This tutorial will show you how to set up your machine to recognize pressure sensitivity. You can use this for digital inking, painting, and shading in Photoshop. I use this technique in my comics, mostly for dynamic expressions and (with a large brush on a very low opacity) the multicolored shading. If you own a tablet, you absolutely have to do this setup.

You can use a version as old as Photoshop 7 and still be able to use this tutorial.

Step 1: Set your your graphics tablet up as described in it’s user manual. I personally use a Wacom Intuous.

Step 2: Go to your tablet’s manufacturer’s website and download the newest driver. Most likely any driver that was packaged on CD with the tablet is totally out of date.

Step 3: Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel on the PC or System Prefs on the Mac. Here will be a tablet menu where you can adjust what the buttons on your tablet and pen do. You can also adjust the pen’s pressure sensitivity.

How you set these are based on your personal preference. I usually totally deactivate the buttons on the side of the pen because they get in my way. I also make the pressure sensitivity just a little bit softer than the default setting.

NOTE: Cheaper tablets like the Graphire/Bamboo will offer a very limited array of settings. The Intuous level and higher will offer a full array of settings that you can adjust as well as double the points of sensitivity.

Step 4: Launch Photoshop

Step 5: Open your Brush Preferences (WIndow > Brushes). Make sure that Shape Dynamics is turned on and that it is set to Pen Pressure. This allows the tablet’s pressure sensitivity to respond to how hard or soft you press on the tablet with the pen.

You can now ink by hand with your pen if your pen tool is set up properly. I recommend a hard edge brush, not the soft, fuzzy brush.

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Step 1: Launch Photoshop.

Step 2: Go to File > Import, then select your scanner. It should be listed there. Mine is the ScanGear CS 7.2.5.x, so I click that. The Photoshop scanning menu should pop up.

Step 3: I click on “Preview” (1) so that I can see how much of the page I want to scan (2). Then I adjust the bounding box (That funny looking dotted box) around my sketch so that I am not scanning lots of blank paper.

Step 4: Please note that I have it set to Color, and 300 DPI (3). The image needs to be at least 300 DPI if you want it to look good when you print it out later.

Step 5: If your sketch is too light you can go to Image > Adjust > Auto Levels or Image > Adjust > Levels and play with the sliders to get it looking the best. I rarely do this because I am usually just going to digitally ink over it and delete the sketch layer, but if you want just a nice sketch you will probably want to adjust the levels.

Next I will show you how I digitally ink over my sketches.

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The key to not overloading yourself when you have a tough schedule is as simple as tricking your brain. I work an office job during the day and then come home and professionally work on my art and comics. Clearly coffee is required!

If you get behind, your brain will shut down, you will get depressed, and start procrastinating. I avoid this by planning flexibility into my week and not putting too much pressure on myself to do specific things on any one particular day.

- First, I decide what I realistically want to get done this week.

- Then I designate after work days for work and fun.

I cannot stress to you how important it is for you to plan fun into your day and week. Moving from an office job into more work in the same day is tough. You will not be able to do it every day for very long without chewing your arm off like a squirrel.

Daily Fun:

Examples of daily fun for me can be sketching during your dayjob’s break or going to get a fancy Starbucks drink.

At this point you are probably groaning at how un-fun that sounds, but I can assure you that you have to be able to dedicate a good part of your life to your business if you want it to work. Some days, Starbucks and a sketch is all you get, but because you are so great at planning and time management, your output keeps going and you can do awesome things later. For example, like affording that trip to Disney World or those $300 boots.

I speak from experience. Nothing is handed to you, but the rewards can be great.

Sliding Days:

I work full time and I have a 2.5 hour round trip commute. All of my art stuff is done at home after work.

I have a loose guideline of work/nonwork days that I follow to get the acceptable minimum amount of work done, but I often exceed it because I am not always in a state of panic with this method.

- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: At least 2 days from this group are work days. One is a fun shopping/errand day. If I feel too tired on Monday, I will just work on Tuesday and Wednesday, or work extra long on one of those days if I can’t work on 2 days.

- Thursday and Friday: Thursday is almost always a work day. Friday almost always is not because I am too tired and I have a vocal lesson after work that day. (I sing too! Yay!)

