Hello all! I'm in need of some advice and help if possible. I'm looking to actually start drawing in general but hope to get to the point where I can make my own portraits for my projects. How should I begin to start? On paper or through things like photoshop? I do not have a tablet so how would someone like me get my stuff online or is it even possible to get high quality works without one?
1.) Draw with pencil and paper; 2.) Scan it; 3.) If you think you want to enhance it(like adding colors, etc), use either Sai(I prefer this) or Photoshop; 4.) Upload; 5.) Profit
You don't necessarily need a tablet. But TBH having one does take off some workload if you're really looking for quality work.
Some people manually use a mouse, but that'll take heaps of time, still people get thru it(It's how I started).
But I'd recommend you start by drawing manually first with pencil and paper. If you're looking for enhancing quality in digital software, I'd recommend you atleast start knowing the basic gist of what you're gonna be using and use it for other stuff like Photo Manipulation, Sig making, etc, instead of just focusing for drawings, since you'll get there eventually. Vectors are usually the easiest way to do it.
But if there's one thing I still use if I'm too lazy to actually draw something digitally. I'll just 1.) scan a manual drawing; 2.) use Photoshop; 3.) use Burn Tool set on: normal 0 hardness circular brush, Range: Midtones, Exposure: 100%; 4.) Use it on the drawing to increase contrast; 5.) Use Dodge Tool with same settings; 6.) Use it on the lighter parts of the scanned drawing(the blank white part of where you didn't draw and have no intention to), to lighten that part(since scanned pictures/drawing has those dark edges, or parts which is identifiable that it is, a scanned picture); 7.) Make new Layer; 8.) Start coloring with preferred basic colors with any brush you want on any settings you prefer; 9.) Set the layer to preferred Blending Option(mine is usually Multiply or Color Burn); 10.) Continue until you get desired colors on desired spots.
It'll probably look something like this.
Take Note: This isn't mine. It's from my friend. And no, I'm not a Brony.
I don't use this often this often, and he was actually the one who told me this. The reason why he does this isn't the same as mine.
He really doesn't have a tablet.
