I tried at first to do a simple step-by-step making off commented, with images addition. But in writing it I realise that a lot of technics and software to use where to devellop as internal tutorial. All this method will maybe have no sense for
you in a first approach, but this method is the result of all my "digital" learning since I practise 2D digital art. The English translation of this
article also results from a big personnal effort cause it's not my native langage and I admit to have
been more brilliant in drawing than in English at school. But my wanting to
share my knowledge to the biggest number of us is bigger. If you see
errors of languages please send me your corrections. (My e-mail is at left top.) Thanks !
Contents
1. Setup Desktop configuration Painter File size
2. Black & white Drawing Tools Mirroring tip Composition
3. Emboss & Engrave technic Embeded tutorial et demo Exemples
4. Color Color layer Tips for skin colors
5. Layers & details
6. End
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a. 2 Tips and Trick to enhance your result
b. References : Where to find them ?
c. Conversion for Gimp users
d. Conversion for Artweaver users
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End
This painting is done using a "combo" of 2
software : Corel Painter 9 and Adobe Photoshop Cs2.
but most of the technics I will use will be usable too in other 2D programs. I reserve at the end of this article a space of conversion for this programms :
- Artweaver (free)
- Gimp ( free & open source )
My Painter 9 workflow
organization
First, I start
by launching Painter. I always prefer this software for global creation, a
lot of pre-made tools are here to fastly satisfy my needing and it's make me remember my old work as a traditionnal artist ( words of technics ).
I often
start with a simple black marker on a warm light grey paper. The size
I use is always around 2000x2000. I usually start by a 3000x3000
square and crop the sheet of paper I want. Here I directly entered the value 2970x2100 pixels to be sure to have a ratio equal to the "A4" the normal European paper ( a bit equal to the "Legal" standart for the rest of world ).
[ tip : If i wanted to make a 16/9 ratio, I simply enter 1600x900. ]
For my workflow
organization : I like to work with the Hue/Saturation/Light, a
panel of custom tools ( more shortcuts tools than custom ), a
standard color selector. I like to let the layer panel reduced next my toolbox, to
keep an eyes on I f I need to add an effect I'm not sure on a
layer. But usually I like to work without layers, as a normal drawing.
5 screen steps and icon of Painter tools in relation with the work.
1. I
start with a line-out style drawing with a thin marker tools. I try to work
to start with good shapes. 2. I enlarge my tool to do fast
shadows zone. 3. With setting the background as white, I take
the eraser and place some lights. 4. I took the blender tool
and start to smooth lights/shadows 5. With an airbrush I make
my shadows deeper, and my light more glow and white.
A close-up for a first "go to detail" work.
I
continue the process : adding details with marker/airbrush/eraser and
blending my shapes. the main idea come softly ; at first I wanted to
add a skull ring and to represent a dark elves, but after I thought
that violet skin and red eyes could be too disco for m color
wanting. Cause even if I work with black and white colors, I try
to imagine the color value. It will be necessary for not have to dark
colors or to en light. That's why I try to keep some neutral zone,
that would be the best place to let express the colors ( lips / skin
)
Mirroring the work is good for refresh eyes and see mistakes
During the process, I mirror ( I even get a shortcut on
my Wacom Express Keys - I work with an Intuos 3 - ) the drawing a lot, this is the best tip to
see mistakes. It's wake up tired eyes, and self-criticism ( brain
believe it's a new picture, and directly start to analyze
differently.) Here the arrows show a part of the face to large and
a mouth a bit not axed.
Composition enhancement and resizing with Photoshop
First "save and go to"
photoshop ; I always prefer to do some modification about move some
zone/resize the drawing with photoshop, may be cause I practice it
easy. I try now to have a good composition. I often use three
simple method : "lines from corner to corner, the big cross"
- shows dynamics axe of reading pictures "1/3,1/3,1/3 :
cutting into 9 frames" - shows where to align
Vertical-Horizontal main lines not in a boring way ( central lines...
) "2 round circles" - shows a representation of the 2
circles of eyes and the focal middle zone where details will be seen
at first. It can be interesting to place circular main lines around
those shapes: can make the effect more efficient.
Of course I
didn't draw this, I just imagine it when I need, but I you are used to
draw, you even build unconscientiously your picture on this way. But
to now it is best for cropping and resize-up your picture. that's
why I added the soft pink zone on the picture, to get a better
composition.
Hand draw details are made with a Digital Airbrush with Painter.
"Save and go to" to Painter, with a
thin airbrush I define now main details. Most of them are just made
with a black line or white lines, pressure of my pen do the
mix.
