Dominicque's Sketchbook

[Dominicque]

Yes — probably file size or format.  I upload fairly small sized jpegs and rarely get a failure,

Glad to hear you're testing the waters with digital.  Once you cross the learning curve it becomes a very valuable tool. 

I use Krita, an awesome free painting program, that has really good brushes, and pretty much all the filters and tools I used back in my photoshop daze.

Like you, I followed tons of tutorials and just kept after it and before long had a good handle on using everything.  I'm sure you'll find the same.

The one thing I try to do is not rely too much on effects and shortcuts — although I do use them — but often just end up using LOTZA layers, clipping and locking them — and then just painting like I would in the real world.

What you've shared looks pretty good though and I'm sure if you keep after it you'll get it all figured out.

Keep 'em coming!

Hi Jephyr, thanks for confirming RE: file size. It's weird, because it's not too big from my previous, if comparing the previous 'watery woman', only difference is she's taller? Hmm.
Speaking of which, this isn't my first foray into the digital painting realm. Most started with frustration and ended with ragequits, it's only very recently that I've been going through the official CSP painting course that I've been able to get some semblance of purchase. As it's not just a PS tutorial I have to try and retrofit for CSP and get disheartened when it's not the same buttons, the best part is I can see exact what she clicks and most important for digital the organisation of her layers. I pretty much know how the lasso and selection buttons works, so that expedites the process considerably. The course has taught me much more about 'blending' modes and when best to use them. I didn't know you could just isolate a section onto a new layer fiddle with it, then merge to the main layer! Might seem obvious to an expert, but to a novice. 

I actually used Krita before Clip. That's what I drew the beginning images with, but just when I started to get used to the workspace and select my fav brushes an update would fuck it all up, and then my tablet used to lag with it, making it unusable for me. Leading to one of the aforementioned ragequits.

I went back to the 'Authority: Cowboys' project as the sketches were already there. I just had to learn how to render them. I've been having trouble recently painting over the 'colorised' layer. I just wanted to blend something out. I couldn't on a multiple layer, so I spend ages of painting time trying to turn the layer normal, whilst retaining the effects I liked. I wanted to try and blend/paint it like the WW piece that I was pleased with. But, I couldn't remember what it is I actually did, so I was oscillating between both trying to analysing my layers.

Spend almost two hours in a wild goose chase trying to find the answer on Perplexity. It kept telling me Edit>Copy Merged. Turns out CSP doesn't have this feature, it's just Photoshop. 
Found a solution on Reddit. I needed to copy the colour folder, then merge them all together. Insert 'colorised' layer into them and only THEN did the layer turn 'Normal' so I could paint. Ahhh. This is why digital is such a pain. As it got easier for you, I hope it'll be easier for me, too. I also bought the official book that was released this year, so I'm going to try and maintain it for the long haul.