# Tips for mouse artists?



## Tobia-SIN (May 20, 2016)

*About a month ago, my tablet broke and I've been using my mouse for my cartoon art. Is there any tips out there from other mouse artists? I'm mostly have been trying to keep my lineart smooth. ^v^





This is one of my recent art on Deviantart, and I've been having trouble about making lines smooth. Also, is there any mouse brands you'd recommend? I'm thinking about replacing mine since it's gonna bite the dust.*


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## Saokymo (May 20, 2016)

The pen tool will be your very best friend in the world. You'll be able to draw smooth, crisp lines and adjust them easily without too much stress with the pen tool.

What program do you use for making digital art?


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## Tobia-SIN (May 20, 2016)

Saokymo said:


> The pen tool will be your very best friend in the world. You'll be able to draw smooth, crisp lines and adjust them easily without too much stress with the pen tool.
> 
> What program do you use for making digital art?



I use the pen tool for all of my works, and they still have a shaky effect. ^^;
I use Paint Tool SAI, and it worked so wonderfully for my tablet.


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## Shotalicious (May 20, 2016)

Tobia-SIN said:


> I use the pen tool for all of my works, and they still have a shaky effect. ^^;
> I use Paint Tool SAI, and it worked so wonderfully for my tablet.


I highly suggest using a vector layer for your lines and using the pen tool! You can also change pressure sensitivity so it looks like it was made with a tablet~ <3


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## Tobia-SIN (May 20, 2016)

Shotalicious said:


> I highly suggest using a vector layer for your lines and using the pen tool! You can also change pressure sensitivity so it looks like it was made with a tablet~ <3


oooh nice! I was wondering what a line art layer is in SAI, and that is so cool that they have a Vector thing on there.
Thank you so much for the help! <3


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## Shotalicious (May 20, 2016)

Tobia-SIN said:


> oooh nice! I was wondering what a line art layer is in SAI, and that is so cool that they have a Vector thing on there.
> Thank you so much for the help! <3


No problem! I literally just found out about it and its soo helpful tbh~ XD Might as well share the love <3


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## redhusky (May 21, 2016)

Draw with your elbow not your wrist. If you ever used a graphite or charcoal stick while figure drawing you'll know what I mean.


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## Tobia-SIN (May 21, 2016)

redhusky said:


> Draw with your elbow not your wrist. If you ever used a graphite or charcoal stick while figure drawing you'll know what I mean.


I get it! I'll try it! thank you! <3


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## darien (May 22, 2016)

Was a mouse artist myself for a very long time, and while you may find increasing stabalization helps the best result with a mouse will always be had from vector curve tools, in sai this means the pen tool and using keyboard shortcuts to edit, remove, and adjust nodes. This takes a fair amount of time however, and you're probably best off roughing out your shapes freehand first, I usually went through two or three sketch layers before getting to doing a lineart layer in sai.

its a matter of preference but my method for lines was usally thick weightng in the middle with a taper to a fine point at each end. Lineart on a multiply layer above the sketches, and all color beneath the lineart layer. If you're not using a vector curve tool and instead a raster layer you may want to have a plain layer above the lineart layer that you can draw with white onto to make whiteout corrections to the lineart, then merge the two layers and set to multiply again before coloring beneath.

Finally for getting really fine lines to look clean you may find it useful to Start working at a resolution two or three times higher than you intend the final result to be, you can resize down to the target res with bilinear resampling to get a nice clean anti aliasing effect even if you weren't using aa on your lines, this can also allow you to get good results while fudging some of the details (depending on final res of course)



Spoiler: As an example here's a piece of line-art done with a mouse that I haven't removed yet... With the tapered line method I described earlier this is full working res before resize, as it was intended as a gift for someone else to color


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## redhusky (May 22, 2016)

Tobia-SIN said:


> I get it! I'll try it! thank you! <3


Also, don't try to do small details unless you are using tools. It's hell on your wrists. He is some of my surviving pixel work on DA. http://flyingram.deviantart.com/gallery/29685671/Pixel-Love I have even older stuff on my FA but it's not as good. 
These two are my favorites! 
http://flyingram.deviantart.com/art/Satire-91918958?q=gallery:FlyingRam/29685671&qo=7
http://flyingram.deviantart.com/art...n-162233969?q=gallery:FlyingRam/29685671&qo=2

Also, off-tpoic. It's says in your profile that you code? Do you game program or jsut coding in general?


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## StarrySpelunker (May 23, 2016)

Go for a vector drawing program like inkscape if you want really smooth lines with a mouse. just import your sketches in and line over them.


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## Caraid (May 24, 2016)

I'd highly recommend spending that money you were going to spend on a brand new mouse on a tablet. It's better for your wrist and hand, it's better for your art and it's often more time-efficient. There is no benefit at all to forcing yourself to work with a mouse.


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## Swizzle Valcar (Jul 2, 2016)

good luck


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## Sergei Nóhomo (Jul 2, 2016)

Shotalicious said:


> I highly suggest using a vector layer for your lines and using the pen tool! You can also change pressure sensitivity so it looks like it was made with a tablet~ <3



Vector layering is some good shit. Honestly, as much as I love vectors I never once actually thought about using that for anything I do


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