The Basics of Using a Wacom Tablet to Create Digital Artwork

1. Introduction: they're joining me. In this course, you'll be learning all about the basics of using a Wacom tablet to create digital artwork. I've been creating digital artwork for a number of years now, and I'm really looking forward to teaching everything that I know, helping you to drop the basics, the basic fundamentals that goes with a tablet digital. Our work is becoming very popular analogies, and I've been seeing so many artists make the switch over to working digitally. And I'm here in this course to help anyone that's starting out on that journey. Whether it's your first time using a wax tablet or whether it be just need a refresher or you already have used it a little bit. You just want to understand the basics a little bit more. That's what this course is here. More so just a little overview of where you'll be learning. In this course it's I'll be going over the difference between working and Photoshopped versus working in Telestrater. I'll also be going over. How did you draw using the racket tablet, how to set up and use your express kids if you have a tablet that does have the keys on there if you have that specific model. Also, how to use digital brushes, how to find them, how to adjust them, the capacity texture sizing to be the type of brush that you need for your specific project . How, besides your work forward, how to work in layers and why it's important to work in layers. You do use photo shop, and we'll also be going over how to save your work. So specific file types. There's a few different specific file types that you want to know when you're in the art industry, so I'm just gonna be going over those talking about Resolution A D. P. I. Just the basics have saved your work, so it's the best possible. So that's the basics of what I'll be going over. But I'll also be covering much, much more, so there'll be a lot to learn this course. When I first started out drawing with the market tablet, I was very confused. At first I started out with one of the really small ones. It was the bamboo tablets. I have no idea what I was doing. I just I remember asking for one for Christmas. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just gonna wing it. And what really helped me Waas reading about it and asking others and learning from others . So I really just hope that this course can help you not guilty as intimidated as I did by starting out with a drawing tablet working digitally because it's a lot of fun and there's a whole bunch of stuff that you could do with it. And there's so many different avenues you could go. But I personally chose the avenue of our licensing. So I create artwork for products such as paper goods with greeting cards, gift wrap, home to course, just garden, five store mats, blankets, pillows, all that fun stuff, though I'm really looking forward to teaching you guys everything about starting out with using black and tablet. And I just want to thank you guys for signing up for this course and let's get started 2. What We'll Be Covering: So I'm just gonna go over really quick with you guys. What we're going to be covering in this course, Mr Below, I have all of the individual lessons that I'll be teaching. You guys were gonna be going over the difference between using photo shop and illustrator the basics of using a Wacom tablet and why you should Ah, using express keys on your tablet using digital brushes. So where to find them? How to use them. Sizing your work board, going over working in liars and at a specifically for photoshopped users going over saving your work and all the different file types that you can save as, um And just some extra tips and some questions that will be covered in this course are what size should my art board or filed be Should you work in photo shopper Illustrator? Why should I work in layers? How do I use a digital breast set And where do I find it? How do I had texture to my work with brushes? How should I use my express keys on my tablet? How much pressure should I apply with my stylist? Should I skin in my sketch to work with digitally. How do I adjust my brushes? What type of file should I save my work as? What is d p I And do we need to worry about it in a whole bunch more? 3. Photoshop vs. Illustrator: So one of the big questions in the digital art world is she. Do you work in photo shop, or should you work in Illustrator? I have personally gotten this question a lot, so I really feel like this should be, um, the first lesson that we go over to help you guys figure out which program is best for you . So that a cover photo shop first just some stuff about voter shop that's important for you to know is Photoshopped is used to create more organic illustration work. And what I mean by that is buy Organic is it's less defined shapes. And it's more creating hand drawn, um, quirky type of style, not quirky, as in different just Kourtney, as in It's not crisp, clear and clean lines like Illustrator is, And also Photoshopped is an image editor program first and foremost, so I know sometimes when I've been talking to people about how I use Photoshopped to create my work, because that is my choice of program, that I'll get the question where, like, wasn't it just a image editor program and I have to stop explainable? Yes, but you can also paint digitally in it so Ah, what? Some people don't know that. So it is good to understand that you can use photo shop for that purpose. Next up, we have illustrations created with voter shop can be compared to working with traditional media. So when you're using your walking tablet in Photoshopped, it's very similar to is if you're drawing with a pencil or, um, using a paintbrush, as in when you paint in photo shop, the lines come out exactly as if you were drawing. So if your hand is slightly shaky, your lines will look a little bit shaky, whereas an illustrator, um, they're more clean and crisp. So that's just another thing that I mean when you're working, how I describe the work as organic, as in your work. It's like you're working with traditional media, so your work will mimic your hand movements. So you want to make sure your hand is, um, slow and steady. Um, not shaking to imagined. Yeah, um, so next stop photo shop does have you work with pixels as opposed Illustrator, which is vector based. Ah, a photo shop is not vector based. It's just pixels, and that's something to keep in mind. um because as you can see at the bottom there, you should always design your file as a very large file. Um, if you imagine you needing it to be large, um, it always work with the 300 dp I file in order to not lose any resolution or quality. So, for example, when I'm working in photo shop, I create my art work pretty large, depending on what I think it will be used for. Um, let's see. Usually, I'll maybe do like an original file if I imagine it being needed for to cover a large area between, like, 20 to 40 inches for my file. Because I don't work in Illustrator, which is vector based. And I always make sure to design my artwork at the highest I'll size that I imagine myself needing. So that way, if a company that's interested in my work say they want to use something for a debate cover , which is a larger file, I would have that file already produced high quality high resolution, and they can use it and say a greeting card company comes along and says, Well, we only need it at five by seven inches You can easily make a photo shop file smaller, and you will not lose inequality or resolution. You Onley lose quality if you bring a smaller file and try to make it larger because it will become pixelated. So that's something to keep in mind. Um, and lastly, about Photoshopped. It's more for people, in my opinion, who are wanting to create a hand drawn in painterly style of artwork. Um, so I mean, illustrator is more shape based and, um, like using the pen tool and making artwork that's very crisp and clear and, um, like sections and blocks of color. Rose Photo Shop is more but making mixed media or traditional work with a hand drawn in painterly style. So going onto Illustrator, I explained some of these on the previous slide, but I'll just go over them again. Is Illustrator creates crisp and clean edge illustration work. It's a vector based program, so that means that your vector files can be restart. Recent Excuse me resized either larger or smaller, and they will never lose any quality. So that is a pretty great thing about Illustrator Um, that's another reason people really like working in it, because they don't have to really worry about the pixels or the resolution, as you do in photo shop in Illustrator, you can work with color ways so it's much easier, in my opinion, to easily just colors and illustrator as it is in photo shop. And lastly, it's more for people wanting to work with crisp edges and blocks of color as opposed to a photo shop, which is a painterly and hand drawn style of work. So which program do I personally use? So I worked with photo Shop, Um, although I did start out working in Illustrator, um, I did change due solely working with voter shop, and I'll just explain why for you guys. So I prefer Photoshopped because I like feeling. I just I'm drawing with traditional media. I really like