The Esoteric Mysteries of Photoshop

[rynling]

I've been collecting Photoshop tutorials for artists for years now, but most of them are about fantastic next-level shit. Where are the tutorials about basic beginner-level shit?

Are most people born knowing how to use Photoshop? This is probably because I'm kind of a moron, but it's so unintuitive for me. For example, I just recently figured out that, after you've scanned a drawing, the best way to get rid of the scanner shadows without washing out the blackness of the ink is to use the eyedropper tools in the Levels window.



How was I supposed to know what those do? To make matters worse, the way that the program expects you to use them is crazy, like, you have to make one change with one of the eyedroppers and then close and reopen the Levels window before you can make another change.

This is super foundational knowledge about how to import lineart into Photoshop, and I have never seen a single tutorial or Q&A explaining it. How do people learn this stuff?

Comments

[flonnebonne]

I know how you feel. Everyone seems to already know how to use photoshop and they're shocked when I say I don't know how. :/

I remember seeing more beginner tutorials years ago, but I hardly see them nowadays. They must still be around though!

[rynling]

What do you mean you don't know how to use notoriously expensive professional design software, that's crazy!!

I have a book called The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics that I bought for research on the manuscript about comics I'm supposed to be writing, and I remember it having one or two good chapters on how to do things with Photoshop. I'm thinking of digging it out of my giant pile of material and turning it into a series of lessons. It won't help me actually learn to draw, of course, but maybe it will be able to help with presentation.

My honest-to-god real problem is that I'm using Photoshop Elements, which can't really handle layers. If I'm serious about digital art, I'm going to need CS6, which is $20 a month to license. I'm lucky to be in a place in my life where the fee is no problem, but I'm also at a point in my life where I still don't know how to use my tablet and stylus correctly. This is all a huge pain in the ass, because just putting a regular pen to a regular blank sheet of paper is already stressful enough.

I think the key to being good at this sort of thing is to be obsessed with making visual art, and... I'm a writer??

Uhhhhh sorry for rambling. I should just get off my ass and learn to do the thing, but it's hard.

[flonnebonne]

I hear ya! I used to run photoshop elements too, and on a crappy slow computer to boot (or not boot, when it was really crappy). I ended up using paint tool Sai instead, a much simpler program--but I was always just drawing normal pictures, not making comics.

I wonder if manga studio or one of those other programs might be easier for comics? Manga studio at least has manga in the name...

If I were making comics, I would use one of those programs where you don't have to actually draw anything. You use 3D models or take pictures or whatever. Or I would at least trace/copy a lot to begin with. Or I would write the comics and get someone else to do the art XD

[rynling]

Or I would write the comics and get someone else to do the art

YESSSSS this!!! A lot of the stuff I really enjoy, from Saga to Undertale, has been a collaboration between a writer and an artist, and this is exactly why I've been commissioning so many artists over the past few months. I'm trying to find someone who is both affordable and easy to work with, but...

...it's hard. Probably the less said about this the better.

I've been seriously considering PaintTool SAI as an alternative to Photoshop, but it has its own issues, and I think I'm going to work a little harder to learn the basics of Photoshop before switching over to a different program. But it's on my radar!

[flonnebonne]

Seems difficult to find someone! I know some people who make comics, but I can't imagine working with any of them...and one of them is my half-brother! Our ideas about storytelling are just too different to be compatible.

I think if I wanted to find an artist to work with on a comic, I'd make the comics myself using whatever fast and crappy methods I needed to use, focusing on the story and layout, and put it out there for other people to see. Then through the magically compelling power of my excellent storytelling, artists would come crawling out of the woodwork, begging to draw the good copy! Voila! Hahaha no. But since comics are so much damn work, I am the type not to worry too much about quality and to just throw something out there.

Btw, do you have an iPad? I was tooling around on my parents' iPad and I noticed a pretty easy program to work with, which made the comic frames for you...