Keetee

This is part 2 in my series on beginner digital painting. Catch up by reading part 1 on Photoshop settings. This segment covers developing your digital painting technique.

Introduction

In this tutorial, I’ll show you my technique for painting. Feel free to modify it to suit your own style. The digital realm allows for many different approaches, so I’ll say the same thing you’ve heard a gazillion times before: experiment and practice!

Final Image Preview

Exercise: Black and White Sphere

Preparation

1. Download this sphere.jpg file. It’s a 500×500 image of a sphere that I created and will be your reference image.
2. Open the sphere.jpg file in Photoshop and restore down the window so that you can see your bare Photoshop workspace behind it.
3. Go to File » New and open a white 500×500 canvas.
4. Arrange and size the sphere.jpg and your blank canvas windows so that you can see both. If your workspace is too small, select the sphere.jpg window and go to View » Zoom Out (or just press the CTRL and – keys at the same time).

A Basic Circle

1. Locate the Shape Tool in the Tools menu (below the Path Selection Tool). Click and hold to see other options. Select Ellipse Tool.
2. Position your cursor (now a crosshair) over the top left corner of the canvas. While holding down the SHIFT button, click and drag from the top left corner of the canvas to the bottom right corner to create a perfect circle that spans the canvas. Don’t worry if your shape is a different color. (Note: it doesn’t have to be exactly on the edges—just make sure it’s within the bounds of the canvas.)
   
3. Double-click the layer name, Shape 1, and rename it to Circle.
4. With the Circle layer still selected, click the dropdown box next to Fill (top of the Layers panel) and pull the slider down to 0%.
5. Right-click the Circle layer and select Blending Options.
6. In the Blending Options dialog box, click the Stroke menu item. The checkbox will automatically check itself.
7. Change your settings as follows:
   • Size: 1px
   • Position: Inside
   • Color: #000000
   • Leave everything else at default.
8. Click OK. You should now see a black outline of your original circle and an “fx” symbol on your layer.
   

Brush Settings

1. Select the Brush Tool. Open the Brushes Panel by going to Window » Brushes.
2. In the Brushes panel, click the Brush Tip Shape menu item. Make sure that Diameter is set to 50px, Spacing is set to 0%, and Hardness to 100%.
3. Click on the Shape Dynamics menu item. Ensure that it is checked and that Size Jitter is set to Pen Pressure.
4. If you need the room, you may close the Brushes panel.

Base Color

1. Create a new layer by clicking the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel (left of the trash can icon).
2. Double-click on the layer name Layer 1. Rename it to Painting.
3. This next part is more of a process than a single step. You will be laying down base colors on your circle that you can blend later. You will sample colors from your reference image, paint them onto your circle, and repeat this process. Here it how to complete one iteration of this process:
   1. Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and click in the bottom-left area of sphere.jpg. You do not need to have the sphere.jpg window active to do this. You are simply eyedropping the color from your reference image. That color becomes active on your palette, and is now ready for use.
      
   2. Make sure the Painting layer is selected and that you can see your reference image.
   3. Paint a crescent-moon shape of your newly-eyedropped color in the bottom-left of your circle. The area you cover should roughly resemble the darkest area of your reference sphere. You do not have to stay in the lines.
      
   4. Hold down the ALT key again and eyedrop a lighter color. Paint it in the appropriate area on your circle. Repeat these steps until you have filled in your entire circle with base color. Vary your pressure to get colors around the edge of the circle.
   5. The end result should look something like this. You can use more layers of color if you like. (Note: some people prefer to use one base color, then refine from there. Experiment and develop your own style to see what works for you!)
      

Refine your Base Color

1. Open the Brushes panel. Uncheck Shape Dynamics and check Other Dynamics. Make sure Opacity Jitter is set to Pen Pressure. Close the panel if you like.
2. At this point, just use your reference image to look at. You should be able to eyedrop all the colors you need from your own circle.
3. Before we start, let’s tidy up our circle:
   1. Hold down CTRL and click on the vector mask thumbnail on the Circle layer. (In other words, click the white circle image.)
   2. In the menu bar, select Select » Inverse. Press Delete on your keyboard.
   3. Press CTRL and D at the same time to deselect the area.
4. Ensure you’re on the Painting layer. Hold down the ALT key and eyedrop the darkest layer of color on your circle.
5. Press your brush firmly on the area that is darkest. Then, using a repeated diagonal stroking motion, move toward the lightest area of color while decreasing pressure. Let’s break that down. You should be:
   • Using a repeated diagonal stroking motion (to the top left, then to the bottom left – basically, as if you were moving your stylus up and down, just at an angle since we want to move toward the lightest point on the circle in the top right). These are your brush strokes – you can make them short or long as necessary.
   • Moving toward the lightest area on the circle
   • Decreasing pressure as you move
6. For me, these three movements combined make the art of painting. You’ll need to practice for it to come easily! Here’s how my first stroke looks:
   
7. We now have new in-between shades created by the opacity jitter that can be eyedropped as well. Eyedrop one of these in-between shades like this one:
   
8. With your new, slightly lighter color, lightly cover the area in-between what was the darkest section and second-darkest section and use the same movement toward the lightest area while decreasing pressure. My result:
   
9. Since painting requires several strokes, this is where you need to repeat the above steps. Continue eyedropping in-between colors, lightly painting on your circle, and checking your reference to ensure your colors look correct. If you think you’ve lost your way with the shading, you may eyedrop a color from the reference image. Press CTRL and Z keys to undo. Here’s how mine came along:
   
10. To finish, I repeated step 3 to clear the area around my circle. At this point, you can hide the Circle layer as we no longer need the guide. Here’s the end result:
    

Conclusion

Hopefully, this post will give you a good foundation for future experience with digital painting. Once you get the hang of stroke movement and being careful with pressure, you can do a lot! Next time, I’ll post a few process images from digital paintings I’ve done to show you the process in action on a larger scale.

This post is part of a series on digital painting:

1. Introduction and Settings
2. Developing Technique
3. Showcase: How Paintings Progress