Tornado's Photoshop Tutorial
Hey my little DV DaVinci's!
A lot of you may be familiar with my painted Trybe series which are produced with traditional media (primarily gouache). Well, that can be time consuming and sometimes a pain in the ass, which can lead to loss of motivation at times. So, in order to get back in the "groove", I decided to play around and create some pieces digitally (at least for practice purposes).
Doing a piece digitally not only speeds up the time in rendering, but it also gives me the option to re-work areas without leaving a trace of the previous versions (fixing mistakes using the undo command). :D It also gives me the option to keep sections separate (in layers) which I can edit at anytime without effecting the work underneath or around it. More on this later.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the technique I've used in the past for other illustrations which I had to create digitally. It's pretty simple and I'm sure a popular way of working for many others who use Photoshop (or any other layer enabled application, such as Painter).
Below is a sketch I scanned out of my sketchbook which isn't a finalized concept, but I thought it would be fun to render in color. Since it's not really worthy of pulling out all the paints and brushes for, I decided to render it in Photoshop.
----Scanned Sketch--------------------------------Rendered piece
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2248/...365080.jpg?v=0
Step 1: Scan Image
First you need to scan your image, obviously. I usually scan it in at 150dpi or less as I don't intend to print this out as a hi-res image (300dpi+). Lower resolution files will also keep the application from starting to run sluggish and prevents you from needing to create larger brushes in the brush palette.
Step 2: Layers! (figure 1a)
This is where Photoshop's features makes it much easier to work with than traditional methods - layers. I set up the following layers which are pretty much standard in all my files. Sometimes there's a variation depending on whether I'm doing a color image or not, but it's all based on the same idea (from bottom to top): drawing, color, line(if applicable), detail/adjustments. Sometimes there's a layer for shadows and one for highlights- but not in this piece. This piece has the following:
1) Markings (detail) **
2) Body ("color" layer)
3) Whiteout
4) Drawing
Most layers are self-explanatory - the "whiteout" layer is simply a layer I use to control how much of the drawing I want to be able to show through as I work. Using the opacity slider I can have it anywhere from full intensity, to completely off.
** In this instance I set the layer's blending mode to "multiply". This means it will act as an overlay to the layer beneath it, rather than a cover. Think of it as a transparency.
Figure 1a
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/...4a5791.jpg?v=0
Step 3: Paths (figure 1b)
Next what I like to do is create masks so that I can get nice clean edges in areas that require it. This is the equivalent of cutting frisket if one were airbrushing with a real airbrush. Here, you outline your image and various areas with the pen tool. Then, when you want to activate that area (make it into a mask) you click on the path, then click on the "make selection" symbol on the bottom of the palette, and presto, instant mask!. What's cool is that you can save various masks with different names and then select them at will from a palette (see figure 1b). Since this is a practice piece, I just plopped them all on one layer. The second path layer you see is the mask for the marking which I'll show you later on (I'll save all the markings on one path layer and all the body paths on the first).
Figure 1b
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2237/...90f382.jpg?v=0
Step 4: Render Image (figure 1c)
Finally, the fun part! Start selecting your paths and converting them into masks and blow in color. I use the airbrush tool for this, with shape dynamics off and opacity set to "pen pressure", as I'm using a tablet. This will essentially keep the size of the airbrush consistent, but the opacity will adjust according to how hard I press down on the tablet.
Here I like to pull back the opacity on the "whiteout" layer to let some of the underdrawing show through while I render. (figure 1c).
Figure 1c
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2107/...573307.jpg?v=0
Step 5: Details (figure 1d)
For this particular piece I have the tattoo markings to add. I like keeping this as a separate layer (figure 1d) because if I make any mistakes or change my mind on the shape, I can do so without effecting the work that went into the body layer. Don't forget to set the layer's blending mode to "multiply" for this layer! Else you will simply end up covering up the hard work beneath it.
Figure 1d
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2378/...4d823b.jpg?v=0
FINAL (sort of) (figure 1e)
Below is what you end up with if you were to turn on all layers (including the whiteout layer at 100% opacity to block out the underdrawing).
Figure 1e
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2039/...6cfd10.jpg?v=0
Hope you enjoyed the free tutorial and have success with it should you decide to give it a go!
Happy painting! :fro:
