© Phillip Whitt 2020
P. WhittPractical Glimpsehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6327-3_8

8. Drawing Basics

Phillip Whitt1 
(1)
Columbus, GA, USA
 

Glimpse is a very capable program for tasks such as digital drawing and painting. With time and practice, you’ll be able to create some impressive work.

In this chapter, we’ll touch on drawing using the tools offered in Glimpse. This chapter is a primer to acquaint beginners with some of the tools available and a little firsthand experience.

We’ll first take a closer look at the Pencil and Paintbrush tools and the various brush tips available.

The topics covered in this chapter are

  • The Pencil and Paintbrush tools

  • The MyPaint brush engine

  • Tutorial 20: Drawing a simple flower

  • Tutorial 21: Drawing a simple butterfly using symmetry painting

  • Tutorial 22: Drawing a pattern using symmetry painting

  • Chapter conclusion

The Pencil and Paintbrush Tools

The Pencil and Paintbrush tools in Glimpse were covered briefly in Chapter 3, but we’ll have another quick recap before proceeding to the upcoming tutorials.

Brush Tips

There are a variety of brush tip styles to simulate various media, such as acrylic, chalk, and so on. Figure 8-1 shows the Glimpse brush palette.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig1_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-1

The Glimpse brush palette

The brush tips are available for all of the painting tools, but the behavior varies depending on the tool being used. Figure 8-2 shows the differences between the Pencil, Paintbrush, and Airbrush Tools simulating acrylic and chalk.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig2_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-2

A comparison of the results obtained from the Pencil, Paintbrush, and Airbrush Tools

As was mentioned in Chapter 3, to use a drawing/painting tool freehand style, click and drag—to draw a straight line, hold the Shift key (Figure 8-3).
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig3_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-3

A freehand stroke and a straight-line stroke

The Tool Options allows you to adjust the brush parameters, such as size aspect ratio, angle, spacing, hardness, and force. The Brush Dynamics allows you to apply aspects to the brush stroke (such as jitter or smooth stroke). For most drawing purposes, I recommend using the smooth stroke—it’s especially useful when using a mouse or a touch pad when drawing.

Figure 8-4 shows the Tool Options Panel.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig4_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-4

The Tool Options Panel

The MyPaint Brush Engine

MyPaint is an open source painting program, but the brush engine is now included in both the GNU Image Manipulation Program (on which Glimpse is based) and Glimpse.

As good as the standard tools in Glimpse are, the MyPaint tools offer added flexibility, which will appear to those with drawing and painting experience. The MyPaint tools can be accessed in the toolbox as shown in Figure 8-5 or from the Tools Menu (Tools ➤ Paint Tools ➤ MyPaint Brush).
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig5_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-5

The MyPaint tools can be accessed as shown or from the Tools Menu

MyPaint tools mimic many of the real-world equivalents, such as acrylic, charcoal, chalk, watercolors, and more (Figure 8-6).
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig6_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-6

The MyPaint tools menu

Tutorial 20: Drawing a Simple Flower

This tutorial is probably the simplest one in this book. We’ll be drawing a simple flower using digital pencil and chalk. It certainly won’t be a masterpiece—it’s primarily for new Glimpse users to become acquainted with the tools.
  1. 1.

    Create a new image (File ➤ New ➤ Create a New Image)—set the dimensions to 6" × 6" at 300 ppi.

     
  2. 2.

    Create a new layer (Layer ➤ New Layer), and in the New Layer dialog, rename it Flower Petals, then press OK.

     
  3. 3.

    Select the Pencil Tool (N)—choose the Pencil 03 brush, and change the size to 32 pixels.

     
  4. 4.

    Draw an outline similar to that shown in Figure 8-7.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig7_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-7

Draw an outline similar to the one shown

  1. 5.

    Lower the brush tip size to 15 pixels, and draw a line dividing the flower petals similar to that shown in Figure 8-8.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig8_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-8

Draw lines dividing the flower petals similar to that shown

  1. 6.

    Create a new layer (Layer ➤ New Layer), and in the New Layer dialog, change the mode to LCh Color—rename the layer Flower Petal Color, then press OK.

     
  2. 7.

    Change the Pencil Tool brush tip to Chalk 02 and the brush size to 230 pixels.

     
  3. 8.

    Using yellow as the active color, fill in the flower petals (it’s okay if it goes outside of the lines) as shown in Figure 8-9.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig9_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-9

Apply yellow to the drawing as shown

  1. 9.

    Create a new layer (Layer ➤ New Layer), and in the New Layer dialog (leave the mode to LCh Color), rename the layer Flower Center, then press OK.

     
  2. 10.

