Sam Nielson: Painter Brushes

Let me start this by saying that you will never get what you want out of your brushes in a digital art program (at least not with current technology).  You'll save yourself a lot of frustration if you accept this fact and learn to be happy with what is available.  Also, I'm not going to do a tutorial on Photoshop brushes because I haven't found anything I love yet (though CS5 might change my mind).  This has nothing to do with program superiority, just preference.
Here are some of my favorite brushes.  Most of these are are out-of-the-box brushes that come default with painter.  Before you try any of these out though, use the "Brush Tracking..." feature in Preferences (edit menu on PC, Apple icon on Mac I think).  Do a few strokes in the box typical of your pressure and speed and it will automatically calibrate Painter's settings to match your drawing style.  If you don't do this you may not like the "feel" of a lot of these brushes.

I'll start with the brushes I like to draw with:

The markers make ugly, soft, messy-looking drawings, but they're great for roughing things in, especially because of the way the marker strokes build on top of each other.
I use the round tip pens for inking, but I changed the Minimum Size of the brush to zero so I could have lots of scale variation.  If you make these brushes very big you lose a lot of control.
The charcoal is the closest I've found to pencil if I'm touching up a pencil drawing I scanned in.
The Liquid Ink looks great but is a bit hard to control, especially when the brush size is small.

Next up, my favorite cover brushes.  These brushes have little or no bleed, so it's easy to get fully saturated color:

"Custom 1" (settings below) is essentially an airbrush with the tip changed to something a little harder.  What's nice about this brush is you can use it for soft falloffs like you would with an airbrush, but if you want to get a heavy stroke with a fairly defined edge you just dig into the pressure a bit.  It sometimes has strange artifacts when using on layers of different types (like Gel).

The captured acrylic is my most used brush. I like the combination of the cover style of the brush with just a touch of bleed.  The only problem is it goes very slow if you make the brush very large, so use something else for your large strokes.
I don't use the square pastel often but it's a great brush if you want heavy texture in your strokes.  I often use the fade tool (Ctrl+Shift+F) to get lighter strokes since it's at full opacity.

My favorite "painterly" brushes have heavy blending at low pressure and apply color at high pressure:

I don't particularly like the Smeary Round but I included it because a lot of people I know do like it.  I never got very good at oil painting and it feels a lot like oil painting to me: everything just smears together.  I bet you could get great results with it if you were patient.
Custom 2 (settings below) is a very digital-looking painterly brush, but it gives such smooth yet slightly varied results that it can be really appealing when used correctly.  This is very similar to the brush Ryan Wood uses and until a couple years ago was one of my most-used brushes.

The Loaded Palette Knife is a lot of fun and gives a lot of texture and direction to your strokes.  The only change I made to this brush was setting the Angle of the brush to the "Bearing" of my pen.  This only works with Intuos pens.
Custom 3 (settings below) is about halfway between the palette knife and Custom 2.  I haven't used this one much lately but it's a great brush (I'd forgotten, but this tutorial reminded me) and I think I'll try to use it more often.

There are two other brushes I occasionally use:

The Glow Brush is great for glowing things.  Don't overuse it because it starts to look like cheap trickery pretty fast.
The Digital Watercolors are really nice for initially applying color over drawings.  I know Painter has some super-advanced watercolors now, but the old digital watercolors are faster and more approachable.  Just remember "Dry Digital Watercolor" in the Layers menu when you're ready to paint on top of them.

One final note:  Even the best brushes won't make you a better artist.  What brushes can do for you:
1-Speed up your process of applying and mixing color
2-Add visual interest with your brush strokes and layering of strokes
However, I've found that 1 and 2 don't usually go well together.  In fact, usually the more interesting a brush looks, the harder it is to paint with and vice-versa.  So adjust your expectations accordingly: if you prefer quick and easy-to-use brushes like me, don't be terribly surprised when your final results look like the digital airbrush job on some guy's truck.  Or, like me, you can just accept the cheapness of the results and be happy with the extra time you have because of it.  But if you really want things to look great, you need a lot of patience.

Brian Wong: Drawing videos (shape)

Just another video but this one was using more of a shape based approach to the drawings... (though some of the drawings in the end went back to the regular approach)

Also just a note, I've created a new channel for all these videos... so all of the videos are in one easy to find place.. (was using my friend's account for the first 3 videos before)

Brian Wong: Drawing videos

Not sure if people were interested.. but..here's sort of a follow up on my previous post.. just thought I'd show some videos of my process of sketching on location.. I have a couple more that are still being processed, but here's the first 3.

