30th April 2022 - 1st May 2022

Learning Photoshop & Using A Drawing Tablet

These are my notes taken from Marc Brunet's Term 1 - Photoshop for DIgital Prod 1 and my takeaways from this experience. Note I'm a Windows PC user so the shortcuts mentioned will be different on a Apple/Mac - Use CMD key instead of Ctrl. I'm also using Adobe Photoshop 2022 as I'm doing this tutorial, so some names may be slightly different if you're using an older version.

Things needed:

• Computer or Tablet Computer (like an iPad/SamsungGalaxy Tab)
• Adobe Photoshop (Or Photoshop Alternatives, I've provided a list below)
• Drawing Tablet (Wacom etc) - The ones with just a pen and board and no display screen - If you have a Tablet Computer you won't need this.

These are alternative Adobe Photoshop options my brother Walter suggested (Mainly for those who are students or are on a tight budget and can't afford the subscription:

• Krita - This is a free and open source painting program.
• Clip Studio Paint - This one is paid, but it's a one-time purchase. My brother highly recommends this one and suggests waiting until there's a discount on the EX version - apparently they have sales a few times a year (So I'll be waiting for this).

If any readers have any other recommendations, I'd be more than happy to add it to this list.

Setting Up A Photoshop Project

Step 1. Open Photoshop App
Step 2. File > New... | Ctrl + N - This will open up a 'New Document' window

New Document window (This is a list of the details)

• Name: This is your project file name.
• Document Type: This doesn't exist on Photoshop 2022, but Marc chooses Custom.
• Width and Height: Set both to Pixels | Width: 1920px & Height: 1080px (This is the standard HD (High Definition) - 1080p)
• Orientation: This lets you choose between a Portrait or Landscape canvas (Vertical or Horizontal)
• Resolution: This is for printing on paper - He sets this to 300px/inch (You won't need this if you're only doing digital art)
• Color Mode: Default RGB Color 8 Bit is good for the standard digital art. (CMYK Color is for printing and you would go higher than 8 bit if you're working on e.g. a video game where it may compress the colours)
• Background Content: This is the colour you want as the default for your canvas. White is the standard (Transparent is another good option).
• Advanced Options/Color Management: This is for printing, and may be useful in the future, but not necessary for the time being.

Step 3. Press OK / Create

Setting Up Photoshop Windows

This is Marcs Default settings for the panels displayed on the side.

Go to Window > Tick the following:

• Color
• History
• Layers
• Navigator

Setting Up Photoshop Preferences

Step 1. Go to Edit > Preferences | Ctrl + K
Step 2. Go to Interface

• Color Theme: Lets you choose what colour UI (User Interface) you'd like - There's only grayscale options (I like black or white). Marc prefers the darker colours as its easier for the eyes.

Step 3. Click Workspace > Marc has only two things ticked: 'Auto Show Hidden Panels' and 'Large Tabs' ticked. The rest are disabled. He explains that he prefers no tabs because it's visually easier to see each window and they're accessible to move around. It's mostly preference, so just try teach option out and choose what you like (I prefer tabs as I find the windows a bit distracting, but it depends what you're drawing etc. I can see it being useful if you've got a reference image on a separate window).

Setting Up A Drawing Tablet (Wacom)

Turn off your pens right-click, as it's left on by default.

Step 1. Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Pen and Touch

• In the Pen Options Tab > Go to the 'Press and hold' Settings
  and untick the 'Enable press and hold for right-clicking'
• Note: If you have the Flicks and Touch tab, uncheck their
  settings too. (I didn't have these tabs on my PC running Windows 10)

Step 2. Click OK.

Step 3. In your Wacom Tablet Properties (In the Control Panel) keep everything in the middle (default) unless you have a specific preference.

Photoshop Basics

Actions used the most are:

• New... | Ctrl + N - Create a new project
• Open... | Ctrl + O - Open a project
• Save | Ctrl + S - Save current project
• Save As... | Shift + Ctrl + S - Save a new project in a specific place
• Undo | Ctrl + Z - Goes back one action ago | Ctrl + Alt + Z to go back more actions.
• Redo | Shift + Ctrl + Z - Brings back the last action that was Undo
• Toggle Screen Modes | F - Windowed, Full Screen with Tools, Full Screen no Tools)
• Hand Tool | Spacebar or H - Lets you move around the canvas.
• Brush Size Adjustment | { to make brush smaller and } to make brush bigger or alternatively you can Hold Alt + Right Click then drag left or right to adjust the size. (Marc changes these in the settings to C and V as they're closer to Alt which is a function that is used a lot in Photoshop)
  Color Picker | Hold Alt then click on a surface of the colour you'd like.
• Keyboard Shortcuts...| Alt + Shift + Ctrl + K - Access to all the keyboard shortcuts that you can adjust to fit your needs.

