Digital Painting question

[Tanner T]

I've been digital painting for some time now... but I have a question. I've noticed alot of great artists that in there speed pieces and alot of works, they have really solid shapes, 100% opacity etc etc, with no blurry edges and what not. It looks as if they took 1 solid brush stroke, new exactly how hard to press, and left it. Is there some secrets that I havent known about? are they using laso tool or how is this effect achieved. In my paintings, i paint over certain areas more than once and so on... multiple brush strokes, blending and ya.... I have always been envious of the style of these solid shapes and very sharp edges.

heres an example:

http://novamesh.com/NEW%20IMAGES/2012/Piligrym.JPG

[QueenGwenevere]

There's no secret, it's just any basic hard-edged brush, 100% opacity, and knowing where to put the strokes... Some people use square brushes a lot for those hard, square-ish strokes. But mostly it's knowing where to put the strokes.

Depending on the artist, some people use also the path tool for hard-edged vector shapes.

[Line]

Yea, QueenGwenevere's right. It's having the confidence and skill to realize what goes
where and just state it. I'm having a similar problem if you will. I am much more confident
with traditional material, but with digital I just overmodel things. Also, using textures on
brushes confuses me. So, my practice involves doing exactly what my mind knows, but
my gut won't allow, which is, using hard strokes to state form. Say, one for the shape
and placement, and another stroke to soften an edge if needed. Kinda strict but, it
works so far.

[Whirly]

Some artist such as Feng Zhu dont use pen pressure for their brush opacity so the edges are less likely to get muddy this way. This may or may not be relevant.

[Januz]

I think Feng mentioned once that he used the 0-9 keys to change brush opacity manually. I've seen him use transfer-enabled brushes for the initial blocking in though.

I'm also struggling with this. I guess it takes a lot of practice to know how and where to put the strokes.

[Tanner T]

Some artist such as Feng Zhu dont use pen pressure for their brush opacity so the edges are less likely to get muddy this way. This may or may not be relevant.

I've tried manipulating the brush opacity settings so it isnt set to pen pressure, but everytime I do this and save it, I start painting and it auto resets

[Damien Levs]

Here's a neat technique from our very own Sparth....have a read through his thread. Pretty insightful...however I wouldn't use this to replace the knowledge you need to learn to paint at an advanced level....

>>>Sparth Depot<<<

[QueenGwenevere]

I've tried manipulating the brush opacity settings so it isnt set to pen pressure, but everytime I do this and save it, I start painting and it auto resets

There must be something weird in your general settings then, because it shouldn't do that... Look around and see if you have something overriding your brush settings, maybe?

[Xeon_OND]

That post and art style by Sparth was what I was trying to find the answer to these past weeks.
Thanks!

The entire painting looks very solid and opaque, yet not soft (compared to the softer paintings created with the Shape Dynamics + Other Dynamics" settings both turned on), which lacks solidity compared to Sparth's type of paintings.

[Tanner T]

Here's a neat technique from our very own Sparth....have a read through his thread. Pretty insightful...however I wouldn't use this to replace the knowledge you need to learn to paint at an advanced level....

>>>Sparth Depot<<<

oh my sweet jebus... thank you so much

[Tanner T]

his english is a little broken ( sparth )

so I create custom shapes

then how do i apply these fast and so on? and transform them like he did? he didnt explain toooo much on it

[DreamArt]

I've tried manipulating the brush opacity settings so it isnt set to pen pressure, but everytime I do this and save it, I start painting and it auto resets

I think I was having that same problem when I started using it! I remember changing the settings, and then once I put the brush down it snaps back to default. I may have to fiddle around with it to remember what was happening and how it stopped.