Fromleft to right: 1. the horn without emboss and engrave 2. with a first layer 3. with the last one
One of the step I prefer : add some
cool details with an easy technique I learn on a lot of
forums and websites.
"save and go to" to Photoshop ' ; duplicate
your background layer, aplly an Fx "emboss/engrave" on the
new top layers, and now draw with the eraser on. Easy !
You can
change the parameters of FX to have colored shadows/light, and change
their directions.
The only thinks to take care, is the frame on the border that appear
around the second layers ( square embossed look like). Just at the
end of your graving work, apply the FX, and erase the border of the
top layer. You can now collapse your layers and repeat the process to
have a lot of details.
EMBEDED PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL : BUMP YOUR TEXTURES
Here is a tutorial to developp this technics method, cause the complexity of effect that can be reached merit it : ( sorry it use
screenshots from the french version of Photoshop, but I have only this
license )
1. Draw a rock on a new layer, simple using basic brush .
2. Draw some solid shadows
3. Blend them using the smudge tools ( you can put the "step" value of the smudge higher to make it work faster & better )
4. Took back a brush and add some little details, as a material color.
5. Duplicate the layer of your rock by drag and dropping on the "new layer" icon. 6. Double-click on the right part of the layer to add an Fx style. Choose emboss & engrave, and try to imitate this settings aboves 7. Now, on this top layer, use a Eraser and set a good sparkled grunge shape. Erase : relief appear !
Here is some fast exemple I made to give you immagination on when to use this trick :
This little touch always add some more life for not a so long of work compare to the number of details generated.
Here some other exemple, as flat texture, can interrest 3D artist texturer too. (step 1 = without bump , step 2 & 3 with different bump )
you can find in my portfolio a lot of other case where I use this technic :
- End of the embeded tutorial part -
The bump was made using 3 or 4 steps of layers, to have different level of engraved details. The lowest was use with a lot of line and a tool of 1 pixel width to make some grunge line on materials, the biggest was a large eraser to write inscription on the left horn on the painting.
Engrave and Emboss Fx layers in action.
The color step is made on a separate layer, this will incrust colors on my grey painting.
To add colors now, we create on
the top of our layers ( I collapse them all, so I kept only one black
and white layer ) a layer with the "color" fusion mode.
This layer will transform the gray value in the color tone applied to
that value. I start to apply over all a colors ( green ) and add
to the painting step-by-step additional colors. A discover this
technique on a painting 2D tutorial of Steven Stahlberg. ( have a look on his portfolio, it's a Cg master. I'm a big fan )
Color sheme I use explain with tones/color and arrows :
A good tricks for a
skin tone is - a bit blue/violet up the eyes - a bit warm red/blood on the
cheek - a bit violet around the nose corners - more red and saturation on the
nose/ears.
just a screenshot about my workflow on Photoshop :
As usual my favorite tool is a flying palette of HSL chroma choice.
Details of my layer compostion for finishing the artwork.
I keep all this 2
layers ( on the image Claque 3 and Calque 1 ; "Calque" is
just the name of the default layers on Photoshop ) and add as many
layers I need to get my picture as I want. Those layers just
enforce some colors with direct bringing of them with a photoshop
airbrush, add highlight, some grain of skin and texture to the
pictures. Easy to done.
a) Tips & Tricks
2 tricks after finish
to make your picture better ( before a publishing , for example )
Go to some TDT3D gallery browse your favorite artist pictures,
comment their picture, and try to analyze well their pictures. After
this come back on your drawing : it's good to have another sight and
finish some point.
Post your final image in a WIP forum as
the one in TDT3D, expert and Internet people will give you precious
advices to enhance the quality of your work.
b) Reference
REFERENCES TO START :
This is another little article to this making of , it's about find good references pictures on Internet. Most of photos are already the artwork from a poser/a creator, so you can't copy them even if you like the shadows / the characters, it would be a derivative work from a existing artwork. The other way is to be a drawing master and have a "mentalray" in mind, and this not evident even if I know some people like this.Last way is to use your reference, from your photos. But it's not evident to ask all your friend to pose for your art. That's why I find in my workflow the implementation of a 3D software distribued freely ; DAZ3D Studio with Mike and Victoria models.
It's like to have some models with the ability to move arms/ make pose / change light and background. (and more, but not interrest me as a final image, just an help )
For this illustration I didn't use it. But I simulate here how, if I had to. ( Personnaly, I still use Daz studio for my hand & foot pose , and for idea of general lightning )
here some screenshots to see the helpness of such a software
The Interface is really full of good things, and the best is to learn by reading help section of this good software.
wire shading rendering internal the 3D viewport
Rendering is maybe not as realist as a photo ; it's a good base to start an artwork with an idea of how light move on a face.
