This is in the MyPaint wiki, but since some people on here are trying out MyPaint lately I thought I'd point you to my keyboard mapping for my particular workflow:


(Click for larger view. Note that there is a typo in the shortcut image above - "Purer" and "Greyer" have swapped places).

MyPaint's default keys are all over the keyboard, focused on the left side. This leads to most often having the keyboard on the other side of the tablet from you, forcing you to reach across in order to press a key. The idea with my setup is to keep your keyboard to the left of your tablet using your left hand to manipulate the program without strain (at least if you are right-handed).

With this setup you don't have to click on nearly any of MyPaint's interface, even color-changing is tied to keyboard shortcuts. One thing not mentioned here is changing brushes by the keyboard. This is default in MyPaint - when you have the brush you want, press Ctrl-[0-9] and it will be saved under that number (so Ctrl-5 will save your current brush so you can get it back by simply pressing 5 in the future).

I usually don't use all that many brushes for a painting, I have 1-6 assigned to the most commonly used ones. I usually work MyPaint in fullscreen mode (F11 and/or Tab) without any of the UI showing.

The keyboard shortcut config file is here (pastebin). This was originally made for MyPaint 0.9, so not sure if the format is quite the same anymore. To be safe you can just assign the keys manually - it's simple to change your keyboard shortcuts in MyPaint. To do so, just go into the menu and find the functionality you want - hover the mouse over that selection in the menu and press the key combination you want. Done! (this is the same as GIMP's "dynamic shortcut" functionality which for some inexplicable reason you have to activate manually in GIMP these days).

I also import and use David Revoy's v4 brush kit. There are later brush kits from him, but that one contains a brush I really like (it's the last one in that preview image). Later MyPaint versions can import such kits directly into the program without you having to unpack it or anything yourself. The import functionality is in MyPaint's brush menu if I remember correctly. From the various brush sets, pull together a few you like into the "favorite" set so you can easily find them, then assign keyboard shortcuts 0-9 to them as described above.

My workflow using this setup can be visualized here, along with plenty of annotations and hints (I've posted this video before):


Hope that can be useful for those testing out MyPaint for the first time!
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Griatch

@Griatch... Is this a script?
http://pastebin.com/EdNJUYWC

It's a configuration file describing the keymap of MyPaint. You can download it from pastebin as normal, name it appropriately and drop it in the right place. On my machine that file sits in ~/.mypaint/accelmap.conf (make a backup of that file before copying my variation over it, just in case). I don't know how versed you are in file manipulation; it's very fast to do in the terminal but it can be done with a graphical handler too (just make sure you view "hidden files" since all files beginning with a period are invisible by default. Ask if you have further questions.

But as said, manually configuring your setup is easy and possibly also quite educational since it might point you to things in the menus you might otherwise not notice.
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Griatch

thanks.

Hi. I like using graphic software and learning and writing about it as well. I write articles for wikihow. I have written a few on MyPaint and would love to write more. I would love to have others check these out and see if they can think of topics for new ones.

Because I am new, I can't post a link (very smart move on the forums part). wikiHow has a LOT of spammers to deal with. Just go to wikiHow and search for MyPaint.

@ttrimm

Never heard of wikihow but looking at it, it does seem to be a nice short tutorial format (VERY short - only 8 steps for painting with MyPaint?). Anyway, -I- can link to it, the articles ttrimm are talking about are here.

Being a long-time user of MyPaint already those tutorials are too low-level for me, what I'd like to see would be an in-depth tutorial about creating your own brushes (that'd be an extensive one, MyPaint's brush engine has a LOT of options).
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Griatch

The 'problem' that I have with MyPaint is that I am not an artist, so I don't use it often. Do you know of any locations of where I can find some tutorials. Failing that, do you have any suggestions? I really would like to get the 'word' out about that particular software. It's an awesome software.

I am also glad that I found this forum. (Thanks Alex!) I am also trying to learn more about (and write about) it, as well.

Most tutorials around are for GIMP. I have a range of tutorials for painting on the computer. Most are for GIMP, but there is at least one for combining GIMP with MyPaint. See my signature for the link.
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Griatch