I have decided to Come Out and ask if anyone else in the SAA is interested in digital drawing and painting. I have two addictions at the moment. One is watching the TV Anytime videos on my pc (and spending far too much in the SAA shop as a result!) and the other is then trying to master the techniques, not with real media as any normal person would, but with Painter 11 and a Wacom tablet. I'm also just starting to dip a toe into Photoshop Elements. Needless to say, any progress is slow if not completely illusionary. I would love to hear from anyone else who is trying to get to grips with them.

Hilary Over the last few years since I retired I have tried various media with varying degrees of success and failure but the digital way of working does nothing for me and I really gave it a go but the improvement day to day was poor, and to boot I know my way around photoshop pretty well as I used it for five years manipulating photos on a semi proffesional basis.
So the Wacom tablet is now safe in the box and I cannot see it ever seeing daylight again, I really hope you master it and post some work as some people do some marvellous work in digital
Trevor

Hi Trevor, Thanks for your reply. I've seen some Photoshop books around on art from photo manipulation that look pretty good, especially with plug-ins for simplifying, and colouring, but I can't find anything on creating from scratch, freehand. Painter has the freehand part in spades, but seems best for oils and acrylics. I've been very impressed by David Cole's work (on davidcolepictures.co.uk), and he says he uses Photoshop for watercolour. He works from photos too - maybe since the Kopykake is the best-selling SAA item, I shouldn't be too hung up on trying to create from scratch! If I manage anything reasonable, I'll certainly put it up. Thanks, Hilary

Hilary,
If you are really interested in Digital Painting using Photoshop or Illustrator. Then can I recommend watching PixelPerfect podcasts on the internet hosted by Bert Monroy. Each Podcast last approx 20 minutes and I think there are about 170 of them. Thery are a great primer in using the software and certainly a lot of the earlier ones I found very interesting. Hope this may be of some help. I'm trying to get my head around watercolouring and drawing, but especially with watercolouring I'm having trouble with the idea of what colours to use as an underpainting. When I look at a colour, I see that colour I think, not another colour beneath that! But most of the books I have read don't really explain that. Steve

Hi Steven,
That's very useful. Thanks very much. I'm used to using Corel Painter, but Photoshop CS5 looks as if it has some great developments, according to John Derry's PixlBlog, so I'm saving up! I've bookmarked the PixelPerfect site, and will work through the videos. Yes, I know what you mean about underpainting. The Kestrel video on TV Anytime at the moment is a terrific example of building up colour effects over each other. In Painter, I find using the layers to experiment with different colours over each other, and changing the order of the layers, to see the effect, is quite fascinating. I haven't progressed to layers with PS Elements yet, but will hopefully be there soon. Can you help me with one thing - I understand that Illustrator is vector based and PS is pixel, but I'm used to Painter that can combine both. So, for hobby digital art, I'm planning to get PS5, but should I bother with Illustrator at all?
Hilary

Hi Hillary, I too as an amature painter invested in elements 5 well over a year ago now,and recently invested in correl painter 2 with the idea of not having to buy any more art materials.
As yet I have not mastered painter 2,there is so much to it,it has so many brushes and mediums and paper,and of coarse you can alter and tweak all of them.
I have found though,that it doesnt matter what software you have,you still have to understand your' colour mixing and such and how the mediums act when you push them around,you still need to know the basics to get a decant pic.
They do all have presets that you can play around with endlessly,and I also have Topaz simplify and Topaz adjust,they are really good hun.The trouble is they are so much fun that I havent got around to practicing my painting/drawing!!.
So now I have the computer side and have gone back to hands on drawing,perhaps one day I will master them both!!.
I would love to know how you get on with digital painting,one thing is certain you will definatly need a wacom tablet of your'choice,you wont be able to do everthing with a mouse.
I would really like to know how you get on with the digital side of things,good luck.
kind regards,
Karen Medhurst.

Hilary,
Unless you will be in the situation where you will need to blends, handle lots of text or blow your picture up to the size of a building, it would be hard to justify the cost of getting Illustrator as well. Photoshop works well with most things that you need to do, it just doesn't do everything simply and easily. Some proficient, professional digital artists will turn out an absolutley perfect picture of a Tuba with all the reflections, refractions of light, highlights, lowlights, and colours ........ absolutely perfect. Often these Artists have used this software for a great many years, while we attempt to dabble around the edges. So in answer to your question, I wouldn't bother with Illustrator unless you need these particular functions that are not available in Photoshop. I personally have used Photoshop to create my own version's of Art Deco travel posters and have not found it wanting in any department. The last picture I did was printed onto A2 glossy paper. Was I pleased with the results ( You bet!!!). So you go for it and good luck !!!!!

Steve