feeling like I'm using an actual paintbrush and I like the I can use my barking tablet as if I'm just painting a picture or drawing in my sketchbook, and I like that it shows up exactly like that in photo shop, and I really like the organic and quirky Hendren look that I'm able to achieve in photo shop. Um, while they do like the look of vector work and there's so many beautiful vector patterns and illustrations out there. I personally like my artwork to look hand drawn and organic. In other words, not really like perfect shapes. Um, that's just a person personal preference of mine. Everyone is different. And, um, it just for working and Photoshopped with me felt what much more natural for me to create. And Photoshopped as it did in Illustrator. I did practice working in both Illustrator and Photoshopped, and ultimately I just I No, no, I just didn't really like Illustrator a voter shop felt more like where I belonged in the sense of being an artist. So I've switched to just using photo shop and I love it. Absolutely love it. Um and I really like all the textures that can be created with the brushes and Photoshopped . Um, so yes. Oh, that's just Cem, um, things about why I specifically work with photo shop and have switched from working with Illustrator Uhm And another thing quick that I'll cover that I get questions about is do art directors and manufacturers in art licensing industry work with you even though you have Photoshopped files as opposed illustrator files and the answer is yes. So manufacturers in the industry they just want to make sure that they get high resolution files that are not blurry or pixelated. So as long as you have your artwork created and photo shopped at a high rez file, um, that is what they need. Then you're good to go when they absolutely work with you. I've gotten several deals, and all my work is in photo shop, and it's never been a problem. All right, so lastly, with programs should you use, so that decision is ultimately up to you. Both photo shop and illustrator are wonderful programs, and they're both used by surface pattern designers, illustrators and artists. And ultimately, you want to choose the program that you're most comfortable with and the one that gives you the results that you like the best. While I started out working in illustrator and Voter shop, I noticed that I was much more happy and comfortable with my artwork that came from me working in photo shop. So I did make the switch, and I have worked solely with Photoshopped ever since. And on this next slide here I have a worksheet. Just help you figure out which program is best for you. It can be downloaded from the resource is section in this course it prints at 8.5 by 11 regular printer, paper size and just go through it. And in the little boxes to the left of the statements Just put a check Mark and, um, you get rich. Just see which one you have more checks next, do. And hopefully it can help you discover which program, like might be better suited for you. Obviously, this is just a little work. She I made it 100% decide which program is the best. It's just something toe. I hope your mind kind of start churning, thinking about the differences with the two programs. And, um, feel free Teoh if you're able to. If you have access to both programs to experiment with using them both, play around with them. Try working with factors and illustrator and then a hand drawn organic style and photo shop and see, just see which ones you like working with best and ultimately go with what feels most comfortable to you. 4. Using a Wacom Tablet: So if you're wanting to create artwork digitally, it's an absolute must that you have a drawing tablet and, in my opinion, specifically a rocket drawing tablet. I just really love the quality of them. I think they're easy to understand, use. And so many digital artists that you meet will be using one of those, whether it be a beginner version in intermediate level pro level. Or they also have sent ekes, which actual screens, and they come in different sizes, that you can actually work on the screen where your outward pops up on that. I have worked with three different wack um, tablets over my career as an artist, and I started out with a small being brewed tablet is really just like this. Big is a tiny little thing, and it got the job done because I was a beginner. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing with it or what I wanted to do yet with A with digital art as a career and as I moved up, I moved to a more of an intermediate level tablet, and that worked good for a while. I use that for a number of years and then I invested in a rocket into roast pro size medium , and it's it's wonderful. I absolutely love blackham Seiken. Definitely recommend the brains and recommend getting one if you don't have one already. So I just want to go over the basics first. And I'm gonna show you my tablet just to show you what it looks like. An to go over that real quick. So this this is my tablet and this is a size medium. It's a welcome in Ciro's pro, and this specific version has the express keys along the side here, so you have four express keys on top. You have a little circle dial over here for the touch sensitive circles. You could go around and pick options that you said on your computer, and you have no form or express keys down the bottom, and I'm side. Here. You have your cord USB cord that you can use to hook up the to the computer to connect your tablet that way, or there's also a little USB that you can also enter. It's a little insert that you could put into the computer to make it wireless. If you prefer to work without the court. I do both methods. Eso I recommend Either one works so they look the same and so on. This tablet is it is a size medium. So it's a pretty good size to work with and all right here this is the touch sensitive screen. So this whole area is the drawing area that I do to create my artwork. And I have my style is here, and the stylist comes with a little holder and in the holder, there are some bids and I will zoom in so you can see those. So this is my holder for my stylists. And I just wanted to show you guys what it looks like up close. So this is the whole where it could go in. So you just do like this and you can just set it down like that. So it's really nice. Uh, some of the I think most of the work and tablets come with that. So it's really nice to have a holder for your stylists. And if you open it here, so if you just give it a little turn, you actually have a little secret compartment of Nibs. So it comes with a number of Nibs that you can switch out your pen for. So sometimes what you'll notice when you're working with the tablet is the nip here a the top. It will, um, kind of wear down a little bit. And after a lot of drawing use, it will wear down, maybe get a little flat on one side, the side that you mostly use. So it's just nice to have these extra Nibs that you can easily switch it out for and the relatively easy to put in. Um, if you're not sure how to do it, um I mean what I did when I was doing it at first, such as YouTube did to try and figure it out. So So, yeah, so I just want to show you that, too. You guys All right, so now I have my photo shop program opened up, and my tablet is plugged in, and I'm just going to show you guys the basics of just drawing with the tablet on the computer. So I'm just gonna have this the 12 by 12 inches for my board, along with the 300 resolution and a little later in the course, I'm going to go over sizing your work board and resolution. So to create that and see, it's good this up here. So? So first off you just If you're working in photo shop, this is would be your workspace. See, you consume out Sparta's You want tiny, You can go back in and you can Zubin start. You want get up. Super, Super close. Um, you keep in mind the closer you get it, we'll get pixelated. So I'm just gonna show you that real quick and example here just makes impeller. So the zoom in of this it will eventually, As you see here, it's to the point that it is broken up. You could see the tagging pixels because photo shop is ah pixel based. Some people eat up. Okay, So, um so working with the tablet digitally is really simple and easy. So there's working in Photoshopped Quick, I'll show you the basics Over here on the left up top Here. This is your move Tool. As you can see, If you hover over everything, it tells you exactly what it does. And this is the newest version A bait of Photoshopped Photo shop Creative Cloud s o I believe that it shows you these little images here only in that newest update you can go here. It can show you what it does, which is pretty neat. So, yes. So this is up top. This is the move. Tool lower. It is the rectangular marquee tool. Well, that is a magnetic glass. Oh, below that is the magic wand tool. Then I like to switch up between using the magic wand in the quick selection if I need to make a selection in my artwork and he thought you have your crop option below that is your eyedropper tool, which is really helpful. So, for example, I'm just going to show you here. I'm gonna do two different colors. Do blew him into your red. So right now, as you could see to the left here, where my mouse is circulating circling is I have read as the