To tell you the truth, I got mine too. All I can suggest to you is to get a feel for it and practice, practice! Remember that the tablet surface generally cooresponds to the whole screen.

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...Has crabs. [link]

i want one too !

wow where to begin.

first off, always try your best to clean up the lineart. find a way to separate the lineart from its white background/surroundings.

if you dont work with lineart, its all good. but you must have a sketch on a different layer as a general proportions guide otherwise you will paint and paint and paint and then realize everything you did is whacked out. one of those awesome imaginaryfriends guys also suggests that once in a while u should flip your image horizontally coz that will force your brain to look at it with a new perspective and spot abnormalities.

another thing iv learned is that if u start with a sketch or lineart, enlarge the image to 200 or 400 % and work on applying the paint while viewing the image at its 100% size. when i first started digitally painting i kept getting drawn into zooming in alot. in general this has bad results. try working from as 'high up' as you can so u never lose track of perspective. every line you draw this way must always match the overall image and curves.

only zoom in for fine lines. and even then try not to zoom in beyond 200%.

and always control your brush. try to take advantage of the pressure sensitivity thus being more dynamic with 1 brush type. example: i usually end up painting colors and refining lines with a medium blurred brush simply by changing the brush 'hardness' (photoshop feature) and ever-so-faintly drawing on the tablet to get the lines just right.

remember: control control control! just because its a digital medium doesnt mean that you will always make the perfect line. its not the tablets fault! control your wrist and brush strokes despite the new/odd surface you are painting on. do not despair, you will improve with time.

lastly, from my limited experience, be very careful with colors. remember that painting with colours dynamically adds much needed VOLUME to an image. its a good idea to start learning shading without worrying about colours; try learning about volume shading with just shades of grey.
after that try to add appropriate 'ambiance' with white light. also when painting try your hardest not to use the entire 'grey spectrum'!! your image will have way too many shades if u do that. avoid the darkest possible black unless its the lineart or a special circumstance. finally when you get good at painting volume with shades of grey, pick out your colours and arrange them in your own pallet (a different layer if u want). remember dont be afraid to throw afew odd colors in. in extreme shadow u may add some extremely dark purple and for ambiance lightblue/white does wonders.

dont forget to always browse the best painters on this site. if you closely examine where they add the ambient light and 'odd' purples and blues here and there you will quickly learn WHY their work looks so good. also the photoshop smudge tool is freaking bad do not use it at all. it doesnt mix colours at all. it murders your painting. instead work with your brush's' opacity (45%ish + or - 20%) and the different brush modes; colour burn, multiply, vivid/pin light, overlay... be more careful with brush opacity when using different brush modes.

and super-lastly: hotkeys are your friends. try to hotkey your tablet buttons. keyboard "alt" button for example will allow you to select an existing colour from the image. ctrl + alt + z = keep undoing. ctrl + z = undo/redo/undo/redo etc. b = brush. and ofcourse rightclick = a limited brush settings window (this one is on one of the tablet pen buttons)

thats all i can think of for now...

additionally: do your best to texture-ize your work manually to some extent even after you find an appropriate texture. (i have no idea how to successfully add a texture from a stock image, you will have to look up some tutorials. tutorials on skin texturing for example will give you a good idea how to make your own manual textures. work with brushes and try to add some 'noise-colour' by selecting the darker shades and contrasting them with ligher shades. if this sounds confusing, it will make more sense when you see some skin-painting tuts)

and when you work on character perspective dont forget to keep in-mind background perspective and lighting as well. (something i have never done so far >_< )

o_O hey wait you aren't Toboe from that yahoo mailing list WR rp that never got very far are you? >_o also part of a big WR fan community....... your photo's look really familiar.... D: ::Spazz::

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Other Galleries
Elfwood - Here
Y!gallery - Here

Yup

NO one replied in the rp, so it was hard to keep going. I gave up

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Chrno Crusade, Wolf's Rain <3 ,FMA, WHR , Trinity Blood and Yami No Matsuei are my Loves ^_^ and WORLD OF WARCRAFT!


Please visit the Astral Lines!! [link] !!!

T_T I know it was a shame. But yay

Which server are you on in Warcraft? XD I'm on Nathrezim

--
Other Galleries
Elfwood - Here
Y!gallery - Here

Durotan.. which atm is severely sucking

--
Chrno Crusade, Wolf's Rain <3 ,FMA, WHR , Trinity Blood and Yami No Matsuei are my Loves ^_^ and WORLD OF WARCRAFT!


Please visit the Astral Lines!! [link] !!!

D: If only you wasn't alliance I'd tell you to come join Nath (though we're a pvp server)

--
Other Galleries
Elfwood - Here
Y!gallery - Here