So yeah. The other day, I made my first digitally-colored/lined drawing. Aaaand I would like some critique and advice on it. My knowledge of digital art is very poor, so if you have any tips or find any good tutorials, please share! c:

Please let me know how I can improve!

(Also, I kind of suck at shading. :'< )

THE PIC

For your first digital art that's impressive! The only real issue I see is the lines, they are the right lines, but they aren't very smooth when you look toward the tail. If you are using photoshop you can do some of your lines with the pen tool. Alternatively by making the image much larger and working on it in that scale, when you shrink it the lines will automatically look better. Click here to see what I mean.

-shi Aww, SYAC! xD I love his comics. I use Gimp as my art program and I actually did zoom in (at least until I could see some pixels), but it still didn't turn out right. :c I'm not used to working with a tablet or its sensitivity (omigosh, so different from paper and pencil), so would that also cause rough lines? I was thinking about shrinking it...hmm...I think I'll try it! o:

Yeah, I use my tablet to colour, but I still can't seem to figure out doing my line art with it. So I almost always sketch with pencil, scan it, then use the pen tool - or - I'll zoom in 300% or so. The images are already pretty large when you scan them, but even though that is the case I still have to do a lot of clean up with the eraser when I attempt to draw the lines instead of use the pen tool

-shi Yeah, I don't know how some people make a clean, effortless line in one quick swoosh of the tablet pen. I hear that doing quick strokes makes the lines smoother, but I don't quite have that much control so I do slow, long strokes can cause shaky lines. :C I guess practice, practice, practice is the key...

Edit: Photobucket hates me. :< I uploaded the smaller image but it still looks the same size. Idon'teven...

Photobucket is the bane of my existence >_>

-shi I'm not familiar with other image-hosting sites, though. xD

Yeah, me either

about the lines~ i was wondering if you've downloaded the proper drivers for your tablet? (if it is a wacom) i had the same trouble with my lines being not as smooth as they could be and i always thought it was me doing something wrong but it turned out that i hadn't installed my drivers. c:

if you've already installed everything and your lines are still a bit wonky, you might consider using the pen tool (even though it can be quite tedious ;-; )

I did download the drivers. xD Without them, my tablet had ZERO sensitivity. Would using the pen tool still be able to create the "drawn" lines effect? I want my lines to be smooth, but still have that sense of...fullness? Like someone used as sharpie-like thing on it? The only other thing I can think of is to change the brush head (which I've never done). .~.

yes, on the GIMP pen tool you can change the thickness of the stroke as well as play with the line style c:

and ok, good! i was just making sure everything was installed and stuff since i made the mistake of overlooking the drivers myself xD c:

Awesome, thank you! :D I'mma start putting this newly found knowledge to work~

It took me a while after I installed my tablet on another computer to realize that it was missing its drivers. xD I thought it was broken, at first. I seriously wanted to cry if that was the case. xDDD

Nice first digital drawing! I would highly sugest working on you drawings 5 times the size you actually want them at min. (I take 2000 px drawings and turn them into 250 pixel drawings).

Also as for the pen tool, I would sugest getting paint tool SAI for that-- the pen layer on there is just gloriously easy compaired to GIMP and photoshops pen tool.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you for the advice! I would really like SAI, actually. If only I had more money to spare on it. ;_; Hopefully once I become more proficient with GIMP, I'll upgrade to a better painting program like SAI. And there is an English version to SAI, correct?

Indeed there is a english version. It is fan made, so I'm not sure how buying it works.

yes you can get a free 30 day english version... and if you ask nicely on some art sites or friends.. they can give u a code to use once you install to make it completely free.. it says on the site that sharing the code that is given to you once you buy it is fine if giving to a friend.. i think i read that somwhere.. lol.... i got my caDE FROM MY FRIEND.. BUT I THINK I WAS THE LAST TIME SHE COULD GIVE IT OUT... >.< i do apologize for my sporatic typos n etc. my cat likes laying on my arms and fighting with my fingers as i type... really cute.. but not functional.. lool

Awww, I love kitties and their silly antics. xD But I'll probably just buy it, since my school has a strict no illegal downloading rule. .-. Totally don't want to risk that.