Hey all, I have read tutorial after tutorial and all of them have some sort of an artist tablet  involved! I have tried my best to do them with a mouse but it always comes out looking like  dog doo doo. Does anyone know of a tutorial for us poor schmucks that have to use a mouse because we can't afford a $2000.00 tablet? Dont get me wrong the hair meshes that some are putting out noe are terrific but they still have that blocky look to them after rendering in poser.

Thanks for letting me rant and rave. But that where I am stuck at, maybe I should just start doing them bald?????

You could try starting with small brushes for painting/smearing and then go to even smaller brushes. And in the end use incredibly small brushes, like 1 point. And lowering the opacity to. I did do that with the mouse, in the old days. Before the war. Those $ 2000 tablets are terrific. They come with built-in LCD tv, DVD and some living miniaturized zoo elephants, encrusted in diamonds, don't they? If you just want to draw things with a pen, you can find tablets under $ 100. Doing paint and/or postwork with a mouse, is like kissing your lover with your foot. It just doesn't feel right... :-)

2 artists that I know of here paint hair and clothes using a mouse - Syltermaid and prog ... and they both do it wonderfully.  

I could never, ever do it though because I use the mouse left handed and pen right handed. Although I do most things with my left, I can't really draw or write with it so I'd be stumped!  I can't use the mouse right handed either LOL!

Edited to add gallery links:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=117012

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=303644

It would take either a lot of coordination or a lot of patience to paint hair with a mouse. I've seen a couple of people do it, though. If you have all the patience in the world, you can do it strand by strand, using the pen tool to make the strands, and then stroking each path you make with a gradually thinning brush.

I wouldn't recommend it, though. It's extremely frustrating and time-consuming.

As Hoofd said, there are tablets you can buy for under $100. Dig deep if you have to, or buy used, but I promise you, it'll be the best investment you ever make.

RA Graphics has a good tutorial for painting clothes and hair using the path tool and no mouse at all.

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=15249&vendor=9180

Well I must of missed the $100 tablets. Of course I didn't look really hard either. Last time I priced them... 2 years or so ago they were really pricey. For someone working on a limited artist budget like myself even a hundred dollars at this point is pricey. I guess I should of asked the fat guy in the red suit to bring one this year instead of slippers!! LOL

Thanks for all the help. I guess I am kind of stuck until I can get the money saved up for a tablet.

It can be done, but like everybody says, much easier with the tablet.  Could you use some hair brushes instead? Some people on deviant art have created whole free sets of brushes of curly hair, etc. I know the marketplace here sells some too. But just an idea til you can save up for that tablet. :)

Attached Link: http://dealnews.com/deals/Wacom-Graphire4-4-x5-Pen-Tablet-for-60-shipped-after-rebates/148925.html

I purchased my first 4x3 Wacom tablet 8 years ago for $50... and actually, the tablet was free, I was really paying for the software it came bundled with, lol.

Unless you're working for a professional graphic arts company, you really don't need a tablet with a working surface area any larger than 6x8.  And the higher surface area is what starts racking up the price.

Take a gander over at Amazon.com under the tablet section... not only do they have good prices on the Graphire series ($150 on up for a 6x8) but there are some "off brand" tablets that are very reasonable.  However, I would recommend going with a Wacom, because I bought one of those "other" brands for my daughter, and it requires batteries for the pen... YUCK.  Wacom tablets do not require batteries.

However, as MistDragon points out, there are tuts out there that don't require a tablet.  Don't give up hope :D

While you CAN paint hair with the mouse... It's a pain in the --- to get looking reasonably "not painted" results.

Try ebay - and yeah, the first reccomendation would be Wacom, but I had an Aiptek 6x8 that was great. Yeah, takes an AA batt for the pen - it didn't suck THAT bad for me, but it was a little weird to have it die on me in the middle of drawing.

And BTW - if/when you DO get a tablet, expect the first few weeks to be odd for you as you learn to use it instead of a mouse - and then once you get past that you'll NEVER go back when it comes to drawing.

Good luck-
-Lew ;-)

Thanks all for the great advice! Looks like I am in the market for a Wacom. I did find a decent deal on newegg.com for a Wacom graphire for $150. It was a 6x9 I think? Well tax returns will be coming up have to see what I get from Uncle Sam and take it from there!!!

Er I meant, no tablet at all ;)

I use a mouse to colour my digital comics hair all the time.  Lotsa very small brushes and smudging involved on a variety of layers.

see my gallery for examples

My wacom graphire cost around 100 bucks a couple years ago.  Here's a tip if you really want one, try ebay.   A suprizing number of artists "upgrade" to a larger one, and often you can find a deal on the small one's there that are used.

Hello! I do hair using my mouse and Photoshop 7 brushes! I learned from various tutorials that really helped me out! Go to these for the best results 
 http://www.creativedust.com/tutorials.htm
  http://www.antjesgraphics.com/AGTut.html 
  These really helped me to understand what I was doing wrong.... Good luck! Once you start, don't give up. You just have to keep trying and you will get it!

After a LOT of work and experimentation, I use Eye Candy's fur filter to make hair. Quite passable hair. I think most people have no idea what the Eye Candy filters can really do because they never go beyond the presets. They're invaluable to me.

I LOVE eyecandy for hair. I can't quite get really realistic with it, but I've seen people who definately can. The only problem that I have with it is taht you need a pretty big picture to start with.

Yeah, your image definitely has to be withing a range of certain sizes, not too small and not too large, but eyecandy hair, when you experiment and work with it can make beautiful multilayerd hair. It's not fast, and it's not easy, but it works. You just have to understand the way hair grows naturally, and work to duplicate that structure. I have four eyecandy filters, eyecandy, nature, texture and xenofex, and I find all of them indispensable. But you have to expertiment and customize and work with them or they're immediately identifiable as eyecandy filters. They're capable of a great deal when you push them.

Wacom Graphire tablets are as affordable as high-spec cordless mouses, and are, to my mind, indispensable. Get one. You might think: oh, it's not a great spec thing; it won't make that much of a difference... it will. You'll never go back. Really.

Some of us are desperately poor and don't have the money to buy a wacom, no matter how lovely it would be to have one. I used to have a tablet, not wacom, another brand. But it6 doesn't work in win 2000.

I hear you on that count... right now, if I didn't already have one (an old one at that) I couldn't possibly afford a new one. Well, I hope one finds its way to you.