Using a Mouse to Make Art in Sketch Book
Sketchbook Pro is a seriously underrated program for digital art—it's cheap or even free (depending on the version), much easier to larn than Photoshop, and yet information technology allows you to create wonderful artworks in any style. In this article, I'll prove yous 26 features of this program, and then that you can get to know it better—and maybe fall in love with information technology, as I did!
You're going to run into me comparison Sketchbook Pro to Photoshop a lot. This is because Photoshop is used by many professional artists, which oftentimes makes people think it'due south also the best plan for this purpose. But is it, really? I hope this article will assist yous answer this question.
Disclaimer: Sketchbook Pro is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. The desktop versions take all the features described here, merely the mobile ones may lack some of them, although the crucial functionalities are the same on all platforms.
Also, equally a digital artist, y'all may be interested in the creative assets offered on Envato Elements. Fonts, photos, graphics, add-ons—one subscription gives you access to all of them. So if yous're looking for some fonts for Sketchbook Pro, this is a neat place to start!
Do you prefer videos over long articles? Then I'thou sure you'll honey this new video from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel. You can learn all the tricks and tips by watching the A to Z of Sketchbook Pro: Tips, Tricks and Hacks video:
What You'll Larn in This Sketchbook Pro Tutorial
- Why Sketchbook Pro is a swell program for drawing and painting
- How to manage Sketchbook Pro brushes
- How to work with colour in Sketchbook Pro
- How to create colorful Sketchbook Pro brushes
- Some tips for Sketchbook Pro shading
A is for Amazing Pen Pressure Control
The primary reason why I switched from Photoshop to Sketchbook Pro is its amazing pen force per unit area control. Despite having a great graphics tablet, in Photoshop I could never control the thickness and darkness of my lines as precisely as I wished. They always felt "heavy" to me, and they often ended with an ugly blob at the tip.
But Sketchbook, in contrast to Photoshop, was designed for drawing, and it shows! Just give it a try—you'll be surprised how clean and precise your lines can be.
B is for Blending Options
Yous may know about Blending Options from Photoshop—they let you to alter the physical properties of a layer. For example, the Multiply mode works similar a color filter—it makes the layer transparent, but darkening, so it's great for shading.
The Screen manner works like its opposite—it has a brightening effect, so you lot can employ it to add shine.
Sketchbook Pro as well has a special mode that Photoshop lacks—it's called Glow, and it creates the result of emitting lite. Information technology's very useful for creating magical effects, or an intense shine on metal.
C is for Customizable Brushes
The software comes with a cracking ready of basic Sketchbook Pro brushes, but every artist has their own manner and their own techniques. That'south why Sketchbook Pro allows you to customize the brushes in four ways:
- The Pressure settings permit you to define how the brush should react to the force per unit area of the pen.
- The Nib settings allow yous to define the shape of the castor, besides equally its softness and texture.
- The Stamp settings give you control over the behavior of that shape.
- The Randomness settings permit y'all to brand the brush strokes more than organic by adding some unpredictability to them.
Considering it'south and so easy to create new brushes or duplicate and modify the current ones, you tin can freely experiment with these settings to create a perfect brush for any purpose. Y'all can even create your own colorful icons for them!
D is for Designed for Tablets
A graphics tablet is a must-have for a digital creative person. The creators of Sketchbook Pro kept that in heed, and you lot can access nearly of the menus without having to use the right button of the mouse. Yous just have to click and concord, and so bespeak to the called position in the menu.
Additionally, all these positions are visual, so you can quickly identify the ane yous need—and because they appear around your cursor, y'all're at an equal distance to all of them. It may not seem like much, but it makes the whole workflow more than intuitive and more like to the process of traditional drawing.
East is for the Erasing Brush
In Sketchbook Pro, the eraser is zippo more than than a brush that removes the strokes instead of adding them. This means you can customize your eraser but as easily equally any other brush, and you lot tin can create multiple erasers for different purposes, keeping them on your brush palette for quick access. Yous can too turn any castor into an eraser temporarily by using the icon next to the color wheel.
F is for FlipBook
Although Sketchbook Pro is mainly a drawing programme, you tin as well use information technology for creating manus-fatigued animations. In the FlipBook style, you can draw individual frames while as well seeing the previous and adjacent frames for better precision. And so yous tin consign these frames every bit a sequence of images, a GIF, or one of 2 video formats.
To create a new FlipBook file, go to File > New FlipBook.
Thou is for Guides
In traditional art, y'all can utilize various tools to create more anticipated lines, like various types of rulers. In order to emulate this blazon of workflow, Sketchbook Pro offers special guides that allow y'all to design your line or a curve before cartoon it. If yous're into architectural drawing or production design, y'all'll love the level of control these tools give you!
