How did you learn to create digital art?

I'm a late comer to digital art and it was pretty rough at first. I started in 2013 with my mouse on MS Paint. (This isn't even a joke lmao!) I learned by getting better tools (Paint Tool Sai and Clip Studio Paint + a tablet). It just took tons of practice honestly... Everything I learned about physical painting could be applied to the digital realm with the addition of enhancement tools. (Textures, color correction, etc.)

I do absolutely recommend CSP. It's a highly advanced software with all the brushes you could want! And if that's not enough? You can download more! As for tutorials, I suggest YouTube. There's a lot of great painters for tons of different genres. (I personally watch RyanPaints for cyberpunk/sci-fi art.)

I second what MeltingCORE said! CSP is a great tool! That's what I use too!

As to Discord, making an account for it has been well-worth my time b/c not only have I learned a lot, but I've made some pretty cool friends on there too! Just be careful about joining servers, sometimes they can be toxic and crazy...or they can be fabulous! I'm in two that are just for writers and webtoon artists, but I know there are more for stuff like that out there, and I found both of those servers through the Tapas forums. It's definitely not a necessity, but sometimes Google and YouTube can only do so much, and you just need to ask a fellow creator!

I learned how to about digital art through my high school. It offered classes on the Adobe softwares and I had one class that gave me a bunch of books which I had to follow a bunch of tutorials.

So my suggestion to someone who doesn't have access to classes is to watch/read tutorials. Online resources are far better than when I started digital art, so I don't think buying a book in 100% necessary. I would also suggest to just play around with the program. Try out different brushes, effects, colors, etc. There is no one right way to create digital art and if you already have an artistic background you will be able to to find a method or technique that works for you.

Our very first computer (I was about 11 I think) in the 90's came with a copy of photoshop and it was a million times better than MS Paint - which is what they taught us at school. Lol!

This was before YouTube so I just had to play around with it until I could get it to do what I wanted.

I'm still learning and finding out new tricks today.

There's so many ways to approach digital art, that I think it helps to really look at your traditional approach and use that approach for how you do digital. So like you, I was a traditionally trained painter, and while I did occasionally use digital in college, it was rarely used to do my entire piece. It wasn't until much later that I started doing pieces that were 100% digital.

So, because I'm a painter, I tend to block in shapes rather than start with linework--and that is how I still do it when I paint digitally. I'm getting better at linework--mostly because I did an entirely linework comic to force myself to learn--but I'm glad I didn't start with learning linework when I went digital, or I would have been very frustrated. I went to where I was most experienced, and it helped that transition go smoother.

As for tutorials, I highly recommend looking at artists you really like, because they often have gumroads and youtube channels where they go in depth for how they do digital.

I started this summer when I was very, very bored. I ended up doing so much that now I'm reasonably experienced with a drawing tablet. It can seriously make a style into something far better than it was with just the idea of zooming in, layers, colors, and fixing mistakes. It can also help learn technicalities that carry over to traditional too. Still, I do like making sure I'm not neglecting drawing in my sketchbook either, because having two different modes of drawing will develop your skill at twice the speed.

It really is just another medium! The flexibility and technical aspect of digital can't be overstated, but all those details are irrelevant in the beginning. I would definitely just draw, experiment with brushes, see what every tool does, etc. Pick through the tool and menu options and see what each thing does. Learning the interface is probably going to be the biggest struggle, but thankfully most art programs follow a similar format no matter which you use. (So if you learn one, you'll be primed to pick up another)

Clip Studio themselves have a youtube channel with a lot of great tutorials, so maybe see if they have any beginner ones? You can also look at something like Skill Share.

As you get to know your way around the program more, you'll pick up ways to make your process easier. There are a ton of nifty tricks that you can use to streamline your work eventually. I definitely think it's a good idea to make friends with some digital artists or join a community so you can learn through other people as well!

Much like how I learned to use chopsticks, or how to sew, I just kinda...sat down and did it. XD I asked my mum for a tablet for a high school graduation present 10 years ago, and now I'm here!

It was a lot of tracing stock images, following a ton of tutorials, and becoming a brush connoisseur and having to play Brush Inventory Management Simulator in Clip Studio, which is what I use now. (Seriously, most of my time working on my comic is spent looking at all the assets they have, because I"m lazy and some of them are REALLY GOOD)

Tutorials are def your friend, though; DeviantArt has become a bit troublesome to navigate when it comes to finding said tutorials, but it's still a good repo for them for almost any program (and, most tutorials will carry over between Photoshop, CSP, and sometimes other programs)!

best resource to start that is relatively free is ctrl paint, but i would not recommend for beginners.

if you want to learn foundations -- new master academy or watts atelier is pretty resonable

if you're interested in picture books/cartoon/graphic novels -- svslearn is unbeatable

and then if you just want like to work in the literally like formal tv animation industry there is schoolism and cgma which have some of the concepts but like specialized, but you need to start with foundations.

all of these schools have like tracts you can follow.

so my art started here last year

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and now it's like here this year

i have a more realistic style which is like this (watts atelier is amazing with foundations which i would recommend)

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and then here is my second picture book which i learned how to format and paint thru like the SVS learn classes

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i use clip studio paint for everything. the tutorials are decent as i am kind of doing some pixel art stuff now but just keep working and you;ll get better more effort you put in

I learned to use Photoshop & Illustrator a little bit when I was in art school...but never had the $$$ to outright buy them. I had gotten some (ARRRR ) copies through a site, which helped me to get a better grasp on how they worked. I spent a number of yrs trying to get better at coloring and lettering while working on the initial line art traditionally. I also had gotten a tablet, but was hesitant to use it..

