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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
That's great!! I don't do much digital painting myself, but I am starting to try. Do you have any tips?
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in addition to the tips in the tutorial, I would say for first tries on digital painting it helps to have an underlying sketch with some basic shading in pencil to guide you. i've seen lot's of artists who sketch right onto the computer screen but it feels harder to me. the sketch helps bridge the gap between traditional and digital so the transition is more smooth.
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Thanks. I'll bear that in mind
Just wondering, do you know how to shade in a way that makes things look realistic?
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realism is based a lot on use of color and lighting but also things like anatomy. it's helpful to read books on traditional art to study realistic shading in addition to digital tutorials. Making realistic work is complex so there's no winning formula to make it right every time. But..the more understanding you have of light and color/the better your observational skills the more realistic your art becomes.
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Hmm... Thankyou very much!!! You've been really helpful!
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This was very very helpful, I make a lot of these mistakes, without even knowing what I'm doing wrong, hopefully I'll be able to at least identify my problems now.
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Fantastic tutorial. Reading it I noticed two things I do on here that I shouldn't. 6 is a big one I tend to do and 7 sometimes too. I never know what size to use when it comes to a canvas.
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keep the size in the thousands of pixels at least. I usually do about 4000px-5000px dimensions. If you plan on printing make sure it is 300dpi as well.
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Ohh that'd be why I do it wrong then. I usually do it at 600 or so. Occasionally 1000. I'll have to increase it. Thanks.
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This is very useful, now I see why I suck! Hehe neh, I have always struggled with digital painting although I would love so much to know how to paint good. Monochromatic colors are my biggest problem. I just don't know what colors to use and how in vibrant shading. :E Please make more tutorials!
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I appreciate the shout out and the advice given in this. I would love to see some more constructive tools like this
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Many people think digital painting is somehow easier than traditional... then if they actually try it, they realize all the same rendering principles in traditional painting apply to digital... Excellent tutorial! Spot on.
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I really feel like I can use this information, thank you for this.
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It seems that you know your way around DA very well, and yet it also says that you only joined this week ... so I'm a bit confused
Excellent tutorial, can't wait for the sequel
... and I'm guilty for picking the colors from the reference images *lazy, lazy, lazy*
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i've always admired artists on DA so I got an idea of how it worked, but I've been too much of a wimp to make stuff myself...it's such a big site and difficult to get noticed here, plus there's so many talented people! I was intimidated!!
but I guess everyone has to get over that it comes with the territory...
i'm glad you like my tutorial
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Well, you definitively got noticed 
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Oh, wow, this is beautifully done and very informative.
Haha, thank you! xD
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Absolutely spot-on, on all counts!! Thank you for going into such detail with these!!!
PS: My favorite magazine in the world: IFX.
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Well actually, I guess I make maybe all of them ._. I'll try to learn that, but what a really need, it's a professor xD
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Very useful.
I'm guilty of doing not dark enough and monochromatic colors
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this is awesome! very useful, be sure to think about doing more
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Reading this was like going through a time machine. Some of the things listed were mistakes I made years ago, realized were Very Bad, and eventually got over. Some of them are things I'm aware of and am in the process of working on, but still haven't overcome. And some of them were things I wasn't even aware of that I can work on in the future.
Interesting tutorial
~VelkynKarma
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This is so handy! Thank you! I just purchased my first tablet, and while my friends have given me a few tips, this is the most help I've gotten so far. Thanks a lot!
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Really good tutorial! I've only just caught on to some of these elements in the past couple of months, although on my own, i wish i would have seen this sooner it could of helped me develop quicker! Pretty sure when im doing a drawing now i might have to reference back to this to make sure i have them included! ;D
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And I always thought it was just my lack of ability to colour.
I'll keep these in mind next time I do something in Photoshop.
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thanks, this is very helpfull ^^
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nice tutorial! seems really helpful!
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Very useful tutorial. I admit, I do most of those "laziness" mistakes, and I'm scared to fix them out of fear. I'll have to try harder...
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This is indeed a very useful tutorial.
I myself have tripped in most of these errors, wheter in digital or traditional painting.
I'm getting there though, and it's good that you mentioned the 'fear' errors because those are, indeed, the hardest to fix. Shading further and leaving some harder edges instead of blending truly makes a difference
Thank you for doing this!
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Ah yes. The fear. I myself fear colour in general. Hence I do everything in black&white. Is that considered monochromatic too? And I use the blending tool quite often as well, but I'm not sure if the example you gave goes for b&w too. I kind of worked out how to really blend it in a decent looking way (the example is a bit exaggerated imho). Anyways, some very useful tips. I'll check this out again before my next piece.
Cheers.
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Ah thank you. It's good to be put at one's place, especially concerning fear (I'm very concerned lol).
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Thank you so much for making this tutorial! I'm a noob at digital art, and you just pointed out most of my big problems lol. Thank you again!
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This is amazing, I can see this being so helpful for new digital artists! Reading, I could remember doing all those mistakes at some point. The hardest is to REALIZE that those things really don't work. Years ago I remember thinking "naaah, the smudge tool works greeeeat!" This tutorial can help us realize wrong ways to do digital art, AND it also provides alternatives. Great job!
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I never realized that I was doing so many of these things! The only thing i'm confused about..i'm not sure how to properly blend. Is there a tool to use, or do you have to do it some other way?
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Nope. Just practice, observation, testing, failing, trial and error, making lots of junk, and continuing to practice anyway! No digital tool is a substitute or shortcut to good artwork, and only time and initiative sets each of us apart. : )
Generally however, it's easier to blend by experimenting with the opacity and flow of different brushes and taking advantage of the entire color palette and sampling the inbetweens. Plenty of tutorials out there on digital painting that might give you a clue on what you want to know.
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this is true...the best tools are the most simple ones. play around with opacity and flow of default hard brushes and use the eyedropper tool to sample colors as you keep blending to make your transitions smoother.
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I'm guilty of monochromatic palettes xD color is such a challenge to really become fluent with. One step at a time, I'll get there
I've got a friend though who is sooooo guilty of burn and dodge. . . She fears color - and photoshop overall - so much that she will not let go of the burn and dodge tool, which are touch up tools for photos, not tone and highlight tools. I'd share this with her, but she wouldn't pay any attention.
Ah well, this is a wonderful tip guide ^^ Thank you for sharing!
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I thought it was totally amazing and I thought that you were probably an awesome artist... but then I saw this shading and hair... :thumb306836790: ......... I liked your tutorial but not your art much
Not that I'M INCREDIBLE... no, in fact I don't have any talent... but I'M NOT DOING TUTORIALS ON HOW TO MAKE AWESOME ART claiming not being a beginner....
Just take that as a feed back
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I don't think she was saying she is better than anyone, but just showcasing common mistakes that everyone can learn from. In her description she even says so.
You don't have to be good at art to be able to point out lack of color theory and really bad use of the smudge/dodge/burn tool. You don't have to be an artist to be an art critic...
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