No artistic skill whatsoever, I want to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Any Youtube recommendations?

[Chromie]

Thanks to the coronavirus, I'm working from home. I asked for an adobe creative license just for personal use and to learn the programs even though I work in an architecture firm I don't really need such programs. Why did I want it? I don't know, I've always wanted to but I have no creative bone in me besides D&D and at least something good can come from all this.

What are some good Youtube channels to check out for some of the bigger and well known Adobe programs?

 

[Nepenthe]

The first thing to determine is what kind of digital art you want to learn using Photoshop. Photo editing and digital painting are entirely different beasts altogether, and will require different tutorial sets as a result.

 

[Chromie]

The first thing to determine is what kind of digital art you want to learn using Photoshop. Photo editing and digital painting are entirely different beasts altogether, and will require different tutorial sets as a result.

Click to shrink...

Definitely digital painting. I guess learning to draw should be the first step.

 

[Nepenthe]

Definitely digital painting. I guess learning to draw should be the first step.

Click to shrink...

Indeed. The general track for a complete beginner I'd recommend is shapes, color, and anatomy. Shape tutorials are going to teach you good form, concentration, and how to create the illusion of depth. Color tutorials teach you both harmonizing schemes as well as how to effectively shade light. After that, work on human anatomy. Once you get anatomy down and can draw a human, realistic or otherwise, without much trouble, you can pretty much draw anything, as a human is the hardest thing to get right.

I don't know any real outstanding tutorials for basic shapes and whatnot as I just kind skipped that track given my own art journey. It's pretty self explanatory: circles, squares, and triangles will evolve into spheres, boxes, and cones/pyramids. As for coloring, I refer back to this tutorial for inspiration from time to time:

Kecleon Color Theory

Marco Bucci is really great at painting too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LhcNbFMkTw

And as for human anatomy, you can't go wrong with Burne Hogarth's books. These are pretty much the standard: https://www.amazon.com/Burne-Hogarth/e/B000APHOOK

 

[Futureman]

Linked In Learning.

Back in the day I'd spam the free trial with different email addresses but it's definitely worth a month sub now during the lockdown.

If you possibly work at a university it could be free for you.

It used to be called Lynda and I'm wondering now how they deal with the probably thousands of tutorial videos that call it Lynda.

 

[luffie]

If you want to learn general painting, like humans and fantasy, i suggest you put aside photoshop first, and just learn drawing fundamentals and basics.
Photoshop will not save your work in any way, when your fundamentals are bad.
Look more drawing vids, than painting vids.

Sincerely,
An artist

 

[FFNB]

Definitely digital painting. I guess learning to draw should be the first step.

Click to shrink...

Definitely learning to draw should be step one. XD. Fortunately, learning to draw isn't too bad, but it requires some serious commitment. I've been an artist entire life (going on 41 years now), and it has not been easy. If you truly have a passion for art, just remember that bad days happen. Sometimes your creative juices just aren't flowing that day/week/month. When that happens, I tend to go into "sponge mode." I immerse myself in the things that inspire me: movies, tv, books, video games. The thing is, I'm no consuming them purely for entertainment. I'm studying them. How does this artist/filmmaker/writer construct things like composition? How do they use lighting to evoke a mood? How did they solve this trouble spot with anatomy. Generally, that approach will shake me out of my funk, and I'll start to feel that creative motivation returning.

Another thing to think about is that if you can draw a circle, square, or triangle, you are already on your way. If not; learn how to draw circles, squares, and triangles. You will be using them a lot, as most objects both organic and inorganic, are composed of spheres, cubes, and cylinders. Once you've gotten drawing spheres, cubes, and cylinders down, you'll have to learn how to draw those things in perspective. Perspective is a bitch, but fortunately, it has clear rules (rules that can be bent, depending on what you're going for, but that's something to consider for a later time).

