A few questions to digital artists.

I'd really like to start using my drawing tablet a bit more, but I usually end up getting really frustrated with it. I have a Wacom Intuos Medium, if that helps any. I guess I'd just like to know a few things/opinions:

1) Do you prefer Photoshop or SAI (I've seen some people do work in Illustrator, but I'll stay away from vector work for now).

2) What DPI/PPI do you usually work with? (I know for graphic design work, 300 is usually the standard for printed work, but idk if it's the same for drawing/painting)

3) Do you have different sets of brush settings saved? If so, what are they and the settings of each?

I guess lastly, what would you recommend for practice/getting better...tutorials maybe?

1) SAI, I've never gotten the hang of Photoshop to draw. I mostly use Photoshop to edit images, but I still prefer Fireworks. I've used Illustrator, mostly used it for vectors when making logos.

2) I usually have it at 300 DPI.

3) Screenshot of the settings I use in SAI.

I think the best you can do is mess around with the options, play with the brushes and practice your strokes. Maybe look for a tutorial that explains what each tool does and then mess around with that.

Good luck!

1) I've used Photoshop for a lot of time, but since i've gotten into SAI, i didn't touch Photoshop again. It's pretty much better, as i only like to do freehand drawings. :>

2) 300.

3) I'll have to agree with Loose's final statement. The only SAI setup i got was a Korean one, i accidentally broke the language settings and all tools and options are now shown as weird symbols, i just use two kinds of brushes and the eraser on it, the rest are tools i couldn't do good things with / don't have idea of their existence. I only use one brush nowadays, if you want a tip, EVERYTHING on a tablet depends on your mastery of the pen's pressure, you can make miracles with it.

Illustrator.
Illustrator everywhere.

Seriously, everything i've made is made with illustrator.
Somehow I can't really work well with photoshop.
The assignments I had to make during college that had to be made with photoshop...
Well I made them in illustrator and they aproved. Har. That'll teach them to make me use PS.

I'm just curious though, why do you want to stay away from IS?

Sorry for being a little offtopic.

Illustrator.
Illustrator everywhere.

Seriously, everything i've made is made with illustrator.
Somehow I can't really work well with photoshop.
The assignments I had to make during college that had to be made with photoshop...
Well I made them in illustrator and they aproved. Har. That'll teach them to make me use PS.

I'm just curious though, why do you want to stay away from IS?

Sorry for being a little offtopic.

We use Illustrator at my "workplace." I think vector work is really intimidating and confusing for someone starting out, so a lot of people tend to avoid it...

but once you go Illustrator, you can never go back. <3

We use Illustrator at my "workplace." I think vector work is really intimidating and confusing for someone starting out, so a lot of people tend to avoid it...

but once you go Illustrator, you can never go back. <3

So true, I play around with it so much and keep finding new ways to make things.
But I always end up turning people into pop-art.

This makes me realize, I doubt anyone here knows I make arty stuff aswell.
I actually go to a graphic designers college but i'm very shy about my work.
I really have to get over that somehow..

Thank you for the responses, guys

Illustrator.
Illustrator everywhere.

Seriously, everything i've made is made with illustrator.
Somehow I can't really work well with photoshop.
The assignments I had to make during college that had to be made with photoshop...
Well I made them in illustrator and they aproved. Har. That'll teach them to make me use PS.

I'm just curious though, why do you want to stay away from IS?

Sorry for being a little offtopic.

We use Illustrator at my "workplace." I think vector work is really intimidating and confusing for someone starting out, so a lot of people tend to avoid it...

but once you go Illustrator, you can never go back. <3

I like Illustrator and understand how to use it. I love the gradient mesh tool However, until I get the hang of using my tablet with SAI or PS, I don't care to dabble into Illustrator with it.

I don't know if my stuff counts as digital art, but I use ms paint and a stone-age version of photoshop.

:>

I use Flash. No, seriously. I still need to upload images from some of these, but they came out kinda mixed.


I would say SAI would be good for freehand painterly illustrations. Ill be learning to use PS for illustrating purposes though this next semester.

1) Do you prefer Photoshop or SAI (I've seen some people do work in Illustrator, but I'll stay away from vector work for now).

This really depends on what you're doing. I enjoy how simple SAI is for painting since I started off digital stuff playing around on PaintBBS. I enjoyed Painter when I actually did illustration stuff, too. I think a lot of my friends do lineart in SAI and then switch over to Photoshop at some point.

But you should probably get used to Photoshop. There's a lot of time-saving stuff that program can do.

3) Do you have different sets of brush settings saved? If so, what are they and the settings of each?

I suggest you start off with default brushes before working with custom ones.

http://imgur.com/a/y0vcS#0

I think even without knowing what it says, you can see which ones are watercolours, markers, paints, and some ye olde Japanese style brushes. iirc some of these brushes use some kind of texture that I had to go looking for. I can dig them up later if you're interested.

I guess lastly, what would you recommend for practice/getting better...tutorials maybe?

http://youtu.be/eaH_WlD_rP4 part 1
http://youtu.be/XYB6Ztgwd3M part 2