My tablet died and now, until the new one comes, all I have is a mouse :-(

Anyone managing to do decent "smudge" work only using a mouse?
I just can't get the hang of it with only the mouse...

Can we see samples?

Hi Frank,
I only had a mouse up to a couple of weeks ago, i have now invested in a wacum tablet...quite new to smudging too but here is an example of what i did with the mouse...then mr contrast filter...havent got into doing details yet though.....I guess its like starting again!!!! :classic:

Patricia Kay

I was never very good even when I had the tablet... in a matter of fact I was pretty bad at it... that is why I never posted anyting on the subject...

But now with just the mouse it is even worse: I can't seem to be able to control the strokes to the degree that I need to.

Was your image done with a mouse or with your newly acquired tablet?

Hi Frank,
I only had a mouse up to a couple of weeks ago, i have now invested in a wacum tablet...quite new to smudging too but here is an example of what i did with the mouse...then mr contrast filter...havent got into doing details yet though.....I guess its like starting again!!!! :classic:

Patricia Kay

I did it just with the mouse Frank and i might add its not such a good one a bit dithery in fact....my advice is dont try too hard...if i do then i get all flustered when its not going the way i want...i try to take a layed back approach and i find following a tutorial helps too if its not going well...as i was self taught in the begining...playing around with the smudge tool on my flowers...didnt know it was a form of actual painting till i joined the forum...i used to just smudge the petals and leave the flower center,stamens etc as they were...i guess its called selective smudging but i liked the look...another thing i do which i suspect most will think strange is to cut out the flower or whatever your subject is and smudge them both seperately...so as to get a nice edge...this i did with the flower pic i sent you...just play and enjoy...after all you can click undo!!!!! :nod:

Patricia...

i've always used a mouse. but dont use a mechanical type with the ball on the bottom. use an optical. the biggest trick to control with a mouse is friction. the mouse tends to want to stay at rest. when you move it you get that little 'catch' at the start that can throw things off. i think the pads they put on the bottom of the mouse are teflon...i think... to make them as free floating as possible, but there's always a bit of friction. a dirty pad will also inhibit movement. so will moisture/humidity. i find putting a tiny dab of oil on the pads of the mouse helps. just make sure your mousepad isnt something you want to save forever. the oil attracts dirt and dirt breaks things down.

you can also try things other than a mouse pad as the mouse pad. with an optical mouse you can use just about anything that has a good texture to it. my desktop works just fine. the wood grain has enough texture that the mouse recognizes this quite easily.

you might also be interested to know that there is more than one smudge type. in fact, the list is probably just about infinite. just changing brushes can give you some quite varied results. attached is a small example of some. the image is from the photo art section and belongs to Swampy.

i'm ok with smudging, but Palms is our resident expert. hers are superb.

craig

Craig thank you for the great compliment, it has made my day ( although i would change expert for enthusiast ) :pleased: :blush:
When i first started to smudge i only used the mouse couldnt get on with my pen tool ( it is a very cheap one about £15 ) I tend now to use mainly the pen ( due to a old arm injury playing up and it dosent aggrivate it as much as the mouse when smudging ) but the mouse is used on almost all of my smudges ( backgrounds)
Patricia is right in the relax and take it easy with the mouse it is a bit more intense, rotating your image for different directions helps. Also i hold the button down and smudge for a bit instead of constant "clicking"
Craig is also right in that different brushes make a difference as well as the type of smudge you want to do
have posted a couple of smudges i have just done using the mouse they are a bit slap dash as i only spent 5 mins doing them just as a sort of illustration
they could be a lot better

As for not posting attempts (which we all do) how can you get specific help/advice on a problem ?

Palms

All my work is with a mouse - had a tablet breifly about 10 years ago but we didnt get on ;)
Unfortunately my hard drive died recently so I lost everything on it, so all I have to show is stuff ulpoaded here.
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31436
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30998
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30999

Just a cheap £5 optical mouse, no oil or special treatment ;) And the pads are well and truely gone

All my work is with a mouse - had a tablet breifly about 10 years ago but we didnt get on ;)
Unfortunately my hard drive died recently so I lost everything on it, so all I have to show is stuff ulpoaded here.
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31436
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30998
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30999

Just a cheap £5 optical mouse, no oil or special treatment ;) And the pads are well and truely gone

I currently fix computers for a living and can tell you that I've ran across this a lot. I personally use an external drive (USB) to back up all my data. They are quite reasonably priced now. Sorry for your loss Nancy. Data can not be replaced. Just remember, if you do use an external drive, then it's not a backup if you just move the excess files on your system to the external drive. A backup requires a copy (sounds like a stupid comment, but I've had customers loose data on what they called their backup drive; of course they did just as I stated earlier, so they lost all their data). I'm not a fan at all of storing data on CDs either. Magnetic media, to me, is much more reliable. Just my opined thoughts.

its no biggy, most of the data can be recovered, just not the filenames and locations - had to quick format it to get get windows to install on a different drive (bloody m$) - and I cant be bothered fishing thousands of clusterxxxx.jpg etc files.
I'm a web developer by trade so anything important or work related is stored on external servers. Only things I lost of any consequence were some emails and the psd of a site design I was working on. I've worked with computers my whole life, so I'm used to it. Its a bit of a pisser but not the end of the world.

Sorry to hear about your hard drive...

I have to say mouse or no mouse, you blew me away with what you did with Cooper: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/at...achmentid=30998

It just that... I don't seem to have as much fine control over the motion of the cursor with the mouse as I have with the pen. I have a very good, smooth, optical mouse, but things just don't come out "smooth". The strokes always look to me "squigly" if that makes any sense to you...


its no biggy, most of the data can be recovered, just not the filenames and locations - had to quick format it to get get windows to install on a different drive (bloody m$) - and I cant be bothered fishing thousands of clusterxxxx.jpg etc files.
I'm a web developer by trade so anything important or work related is stored on external servers. Only things I lost of any consequence were some emails and the psd of a site design I was working on. I've worked with computers my whole life, so I'm used to it. Its a bit of a pisser but not the end of the world.

It takes practice. If you've been using a tablet the whole time then it'll take getting used to with a mouse.
I've been using a mouse every day for about 20 years. My collegue at works creates all our web graphics with a 2" square glide pad - I couldnt do it but he's used to it. It just takes time, practice and patience.

If your strokes are squiggly, try using shorter strokes, if you need longer smoother strokes, zoom in more. The more you're zoomed out then more small jerks will affect the smoothness of your lines.
You might also want to check your mouse sensitivity, everyone has different preferences but it does make a difference. My bf cant use my computer because my mouse is like crawling through treacle to him. to me, his mouse is like floating on air - its just way to sensitive. The more sensitive your mouse is the more tiny movements will affect it.

Choice of brush is also very important, with coopers pic I chose a sparse brush that would give a fur like texture, if it was a portrait I would choose a soft brush to smooth the skin.

I hate the tablet and pens, i only ever do my paintings with the mouse and photoshop!

Nancj, your smudge painting are well nice. Gives me inspiration to try again.
Alan