Topic: Any "serious" users of Art Academy and Flipnote Studio on here?

I could draw a little but this program is a good teacher. At the very least, you'll be able to produce the pictures in the lessons really well. The computer walks you through each step.

Still in the beginning stages of Art Academy. It is a very, very good tool considering how new I am to art. Also when I'm on the road I tend to write stories using my notebook. I also just uploaded a new Flipnote animation.

I love Flipnote. My filpnote was featured in last weeks topic.
[flipnote:56F7682031CFE88C:CFE88C_0966038EFE84C_004]

If i had a DSi....

I wouldn't say I was good at drawing before this. One thing that makes it easier is having a grid on the photo to help aid in your drawings. I think it's taught me a lot and I bet you would be impressed with what you could accomplish as well.

Did you guys get the 2nd Semester application? I did. One thing nice about having 2 copies of Art Academy is you'll have 2 places to have saved works in case you want to come back and work on them later.

Here's my version of the the lily from the first lesson. It could probably use a bit of work. I kept getting interrupted with home-life while doing it (much to my annoyance!).
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/VATalbot/DSi/Lily10-1-10...

That lily is very good Victoria! I'm super excited about Art Academy. My DSi is 'out for delivery' right now according to the UPS tracker, so hopefully I'll be playing it soon.

I have had the points to buy Art Academy for weeks but due to my internet provider's and my local post offices' imcompetence I have not been able to use any internet and connect to the DSi Shop. Right now I'm using a pre-paid modem and plotting what my foirst Art Academy picture will be. I'm thinking a vilent tableux of what I would like to do to the idiot who lost my package.

Here's my pink lily
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/VATalbot/DSi/Pinklily.jpg

I had no artistic background whatsoever (well, not visually anyway) and was genuinely surprised at how nice my pieces were turning out. Lots of room for improvement, of course, but it's an excellent tool for getting you over that initial hump of discouragement.

I definitely recommend picking up First Semester. Second Semester has some new lessons, and they're every bit as good as the ones in First Semester, but it still seems slightly greedy to me to release the same drawing program twice.

So First Semester: probably the best DSiWare download right now. Second Semester: use your own discretion.

here's a pepper I did(it's one of the mini lessons, he just gave me a picture and said "draw it", so there wasn't any guidlines to go by)

yeah, I know, I need to work on my crosshatching
oh and nice pic roopa!

I must have glossed over the release of Art Academy because I was to enamored by my new iPod Touch toy, at the time. Now that that effect has worn of considerably I was keen on checking out what was new in the land of DSiWare and I stumbled upon this great thread, and I've quite enjoyed taking a gander at all of your creations. It's pretty impressive to see what can be done with such piddly hardware.

While I've had Flipnote since release, I haven't done much with it. I suppose the whole 'use hundreds of frames for a few second animation' bit kind of intimidated me along with all the different tools. Art Academy seems to be much more up my alley, even if I don't call myself artistic in the least. Heck, I don't even remember the last time I've tried to draw anything besides doodling nonsense while talking on the phone.

Anyway, thanks for really getting me interested in this. I think I just may pick up Art Academy FS today. Hopefully it won't be too long before I join with my own submissions.

Roopa - Your dragon is brilliant! I'd like to see it if you decide to colour it in.

MoFaJo - Your cross hatching is fine. No one said you HAD to exactly use a cross-hatch. You got the shading right, so it's fine the way you did it.

That is awesome Roopa! Makes me want to draw something cool...

I finally got it today! I'll upload some stuff soon.
EDIT: TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I have art academy 1st semester but not the second. So I don't have instructions on mixing the paint. I get the basic idea of placing the pin on the surface as a colour picker but I can't mix the paint to achieve the exact colour I want.

I can get near with the mixing but when its getting close I can't see how to make the small adjustments that I need. Also I don't see exactly how black and white should be used in the colour mixing process.

I would welcome any advice, short of buying 2nd semester.

Heres my best flipnote that ive made. Never tried art academy, i like to doodle during biology though so thats where my drawings "flourish"

@Scarecrow- Black and white can be used to darken and lighten colours without introducing different coloured paints. That explanation doesn't any good so here's an example.
Say you've got the perfect red colour on your pallette and you decide to use that for three layers, but in different shades. In that case you can copy the colour to another slot and add some black. This will keep the colour, only making it a darker shade. If you do the same with the white, it will keep the colour only making it lighter. Hopefully that helps.

@fatem, thanks for your reply about the use of black and white. I find getting the colour I want hard because the colour change when mixing say red and yellow is very large. Is there a way to just make small ,fine adjustments to the colour?

I just discovered using a brush with no paint and three drops of water is ideal for blending two colours together e.g. a shadow can have all the edges blended into the background colour like this. Is this mentioned in the second semester?

*Scarecrow * - That's what I was going to suggest .... try blending the paints with different amounts of water ... or even using the brushes with lots of water and no paint. That is covered in the 2nd trimester, and not the first.
I don't think the 2nd Semester really goes into great details about blending paints .... at least, I hoped it would have gone more into it than it did. But learning about blending water was a bit help to me.
The 2nd Semester does cover things like blending background colours on landscape paintings by starting with a sky blue colour, then adding a bit of green to it to add a row of distance mountains, then adding a drop of green and yellow to make a lighter colour for the foreground. So instead of starting fresh with all those layers of paint colours, it suggests using the existing mixes, and just toning them up or down a bit by adding a drop of another colour.
Another thing the 2nd Semester goes into is painting in the Impressionist style, where not every detail has to be painted. That has given me a lot of ideas, and I've been having a play trying to paint some myself.
And I think the thing not mentioned about the 2nd Semester is sketching a dog, which was pretty tricky. It was a bit like sketching the pear, but in a lot more detail, so I think it was helpful as well.
I'm glad I downloaded both versions of Art Academy, even if it was sort of like buying parts of the application twice. And to me it's nice having 2 places to have saved drawings. If I'm working on one but am not quite finished with it, but decide I want to start another picture, I just open up the other application. If they came out with a 3rd Semester, I'd download it.

@victoria When I referred to using the brush with water and no paint, that is during painting on the "paper". As far as I can see, the amount of paint or water on the brush when mixing paints has no effect on the amount of colour shade change. So I still can't find a method of making fine adjustments to the colours in the pallet.

I think Art Academy is an excellent programme but making you pay for it twice to get the full instructions is totally un-acceptable. I wouldn't buy the second on principal.

Thanks for your help, perhaps I will be able to post some of my efforts soon.