How did you learn to create digital art?

[AmandaJ-art]

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.

[arbiterswake]

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.

[siluscomics]

No, I am exactly the same way! But please don't feel discouraged if you don't see improvements straight away. Even now, years later, when I compare the beginning of one of my comic's chapter to the end of it I can still see my art improving, the learning never ends haha!

[RhiiRhii]

Thank you so much to everyone for all your amazing advice! There's so much here to digest and think about and I'm so appreciative of everyone who's taken the time to read my post and tell me their stories, trials and errors with digital art (: cannot wait to get stuck in and learn more and start creating!

[AkaneHayashi]

I started doing digital art in 2015, when I found it to be a better alternative to me (I can only buy art supplies online and paying for expensive shipping, so in the long run digital was cheaper). I was drawing traditionally for three years before that, so it also helped.
Most of the things I learnt was through tutorials (videos, step-by-step pictures, image tutorials on DA and Pixiv) and studying the artworks of artists I admire. In the beginning it was hard to get used to the pen tablet, so practice was essential too. The good thing about digital art is that you don't waste materials, so you don't feel afraid of practicing and making mistakes.
Now I'm taking an online drawing course at a site called Class101, it has some great courses for newbies in digital art so I recommend checking if you're looking for a course. But really, you can learn lots of things through free tutorials on the web. :3

[Spikings]

I started on MS Paint & Paintshop Pro as a teen, but CSP, Krita, Medibang or Fire Alpaca are good current programs to have fun on (the last three being free, I believe).

I learnt by experimenting, having fun and just seeing what all the different tools did! For me it's like the equivalent of finger-painting with programs, use everything they have and see what interests you. Once you know what features you enjoy using the most, online tutorials can start to help give you some guidance so you can get what you really want out of the artwork.

I hope you enjoy your graphics tablet! I still have my first one in a drawer somewhere, still works too I think xD

[Rhonder]

My digital art skills came largely from just observing and paying attention to other artists talking about how they work and learning about new features and techniques that way! I.E. I haven't really watched that many specific tutorials or anything, but moreso just talking with other people about process.

Like when I first started (coming off of a self-taught traditional art background) I basically knew about layers and opacity and... that was about it. Now after a few years of practice I have multiply layers and lighting layers and layer masks and clipping masks and auto actions and selection tools and textured brushes and etc. flying around and I can make cool looking stuff a lot easier than I used to be able to xD

One thing that has recently been interesting/handy is I've recently gotten involved in Twitch streaming, and as a part of that have been seeking out other comic streamers to watch from time to time. It's like another level of watching and learning because you can see people work in real time, and even ask how they did something with relatively instant feedback if you're curious I don't always use all of the new techniques that I see people using, but I feel like I've learned several this way nonetheless in only a few months.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Watching tutorials on youtube. There are lots of people who make great digital art tutorials for free for various software packages. I use procreate for my comic and started just watching tutorials on the basic tools and abilities of the program and trying to copy their results. I took the stuff I learned from watching those videos and experimented with it to make my own original art.

[nostalgicroxas]

Two things : pick an art program - doesn't REALLY matter which - and stick with it for like 100 hours until you're used to how the tablet handles. Don't mess with the nitty gritty of the art program itself not doing what you want, but learn how to operate the machine first.

You can't do anything with a brush if you don't know how to hold it. Otherwise it's just chaotic paint happening. Same thing with digital.

That said: I recommend the freeware software paint.net as a good learning tool. It's not as fancy as most programs since it's basically MS Paint, but better. It has layers and some neat tools and it doesn't take a lot of computer power to run. It doesn't have pressure sensitivity though so that's one thing to work around.
But when you're starting, you're learing how the tool works - ie layers, mouse to hand movements, ect.

The second most important things are your buttons on your pen itself. If you have any. Some don't. My pen has an "eraser" so I can flip it if I want to be an erase - but support for that doesn't exist anymore it seems. I also have 2 buttons, one I've shortcut'd to be "right click" and one is "CTRL+Z" a.k.a. "Undo Spam". I know some people are able to do fancy things with keybinds and set up their other buttons to be special tools in their system, like create new layer. Just set them up to whatever works best for you.

@Rhonder - I second the looking at streamers. I wouldn't recommend someone on Twitch honestly, or.... really anyone. Most artists I've seen tend to draw .... like a million times slower than me. Even coloring-wise. I'm not sure why. But they just seem to take eons to get something done that would take me 2minutes, they're still working on... Even "pro" people. To be fair, they're probably looking at chat and such too. I tunnel vision on art and don't care.

[Rhonder]

@Rhonder - I second the looking at streamers. I wouldn't recommend someone on Twitch honestly, or.... really anyone. Most artists I've seen tend to draw .... like a million times slower than me. Even coloring-wise. I'm not sure why. But they just seem to take eons to get something done that would take me 2minutes, they're still working on... Even "pro" people. To be fair, they're probably looking at chat and such too. I tunnel vision on art and don't care.

I definitely feel that lol. I've not been on the platform for too long, but there have been a few people I've tried to watch that were just unbearably slow. Like, 3 brush strokes in 30 minutes slow even xD But the range varies quite a bit and there are a lot of folks that work at a good pace too- not everyone's like that It does help to sample around a bit and see who does keep a good work/chat balance though, and sometimes even dig around at the bottom of the list to the people with fewer viewers. It's at least somewhat harder to get distracted by chat when there's no one chatting yet >;D (although I manage to do that on my streams anyways get sidetracked babbling about random stuff to myself a lot of the time lmao)

[Candlebite]

Started on paper, has a bunch of artist friends that were around the same skill level.
I started scanning my on paper artwork to finish on adobe essentials that came with the tablet i got, before getting clip studio (wayyy back when it was called manga studio)
Then went to an art college where i learned more art skill and the other adobe programs.(Though i kept using clip for personal work)
And because of my laziness toward setting up the scanner I decided to stop scanning my art and just draw digital without paper sketches.

Oddly I never had to replace this tablet since i got it when I started digital art,
Its a small Intuos 5 Touch if people wondered-

[nostalgicroxas]

I got spoiled by watching one of my friends, and a streamer from deviantart from way back in the day. They'd finish a whole black and white piece - gesture, sketch, lines, colors - in two or three hours. And they worked relatively fast. They usually worked monotone in blues/grays with a marker brush with that 1 or 2 layer style, but it was so rewarding to watch. Just sit and eat breakfast and you've seen them make the stick figure into a person standing with muscle on them in 15minutes.

I do know that usually "Shilin" when they're streaming on Twitch does a decent pace. But still sometimes I find myself going "GO FASTERRRRR" and just wanna hit FastForward, but it's live...