Good art software.

[Mystix]

Hi all.
I had this software on my wishlist for a while and I just grabbed Open Canvas 6 (OC6) during the Christmas sales on Steam.

I've been dabbling with it, experimenting and teaching myself how to use it.
Before I mainly used GIMP for doing graphic-editing, so jumping into Open Canvas was fairly easy and intuitive to become familiar with it (though I'm still learning lots as I go).

For now I only have a mouse to draw-with (though I do plan to get a drawing-tablet when I can afford it), overall I'm quite impressed with OC6, it's many features and ease of use.

Checking out the main website at http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/ , and the Community section, I was quite impressed with some of the beautiful works-of-art I seen posted by some of the Artists there. Really, there's some great stuff there, and in part looking over the various art there inspired me to get OC6.

One of the features I also really liked is that for some art pieces there (in the PGN Community), that the event-file can be downloaded, open and played within OC6, so I can actually have a good idea of how some Artists approached and created their art, which can give me some new ideas and inspirations in making my own art-pieces too.

Myself, I guess I would be considered a casual "amateur" artist (or more like "beginner" level probably, though I have occasionally dabbled with sketching with pencil-&-paper over the years), but I think my first attempt at drawing something in OC6 turned out fairly well considering.

If interested, you can take a look at a video I made of the drawing-event being played of my very first art-piece in OC6 (with my own music I composed playing in the background too): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365349948

I look forward to being part of the Open Canvas Community. Cheers! :)

[darthfurby]

Welcome aboard! I'm pretty new here myself. Congrats on your first oc6 piece. This is why I love the event playback feature, it's like porn for artists. The "Videos" section could sure use a little more content, hint hint.

[Fontes]

Hey, I'd swarm the artwork and videos section with stuff of my own... if Steam allowed me to. Not gonna buy the Steam version of this just for that. :P

Anyway, welcome to the community, Don! Anything you need help with, we're around!

[Mystix]

Thanks for the kind welcome aboard. :)

I think using Open Canvas will help me, over time, to improve my art skills. Who knows, I may even be able to use it for making some bits of art in some games I may develop (I'm also an aspiring Indie Game Developer, currently making a couple of classic styled RPGs).

One thing I wanted to ask about OC6, but I couldn't seem find an answer for, when playing back an art-event in the software, it seems I can only find controls to pause, play or change the playback speed.

But is there a way to "rewind" or "fast-forward" or jump-to a spot on the playback timeline when playing an event? It seems a bit of a hassle that I'd need to reload and replay an event from the beginning if I wanted to rewatch a particular part, then I'd need to wait until it played to a spot if I wanted to examine something more closely.

Anyways, thanks again, and good luck with your own projects as well.

[Mystix]

Just thought I'd mention that yesterday I picked up a Wacom tablet. Though it will take me more practice to become better and more comfortable at using it, I've been playing around with it for a while and so far it seems to work really good and responsive with Open Canvas.

I also like that the tablet is pressure-sensitive and that OC recognizes that as well so my pen-strokes also draw with a lighter or heavier line accordingly. I have a much finer level of control now (compared to using a mouse for drawing) and In a lot of ways it almost now feels like 'real' sketching or painting. I think having the drawing-tablet and using it with Open Canvas will help to more bring out my 'inner artist'. Cheers! :)

[Sgt. Pepper]

Originally posted by LoneWolfDon:

I see you like the software, was hoping you could help me decide on something. I seen this and artrage are both on sale and after tryiong the demos I find this easier to draw but art easier to color in.

Anyway was thinking of just getting both, but was hoping maybe you looked at them and for some reason chose OC6.

[Mystix]

Originally posted by nmargie21122:

Originally posted by LoneWolfDon:

I see you like the software, was hoping you could help me decide on something. I seen this and artrage are both on sale and after tryiong the demos I find this easier to draw but art easier to color in.

Anyway was thinking of just getting both, but was hoping maybe you looked at them and for some reason chose OC6.

Hi there. I guess what software you might prefer using is a personal choice. What one did you feel more comfortable using?

I haven't yet used Artrage, so I can't really speak of it.

Good luck.

[Sgt. Pepper]

LoneWorlfDon

Thanks for the quick reply. Like I said found drawing in OC easier but really like the coloring in Artrage. Since you just bought one was hopeing you looked at both.

For the price point may just pick up both.

[Mystix]

Originally posted by nmargie21122:

Artrage does look like a rather nice painting software too.
I might give the demo of it a try myself and see what I think of it.