color selected and say I want to get the blue really quickly. That same color blue. But I don't know what color it is specifically to put in the identification number down here. I'm going to select the eyedropper tool. I'm gonna just click it and it pops up. So it gets college for you, which is really helpful. And beneath that we have the healing brush tool, though that is your brush tool. So this is the one that this is the big one that you want to use to period your artwork. Well, that you have a powder in stamp tool our history, brush racer, paint bucket, smudge tool berg and tool to make text half selection. Ah, lips tool. But this is also any shape that you need Rectangle rounded rectangle ellipse probably go online or custom shape. Then below that, you have your hand tool zoo and down these three little bars here, you can add the the toolbar to choose what you want a papa and right here is this. You have two squares that you can choose between two different colors here. If you click that arrow right now, the blue is the foreground color and the black in the background. And switch it up and you bring black forward. And over here on the right, um, and everybody's photo shot might look a little bit differently. It's all about, have you how you have it set up. So I have my swatches up here pretty prominent appear on the right because these are my go to colors that I use in my work. I like to use bright, colorful colors. So I have those set up over here beneath that, I have my adjustments panel and properties, and below that is where I work with my layers. And I like to bring those up a little bit and bring the adjustments down. So my layers Because I as you start working in photo shop, you're gonna have a lot of layers or you want to aim toe have a lot of layers because regulators makes things so much easier. If you have to go back in resize something at it, colors added some details or just move one specific element that you drew as opposed to the whole thing. And then also, I have up here, I have my tool presets. Um, so and I have that up there because I I used Kyle Webster brushes, and I'm going to cover this more in the brush section. The brush segment of this, of course, but Kyle Webster brushes are now available through adobe. So I had purchased his mega pack. Um a little while back, Back when I first started. Illustrated before Ah, he and adobe emerged. But you can now just use his brushes as you can download them through adobe, which is pretty great. Okay? And then So I'm also going to go over how to edit your stylist. You're drawing pen for the specific program using. And this program is Photoshopped for me right now. So whether you're working an illustrator, Photoshopped, it's up to you. So if you go to the search section on your computer and you type in lack of tablet properties, this little box should pop up so you could go through. You can change functions. This is where you live. Express keys. I won't cover that in the next segment. You just touch. And what we're what we're gonna focus on right now is your pen. So it shows you a little image of your pattern here, and it shows that this little area down here, the tip is the click. So if you tap, you can use this pan like a mouse. Ah, once you get used to using this tablet, it becomes like second nature to year. So I like even if I'm not drawing, I use this tablet and I just use it like a mouse on my laptop. I hardly ever use the mouse had anymore, and it also shows you right here. There's two buttons on your stylus in this bottom one. You can change what you want, everything to be set for, so I have mindset to pan slash scroll. So when I hold it down, I can use it to move around and Photoshopped really easily. And I have the top part of the button set to a right click. So if I tap that, make your I right click, this pops up or let's say I'm and and here I'll just right click and my right click menu will pop up here. So it's pretty. It's pretty great that you can set it to whatever you want. It's just like studying your mouse bad to accustom to what you wanted to do when you do left or right, then you can adjust your tilt sensitivity. Appear normal, high. I just have mine at normal. I don't need it, are overly sensitive to it, so I just haven't said it normal, and the tip DoubleClick distance over here. I have right in the middle. I'm not too sure with that. One does. So just keep that one. The industry standard right in the center and for tip feel. I have brought my down from the normal medium range down down one level over towards soft. I don't really like the tip feel to be overly sensitive, but I don't want it to soft as well. So you can if you wash this little bar right here. Current pressure, it shows you the click pressure. So right here is a light tap, and then this is holding it down as hard as I can. It's so its maximum pressure. And that is a light tap. So, yes. So this is how you can adjust everything. You can also go to the eraser. So on the other end of your stylists is, um, little. I don't know what you'd call it, but if you tap it, it it has a little gifts, so it could move a little bit. That's your eraser. So I just keep mindset in the middle here. Um, if you don't want it to be your eraser, you can set it to something else. um, To be honest, I don't really use it as inter Pacer. I usually just use the erase tool when I'm working in photo shop. But whatever you're more comfortable with, do that. And this is the mapping. So this shows you your drawing area. So I have mind set that I draw with my pen. You can use the mouse pad on your laptop or Amaral's that you have hooked up if you're using a desktop computer and you can draw on the tablet that way, But I use a pen because it's just I prefer that cause you feel like you're drawing with traditional media like a pencil or a pen. Um, so that's the one I use, and this just shows you your area of drawing. And when you're using your Wycombe tablet, if you look down at it, it also has, uh, kind of like crop marks, um, little areas. Ah, frame if you will, to show you your drawing sensitive area that will show up on your computer. So this is just good. You can set it to a portion. If you want. You can set screen to a portion. So yet, um, the great thing about using the lack of tablet is there's a lot of different custom is ations and options that you can do when using it. 5. Using Express Keys: So in this segment, we're going to be going over your express keys on your tablet. So I'm going to open up the Arkham tablet properties again, and I'm going to click the functions option. Nasty tool. And you will get an image on your screen of your express keys that could be seen on your tablet. So I have mine already set. But when you get your tablet, if you haven't set them up before become preset, I forget what they're set to. Um But, uh, there said of the default setting over here. So I'm just gonna go through and show you what I have mindset at. So maybe if you want to try yours that way, that you can. So the top button here, I have mine set to zoom in. Ah, you can set two different clicks you can set to a stroke on your keyboard. Um, navigation. That's what I have mind set out for. Zoom in. There's so many different things you can set the express keys. That and it's all about the keys that you use most that you find yourself using most often and what's gonna make workflow for you easier and to help you work at a good pace. So my top but miss said it zoom in and below that a zoom out. So that's easy for me. I just there, um, right above and below each other. So it's easier for me to find that when I'm working quick and I don't want to stop to look eliminate that I have the undue keystroke set. So if I need to undo something that I drew it on, does it for me? Just that the tapping that button and beneath that I have safe. Because when you're working digitally, the really important thing that you want to do is say, save safe because it's not like with working on physical canvas or doing a drying with graphite pencil where you have your work in front of you. If you're working on the computer and your battery dies, your computer crashes, the power goes out, something happens that's not supposed to happen. And your work is not saved most of the time, unless you're able to somehow recover it, and you're very lucky your work is lost, and I've had that happen more times than I would like to admit that has happened. So I've learned my lesson the hard way. So hopefully this could be a lesson to you to prevent that from happening. But always save your work. Um, and below that, let's see, I don't believe Yeah, these once. I didn't set. I don't use thes down here. Really. I only use the ones up top. So, um yeah, so you can do that and see. And then if you go over to the right here, you can set your touch ring. So, um, the touch hearing I have the into its pro size medium. So the touch ring is on this, um, model for a while. Come tablet. I'm not sure what other models it's on, but it is on this one. So if you do have that the center there is the toggle. So if you move it, it kind of moves a little bit. Moves around in the touch ring is you can actually if you put your finger on it, move around. I put my mouse here in the center, and I'm doing it right