Art Weaver Tutorials
I’ve been using the Art Weaver software program to teach my computer design students more about graphic design. So far, the workshop is going very well. I love it and the students are oozing creativity while learning this terrific free graphics program. Art weaver can be downloaded free here. http://www.artweaver.de/
There’s a real lack of art weaver tutorials out there on the www, and since I’ve been putting these tutorials together to help me be more prepared each week with my students, I figured I would offer them to you also. Hopefully you will find use and enjoyment from them.
Bookmark this page and come back for new additions later. I have a new lesson each week. Better yet, sign up for my news and be notified when I have updated this site with new tutorials.
These tuts are all in PDF. If you don’t have a PDF viewer, you can download one free here.
Gradients
Digital Calligraphy
Drawing
Abstract Art
Drawing
Sci-Fi Creations
Art Parade
Photo Editing Basics
Layer Properties
Creative self portrait
Karlyn,i have a question about art weaver.. i just installed it recently and its awesome but i can’t seem to work the magic wand right. Whenever i click on the photo i have a window pop up saying ” no pixels were selected”.. but when it does select pixels its not where i want it… it usually just selects the whole picture haha…well if you have any advice that might help me i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
Kay
Hi Kay,
The next time this happens to you, check your “Tolerance”. If you are not sure where that is, you’ll notice that when you click on the magic wand, look at the wand options at the top of your screen and you’ll see the Tolerance %. Chances are, it says “0″ (zero). So change it to “20″ (twenty) and you should be good to go.
Thank you so much. I teach 8th graders and I want them to use a photo editor. Your lessons are wonderful and I will be using them to teach my students.
I think you need more advanced tutorials seening as there arnt many out there for art weaver
Karlyn is there like any tools on art weaver were i could like draw a line and then like make the line curve I.E. is there a curve tool on artweaver?
Thank you so much for tutorials.
how do you curve lines?
Hi!
I’d like to thank you for creating these tutorials. I’m an absolute beginner, so some of it is a little over my head, but it’s great just to have SOMETHING to show me what to do! :)
In the “Drawing” tutorial, where I made brushes, I only managed to make brushes that were squares of colour with a white design that I could use with the ‘sponge’ brush. Is that all I was supposed to get? I just wanna make sure I’m not missing anything. I’ve just done the first three tutorials on your list today and they’ve been very helpful. Thanks.
qrisza, you will have to draw the curve freehand.
Emma, It sounds like you possibly skipped a step? Keep in mind that it’s best to make a solid black object/art as your new brush. For example, here: http://img2.pict.com/7a/95/ff/1742391/0/examplecaptured.png, then make sure you use the magic wand tool, click the white space anywhere around the object to select, then inverse and capture.
Hi, Karlyn – I’m having problems accessing the links to the lessons – clicking on the links seems to cycle me to the home page for your website, rather than invoking the PDF viewer. Any idea what may be going on? I’m confused. Thank you in advance for your help. Vicki
Vicki, sorry about that! I recently changed web-hosts and hadn’t yet gotten all the files moved over. They should be working again now though. Thanks!
Hey, Karlyn!
I’m kinda new to artweaver, and i have a question-
how do you actually save the picture? cause whenever i save it, when i open it again, it automatically opens artweaver and shows the picture. please reply!
Jensine, you may want to save it in another format. Choose “Save As” next time.. then name it, and under file format, choose jpeg, gif or png.
Karlyn,
I just downloaded ArtWeaver
and I was wondering since in a lot of artweaver videos there is a standard tool. I tried like, all of them and i cant seem to find the one i’ve been seeing people using.
Do you have any idea which tool it is??
I’m not sure of which specific tool you have in mind when you refer to “standard tool”. There may have been reference to “standard tools” in some videos, which means tools are most popular and most widely used. For example, the paint brush tool – would be considered a standard tool in a paint program such as this. I hope you find the answer you are looking for.
I am tracing photos using the lassoo, dropper and paint bucket tools. When I begin, the paint bucket wont drop colour. I manage to get it to work going to layer/new/custom and it will work fine. But when I’ve finished and go save-as, a window comes up saying it doesnt support layers (its the free version) and it saves the picture with loss of clarity. Is there another way to get the paint bucket to work?
