Welcome
to my tutorial on how I painted the
landscape/waterscape Desirable thirst.
The tutorial works like a walkthrough/step-by-step
guide. I will not explain in detail
how you should paint the different parts
in the painting. But instead try to
show
one way on how to work.
This
painting took approximately 36 hours
to complete, it was painted in Adobe
Photoshop using a Wacom Intuios A4 (digital
drawing board). I did a preliminary
sketch on paper first. Actually the
first sketch was on a tissue and it
where an ugly
dick :| But I scribbled over it and
it became the rocks in the left/lower
part :)
Btw, don't ask...
This
is my first tutorial, I have 5 more
step-by-step tutorials in progress.
And I'm planning a series of 15 different
tutorials explaining in detail
different techniques and paintings.
I would love some input and feedback
on these tutorials so please don't hesitate
to comment on my portfolio
or mail me at nicklas@nalf.it
- portfolio: http://www.nalf.it
Step
1 - Sketch
After
i have done a quick sketch on paper
I start Photoshop and create a new canvas.
For this painting I started with 1024x768.
•
Background layer.
It's good practice not to choose white
back--ground, a grey color or a color
which reflects the mood of the painting
is better. This is because it can be
hard to get started with a blank canvas.
Also white is so bright that your eye
will make surrounding colors darker.
Choosing correct values can then be
a bitch.
•
Created a new layer with a transparent
back-ground. I then drew my sketch again
using a hard 3 pixel brush. Mainly thinking
composition and not on specific details
at this stage.
Step
2 - Base coloring
Tip
001 - Learn the keyboard shortcuts.
Improve your skill in Adobe Photoshop(tm),
with keyboard shortcuts you can
increase speed and efficiency. I
have written a tutorial and I will
try to give you detailed overview
on the most common shortcuts and
functions used by artists. Click
here to read Tutorial 002.
Next
thing to do is to do the base coloring.
This step is just as important as the
sketch. Choosing colors and values can
dramatically change the whole painting
in mood and theme.
I wanted something very painterly, rich
and warm colors to convey paradise.
This part is always very relaxing and
fun, at least I think so... I feel like
a children painting in a color book
:)
•
I created a new layer and ordered it
below the layer with the sketch. Then
I paint with a hard brush (no soft edges
on the brush).
Those with a digital drawing board should
set the brush to change the size of
the brush according to pen pressure,
good for painting smaller regions without
having to change size of the brush.
I started painting the objects that
is in the background and far away from
the viewer; in this case it's the sky.
•
After painting the base color of the
sky I create a new layer adding it before
the sky layer but still below the sketch
layer. Then using same brush settings
I painted the foreground forest.
I used 2 layers so that I can edit the
sky more easily after I started working
on the foreground.
3DTotal
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Step
3 - DPI and the background
Info
001 - DPI.
DPI stands for DOTS PER INCH.
In other words, how many pixels
that's printed /displayed on every
inch. For screen / internet usage
72 in DPI is enough. For newspaper
use 100-150 DPI. For high resolution
prints use 250-300 DPI.
Tip
002 - Shortcut for eyedropper when
painting
I use the keyboard shortcut for
the "eyedropper" when
using the brush tool. It's the "ALT"
key on pc. So that way when I'm
painting I can easily pick up colors
that I want to use by holding "ALT"
and pressing on a color.
Until
now I have worked with a small canvas,
making it easy to paint big areas. But
I want this to be printable in high
resolution. So what we need to do now
is to increase the canvas.
•
In Adobe Photoshop 7.0 I choose in the
Image menu "Image size". Photoshop
now opens a new window where I can specify
new size.
In the "Document size" section
enter following:
This will make the painting huge and
increase the file size to 50 mb. Be
aware that the memory and CPU usage
will increase. Old computers should
not be used for making printable paintings.
the foreground.
•
I almost always start painting in the
background because it can be really
difficult to paint it after we have
added details to the foreground. Also
the skies color will be reflected on
the foreground.
Making sure that the layer with the
base color for the sky is active I start
adding details. I use a soft airbrush
pencil. Because of the change of the
canvas size we must work with large
brushes.
I
don't do too much detail, rather try
to
give the sky a texture that I'm satisfied
with.
More information about my technique
when I'm painting clouds will be in
another tutorial. Please notify me if
such tutorial is wanted.
