Sketchbook Pro Digital Painting Essentials

Gil Robles

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Computer Science
• eBook ISBN:
  9781849698207
• Subtopic: Computer Graphics
• Index: Computer Science

In Detail

Sketchbook Pro is a professional grade painting app that is easy to use and which helps you create digital art that looks like paintings created using ink and color. Using Sketchbook Pro, you can transform your digital art into true masterpieces that resemble work done using traditional mediums.

SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials will show you how to transform your digital art into true masterpieces. This book will guide you through the many tools and options available in Sketchbook Pro such as the symmetry tool, layer editor, and blend modes to create images that look as though they were done by hand using traditional tools and mediums. This unique book offers inspiration with hands-on techniques and gives you an insight into a professional artist's mind.

Starting with an overview of the program, this book will help you customize and set your preferences to help you produce the best possible images for use on the Web or for print. You will be able to look over the authors shoulder as he demonstrates the use of the tools to create artwork that looks like it was painted or inked. This book will then show you how you can draw basic illustrations and then how to create acrylic paintings. You will also learn about file saving options; which ones are best for what you intend to do with the artwork. The book will also show you how to export the images you've created to other software and will give you tips and tricks that will help you make the most out of Sketchbook Pro. SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials will give you an extensive overview complete with supporting imagery of how each piece of art was made, and by the end of this book, you will have created multiple drawings using Sketchbook Pro.

Approach

This book is an example-based guide that will help you create professional grade paintings using Sketchbook Pro. As you progress from one chapter to another, you will learn how to virtually draw visually stunning paintings that are digitally drawn but look exactly like orthodox artwork.

Who this book is for

If you have had prior experience in developing digital artwork and are looking to add to your knowledge, SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials is a guide that will help you seamlessly translate what you do with traditional media to digital media.

SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials

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Table of Contents

SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. An Arsenal of Tools

Lagoon

Toolbar

The Ellipse tool

The Symmetry tools

French Curve

Steady Stroke

The Layers editor

Blend modes

Lock Layer

Brush Palette

The Color Editor

Copic Library

Summary

2. Setting Your Preferences and Customization

Canvas

Brushes

Do-It-Yourself Brush

Custom texture

Customizing the Lagoon tab and the right-click menu

Stylus responsiveness

Summary

3. Creating an Image Using Pen, Ink, and Color

Brush choices

The Pencil tool

Do-It-Yourself Brush

Coloring a drawing inked in SketchBook Pro

Demo 1 – the Pen, Ink, and Airbrush tools

Demo 2 – the Pencil tool and Copic markers

Demo 3 – coloring a scanned drawing

Summary

4. Creating a Painting

Demo 1 – Painting Joshua

Demo 2 – Creating an environment and exploring the details

The figure

The tree

The foliage

The chain link

Summary

5. File Saving Options

Save options

Importing an image to Flash

Importing an image to Photoshop

Summary

6. Tips and Tricks

Tablets

Mirror canvas

Making corrections

Painting outside the lines

Summary

Index

SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: October 2013

Production Reference: 1181013

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-820-7

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Gil Robles (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Authors

Gil Robles

Reviewers

Ricky Mujica

Angel Acevedo .Jr

Acquisition Editor

Mary Nadar

Taron Pereira

Commissioning Editor

Govindan K.

Technical Editors

Iram Malik

Arwa Manasawala

Shali Sasidharan

Copy Editors

Alisha Aranha

Tanvi Gaitonde

Dipti Kapadia

Sayanee Mukherjee

Project Coordinator

Aboli Ambardekar

Proofreader

Katherine Tarr

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Production Coordinator

Kyle Albuquerque

Cover Work

Kyle Albuquerque

About the Author

Gil Robles is an artist/illustrator living in New York City. His clients have included Bloomberg Market Magazine and the Review and Herald Publishing. His watercolors have been sold to private collectors.

Although Gil's training as an artist has been in traditional media, he has spent a great deal of time exploring digital media. Currently, he enjoys using SketchBook Pro for his paintings and illustrations and for leisure. Gil has posted many demonstration and instructional videos on his YouTube channel, grobles63.

I would like to especially thank my wife, Karen, who took the time to go over everything I had written to make sure that what I wrote down was exactly what I meant to say.

I would also like to thank my mentor, Irwin Greenberg, who passed away a few years ago. "Greeny" taught painting at the High School of Art and Design in NYC. Without his guidance, I would never have gone on to finish high school and go to college. He was, and still is, a source of inspiration for many former students who took his classes in high school and at the School of Visual Arts, as well as at the Art Students League, all in NYC.

About the Reviewers

Ricky Mujica is a New York City-born illustrator and alumni of the High School of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design, and Parsons in Paris. He specializes in book cover illustration using digital media, and fine art using traditional media.

He started his illustration career in 1983 using traditional oil paints and made his first digital illustrations in 1997. He has hundreds of illustrations to his credit and has collaborated on the beta testing and creation of several user manuals for projects involving specialized, industry-specific CG software packages, such as TopoGun retopology software.

His clients include: Harper Collins, Harlequin Books, Bantam, Dell, Little Brown Books, New York Times, Daily New, Ebony Magazine, US Tennis, 7-UP, Scholastic Books, and others.

He has been included in the Society of Illustrators' annual shows on several occasions and h...

Table of contents

• SketchBook Pro Digital Painting Essentials