- Saturday: I have learned that I rarely will work much on Saturday, so that is always a fun day unless there is a convention coming up. Even then, I tend to take my fun days seriously, so I probably won’t be working on Saturday even then. I need my one day to go out and have an adventure or I will go nuts. This is the day I can go to NYC, the zoo, an amusement park, or something else. Often I just take a 4 hour nap because I’m so drained.

NAPS = SERIOUS BUSINESS!

- Sunday: Sunday varies. Sometimes I work, sometimes I go to the supermarket and buy the 5 frozen lunches (Oh joy…) that I will be eating that week plus snacks. Sometimes there is a nap involved.

In this way I can shift around the days that I work and still get everything done without feeling like I have to do X on a particular day. Artists know that if your mind doesn’t want you to do X today, you’d better be able to switch to Y because no amount of coffee will get X to come out. This is why I always have my Index Cards of Doom on hand to redirect me to the next highest priority if I experience a brain freeze.

The second I stopped planning hard tasks on each day was the second I was able to do more work that was better. I hope this can help you as well.

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They don’t teach business or workflow in art school, so unfortunately a lot of creative people find themselves wanting to hide in their studio. I’m here to give you the power back to take control of your creative business and your motivation.
 
The human mind reacts very well to writing. I learned Japanese by writing, so after having yet another useless try and using technology to organize my life, I figured why not swallow my pride and go back to basics? What I found was that not only was it a better method for me, but it helped me stay motivated. I use index cards. A quick glance at an index card told me exactly what to do and prevented any time wasting. Now I will share my method with you.
 
The Method:
 
All of my To Dos are kept on a deck of index cards fastened together by a binder clip.

Card 1:
 
The top index card has 3 columns: Now, Waiting, and Goals.
 
Now:
 
Now has things that I need to do the next time I sit in front of my desktop computer. This could be a new piece of art for a promo campaign, the next Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos comic, writing a tutorial, or something as simple as answering an email.

Things that can be done in a few seconds or minutes get done first and immediately. Deadline items (like the next comic) get done before freeform art because the comic must happen above all.
 
Waiting:
 
Waiting is for things I can’t work on now because I need something from someone else. I check this column daily and and ping the people I am collaborating with periodically. Often this is handled in weekly review sessions or by just asking the person how things are going.
 
Goals:
 
Goals are big things. This could be attending a convention, a website or book launch, or something like “increase website traffic by 10,000″.
 
Card 2:
 
The second card is my shopping list. We are talking about things like milk, Count Chocula cereal,  or a new pair of shoes. I also keep errands like going to the tailor or returning something.
 
Card 3:
 
The third card has notes about the Stupid and Insane universe. I forget things I’ve written…like the fact that William eats brain trees and that I need to bring back the evil unnamed girl from the “Descent into the Deathside” story arc.
 
My sketchbook contains My Annoying Life ideas, since those come to me randomly. Sometimes I sketch them on post-its and stick them inside the book.
 
All other cards are used for spontaneous notes. As I check tasks off of the first 3 cards, the tasks are rewritten on new cards. Similarly, the spontaneous notes are integrated in this way. When I rewrite stuff out my mind is re-engaging with the priorities, so I almost never forget about a task. My index cards are my life. I feel I control my life in this way, so motivation comes naturally. The second I started doing this, I forgot about any depressive feelings and was able to focus on goals and the steps that make up those goals.
 
If you find yourself lost, unfocused, and depressed this might be a good thing to try. I think you will find that when difficult things are broken down into smaller steps that you can physically see – everything starts falling into place. The best part is that by utilizing your goals column, you can actually see your progress. Seeing your progress is so very important because you will be able to see what you have done when you are having a bad day. This is your motivation to keep going!

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Hi everyone! This is Onezumi. You can call me Oni.

I’m starting this site to help out all of my artist, webcomic, author, and blogger friends improve their work. In my travels I have found that most schools tend to omit the business side of being creative and gloss over the technology side of things. This is a big problem for people when they graduate.

I have found a way to balance traditional art, technology, and business. I’ve gotten great results. Hopefully, I can share with you what worked for me to save you some trial and error time!

<3,

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