I have Artweaver, and I only have the brush, selection, Lasso, crop, wand, etc, etc… But I have no line tool! Where is it?
Christina, you need to first select your shape tool. Then once the shape tool is selected, you will find shape choices at the top of the screen.. one of them being the line. Click on the line and you are good to go.
Hope that helps.
Karlyn
Well, my best friend’s birthday is coming up in 16 days and I wanted to draw a picture for him, but didn’t have a good art program to use. So, someone suggested this Art Weaver Prgram to me, and I must say, viewing all the different tools it has, it just mazaes me.
One problem though, I can’t seem to actualy DRAW with it o_e;; Maybe, I’m just stupid, but it won’t particularly let me draw….. Eer…sorry, I just need to finish this picture before the 29th D|
Help?
Hello Kisa,
For freestyle drawing, first open a new canvas (File > New) and then click to activate the Brush tool, which is the top tool. From there, you have a variety of brushes, pencils, chalk, etc, to choose from, to draw with. They display at the very top. Select the one you want to try, choose and color and have fun! :)
Hey Karlyn…=)
I have a lil problem with artweaver.
I used the point to point lasso tool but the problem is tht now i can’t click on anything and when i do i keep creating new “Start points” and it doesn’t show me where my original start point is hence i can’t get out of this tool. I don’t want to waste the past 5 hours doing this work…how can I get outta this tool???
Please help
Leesa, pressing the keyboard keys “Ctrl” and “Z” together will undo anything you did last. You can also right-click and “Deselect” to return to a different tool.
When I try to color in shapes made with the brush tool, I get glaring white edges all along the border of the object. When I use the wand tool, it doesn’t run along the line, but just next to it, still leaving a white edge that won’t get colored.
I’ve tried playing with the layers, but I can’t find the setting that fixes this. Strangely enough, I only have this problem on my most recent file, so I must have changed something by mistake on this one.
Thanks!
Ian, I think the answer lies in the setings of the brush you are creating the initial shape with. Next time, try using acrylic brush, change the bristle and also try changing the levels on restat, bleed and jitter to “100″.
Karlyn – I greatly appreciate the help!
The brush settings were my first thought too. I tried acrylic, pastel, charcoal, etc… and I also tried playing with the resat, bleed, and jitter settings (what do those even do? I didn’t see any difference), I even played around with opacity, and tried to have a semi-opaque layer of purple or black on top, hoping that would get rid of the white lines. Didn’t work.
I personally think this problem has something to do with when I first open a new canvas. I have the option to choose what kind of “background” I use – paper color, transparent, etc.
Apparently when I set the background to “transparent” I don’t have the problem with white edges on my lines. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way to change the background setting (except what color it is) after I’ve already opened a new canvas.
Is there any way to change the background type after already opening? I really don’t want to lose the five hours of work I already put into that one. Thanks!
Ian, try adding a new layer.
Top > Layers > New Layer.
Then drag that layer so that it’s just above your transparent layer. Then paint it your chosen color.
Hope that’s what you meant.
- Karlyn
I mean this –
File > New… > Choose background > Transparent.
As far as I can tell, there’s no way to change this when I’ve already started a canvas.
My main issue is that I already put a lot of effort into it, so I don’t want to start over. Is there a way I could possibly copy/paste my work onto a new canvas? (I tried cloning, but there’s no way to change the background settings)
If it’s background color you want to add, go to your layers palette (Windows > Show Layers), right-click on the layer you are working on (You artwork) and choose “Duplicate Layer”. Then click on the bottom layer, use the eraser tool to erase it all, then paint it the color of your choice. Did that help? Use Ctrl+z on your keyboard to go back a couple of steps if you make a mistake in the process.
Yes that was something I tried, but that doesn’t seem to work (incidentally, I get the same problem with white edges in photoshop elements)
The main thing is I’ve figured out how to fix the problem (by setting background to “transparent”), but as far as I can tell I have to start a whole new canvas to do that.