Don't go into it expecting to be able to produce work like Artgerm. Go into it with a love of art, and a desire to find your own unique voice. It took me decades before I finally felt I had developed a style that I would call my own. It's definitely a mix of my various influences, but it's also my own way of approaching art and self expression. Back in school, I wore my inspirations on my sleeve. I wanted to draw like Todd McFarlane, then J. Scott Campbell, then Katsuhiro Otomo, then Joe Mad. Once I realized that they were them, and I was me, I stopped beating myself up over not being at their level, and focused more on bettering my voice and my expression. And I'm still learning and growing and trying to master my craft. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with my work, but I am 100% proud of it.

I'd have to look into my youtube subscriptions for some suggestions, but I just wanted to chime in and wish you luck!

 

[Devilgunman]

Being good at arts of any kind doesn't start with skills. It starts with your imagination. You need to train your brain to think like an artist so you can have very clear vision of what you're trying to paint. Photoshop is just a tool to make your vision reality.

 

[FFNB]

Here is a list of a few of my favorite channels/artists on youtube. There's a bunch more I love, but here are a few to get you started down that rabbit hole:

Dave Greco:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCce3n3T2-Okw7qDmhXZZH3g

Jake Parker:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJheV30gHVOjBps2DU7k9A

Stan Proko:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClM2LuQ1q5WEc23462tQzBg

Nadiaxel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Reegeta/featured

Marc Burnett:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtu_JtQCY0yryIy6zK4ZCg

Alphonso Dunn:
https://www.youtube.com/user/LighterNoteProd

Moderndayjames:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8GDFj5BQCQrSHITFebzkA

I've been watching their videos for the past few months, and they've been immensely helpful. For both refreshing my mind and reinforcing concepts I'm familiar with, as well as introducing me to deeper ways of thinking about art. They have a ton of videos, from beginner to advanced, so you can easily spend hours going through their work. I recommend watching a video first, then watching it again while you follow along drawing. For me, the first watch is always nice for just absorbing what they're saying, without splitting my focus on my own drawing. The second watch is where I can start to practically apply their words while drawing along myself.

Edit: Hogarth is a really good one to study, but I'd also like to add George Bridgman. He has some really good books on constructive anatomy, and what I really like about him is that his style really reinforces the planes of the human figure, adding in perspective knowledge on top of your anatomical knowledge. I have both his and Hogarth's books in my library, and they're totally worth investing in.

 

[Calabi]

There's a website I used a whole ago that still seems to be going. It's called Ctrl Paint https://www.ctrlpaint.com/. It has loads of good tutorials, I even paid for some because they were so good.

 

[Yerffej]

Indeed. The general track for a complete beginner I'd recommend is shapes, color, and anatomy. Shape tutorials are going to teach you good form, concentration, and how to create the illusion of depth. Color tutorials teach you both harmonizing schemes as well as how to effectively shade light. After that, work on human anatomy. Once you get anatomy down and can draw a human, realistic or otherwise, without much trouble, you can pretty much draw anything, as a human is the hardest thing to get right.

I don't know any real outstanding tutorials for basic shapes and whatnot as I just kind skipped that track given my own art journey. It's pretty self explanatory: circles, squares, and triangles will evolve into spheres, boxes, and cones/pyramids. As for coloring, I refer back to this tutorial for inspiration from time to time:

Kecleon Color Theory

Marco Bucci is really great at painting too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LhcNbFMkTw

And as for human anatomy, you can't go wrong with Burne Hogarth's books. These are pretty much the standard: https://www.amazon.com/Burne-Hogarth/e/B000APHOOK

Click to shrink...

I second Marco Bucci. A fount of knowledge on color.

 

[Akela]

Personally I would look into starting a free trial of either Pluralsight or Lynda - I find that these websites generally offer better quality tutorials and a more structured, course-like learning then what you generally on YouTube. You should find a ton of courses on there related to Photoshop, Illustator and all the other Adobe programs.

Also if you're looking into doing digital painting I would highly recommend buying a graphics tablet, it's difficult to do it without. Doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive, look at some of the lower end tablets from Wacom, Huion and XP-Pen. Anything will be better then trying to draw with a mouse.