now. You can see that the mouse kind of moves a little bit. Um, I don't really use this much to be honest s so I don't have it set and anything, but it is useful if you do need, uh, more custom express keys. And if you do like that feature of the little circle that you could move around, then here is how you can save Adjust your battery on your tablet. If you are working wireless and then you have on screen controls. So, yes, so that's the basics of working with express keys. They're very helpful toe help you speed up your workflow and move more quickly. When I first started out with my band Drew tablet and a smaller just regular drawing tablet with wack, um, I, um I didn't have the express keys, so I didn't really understand what the hype was about. And I like I don't need those like I work fine now, like, And when I went on to getting this new tablet of mine that I got within the past two years or so, I I didn't think I was going to use the express Kieser first. And when I got it and I was like, Well, just try him out. I had a friend that mentioned like, Oh, you should really customized for you there Really helpful. And so I went in and I customized them. And let me tell you, I have not looked back there, so, so helpful. So if you do have a tablet with them, I highly highly recommend customizing them to the specific buttons that you use the most because so helpful and really speeds up your workflow. 6. Using Digital Brushes: Okay, so let's talk about brushes. The big thing that you have to have if you want to create digitally. So one of the questions that I get a lot from people is where do you get digital brushes? So I worked with Kyle Webster brushes. If you see in my other skills, short courses, if you taken any of them, you hear me talk about his precious I had, I recommend them. They're wonderful and all the textures of the different ones. It feels like you're just drawing with traditional media. There's so many options, they're really great. So before when I first started using them, he had his own website, so I would get brushes through his website. But just recently the in the past, I believe it's the past few months he has partnered with Dobie and you can now download his brushes through adobe twos and photo shop, which is absolutely wonderful. So I'm just going to show you guys how you can get those. So let's see if you click over here the brushes option and you go up to this little arrow next to the brushes right here, go over to the little gear and you go down and find to get more brushes. You click that and an Internet page will pop up with all of the exclusive brushes from Cairo. Webster that you can Bella and it says here you can get over 1000 different brushes from him and I cannot recommend his work even any, possibly more. It's absolutely wonderful. I love his brushes. I create all my artwork with them, and I'm very, very happy with them. So when they have a mega pack here, which is over 300 tools, which is the one I recommend, I that's what I have. Um, and there's water color. So what? Media brushes for broad washes, detail, work, splatter, um, and other effects. Um, and those air Really great. It looks just like you're painting with water color. You can create the same texture, play around with opacity and a water down look, which is really neat. And then you have a dry media option over here, which is your chalk, your pastels, pencils in any other dry media brushes, Then we have a wash. This is actually the set that I first started out with when I was digitally illustrating um , there really great. His wash brushes, as it says here, are inspired by the Golden Books artists who, if you look at the golden books and you've seen the art in there, the brushes air kind of similar to that with the texture and the effects. And I love them. Um, so yes, So there's both wet and dry brush effects with wash, and then you have spatter, so you have a different spatter amounts. You can change the density, different spatter, direction brushes and all these brushes. Remember, they are touch sensitive. So depending on the pressure you use, you could get a lighter option. With a little less texture, you could get more texture, Um, was, um, or vibrant colors. It's really fun to play around with. Then runny anchors says it's a small set for bloody Dottie line work. You have mango brushes down here. Cross Hatcher's those A really interesting I've played around with those rake brushes. So these air some fun textures. Kind of like, he says, he looks like dragging a rake through sand. Impressionist if your, um into using that type of stuff. So like different quick paint methods. Different strokes, energetic marks. Um, the letter is one he recently came out with that and that once wonderful, too. If you like to do hand lettering, which is very popular nowadays, it's getting really big. There's over 100 tools for lettering artists to use. So for calligraphy, comics sign ege, different lettering, illustrations. It's wonderful. Um, and I have those. So play around with those to show you what they look like. And then some half tones copier over here. Um, so it mimicking an old boat. Photocopy machines concept, brush set and last is art markers. So, yes, you can download any of them. You can download all them whatever you'd like. Um, I really recommend the mega pack. Kind of has a little bit of everything. Um, you have pencils, pastels, charcoal. Thanks. Oils, watercolors, budge tools, erasers. So, yes. So that's how you can download and get the brushes. And if we go back to photo shop here that go over different brushes with you guys, So I'm going to go over to my tool set here, and first up, I'm going to show you lettering brushes, so there's a different ones. So I would change this to make it a little bit. You're here, so this is just a regular brush you can let her with. You can play around with things. There's a rough brush. We're several different styles of brushes here. So in all of his options there for the different Alan's you condemn for brushes. There's several different types of a different variations of types of brushes. So, as you can see over here, there's fixed brushes, rough brushes, a soft brush right here in the museum. In here, this you can see the texture that it makes, and then you figure over it. You could make a little bit darker throughout, then by uh, right lightly with my pen like this. It's a very light and see through, and then I'm gonna press down and the line it's bigger and the colors get more rich. And so I mean, when you're working with a tablet, just remember that you hold the pen just like you would any traditional media. You also like the paper should pencil. Just hold it the way that feels comfortable to you, and you just work on the tablet by dragging at a log, Um, and making sure to adjust the pressure. So I mean, it might take a little bit to get used to, but you do get used to it, and it'll become second nature to you. So going lightly down pressing, um, and every brush is different, so you always get a different effect. So it's really fun to manage. Just set aside some time to play around with things. So this is chock I'm going light right here, which makes it been Mark. When I press it makes a more thick then I predict comics is really thin line bird dialogue . Here you have dreamy, really like the boldness of this one. Then my favorite to work with for lettering is the liners he has, um, so I'll use the's a lot for my lettering. I just really like the look of it, and it just to me it feels like writing with traditional media, So I like the the liners and he has a high liner. Finer would just smaller in medium. And then this one's pretty need. It's old fountain, so like getting old fountain and feel. And then he also has simple. A graffiti on here, which is pretty awesome, would make this a little bigger for you to see. Yeah, that one is really neat, because if you look like going down here, it gets bigger. When I grew up, it's a little better. So it's just like using a clergy keypad. So the lettering brushes are really great. Here's a wet edge. One so kind of like a watercolor one for lettering. And I've gone through already, and I've have my tool presets set to just the ones that I use the most. So these air not all of the brushes that come with the mega Packers that was over about 300 or so. So, um, I always go through it. I picked the ones that I like to use the most just so I can have them in a little grouping . So it's easy for me to find my most common brushes and then just going through a pictures to show you some other things. This is from his, um, ultimate inking collection, which is in the mega pack. Just some ink there, Um, the drawing box. You have pencils. You have cran effect. Different option for Crean here. Mechanical pencils really thin lines them that See, there's some shady graphite here, which is awesome. So if you want to do some shading work, it can layer everything changed the capacity? Um, yeah. I mean, working with the tablet. It's just like working with traditional media. You can still go over things several times to make things. Parker. You can choose a ah different color here, Go over it, shaded a bit, and it has a human here. You can see it has the texture, just like the pencil and