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Starting out: Gimp Or Inkscape???

svegau

TMF Poster
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
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Hello all. Some of you may have read my stories, hopefully you liked them. There are many more to come. I'm posting here for some advice.

I'm interested in coloring some sketches/line art.

I'd also like to do some cover art for my stories, regretfully I can't draw very well. I'm willing to learn though!


For these purposes, which is better? GIMP or Inkscape?

System i'm working with:
130 GB memory
2 GHz processor
1 GB RAM
No tablet [yet!]
 
I just learned that these are two very defferent programs. :p
Raster editor v. vector editor.

Still, any additional imput would be greatly appreciated.
 
tried gimp, unfortunately i found it to live up to his name when compared to photoshop, i made the investment and got cs4 and have never looked back.

I believe gimp has several of the same features that are critical to coloring line art efficiently and quickly, i made some guides on coloring line art, here is a link.

<object width="450" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="id=97501949&width=1337" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" flashvars="id=97501949&width=1337" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/97501949/">How to Color Line Art 3.0</a> by *<a class="u" href="http://eceu.deviantart.com/">EcEu</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviant</a><a href="http://www.deviantart.com">ART</a>
 
I might try to get PhotoShop sometime. I believe Elements should be sufficient, and it's not too expensive.
 
As far as tablets go, I'll be getting the bamboo fun. I believe that comes with photoshop elements as well as some other art programs. For the purposes I want them for though, I think Gimp and Inkscape are at least adequate. (Novice level work)

I've spent a little time on their forum, gimptalk, and saw some demos on youtube. I was impressed by what I saw, though I must admit I haven't seen much about photoshop. Unfortunaely photoshop is out of my price range at the moment, which is primarily whay I'm looking at freeware. The three programs I like so far are GIMP, Inkscape, and Artweaver.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated!:hello:
 
the important thing to remember is that the layer that your line art is on has the 'multiply' blending option to it, and all the coloring is done on different layers. For actual coloring, i find it is a good idea to use a low opacity brush and keep building the tone. If that doesn't work, then use a 100% solid color to fill in the parts, then make a second layer above it set at 50% to act as the shadow layer.
 
Thank you! I'll keep that in mind. I will definitely have to practice with the program, and get some guide/tutorials for it as well. I went on deviantart and was amazed to see how many brushes there are for the program!:eek:

I downloaded Inkscape as well.
 
Some thoughts here...

Between Gimp and Inkscape, it depends indeed on what kind of art you wanna do. If you want to do clean, cel-shaded kind of art, go for Inkscape. If you want to do more painterly stuff, you'll want to try Gimp (or the alternative, Paint.NET -which is more photoshop-like). Gimp not as capable as Photoshop? Granted, it has it's shortcomings; it's layout is different and -I admit- the multi window approach is not very handy, but once over the initial learning curve, it is a pretty decent program. After all those who use Photoshop (including me) didn't learn it in one day, right? I did some speedpainting tests in Gimp and was pretty pleased with the results. Has some superior filters too (notably "Gimpressionist"). And it's entirely FREE, doesn't cost a thing to give it a try, eh? ;)
Should you want to go for an Adobe product, you might want to try Photoshop Elements. It's pretty affordable and has every basic function one needs for digital painting. In fact I've been using it for a looooong time before purchasing Photoshop CS3 past summer.

On tablets; I use a Bamboo One on my main computer: pretty simple, but still a great tablet and it comes at a very affordable price. On my laptop I use a standard (widescreen) Bamboo tablet.
My dream is to own a Wacom Cintiq tablet (which doubles as a screen -so you're working directly on your artwork itself) although that is a bit out of my budget range right now... :D

As for the Multiply-setting of the lineart layer when coloring in Photoshop, that's indeed a the technique I use, but it's certainly not the only one. For instance I know White Lotus (Bandito's amazing colorist) uses a very different technique, which allows for partly colored outlined. It all depends on the resut you want to get. But for most purposes, I will admit the multiply-method is the easiest.
 
Thanks scavenger! I'm actually going to try for the bamboo fun, since it comes with photoshop elements. Is there any real difference between the bamboo and the bamboo fun?(aside from the eraser function of course)

I actually DID attempt to color a sketch with GIMP (I seem to be more comfortable with it). It is about a character that I will be introducing to the community in the near future. It came out...Okay-ish. I was using one of those mice ith the ball on top, not very good for precise work...

For the record: The character mentioned above will be my mascot.:p
 
Actually the Bamboo Fun is exactly identical in specifications to the regular (black) Bamboo model. (although it comes in two different sizes). Both have an eraser button on the other end of the pen. The main difference is that the case design is slightly different (round buttons instead of square) and that you got Photoshop Elements (and Painter Essentials, I think) included with it.

A few tips that are handy when working with any tablet: consider your computer screen's aspect ratio. Is it widescreen or 3:4 (in the latter case, you must check this in the tablet's settings after installation, else your horizontal and vertical speed won't translate equally to your screen, and this makes it very hard to control your pen). Also you might want to put a thin sheet of pvc or other flexible plastic over the drawing surface. The drawing surface is usually slightly coarse in texture and this will wear down your pen tip pretty fast (replacement tips are available, but not cheap). The plastic makes for a very smooth surface that can be replaced when scratched too badly.
 
Thanks again! Oh, I realize that I should have wrote this sooner, but I love both of your art styles. Magnificent! :bowing:
 
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