support my work on patreon live workshop and online courses with Xia Taptara FREE VIDEO AND PS BRUSHES

Photoshop Wacom setting up your brush pen and tablet for digital painting

This video tutorial show you how to set up your Wacom tablet and brush in Photoshop to increase workflow and keyboard shortcuts, hotkeys for artist, drawing, and painting. If you are using photoshop for digital illustration, manga, anime and comics then watch the tutorial.


Questions from Viewers:


Q: I would like to know which graphic tablet would do for me as a begginer the wacom intuos3 or the genuis mousepen graphic tablet? cause i want some thing that would do a good job good for me.


A: Thank you for your kind words, I am flatter. Tablet? If you are serious about doing art and such, I would recommend for serious beginner Wacom intuos3. It's worth. I am using intuos 2 & 3 and still love it. Keep on drawing and do your best.
If you are on the budget then go for Genius mouse pen, I heard that they are also great.


Q: Hey I was wondering what program and what brush settings you were using when you were drawing.

A: It usually OK to do LOW opacity (30-50) when you doing rough or preliminary. But then I recommend 75% - 100% for your mid way to final. Define soft edge and hard edge (I should make a vid about that.). Anyway, clean solid color is the way to go when finishing up. It will keep your image clean, fresh hues and increase readability. If you use anything less than 80%-90% when paint over and over it could make your image looks muddy and washed out.
**Always make sure that your wacom pen has opacity sensitivity "ON" It should be able to taper out and fade out when you draw soft, just like pencil or graphite or any traditional medium.

*** But really YOU HAVE TO FOCUS on the OVER ALL values and place them in the RIGHT PLACE. NO matter how many fancy layers you have, they won't do you magic if you DON'T UNDERSTAND BASIC VALUEs. SIMPLIFY when try to finish up, don't over do values in the certain area. Put light in the light, put dark in the dark. And make clean clear area of light and dark don't muddle them up. Craig Mullins said it best here, ""Decide what is in light and what is in shadow and don’t mix them up. Think like a comic artist. Two values, but if they are well thought out and designed and drawn they can look totally real. Think like that, but instead of making the light white and the shadow black, make the light a 7 and the shadow a 3. Then go ahead and use 5-10 in the light and 1-3 in the shadow to pull out sub forms. DO NOT use 1-5 in any part of the light, or use 5-10 in any areas of the dark. Keep you edges a little softer in the shadows, a little sharper in the light, you are done. (0 is black, 10 is white) Deciding what is in shadow and light for a particular object is pretty hard in words. I will leave that up to you and that is 99 percent of the struggle." and "Hierarchal significance for any color: 1. Value 2. Saturation 3. Hue" -Craig Mullins




Q: Did you tweak the pressure settings for the tablet pen?
And what is your setup for the layers (multiply, add....)?
Any details are appreciated.

A: I will show you on this video. You can set up your pen pressure in Wacom first
(Shown in this video) then set up another specific brush in Photoshop (Brush tutorials)
See:
-How to make a Photoshop custom brush #1

-How to make a Photoshop custom brush #2

I will also do a separate tutorial for layers :)

Basic Photoshop Wacom Brush Set up:






Thanks for all the e-mails.


Feel free to comment and if you have any question about how to draw and such. Do not hesitate to post any question, I will try my best to answer any question about art as much as possible.


ALSO if you want to see the BLOG update more often and not DISAPPEAR from the INTERNET, PLEASE help US DIGG, STUMBLE, TECHNORATI, send them to friend!!!!!

Comments

Anonymous said…
absolutely brilliant :D
Anonymous said…
Sorry for my English as I'm not a native English speaker.

I'm a beginner of drawing. Recently I have purchased the constructing face tutorial. It really help me out to draw women portraits.
However I have a question about drawing the shadow. As you can see from my drawing ( http://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture3zu2.png )
(my first time drawing by using photoshop pls don't laugh at me), the shadow near the eye and eye socket are very unnatural. You can see the stroke and lines and I can't control the darkness as well. In your video the shadow are very smooth, just like water color. I think I'm using wrong method to draw those shades and shadow.

I'm using round brush to draw shadow and I guess you are using that as well? Could you give us some hints or a tutorial to teach us drawing shadow and shade?

Your tutorial are really helpful, pls keep it going!
I'm going to buy construct face II as well!!

Thanks alot!
idrawgirls said…
Fean>> The reason it doesn't smooth is because inconsistency of values (shades) and/or color.
Tips to avoid it, use 100% opacity of the right value on the certain area.

Tip for you: since you have the video you should have the face geometry that I separate the basic value blocks to designate area. You still have to practice a lot on figuring out values if you want to paint right. Block it out, then refine. Watch the video again and again please you will get more of different ideas every time, listen carefully also, and more practice.

Also check you tablet config and make sure it pressure sensitive adjusted to your preference.

good luck and thank you.
idrawgirls said…
FEAN> Also I will upload new video today on the blog, it relates to what you trying to do. Wait for it and watch it carefully.

Peace!
Anonymous said…
After watching the 2nd chapter of the tutorial again. I finally find a better way to refine the value and shadow. I will keep trying.
http://idraw.lefora.com/2009/02/11/portrait/page1/
this is my new try.

you are really nice :D
Thanks alot!!

I recommend everyone to buy the tutorial. It come in handy when drawing girls.
idrawgirls said…
FEAN> Glad you got it. And thx for thw words brother!!!
abel said…
hey i just want to say u have been one of the most inspirational artists in my life. althoug i have a question. irecently purchased a bamboo fun small. do u know if they will do any good??

thanks!
idrawgirls said…
abel> Thanks brother, Glad I can help in anyway. Bamboo will do the job, but bigger is somehow better...more room for your arm. Keep it up!!! and look for more tutorials. :)
abel said…
thanks alot for the re
idrawgirls said…
Abel> You are welcome. :)
Chrisx17 said…
Hey where can I get that brush you used on Crystal Cave Concept and Antarctic mountain. The brush that is skinny and slanted diagonally left.
idrawgirls said…
Chrisx17> Just open round hard edge default brush tool. Then squeeze the round brush into flat. Simple as that. There are many tools in PS we have to explore...Good luck.
Or here:
http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/2007/11/learn-to-make-photoshop-custom-brush.html
Similar process. Make your own brushes.
Chrisx17 said…
thanks =)
Legolos13 said…
Was wondering if I could figure out what brushes you use for shading, and for pencil work... could you possibly upload YOUR brushes? Thanks.
idrawgirls said…
Legolos13> I could, but then you wouldn't do any work. Here is how to make one http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/2007/11/learn-to-make-photoshop-custom-brush.html
:)
peace!
Anonymous said…
I appologize for my english, 'cause i'm no native english speeker...

but i've got some questions, for i'd like to know how u 'film' your photoshop actions; is it a additional programm or do u use screenshots?
furthermore i'd like to know which brush u use in order to get this 'structured' look as u used it in this dragon speedpainting: 'how to draw giant monster creature concept' on 0:15 :)

and i have to add that u're the most amazing artist i've ever seen :)

could u look over this? if u want to.
http://dragonchild-ispainting.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-forest.html
idrawgirls said…
Dragonchild> I use Camtasia to screen capture. I don't remember what brush I use on which since I did a lot in short amount of time, but I can tell you this...IT DOES NOT MATTER. MORE IMPORTANT is to get the solid structure, solid drawing, correct proportion and correct lighting. If you watch enough of my video, you will see that I can do all that with just default round brush. FOCUS on the principle...go read and watch all of the post in my blog, you will know what I mean. :) good luck!
Adhir S. Pandit said…
Thanks for sharing...

But I do have query.

When ever I start to paint something I get really confused about its shape, size or dark and light areas, is there is any way to come out from this?