paper. Um, make it harder if I press down, just go lightly over the blue. Such the graph eight shady graphite and something I really like to use is the brain options . He has forward texture, so you didn't grain options there. Grating texture and digital artwork is a lot of fun because there's a lot of different options. This is medium. This was pretty fun. Do I like to use this if I'm doing sand or um, a Children's illustration that has carpet? This is finer. When this brush, which is one my favorite, this is a deliciously dry brush, so it's a really dry brush, and I love this for texture. This is pressing their very lightly right here and then. So I love love, love picture on this. I think it's so pretty. So yes. So feel free to go through whatever brush pack you do download and play around with them. See which ones you like best. Another one I really recommend is the wash bonus Bridie Brush e really like that. I use this one a lot for creating. I love the texture. So if you go in here, you can see the edge here. Very textured and love. Another great wand is the wash round variable. That also has a lot of texture that I use this well, so yeah, and then you can over laugh it and add more colors just lightly. So he has a lot of great crushes, and I really recommend working with them. And the other thing I just want to show you is how to adjust your brush. So I'm just gonna choose fine the liner medium over here, the one that I use the most, and I'm gonna go up here, move my screen up so you could see this. So right here where I'm circling. You see, right now it's was 35 it shows you a little what the brush looks like. If you press that arrow to the right, your brush will pull up and you can address the size so you could make it bigger. You can see right here I could make it really the really big or I could make it. Really, really, really. Really. That's not to tell me. So I could make it Mary Patty, So you can adjust the size to whatever size you need. And this this goes for any brush, not just this specific one, but any brush that you might need. You can adjust that so you could do that. And then if you go up here where it says opacity, you cannot change it. So let's try changing it lower and bring the size back up. This just makes it lighter. So this is one layer of me just holding the pen down. And if I go over it again, you get the added color. So if I change a color bringing blue here, you get some of the pink shone through. So the capacity is pretty fun toe play with and you could get a lot of neat textures and looks in your artwork by using that, then the mode up here. I always keep mine. Said it normal. Um, you could do any mode you want, Really? Like this is multiply so just gets darker and darker and darker. Darker. Um, but as you're starting out, I would just recommend using normal. So it's just the color and, uh, the basics of the pressures meant to do that. As you're feeling more confident with using brushes, feel free to move on to debt, adjusting the mode to see what you can play with. And then over here the flow so that just changes like the floor of the brush. It makes it just a little more looser. Um, that's low. And if I make it high, it's just thick locks, so you can see the difference here is that the right is a little more fluidity, and the left is old blinds color smoothing over here so you can smooth. You're lying out. So if I haven't said it zero and just and let's say I right, the letter H looks like that if I set smoothing all the way up to 100 I don't know if you could tell, but the brush moves a lot slower than I do. So it's basically photo shop taking over and smoothing out. You're trying, um, so it's not as, and I like shaky if your hand is shaky or, um, if you bump your tablet accidentally, it just makes the line more smooth. Were as setting it at zero is completely your your straight line work. So if you have 1/4 th it's a per pH. But if you go up here, it's a lot more smooth. So I mean, that's good to play around with. Two. You can address that so it's not overtaken everything, but it is nice to play around with. So that's writing Hey, with 45% smoothness. And if I do it without, it's it's not bad, but it's you can tell it's a little more kind of wonky. Um, the lines aren't as, uh, like, smooth as they could be. So if I said it to 100 it's more different. So I don't really like setting it through 100 because I don't really feel like I have control over it as much. Um, so I either have. I usually have always just kept it at zero. But if I'm going to be doing lettering or if I have a shape, really needs to be Billy did not have any. Like you can see on this lettering like any slight, not smoothness of the line than out SEPA smoothness up a little bit toe like 30 or 40. So, yes, so that's the basics of breaking with the fresh is I really recommend using the brushes with different textures pictures a really great visual art work because it really makes it look more like traditional media. Um, if that's what you're going for if you're working. Illustrator. Uh, I believe you can still create textures in there, but it's I just like doing a lot better in photo shop. I like using the high Webster brushes, Um and yeah, it's just really fun to do so. I mean Photoshopped. You can do just regular, clean, crisp, smooth lines, or you can play around with the texture. And in my opinion, I think either is a great option. They both look great. They both have really pretty outcomes. And then just to go over another thing to change your colors, you could go down here to these two little squares. Just double click it and you can pick whatever color you want. So just click anywhere on here. You can pick any blues you want, you can scroll up and down, and as you find colors you like, you can do this button adds a swatches, and your swatches panel is over here on the right is any time when you're creating, instead of having to go down to those two squares and pick your colors, you can just go over to your swatches and choose the little square, Um, and pick your colors right there, so it makes it a whole lot easier. 7. Sizing Your Workboard: and this section, I'm gonna be going over your work board. So how to size your work board? What types of different sizes are good for certain things in the art industry. So I'm going to go up here and create new and in photo shop. It'll show you your recent sizes over here. So, um, as you start to create, you could just go in and easily select that. But, I mean, I usually just set by setting over here on the right. Um, and I always if I'm doing um illustrations like Children's illustrations or just a regular sized illustration that is not a repeating pattern. Since I specifically work in the art licensing industry, creating like surface pattern designs for products, I will keep it at inches for illustrations so you can change the width and the height over here. So you can, uh, basic size is eight by 17. And what you want to remember, um, is your resolution You want to keep at 300. So 300 uh, pixels per inch, 300 peopie I, um, or BP I they're interchangeable, is the wonderful, perfect resolution. So that's the resolution. You want to work with 72 or anything below 300 really will make things very fuzzy. The only time I recommend changing artwork to lower resolution is ring. You're sharing it on social media or online or having it on your website so that it is not perfect resolution, because then it's hard to copy of. It's hard for someone to like, right click and save and then copy it because it will be not good resolution and pixelated . So that's the only time I would recommend that Albert's yes, always keep it a 300 dp i or P P I. And you can change your background contact contents. I always have mindset white. You can change it to black or any other background color. You would like your color mode. Um, you can changes to whatever you'd like. I always have mine, Said it. RGB if you're working with ah specific um company that wants you to work a C M y que. Or specific lab colors. Um, you can do that, but I always keep mine set at RGB, and if you look to the right of the color mode option here, you will see something that says bit there's eight bit, 16 bit or 32 bit. Um, so I usually either work in eight or 16 68 gives you certain range of colors. You're able Teoh achieve a lot of range of colors, just using a pit so it's perfectly find. Use eight bit. 16 bit allows a broader range of colors to be used so more depth to be added. And I don't I've never really touched the 32 bit. Um, since you are working in photo shop, the bit is more, um specific for in my opinion or color photographs if you're editing photos in here. So that's why I don't really touch the 32 bit because I'm not using photographs, but I do, um, switched between using eight and 16. I don't use any number specifically for any work of art. I do, um, but if I want to see if there's a difference, are you 16? I don't really. Since digital art isn't if you're doing, like, just blocks of color, um, I think the eight bits fine. If you're doing like a lot of different colors, layers, um, kind of like a mixed media types upper. There's a lot of depth going on. I would recommend the 16 but again, just play around with it and see what works better So and if