Is there any way I can copy/paste a layer from one canvas to another one? I could save my work without having to start over. Like I mentioned earlier I tried cloning, but that doesn’t let me change the background.
Ian, you could “edit” > “select all” > “copy” and “paste” onto a new canvas with your pre-selected background. Have you tried that? It sounds like your art is all on one layer, so you don’t have many other choices aside from pasting it onto the background you want, or painting your current background. I understand you have a lot of time/hours spent on your current art. I hope that you figure something out that works. In the meantime, keep saving your work.
Thats what puzzles me, I don’t see any option for “select all”
ok I copied the image onto a new sheet with the correct background, but its still leaving white splotches when I try to color it. Which is weird because this is not happening with any of my other designs, just this one. Is there any setting that sets a border around the lines you draw. Because that’s what this looks like, as if theres a barrier surrounding my lines so they can’t be colored or selected with the wand.
Hi!
I’ve recently downloaded artweaver and it works fine – until I open an image (jpg) and try to paint it. It simply won’t work. How do I solve this? It doesn’t even work with a new layer.
Thanks,
Sofia
Sophia, I’m not quite sure.. when you say it “won’t work”, do you mean that no tools are usable, no paint displays, is there an error? Off the bat, I’d say, try a different brush. But it’s hard to know what could be wrong at this point. Sorry.
Ai! ^^
erm..Karlyn can u pls tell me how to add another photo to my current photo?
for ex. i have 2 photos.one is a pic of me,and the other photo is a pic of a friend.i want to insert the photo of my friend to my photo,but i dont know how.pls help!
please message me here: crushloverberry_yay@yahoo.com
tnx so much! :D
On your tools, click the lasso select tool, then also change the feathering to 20 or 30. Draw (using the lasso) around the figure of your friend, all the way around, then “edit” > “copy”, minimize or close the friend photo and “edit” > “paste” into the photo of you. That’s the easiest way I know how to get part of an image blended into another image. For more lengthy, detailed tutorials, you may want to do a further search online. Hope that helps. Feel free to come back and let us know how it worked for you.
ZOMG that totally works! thanks a bunch! :D
Excellent! Your welcome.
Thank you so much for these lessons. Artweaver came with a small cheap drawing tablet I received as a gift recently and didn’t klnow anything about it! This will surely help. Thanks again.
I just downloaded Artweaver and am still new to creating art on the computer, I’ve become a bit confused about something in artweaver and was wondering if you might know the answer. In simple art programs like paint in windows when you select a shape tool and use it you get an outline of a shape. I’ve tried to figure out how to get the same result using artweaver. If there isn’t a way to do that can I import images from a program like paint?
Cheryl, you can make shapes within Artweaver using the Shape selection tool or the Shape tool. The shape tool automatically fills the shape with your chosen color.. it does not create an outline only. The Shape selection tool is what you can use either create a new shape or parts of a shape. I know MS Paint lets you just create the outline, but there is no tool, that I can see, that does that in one step within artweaver.
how do you open the pen
How do I make the background transparent?
Zoxxy, you need do that when you initially open a new file.
File > New > Paper Color > Transparent.
See this screen shot:
http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/6422500/6422857_3736.png
Jay, once your paintbrush is active, there’s a pull-down list of assorted brushes you can use (top left). One of them is “felt pen” and there are many more.
See this screenshot. http://goo.gl/9QcmZ
I really really need help with this, erm, how do I actually save the picture on artweaver? because everytime i save it, only the project is saved, but the picture is nooot…
thanks,
yvonne ?
Yvonne, you will need to change the file extension to save it as a picture you can use elsewhere. The next time you get ready to save, type in the file name and right below that is the file format area, click it and change it to .jpg or .png. Hope that helps.
How do I make the background of an already existing image transparent. This is so I can just take this image and place it over another.
If I were you, I would use the selection tool – freehand (set feathering at 10-20) and go around the part of the background you want to keep. Then edit, copy, edit paste as new image. Then you can apply the new image (copy it and edit/paste as new layer) and move that layer to the back. A lot of steps, I know, I but I don’t know how far along in the program you are. Good luck.
Thank-you so much!
It helped a lot (: