RE: Art Questions Thread
Umbreon/Espeon said:
This is probably a dumb question,but how do you color on the computer? *Coughi'msodumbwhenitcomestoartCough*
Artists and illustrators doing "2D" illustration art employ raster graphics editors, that's basically programs like gimp, photoshop and even paint. (compare with Vector art programs, which make use of geometrical primitives and are more design-oriented than illustration-oriented)
A raster graphic represents images as bitmaps: the art is made of pixels, each pixel is a certain colour (and in some cases, transparency factors in too). The computer represents the data about the colour of each individual pixel using bits (just like all digital data stored in bits), this defines the concept of
colour depth
To "colour" on the computer, the familiar cursor is used (try it in MS Paint!). The cursor is controlled usually by mouse or touchpad, but a tablet can be used for finer control. Put simply you "draw" by applying pressure or by clicking, which simulates a brush making contact with the drawing surface.
The fundamental aspects of digital illustration are the brush values:
- Speed
- Direction
- Pressure
Speed and pressure are especially important because they are controllable by many programs, in order to affect certain properties of the brush, like size or opacity or hardness. The most obvious example is the "default" setting in programs like photoshop where a brush appears more opaque if you apply more pressure. This is also why tablets are preferred, not only because they feel more natural but because mice and touchpads lack pressure control.
Colouring in mainstream art circles these days either employs directly painting the colours, or via selections. The latter is more complicated, and involves the Magic Wand tool to "select" the regions you want to colour, then fill it with the colour. It can get tricky if the lineart is complicated. Normally what I do is select the outside, then perform a selection inversion, and then contract the selection by a pixel or two. It's still rarely perfect, especially if the lineart is very thin, or if there are sharp edges in the lineart.
