Digital manipulation/ Digital experiments 7. Painting

Painting in Photoshop and other similar programs has become the main form of digital illustration. It has become the staple of the concept art world and is a generally fast way of achieving a high stranded of work.  I’m not very good at this but I wish to become a bit more adept in the future. I’m going to show you how I do digital painting but there are hundreds of ways to approach it. It’s imported to remember your layers when painting. If you are confident with digital painting then complex paintings can be done on a few layers. Its personal preference but if you’re not confident then layers can save you a lot of mistakes.

A lot of people start with a scanned in image. That is perfectly fine but for this example I’m going to start with a black silhouette. I want to draw a wolf like character and start with the silhouette. When I am happy with the shape I use the fill tool to make itin to a mid-tone. I chose a grey because I think it will work for this creature.

To start painting I chose a darker grey for the shade. The brush I am using is a default Photoshop brush, I also set the flow to around 15% because I think it works better. I start by roughly marking in the shadows. It doesn’t have to be neat at this point. I then go back to my original colour an make the image look a bit cleaner. 

At this point I start to use a lighter colour to add highlights. I also try to clean up the outline and the spines along the wolf’s back. I also add some little stipple to the fur and make it a bit more interesting. If I make little mistakes then the colour picker tool is always handy for re selecting colours. I also use the eraser tool to keep the outline looking clean, at this point I clean the feet.

For some final details I add some glowing eyes and a simple back drop. This is a very simple example of a digital painting but I think it’s still ok. I have done a lot better in the past and will spend more time on my illustration. Below is the final illustration.