it took me forever to figure out digital art, so here are the things i wish i knew.
this is just for procreate, it's (i had to edit this part because it may not be free) and you can get it on your ipad/phone. 100% recommended!
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if you open layers and click on the little 'n' next to the picture, it opens up a whole set of filters you can apply to the layer. you can also change the occupancy of the layer.
i recommend using:
multiply - for making shapes more 3d (make sure to keep the occupancy low tho)
multiply/color burn/darken - shading!!! multiply for natural light/just plain shade, but if you get confident, grab that color burn and get some vivid shade! darkens kinda just an in-between of the two.
add - for bright lights (make sure you turn the occupancy down a little so it's not just a blast of light)
color dodge - for very vivid light or color lights. i used this to make the streaks of light on glory (for the cover of this book), as well as making lila's flame reflect on her metal band and tail. (lila is an OC i made in another chapter of this book. she has a machine arm and leg, as well as some metal wing add-ons. the wings don't really work, but she pulls out the feathers as knives.)
overlay - this changes the hue of the drawing, so i would use it for lighting effects.
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clipping mask is a tool on procreate. to open it, tap the layer you want to clip twice, and a little bar will come up with stuff like alpha lock, clear, and copy. clipping mask will clip the layer it is activated on to the layer directly below it. this basically means nothing will go outside the area of the layer below the clipped, like the boundaries of a canvas.
this is so amazing when i comes to lighting, you can just clip a lighting/shade layer to your base color and shade without having to clean up lines!!
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alpha lock is a tool on procreate which makes it so the things you have put on your canvas become a sort of canvas boundary. you can put stuff onto the spots you've already colored on, but no nothing on empty space.
i don't use this as much as i used to, but it's great for people who need help with coloring!
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OK THIS IS A BiG ONE
I USED TO DO THIS TRUST ME IT AIN'T GOOD
whatever you do, do NOT color on your lineart layer!! it's super messy and hard to manage, and takes waaaay to much time. the color technique i use is coloring on a layer below it, then adding shade and stuff. way. easier.
this. will. save. your. life.
if you use a base or tracing pose, open that in procreate and turn the occupancy down. from there, open a layer above it and trace the lines you need. this way you have a transparent lineart which you can color underneath.
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i'm not sure if this is helpful, because you may already do it.
but....
instead of using recolor - which i did for a while - you can drag the color from the circle (the one that shows you which color you have) and drop it into a hole or already filled shape. as long as there are no holes on the edge (this is for if you are filling a shape) then it should fill the shape you want, with no white lines! (i noticed a few of you were having that trouble). depending on what shape it is, small corners may have a few white dots, but it's five seconds to fix them. bear in mind- if you have different colors touching a shape that's already filled, and you try to change the color of that shape, the color will change to the one you want - but the other shapes' color will be tinted too.
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the tools i use!
sketch - any pencils work, or even technical pen (in inking) if it's on a light color.
lineart - try to avoid thick lineart, as well as tools in painting. instead, use technical pen (it's literally my favorite) on the size of your choice.
base color - depending on which coloring technique you use, i would recommend hard airbrush or, you guessed it, technical pen.
shapes (i call it shapes but i's more like rendering your art to make it 3d-ish.) - i clip a multiplied layer to my base color and use a soft airbrush. make the size maximum, and cover the whole thing with a darker version of the base (whichever color is most present on your drawing). then, turn the occupancy down to 30-60%, and erase the part where your light will come from. from here, blend those blobs out until you get a rendered piece.
shade/light - clip the layer, use airbrushes on smaller size, and just go all out.
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your foreground, middle ground, and background are all different. make sure to keep them separate, and shade individually.
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if you feel tired, take a break. if you're in the mood, keep going.
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digital art makes my eyes dry and tired. make sure to keep cucumbers in your fridge in case you need to pull through and finish a drawing. cucumber slice + dry eyes = no more dry eyes
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if you don't like it, don't look at it. just don't throw it away.
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get comfy before you start! make sure your sitting in a comfterble position, because you may be there for a while.
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all good things take time. the finished pieces i post here usually take half a day, maybe even a full 6 hours if i do a background. this is why patience and comfy spots are so important.
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use layers!!! don't neglect them! if you're afraid of smudging something while you make a gradient, put the gradient on a layer below. no matter how many layers, you can always mash them back together at the end.
if you want to merge layers with two different effects, press combine down. you can group as many as you want, and then flatten them into one layer, with the different effects still on!
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sadly, that will be all for now. i might put some sketches on later... who knows.
if you have any questions, feel free to just ask in the comments!
YOU ARE READING
art book
Fanfictionthis is a book with all my art! please don't steal anything i make, or use it without my permission. there's really no telling what i might put in here, so don't expect any certain topics/themes.