you're going to. So that's in inches for illustrations years, you can set it to a square if you want a nine by nine. Whatever size you want, you considered as that just remember to keep the Resolution 300. If you are doing surface pattern designs so making repeating patterns, I personally set that in pixels, and I'll either do 2000 or I will do 4000 pixels. So that converts. I believe it. Spurt, Kanye 13.3 Interest is 4000 before 1000 pixels, so that's what I usually use. Um, it's up to you. And if you're not doing powder design, um, I guess this partisan really relevant, but so I do that with pixels and always keep your resolution at 300 and when you are, let me show you an example here. So if I pull up this mermaid pattern, I did. The size of this right now is 6.6 by 6.6 inches, which is 4000 pixels. Messis eyes nothing. Zoom in. You can see it's all good quality. All 300 FBI. Good resolution. If I were to resize this and make it safe, two inches dip in the quality is still good. But if I were to take that image and make argue, let's say bring up to 20 by 20. It's fuzzy. You zoom in and you can see that it is fuzzy. If I were to make it even a larger let's go to 40 inches. You zoom out here, let's look OK, but if you zoom in, it's fuzzy. You see here, it's not crisp. Very fuzzy worry. Let's zoom out of that. So with photo shop, you want to design your artwork at the highest sighs that you think and a vision that it will be needed. So, for example, this image in front of you is a repeating pattern, so it's fine for this to be at like 6.7 by 6.7 inches because it repeats seamlessly so it covers a large area. However, if I want it to be on a do they cover, and I want my mermaid here to be really, really large or this whole pattern to be really, really large to make a do they cover. I would need this to be a lot bigger. So what I have done before re sizing this to make the smaller is I have a completely separate file with this pattern. That is, I think it's like 20 by 20 inches, so that I have it large in The illustrations are of high quality, could be resized, lower if needed. And I have that and I'm ready to go. So if I have manufacturer that says we want to make a do they cover in a bed setting out of your mermaid collection, I can say, OK, I'm ready to go and I already have that. So if you need something, though, if it's artwork just for a greeting card and you size it a five by seven, that's fine. But if you can see that, well, maybe someday down the road a company might want to make this into a garden flag. I would recommend starting out your work larger, so maybe setting it it like 13 by 19 or 11 by 17 either of those inches to make the artwork larger to begin with because in photo shot. What you want to remember is larger artwork. It could always be sized down without losing any quality. The resolution will still be the same, but you cannot bring photo shop artwork and make it larger because it will lose quality every time you enlarge it. So always remember that that is very important to remember. Illustrator is different. It's vector based, so it does not work with pixels. It's not a pixel based system, so you can resize your artwork smaller, larger to whatever you want, and it will always be crystal clear, high quality work. So that is a big difference between the two programs. So I do recommend that you always remind yourself, Maybe write a sticky note or something. If you need Teoh that you create your artwork at that high resolution and a good size so that you have that if it is needed 8. Working in Layers with Photoshop: Another big question I get from people that are interested in working with photo shop for creating digital artwork is why should they work in layers? And I'm here to tell you that if you're going to be doing digital artwork, you must work in layers. So if you see this illustration in front of you, this is a scarecrow flag design that I did. And it's now imagine if this was just one layer like imagine if every single thing on this was just one complete layer and say that a manufacturer was like, Well, we want the birds taken out and we want this pumpkin moved, and we want the leaves change to a different colors. You'd be completely stuck because your work would be one layer. So if you got rid of those birds, it would be you'd have to read, you'd have to read through the sky behind it. You'd have to redo the pumpkin areas behind this one down here, and it would just be a complete headache and you would go crazy trying to do that. So if you look to the right, you can see all of the layers I have that I did to create this. So something I always do is I start out of here. I make little circles of colors, and I just do that with a paint brush. I just draw the colors that I want to use to go off of in my project. And when you're working in layers on the right, you want to you don't have to, but I do recommend grouping them because otherwise it just gets very confusing if you start to get into the hundreds of having layers. So this here, this is orange Poppy. This is a leaf. If you look to the left, I hide it and I notice so those are my babies, all the orange yellows, the beds. And if you like, select this here, you can easily move it so wherever you want, so you can see as if you have each element like the leaf scarecrow that pro you have. Everything has its own element. You could move it very easily about having to move anything else in the design. If you go keep going down here concealer. It's a pumpkin low pump that I have can easily move things. But if you go into the group and you can see it's a whole bunch of layers comprised of different, uh, illustration layers that I did so like. That's the stem and we have a pumpkin itself and I have different clipping masks for doing . That's what to start out as and did that. And then I did that. So it's very important to work in layers, and I had a 40 year old layer and then, like the Scarecrow, I could just move it. He's his own layer. What is he going to the proofing? It's a whole bunch of different players that makes up this scare occur, and I recommend naming them and labelling them. You can easily do that. I double clicking them, and you can just into it. Whatever you want, I wrote, Hey, but you can type it whatever you want, just so you could go over and easily find what you're looking for us. You can do minutely if you could do pro border grass, all that stuff and to make something to turn make a new layer. I'm just going to show you this here. I'm an ex out of this and just do new board just to make it easier to show here. So to make a new lawyer if you go to the right here, there's a little page icon to the left of the trash. Click that and you see layer one, Papa, you can double quick it, rename it to whatever you want all the 1st 1 and I'm just gonna make three more layers. Four. And you want to slice the mall? So the way I select I'm using a Windows based computer, you have one selected. And then I hold down shift and I put the very last one. So it has all five layers selected. And then you want to just grab them like Quick with Repent Tool and grab it and drag it right to this little folder icon. Let go and it makes it into a lawyer. So that group icon is to the left of that page and maybe that again for you guys. You just slice from all rabbit and drop it on the group. And then now it's just a group. So if you have a lot of layers, it's very nice to split things up into groups so that it conventions things and it's easier to find things you're looking for, especially when you start getting into a lot of fires for very detailed, uh, illustrations art in powder and designs. And another thing you can do with your layers is you can change the capacity of them. So say, Let's say that you did like this little pretty drawing here. So you did that. And you like the color, but you want it to be lighter. You can go up here where it says a pass ity at the right here above Phil. It's like the arrow. You could bring it down and you can see how it changes it toe lighter so you could make it gone. You can make a slightly their mettle. They're mawr there and completely their full color. And then again, it's kind of like the brush you can adjust it to whatever mode you like. I usually just stick to normal and, yeah, so. And to hide a layer, you press this eye icon to the left of it, and it can hide it if you would like and yeah, so that's how you work with lawyers 9. Drawing Digitally: So I'm just gonna walk you guys through making a simple illustration with your Rackham tablet. So I'm gonna have my brush selected here. I'm going to go over and I want this to be textured. So I'm going to go down and select my gosh bonus gritty brush. I'm going to make the size a little bit bigger. I'm gonna select green here and I'm just gonna do a flower. So zoom in and I'm just gonna do some grass. You can color it in or you can always use the paint bucket to whatever you prefer. And so, as you can see this brush, it has texture going along the top here. And I really like that only thing that has a nice grass effect. So if you want to add texture on top of the green and not have it go anywhere else. There's something called a clipping mask. So to do that, you click the layer new layer button, which is to