Second Life Forums Archive - Painting Technique Question: Trouble with Blending

Miriel Enfield

Prim Junkie

Join date: 12 Dec 2005

Posts: 389

05-15-2006 00:47

This is a general question on digital painting technique.

I have PSP and a no-name brand tablet (Adesso, specifically). I've recently seriously started trying to handpaint a skin from scratch, and I'm having trouble blending my brushstrokes when shading relatively large areas. For example, I can do okay with the fine creases around an eye, but the larger shadow at the edge of the nose never looks good. It's always blotchy and uneven. (The fact that PSP doesn't handle pressure sensitivity from my tablet doesn't help matters, I don't think.) The regular soften tool doesn't do enough, and the smudge tool also hasn't worked very well. I'm working at large resolutions -- as in, an entire eye drawn across a 1000 x 1000 pixel canvas -- but even when I shrink things down, the uneven tone remains visible. I've tried a few different techniques to handle this -- different brush settings, various blur and softening filters, the scratch remover, even the histogram equalizer -- and the best one I've come up with so far is selecting areas and then using the fill tool. However, there's still the problem of blending at the edges of filled regions; also, it's less natural for me than just drawing with the pen, so I'd prefer not to do it unless I have to.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this just my painting technique, and something I'll have to learn to overcome?

Thanks!

_____________________

Joannah Cramer

Registered User

Join date: 12 Apr 2006

Posts: 1,539

05-15-2006 00:59

If pressure sensitivity doesn't work for you, then i can't really think of much that could be done :< one thing to try maybe, would be using your brush or the clone brush tool with minimal opacity -- 2-3% strength or so, and using a wide, very soft-edged brush setting to paint in areas where the colours meet ... it might require plenty strokes to blend things this way but if nothing else works... well, that's better than nothing.

Falcao Vega

Hands off the unguent

Join date: 24 Jan 2006

Posts: 66

05-16-2006 09:01

Linda Berqvist is one of the world's better digital painters, and she has a tutorial on precisely this with three separate techniques. I'm sure one of them can be adapted from Photoshop to PSP.

http://www.furiae.com/popup.php?text=smoothtutorial

Go to the gallery on her main site if you want to be knocked on your patootie: http://www.furiae.com

My favorite: http://www.furiae.com/popup.php?image=glimpseofsummer

Sunshine Clio

Easily Amused

Join date: 21 Nov 2004

Posts: 160

05-16-2006 10:24

From: Miriel Enfield

This is a general question on digital painting technique.

I have PSP and a no-name brand tablet (Adesso, specifically). I've recently seriously started trying to handpaint a skin from scratch, and I'm having trouble blending my brushstrokes when shading relatively large areas. For example, I can do okay with the fine creases around an eye, but the larger shadow at the edge of the nose never looks good. It's always blotchy and uneven. (The fact that PSP doesn't handle pressure sensitivity from my tablet doesn't help matters, I don't think.) The regular soften tool doesn't do enough, and the smudge tool also hasn't worked very well. I'm working at large resolutions -- as in, an entire eye drawn across a 1000 x 1000 pixel canvas -- but even when I shrink things down, the uneven tone remains visible. I've tried a few different techniques to handle this -- different brush settings, various blur and softening filters, the scratch remover, even the histogram equalizer -- and the best one I've come up with so far is selecting areas and then using the fill tool. However, there's still the problem of blending at the edges of filled regions; also, it's less natural for me than just drawing with the pen, so I'd prefer not to do it unless I have to.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this just my painting technique, and something I'll have to learn to overcome?

Thanks!

Have you tried messing around with layer opacity? Taking it down to 1% and then building up layers subtley may help.
Also, are you positive that pressure sensitivity won't work? What version are you using? In psp 7, it used to be really easy to turn on pressure sensitivity from the tool selection itself, but now (in 10 and I think 9) brush variances has it's own window. If you hit F11 it will toggle that on and off and you should be able to set whichever you like as pressure sensitive. But you do have to manually change it in the drop down, the program doesn't do it by default. You may have to tweak it a bit too get the right ones set, at first I got very wonky results that weren't what I wanted.
Hopefully it will work, and good luck with your painting.

(and sorry if you already tried the F11 thing, it's impossible to gauge how much someone knows a program from a simple read)

)

-September

Miriel Enfield

Prim Junkie

Join date: 12 Dec 2005

Posts: 389

05-16-2006 12:06

I hit F11 and then had to read the help manual, but I managed to turn pressure sensitivity on. Yay, and thank you. And yes, I'd been using opacity and layers: I had the brush opacity way way down to begin with, had a lot of layers, and was also tweaking the opacity of each layer.

