#art tools

here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (updating, please consider supporting me on kofi or check out my other works)

original tweet is now deleted, but wacom used a generated image of a dragon for their 2024 lunar new year promo on twitter.

if you're shopping for art tablets, huion, artisul, and XPPen tablets do just as good a job as their wacom equivalents for less, sometimes even half the price.

when you buy a wacom you're paying almost exclusively for the Brand Name, not any actual quality.

Honestly I taught myself through observation of other artists I liked. I watched a lot of speedpaints as a kid and it really helped me find a style I liked.

I’m also using this as a chance to publish my collection of resources (for drawing, editing, studying, and other stuff) because gatekeeping is cringe and I think everyone should have access to these resources since they’re free.

I’ll keep it linked in my intro page for you guys but PLEASE SHARE THIS SO EVERYONE CAN KNOW ABOUT THESE TOOLS!!! THEY’RE GREAT!

I want to make it clear that this is not an alternative to Tapas or any other comic or web comic site. Comix Celric is meant to give artists the tools to create their own websites to host their comics. I apologize for the confusion.

I also want to mention that I am not part of the Panel Party team; I just wanted to promote it because I think they deserve all the love, and I would love to see this come true and have tools like this be more accessible to artists.

If you haven’t already, please check it out. At the time of making this post, there are 10 days left to pledge. The link to the Kickstarter is in this post, as well as the linked post. Again, I apologize for the confusion; I did not mean to misinform.

KICKSTARTER:

ORIGINAL POST:

Art media that I use (part 5).

In addition to traditional art, I also do mixed media illustrations, where I combine my favourite traditional drawing and painting tools with some digital editing.

I often use mixed "tradigital" media with illustration projects where I need to plan things ahead, instead of just going with the flow. Digital editing doesn't always make things easier or quicker but it allows much more plasticity and control throughout the process.

I sometimes divide my mixed media works into drawings and paintings, depending on which medium feels like the dominant one. But there's a lot of overlapping with these two, and the basic steps are usually the same: I draw and paint various separate elements with traditional tools, and then scan and combine them in Photoshop, continuing to colour and edit the piece digitally.

All the illustrations in my book Faraway Dreaming are traditional ink drawings coloured digitally. In the digital part of the process I change the colour of some existing lines as well as add colour in the blank areas. To get some natural texture I use backgrounds that I paint traditionally with ink or watercolour.

In many illustration commissions (such as Dolmenwood, Nordic Tales, etc) I've use a bit more painterly approach, placing a bit more focus on the painted parts and combining them with colour pencil drawings. I create elements on separate pieces of paper and place each on different layers after scanning. That way I have room to play with composition and make further adjustments as needed.

The digital editing tends to be slow and complicated. It takes patience until everything finally comes together in a cohesive way. During the process I continue to modify the colours and composition, adding more detail by drawing with traditional tools, or sometimes with a digital pen. * * *

Thanks for reading! I originally posted this on my IG account (ullathynell), where you can find more photos and some videos of my drawing and painting process.

If you haven't seen the other entries in this series, they will show what specific tools I use to draw and paint. Here are links to all the posts on my instagram:

Part 1. Calligraphy ink paintings

Part 2. Black and white ink drawings

Part 3. Watercolour paintings

Part 4. Alcohol ink paintings

Part 5. Mixed traditional and digital media