EDIT: forgot to mention.. the 3rd video (003) has a brief part at the beginning where the camera tilts up and shows the lineup that I'm looking at..

Sam Nielson: Another painting process-adding color to grayscale

I know a lot of people who like to paint their values first in black and white and then apply color to their values.  I've never found an ideal way of doing this, but I've learned a couple tips that help it work out a little better.
First off, I don't let any of the values get too dark, except where I want things to drop completely into shadow (ie. black)  In this case, I lightened the "grayscale" image before applying any color to it.  You can see the original values I painted on my blog.  I usually don't spend a ton of time working detail into the values because I often have to paint in all that detail again when I get to the colors.

Then, I use a multiply or gel layer to control values.  The "Color" or "Colorize" layer types often result in values different than what I intended.  Painting a "Gel" or "Multiply" layer with bright colors will gives a similar result, but I like the option of bringing the values down where things aren't working out.  This is what the layer looks like when it's over a white canvas (or a white layer between the canvas and the color layer, that way I can just change visibility if I need to pick colors off the canvas).  Notice that I put in color changes from light to shadow; otherwise, the image looks like you've colorized a grayscale image because all the light has a uniform color.

This is what the image looks like with the colors applied over the values.  I usually only take this coloring step so far---it's useful for blocking in big colors and even playing with the values a little, but once it's looking pretty good I collapse the image so I don't have to wrestle with the layers anymore.

Now that the image is flattened, I use a "Screen" layer to put in light reflections and a "Lighten" layer to add some sub-surface scattering.  Then I collapse again and use a small brush to paint in all the details.

So when should you use this method?  Sometimes it's easier to handle the values separately from the colors, especially when your lighting is fairly simple but you've got a difficult composition.  Another time it's useful is if you want patterns or value changes across a surface without messing up the values (painting these things across a lit surface can be a pain to figure out).

The reason I don't often use it is the pain of dealing with the value shifts when colorizing.  If I already spent a lot of time working out the values, I don't want to work all that out again.  If the values are very detailed I sometimes feel like I'm painting the whole thing twice.  However, this process suits some people's patience and way of thinking so hopefully it's worth sharing anyway.

Rad Sechrist: Quick storyboard drawing

Everyone storyboards differently and there is no "correct" way of doing it. This is just my approach so that I can get my work done quickly and not worry about deadlines. This gives me the freedom to try lots of different things and not feel like I can't try something because it would take too long.

Mark McDonnell: Figure Drawing's Importance for Posing

This is a recent magazine article I was hired to write and provide examples of on the topic of the importance of dynamic and exaggerated posing.

MAC

Sam Nielson: Painting Process, Part 2

At the end of my last post I said I'd describe the polishing phase in another post.
The polishing phase of your painting should be focused on resolving two questions:
- How will the viewer to respond to the subject?
- Where do I want the viewer's eyes to go?

The first question should be already answered in part, because once you've decided your light and color scheme you've already set some of the emotional content of your picture.  However, you can do things at this point to "plus" the emotions or ideas in your image.  Here's what he looked like in the last post:

My original idea was a grumpy Jedi---a character whose traditional role is civilized and restrained, but who is irritated nearly to the breaking point.  I lost the Jedi when re-drawing him, but I still want to communicate that he's dangerous and he's about ready to snap.  I don't feel like I'm hitting that note with the lighting, but I don't want to start over.

Having an image with the lighting effects in layers is really helpful at this point, because changing where the shadows fall is as simple as erasing part of a layer.  So I use a shadow over his eyes to get that film noir effect that makes him mysterious and dangerous without changing anything else about him.

Now is the crucial point of decision, where you can spend countless hours on things that don't matter if you're not careful.  So usually at this point I create a mental "heat map" of where my eyes move in the image.  I do this by sitting back and imagining that I'm seeing the image for the first time, and I pay attention to where my eyes go naturally.  Then, I mentally work out where I want my eyes to go instead.  This image shows the scribbly path my eyes follow at first, but also a more controlled, hotter path representing the way I'd like things to go.  A simple path or shape is the best!

At this point I flatten my image, because my process starts to become so chaotic.  For me layers are useful for laying the foundation but after that they're just a hindrance, unless I create them as need arises and then flatten everything soon after. 
So as I was saying, my process seems chaotic from here on, but it's not; because I'm using that heat map to help me prioritize my work and to dictate the highest points of contrast in the image.  The hottest area on my heat map is the face and the eyes, so that's where I start putting in detail.  I also darken the top of the head to create a frame and lower contrast around the eyes.  This will help them stand out even though they're in shadow.

