This beginner course introduces you to the world of 2D Digital Art and the essential tools to get you started. You will learn about navigating the interface, knowing how brushes and layers work, and how to begin shading and adding detail to your artwork.
We begin with the User Interface (UI) of the software. When you open it, what do you see? The UI of most digital painting programs can be divided into five main sections and you need to understand them to become more efficient as an artist. Once you know your UI, you will be introduced to working with layers. Working in layers is an essential that separates traditional and digital art and we will demonstrate how to create, organize, and delete layers as well as explaining why they are so important.
The first tool we will meet is the brush: the most essential digital art tool you will be working with. We will get to know how brushes work and learn how to change the basic settings. Once you have learned a bit about layers and brushes, you can move on to the basics of painting with blending. This takes time to understand how much pressure you should apply to the tablet, working with transfer, and figuring out how you enjoy blending. We will also look at the differences between using a soft edge brush and a hard edge brush.
The last part of this introductory course focuses on detailing, which means working from “large” to “small” to achieve the desired look. The recommended approach is to focus on building strong foundations and values, then detailing, and then doing your final polish and highlights.
