Use Shortcuts For Faster Digital Paintings

February 14, 2008 in Digital Painting, Tools by Vyoma | No comments

To be specific, use keyboard shortcuts in order to do digital paintings a lot quicker than doing the same process with the mouse or tablet pointer.

It does not matter which software you use – GIMP or Photoshop or something else. They all have keyboard shortcuts for most of the common tasks that you usually access through the menus and other user interface options. We do regularly use the generic [Ctrl]+[c] and [Ctrl]+[v] for copy and paste operations in the other applications, and it translates well to digital painting softwares.

But there are other shortcuts. For example, you can color pick from the painting area, just by holding down [Alt] and clicking on the color on the painting in case of Photoshop – it is [Ctrl]+Click in case of GIMP. Also, for changing the brush size you can use the [ and the ] buttons, in both GIMP and Photoshop.

Before you proceed to go searching for the documents and study all the available shortcuts, do a bit of experiment. Just pick up some subject and do a digital painting as you have been always doing. As you paint, pay attention to your workflow. Do you use the eye dropper tool option often? Or may be you switch between the pencil and the brush tool. Everyone has their own rythym of working on a painting. Each of the rhythm cycle consists of what you do on the canvas before you go and change some option. If you can change that option with some shortcut using the other hand, then it lets you continue in that rhythm. Effectively, you end up doing more painting in lesser time.

Once you figure out which of those option selection makes you get away from the flow, try and see if there is a shortcut for that. Some of the software even allow you to customize the shortcuts the way you need it. Use them. After all, the software you use is just a tool in creating art. But it is digital medium which has advantages. Keyboard shortcuts is one of them, and hence use them to your advantage.