in the direction you want to go.

A "hard edge" will very clearly show a wavy path. A "soft edge" will obscure such waviness depending on the brush, and "pressure" you choose. You have to choose these things before you start drawing a line, otherwise, whatever default values are preloaded, will go into any lines you draw.

Until I post my step by step tutorial, hopefully my words and Throbbs brief tutorial above will explain what you need to know to get started.

**The nomenclature may be different, but the tools in photoshop essentials should be about the same. You don't have to download Gimp to draw...

HOWEVER, if you don't have the pen/path tool in Elements (which Simon said), then you are limited by the steadiness of your own hand.

Except for constrained lines. Holding down the shift key as you start to draw gives you straight or horizontal line. OR a "dot to dot" hold shift..and click "here" then there" then "There" and a straight line segment will appear between each clicked spot.

 

[LWulf]

raster vs vector - mouse vs stylus - the last word

When I was in college, my art professor said he wanted us to paint all freehand (canvas and paint - paintings). He said firmly that it was all supposed to be "freehand" (in other words we shouldn't use tape to mask off an area and paint any lines).

When he saw mine, he tried to claim I "cheated" by masking off my lines. I disagreed. I said I steadied my hand like they do while painting accent lines on cars (by stretching out my pinky, and using the edge of my canvas to guide the rest of my hand), but it was still freehand. However, I couldn't still manage a "finesse" line, so I picked the smallest brush I had, mashed it down, and let my pinky guide my hand.

The debate about "controlled" verse "freehand" and the tools used for the outcome, is long, old and ongoing.

* * *
​

I would contend that the same controls you have for a mouse, are the same controls you have for a stylus (so one isn't more "noble" than the other). I never contended that a stylus is faster. Some would say the stylus is more "intuitive" but I would say that just means the programmer built in mathematical ways to compensate for that.

A mouse has more drag area on the tabletop/mousepad, so it has a greater chance to "wobble," when you try to draw a freehand line. However, your hand grabs a stylus, your hand grabs a mouse. You drag your hand with a stylus to draw a line, you drag your hand with a mouse to draw a line. the tools are different, but the outcome is basically the same.

While a "path tool" itself, might be a vector itself and thereby infinitely scalable, what the path tool creates, is not. It is raster, and thereby pixelates with scale. Any art you create with the path tool, is not any longer "vector."

There is some art, which is called "vector art," and vector art is infinitely scalable. NOT the tools, the outcome of the tools, the actual ART. Vector ART is infinitely scalable, thereby it's called "vector art."

This is the last word I will have on the subject.

 

[LWulf]

HOWEVER, if you don't have the pen/path tool in Elements (which Simon said), then you are limited by the steadiness of your own hand.

Except for constrained lines. Holding down the shift key as you start to draw gives you straight or horizontal line. OR a "dot to dot" hold shift..and click "here" then there" then "There" and a straight line segment will appear between each clicked spot.

SimonDoom,

Do you know what a "path tool" is?
You said you know next to nothing about the program, so it's possible you saw it and didn't realize what you were looking at, or that it might be in a "advanced" toolset that has been hidden away on Photoshop essentials. Some programs do that; hide the advanced tools so you get familiar with the basic tools first. Do you think that is possible?

 

[THROBBS]

When I was in college, my art professor said he wanted us to paint all freehand (canvas and paint - paintings). He said firmly that it was all supposed to be "freehand" (in other words we shouldn't use tape to mask off an area and paint any lines).

When he saw mine, he tried to claim I "cheated" by masking off my lines. I disagreed. I said I steadied my hand like they do while painting accent lines on cars (by stretching out my pinky, and using the edge of my canvas to guide the rest of my hand), but it was still freehand. However, I couldn't still manage a "finesse" line, so I picked the smallest brush I had, mashed it down, and let my pinky guide my hand.

The debate about "controlled" verse "freehand" and the tools used for the outcome, is long, old and ongoing.

* * *
​

I would contend that the same controls you have for a mouse, are the same controls you have for a stylus (so one isn't more "noble" than the other). I never contended that a stylus is faster. Some would say the stylus is more "intuitive" but I would say that just means the programmer built in mathematical ways to compensate for that.

A mouse has more drag area on the tabletop/mousepad, so it has a greater chance to "wobble," when you try to draw a freehand line. However, your hand grabs a stylus, your hand grabs a mouse. You drag your hand with a stylus to draw a line, you drag your hand with a mouse to draw a line. the tools are different, but the outcome is basically the same.

While a "path tool" itself, might be a vector itself and thereby infinitely scalable, what the path tool creates, is not. It is raster, and thereby pixelates with scale. Any art you create with the path tool, is not any longer "vector."

There is some art, which is called "vector art," and vector art is infinitely scalable. NOT the tools, the outcome of the tools, the actual ART. Vector ART is infinitely scalable, thereby it's called "vector art."