Then a peer of mine from Facebook did a piece of one of my characters using CSP(which he bought back then as Manga Studio). I was so enamored by the smoothness of the digital inks and the sharpness of the resolution that I decided to get Clip Studio and try to do digital drawing & inking myself. The first so many months was tough and I'd get discouraged coz I felt like I wasnt progressing at the pace that I needed/wanted to; finally I got to the point where I'd draw a piece and like what I was doing- which encouraged me to do more. Clip Studio forced me to use my tablet more, which allowed me to get better as well as get used to working digitally...

When I started learning digital art, I was already in college, I don't even know what is photoshop that time but
luckily, my professor is a very patient and understanding person.
My professor have to teach me one on one for the basics of programs, and I have to stay at school for longer because I don't have my own pen tab (the school provide it for student use but you can't take it home)
Then I have a nice set of blockmates and seniors to teach me and give me tips from time to time.
Then finally, when I had my own pen tablet in my last year of college, I taught myself by watching some videos on youtube and learning from digital art related books in our library. I can say that I applied my traditional drawing skills in doing digital by being familiar on textures, shadows, colors, lighting stuffs like that then try to interpret it to digital in my own way by playing around with brushes.

After learning several programs I learned that each programs have their own unique set of tools and for what type of digital are they good for (at least from what I observe) like for example:

Autodesk sketchbook - has copic brushes with the actual color codes of copic markers -- which will be easier if you want to turn that art piece into traditional, and want to color it using actual copic markers.
it can also be installed on tablets.

Paint tool sai has stabilizers -- you can use it to control the brush movement so it wouldn't be shaky, and the colors are exact when you save it as JPEG and stuffs.

Photoshop has a variety of blending tool like mixer brush -- which you can use for mixing and blending. You can customize brushes there too and it comes with post editing tools.

Medibang - they have screentones and free resources for manga and comic making, you can also download a lot of brushes. -- and its a free program

Corel painter has gel brush --- good for layering colors and doing semi realistic art since blending and the brushes' texture there are made to be as accurate as possible --- that is if you have the patience to learn each brushes' effect. also its the free program for wacom intuos art

CSP- is pretty much everything, they have nice brushes, you can also customize brushes, they have screen tones brushes, and doing lineart there is really good since it's the result is really clean. and like photoshop they have enhancement tools for post editing your work. I think its the free program for wacom intuos comic but I'm not sure what version it is.

I started doing digital art when I was really young. I didn't have any experience. I started out with MS paint and moved on to other programms like Paint Tool Sai. I learned over time by watching many artists on YouTube. Like LavenderTowne. I also watched many videos for beginners. I recommend looking up the ones for the programm you have since art programms can be different.

I learned by trial and error.

Fine art major here. Originally I was a digital art major but I felt so intimidated by people who lived and created in these programs while I was having a hard time keeping up and grasping how to use them. You'd be surprised how much of your latent fine art skills are transferable. Treat digital art as simply a new medium.

Now after years and years of staying away from digital art, I'm currently working on the first chapter of my webcomic and here are a few things that helped me transition from traditional to digital.

Hardware and software:

A drawing tablet really helps especially if you're used to traditional art so it's great that you're getting one for Christmas. However, if it doesn't feel right, don't feel bad about swapping it out for another. You can go with ones that have built in screens or surface tablets ( like the one I use a medium wacom intuos 5 touch.)

If you're not used to looking up from your drawing surface while drawing, a surface tablet might take some getting used to whereas you can treat a screen tablet like you would a drawing surface. My S/O also got me a new tablet for Christmas but we returned it for several reasons. While it was a nice gesture, my tablet is my work station so I'm very particular about its specifications and my current one works fine so no need to replace it. There were no hard feelings and I'm glad he gave it to me early just to make sure.

If you're ever looking for a replacement..Tablets can get pricy but I always recommend looking for used ones as it's an item that tends to get resold by it's user at some point. I bought mine 10 years ago and am JUST now making use of it.

As far as software. I currently use a "totally" legitimate copy of photoshop cs6, and it's taken a few weeks of playing around with it to feel more comfortable with using the program. I highly recommend downloading additional fonts and brushes before you start any projects as most programs will be pretty vanilla as far as features.

There are plenty of software options though, so look into what will work best for you and what's in your budget. Watching some tutorials on basic program features really helps you learn the hotkeys as well.

Expectations:

It's not going to be easy and you might find some challenges along the way but don't get discouraged if what you're trying to create isn't turning out quite right. Just like traditional art, practice makes perfect so start with some side projects, commissions or practice pieces to get more comfortable in the digital setting.

Hope this was helpful.