Saving A Project

Step 1. File > Save As... | Shift + Ctrl + S - This will open a Save As window
Step 2. Choose where to save the project
Step 3. Name the project in the 'File Name' section
Step 4. Select a file format in the 'Save as type' (The options are described further below)
Step 5. Edit > Preferences > General | Ctrl + K
Step 6. Go to File Handling on the left side > Tick 'Automatically Save Recovery Information Every' and choose 5 minutes.

Save as Types/Formats - Popular options are:

PSD - This is the default photoshop file or photoshop work in progress file - For if you plan on continuing with the project, as it'll keep all of your progress i.e. layers and adjustments you made. (Can only be opened in Photoshop)

JPG - Good for regular images - Tip: When saving as this file, never go to the maximum. Quality: 8 (High) is Marc's recommendation - It looks great and doesn't take much space. (For Online/Website)

PNG - Good for images with transparent backgrounds (For Online/Website/Compositing Programs)

GIF - Good for animated images (But very compressed i.e. might pixelated and missing colours)

Targa/TIFF - Good for video games/photographers where you want the image as close to lossless as possible. It's a very big file size.

Quick Tips:

• If nothing is showing up when you draw make sure the Mode is set to Normal and the opacity of the brush is set to 100%.
• You can increase the number of your History actions in the Preferences (Performance > History States: 1000)
• Hovering the mouse on top of the tools for a couple of seconds will tell you the name of the tool and give you the shortcuts.

This is an image of the Photoshop Shortcuts provided by Marc in his video:

1st May 2022

First Time Using A Drawing Tablet - Gesture Drawing Test

I've recently bought a Wacom One (Medium) Drawing Tablet to follow along with Marc's videos. I bought the most affordable drawing tablet I could find (it was discounted and had pretty good reviews). Before this, I was borrowing my girlfriend's iPad Pro to do my drawings on Procreate.

It felt really awkward at first, but after doing maybe 30-40 random strokes, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. The most awkward part was trying to match where you were drawing with the monitor. Definitely harder in comparison to the iPad Pro where it felt like you were drawing on paper. But after slowly getting used to it, it's starting to get fun. Here's the gesture drawing I did today (30s and 3min sketches).

3rd May 2022

Photoshop for Digital Production 1 - Assignment 1 - Digital Pen Control

Oh man was this hard. I had just bought the Wacom Drawing Tablet a couple of days ago, so this was still really new and foreign to me (I had been using my girlfriends iPad pro before this, which has a completely different feel). I've only been testing the Wacom on Gesture drawings, so this was my first time having to do consecutive proper straight lines.

I was actually surprised at how straight my first line was, but then I suddenly lost that magic touch afterwards haha. Towards the end I think drawing the straight lines eventually clicked a bit. Doing it hundreds of times probably helped.

Few tips I discovered when practicing to finally draw decent straight lines (you can see my lines improve at the very end in the pressure practice):

• Have a firm yet comfortable grip (as if you're drawing on paper) - My mistake was that I kept changing the position of the pen into weird angles that I thought would help - but it made it worst. As they say - stick to what you know best.
• On my Wacom, there are dots on the drawing mat - looking at these dots really helped guide me. You can do the dot-to-dot practice like this too - these dots should line up vertically to your monitor if you want to draw straight.
• Start with small lines, then as you build confidence, increase the length of the lines.
• Use your whole arm, not your wrists.
• Don't give up and just do it. We're only human.

I'll definitely be doing this once in a while - great practice! Also keen to see how much I improve - will be fun to see a comparison of the before and after.

Thanks Locke! Glad you like them

9th May 2022

Photoshop For Digital Production - Assignment 2 - Image Adjustments.

I've been working on this assignment for a week trying to understand how each effect/image adjustment works. I think the hardest one to get right was the levels/curves, but there was one video I found that really helped after being stuck (I haven't mastered it, but it's taught me a lot).

