Finally confident enough

[Shuizid]

Sup art-folks ^^
I started drawing rougly 3 years ago and been more or less working on it inbetween university stuff. Most of the time I am drawing digitally, with the occasional and pretty flawed pencil drawing as well as alcohol-markers.
After making some progress recently with some new pieces, I finally feel good enough for them, to share them and more importantly: ask for tipps that are no longer blatantly obvious to myself.

So here is my most burning question: Are there any tipps or videos on layer-management?
Like seriously, I end up with tons of lyers for each and everything. This piece has like 20 or so (don't wanna restart the program to count). And it isn't to complex.

Now to the image, a fanart for Halloween, that wasn't finished in time:

[Lintire]

Just condense it all to one layer and work on that lmao

Probably not the best person to ask. Layer management isn't even really an art, though, just a general indicator of your confidence in your drawing and your attachment to what you've done.

Don't be afraid to just redraw stuff if layers you keep separated before just mingle now. Drawing is fun after all, isn't?

Another quick tip I'll give you, apart from maybe check out this tutorial is one you may already know; flip your canvas to readjust your perceived sight and quickly spot stuff you want to change.

Anyway hope that helps, congrats on building the confidence to put yourself out there and hope you keep at it!

[Shuizid]

Yeah, the layers is not just a problem of confidence, but of tools. I am using the airbrush for shadow and it ruins hard edges if I want to add shadow. Though you are right, it also is not really an art xD

Many thanks for the tutorial. I actually wanted to start working with grayscales and values and now I know how to do properly do it ^^
And maybe I will remember the canvas-flipping next time, too.

[BoNrr]

Don't sweat how many layers you use. If you don't want too many layers, don't use a lot of layers. Personally I use an ass load of layers, usually one for the line work, and 2 for each color - one being for the flat color so I can mask the area and 1 for the shading. It doesn't need to be a confidence thing, I use them for convenience. You can use folders to easily manage your layers if you want, and naming your layers helps a lot, too. I constantly see tutorials that will say ALWAYS make stuff on a new layer or ALWAYS merge down layers, there's really no right way to do any of it. The bottom line is layers are a tool, just use them how you see fit.

[Decky]

At 11/7/16 05:50 PM, Shuizid wrote: This piece has like 20 or so

That's nothing. When you get way into triple digits then you've got a lot of layers. I manage my layers by making sure to name and group them, this helps to find what you are looking for much faster, no real science to it.

[Shuizid]

At 11/12/16 08:54 AM, Decky wrote:

At 11/7/16 05:50 PM, Shuizid wrote: This piece has like 20 or so

That's nothing. When you get way into triple digits then you've got a lot of layers. I manage my layers by making sure to name and group them, this helps to find what you are looking for much faster, no real science to it.

Triple digits? Holy moly O.o

So layer management is not that big of a deal actually and there is no secret I just don't know (unlike the value thingy) - good ^^
I was just curious, as I often end up having a tiny mistake and going through a couple of layer to figure out where I failed to color in 3 pixels or made a line on a wrong layer... Guess I just have to pair more attention and always remember naming ever layer properly.

[Ancanus]

2001

[Decky]

At 11/12/16 09:25 AM, Shuizid wrote: I was just curious, as I often end up having a tiny mistake and going through a couple of layer to figure out where I failed to color in 3 pixels or made a line on a wrong layer... Guess I just have to pair more attention and always remember naming ever layer properly.

Another tip that's I find to work is to keep all layers locked other than the one you are currently working on. This can help prevent you drawing on the wrong layer and other silly mistakes that we all make.