H is for HSL: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness
You may exist familiar with Photoshop's HSB color model—Hue, Southaturation, and Brightness. Sketchbook Pro uses the HSL color model instead—Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. Although they may look pretty similar, they work slightly differently. In HSB, Saturation defines the amount of white in the colour, and Brightness defines the amount of black. In HSL, Saturation defines the amount of grey in the color, and Lightness defines the amount of both white and black.
While we're on this subject, Sketchbook also has a neat little tool: the Randomize mode. In this style, you choice a colour and set the range of randomness of each component. This means that each of your strokes may look slightly different, without y'all having to change the color each time.
I is for Invisible Cursor
When y'all use a mouse, you need a cursor to tell you what you're pointing at. But when you lot use a tablet, the tip of your Sketchbook Pro pen tool plays the same role. And if you use a brush smaller than the nib, and then a cursor in the form of a cross-hair icon can make it the way and become quite annoying.
That's why in Sketchbook Pro you take an option to make the cursor invisible when the stroke is besides small to show the outline of the castor shape. Simply if you'd rather not meet the outline either, always, then you tin turn it off too! Just get to Edit > Preferences > Castor, and experiment with the settings to observe the ones that piece of work the best for you.
J is for Jitter-Gratis Lines
If you're non using a screen tablet, sometimes information technology may be difficult to keep your lines actually smooth, as they would be on paper. Sketchbook Pro has three solutions for this problem:
Showtime, the Steady Stroke function works like a line stabilizer. Yous can get in really subtle, to remove the jitter, or actually potent, to gain total control over the curves you're drawing. It's perfect for inking your line fine art!
2d, the Predictive Stroke office predicts what shape you're trying to draw, and attempts to make it more authentic. If you're trying to draw a circle, information technology will make your lines perfectly round; if you're trying to draw a triangle, information technology volition make the lines straight.
Third, if you want to draw perfect geometrical shapes, the Describe Style function will permit you to draw directly lines, rectangles, and ovals, equally well every bit polygonal chains. What'due south important, the mode of these lines volition be based on whichever castor you currently take selected.
Thousand is for Keyboard Customization
Fifty-fifty though information technology'due south possible to use Sketchbook Pro without a keyboard, if you feel you're more than efficient with one, it'southward possible to assign a hotkey to most of the functions. Many of the hotkeys are identical to the ones you may know from Photoshop, but you lot're free to modify them whatever way you desire!
L is for Layers
In traditional art, you're limited to a unmarried sheet, but digital art gives you more than freedom in the grade of layers. Layers allow you lot to draw certain elements separately, so that you can modify a part of the cartoon fifty-fifty after it has been covered with something else.
Layers can likewise be duplicated, so that you tin can create a backup of a sketch earlier you starting time modifying it. You can likewise lock the transparency of a layer—this fashion, you lot'll e'er stay inside the lines when coloring or shading.
M is for Multi-Platform
Sketchbook Pro is available for four platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. This allows you to first your artwork on the couch, with the iPad on your lap, and then sit at your desk when y'all need a bigger screen and more precision.
Yet, the mobile versions of Sketchbook Pro are slightly limited in comparison to their desktop counterparts—for instance, it's not possible to import whatsoever new brushes into them. But personally, I nonetheless choose the iOS version of Sketchbook Pro over Procreate—mainly considering it gives me twenty layers in 6k resolution, which Procreate can't offer for older iPads.
N is for No Limitations for Your Brushes
I remember my joy when I first discovered that I could create a brush out of whatever shape or photo in Photoshop—and my disappointment when I learned they could merely be monochromatic and semi-transparent.
Sketchbook Pro doesn't accept this kind of limitation: you tin create a brush out of anything, and keep the colors if you wish. It'southward perfect for painting grass, leaves, fur, scales, and other textures. You lot don't even have to include colors—just the possibility to include both shadows and highlights in your brush volition make your grayscale brushes much more than powerful.
O is for One of Many
Sketchbook Pro is a not bad plan, merely it was created to emulate the traditional experience of creating art—it doesn't have all those photo-editing functions that artists learned to apply to their advantage, like photo filters or the liquify tool.
Still, this isn't actually a problem—if you save your file in the PSD format, yous can switch between Sketchbook Pro and any photo editor whenever you need! This manner, you can get the best of both worlds—using Sketchbook Pro when yous demand a genuine painting experience, and a photo editor when you demand extra magic.
P is for the Perspective Guides
Artists oft start their drawings with a perspective grid, merely while information technology's actually useful, it also tin can be tedious to have to draw it every time. Sketchbook Pro makes your life easier in that regard, past offering a set of Perspective Guides—you but have to edit the vanishing points, and so everything you draw will be automatically adjusted to the perspective grid. Y'all can draw in one-signal mode, ii-point mode, three-signal mode, and even fisheye mode!
Q is for a Quick Fill-in Copy
Has it ever happened to y'all? Your organization crashed when you were in the middle of drawing, and when yous tried to open the same file over again, it was corrupted—with no fashion to go it back. Or maybe you made some large changes to your artwork, and and then wanted to revert them, merely reached the limit of undos?
