con someone give me tips to draw better

I'm probably not the best person available to give tips (since my job takes up a lot of my time these days and I don't play as often). However, I'll give it a go since I also use a mouse to draw here.

As a mouse-user, the trick is to practice. Artists practice the tool of their trade daily (doesn't matter if it's with a pencil, brush, mouse, tablet or whatever else). Drawception's Sandbox (http://drawception.com/sandbox/) will be your best friend if you wish to make that same effort. Practice your lines, shapes and timing there. As you gain better control of these tools, you will be able to sketch your ideas faster and more precisely.

As a mouse-user, here are some basic pointers:

Art-wise... â–º Use as much time on the clock as you can to get your ideas down. As mouse-users, we don't have the luxury of sketching quickly, so a lot of our effort is in getting the basic content down and then putting the rest of the time into the details or fixing up any issues. â–º Do the background first, foreground last. â–º Make slow deliberate lines to help with precision. Use the appropriate brush size to help make clear images. â–º Focus on minor details once all the basic items you need are in place. â–º If you want to include text, do so only if there is time to spare. Try to avoid long sentences since using a mouse to draw text can take up a lot of time (it can also really hurt the wrist :).

Control-wise... â–º Try to use your fingers and wrist to control the mouse as you draw; moving your entire arm will make precision difficult (I find that this is the case for me, anyway). â–º If you need help getting more detail in that small canvas, try to use CTRL+/- to zoom in/out of the browser. It'll help you add smaller details. (Be sure to check the timer once in a while if your browser cuts off the clock.) â–º For your peripheral settings, it may help to adjust your mouse pointer speed. This depends on your preference, but I like to keep my pointer speed at about mid-level to slow. Play around with the settings to get an idea of what you like. I do not recommend the fastest setting since the Drawception canvas is very small. â–º As for the peripheral itself, use a mouse that is comfortable for you to use. Personally, I like to use a small mouse that my entire hand can cover. It tends to be easier to control and, personally, it allows me to do "sketch" lines if I need to add a bit of detail. A bigger mouse will make drawing more of a challenge. â–º An ergonomically designed mouse (one that contours to the form of your hand) may be of interest as well, but it's not necessary in achieving results. It just helps reduce to the carpal tunnel issue. ;)

There's an earlier discussion that goes into more detail about Drawception drawing. The thread is called Art Class: http://drawception.com/forums/artroom/1282/art-class/. Lots of the info in there is valid and I just realized how much of what I said earlier is already mentioned in there! (Much kudos to those who contributed to that thread!)

Lastly, it also doesn't hurt to learn how to draw some basic shapes, figures and various references (like the iconic Batman and Nyancat ;), of course.

I apologize if that's a bit long. In any case, I hope that helps, Gabriel. Good luck and perhaps I'll see more of your work in later games. :)

That was brilliantly put Jen. Would agree with everything. If I wasn't able to zoom all the way in then i'd be stuck. As I'm using Windows 7, i tend to snap two windows open, my drawing canvas on one side, and a picture from Google on the other, then I can quickly zoom in on the image if I need to. Doesn't give me as much room as a full sized Drawception, but helps to keep the abstract parts of the picture in my mind easier.

thanks

@Gabriel6522 - Thank you for asking for this information, because I'm really struggling to draw with a mouse, as well!

@Jen Noise - Thank you for being so informative!

@ⓈⒽⒶⓊⓃ - I agree, having a Google image nearby helps a great deal.

I'd like to add one more detail. If you make lots of small marks instead of a few big ones, then you can Undo more freely to get rid of bad work without throwing out good work along with it. This is, of course, true no matter what kind of device you're using, but it stands out for the mouse since it tends to be kind of annoyingly difficult to get the damn thing to make the perfect angled line or just the right curve.

I found when using the mouse I generally had to plan ahead a little bit more than I do with a pen as it would take slightly longer to draw with it.

Similar to Ackter... I say take on a little less. When I'm mousing I dont go for an elaborate background, leaving more time for the subject. Drawing with a mouse is without a doubt, slower.

Its hard to describe but when I'm using a mouse I try to pick panels I can do with simpler / stronger lines and large color blocks. Something with a ton of shading and crosshatching etc with a mouse is just too hard to do quickly. If there's multiple subjects I'm pretty much doomed on either but doubly so with a mouse.

The biggest tip I have is to abuse the undo function. Learn to stop halfway through a long line you're happy with so that when you screw up the second half you can just undo the bad half. This is also hugely helpful when you're trying to fill in a large area and you do quite a bit well, just let up and start again. I've screwed up my fills at the very end and had to redo it or start redrawing portions so many times..