Digital-artist wannabe reaccs only: How to finally cross digital art off the bucket list

I feel like learning digital art and coding are the two things that everyone has at least one of on their summer bucket list but unfortunately, never end up getting to.

For me, a huge reason why I just kept on pushing digital art back (we’re talking 3 summers in a row) is because of how hard it seems to start.The upfront investment is daunting: you have to purchase a new tablet, potentially download a ton of new software, and let go of so much of what you are comfortable doing already as an artist. That’s how it was for me, at least.

But I’ve come to realize in the past 3 days of following my first digital art tutorial that it’s not as hard as you think. I bought the Wacom Intous CTL4100 tablet, and I highly recommend it for beginners like moi due to its affordable price (499 rmb) and it’s decent sensitivity and size. It also comes with a choice of free software, and of the two options, I chose Painter 6.

Jumping right into complex apps like photoshop can make digital art even more daunting, so software like Painter designed just for ART is a great way to get the hang of handling a tablet (in fact, the brushes are probably more expressive than the default photoshop ones).

What DEFINITELY jump-started my journey though was finding the right tutorial. I think by far, that was my biggest mental barrier: finding a series of videos or courses that would be able to holistically teach me the necessary skills. After all, watching single videos on particular skills just feels all over the place.

I decided to follow Magda Proski’s series on drawing a figure, eyes, and lips (just search up Painter 6 Tutorial), and the piece you see above is the product of that. This was mainly because it was one of the only Painter 6 tutorials I could fine (another perk of having a nicher app- you have less choices to worry about), but also because the human face just requires so many different tools and I figured it was the best way to learn the ropes.

WARNING: niche advice ahead. If you do decide to follow down this trodden path, there are some other things to set up beforehand. First, I recommend setting up your Expresskeys (watch a tutorial for that). Then, watch videos of others painting entire figures from start to finish so you understand the digital art process (surprisingly similar to oil painting technique) and how to manipulate layers. And finally, try it out yourself: find your favorite brushes. Mine in Painter 6 (and used predominantly by Magda too) are Real Oil Filbert for color blocking, Airbrush and “Just add water" tool for blending, and the Cover Pencil for sketching.

While there are times I wish explanations could be more clear, ultimately, blundering through the app and its different paintbrushes and effects was part of the process of learning digital art. There’s always the undo button, so no fear!

I’m by no means a super legitimate digital artist now, but getting started is what’s important. I hope through sharing some of my thoughts on that, you all who've rain checked digital art 3647283 times can realize that completing your summer bucket list might not be too hard after all.

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