Learn how to paint digitally, adding to your Photoshop skills which will expand your creative expressions.

Beginning Steps To Paint Digitally On Computer

Sometimes people think that when you paint digitally on computer all you do is push a button and the computer does the painting. Not so. It’s the artist that’s doing the painting. The only difference is the artist is using the computer brushes and color as opposed to regular paint and brushes. Come along and I’ll show you the process of how we actually paint digitally on computer. Hope it’s something you can actually learn from.

• Import Drawing:

  I start with a digital drawing I did on my computer. Or you can use an imported file of a drawing you have.

  

• Duplicate Drawing:

  I duplicate my drawing using command (Mac) or Control (PC) J to duplicate another layer of the drawing. 

• Make Transparent Layer:

  Then hit multiply to see through that layer. This keeps the line on top of the painting at all time to see what you’re painting.

• Create A New Layer:

I create a new layer (click on copy symbol at bottom right corner) underneath the line layer. Here I paint digitally under that line layer. Starting with my background. Each added object gets it’s own separate layer. This make it easier for corrections or adjustments without affecting the other elements.

When I start painting the bear on computer I used a textured brush called Dry Brush on Towel. That gives me a furry look. 

Building The Structure of Your Image

• Determine Light Direction:

  Determine which direction your light will come from.

• Paint Lights and Shadows:

  Paint in his basic color then some shadow colors. It’s a little brighter than what I want so I toned it down.

  

(While on the layer click Image, Adjustments, Then any parameter you desire to make a change with).

I’m giving light to the top areas as if the light is coming from above right side. I’m filling it in to give dimensionally to my basic structure and I’ll fill in additional spots as I go.

I turn off my top line periodically to check how well the structure of my drawing is coming along. Then turn it on again.

I put in the sweater color quickly. Then go back and erase some of the color that’s outside the line. If you remember one of my previous video/blog (Artist Technique for Painting a Tree) on simple painting steps of 1,2,3 – dark, lights, and medium tones. I’m painting with this idea in mind, as I add in my lighter tones on the sweater.

• Making Adjustments:

  I’m going to tone the sweater down, using a Layer Mask to darken it then I’ll erase out some of the darks so the lights will come through.

A Layer Mask or Adjustment Layer allows you to make a layer to change the artwork without affecting the original art underneath. Such as complete color or effect changes, even erasing things out while the original remains in tack. You can affect the entire work or isolate out an area with a marquee or protective line around it (Painting With Photoshop On Computer). Then create the mask. Here are the steps.

If you choose the entire layer, click on the layer art image while pressing command (Mac) or Control (PC) to put a marquee or protective line around to image. (Short Cut)

     Or,  while on the layer you want, click on Select, Load Selection, then OK.

Then choose from Adjustment layer you want. Hover over then to see what they are then click the one you want.

Layer will appear and the window to make changes. Use them to adjust what you want.

I will give more color to my shadow areas. Darker in the dark areas on the sweater. Has a bit of violet touches to it and then I’ll darken it even more and erase some of the mid tones. (Please watch the video for visual clarity).

Adding The Details

Now I’m building some of the features, the nose, the eyes, putting in a little more detail as I go. On the video you’ll see me going in tight and out of the painting some times. I need to push it back to see how it comes together when its too close. Then I pull it back in to see more of the details. If it was an actual painting outside of the computer, I would be stepping back from the painting. 

I’m putting a Marquee around the feet and ears to lighten them up more. Then add line details.

The line drawing is there as my foundation to build the bear painting. I need to paint line detail on the bear to allow it to stand alone when the top line is removed.

I build form, giving value, texture, and other details to the bear giving dimensionally with light, middle tones, and shadows. This applies when you paint digitally on computer or painting on real canvas.

I paint a little in different areas to help build more of the form overall as I go.  Painting some areas a little lighter, some areas a little darker. I’m building the eyes now. Painting in some eye color.

I decided to brightening up the eyes more with an adjustment window. Because they are on their own layer I can adjust the color from a window and not use the Layer Mask if I’m not concern about preserving an original color.

If you refer to my blog (Painting With Photoshop On Computer) I’ll explain about finding the brushes window, where to pick colors and a few other Photoshop basics for painting.

Giving Final Touches

• Add Accents and Enhancement Spots:

  Here I’m putting in reflective light just to give more color emphasis and now I’m coming in and trying to give more texturing to make it have a sweater effect, without putting every line. I’m just putting in light hitting is as opposed to the shadows to give it that sweater feel.

