Plaidbutterfly
09-14-2006, 07:57 PM
This is mainly just a list of things I know of and that have been helpful to me. I'll try to remember all links I can, but moving back and forth between computers means I've lost a lot of my links. Hopefully this will help someone though :)
--General:
www.gimp.org - if you're only working with Paint, I've had the GIMP very highly reccomended to me multiple times. It's a Photoshop-like piece of software develloped by the Linux community, so it's freeware. :) It's also a bit of a pain to install if you're running windows - but there are instructions on the site.
www.adobe.com - I use Photoshop, made by these people. You can download a demo good for 30 days I believe here.
--"Art" art
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/ - The Fantasy Art Resource Project at Elfwood, probably the single most useful site I know of. The number of art tutorials for all programs there is simply astounding. Well worth a bookmark.
http://www.oekakicentral.com/tutorials/ - although most of these tutorials are for Oekaki applets specifically, you can still get the 'gist' of it most of the time. If you don't know what Oekaki is, it's also well worth a look around Oekaki Central.
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/ - the tutorials here are actually surprisingly good; more importantly though they sell a full line of more advanced manga drawing books (I found one at a bookstore and they appear to be quite good). They also sell copic markers, which I adore.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/PlaidButterfly/stupidsimpleness.gif - a very, very, very simple explination of how I draw.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/PlaidButterfly/shadingtutorial.png - an equally simple tutorial about shading.
--Blends
http://www.sharonland.net/blends.htm - a very simple tutorial I did for someone in a Christmas swap - mechanics of blending in Photoshop.
http://www.sxc.hu/ - one of my favourite sites for finding photographs; most are free for use and high resolution. You can find just about anything - mostly it's the extremely varied work of amateur photographers.
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/ - an archive of images produced by government agencies like NOAA, NASA, etc that are therefore copyright-free. Smaller resolution but sometimes you can find some real gems, very good for nature photos.
http://www.loc.gov/index.html - you have to be careful of copyright here, but *generally* if an image was created before 1920 its copyright has expired and it's OK to use. HOWEVER you should always check, and always at least give credit if it is copyrighted!! Sometimes a vintage photo is just what you need for a blend; the Library of Congress isn't so good on textures/secondary elements but excellent for 'centerpieces' of blends.
If I think of any more, I'll add them :) Hopefully these will be of use to someone.
--General:
www.gimp.org - if you're only working with Paint, I've had the GIMP very highly reccomended to me multiple times. It's a Photoshop-like piece of software develloped by the Linux community, so it's freeware. :) It's also a bit of a pain to install if you're running windows - but there are instructions on the site.
www.adobe.com - I use Photoshop, made by these people. You can download a demo good for 30 days I believe here.
--"Art" art
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/ - The Fantasy Art Resource Project at Elfwood, probably the single most useful site I know of. The number of art tutorials for all programs there is simply astounding. Well worth a bookmark.
http://www.oekakicentral.com/tutorials/ - although most of these tutorials are for Oekaki applets specifically, you can still get the 'gist' of it most of the time. If you don't know what Oekaki is, it's also well worth a look around Oekaki Central.
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/ - the tutorials here are actually surprisingly good; more importantly though they sell a full line of more advanced manga drawing books (I found one at a bookstore and they appear to be quite good). They also sell copic markers, which I adore.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/PlaidButterfly/stupidsimpleness.gif - a very, very, very simple explination of how I draw.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/PlaidButterfly/shadingtutorial.png - an equally simple tutorial about shading.
--Blends
http://www.sharonland.net/blends.htm - a very simple tutorial I did for someone in a Christmas swap - mechanics of blending in Photoshop.
http://www.sxc.hu/ - one of my favourite sites for finding photographs; most are free for use and high resolution. You can find just about anything - mostly it's the extremely varied work of amateur photographers.
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/ - an archive of images produced by government agencies like NOAA, NASA, etc that are therefore copyright-free. Smaller resolution but sometimes you can find some real gems, very good for nature photos.
http://www.loc.gov/index.html - you have to be careful of copyright here, but *generally* if an image was created before 1920 its copyright has expired and it's OK to use. HOWEVER you should always check, and always at least give credit if it is copyrighted!! Sometimes a vintage photo is just what you need for a blend; the Library of Congress isn't so good on textures/secondary elements but excellent for 'centerpieces' of blends.
If I think of any more, I'll add them :) Hopefully these will be of use to someone.