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Some technical tips

I know that I am amateur and I never feel comfortable enough to give guidelines of any sort, but after few years of dA life, I think that this is the right time to share some tips. I am very humbled, really, and I don't want to sound too "cliché".

Composition is paramount. Always keep in mind how you want to drive the eye of the person that looks at your work. A scene with too many foreground elements, without a main subject, will hardly attract the viewer's attraction.

Cost value of art material. Do not be impressed by people that brag about the high quality pencils, media or camera that they used for their work. At the end of the day, what is important is the artistic achievement. Of course, good tools help to accomplish great results, but if you are amateur and passionate, you will do great with drawing material even bought from a "dollar store", or a point-and-shoot mainstream camera. 

How does my work looks as a small thumb? This is even more important than the full view result, in my opinion. The greater it looks as a small thumb, when people are browsing on dA, the more they will desire to stop and to open the image.

"Let them want some more" I am a great partisan of moderation, in term of subjects to publish. I try to be varied. What I would avoid the most, it is to publish the same subject, but with different angles and/or brilliance, hues, etc, at least not in the same batch, unless those are photos from my stock account.

On the other hand, I do sometimes work on a new piece of the same subject - especially drawings - when I see that I can do some progress from a time into another.


Using a tablet for digital drawing. Using a mouse was OK till I decided to take a grip on my Wacom Bamboo tablet I put on the shelf not a long time after buying it. At first, I felt overly clumsy with this thing, till I figured how to put it on my right side, with my left hand controlling brush size with the keyboard.

Taking a picture of a drawing. This is what I hate the most when I finish a drawing! I never feel that the digital image of what I have on my canvas is worth to see, but I try to learn. Just a few tricks: use a tripod as much as possible, and avoid at all cost direct light. Also, once the picture is digitalized, use Levels feature of Photoshop (or any imaging software) to boost the contrasts.

Using a digital frame for drawing models. Of course, more and more people have a wi-fi tablet at hand, but for some people like me, I like using a picture digital frame to be able to switch between models, where I have no room for using a laptop or a desktop.