I definitely recommend this to anyone having trouble understanding levels - PiXimperfect's video - I also recommend his channel in general for any Creative Cloud users (Photoshop, Premiere etc) - he explains things succinctly, calmly, and emits positive vibes.

These are the steps I took to help me get to my current result (I'll definitely come back to this assignment until I can get it looking the same haha)

1. Hue/Saturation - I found it it easier to correct/match the colours of one area/object first i.e. the leg and towel - to as close are possible (1st Hue > 2nd Saturation > 3rd Lightness) - As a video editor, this was the closest thing to 'colour correcting', you'd do this before colour grading as it lets you start with something as neutral as possible.
2. Curves - Played with the RGB mode first, then slight tweaks in the Red, Blue and Green modes. (This was used to try get the exposure/contrast right).
3. Colour Balance - This one I tried not to use too much as I didn't get a chance to study it properly. (But I did use it to do minor tint fixes) Marc also suggests always starting with the midtones.
4. Levels to fix the contrast and make the character pop out a bit more.

Overall I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with compared to when I started. The sucky thing is I can see what's wrong visually, but I just don't know how to use the tools properly to do the fix - adjusting one thing usually affects another thing.

Future fixes:

• Sky needs less red and to be slightly more blue.
  • Water needs less green, and a tiny bit more blue - Also needs higher saturation to pop out more - it's kind of washed out at the moment.
  • Highlight on the thigh/knee needs to be slight darker.
  • Coconut needs less blue and more red.
  • The blue vacuum thing on the bottom left - the highlight on the cord needs to be more red and less green.

Any tips from other artists/students are most welcome!

10th May 2022

Love Life Drawing - Gesture Drawing - Working with Angles Instead of Curves

"The basic skill that fixes 90% of gesture problems | The 3 Levels of Gesture Drawing pt 1"
Video

Great video recommendation from @chonem - I'll be adding more notes when I get more time =]

Notes:

• First level of gesture is angles - It's where you start as it's easy to spot and define. (Instead of curves, as curves require an understanding of the angles)
• He lists 3 types of angles

Type 1 - Angles of the form

For the first line you can simply draw a line across the shoulders (shoulder to shoulder) - This will form the shoulder angle. And if you want to be more specific you can go from the heart of each shoulder to form the line or even the acromion (the bony parts of the shoulder). You can also find the collarbones and form a triangle from each shoulder.

Then you want to find the angle of the ribcage, and a good place to start is the sternum (the line running down the middle of the chest) . The bottom of the ribcage will be perpendicular to the line made (like 90 degrees right angles or an upside T). If you're drawing the back, it'll follow closely to the spine. (Can be tricky as spines are curved but with practice doing the front you'll get accustomed to where it should be)

Next is the angle of the pelvis which can be found where the bones stick out close to your waist or around the level of the waist band for where you see the top line of trousers or underwear. From the back it's in a similar place.

Lastly is the angle of the head, this can be found through the eyebrows to the top of the ears. (This idea is part of the 'Loomis Head)

This is useful for practicing or to use as a guide but won't be necessary as you get more comfortable. The main goal is to get used to seeing these landmarks.

Type 2 - The Angle Between the Major Forms
You want to spot where each major part is facing (head, pelvis, ribcage) and connect them all with a line. I like to think of it as drawing a lightning - you want something dynamic or energetic.

Type 3 - Outline Angles
To draw the outlines you want to find the squash side and the stretch side of the torso. Tapering the lines of the arms and legs so that they're like a V shape also makes it look visually interesting.

General Angle Advice:
Try to slightly exaggerate the angles too.

Kenzo's Biggest Tip: Don't try to find every detail when life drawing, but instead just find the biggest major angle changes. Also when looking for gesture drawings, try find poses that have dynamic torsos, ribcages and head as it's more visually interesting than a body that's straight with fancy angled arms.

In summary, I think this is a great way to start out. It's helped me identify the major shapes/parts of the body easier and has given me a better idea on how to get things to be more proportional (something I'm still struggling with). It's also a great alternative for people who are struggling to use curves to draw their gestures too.

This is a gesture I drew using Kenzo's technique with angles and adding some curves (cause I like the feeling of it haha)

To be continued, as these notes just cover the *frst part out of the three part series.

Thanks Locke! Your words are very encouraging, especially after seeing how much you've progressed!