And, if you're into drawing art on your computer, and if you can afford it, then like you mention, perhaps you might be able to make good use of both. One software may be better suited for, or have some better features in some areas, than the other. For me, before I was mainly using GIMP for graphic-editing, and I think I'll probably still use it for some things.

Cheers! :)

*Update:

Ok, I gave the demo of Artrage 4 a bit of a try.
Overall I do like it and it perhaps seems more well suited for doing painting-on-canvas style of art and does 'paint' and 'watercolor' quite nicely.

However, I still feel more comfortable with sketching style in Open Canvas (which is what I'm more familiar with anyways as I've dabbled with pencil-&-paper sketching over the years and not much with painting). Overall, I also felt I had a finer level of control with drawing (sketching style) and that I more liked the features provided in Open Canvas.

For me personally, and what style of drawing I might prefer doing, and for the features provided and responsiveness to my pen-strokes, I think I'll be mainly using Open Canvas.
I may however at some point get ArtRage (and in the meantime I can just leave the demo installed anyways to play around with it or for if I want to try more painting-on-canvas or watercolor style art, or it might be a nice way to do or touch-up coloring of some drawings).

[Sol]

I agree, this is very good software. I would have happily paid full price if it wasn't 20% off. That is pinching pennies though.

[Sgt. Pepper]

LoneWolfDon

Thanks for the review. You and I seem to agree on both tools. It is clear that OC is better drawing app and ArtRage for painting which is why I wondered if anyone used both.

[Fontes]

I wonder if I can make OC's brushes act like the ones in ArtRage... guess I gotta get the thing and try it out to have a proper feel of it. :P

[Mystix]

Hi all.
If interested, here's a video of me drawing a landscape in Open Canvas 6:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=367874303

This is my first time using a drawing-tablet to draw a picture, and I'm still becoming familiar with it and the OC software, but overall I'm satisfied with how it turned out.

PS: I also composed the music in this video as well. Cheers! :)

[Mystix]

*Update:Though I'm still relatively new to using Open Canvas and continuing to learn, I went ahead and made a little tutorial video, in which I draw a simple beach scene. I use tools and techniques such as gradients, fingertip-smudging, noise & wave filters and more. Hope it might be of some interest or help to some others who are new to the software .
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=370187678

[darthfurby]

Great tutorial! A series of these and you'd be a hit with the ladies(or at least with the community)! The library of openCanvas 6 tutorials is slim pickens after all.

[Mystix]

@Darthfurby : Thanks. Well, like I mentioned in my tutorial-vid, I just picked-up Open Canvas recently (during the 2014 Christmas sales on Steam), am still learning about it and I certainly don't know it all.

Looking for tutorials on Open Canvas 6, I couldn't really find too much out there (or the majority of what little I could find, and in English, was often for much earlier versions of OC, so some of the info was out-dated or some things in OC6 may be a lot different now).

And, aside from the Steam forums here, I haven't really been able to find much in the way of an English Community for OpenCanvas (I did find a couple of Open Canvas related forums, or more rather Art forums with an Open Canvas sub-forum, but it seems they're largely quite inactive, with often the lasts posts in them being made years ago).

The official "PNG Community", http://www.portalgraphics.net/pg/ ,doesn't really have a "forum" (at least not that I could find there), but more it seems a place for some Artists to be able to upload some of their art and/or Event files (and it doesn't even yet support Open Canvas 6 / OC6 Event files yet, so I'm currently left-out there, not really being able to participate and feeling like an "outsider"), and at best you might be able to give a brief comment on someone's art. Seems it would be difficult to have much interaction or discussions with anyone in the "Community" there. And it also seems to be a majority of Japanese OC Users there (which I realize that the Open Canvas software is Developed in Japan), but I feel there's a lacking of much in the way of an OC Community in English.

Even the official Help / Manual I felt was rather lacking, as it perhaps gave a brief, and blunt, translation of the various tools or features, but I didn't see much in the way of more useful detailed information or examples of how some of the various tools or features might be used.

Anyways, I thought that perhaps in making some tutorials, like the one I made in which I draw the simple beach scene, would be a way to show some working examples of how some of the tools and features of OC6 could be used and might be of interest to some other Users of OC6.

I might go on to make more similar tutorials vids in which I may draw differnet scenes while showing some other tools and features being used.

PS: Sure, send the ladies my way. I'll draw them some nice flowers. ;)
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Heheh.