This is the last word I will have on the subject.

pssst.
The stylus used on a tablet is pressure sensitive, so it allows for variations in line weight/width AND opacity and scattering (if the brush is designed that way) immediately — as you draw. A mouse cannot do that in one step. using a mouse, you CAN (if there are path tools) draw a path and THEN apply a pixel based brush stroke to that vector path, BUT the stroke applied is not controlled by your hand, it is controlled by the computer.

A mouse or track pad (non-pressure sensitive) is inferior to a stylus on a pressure sensitive pad. which is inferior to a stylus on a pressure sensitive screen (which I currently do not have )

 

[THROBBS]

SimonDoom,

Do you know what a "path tool" is?
You said you know next to nothing about the program, so it's possible you saw it and didn't realize what you were looking at, or that it might be in a "advanced" toolset that has been hidden away on Photoshop essentials. Some programs do that; hide the advanced tools so you get familiar with the basic tools first. Do you think that is possible?

I did a quick look. and found this:

note: the pen/path are vector tools, regardless of the saved file format.

That would mean you cannot, directly draw a path, only convert a selection to a path, and a selection is a closed area. So there would be several cumbersome steps to even get to a path segment. And drawing a selection with something like the lasso tool has the same wobble limitations with a mouse.

 

[THROBBS]

I know some folk question my "credentials" (with good reason) they are sketchy. Ahahahhahahhahahhaha!

I am oldish (60) and I learned to draw the old school way, by looking and practicing.
I have much schooling in drafting: mechanical and architectural. first using t-square and triangles, the parallel rules (pulley and cable system). Never really used a "drafting machine" (arm).

I know various techniques for drawing straight lines and tools for curves: compasses, circle templates, templates for... ellipses etc. And the pinky drag method and when "hung" over an edge for a straight and parallel line... or a mahl stick (a wooden stick to act as a surrogate pinky, if you will.and keep you hand out of the paint)

And with much practice, drawing completely freehand — brush/pencil in hand and looking at a subject (or imagining one) and creating a contour or volume using just that. I will still use additional aids for critical shapes/contours. for example: I may want to show a window (for example) and my use drafting techniques to get crisp hard edges to contrast more organic ones.

I learned "computer aided" design on the fly, at work, after convincing the owners of my company that getting MACs would save money on color separations. The MAC IIci-s paid for themselves in two months. I had been hand drawing art for separations using velum and mechanical pens and/or cutting (by hand) rubylith (a transparent red film) for color separations. Utilizing Adobe Illustrator, I could create vector art (with a mouse) much faster and more accurately and it took out a step in the process. As I advanced with my knowledge, I began to out strip the service bureau which was "ripping" (essentially translating the files to 4 color process film) the files. My files became very memory intensive- patterns and layers etc... the machine at their end would often crash. But technology kept advancing.

Eventually, I began teaching some of these courses at the local community college. I stopped a few years back and I reckon that it would be a big challenge to teach them today, as there are constant upgrades.

I feel that Simon was originally speaking of drawing "figures" (people, not numbers) and those are organic forms. (sure one can go all "cubist" and make them geometric, but reckon that was not what his goal is/was)


This is likely not the last word I will have on the subject.

This is what I do and what I am passionate about. That and some other stuff.

 

[LWulf]

Looks like the egomaniac thought he should answer this. Let's try again

HOWEVER, if you don't have the pen/path tool in Elements (which Simon said), then you are limited by the steadiness of your own hand.
...

SimonDoom,
Do you know what a "path tool" is?
You said you know next to nothing about the program, so it's possible you saw it and didn't realize what you were looking at, or that it might be in a "advanced" toolset that has been hidden away on Photoshop essentials. Some programs do that; hide the advanced tools so you get familiar with the basic tools first. Do you think that is possible?

 

[THROBBS]

Thank you for all the input! This is quite helpful.

I've decided Photoshop Elements simply is not very useful for drawing freehand. It is reasonably effective for creating interesting effects with a photograph, including turning a photo into something that looks like a pencil sketch. But I'm really interested in an application that lets me draw and paint freehand, and Photoshop Elements isn't so great for that. I'll look into some of the alternatives.

How about Paint Tool SAI ?
"PaintTool SAI is not free but the software can be downloaded for free. People who are keen to use the tool but aren't sure about buying it outright can start with a 31-day trial that offers complete access to the tool and all its functions for free."

There's a tutorial by someone who was having the same issue.

https://youtu.be/Tjiw09C-hvQ

The comments are kinda funny.

Gimp is free. And as LWulf is going to show you, can work in a similar manner.

I've used gimp, briefly, I did not care for the interface, but it's free.


A Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet can be purchased for under $100, if you think you might want to get into digital drawing more seriously.




Guess we effectively have dissuaded anyone from asking any questions...ever again. heehee.