the left of the trash can right, click the layer itself and put create clipping mask. I'm seriously, that's really quick. Anything you do now, it is just on that previous layer beneath So This is really great. I love working with that tool. So I'm gonna make a little darker green, and what I'm gonna do is just add some texture to this grass. So I'm going to do my ad brain sharper finer brush here to make that smaller. I'm just gonna go over and you can watch. You can see that. I'm just adding some barker colors here with the grass. You go in, make it lighter. I'm gonna make this one bigger, though, so it covers it a little bit more and I'm going to go down and I'm going to select my variable brush That bigger change the capacity of it to be low because I don't want this to be a big, blocky color. And as you can see, it just makes slightly overlay of color now. But if I kept going over it, it would layer it up. I'm gonna make go back, make some darker greens here just to find the edge of the grass a bit more. So as you can see playing around Theo, opacity can really liven things up and add a lot of death. Two illustrations. So that would be my grass in. If I quit, I I can't. Over here to hide what? I just did you go back to just the playing grass here, but that's my letter option. So I'm going to select this also. Hold it down. Slight shift in, grab back toe layer. And I'm just gonna label over us. You make a new layer, gonna put this behind the grass, and I'm going to do some sky. So I mean, it's a paint bucket over here on the left. Just click. And it'll make, um, put all the color on your art board for you. I have that. And now what I want to do is make edges a little bit darker. So I'm gonna go back and get back grain brush again. Go on the edges. Here. You can see I'm just making a little bit darker. Not too much. Just adding some texture. I'm gonna make this lighter because I want much lighter here. And I'm just circling here. Focus more in the middle to make it light Really light here. Then I have some sky texture. And then something I like to do in illustrations is I like to work with swirls. A lot. So I'm going to make this almost white and I'm going to. This is where I like to use my deliciously dry brush. I really like the texture. Make it a little bigger here. I'm just gonna make a swirl. And yes, it's very, very prominent right now. But after I draw, these were going to be adjusting the layer to make the A pass ity much lighter so they won't show up this much. So those are my swirls right now and we're gonna go over here while the layers selected to opacity It's said it 100. You drag it down, you can see that it gets lighter. So I don't want these two prominent. I just want them a little bit there. I'm just gonna set it like that little label that swirls. So I'm just going to draw a little flower. So I'm going to make a new layer behind my grasp that when I draw the stem of a flower, it will come up behind it instead of in front of it. I'm gonna get green and go back to get my gritty brush just going dressed. And so that's behind brass and find dragon to be in front of grass. You can see that it's in front of the entire brass layer, But just drag it behind it, and it will be behind. And you're so I have that I'm just gonna I see. Well, just do some little leaves on it, do little later just to make some little lines on the leaves. So that's my step. I'm gonna pick this pink over here, make my brush a little bigger, and actually, I'm going to do yellow so I can have that first. I'm just gonna do the yellow circle for the center of the flower. Gonna move that up a little bit just by grabbing this move tool on the left. So I'm gonna leave it at that yellow center. Amenah make a new layer, and I'm going dragged it beneath that because I want the pink of the flowers to be behind the yellow. And I'm just going to draw pretty pink flowers. This fill that in and you can see the edges are all very textured. So all about picking the brushes that have the texture or that you like or if you don't like texture getting brushes that don't have pastor. So that's my little pink flower I should say big for, so make him smaller and I mean a step back. Your show you hard with that? So I picked the two layers I selected the to, and then I used controlled T to select it. And I hold down shift to keep the proportions of the flower. And I made its father. Yeah, I can do that. And I do control t again to select them. But if I don't hold shift, it'll distort image and about want to do that, so make sure to keep shipped held down. You could make a smaller and then while it's still selected, you can turn it whatever ways you would like. So that's my little flower. Um, And if you want, like if I select yellow center, the pink background in the stems and I do control E that will make that were conjoined the layers into one thing. And so I want to make several of these. I can hold Ault down to duplicate it, drag it, let go, and I have a second. Another way to do that. If you don't want to use the keyboard is to have a buyer selected and drag it down to the new layer, and that would duplicated this fall so I could make a new layer here. If I do control T again, I can get it's small. I can flip it horizontal to the other way I can with around here, and you can change colors so that when I want to be, like, really dark, you could change colors easily. By doing that, I selected a new color. I just selected a blue up here and the paper in Pocket Tool, and I just had the layers selected, which was the far left flour, and I quick rewind the color and it made it so if I wanted the yellow blue and just click it and it makes it clicks. 10. Saving Your Work + Different File Types: Now let's talk about saving your work. So if I go up here, I have my mahr made aren't here if I go appear to file save as you go tear to safe as type , get a whole bunch of different options that you conceive has. So the number one thing I recommend is if you're creating artwork is always always always save a photo shop virgin file of your artwork so that that way you can always go back and edit the original artwork and pull from it whenever you need to. So always save a Photoshopped version. And, um, you don't have to worry about a lot of these, But some of whom, like, if you go down here, J Peg. So J Peg is, ah, standard image. Everyone really knows what a J peg is. Um, but J pegs, that is what you want to use. If you are saving your work, say to post to social media to post on your website to send a quick, um, lo rez low resolution image to someone because J pegs you do not keep your image quality with them. I and as one of the reasons I don't recommend them for high quality things. So if you just wanted to share on social media or save, ah, quick screenshot of your work just used J. Peck. But a good thing to know was that every single time you save an image and then go on to re save that same image as a JPEG, your image will deteriorate more and more and more. It will keep getting more pixelated. It will keep getting more blurry, and the quality will keep getting lesser and lesser. Um, so, yeah, so that's one. The reasons Jay pegs air kind of if, he said, just used for social media and things that you don't need, the works be top notch, high quality. You go down here to photo shop. Pdf PdF's. Um I mean pdf allows you to conserve your image quality Pretty great. Uh, I only really use Pdf's If I'm printing like a document or, um, like I also I sell on Etsy, so I create digital party packs. So something I do is our create a lot of work, and I'll save it and I'll combine it all into one. Pdf because it's easy, um, to print a pdf so that's what I kind of recommend just your PDF use. And then if you go down to P and G, PNG is great if you need your background to be transparent. So say you have your logo and you want to put it somewhere and you want. You don't want to have a background. You don't want a white background or any color background. You just wanted to overlay on whatever pictures there. You could save it as a pea. PNG Um, and it will do that as long as the image you have doesn't already have a background that's gone and it's just the logo. Then you'll have that transparent file. And lastly, um tiff. So tiff is the other format that allows you to conserve your image quality pretty greatly. Um, that is what I work with when I'm sending files. Two clients and manufacturers is tiffs because they're great for print files and they're great. A conserving image quality, the very high rez. Good files. And you can, um, I'll show you the option here if I click that and also before you click save, make sure you have your I c C. Profile selected down here so that way, Wherever you share your image on the computer, your color stay the same. Sometimes if you post your images on the Web or share them on email or social media, the colors may get saturated or changed. So always make sure you click that and the colors will stay the same. And that embeds your color profile with your image. All right, so I'm just gonna click Save to show you. So this is the tip options? Um, image compression. I keep it at none because I don't want my image compressed. I wanted at a great quality. I don't touch the pixel order. I don't