Next priority is the hands.  People always notice the hands, especially in this case because they're part of the compositional path, so they need to look good.  I start filling in other details around the hands like the reflection in the liquid, because even though most eyes will follow the compositional path, giving the eyes something to explore in the "rest" areas makes your image feel rich and alive.  I also boost the contrast levels a little to deepen the shadows.

More detail and composition adjustments.  I pull out the blues in the dust cloud behind him to add contrast to that edge, but I'm careful to keep it subdued because this is a secondary path in the composition and not the primary one.  I also brighten the eyes a tiny bit so they stand out more.

Now the finishing touches.  I add a faint reflection to the tabletop, adjust the clouds a bit, and finish up the detail on his sippy cup (was originally supposed to be a futuristic mug, but whatever).  I decrease the contrast around his eyes a little and then put in some subtle edges of color along the compositional path for visual interest.

As I was writing this post I realized I hadn't done enough to suggest his danger (since he's not a Jedi now), so I went back and put in a couple scars and some wear in his clothing.  I'm not sure about those details yet, but that's why I usually wait a day or so before calling something done---because you sometimes make decisions that seem good at the time and later wonder what you were thinking.  Or at least I do.

Randall Sly: Observe, Trace and Study.

One of the ways I like to study, is by printing out a picture I like. I then take the time and trace over it.  Now at first this might sound like a big waste of time but it isn't.  Sometimes the mind seems to trick us into thinking a certain line or shape is different than exactly what you see in front of you. We sometimes see what we want to. So with having the added sense of feeling, of going over the same lines that are there, you are able to see and feel the shape, length, direction, thickness, rhythm of each line. You will start to feel the design. You are adding another sense while studying.  It's kind of like what a blind person would do when they touch things. They are using the sense of touch to see. Well when I trace over a picture, I get that added help of seeing by feeling the drawing as well. My drawing skills grew when I started doing this. So don't be embarrassed to trace over things, you will learn a lot.

The next thing I do is make sure I am studying good art.  There is a phrase that says "Garbage In Garbage Out".
Meaning... if  you are looking, studying or around bad stuff (in this case art) you will absorb it naturally, and then when you put pencil to paper that is what will come out.  You can only produce what you know.  So if you would like to be a great artist study great art work, be surrounded by it. Study just the good stuff.

One more thing... Glen Keane once said "if you are drawing a blank, or are having a hard time drawing a certain thing, then it is because you have not studied it enough". You can only draw what you know. Sadly there is no magical dust (believe me I have tried searching for the stuff) that will make you a better artist. The fruit of great art comes from the roots of studying, observation, and hard work.

So for people like me that have a hard time drawing hands this is the type of (Great) artwork I would printout, trace, study, and observe. 

Rad Sechrist: studying

Guest: "I'd love to see the best way to maximize practice. Say you sit down for a couple hours each day study: where do you focus? How do you make it stick?"

Here is how I learned to draw. I put on an animated movie and pause it and try to figure out how to draw it. this is still something I do almost every day for about an hour. For figure drawing, I take out a master drawing and do a master copy on newsprint. I also do studies from comics. I find it easier to do studies from art. For me (and this is just a very personal opinion) drawing from life, or from photos is like taking a test. You find out what you need to study more of and you go back and study artist to figure out how they handled things, then you go and take the test again. If you only ever draw from life, you run the risk of just repeating the same mistakes over and over again and never improving. there are pros and cons to this method. At first, your drawings will be very unoriginal, but eventually you can break free and develop your own style. The other side of the coin is to be very fresh and original, but not "technically" as good of a draftsmen (never study). It's a very personal decision that each artist gets to make and I don't think one way is better than the other.

Rad Sechrist: Question by Robert

Robert asked, " I'm just in high school, and I was wondering what I could do to possibly prepare myself to become a storyboard artist."

Personally, I never went to school for it, but if I could go back in time, I definitely would have. It would have saved a lot of time and work, and it just sounds so awesome to be surrounded by students excited about art and animation. Art Center in Pasadena and Cal Arts are both great schools. If you are able to get into Gobelins in France, that is, in my opinion, the best school for animation in the world. Another good school is Sheridan in Canada. Other than schools, just study films and break them down shot by shot into storyboards. that's a really good way to learn. After you learn, studios have training programs where you can get in and learn on the job. TV also has something called a storyboard revisionist. You can basically just show up to any studio with a portfolio of storyboard samples and they will usually call you back and give you a test. Doing the test for the job is actually a great way to learn. I did several test for studios before I finally got a job. every test, I would take to someone in the industry and ask them to look at it and I would try to make less mistakes the next time. that is sort of how I learned to storyboard. Try it, make a storyboard portfolio and drop it off at Nickelodeon.