#this was a test to try out firealpaca!

[reegis]

I wanted to ask what art programs you use! Do you use custom brushes as well? Your art is so soft and delicate, it reminds me of Renaissance era paintings like these

THATS THE NICEST THING ANYONE HAS EVER SAID ABOUT MY ART?????????,, ILL CRY RN DONT TEST ME

I use clip studio paint! Although im very bad with tech so I had my friend help me set it up so the interface basically looks just like firealpaca (which is a free drawing software!! that i believe is supposed to be a very good paint tool sai dupe & I used Exclusively for years until i switched to ipad last year, cant recommend it enough if anyone wants a good free option!)

I dont use any custom brushes although iv debated trying some out so maybe i will some day!! until then its me & round mixing brush 4 life <333

its what i use for all of my line art, highlights, etc. then just the regular pen & airbrush tools for coloring

i hope this was helpful(?)!!!

#im a bland person i stick to what i know ahdjfjf new brushes…. scary…. #ngl id probably still be using firealpaca if it was available for ipad but it isnt 😔💔 #THANK U SO MUCH THK IM STILL FREAKING OUT AAAA #THE HIGHEST COMPLIMENT AND MOST FLATTERING COMPARISON EVERRRR #🥺🤲🏻💖💖💖💖 #asks

[fpacatuto]

New update! This one people have been waiting for a long time.

FireAlpaca Ver 2.11.5 (2023/08/10)

Added time-lapse recording feature (start and end from file menu or alpaca button).

At the end of time-lapse recording, you can convert to animated GIF.

When opening an APNG file, you can now select "Convert to animated GIF" or "Import as canvas".

Very exciting update, and one I myself could not have foreseen for this 2023 summer. Try it out! Observations from my own test:

you can set the speed at the end of a recording (press firealpaca button for "end recording") 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 seconds are available

Ending the recording pop-up window will display also the number of frames in the drawing.

you can draw and then save a GIF/APNG only once

you can start at the beginning of your drawing and it will even record animation frames correctly (one frame layer at a time)

Official timelapse tutorial (in images) from FA official EN on twitter:

#firealpaca #firealpaca update #free art software #firealpaca timelapse #firealpaca features #firealpaca art #firealpaca official EN #fpacatuto post

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[gemini526sdumptruck]

The Litwick Family

This initially started as a style warm up...I got attached to these guys too quick lol.

So breif context, I wanted to try a sorta "creepy cute" artstyle for something I wanna make in the future, and thought the best way to warm myself up ad test things out was to draw humanoid versions of my favorite ghost line, the Litwick Line!

This is my first time using Procreate for outlining as well (and I used FireAlpaca for the coloring). And I don't think I've ever been so happy about how something came out in years.

I got so attached to them that I even started imagining them a trio of ghost siblings who haunt an abandoned mansion, and they're all kinda screwed up. Particularly with Litwick, I was thinking she was quite literally made of wax and is just constantly "melting" in front of people, only for her to later regenerate her body because she's a ghost lol.

I definitely want to try this kind of style again sometime, especially because I'm so happy with how this came out.

(No bg under keep reading)

#pokemon #pokemon humanization #litwick #lampent #chandelure #humanization #procreate #ghost #ghost type #creepy cute #emocore #digital art

[the-irken-luxray]

Extremely rough test animation because I’m trying to figure out a good program for animation. (This one is done with Pencil2D)

I have FireAlpaca but I want something that lets me sync with audio. (I don’t wanna try again with OpenToonz, it creates SO many image files and takes up so much space dshfkjsf)

#the irken luxray #my art #fan art #henry stickmin #the henry stickmin collection #thsc #animation #I put little effort into this because I was mainly interested in seeing how comfortable the program is to use #may end up using this in combination with firealpaca idk

[tubbytarchia]

(I don't know what happened, this ask is completely absent from my askbox though I received an email for it, so I screenshotted from there! I'll answer it just in case you're still interested kind asker!)

Assuming you've never done art before to any notable degree, UH, I'm not sure!! I think most artists start with traditional tools and I would definitely recommend that as well. Just get a notebook and start doodling stuff! Digital art is really convenient, but the ability to change things around endlessly is both a blessing and a curse, for beginning artists probably mostly a curse, cause you'll likely start to overstress about it and start trying to make changes till perfection (I get stuck with that constantly and it's awful). With traditional, it's 90% yolo and that's the beauty of it! You work around it, or you start again, a little wiser!

