Learn How to Use Photoshop

Learn to Draw in Photoshop

Mastering the techniques to draw digitally in Photoshop require some skill. Here are a few things to get you started.

First things first, Get Photoshop!

Photoshop software will allow you to draw digitally. It has many tools that will allow you to draw, paint, erase and create shapes. Get started initially with common shapes like a rectangle, circle. You can elaborate on these shapes and use your imagination to create drawings. You can begin withdrawing flowers, trees and other simple pictures. As you progress you will also be able to draw portraits and other intricate things.

Photoshop tools for drawing digitally

Your primary tool for drawing would be the mouse. However, now a digital art tool called the WACOM tablet is also available that helps you to draw.

• Brush Tool: You will have to experiment with the correct brush to determine the best applicable for you. You have the option to change the size, type and behavior of the brush that you choose.

• Eraser Tool: Similar to the brush, you have the options to choose from a set of erasers from the software. Even this has the option to change the size, type etc.

• Burn tool/Dodge tool: With the Burn tool you can make your colors to appear darker. Conversely, you can choose the Dodge tool to make the colors to appear lighter.

• Layers Menu: This is one of the most unique tools in digital drawing which is not available in physical drawing. The layers menu allow you to build your drawing in layers. This can be explained like this - it is a transparent cell that allows you to work on every layer in such a way that you can either allow a layer to interact with the other layer or vice-versa.

When drawing with detail and precision, here are a few Photoshop tools, you’ll want to use.

• Grids: Using grids will help you to capture the drawing cleverly and easily. It will enable you to check proportions and placements etc.
• Shading: Shading can also be used here like in physical drawing. It gives your photograph the characteristic of a physical drawing.
• Color: When using colors, you need to take care that you make use of realistic colors.
• Add a Background: Giving a background to your picture is quite important. Doing so will improve the depth of your image and create interest.

In Short

Learning to draw in the real world will only enhance your ability to draw inside of Photoshop. Master the techniques of traditional drawing and you will have more flexibility in Photoshop to experiment with digital drawing.

Give Photoshop a Speed Boost

Did you know that you can boost the performance of Photoshop? Yes it’s true and it’s not that hard to do. If you have multiple hard drives it works even better. Photoshop can actually allocate it’s cache to different drives while you are working. Use the shortcut CTRL + K to bring up the Preferences Menu. Choose, “Performance from the list. Make sure Photoshop is using “All available RAM, set your History Levels to a minimum, 20 or less and if your Video Cart supports it, choose “Enable 3D Acceleration” under GPU Settings. When using multiple hard drives, make sure all of them are selected under “Scratch Disks”.

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