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Digital Tools?

Addison

Auror
Does anyone know any kind of light table that can plug into a computer and hold the image on the screen while a person traces it?

I have tried every other way of digital art but nothing's working. I use something like a Bamboo and the work falls on its face down a hill. I tried a tablet but I kept opening different applications and stuff.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Happy Writing! :)
 

kennyc

Inkling
In Photoshop or Painter you can put the source image on a one layer and draw/trace on a separate layer.
 
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Nimue

Auror
Hey there. Might need more clarification on what you're looking for, but it sounds like you want something like a Cintiq, where you use the pen tool to draw on the screen surface itself, but...they are hella expensive. Huion might be a good alternative to Wacom in terms of price/quality, but still.

A more practical solution would be putting up something to trace on screen, like Kenny suggested. You can also try sketching traditionally, scanning the image in, and just coloring digitally, which will ease up on the difficulty of putting in shapes with the pen.

But to be honest, to me it sounds like you just need to power through the adjustment period of working with a pen tablet. You're not going to be able to match the quality of your traditional art right away, you're really going to need to retrain your brain. Have some patience, and you'll work out the coordination aspect with practice.

(Advice offered without knowing how long you've been going at it, of course--if it has been months and it's still not working for you, then maybe look for alternate methods. But don't let frustration keep you from art!!)
 

Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
Addison, I'll tell you how I draw my Addison. Not knowing your artistic style, I'm not sure how much of this applies to you. But what I do is:
* draw in pencil
* scan
* use a Bamboo to color in PhotoShop (well... PhotosShop Essentials because it came with the Wacom Bamboo)

Some people have luck scanning images and using the images as a sketch to paint over. (This is pretty much what's been suggested above, and it's not what I do, so I won't go into detail on this.)

For me, the line quality is better on paper than if I trace on-screen. What I do instead is scan, export my scan to a PNG file (at 600 dpi, which may be overkill as I usually scale down ~25%) and change the PhotoShop layer setting from "normal" to "multiply."

If you use a pen, this will give you a nice black line. If you're like me–way too accident-prone to be trusted with a pen–you can scan pencil art and still have a dark line. What I do is scan pencil and duplicate the layer (while it's set to "multiply"). Two multiplied pencil layers are good for background darkness. For characters and objects you want the viewer to focus on, have four identical layers. Of course you merge them, then set the merged layers to multiply and color underneath.

I've tried drawing totally digital, but I like the results better when I pencil-scan-digicolor. For me the adjustment period of mastering line art with a tablet is not a worthwhile pursuit because I've found an aesthetic style that's kind of my own thing and it's working for me. As Nimue mentioned in her parenthetical, there's a point where you have to decide whether to keep at your current method or find an alternate method. I spent the last few years looking for that method, and it wasn't until summer that I was sure I found it. I'm still getting better at it.


Here's a visual: my original drawing after darkening using my four-multiply-layers method, plus the color version. (Note that in the color version, people/objects overlap each other.)
Bookish300.png
Shhh.png
 

Lumani

Minstrel
When I first started I used a pencil and scanned in and coloured with a mouse.....did that for many years

Now I use a Wacom Intous 3 tablet. Its fabulous but had a steep learning curve. As always, it is only a tool and won`t dramatically change your skill levels with out practice!!¸

Here is examples of what I do with a tablet.

Lumanii - DeviantArt
 
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