Tuesday
Mar222011
A side project: CtrlPaint.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 04:15PM 
The internet has a lot of tutorials, and a lot of speedpainting videos - but none really help beginners. CtrlPaint.com is an attempt to jumpstart artists that are just beginning their digital education. It's been getting a great reception so far, and I am excited to see where it goes.
Reader Comments (8)
Excellent iniciative ;) ... the perfect way to live on the web : contributing. Congratulations!
Hi Matt, just wanted to say I love your ctrlpaint site, it has helped me discover even more creative possibilities with Photoshop and my pen-tablet. Your vids are so clear and understandable that I have just bought your grayscale to color guide and I can't wait to try it out. Keep them coming!
I'm hoping my skills will improve enough for me to make a photoshop portrait 'painting' of my sister and her soon to be husband and son, to give as a wedding present on a canvas. Fortunately, I still have some months to go :-)
What might be interesting to know is that I'm as colorblind as a bat, but your techniques on setting up a color palette and working from that allow me to pick the right colors in advance using reference material, and then I only have to worry about shades. It's making drawing a lot more enjoyable for me not to have to worry about making people literally green ;-)
Kind regards,
Raymond
Great site. I agree, truly a beautiful thing to spread knowledge.
Hi matt, thank you so much for your CTRL+paint videos, they have all been helpful.
I'm an aspiring artist obviously, but im trying to get that quality cinematic look, Everything from blurs to grit, but with cartoonish characters. ive been unable create a good work flow or keep myself encouraged enough to sometimes work through bigger art pieces. Your videos have helped a bit with it.
Currently im puzzled as to how to make the base lines of a 2point perspective drawing or painting. and further more how to fit a character into that, let alone simple buildings. i would imagine Its easy if you have a pre made grid i would imagine, but i cant make my own, the lines never match up and in the end its screws the perspective up.
the more helpful info so far that ive recieved was useing the eraser to create alot more clean cuts in the painting. as i used here,
http://ageshero.deviantart.com/art/Ages-Akelenson-Portrait-259859976
I'm at the point where some of my pictures seem Acceptable (though of course not to the degree of quality that i wish, which is continually heart breaking, haha.(But not haha) And it seems like it's a luck of the draw with alot of my art. i guess it all starts with a good drawing or sketch.
And i have a feeling using the wacom bamboo isnt cutting it, im not sure if its me or the tablet, but i cant seem to make very smooth and straight lines. (useing the shift button to make straight point to point lines works nicely, but if the opticy sensitivity is on, it seems to barely make a speck sometimes)
Site I recommend for the quality of its instructive content.
Wonderful...Learning a lot with great tips!!! Thank you!!! A successful.
I'm not a concept artist, or a character designer but WOW - your CtrlPaint website is fantastic! I just got my Wacom tablet a few weeks ago and have been bumbling along on my own and make progress by trial and error. As you say. speed painting vids are fun to watch but not terribly instructional when it comes to the basics. Your 1-5 tutorial videos on Youtube where so helpful, I wandered over to you site and was BLOW AWAY at all the wonderful info you've accumulated for us newbies. Thank you so much.
The best way to learn anything new is to experience it for yourself. While following tutorials can be incredibly helpful, you should also take some time to just experiment on your own to see what you can create.