This job was made in 15 min, less than start big internet reshearch free photo or ask a friend to pose.
Now here are some convertions usefull if you desire to use another software to realise your work :
this will not reproduce the tool effect of Painter and Photoshop, but will help to have similar way to work with those software under Gimp ( free and open-source) and Artweaver ( freeware) : It will concern mainly the important point smudge tool/blender tool > to mix the colors have a bump color layer > to colorise your artwork The ideal way for Windows user, is to work with Artweaver as I work with Painter and use Gimp as I use Photoshop. It's ideal for starting your investissement of a 2D digital painting studio by a Graphic tablet without to think of software cause this studio is free and legal to work with.
About : Gimp is surely the most famous 2D editor free and open-source. Can be downloaded for all system Win/Mac/Linux and still in devellopement by a large community. The version I like to use is a portable version of the 2.2. > 25mo to download here (english or french select : " Telecharger the gimp portable..." , page is in french ) and all is ready to use ! This version can be on a usb Key, as well as your "drivers" for your
"Graphic tablet Display".It's ideal to have all of this on a USB key
ready to work every where on a computer.Gimp is free and open source,
so it will be legal to install it on another computer, or to execute it
from the USB Key everywhere. That's why it's a powerfull 2D tool to
consider in the Pro work.
Smudge/blend tools :
smudge tool config to blend artwork efficiently ; screenshot of general organisation
Bump ( supported but not as efficient as the Photoshop method):
a) a sphere is airbrushed on the base layer
b) adding a new transparent layer
c) draw on it with a hard brush a pattern to engrave
d) the menu "Filter>Map>BumpMap"
e) the Filter Bumpmap in action
f) the result with a 70% opacity in "overlay" mode
Layer for colorisation :
1
here a 5min color test made with Gimp some saturation tones, sorry for the color cause I select them randomly toshow as example.
Artweaver is a Windows Freeware program to simulate natural brush tools as Painter from Corel I use in this tutorial, this software is exellent and will have all what you need in one software for make this tutorial :
What I like in :
1. color selector : the turning pyramid 2. a lot of natural tool 3. an incredible computing speed for brush since the last version. 4. imitation of Painter and Photoshop mixed ; so if you learn this one you will never be loose with standard commercial pro software if you have to work on. 5.History / Startup launching speed (waaooo) / Filters / extensions : AWD (Artweaver), BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF, PNG, and PSD (no layer support). 6.Pen Tablet support for a realistic feeling / lot of langage support...
Download it here ( Windows system only, I personaly didn't tested it with Linux Cygwin emulation system )
Tool compatibility :
Airbrush :
Select in the tools Airbrush > Digital Airbrush. All the tools are almost the same as in this tutorial ( icons) so it will be easy to follow the same step with .
Smudge/blend tools :
Artweaver Brush editor : can configure any tools as a smear tool
Brushs can be transform to a good Smudge/Blend tool using the smear option in the Method. Here is a view above of one blending of the half of face made with artweaver fastly with a 2970x2100 files size. The tips is to keep a hight "Spacing" value as almost a bit less of the half of the brush size. ex : Brush size 80 > Spacing for smear should be optimal between 30&40 Brush size 30 > Spacing for smear should be optimal between 12&15
Bump ( not supported ) but a trick to do something :
a) a sphere fastly airbrushed on the base layer
b) on another new layer, some pattern to engrave
c) the filter "Emboss" in action, with a Angle selector
d) the result after a blur to antialias a bit the rendering.
Layer for colorisation :
Create a layer with Artweaver is easy and change it to the color mode is possible here a 5min color test made with some red/violet/peach, colors are extremly well restitued on gray tones.
"Color" layers of Artweaver are great, may be the greatest color layer existing, in other soft, colors layers made often to unsatured color mixing them to much with the grey underlayer. That's why yellow and orange are sometimes poor with this way to work. With Artweaver, this problem is resolved. That's shows how much the software have a future place in the 2D pro industry.
Future ?? : To finish, I would make a note on the stability of the software that couldn't have an experience and commercial test as Corel Painter and Photoshop, cause it's develloped by , so to work everyday I prefer use commercial tool mixed with other interresting software including Artweaver.
from the author : " This is still an early version of Artweaver, so it can come to error
messages and program crashes. Through a small function range yet, not
all menu entries are occupied with functions. [...] Artweaver is still in development, therefore Artweaver does not possess
all planned functions yet. Only if all functions are present and the
stability is satisfy, it will give a version 1.0. "
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This painting is done using a "combo" of 2
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