Thanks for the tutorial link, Falcao. Hopefully it will help.

_____________________

Painting Technique Question: Trouble with Blending
Miriel Enfield Prim Junkie Join date: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 389	05-15-2006 00:47 This is a general question on digital painting technique. I have PSP and a no-name brand tablet (Adesso, specifically). I've recently seriously started trying to handpaint a skin from scratch, and I'm having trouble blending my brushstrokes when shading relatively large areas. For example, I can do okay with the fine creases around an eye, but the larger shadow at the edge of the nose never looks good. It's always blotchy and uneven. (The fact that PSP doesn't handle pressure sensitivity from my tablet doesn't help matters, I don't think.) The regular soften tool doesn't do enough, and the smudge tool also hasn't worked very well. I'm working at large resolutions -- as in, an entire eye drawn across a 1000 x 1000 pixel canvas -- but even when I shrink things down, the uneven tone remains visible. I've tried a few different techniques to handle this -- different brush settings, various blur and softening filters, the scratch remover, even the histogram equalizer -- and the best one I've come up with so far is selecting areas and then using the fill tool. However, there's still the problem of blending at the edges of filled regions; also, it's less natural for me than just drawing with the pen, so I'd prefer not to do it unless I have to. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this just my painting technique, and something I'll have to learn to overcome? Thanks! _____________________
Joannah Cramer Registered User Join date: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1,539	05-15-2006 00:59 If pressure sensitivity doesn't work for you, then i can't really think of much that could be done :< one thing to try maybe, would be using your brush or the clone brush tool with minimal opacity -- 2-3% strength or so, and using a wide, very soft-edged brush setting to paint in areas where the colours meet ... it might require plenty strokes to blend things this way but if nothing else works... well, that's better than nothing.
Falcao Vega Hands off the unguent Join date: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 66	05-16-2006 09:01 Linda Berqvist is one of the world's better digital painters, and she has a tutorial on precisely this with three separate techniques. I'm sure one of them can be adapted from Photoshop to PSP. http://www.furiae.com/popup.php?text=smoothtutorial Go to the gallery on her main site if you want to be knocked on your patootie: http://www.furiae.com My favorite: http://www.furiae.com/popup.php?image=glimpseofsummer
Sunshine Clio Easily Amused Join date: 21 Nov 2004 Posts: 160	05-16-2006 10:24 From: Miriel Enfield This is a general question on digital painting technique. I have PSP and a no-name brand tablet (Adesso, specifically). I've recently seriously started trying to handpaint a skin from scratch, and I'm having trouble blending my brushstrokes when shading relatively large areas. For example, I can do okay with the fine creases around an eye, but the larger shadow at the edge of the nose never looks good. It's always blotchy and uneven. (The fact that PSP doesn't handle pressure sensitivity from my tablet doesn't help matters, I don't think.) The regular soften tool doesn't do enough, and the smudge tool also hasn't worked very well. I'm working at large resolutions -- as in, an entire eye drawn across a 1000 x 1000 pixel canvas -- but even when I shrink things down, the uneven tone remains visible. I've tried a few different techniques to handle this -- different brush settings, various blur and softening filters, the scratch remover, even the histogram equalizer -- and the best one I've come up with so far is selecting areas and then using the fill tool. However, there's still the problem of blending at the edges of filled regions; also, it's less natural for me than just drawing with the pen, so I'd prefer not to do it unless I have to. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this just my painting technique, and something I'll have to learn to overcome? Thanks! Have you tried messing around with layer opacity? Taking it down to 1% and then building up layers subtley may help. Also, are you positive that pressure sensitivity won't work? What version are you using? In psp 7, it used to be really easy to turn on pressure sensitivity from the tool selection itself, but now (in 10 and I think 9) brush variances has it's own window. If you hit F11 it will toggle that on and off and you should be able to set whichever you like as pressure sensitive. But you do have to manually change it in the drop down, the program doesn't do it by default. You may have to tweak it a bit too get the right ones set, at first I got very wonky results that weren't what I wanted. Hopefully it will work, and good luck with your painting. (and sorry if you already tried the F11 thing, it's impossible to gauge how much someone knows a program from a simple read) ) -September
Miriel Enfield Prim Junkie Join date: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 389	05-16-2006 12:06 I hit F11 and then had to read the help manual, but I managed to turn pressure sensitivity on. Yay, and thank you. And yes, I'd been using opacity and layers: I had the brush opacity way way down to begin with, had a lot of layers, and was also tweaking the opacity of each layer. Thanks for the tutorial link, Falcao. Hopefully it will help. _____________________

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Painting Technique Question: Trouble with Blending