    Change the foreground color to blue, then click a couple of times in the center of the flower as shown in Figure 8-10.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig10_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-10

Apply the blue in the center as shown

Figure 8-11 shows the final result. When done, you can save as an .XCF file if you want to keep the file, or simply close it out.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig11_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-11

The final result

Tutorial 21: Drawing a Simple Butterfly Using Symmetry Paint

This tutorial is a bit more involved than the previous one. However, this will introduce using Symmetry Paint to save time and effort.

In this tutorial, you’ll work on an XCF file with a faint outline of a butterfly on the left side—when drawing over it using Symmetry Paint, it will automatically duplicate the effort on the right side, as will be seen shortly.
  1. 1.

    Open the .XCF file named Butterfly Drawing.

     
  2. 2.

    Create a new layer (Layer ➤ New Layer), and in the New Layer dialog (the mode should be set to normal), rename the layer Butterfly Outline, then press OK.

     
  3. 3.

    Launch the Symmetry Painting Dialog (Windows ➤ Dockable Dialogs ➤ Symmetry Painting).

     
  4. 4.

    Click the downward arrow on the top right area and choose Mirror—after this selection is made, enable the Vertical Symmetry option (a vertical dividing line is automatically placed in the center of the canvas).

     
  5. 5.

    Select the Pencil Tool (N)—choose the round brush (2. Hardness 100), and change the size to 5 pixels.

     
  6. 6.

    On the left size, draw over the faint gray outline—as you work, your efforts will be duplicated on the right side (Figure 8-12).

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig12_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-12

When drawing on the left side over the gray pattern, the effort is duplicated on the right side

  1. 7.

    When complete, the outline will look as the example shown in Figure 8-13.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig13_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-13

The complete butterfly outline

  1. 8.

    Now we’ll fill in the areas surrounding the outline with some color—set the foreground color to yellow (R-100, G-100, B-100).

     
  2. 9.

    Select the Fuzzy Select Tool (U), then click just inside of the outline of the left wing—hold the Shift key and repeat on the right wing.

     
  3. 10.

    Fill the selected areas with the foreground color (Edit ➤ Fill with FG Color).

     
  4. 11.

    Deactivate the selection (Selection ➤ None)—the results should appear as shown in Figure 8-14.

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig14_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-14

Selected areas filled with yellow

  1. 12.

    Change the foreground color to blue (R-0, G-0, B-100).

     
  2. 13.

    Select the Bucket Fill Tool (Shift+B), then click in the white areas within the butterfly until they are all filled (Figure 8-15).

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig15_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-15

Using the Bucket Fill Tool, fill the white areas within the butterfly with blue

Figure 8-16 shows the final result. When done, you can save as an .XCF file if you want to keep the file, or simply close it out.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig16_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-16

The final result

Tutorial 22: Drawing a Pattern Using Symmetry Paint

The previous segment showed how useful the Symmetry Paint Dialog can be. In the tutorial, we’ll use it to draw a pattern (in this instance, don’t worry too much about accuracy—achieving an approximate result will be fine).
  1. 1.

    Create a new image (File ➤ New ➤ Create a New Image)—set the dimensions to 6” × 6” at 300 ppi.

     
  2. 2.

    Create a new layer (Layer ➤ New Layer), and in the New Layer dialog, rename it Pattern, then press OK.

     
  3. 3.

    Launch the Symmetry Painting Dialog (Windows ➤ Dockable Dialogs ➤ Symmetry Painting).

     
  4. 4.

    Click the downward arrow on the top right area and choose Mandala—after this selection is made, a vertical and horizontal dividing line is automatically placed in the center of the canvas.

     
  5. 5.

    Select the Pencil Tool (N)—choose the hard, round brush tip (2. Hardness 100), and change the size to 10 pixels.

     
  6. 6.

    Using Figure 8-17 as a reference, start drawing upward from the bottom of the upper left quadrant in the direction indicated by the numbers and red lines (note the effort will be duplicated in the remaining areas).

     
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig17_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-17

Draw a line as shown

Figure 8-18 shows the complete pattern and how it resulted by drawing in the upper left quadrant.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig18_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-18

The complete pattern

Figure 8-19 shows the final result. When done, you can save as an .XCF file if you want to keep the file, or simply close it out.
../images/495886_1_En_8_Chapter/495886_1_En_8_Fig19_HTML.jpg
Figure 8-19

The final result

Chapter Conclusion

In this chapter, there was a brief recap of the drawing, painting tools (specially, the Pencil and Paintbrush tools), and the tool options. We also created some work using the tools.

The topics covered in this chapter were

  • The Pencil and Paintbrush tools

  • The MyPaint brush engine

  • Drawing a simple flower

  • Drawing a simple butterfly using symmetry painting

  • Drawing a pattern using symmetry painting

In the next chapter, we’ll create some somewhat more advanced digital art using more of the features found in Glimpse.

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
3.135.219.166