Tools

• Software: GIMP or Photoshop
• Level: Advanced
• Subject: Peacock

Peacock Workshop: Standing Peacock | Dancing Peacock | Painting Peacock | Vector Peacock | More …

There have been many people coming over to KalaaLog.com searching for articles on drawing/painting a peacock - the only tutorial here until now was on illustrating peacock feather. So, here is a walk-through and screen shots of the peacock painting I did.

Concept And Sketch

Searching for peacock images, and getting a rough idea of its form is quite easy. After that, create a neater sketch in another layer over it and delete (or hide) the concept layer.

Background And Other Details

Since the subject is having cool colors, a warm colored background would be good composition wise.

Before proceeding with painting the peacock, the branch is painted first. I planned to use less number of layers, and wanted to go with a traditional approach. Hence, start painting from objects in the back. In this case, the branch that the peacock is sitting on.
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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.

I have been using GIMP for quite some time now and am still using it. I have been telling people to use GIMP when they cannot afford for software like Photoshop CS3 due to high costs. It does not serve to pirate them either. The solution to keep practicing your skills when you cannot afford is to use open source software.

Cost

There is also a class of affordable software like full version of ArtRage which costs around $20. And if you can afford a bit more, there is Photoshop Elements. It is sort of a lite version of Photoshop CS3. It costs $99 when you buy it first time, or a $79 for an upgrade.

Did I buy it? Not actually. I got mine, bundled with the Wacom Intuos3 Graphic Tablet I had bought months earlier. I was so facinated in experimenting with the tablet, that I had not realized, I had gotten one with Photoshop Elements bundled along with it - albeit version 4. I just happened to discover it couple of weeks back when I was sorting out the packaging.

So, if you do not yet own a tablet, and plan to buy one, see if you can get a deal that has Photoshop Elements bundled.

Features

As a matter of fact, there is not much that keeps Photoshop Elements unique from GIMP when it comes to simple photo touch ups and digital painting. Though Photoshop Elements is marketed as a photo manipulation product for hobbyists, it still packs enough of the features that can be used to create art from scratch. It has same set of features like GIMP - standard free form painting, cropping, transformations, layers, smudge, burn, dodge, blend and quite a few others. It does not have a CMYK support as I know of - similar to GIMP which is available in Photoshop CS3.

The things that I believe worth spending the money would be the brush engine of Photoshop Elements. I believe it is almost at par with Photoshop CS3. The set of unusual brushes that comes with it is quite useless, but with the engine, creating your own custom brushes would be far powerful than GIMP, even after its recently released features. For photo enthusiasts, the features like red-eye reduction, and straightening tool would come handy.

To buy or not to?

Well that really depends to what extent you want to get into art. Speaking only in terms of professional digital painting, and if you feel you want something more than GIMP, I would say wait and save up until you can buy pro software like Photoshop CS3 or Painter X. If you can get it bundled with some hardware like graphic tablet, then consider it.

If you are a hobbyist when it comes to art and feel GIMP is not sufficient, or if you have too many friends invovled in art and design - and need to share and collaborate, then you can buy Photoshop Elements. It supports PSDs - naturally.

Disclosure: The Amazon link above is a referral link.

Being around a couple of art communities, I noticed that people have their own preferences when it comes to the graphics software they use. They come in all sorts of types and licence status. There are those that are for pixel art, for digital paintings, for vector illustrations. There are ones that are commercial software and ones that are open source and free. Some of them like ArtRage come in a lite version that is free and as a commercial software for the full version.

The discussions and arguments for and against each of these softwares run pages and pages and seem to have no end. With newer and better versions coming from both the commercial and open source, the argument just continues. Participating in these discussions, and also trying out different softwares, I have come to realize that these are just different tools, and an artist need not be too concerned about what they use as long as they can express their ideas and thoughts.

Many Graphics Software

Let us look at the two different categories that I involve in - raster graphics and vector graphics.

When we come to raster graphics, we have Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements (lite version of Photoshop), Corel Painter, Paint Shop Pro and some others when it comes to commercial software. For free raster graphics software, we have GIMP, Paint.NET and other free lite versions like ArtRage.

For vector graphics, the commercial softwares are Adobe Illustrator, and Corel Draw. There is Macromedia Flash too, which was bought by Adobe in December 2005. Its focus is usually on interactivity and animation; hence the vector capabilities are said to be limited. Some even use Adobe Photoshop to make illustrations that are often called ‘vexels’. In terms of free (and open source) software there is Inkscape.

Tools Of Expression

Participating in all the different discussions, and trying out different softwares (trial versions ofcourse), I have come to realize that all these different graphics software are just tools. A sculptor needs a set of chisels and hammer. It actaully does not matter which blacksmith fabricated them, as long as the sculptor can chip off the stone in the precise placec and precise amount. In the end - the sculpture is done by the sculptor - not the chisels and hammer. He or she just used them to create the sculpture.

It does not matter what software you use. Use the ones that you can afford. Use the ones that is appropriate for the style of your artwork. Use the ones that fits in your workflow.

What do you use?