That's why information technology's good to create multiple copies of your artwork during the procedure. Sketchbook Pro makes it really easy—just press Control-Shift-S instead of Control-S to salvage another version of your file. A number will be added to the name of the file, and then that you'll always know which version is the latest.
R is for Round Puck Buttons
A couple of useful innovations in Sketchbook Pro are Color Pucks and Brush Pucks.
The Brush Puck allows you to quickly change the Opacity and Size of the castor, which is especially useful if you adopt to work without a keyboard—you but need to click and elevate upwardly/downwards and to the left/correct.
The Colour Puck works the same mode, allowing you to quickly increase or subtract the Saturation and Lightness.
Southward is for the Symmetry Tools
Some digital tools work like magic, and the Symmetry tool is one of those. Yous tin identify the centrality of symmetry anywhere you wish, and when drawing on one side of it, a symmetrical copy of your drawing will appear in real fourth dimension on the other side.
What's even better, you can utilise upwards to 16 axes of symmetry at the same fourth dimension, creating a beautiful mandala even from the simplest strokes. Even if you lot call back you can't draw, this mandala-creating part will assistance you unleash your creativity in a very relaxing and fun manner.
T is for the Toolbar
Digital drawing is not merely about creating strokes on the canvas. Sometimes, y'all may demand some extra tools—for instance, to select something or to crop the artwork. These useful tools can be found in the Toolbar. As with all the other windows in Sketchbook Pro, you tin can drag the toolbar anywhere on the screen or turn information technology off altogether. The toolbar likewise allows yous to quickly bring back the other windows later turning them off.
U is for Unifying Your Colors With Blending
When you apply pigment to a canvas in traditional fine art, information technology interacts with the previous strokes. The shape of the brush and the consistency of the paint both affect the final result of the mix. But in digital art, brushes are normally more "sterile"—one color covers another with more than or less opacity, and that'southward all.
In Sketchbook Pro, however, it's possible to turn each castor into a blending brush—and not in just one, just 4 different ways, each producing a unlike result! Using these unlike modes will help you create artworks that wait more than like traditional paintings.
V is for "Five", the One Shortcut for All Transformations
In digital fine art, after you depict something, you can move it to a different place on the canvas, resize it, or rotate it. In Sketchbook Pro, you can do all of this with a single shortcut: 5.
Holding this button volition open a visual menu that allows you to do all these transformations by clicking and dragging. Notwithstanding, if yous desire to resize the object in a more precise way, yous should go to the Toolbar and use the Transform role. It volition allow you to drag each corner of the bounding box separately, likewise as simulating a 3D rotation.
W is for the Wheel of Colors
You can draw using black only, merely colors brand creating more fun! Sketchbook gives you a color wheel made from a Hue band and a Saturation/Lightness foursquare. Get around the band to change the Hue, go upwardly the square to increase the Lightness, and become to the correct to increase Saturation.
Using the wheel may be more than intuitive for some than using the HSL sliders, and then if you don't demand them, you can just hibernate them and go out the wheel simply. And if you want to save even more space on your screen, you tin can close the color wheel and open a mini version of it by clicking the colour puck.
10 is for the Extra Functions
Although the interface of Sketchbook Pro is very visual, there are certain functions that can only be accessed through the text menu. These include the preferences of the programme, changing the size of the epitome, mirroring and flipping the sail, and basic adjustments (changing the Brightness/Dissimilarity or Hue/Saturation). If yous can't discover an option in the visual menus, it'due south probably here!
Y is for Your Ain Castor Palettes
An creative person needs to accept all their important brushes inside reach, and Sketchbook Pro gives this to you in the form of a convenient brush palette. You can place the palette wherever you desire on the screen, and the big, colorful icons will help you speedily find the brush you need. You can also access your other castor sets in a separate window that you lot tin can place anywhere on the screen. Any of these castor sets can exist pinned to the main palette at any time.
Z is for Zooming, Rotating, and Panning With a Single Cardinal
While drawing, you often have to move beyond the canvas, or rotate it to change your perspective, or zoom in and out. Having to use a separate cardinal for each of those would slow you down, and then that's why in Sketchbook Pro y'all can access all these settings with a single primal—the Spacebar, past default. And if you assign it to your tablet pen push button, then information technology will increase your speed fifty-fifty more than!
Summary
So this was the A to Z of Sketchbook Pro: 26 of the features that you lot must know to get the most out of this program. Even though Sketchbook Pro doesn't have even one-half of the features of Photoshop, the features it has are exactly the ones you need to create your art. Information technology's simple, it'southward fast, and you become all your tools inside your achieve.
And if you lot're interested in digital fine art in general, yous may likewise like our other tutorials on this bailiwick:
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Source: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/a-to-z-of-sketchbook-pro-tips-tricks-and-hacks--cms-38283