FA+
Shop
Art Lesson Time!
12 years ago
You silly kids. Lately I've been hearing about and reading through many different peoples art, and something has come up
I have to address. The amount of layers some use in a piece of art and why it may be a detriment to their learning
process.
::LAYERS IN DIGITAL ART::
What are they And why are they used?
Well for those not in the know, All art programs start with One single piece of 'paper' that you may draw on that is
whatever size the artist specify's. This is your canvas. However, inside that canvas you can have 'layers'. Say you have a
light sketch as the base for your painting. You can add a 'layer' on top of the sketch to ink the sketch into refined
linework. Now you have two layers. Whats awesome about this is that even though your line work AND your ink look like
they are on the same canvas, they really are on two different invisible canvas's!
So now you can turn off the sketch, erasing the bottom without touching your beautiful line work. I wont explain further,
If you want to know more, simply look up a video tutorial on youtube about them to get a visual reference.
Why I'm annoyed
LET ME GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY. Whatever helps to achieve your artist vision trumps my own grumpy musings. If you
need 50 layers for basic line art and blocked in colors then go for it. You're free to do that and I can't stop you nor will I
try to.
BUT LET ME SAY THIS.
You don't need that many layers. You don't. You really really don't. Most professional concept artists don't even use that
many layers. If they do, there are good reasons for it like showing off different compositions of the same image to a
client.
This is what bugs me about digital art and beginning artists, people learn to use the easy route and over complicate
things by over using tools. Layers are there to separate things that absolutely need to be separated or using effects like
textures. They can be used efficiently and very much help to achieve some very stunning art work. But if you're using
them to avoid mistakes and over using them to fix things than I think you're missing the point of using layers.
Mistakes are nice. Mistakes are organic. Mistakes help you learn. I will paint an entire painting in Photoshop in JUST ONE
LAYER. ONE. let me repeat that again. ONE. Lineart (if needed), color, shading, detailing. It's all done in one go.
Sometimes I don't even -gasp- use Ctrl+Z. OH THE ANGUISH.
I also do this outside of photoshop, it's called painting 'traditionally' and I highly recommend it.
Going without layers from time to time is good, it helps you cope with mistakes and it helps you learn to live with the
imperfections of your art. But why would you want imperfections? Well, gee, because they add to that whole 'style' thing
that everybody is so desperately searching for! It also helps you learn to make very precise gestures and strokes that are
damn near 'perfect' everytime, since you really can't mess it up as much. And if you do? You can paint over it, fix it
quickly. Imperfections are challenges that make you work for your art, Embrace them!
So maybe next time you open up Sai or photoshop.. challenge yourself to use less. Use what is only needed, limit yourself
to a few layers, maybe 4-5 MAX.
Er.. sorry for the long rant.
TL;DR Abbey's picky.
I have to address. The amount of layers some use in a piece of art and why it may be a detriment to their learning
process.
::LAYERS IN DIGITAL ART::
What are they And why are they used?
Well for those not in the know, All art programs start with One single piece of 'paper' that you may draw on that is
whatever size the artist specify's. This is your canvas. However, inside that canvas you can have 'layers'. Say you have a
light sketch as the base for your painting. You can add a 'layer' on top of the sketch to ink the sketch into refined
linework. Now you have two layers. Whats awesome about this is that even though your line work AND your ink look like
they are on the same canvas, they really are on two different invisible canvas's!
So now you can turn off the sketch, erasing the bottom without touching your beautiful line work. I wont explain further,
If you want to know more, simply look up a video tutorial on youtube about them to get a visual reference.
Why I'm annoyed
LET ME GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY. Whatever helps to achieve your artist vision trumps my own grumpy musings. If you
need 50 layers for basic line art and blocked in colors then go for it. You're free to do that and I can't stop you nor will I
try to.
BUT LET ME SAY THIS.
You don't need that many layers. You don't. You really really don't. Most professional concept artists don't even use that
many layers. If they do, there are good reasons for it like showing off different compositions of the same image to a
client.
This is what bugs me about digital art and beginning artists, people learn to use the easy route and over complicate
things by over using tools. Layers are there to separate things that absolutely need to be separated or using effects like
textures. They can be used efficiently and very much help to achieve some very stunning art work. But if you're using
them to avoid mistakes and over using them to fix things than I think you're missing the point of using layers.
Mistakes are nice. Mistakes are organic. Mistakes help you learn. I will paint an entire painting in Photoshop in JUST ONE
LAYER. ONE. let me repeat that again. ONE. Lineart (if needed), color, shading, detailing. It's all done in one go.
Sometimes I don't even -gasp- use Ctrl+Z. OH THE ANGUISH.
I also do this outside of photoshop, it's called painting 'traditionally' and I highly recommend it.
Going without layers from time to time is good, it helps you cope with mistakes and it helps you learn to live with the
imperfections of your art. But why would you want imperfections? Well, gee, because they add to that whole 'style' thing
that everybody is so desperately searching for! It also helps you learn to make very precise gestures and strokes that are
damn near 'perfect' everytime, since you really can't mess it up as much. And if you do? You can paint over it, fix it
quickly. Imperfections are challenges that make you work for your art, Embrace them!
So maybe next time you open up Sai or photoshop.. challenge yourself to use less. Use what is only needed, limit yourself
to a few layers, maybe 4-5 MAX.
Er.. sorry for the long rant.
TL;DR Abbey's picky.
I Use 4 mebbe 5 layers. One for lineart one for colour, one for multiply, one. For luminosity and one for background. Like unka Runt says when I'm doing commissions often the person wants stuff changed so I can fix colours super easy on separate layers. I will try just using one to see what happens. I find any more than 6 layers and I start to get confused hehe *blushes*
If I'm ever able to get a tablet that I can make strait lines with again (hands are SO shaky,) I'll try to use sketch/construction models more. Forget trying to ink strait lines on paper. >_<
I'd say that AutoCAD is different, though. The national cad standard has several hundred standard layers, even before differentiating them for the actual project features. And when we're x-reffing those base drawings into sheets sets, we usually want to freeze/weight/color/screen them all differently...
so, yatta yatta yatta... in AutoCAD there's some pretty good reasons to have hundreds of layers, on a lot of jobs.