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Tutorial - Common Digital Painting Mistakes
Published: 2012-06-07 04:07:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 231564; Favourites: 12210; Downloads: 4631
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Description
A guide to common digital painting mistakes that I've either seen or done myself...hopefully it helps
UPDATE
If you have questions please visit my journal for a list of FAQ first, you might find them answered there.
[link]
Otherwise, ask away!
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Comments: 759
I agree... though I guess it's better to be an example of what you say... as I said it's just feedback I don't want to offend.
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The tumb didn't show ... it was a link to this
[link]
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This is so helpful! Thank you! *favs *
It explains why I've been having troubles with digital painting. I hope to use this knowledge to get better!
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Where was this when I started out? 
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i have to try this program! i've never used it
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I think this is where you can download it; [link]
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Second this !!
Sai forces artist to break down and focus on the basics, but fortuneately, helps those with shaky hands still make smooth sketches, strokes, and lines aaah
Sai is the godsend of art programs ; ;
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Welcome to DA and congrats on getting front page! You paint very well :>
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this is extremely help full thank you so much!
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Wow, I needed this so badly! Thank you for posting this! I put it in my Helpful Tips folder and will look back on it. THank you so much! ^^
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Thanks for sharing this with us
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You beautiful person you.
This is just what I've needed! Thank you! QvQ
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Could you manage to make a tutorial on how to correctly blend two different colours, i.e. pink and teal ?
If you could that would be lovely c:
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If they're opposites (pink and teal are near opposites), try adding a neutral grey in the middle.
There was a tutorial mentioning this somewhere on DA, but I can't for the live of me find it. So maybe wait for Natasha2808 to do one.
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I do want to make a blending tutorial, I'll see what I can do!
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one i've definitely been guilty of is monochromatic shading. i'm slowly starting to get out of that, but i don't quite understand how to know what colors to pick to shade with
also, overblending and lack of contrast kind of go hand in hand for me. i want everything to be so smooth and blended that i start to lose the contrast
gah, the joys of being self-taught
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What colours to shade with:
If you want to go with something artistic, pick the opposite colour to the light source. (So if it's a warm yellow sun, pick a cool blue.) This is an exaggeration of a vision effect called 'simultaneous contrast', where if we have a neutral grey and a colour right next to it, we see the grey with a tint of the opposite colour.
Another artistic option is the opposite colour to the local colour (so if there's a red ball, give it slightly cyan shading).
If you want something realistic, look around at what's in the environment and try to work out what's lighting up the shadows. (Shadows are always being lit up by something, or else they'd be pitch black. Mostly they're lit by either bounced light from the sky and ground, or if it's inside then bounced light from the walls, ceiling and floor.)
So if it's outdoors during a sunny day, shadows that can 'see' the sky will be slightly blue, and shadows that are facing the ground might be slightly green from grass. If there's a character leaning against a red wall, there will be strong red reflected light in the shadows.
Try checking out this tutorial .
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wow thanks so much! that's actually really helpful
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This will be good to kick me back into place at times. I fall victim to fear quite often, and I suppose laziness - the smudge tool.. aaaaagh XD I use it all the time when opacity settings aren't on hand easily.
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Thank you for creating this. I will see if I can catch myself making these mistakes in my digital art now that I know what to look for.
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You are my hero oh my gosh. I do basically EVERYTHING on here!! No wonder my paintings always look like crap! <3333
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Why didn't you submit this yesterday? #11 is the reason why the picture I was working on never looked right! xP I'm going to refer to this often...
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Dude
dude yes ohmygoodness
I used to do ALL of these things and I seriously wish this had been out there when I first got photoshop. @m@ <3
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Thanks for this. I must admit falling into most of these pits at one time or another.
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Lovely tutorial! Very helpful!!!
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its nice of you to do this, here a few things i think might help if you ever feel like adding to it, i wouldn't tell people not to use the smudge tool, its true that a lot of beginners over use it but it can be effective with some adjustments [link] he goes over his settings on how to use it more as a blender similar to painter then just smuding. [link] uses the smude tool a lot and has a nice 5 hour tutorial at conceptart.org if people have a wacom tablet wacom released new drivers recently that give you much more control. if anyone wants a tablet but cant afford a wacom i would check out [link] seems like a great alternative.
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Thank you! I've found that digital work can be incredibly difficult at times, and this should be a big help.
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I think this effectively sums everything up 
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This is very helpful~! Thank you for posting this! I had a few lessons on traditional painting but I don't really apply them to digital painting 'coz I thought it's different. But your tutorial taught me that it's not.
I'm looking forward to the tutorials you will post~!
And welcome to DA by the way~!
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Really useful and helpful tips!
- even for people (like me) who have been trying to figure out digital painting for a while, and starting to get a hang of it
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I don't paint but there are definitely some useful tips in there.
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I dont do digital art but im going to start(used too a little) This is beyond helpful
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I love you for making this tutorial.
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These are some very helpful tips! I'm guilty of a few of these myself haha....I'm kind of new to digital painting, so I'll keep these in mind!
I've found myself struggling with the fear factor a lot, especially keeping my works too light. I was able to get myself to be bold in my shadows and dark values, then some of my art teachers told me I was getting TOO dark 
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My problem is using the blend tool...I am right now trying to make a photorealistic baby, and I"m using the blend tool...D: Is this bad? How else do I get a "realistic" look to my picture?
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This was very enlightening. Nice work.
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Thank you for pointing it out for me!
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thanks for making this!~ i think most beginning digital artist can tell that they're making these mistakes by themselves, they just don't really know how to fix them. (including me....
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This is fantastic, you pointed out all the things I know I keep doing wrong but then forget to correct myself... With this simple, one page tutorial it'll be easy for me to sweep over it in future to remind myself to stop being a asshat and break the bad habits. <3
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usefull! I need to be less lazy
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This is really fantastic. I know I make most of these mistakes (bleh), so it really helps to see it right there and read *why* it's bad. Thank you!
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Awesome! Super helpful, I'll use this for the next one I do.. thanks for the tutorial!
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thank you very much for this!!!
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