  

I darken a few lines here and there to help accentuate form better. Now I’m giving more textures to the bear. I want him to feel more hairy but not overly so. Trying to simulate a look without giving every single detail. This will give him more of a “toy bear” texture. Bringing a little more light in areas.

This is me doing the painting on computer. It requires my artistic eye to know where to give more detail without giving too much detail. So here’s the final.

Now it’s your turn. Fire up the computer, open Photoshop and give it your test run. Just play a little and make it fun!

As the animation industry was moving to computer, Photoshop was becoming the software to paint with for background painting. Before the transition from traditional painting to computer was fully in swing, I give myself 30 minutes before my normal start work time and 30 minutes after work hours to learn how to paint digitally on computer. It didn’t take very long to get in the flow of it so long as I was consistent in my effort. So lets  do this.

I Hope this was a learning experience for you.

Remember the last time we used acetate to make wall texture? This time we are going to use it to create ground texture. Please come along with me as I show you how to make ground texture using acetate.

You may recall in my last video/blog “Technique for Wall Texture” that we must wet our board first before beginning to paint. We wait until it dries to a low sheen, not a high gloss.

To the left is the high gloss look we do not want.

We lay in the paint starting from the lighter colors to our darker color areas. Make sure there is a lot of pigment because the wet board will disperse or thin out the paint. Once we get the lights to the darks completed, then we can start manipulating the paint. In this case we are using the acetate to create ground texture. I will put some paint (slightly darker pigment than my shadow area) on the acetate and drag it in the direction that I want the ground to flow. I drag some of the dark areas into the light areas and the light areas into the dark area. This is what creates a natural ground texture that’s not so contrive, but has a loose and natural feel to it.

I’m painting in brush strokes that have the appearance of tire or directional treads, as if a wagon is constantly using a road in a certain direction. It leaves those little ruts in the ground. So we’re creating that look of ruts in a road. I’m giving in a few more dark areas with my brush. Next, I’m going to do some cross shadows as if the shadows are crossing the road from the right side of the painting. Then I’ll go back in to add more directional tire threads or ruts because I lost some of that with my shadow strokes. Now I have the basic overall texture.

My board has dried now, which requires me to airbrush water onto it and re-wet it again. Wetting the surface allows me to drag my acetate over it. I will put some more paint back on the acetate and then drag it in the same direction of my ruts on the ground. It’s going to be a little darker pigment to define the ruts more.

I’m keeping it wet by utilizing my airbrush to do that. This gives you a quick method of getting all of those textures into the ground without overpainting them. Just to break up the ground a bit, I’m putting some grassy spots onto it. I’m not necessarily focusing on the grass because I’m going to do another video showing you a technique to do grass in the future.

My next focus is to put lighter spots on the ground as if the sun is coming from the left hand side and hitting some of the ruts on the ground. This gives more dimensionally to the ruts. I’m picking out spots to help accent that the most.

Once I have done that I’m using a toothbrush to give myself tiny, little pebbles. I rub the tips of the toothbrush in the paint (darker pigment for the light area & lighter pigment for the darker area) and scrape my fingers over the toothbrush to cause the paint to splatter onto the board.

Then I’ll paint in some larger pebbles, little rocks, into the ground as well. I will give them some shadows so it feels like they’re attached to the ground and this will basically complete the look of a finished ground. I focusing on getting that natural texture look into the ground by using a piece of acetate. Here you can see the finished painting.

That’s my method for doing ground texture. It’s amazing what you can do with a piece of acetate. Give it a try. If you find this interesting, please subscribe. Hope you are enjoying the blog or videos demonstrations! See you next time.

In this tutorial I am going to utilize acetate to create wall texture for a sample painting. I hope you’ll find it an interesting technique to add to your painting skills. In each series we are going to do something very simple, like a wall or ground or grass. Then by the end of the series, you’ll be prepared to do a full painting!

This technique for creating wall texture applies when using gouache, which is an opaque water color paint. Gouache is very water soluble, which means it can be easily damaged if you drop water on it, so you want to be careful.  You can use acrylics with this same technique. We start by wetting our board, making sure to get it as evenly wet as possible. When the board is first wet it has a highly glossy appearance.

