DIGITAL ART GUIDEBOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEVICES SOFTWARES
PAGE 2 - 5 AND
APPLICATION
CANVAS PAGE 6 - 8
PAGE 9
LAYERS
TOOLS PAGE 10
PAGE 11 - 13
BLENDING
ALPHA MODE
LOCK AND PAGE 14 - 18
CLIPPING
OPINIONS
PAGE 19 PAGE 20

1

DEVICES To start a digital art, you must own an electronic
device. There are four devices that you can use to
create an art.

1 GRAPHIC
TABLET

Also known as digitizer, digital
graphic tablet, pen tablet,
digital art board
Needs to be attached to a PC or
laptop
Able to draw on the surface of
the graphic tablet using a
stylus
The surface of the graphic
tablet reflect your screen.
The cursor's position on the
screen depends on the stylus's
position on the surface
cheap option and available in
various size
things you need to consider
- need a PC or laptop
- need some time to get used to it

2

2 GRAPHIC DEVICES
DISPLAY

Unlike graphic tablet, it lets
the user to draw and paint
directly on screen
Similar to a tablet except that
this device required a PC or a
laptop
More expensive than a
graphic tablet
Feels more comfortable while
draw on the screen instead of
the surface of graphic tablet.
things you need to consider
- need a PC or laptop
- more expensive than
graphic tablets
- low budget models might
have some lag or slow
-The stylus needs charging
(for some models)

3

DEVICES 3 TABLET

A tablet is a wireless, portable
personal computer with a
touchscreen interface.
Tablets are typically smaller
than a notebook computer, but
larger than a smartphone.
There are a lot of drawing
applications and some of them
are free
To start a digital art, the user
only need a stylus (if don't have
any)
Portable, you can draw
anywhere you like
similar to graphic display, you
can draw it directly on the
screen.
feels more comfortable to draw
things you need to consider
- a bit pricey and expensive
- need to buy a stylus

4

4 SMART DEVICES
PHONE

Smartphones are similar to
tablets except that the screen
is smaller
A bit challenging due to its
small screen
portable, you can draw
anywhere you like
things you need to consider
- hard to draw since the screen
is small
- need to buy a stylus

5 STYLUS

Stylus is a pen-like electronic
device used to sketch on tablet's
or smartphone's surface

5

SOFTWARES Softwares and applications are very essential.
Here are a list of commonly used softwares and
apps used by digital art artists.

1 DESKTOP

Adobe Photoshop CC

- for professional
- $9.99/month
- currently one of the best
editing software

Clip Studio Paint

- for professional
- $49.99 PRO
-has many useful and
unique features

Paint Tool SAI

- for professional
-JPY5500 = $48.10
- only available at
windows

Medibang Paint Pro

- can be use for fun
- free of charge
- easy and intuitive way
to make art

Corel Painter 2021

- for professional
- $199/annual $424/one
time payment
- has many artistic
brushes

Krita

- can be use for fun

6 - free of charge
- offers plenty of materials

2 TABLETS APPLICATION
7
Procreate

- for professional
- $9.99 pay once
- only available in IOS
- good drawing app

Clip Studio Paint

- for professional
- $4.49/month &
$24.99/annual PRO
-has many useful and
unique features

Medibang Paint Pro

- can be use for fun
- free of charge
- easy and intuitive way to
make art

Adobe Fresco

- for professional
- $9.99/month
- very versatile and user
friendly

IbisPaint X

- can be use for fun
- $7.99 to remove ads and
get unlimited amount of
brushes
- decent drawing app

Paintstorm Studio

- can be use for fun
- cost $12.99
- excellent option to
consider for 2D artists

SOFTWARES 3 SMART
PHONE

Clip Studio Paint

- for professional
- $0.99/month &
$6.49/annual PRO
-has many useful and
unique features

IbisPaint X

- can be use for fun
- $7.99 to remove ads
and get unlimited
amount of brushes
- decent drawing app

Medibang Paint Pro

- can be use for fun
- free of charge
- easy and intuitive
way to make art

Artflow

- can be use for fun
- free of charge
- only available in
android

Infinite Painter

- can be use for fun
- free of charge
- natural brushes,
realistic blending, and
an unparalleled toolset

8

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Here are a few basic tools that beginners TOOLS
should know in order to create a digital art
11
BRUSH 1

Brush is one of the most
important tools in digital art
To start drawing, just tap the
brush icon and start draw it on
the canvas's surface
Brush has various
styles
Different software
provides different
numbers of brush
Brush icon is
usually resembles
an actual brush

ERASER 2

Eraser is one of the most
important tools in digital art
The function of the eraser is to
erase a mistake on the canvas's
surface
Eraser has
various styles
Different software
provides different
numbers of eraser
Eraser icon is
usually resembles
an actual eraser

TOOLS 3 BUCKET

Bucket is one of the tools in
digital art
The function of the bucket is to
fill an entire area of a drawing
easily
This tool is pretty convenient and
easy for everyone to use

Bucket icon is
usually
resembles an
actual bucket
pouring a
liquid

4 BLUR

Blur is one of the tools in digital
art
The function of the blur is to
create a blurry effect on the
canvas

This tool is
really helpful for
anyone who use
it
Blur icon is
usually
resembles a
single droplet of

12 water

SMUDGE 5 TOOLS

Smudge is one of the tools in 13
digital art
Smudge leaves a smearing like
wet paint
To create a smear, just tap the
icon and swipe it to the direction
that you want
Smudge icon is
usually
resembles a
hand which
pointed a finger
to the surface

EYEDROPPER 6

Eyedropper is one of the tools in
digital art
The function of the eyedropper is
to pick a desired colour from the
canvas without opening the
colour wheel
This tool is very
helpful for
everyone
Eyedropper
icon is usually
resembles an
actual
eyedropper

BLENDING MODE Blending mode is an effect that you can add to a
layer. This will basically blend the layer's colour
with lower layers' colour to look different.
Different softwares provides different amount of
blending modes.