 

[Chromie]

Definitely learning to draw should be step one. XD. Fortunately, learning to draw isn't too bad, but it requires some serious commitment. I've been an artist entire life (going on 41 years now), and it has not been easy. If you truly have a passion for art, just remember that bad days happen. Sometimes your creative juices just aren't flowing that day/week/month. When that happens, I tend to go into "sponge mode." I immerse myself in the things that inspire me: movies, tv, books, video games. The thing is, I'm no consuming them purely for entertainment. I'm studying them. How does this artist/filmmaker/writer construct things like composition? How do they use lighting to evoke a mood? How did they solve this trouble spot with anatomy. Generally, that approach will shake me out of my funk, and I'll start to feel that creative motivation returning.

Another thing to think about is that if you can draw a circle, square, or triangle, you are already on your way. If not; learn how to draw circles, squares, and triangles. You will be using them a lot, as most objects both organic and inorganic, are composed of spheres, cubes, and cylinders. Once you've gotten drawing spheres, cubes, and cylinders down, you'll have to learn how to draw those things in perspective. Perspective is a bitch, but fortunately, it has clear rules (rules that can be bent, depending on what you're going for, but that's something to consider for a later time).

Don't go into it expecting to be able to produce work like Artgerm. Go into it with a love of art, and a desire to find your own unique voice. It took me decades before I finally felt I had developed a style that I would call my own. It's definitely a mix of my various influences, but it's also my own way of approaching art and self expression. Back in school, I wore my inspirations on my sleeve. I wanted to draw like Todd McFarlane, then J. Scott Campbell, then Katsuhiro Otomo, then Joe Mad. Once I realized that they were them, and I was me, I stopped beating myself up over not being at their level, and focused more on bettering my voice and my expression. And I'm still learning and growing and trying to master my craft. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with my work, but I am 100% proud of it.

I'd have to look into my youtube subscriptions for some suggestions, but I just wanted to chime in and wish you luck!

Click to shrink...

I know one of those names! But I get what you're saying. I've never spent time drawing anything. This is something I've just wanted to try and well now seems like the perfect.

Here is a list of a few of my favorite channels/artists on youtube. There's a bunch more I love, but here are a few to get you started down that rabbit hole:

Dave Greco:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCce3n3T2-Okw7qDmhXZZH3g

Jake Parker:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJheV30gHVOjBps2DU7k9A

Stan Proko:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClM2LuQ1q5WEc23462tQzBg

Nadiaxel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Reegeta/featured

Marc Burnett:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtu_JtQCY0yryIy6zK4ZCg

Alphonso Dunn:
https://www.youtube.com/user/LighterNoteProd

Moderndayjames:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8GDFj5BQCQrSHITFebzkA

I've been watching their videos for the past few months, and they've been immensely helpful. For both refreshing my mind and reinforcing concepts I'm familiar with, as well as introducing me to deeper ways of thinking about art. They have a ton of videos, from beginner to advanced, so you can easily spend hours going through their work. I recommend watching a video first, then watching it again while you follow along drawing. For me, the first watch is always nice for just absorbing what they're saying, without splitting my focus on my own drawing. The second watch is where I can start to practically apply their words while drawing along myself.

Edit: Hogarth is a really good one to study, but I'd also like to add George Bridgman. He has some really good books on constructive anatomy, and what I really like about him is that his style really reinforces the planes of the human figure, adding in perspective knowledge on top of your anatomical knowledge. I have both his and Hogarth's books in my library, and they're totally worth investing in.

Click to shrink...

Thanks! Will definitely look at them.

There's a website I used a whole ago that still seems to be going. It's called Ctrl Paint https://www.ctrlpaint.com/. It has loads of good tutorials, I even paid for some because they were so good.

Click to shrink...

Awesome! Appreciate it.

 

[FFNB]

I know one of those names! But I get what you're saying. I've never spent time drawing anything. This is something I've just wanted to try and well now seems like the perfect.


Thanks! Will definitely look at them.


Awesome! Appreciate it.

Click to shrink...

For sure! It's never too late to pick up drawing as a skill, and now is definitely a good time to dive into it.

And yeah, those artists are very informative and inspiring. I often watch them just because it's a pleasure to see them work, even when I'm not studying their work.