You can see it’s shiny and bit reflective on the surface. Do not put paint on at this stage! Wait for it to dry to a low sheen, where you can tell it’s damp, but not sopping wet. While that is drying, you can start mixing the paint colors you want.  Make sure you have enough pigment because it’s going to be dispersed when you lay the paint onto the board.

Once you begin to lay in the color, try to be as even as you can and work fast – you don’t want your board to dry before you finish laying on paint. I’m putting in my lightest shade first, then I work towards darker shades to maintain the richness of color and the cleanest color early on. You don’t want to dirty your nice, clean, lighter areas right? Paint should be thin enough to allow light to hit the white board and let color bounce back up. If it gets too thick than you loose the vibrancy of your color because light can’t pass through well.

My board is beginning to dry so I’ll use an airbrush, which gives an even amount of water across the surface. This way I can continue working on a moist surface. I can lay in additional colors and a variety of information into that board and it still represents my first pass, or lay-in of paint. The airbrush will prevent paint from building up too heavily and still keep that bounce light coming through. Try to keep a balance between not getting too opaque nor too transparent with the paint. This is called a translucent effect: that’s what we want to achieve with the amount of paint we lay on the surface. Now we are going to use a badger brush.

A badger brush helps blend colors together, soften brush strokes, and smooth out some of the rough lay-in areas.

Every once in a while, hairs may come out of the badger brush and you have to pick them up by pushing the brush forward. This takes a little practice but you can get used to it. If it drys into the paint it will leave a line there. So if you can pick it up while it’s still damp, you’re better off.  Now I’m checking to make sure that the paint is dry.

You want it to be completely dry before the next stage. We can begin using a piece of acetate to give texture to our wall. We have established the light and shadows.

As you give texture you are going to loose some of the lightness and cleanness of your surface. Add another layer of paint that’s fairly thin–it’s a more transparent lay-in of pigment. We are just rubbing onto the acetate the colors that we want. You can vary how light or dark it becomes based on the amount of water to pigment. If you want it to be less apparent, than use more water; if you want it to show up stronger, than use more pigment.

What I’m doing is dabbing it down and letting it have random “accidents” as I lay it onto the surface. This will become wall texture that I’ll work with when I structure the wall. Creating random texture with this method is better than painting it in, which can look too contrived. It’s purposefully accidental! Now we can begin painting the stone work.

I’m painting my lines just a bit darker so it can show up in the shadow areas. The paint is more like watercolor in transparency. Since it dries lighter, I can go a little darker with my line work. I’ve built the basic structure of my stone wall, and can move on to the details. I want to put some shadows in as if light from above has cast shadows on the stone wall. To do so, I’ll take slightly darker paint (not quite as dark as my lines), add a little color to it, then build the shadowing using a thicker brush.

Keep it transparent to allow texture and color to come through. Where the light is, some of the yellow will show through; where the shadow is, some of the violet shows through. You can also add warmth to the color, as if there’s  warmer light reflecting below. That creates contrast with the cooler areas in the painting. Here’s what it looks like so far:

To give it dimension, I want to add more shadowing to this. Afterward I’ll use dark paint to define the cracks in the wall more. It helps clarify stone separation. Now the definition between the stones is more apparent. Since gouache drys lighter there still room to go darker without becoming totally black. I try not to make every line equally dark.

Pick out little spots where you accentuate the darkness. You don’t want it everywhere. Some things should only be suggested. I’m going to start painting in light as if it’s coming from above. I’ll define where light hits the top of the stone. The fun part is, as you do that, you can pick little areas to make crevices within the stone that catches the light as well. This will give us even more dimensionality.

I like to play up warm, reflective lights in my shadow area, which brings some interesting color to the piece. I’ll add a few more highlights from the top in the light area. Then put some cool light in my shadow areas. Keep highlights in the shady area dimmer than the light area. This will help define the stonework in the shadows.

My last few touches are redoing shadows in the crevices. I’ll get my darkest possible color, almost black, and give those final accents where the crevices are extra deep. This will bring out the final details that we would need for the piece to come together. It’ll look complete. So these are subtle steps to take when painting a stone wall, a brick wall, stone work on the ground, the side of buildings with texture, or anything like that. You can use the acetate to make the texture. It’s just a matter of pulling out the light and dark from the texture to get the overall structure of what you’re drawing or painting.

The next time we will use the acetate to make ground texture. Keep an eye out for it and happy painting!