Help me get started with digital painting (Photoshop)

So I just got my birthday gift delivered today (yay), a Genius Pensketch A4 size drawing tablet. SO now I can finally get down to some serious digital drawing.
 
The problem is, I'm pretty confused when it comes to the color part. One of the problems is, my paintings end up looking blurry and washed out. Another thing is that i'm not really sure how to use the coloring tools and in what way should I use them. The sketching part is pretty alright, so lets not discuss that here.  I just have trouble creating sharp, nicely detailed drawings with realistic light effects and such.
 
I just started with this tutorial to learn stuff, but I feel that the guy who did the tutorial itself didn't really teach properly as to what he was doing (he just kept skipping steps without explanation)
I'd be grateful if you could check out that tutorial and tell me whether its him or whether Its just that I suck :/ (check page 2) http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/drawing/painting-a-fantasy-warrior-in-photoshop/Page-1.html 
 
Also I can't seem to get the smooth long strokes that he has in his base sketch. Me lines are more jagged and shorter. 
What I am currently stuck at: 

@armaan8014: It doesn't look like you're using shape dynamics very much. So maybe that will help some. My technique was to lay down a mid tone, high light, then shadow in solid places like you would see in an anime. Then I would use the smudge tool to blend those together some. Then I would go back and select some of those blended colors and use those to paint in a bit more. Using the smudge tool and shape dynamics and some really low opacity brush strokes will make it look less blurry. As for the base sketch, I always did that on paper then scanned the lines in. I don't draw or paint much anymore, but here are the best two I ever did. These are from five or six years ago.

Notice the wood branch in the first picture and the purple rubber in the second as an example of what I'm talking about when using the smudge tool.

I've never been anything close to an expert, but I hope this helps.

@armaan8014: It doesn't look like you're using shape dynamics very much.

My technique was to lay down a mid tone, high light, then shadow in solid places like you would see in an anime. Then I would use the smudge tool to blend those together some. Then I would go back and select some of those blended colors and use those to paint in a bit more. Using the smudge tool and shape dynamics and some really low opacity brush strokes will make it look less blurry.

@armaan8014 said:

@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:

@armaan8014: It doesn't look like you're using shape dynamics very much.

Yeah I don't really know how to use that to my benefit, any advice?

@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:

My technique was to lay down a mid tone, high light, then shadow in solid places like you would see in an anime. Then I would use the smudge tool to blend those together some. Then I would go back and select some of those blended colors and use those to paint in a bit more. Using the smudge tool and shape dynamics and some really low opacity brush strokes will make it look less blurry.

Ah thanks! Thats exactly what I wanted to know! Plus the branch made it clearer. All I kept doing was mixing low opacity paints with each other, even highlights and shadows. And I didn't smudge. So the highlights and shadows should be 100% opaque and then smudged? Also, how did you get the background to look distant without losing details? And the clouds (sorry for so many questions I just wanna learn as much as possible :P)

Yeah, check it now and see if the second pick is there. Do you know what I'm saying when I say shape dynamics? I don't know what version of Photoshop you're using, but in mine, CS, if you look over to the right you should see a tab that says "brushes". Click on it and you'll see a bunch of unchecked boxes. All of these will do different things with your tablet. If you click "shape dynamics" it will make it so that the harder you push down with your pen, the thicker the brushstroke gets.

And yes, I lay down solid colors in the rough position where they should fall depending on where the light source is, then I use the smudge and brushes with less opacity, like %20. The background trees were made with a mix of brushes, one that looks like grass and another that is just a splotchy kind of pattern. You just have to experiment. The clouds were done using "scattering" combined with "shape dynamics" under the brush tab.

@armaan8014: No problem. My knowledge is limited, but I'll answer any questions as best as I can.

Heres what I was able to do following a tutorial:
 

Heres what I was able to do following a tutorial:
 

Any more tips would be welcome!

I just realized how much I actually suck at PS by looking at your creations ^^

Well i'm not an expert at coloring, it's one of the things i'm studying now. I admit it's my weakness and holding back my art. Look at this guy's youtube channel, it should explain how to do this stuff. There is so much info.
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/idrawgirls?blend=1&ob=5
 
also I found another tutorial helpful, watch the earlier ones to see greyscale
 greyscale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NDdQBZ8PU&feature=related
 color
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVsEsXkkO3o&feature=related

The trick to sharp contrasts in your coloring is to use the freehand lasso selection tool to create masks around areas you're working on. It's the same thing air brush artists are doing when they use frisket masking. So if you study their technique it works about the same in Photoshop.

i suggest you either get illustrator or use illustrator for drawing.  i guess just draw around and play with filters. 
 here is something that i made with illustrator a couple of years ago at school. it's jacob lawerence- wash day.

So we can post our own art here? Well I colored this with a tablet, not the best but most of my other artwork has terrible coloring. I tried to use greys to create the shape, would of made her more shiny now with more reflective light in hindsight, but i'm too lazy to. 
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

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when it comes to painting, I never use something digital. That style is always done best with water, texture, and depth that only real materials can truly support.  I have yet to see a painting art style done on a computer that has wowed me...

I have pretty good luck just painting in the whole thing in black and white then adding color to it later. You can just set black and white as the pallete and switch back and forth between them (hotkey is x) and just layer and layer until its fully shaded. Just treat it like a real painting. Then when you need to color, make a new layer and set the layer property to "color". You get a pretty vibrant look that way, but not terribly realistic: 
  
 
For a realistic look in the color, I'll do a new couple of layers set to "multiply" and that normally creates a bit more depth  and color desaturation in the shadow portions. That's a bit more advanced, though. But for realistic shading its essential. The other option is good because you just lay the color on the color layer so that's a good spot to start. Just shade in black and white, and color with a layer set 'color'. So you've got that forest picture you just made in black and white, I'd try adding color to that with a color layer and see how it looks.