But if you do want to do digital, it's dependant on available tools and preference (eg do you prefer drawing with fingers on mobile or with a tablet on desktop, etc, you just have to test different options). And I honestly don't have a lot to suggest here because I've stuck with the free version of FireAlpaca for most of my life and don't use a pen/tablet, so unfortunately suitable software and the like is up to you to figure out, or you can ask someone wiser than me! Art software with simpler interface is probably the way to go at least in the beginning, heck, I used to draw using "aggie.io" just on my lonesome. But regardless I'm always here to propagate free or easily-acquirable tools if nothing else. You most definitely don't need anything expensive or complex to create something awesome, and you don't need to "upgrade" either if you ever feel that you're being limited by your tools. Just changing things up in other ways can be a huge help, but every artist is very different and the journey of any skill is one that never ends!

For general advice.... again, don't overstress, hence my recommendation to start with traditional art or with software with simple interface. Creation starts with you fucking around and putting some lines on paper, and just keep going from there. It's not going to look anything like what you want it to look like for awhile and that's okay, that's how obtaining a new skill starts for everyone. As much of a nice sentiment as it is to call someone talented, I firmly believe that no one is born with that shit. Some people just pick some things up quicker than others, but we all start somewhere and we struggle but struggle is proof that you're doing it right, so don't ever beat yourself up for partaking in art and creating something, because god knows that's the biggest problem among artists lol

#blabber #oh also thanks kind asker!! It makes me really happy if my art can inspire at all!!

[norisus]

Hey :) I've been looking at your blog and first off, wow. Second, you're really good at digital drawing and I'm trying to get better at digital drawing but I can never seem to get the lines straight or the colours even and in the lines. So if it's not too much trouble, could you maybe tell me what app you use or what brushes you prefer? I'm currently using ibisPaint X and I'm drawing with a sketchpad :) it would really help if you gave me some tips too! Thank you!! Also, you're really talented hehe

Hi there, I'm glad you like my art thank you so much! ; u ; <3 And sorry for the late reply, I wanted to write up a full response with some examples!

So for my artwork, I use almost exclusively Paint Tool SAI. I specifically use the original SAI atm, though I want to try using SAI 2 more (the brushes just feel... different. I've been using SAI for a decade now, so it's where I'm most comfortable.) SAI does cost money, but there are also free alternatives online as always. I'm not familiar with IbisPaint X, but I know that FireAlpaca and Krita are two good free options. I don't use a smart tablet or apps to draw, though, so I'm not sure what are the best options outside of PC.

As for brushes, I use three brushes for my lineart-- though 2 of them much more than the third. The first brush I use is my Marker brush. I've been using this brush to line my work for a very long time. It's thin and somewhat transparent (sometimes I copy-paste my lineart a couple of times to bulk out the transparency).

The second brush I named TEST when I made it and I just never changed it, so it's my very permanent TEST brush. It's sort of similar to my marker brush (it even uses the SAI marker brush base), but it's thicker and a little more ragged. I tend to change up my style when I use this brush.

The third brush I use for lines is not one of my "lining" brushes. It's a painting brush named GREGORY and I Mostly use it to paint backgrounds and details in fur. I change up the "blending" setting on it as needed. I usually only use this brush to line if I'm having artblock or am sketching around.

As for keeping lines straight, I honestly just gotta say-- there's tricks to cheat the system! The first, easiest thing is you can find the "stabilizer" setting on your art program, slide that bad boy up, and have some assistance with keeping your strokes smoother.

The second thing you can do is... not really "line" your artwork. I tend to fight with lineart a lot. Sometimes it's not so bad (especially with my TEST brush), but a lot of the time I just line something and hate the end result, if I can even push myself to finish it. So, instead of "lining" over my sketch layer, I just... make the sketch my lines.

My sketches are usually pretty detailed so I think that helps, but I basically just erase and go over the lines meticulously in small increments until I'm left with linework. And if I'm having trouble with a spot, I'll just make a new layer, "properly" line that spot, erase the section of the sketch under it, and then merge the layers and move onto the next section. (I also keep my fingers over my undo and redo hotkeys, since a lot of lining can be just undoing a mistake and redoing it until you like it.)

For example, here's this dragon I've been working on, in its original sketch:

And here it is halfway through the cleanup process, where you can see an amalgamation of clean lines amid the remaining sketch:

And here's how it looks now:

Lines won't cooperate? Make friends with the sketch! I often feel like it's easier to keep the personality of the original sketch when I do this also, though that's just personal preference.

Now as for keeping colour inside your lines, Layers and layer settings are your friends-- that and the magic wand tool (which is a selection tool).