1 NORMAL

Colour is simply placed on top of the
colour of the layer below
This is the default mode

Example
from
Adobe
Photoshop
Example
from
Clip Studio
Paint

2 DARKEN 3 MULTIPLY

Compares the Multiplies the
colours of the colour of the
blending layer blending layer
and the base and the base
layers and keeps layers
the darkest Resulting in dark
colours colour
Resulting in dark Useful for
colour colouring shadow

Example from Example from
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop

14 Example from Example from
Clip Studio Paint Clip Studio Paint

4 COLOUR 5 LINEAR BLENDING MODE
BURN BURN

Increases the Blends the colours
contrast of the of the blending
base colours, layer by darkening
blends the colours the colours of the
of the blending base layers
layer

Example from Adobe Photoshop Example from Adobe Photoshop

Example from Clip Studio Paint Example from Clip Studio Paint

6 SUBTRACT 7 DIFFERENCE

Subtracts the Subtracts the
colour of the colours of the
blending layer from blending layer from
the base colours the base colours,
Resulting in dark keeps the resulting
colour value and combines
it with the original
base colours

Example from Adobe Photoshop Example from Adobe Photoshop

Example from Clip Studio Paint Example from Clip Studio Paint 15

BLENDING MODE 8 LIGHTEN 9 SCREEN

Compares the Inverts the base
base colours and colours and
the colours of multiplies with
the blending the colour of the
layer blending layer
Keeps the Resulting in
lighter colour brighter colours

Example from Adobe Photoshop Example from Adobe Photoshop

Example from Clip Studio Paint Example from Clip Studio Paint

10 COLOUR 11 GLOW
DODGE DODGE

Lightens the Creates a
colours of the stronger effect
base layers and than the colour
reduces the dodge mode
contrast
Resulting in
saturated mid
tones

Example from Clip Studio Paint

Example from Adobe Photoshop Credits to ;
Adobe official website
for the example
pictures from Adobe
Photoshop

Art Rocket website
for the example
pictures from Clip
16 Example from Clip Studio Paint Studio Paint

12 ADD 13 OVERLAY BLENDING MODE

Adds the colour Multiplies or
information of the screens the colours
base layers and the Behaves like screen
blending layer. mode in bright
Adding colour areas and like
increases the multiply mode in
brightness darker area

Example from Adobe Photoshop Example from Adobe Photoshop

Example from Clip Studio Paint Example from Clip Studio Paint

14 SOFT LIGHT 15 HARD LIGHT

Darkens or lightens Multiplies or screens
the colours, the colours,
depending on the depending on the
blend colour blend colour
Depends on the Depends on the
density of the density of the
superimposed colour superimposed colour

Example from Adobe Photoshop Example from Adobe Photoshop

Example from Clip Studio Paint Example from Clip Studio Paint 17

16 VIVID LIGHT BLENDING MODE

Burns or dodges the colours by increasing
or decreasing the contrast
If the blend colour is lighter than grey, the
image is lightened by decreasing the
contrast and vice versa

Example
from Adobe
Photoshop

17 PIN LIGHT

Replaces the colours, depending on the
blend colour
Performs a Darken and Lighten Blending
Mode simultaneously

Example
from Adobe
Photoshop

18 HARD MIX

Adds the red, green and blue channel
values of the blend colour to the RGB
values of the base colour
All blended pixels have red, green, and blue
channel values of either 0 or 255

Example
from Adobe
Photoshop

There are a lot of blending modes that can be use, these are a

18 few examples of blending modes that can be found while
making a digital art.

ALPHA LOCK ALPHA LOCK & CLIPPING

Alpha lock is a
function that lets
you partially change
the colour of the line
drawing in the layer
that has been
opacity locked with a
brush
You can use this to
change the colour of
a line drawing

Example
from
IbisPaint X

If alpha lock is off If alpha lock is on

CLIPPING

Clipping is fairly
similar to alpha
lock but the
difference is it
involves two layers
instead of one
Clipping is a
function you use
when you want to
apply effects such
as blending only to
the lower layer

Example
from
IbisPaint X

No clipping Clipping is added 19

OPINIONS

There are a lot of people who are interested in
digital art making decisions about which device or
software to use.
My answer is it depends on your likings of digital
arts.
If you have a burning passion for that art and
confidently will continue to make art digitally, I
suggest you should pick a graphic tablet (if you own
a PC or laptop). For the software, you can use Adobe
Photoshop CC ,Clip Studio Paint, and Procreate (if
you own an iPad)
If you are curious about digital art and just want to
discover it, you can use your own smartphone to
draw and use free software or application such as
Ibis Paint X, Medibang Paint Pro or Infinite Painter
Keep in mind that, you should also be mindful about
your budget. Some devices and software are very
expensive to purchase.

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