My (very professional) tips for digital art

/// Hello readers, Kinsey here for the first time!

So recently I have been doing a lot more digital art, both purely digital and digitally coloring art I’ve drawn in sketchbooks. (how many times can I say digital)

And I have tips

From my wealth of knowledge and experience

ahahah. Let’s see how this goes.

1. Zoom in.

Do. Not. Be. Swayed. By People who Never Zoom In. You can’t see anything, zoom to 200% magnification and do it. If you gotta zoom out to get that line, you get that line.

 pirate character named Kai, a sketchbook drawing I colored digitally

2. Layers. Layers. And more layers

Child, layers are your friend, even if you have 200 of them. Use as many layers as necessary to get your art how you want it to look. No one will know except you.

3. Blend

Don’t have a good blonde color? Bright yellow and brown, blend, et voila: blonde. Want that lip color a little less dramatic? Mix it with your chosen skin color and you’ll have a nice neutral lip color 🙂

 another pirate, Torin, with color swatches 😀

4. Color swatches

Want to remember a color you used for a character’s eyes? Boop a cute little circle of the color in the margins and erase it after. Also I use color swatches to lay out my colors before I start as a guideline. (see above picture)

5. LINE STABILIZATION.

This will save your life. Google your specific drawing program and figure out how to change stabilization. Want to draw lightning? Stabilization down and scribble. Want to draw flowing hair and elegant wind (^)? STABILIZATION UP.

 freckles are so much fun

6. Experiment.

Do whatever, mess around, try out your program and see what that weird button does. I have read exactly no tutorials on how to use my program (Clip Studio Paint) and I get by just fine 😀

7. Don’t worry if you’re not fast.

When I started it took me forever to draw anything because I had no idea how to use my program effectively. But, once I messed around with it enough and took time, I can now draw/color pretty quickly.

 Wes from Kyrian’s War! My child (also more freckles :D)

8. Make it your own.

Like how that guy draws ears but not how he draws hands? Draw ears like him and hands like a different guy. Take little bits of other’s art, study it, make it your own, and voila, you’ll have your style. My sister gave me a book called Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon and I would recommend for anyone doing art of any kind. It’s amazing.

Hope you were encouraged or maybe learned something from this! I am by no means an expert but, having taught myself everything, I picked up a few tips and tricks 😀 Thanks for reading!

~ Kit ////

© K.F. 2020 All pictures/characters belong to me, do not use without permission. All rights reserved.