Well i'm not an expert at coloring, it's one of the things i'm studying now. I admit it's my weakness and holding back my art. Look at this guy's youtube channel, it should explain how to do this stuff. There is so much info.
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/idrawgirls?blend=1&ob=5
 

 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

.
 

  For a realistic look in the color, I'll do a new couple of layers set to "multiply" and that normally creates a bit more depth  and color desaturation in the shadow portions.

 Just shade in black and white, and color with a layer set 'color'. So you've got that forest picture you just made in black and white, I'd try adding color to that with a color layer and see how it looks.

If I may offer my two bits:

I tend to use a brush with the opacity and flow jitter set to 'pen pressure' and get in real close If I need to, alternating shape dynamics on and off depending on the surface I'm colouring. I'll also tweak the whole image on the fly using adjustment layers. I'm not claiming to be the best by any stretch, but I know I'm a lot better than I used to be and I learnt the techniques I use from reading a bunch of tutorials and practicing. Really I can't offer much more advice than that, practice a lot and don't be afraid to get in real close if you need to apply detail. It really does help to have solid traditional art skills too, a tablet is as much a tool as a paintbrush or a pencil, it's not a magic wand. Use photo reference, do little studies and sketches and work, work, work at it.

Been so fucking long since I drew, and then my Wacom pen broke, out of warranty I might add, so I'm still struggling to get a new pad. Them things are expensive when your income equals zero. :P

But I tend to stick to drawing stick figures in the poses I want, and then I just start drawing lines around them until I feel I have the shape right. If it looks good in B&W, then it's good enough, and coloring is more the icing on the cake.

When playing with shading and colors, I tend to play with opacity and the color properties. I tend to learn ONE new things with each picture I draw. Look up something I want to learn, and make that image the one I'll practice it on. Don't learn fifteen times at once. Pictures can be remade and improved, so keep it simple and take one thing at the time.

A lot of layers, and not being afraid to do something "bad" and learn from it. The more pieces you do, the more you learn and improve from. Below is the same character, but one of my first digital drawings/paintings.

@armaan8014: found the tutorial. You can get it HERE. It's a free download. They also have another tutorial about painting for free as well.

http://www.digitalarttutorials.com/tutorial_detail.php?id=100

Layers, dude. Create a new layer for all your sketchy lines, then make it slightly translucent once you are done. Then create another layer over the top and use a much bolder sharper brush to trace over the top. You might want to create several different layers and use different brushes in each one for different parts of the image. The added benefit of using different layers is that if you don't like it you can just scrap the layer and start again.

The penny arcade guys sometimes live-stream their work, I'm sure if you were to check youtube you could see how they do it, or at the very least find some similar stuff.

@Sweep said:

The penny arcade guys sometimes live-stream their work, I'm sure if you were to check youtube you could see how they do it.

And then cry because you realize just how damn good and fast Mike (Gabe) is compared to you.

The Penny Arcade Ustream page

@ZimboDK said:

@Sweep said:

The penny arcade guys sometimes live-stream their work, I'm sure if you were to check youtube you could see how they do it.

And then cry because you realize just how damn good and fast Mike (Gabe) is compared to you.

The Penny Arcade Ustream page

No joke. That guy is so damn good. I used to watch the hell out of those livestreams. Because of my colorblindness, I pretty much don't do anything in color. Most of my stuff is monochrome. The only piece I ever did in color that was worth a damn is the drawing I did of Steve that is now part of the Lemon Lens intro.

Usually when I try to color my drawings it goes all wrong. I will say that it helps to use the eyedropper tool on the partially blended bits a lot to keep the blend more consistent. You should also really try to think of the subject like it had depth. Pay attention the planes of the object. In my drawing here, you can see how all of the front facing planes of Steve's face have more or less the same shade. You might also start the background with a medium shade of a color appropriate to the lighting you want. It helps you keep the final piece from being too washed out or too dark.

First of all I want to apologize for the obscene size of the pictures that I've put up here but still, here they are.

My tips would be to work large, if your computer can handle it and with a high pixels per inch count. I usually work with 72 but have heard of people going up to around 300. Also you should look into getting some custom brushes, avoid the obvious things like fire stamps and such but simply a different set of unique brushes that give a more scratchy look or something can be really useful. Never use dodge and burn for your highlights and shadowing.

My final bit of advice would be to paint different things, differently. It sounds really obvious but for almost as long as I've been using my tablet I've used the same technique for everything regardless of if it's skin, metal, cloth e.t.c and it just doesn't work.

I hope some of this stuff has been useful for you, I'm not exactly pro at using a tablet myself but it's always nice to get some help from others I guess.

Good luck and happy drawing!

@Sweep said:

The penny arcade guys sometimes live-stream their work, I'm sure if you were to check youtube you could see how they do it.

And then cry because you realize just how damn good and fast Mike (Gabe) is compared to you.

The Penny Arcade Ustream page

Never use dodge and burn for your highlights and shadowing.

@armaan8014: found the tutorial. You can get it HERE. It's a free download. They also have another tutorial about painting for free as well.

http://www.digitalarttutorials.com/tutorial_detail.php?id=100

Lol, that's like a lot better than before.

@armaan8014: You've improved a lot already, keep it up!

And with the dodge and burn I don't think it's an avoid at all costs thing, but over using it especially for shadows and highlights can look really bad.

@armaan8014:

Damn, huge improvement already. That's really great stuff.