When I use the magic wand tool, I tend to select the area Outside of my drawing first

If there's a hole in my lines and I'm having trouble finding it, I cut a line across the drawing and use the magic wand tool again so I can see which section of the drawing the linebreak is in and fix it.

Once the lines are sealed, I invert my selection so it's inside the lines rather than outside! I prefer to start outside since I find it easier than individually selecting the inner parts of the drawing. It's worth mentioning that the magic wand tool is not perfect (especially if you have sketchy, ragged lines like I often do), so you might have to clean up the edges.

You can make layers under your linework that you can freely draw on without disturbing your lines, and they will conform to your magic wand selection as well. What more, though, you can also make clipping layers/groups which are layers that affect only the pixels below them.

So like in this example here there are four layers. There's the lineart layer, the layer for the base fur colour, a layer for the details (beak, eyes, white spots), and then there's a clipping layer that is on top of the details layer.

Anything I draw on that clipping layer can only appear on pixels directly below it. This is useful for a lot of things like detailing and shading. It also means you can safely exit out of your magic wand selection and still remain in your perimeters.

You can also lock layers which is like using a clipping layer, only you're affecting that actual layer instead of going over it. Whichever one you want to use is pretty much just personal preference or situational. You can also use these layer settings to colour in your lines, if that's something you want to do!

I hope some of this helps! I also hope that you're having fun with doing digital art! :D <3

#also I love your username #so-once-i-was-a-chicken #digital art #replies #art tips #art programs #art brushes #brushes #paint tool sai #maybe I should put some of this under a readmore but naw #long post #not art

[fawnrats]

i wanted to draw peater (my primeval age dino) as a juvenile, subadult & adult for reference purposes! this took quite a while but it is finally DONE ⭐w⭐

i left the subadult version unshaded on purpose so i could more easily color pick hiz still developing dimorphic markings. it looks kijda eeird next to the shaded juvie & adult but oh well! the shading makes the juvie & adult look better so i don't regret it.

anyway this was my first time drswing a fullbody of a styrwcosaurus!! it was fun :D & a bit frustrating at times (i struggled a lot with the subadult for some reason q.q) but i feel like i'm getting a better grasp of yow to draw ceratopdians!! & i'm prettyvhappy wity how it turned out c:

i'm sure xcited to finally do some quests after this!! it might still be a couple weeks before i can get started on thay but i'm determined to finslly do some even if it's nkt at the forefrojt of my mind anymore by the time i'm rrady!

i partially drew this in mddibang! i tried medibang once a somewhat long time agl & quit pretty quickly out of confusion & frustration, but ddcided to give it ankther tty tkday & i think i like it better than ibis paint x! i'm probably gonna be drawingnmostly in firealpaca & medibang now but i might try drawing some comics back in ibis paint x some time.

i don't think I've shared it on this blog before but i'm an aspiring comic creator! i have made absolutely 0 comics as o posting this but i've been plannjng some stories out for the past year & i'll get around to finally making some test comics some timeee

#primeval age #styracosaurus #ceratopsidae #non-avian dinosaurs #ceratopsians #dinosaurs #digital art #feral art #feral oc #paleoart #my art #fawnrats art #animalia #animals

[aghhtdraws]

Test doodle for the @fpacatuto blog using the FA store brushes.

Firealpaca 2.11.5 added a timelapse function so I am just trying it out. it's quite interesting seeing it play back like that and it's easy to set with FA 🤓

Timelapse GIF below:

#firealpaca #firealpaca update #GIF #art timelapse #sketch #aghhtdraws #fpacatuto

[miaminks]

First time ever trying procreate! I've always used FireAlpaca for my drawings. The programme isn't too difficult to understand unlike others I've tried, and I had a lot of fun with these include brushes! I'm looking forward to testing this out more.

What everyone's thoughts on this? :D

#minks art #painting #mushrooms #fantasy #fantasy forest #woodland #Illustrations #storybook #pond #lily pads #firefly

[moondoodles7]

I got super into Mallory's bio, and I wanted to try and fix up some of my other bios too...Make them more creative. So Pura's bio is gonna have a children's book theme! Here's a quick cover image I whipped up. I decided to go no flower accessories, so it can be like. Beginning of her story Pura. When The Calling happened. I also tested out a watercolor brush FireAlpaca has. Not the best I've seen, but it works. 

#art #digitalart #cats #oc #paradiserising #thedriftingstars #pura

[thatonecrookedsmile]

A little test with Abby. I have no idea what she's pointing at.

