[navy_eye]

Hi all, I'm currently painting a portrait using a digital photograph as a reference. I'm following a tutorial which gives results that look like this:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6...ooklikeoy3.jpg

But after about 90 minutes (tutorial takes about 40 mins) I have an image that looks like this, and that's after alerting layer opacity's which I shouldn't really need to be doing if my technique was correct:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1364/stuckek5.jpg

I'm doing this in photoshop and I have a bamboo one wacom tablet; the tablet is quite new and although my control of it is pretty good I'm still not sure of how it interacts with photoshop.

As you can see from the first image I need my colours to be very light so that they blend very easily - I'm using multiple layer by the way. I have my flow between 50 and 70 and my opacity never above 60 (more like 20-30 for most shades though), but despite this the brush doesn't seem to be airbrushing correctly (despite airbrush icon selection).

Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong and how it can be corrected? I think maybe size jitter and minimum diameter are also having some effect but I am not sure of how to effectively control these or even what they do!

Any help is much appreciated - thanks!

[DannyRaphael]

I would not think size jitter and/or minimum diameter would affect paint density...

Things to try:
* Flipping the settings... Flow = 20-30, Opacity = 40-50.
* Lighter touch with pen. If it's pressure sensitive, pressing harder may be upping [internal] opacity setting.
* Disconnect tablet, choose a soft-edged brush and try with the mouse. Same effect as with pen?

[DannyRaphael]

You might want to also open Photoshop's Brushes palette and check Other Dynamics > Pen pressure setting for the selected brush.

[Markzebra]

You need to work out what the settings in your BRUSHES palette are doing. Pressure sensitivity is affected by whats unhelpfully called "other dynamics" - Flow is usually set to "pen pressure" under this setting. This allows you to interactively control the density of your brush. I think Bamboo should be able to do that, Graphire certainly can

[navy_eye]

Hi both, thanks for the help. I've been trying to figure this out for the best part of 2 days with no real success - I've checked the pen pressure tool settings and it all seems correct.

I think I have narrowed it down to some sort of airbrushing brush style (maybe?!).

The person who is doing the tutorial (Melanie Stimmell) is able to hold the button down on her pen to create a very very very very light airbrush effect - but she never touches the tablet, instead she hovers over it (this is explained about 120 mins into the tutorial - very helpful! lol). I can't reproduce this softness, the lightest setting on my tablet is just too heavy (also tried the mouse no success), unless I use a real big brush...too big to be accurate.

My brush edges are too defined, i need them to be more (a lot more) airbrush effect... No simple task! Am I right in thinking the only airbrush capability photoshop (cs3) has is the little sort of icon when you use the brush tool? Could opacies help the airbrush effect?

[navy_eye]

Oh yeh - also it seems the HARDER i push the pen on the tablet (using brush tool, no hardness with airbrush icon selected) the better the softness of the edges when I draw. Is there a way to get the edges and inner colours/shades/details of the stroke, the same sort of softness (does that make sense?!).

[navy_eye]

Hmm I'm now thinking maybe some sort of very very very very soft brush preset may be the answer.... anyone know of any good ones that are available and preferably free.

Thanks once again x

[navy_eye]

Thanks for the comments so far everyone.

Danny I took on board what you said and have used a much larger brush for the base of the portrait and varied the flow and opacity settings - it looks ten times better than my first attempt so thank you very much!

Although still not perfect, here is my second attempt thus far:

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2932/hmmmhw0.jpg

The tutorial at this stage looks like this:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6...ooklikeoy3.jpg

Still not as good an airbrush effect that Melanie has (tut creator), nor is the colour quite as bold and deep; but I think I'm getting there at last. Still can't get my pen to recognise changing pressure though which is very frustrating!

Does anyone have any corel programmes? Would you recommend them over photoshop? I've just downloaded the free trail of painter X but it seems very difficult to use and very technical and less intuitive in comparison with photoshop? :wow:

Is painter better for this sort of painted effect from Digital media - or is it subjective?

Thanks.

[pixelzombie]

doesn't wacom include brushes with all their tablets?

[byRo]

Not with Bamboo - at least.
It's just no-frills pressure sensitive (enough for me).

Rô

[videosean]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vy_8k4Buwng

How to set the brushes in Photoshop to take full advantage of the pressure sensitivity of a Wacom Tablet (Graphire, Intuos and the new Bamboo).

That video doesn't cover edge hardness. You can right-click in your image/document while using a brush tool and have quick access to the edge hardness setting. It's also found in the brushes palette under 'Brush Tip Shape'

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0dgcZpKWQIU - this one actually goes through the Wacom control panel settings.

[palms1]

Originally Posted by videosean

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vy_8k4Buwng


That video doesn't cover edge hardness. You can right-click in your image/document while using a brush tool and have quick access to the edge hardness setting. It's also found in the brushes palette under 'Brush Tip Shape'

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0dgcZpKWQIU - this one actually goes through the Wacom control panel settings.

For a key shortcut, Using the keys, shift and [or ] will alter the hardness for you as well

Palms