Canvas size for digital art
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What canvas size do you guys start with in your digital art? I've often drawn at "as-is" size and that's a habit I should probably kick. A lot of artists say they draw at huge sizes like 5000x5000 at 300 DPI, but their finished products seem to be shrunk down super tiny.
Also, what's the ideal for prints?
I heard about sketching small, then blowing up the canvas and drawing over it. I'm going to try that with my next picture.
✿ [flower=Griffin]
Personally, I couldn't care less about the size of the canvas when I start -I'll just make it wide or tall based on my needs and go on with the whole cropping and resizing marathon whilst I'm working so I might even go from a 200x500px to a 12000x7500 canvas depending on how indecisive I happen to be that day. Sometimes I'll make it smaller, too, and sometimes I just forget to resize things before I start inking and will have to make sure nobody notices. > > Good thing I can do clean lineart okay enough...
There's no size "ideal for print", though, since there isn't really such a thing as a "default print size", but generally it's suggested the 300dpi+ 'rule' is there for the sake of quality. c: It's much easier to shrink a picture down than it is to make it bigger(unless it's a vector image, but otherwise it will jut lose quality and get all blurry), and shrinking usually makes the end result look more crisp and clean, so that's why quite a few people prefer to do that instead of working small. .D.
Basically what Haan said, don't go below 300dpi for /prints/ online it doesn't matter so much but if you want to print that's a must. Otherwise it might be useful to see what sizes the venue you're using prefers? If I go to my local shop to get something printed then the size I work at (11x17 inches for large paintings) is more than enough, even 1000x1000px works just fine for a decent sized image printed, but Society6 likes the images supplied larger than that if possible.
Society6 required sizes
These are the canvas sizes, obviously the image can be smaller, with more white/other space.
Mobile Device Cases & Skins / Stationery Cards: 1300px (width) X 2000px (height).
T-Shirts / V-Necks / Hoodies / Tank Tops / Biker Tanks
Onesies / Kids T-Shirts: 3300px (width) X 5100px (height).
Throw Pillows / Tote Bags / Shower Curtains / Duvet Covers: 3500px (width) X 3500px (height); up to 6500px X 6500px for optimal resolution. (For Shower Curtains and Duvet Covers, a minimum of 6000px X 6000px is required.)
Mugs: 4600px (width) X 2000px (height).
Etc etc...
300DPI for prints, at whatever inch x inch you want it to be.
I always start my canvas at 8.5x11" at 300 DPI and crop when I finish a sketch, but that's for web-viewing. They usually do end up filling at least 1/3 of the page, though, so that's not too bad.