The last drawings I posted here were made in FireAlpaca. I downloaded the program a few months ago to try out a few things and man,things are going great. Especially with my latest drawings.

Even so,I don't really want to abandon SAI. I still want to at least do a few things now and then on it. So I decided to do a little test,to see if I can still use the program after a couple of months without using it,with my design of Abby Lambert. I'm glad it turned out well.

... I mean, Abby. The background is another story altogether. I didn't want to make the background just a white image, so I decided to do something a little more interesting. In the end...well,it didn't turn out so good.

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #batim #abby lambert #not related to image #I really hope she appears in Dark Revival #We don't have much of her #but I already liked her. #I want her to appear more #and i want to know how her voice sounds #crookedsmileart

[fpacatuto]

Hi! I've tried looking it up but haven't found anything on what I'm looking for, and I've seen this blog come up when looking for other general Firealpaca things, so I figure I'll try asking here. Do you know if there's any kind of setting to make my Firealpaca brush settings default when I close the program? It used to do that before I updated it and I liked it resetting the opacity and size of the brushes I used every time I closed the program, do you know if it's a setting or something or if it was just a thing removed from the newer versions?

Hello! It seems that this could be a bug after newer updates. If you don't mind, you can try downgrading this more recent version and see if that works.

If you have the newest version installed, they actually changed it a bit in a recent bigger update, so that if you change your brush temporarily e.g. change the size, it will keep that change, indicated by the brush number being red the next time you open it. Now, it would make sense, that if you go to the brush settings (double-click the brush or click the gear icon), you should be able to reset the brush. But it seems that over the more recent updates, this does not work anymore the way it was intended. I remember when the update with this change came out, it kinda worked as you'd imagine it, but had some weird behaviour then too.

When you go into settings, it now simply saves the new size over as if you clicked ok. The only thing for now I can reccommend for now, is that you remember the original size of the brush and re-type it in again. Then it should be back to normal. Unfortunately, it does not seem like many have noticed yet, but I just tested it on my own Firealpaca and it doesn't seem to work properly at all. All we can do for now is write a bug report at the official site.

In general, I suppose this was a feature that was requested by other users. That's the only thing I see as possible as in the update log, it seems that it was a long-awaited feature.

#rockconsumer #anonymous #fpacatuto answers #firealpaca #software bug #brush bug

[rains-pace]

what if bench trio were characters in a cartoon? haha jk. unless?

#dream smp #mcyt #tommyinnit #ranboo #tubbo #bench trio #clingy duo #allium duo #bee duo #i want to clarify the caption is a joke this isn't a miss officer and mr truffles situation ok #i just wanted to draw benchtrio but I hurt my wrist so bad this week and I needed to use a simpler style #i usually draw in this style for like warmups or little design tests but its fun #my normal style cant be exaggerated this much like.. with the eyes #i like drawing big eyes sometimes i think its cute #uh? forgot what i was saying i went on a tangent its like 1 am when I'm writing this #anyway i just thought this would be fun and I got to make a fake little cartoon logo for them #thats all i think!! these are my most recent designs for them tho which is good cuz I keep forgetting details when I sketch them #so hopefully this will help me remember #also i made this in clip studio!! most of my art is made in firealpaca cuz I've been using it for like 5 years but #ive been using clip studio recently to try it out and now I'm using them interchangeably they're fun #uh thats all i think byeee love u

[thepinkhaired-rayofsunshine]

drew a little bunny girl for fun!

#i made a bunch of new scatter brushes on firealpaca and some other things so i wanted to try them out!! #and yknow a cute bunny girl is perfect for that kinda test! #personal #my art #art #ocs #bunny girl #for fun!

[mangleyam]

I made a gif!!! Its a bee!!! I love bees!!!

#bees #im trying to figure out animating programs #firealpaca #bumblebee #bee #gif #my gif #test

[alkalinefrog]

hey, so, I had an art related question... if all of this is too much, feel free to ignore it.

the backstory is that I've had the same laptop since early high school but recently I had a birthday (I'm 28 now). my parents got me an HP laptop, and my friend got me a tablet, which she bought off of an online friend for $30. the problem is that I haven't had new technology like... ever? none that was actually mine anyway, and certainly nothing that could handle me using it for art.

