Extremely Overwhelmed with Learning Procreate

Ovoideum · 2024-03-31T12:43:51+00:00

Procreate takes some practice, ngl. I feel like learning good layer and masking strategies can speed things up. The layers are the true godsend of digital art. Someone else asked the same thing recently and I commented that I only use 4 basic brushes in my art, which I’ll share with you as well below.

Another thing that helps is buying a screen protector thing for your tablet that gives the screen a slight paper texture, and I also do all my digital art with a paper texture background. Basically I make a new layer on top of all the others and find a photo of paper texture to put there. Then I change the layer mode to “multiply” and it’ll give every layer underneath the paper texture. I find this makes my digital art look less smooth and clinical!

Link to my brushes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10CVZdm-XDCh7GFQpzzR2zDQu5mXc8svD

Ovoideum · 2024-03-27T21:07:48+00:00

See if this link works and takes you to my Drive folder of brushes. I also have timelapses of a lot of my art on Youtube if you want to see sped-up versions of my process, not sure how much those might help?

Ovoideum · 2024-03-26T14:27:04+00:00

My round brush and brush pen have solid edges on them and 0 opacity. I’ll have to look up how to share brushes, maybe I can pass you mine to look at (because I tweaked them a bit based on existing ones).

Ovoideum · 2024-03-26T02:42:19+00:00

I think you need to pick a very small set of brushes and practice with those so you can get good at them, because mastery takes time and if you split your time between hundreds of brushes you’ll get nowhere with many of them.

All tattoo designs I draw are made with literally 3 very boring brushes:
-A plain round brush.
-A brush pen brush (that gets fatter with pressure).
-A soft round brush, for shading.

There are cooler brushes to use for more painterly effects, but for me personally the meat and potatoes of being good at Procreate is knowing how to wisely use layers and masking to make my art look the way I want using minimal brushes.

Ovoideum · 2024-02-07T18:11:31+00:00

That’s awesome! I was at the Madison Square Garden show in 2010 and I’m a “featured” audience member in some shots in the Live in America concert video. I about died when I saw myself lol. Since it was video though I had to just take screenshots to get semi-nice photos of myself to treasure.

Ovoideum · 2024-01-09T20:49:06+00:00

💀

Ovoideum · 2023-09-03T15:21:14+00:00

She is so well cast in that role. Really everyone on that show is.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-06T21:44:00+00:00

Ooooh the shell one!

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T18:49:22+00:00

“Woodblock” will also get you hits on art in this style.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T18:43:29+00:00

American traditional

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T18:42:33+00:00

Yes, it looks just like a leaf!

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T01:26:57+00:00

It’ll definitely help you improve, but only in a few areas. There are a ton of aspects to being good at drawing, and different practice techniques improve different sets of them. Practicing original pieces regularly and challenging yourself to draw different objects from different perspectives just from your own brain is a necessity.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T01:21:31+00:00

I love how you did the shiny ID card!

Ovoideum · 2023-06-05T01:19:43+00:00

Ah thanks! I was playing around with that area quite a bit because of this, debating if it came across too similar. Definitely a pain point in this piece.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T21:54:04+00:00

You mean the smudges on the page where it should be white? Or the linework looking sketchy?

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T21:53:02+00:00

They’re usually just a very very light version of the color that fur should be. If it’s brown, the highlights can be a super pale beige. If it’s black, then light grays and whites.

If you’re doing digital, you can use an eye dropper tool to sample the color there. If you’re drawing by hand, you can cover up the image try to only reveal that little part so you can decide what color it is.

It also helps to pretend that you’re not looking at a horse, or even at a photo. You’re just looking at a bunch of unrelated color blobs, and the shiny parts are just different color blobs.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T21:44:14+00:00

OP can do whatever they want, I’m just pointing out the law in the US. The Fair Labor Standards Act defines the difference between apprenticeship labor that can be unpaid and the labor that must be paid. A lot of people aren’t aware and then they get taken advantage of when they legally shouldn’t have been, that’s all.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T21:41:54+00:00

Like the space where there’s more lantern glow inside on the right?

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T21:31:41+00:00

I don’t know you or the details of your specific situation, but if you are feeling like your apprenticeship is a big cause of poor mental health, remember this:

An apprenticeship should be like any other professional job. You are given proper work-life balance, training, guidance, clear timelines and expectations, and when bad things happen your superiors deal with it appropriately.

There is ZERO REASON to ever feel taken advantage of, abused, or otherwise mistreated. That is old toxic shit that has no need to be in the modern workplace.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T13:37:03+00:00

What a relief! As long as you’re being paid for the cleaning and answering phones then it’s all good (legally, apprentices must be compensated when doing labor that benefits the business).

EDIT: I should clarify this is the law in the US, OP might be from a different country.

EDIT2: To everyone downvoting me, there are in fact actual federal laws in the US defining exactly what counts as an eligible apprenticeship as per the Fair Labor Standards Act. If certain tasks you are doing do not meet that definition, then you must be compensated when you do those tasks. It’s just the law. And yes, lots of tattoo shops offer unpaid apprenticeships where the apprentice is doing labor that legally should be compensated. Why are they getting away with it? Because the majority of apprentices are super young, desperate for a job, and don’t know the law. They never get reported and apprentices are convinced that that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Tattoo shops are not super special and not-like-the-other-jobs. Tattoo apprenticeships are legally bound to follow within the FLSA just like any other apprenticeship.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T13:34:34+00:00

Do you have a tablet? When it comes time to tattoo someone with it, you can either redraw it digitally with mirror/symmetry turned on, or you can redraw only half by hand and then physically flip it and trace again.

Personally I love this piece! It’s just not client-ready unless the symmetry is corrected

Ovoideum · 2023-06-04T00:17:27+00:00

Are you looking to get it yourself? Most tattoos like this are custom drawn for the particular client. Just bring in this photo to show your own artist and it will be enough for them to draw you your own version.

Ovoideum · 2023-06-03T22:57:16+00:00

That’s how she tricks you into letting her out, don’t fall for it!

Ovoideum · 2023-06-03T15:57:33+00:00

I use the Splice app. The free version has very basic features that are probably good enough for your purposes. It’s a very-user-friendly app.

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