touch the bite order and I just keep it as that. And I say, OK, um, if you have right now, my images flattened. But if I have several layers and I'm saving a tiff, there'll be an option option here asking if you want to keep the layered file so that if you open it, you can edit the layers. Um, I don't do that because it makes a file larger, so I always recommend flattening your image, and that can be done by going up to layer at the top of your navigation bar minds already flattened, so it's great out. But you can click frightened image here, flatten image at the bottom, and you can do that. 11. Overview + Tips: So as we're getting close toe wrapping up the class here, I just want to go back and do a quick overview of everything that we went over and just give you some last minute tips to help you out. So drawing with a tablet always remember that you want to hold your stylist pen just like you would if you were holding a pencil or any other writing utensil like a pen. Or if you were painting with a paintbrush. Just hold it like that, just like you normally would, and remember that it is pressure and touch sensitive, so make sure to play around with the pen pressure. Um, hold the pen down to apply pressure. Make thicker and more colorful dark lines and hold it gently and more softly on the tablet to achieve lighter lines in thinner lines with less pressure. And the drawing tablet is able to be connected with a USB accord that came with it. Or you can purchase a separate um, little USB plug in through Rackem two connected virus wirelessly via a WiFi attachment, and the tablet could be used for drawing. It is a drawing tablet but can also be used as a mouse. Once you get used to it, you can use it on set of your mouse pad when working on the computer. And, um, if you also want to, you can also use it as a mouse to photography or do anything else that is separate from drawing digitally. So using your express keys, remember that not all lacking tablets have them. Um, I know the interests pro ones do. I'm not sure what the other ones do. I think the other options. They have summits, rescues, but they believe looked different from the tax. This tablet, if they do have them, so I'm just check. If you do have, um, remember that you can change them and customize them by going to the search bar on your computer and searching for the lack of dust top properties. That's where you can change them. They're completely customizable. You can use as many of them as you want. You can use all of them. You can only use one if you want. It's completely up to you, and you don't have to use them. But in my opinion, it makes the workflow go a lot quicker, and it's a lot easier, in my opinion, all about brushes. So in this course, I talked about using Pile Webster brushes, which are now part of Photoshopped Creative Cloud. So to access those brushes, Tab and I covered this in the video. But just to go over it again, you go to the brush icon on the left side of your screen. When you're in photo shop and you go up to where you can address the brush size on the top left, you click the little arrow next to the brush icon, and then you'll see a little gear icon. Select that and then go down the list to get more brushes, and it will take you to the website and you can download the set that you would like, and you can adjust the size of the brushes. You can change the opacity, play around with the smoothness of the brushes to fit your needs. And that's all that the top navigation bar. I mean, I recommend just playing around with the different brushes, getting a feel for them, finding the right textures for you, see which brush you like best, just making your own style out of it. and have fun. Always remember toe have fungus the most important part eyes in your record. So I just listed some average sizes for you guys. Um, someone's that I use more, so so. Average illustrations. Sizes. There's eight by 10 inches, 11 by 17 inches, 20 by 30 inches getting into more poster size in 18 by 24 inches, reading part sizes for up To put these in there, either five by seven inches or you could do standard A to size, which is four and 1/4 inches by 5.5 inches and average repeat pattern design sizes. The ones I usually work with our 2000 by 2000 pixels, or 4000 by 4000 pixels, and the 2000 by 2000 pixels average out to be about 6.7 inches and 4000 by 4000 pixels averages out to be about 13.3 inches. And you can set your size of your work bored by opening a new board or file when you open Photoshopped. And always, always, always remember to keep your DP I at 300 the most important part you want to remember. And while you're in your work board to change the size of it. You can go up to image in the navigation bar, and you can either select canvas size or image size canvas size. You're able to change both the width and the height individually, um, and image size. Choose this option if you want to keep things proportionate. So if you change one measurement like if you change the height, it will also change the with to keep it in proportion to what your size. Already it's working in layers. Eso working in layers saves you a lot of time if you have to go back in the future and moving element changed colors, adjuster, sizing, etcetera, etcetera and working in layers. You can group them together, and labeling them makes it a lot easier to work with and to find them in the future. If you need to go back and find one specific player, it's just saves the hassle of having to go through everything and figuring out which layer everything's on. And you can change the opacity of them. So that can always be fun to play around with and work with and remember that it is okay to have a ton of layers. It's perfectly okay when I do my artwork. I have so many layers. It's like So it's okay. Sometimes it gets really up there, so don't have to worry about that. But it's so saving your work. Ah, this is just a little breakdown of the main file types that you should save your work as or could save your work as so First up, we have J. Peg. Um, remember, with J pegs that quality does decrease you. If you want high quality image, do not save it as a J peck. Every time you say the J peg, the quality decreases and increases and decreases. This is only recommended for if you're saving your image to share on social media, too, Um, put on your website or, if you're just needing toe, share a low rez image to enter into a contest or send over to recline. If they just want preview, you could do it. Jake Peck. And it is a lower file size as well. A PdF I. I usually say this more for saving documents. You can also use it for combining several images into one pdf document to send over. Um, and it does keep the quality high on your for your images. If you choose to keep it high. There is an option if you want to make it a compressed file size. But remember that whenever you compress file sizes, you are risking losing quality. Xlp of PNG Ah, this file saw this file type is used for having a transparent background. Then you have tiff, which does keep the high quality like Pdf again as long as you don't choose to compress it . You can choose to keep layers available in this file, or you can choose to keep it as a flattened image. I always do flattened image because if you keep the layers and there is just a very large file and it's very difficult, um, if you need to send it to someone cause it's very large on this is the file type that I personally use, uh, when sending to clients and with my artwork. And then there's another one that I didn't put on here. But it goes without saying is always save your Photoshopped file the PSD file so that you have your original artwork to work with 12. Conclusion: so that's all there is to it. Using a wax tablet is very easy and simple. And once you get it down and use it a few times, I guarantee you'll be able to use it with no problems at all. If at any point you're still struggling, are still have any questions that I maybe didn't answer, Feel free to post them in the discussion section in this course, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can to help you out. So I hope this course really helped you using a Wacom tablet for the first time, or just to refresh your skills. And I hope you're able to understand it a little better and able to use it much more easily and creates a beautiful artwork. And I can't wait to see what you guys create with it. If you're feeling ready to move on to more intermediate school sure courses that involved digital drawing on using a wax tablet, feel free to sign up for my other skills shirt courses that I've taught. I've taught about four or five now, and, um, they're all about digital drawing. I haven't instagram for creatives course, which could be really beneficial Teoh his instagram and your creative individual, but yes. So I'll link to all those courses that teach in and it'll be in the resource is section of this course, and I'll have them listed in a class. Notes labeled pdf. Alright, guys. Well, thank you so much for taking this course. I really hope it helped you out. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what you guys creating. Hearing how the course helped you. So yeah, thank you again for taking this course, and I'll see you in my next class.