and this is especially a problem when it comes to the tablet. my friend helped me get firealpaca onto the laptop, and get the tablet set up with the right drivers, aaaaand... I cannot make one line that looks good using it. I've been using pen and paper for so long and I have a really light touch, and it feels like I have to jam the pen down to get it to register, at which point I might as well have not set the pen sensitivity to anything at all because the thickest line is the only kind I can make?? any lighter and it won't show up on the screen at all. like I can ctrl+z and it doesn't even go back a step, the line didn't get drawn. there's like a 20% chance that any line I try to put down won't actually register. and tbh this isn't really what I had wanted... it's a huion tablet, which is the brand I wanted, but I was gonna buy myself one where you can see what you're drawing on the screen of the tablet itself. not just due to coordination issues, I think I could get used to that part, but because I feel like I wouldn't be having this specific problem with getting things to register. every single line I make looks like crap with this tablet, it makes me feel like I might as well be drawing with my feet, and I've been fidgeting with settings, and it doesn't seem like anything helps. I also still don't have a mouse for the laptop yet, so I can't click and drag anything very well because it has a trackpad, so messing with sliders is already aggravating.

I feel so lost and overwhelmed, and like if I buy anything else, I'm just going to end up with more unusable stuff because *I'm* probably the problem. I just don't know anything, and trying is mentally fatiguing me so quickly... my brain knows what I want my art to look like, and my hands can do it with a real pen. I just have absolutely no clue how to make this machine produce anything.

so I guess my questions are stuff like, what equipment do you use? are there tablets that will register a light touch or am I really going to have to be this heavy handed in order to work with one? what resolution/canvas size do you usually work on? any recommendations for what program to use?

overall, I'd really like to get myself something that feels more intuitive than the tablet... honestly, I was finding some success drawing with just my finger on the touch screen of my phone at one point. there were still a lot of problems with that, but the nail in the coffin was that my phone's memory space filled up and I had to get rid of the drawing app to make it functional again (it's an iphone, which is why). maybe I should just get an ipad or something...? though, one more thing on the mountain of potential options is the last thing my crumbling ADHD brain needs. I've been taking a break from art in general because I've still maintained my 40-hours-a-week work schedule through the whole pandemic... I do 10 hour shifts and work overnight, so I technically have free time since I only work 4 days a week, but the type of work I do leaves me with no energy at all. so I've been in an art slump and I've been wanting to get out of it, but this is just making art feel impossible, even though the whole reason why I've always wished I could draw digitally is so that I can color digitally. I had been drawing things in pen and scanning them to color in photoshop, but cleanup takes so long that I literally can't produce finished work anymore. I'm out of options that aren't prohibitively labor intensive and frustrating.

this was probably way too much information, but if you have any advice I'd be really grateful.

Huh, well first off HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE!! Congrats on the sweet new tech (even if it's been a bit frustrating) and well-deserved celebration!

From the sounds of it I think the main issue is probably your tablet (this is pure speculation on my end though, so you know, grain of salt and all). You're right in that you shouldn't have to fight against your equipment. I have a really light touch too and I've never had the same issue. I personally don't have any experience with huion tablets, but if you're having trouble getting your lines to register then it might have been worn down by the previous user. It's not so much about buying a monitor (the screen one) vs. tablet so much as getting working equipment.

An iPad is a great alternative!! I've played around with the apple pencil and procreate and it's a super intuitive program with (obviously) super easy set up! You get the drawing on the screen AND really nice pen pressure. I'm really happy seeing it opening up new doors for more people to get into digital art!

In terms of your current laptop/tablet situation:

My set up rn is pretty pricey ngl; I have a PC desktop computer with a 16 inch Wacom Cintiq. Getting started in digital art doesn't mean you have to drop a bag on a ton of equipment right from the get go though! If you're looking for a safe small investment, I'd recommend getting a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet!

This lil' baby right here is what I started with!! I think cost-wise it floats around 70ish bucks, but that's exponentially more affordable than buying a huge monitor. One of my friends who's also a pro artist uses a similar small tablet because it works great! That's an alternative that might be worth looking into.

You can also get free trials on other drawing programs (clip studio paint is a great one!) To test and see if it's a software issue with firealpaca.

You could also try checking online forums to see if anyone else is running into similar issues, or watch some YouTube videos of people reviewing different tablets. I know this might be even more overwhelming, so I'd try and narrow the scope to focus on one thing at a time.

My best advice right now would actually be to get a mouse, or any other accessories you need. I've also been in your shoes where I was completely overwhelmed, and I can say that checking off all the small easy things makes a HUGE difference! It makes you feel more in control of the situation, and even if you're still having trouble with digital art you can at least get more comfortable using your laptop in the mean time.

You got this dude!! I believe in you!!

EDIT:

Thanks @wooliebirds!

#ask #anonymous #advice