Painting Perfect Skin
Painting skin is one of the hardest tasks faced by every photorealistic painter, due
to the number of factors that make up a final effect – colour choices, blending techniques, special brush usage and custom texturing are all equally important to achieve a truly realistic effect. It's also crucial to remember that different types of skin require a different approach and therefore a different combination of these elements. A delicate porcelain skin tone will require a similar technique to the transparent skin typical for babies, but will drastically differ to darker skin rendition methods.
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Painting realistic hands
Learn the basic anatomy rules and discover techniques that will make painting hands easier than ever, with Marta Dahlig...
Painting hands often causes serious trouble to both professional and amateur artists. The complexity of their build, especially in realism, puts them among the hardest parts of a human body to render properly. When painting realistic hands, two key factors are needed to achieve satisfying results: a thorough knowledge of anatomy, and creative choice of skin tones.
Both of these factors have to be perfectly balanced – even the best technique won't help if you make serious anatomical mistakes; but the knowledge of anatomy alone, not supported by appropriate colour choices, won't ever yield a realistic result either.
Even though both of these elements can only truly be mastered with time, there are some rules and tricks that, once known, will dramatically improve the working process and make an artist's life much easier.
In this workshop I will try to explain and describe those methods, as well as share some tips and hints that might further speed up and ease the hard process of rendering hands.
To use the workshop to its fullest, you should own and have a basic knowledge of professional painting software such as Painter and Photoshop and have a tablet available to use.
The walkthrough image was completed using Photoshop with some help from Painter, but for your comfort the brush tips will be described for both of these programs simultaneously throughout the whole painting process.
From issue 16.
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Mix techniques in a CG illustration
Silvia Fusetti uses a combination of 2D and 3D software to quickly create high quality images...
I'm going to explain to you my usual way of working on digital images such as this, Barbarian Warrior. In ten years of working with CG I've used many different software programs, and have had the chance to work out the advantages and disadvantages of each application. Like many of you, I often have to create illustrations in pretty tight timescales, so I've had to learn to employ a multitude of techniques in order to achieve the optimum result in the quickest time possible.
When planning an image, I try to think analytically of its separate parts and then determine which would be the best and quickest techniques to use. Once all the various elements have been thoroughly planned, I can then begin work on integrating them.
This method can be hazardous if we don't stick to a constant guideline that has to be set up from the beginning. This basis is really important because it provides an ever-present reminder of the fundamental characteristics of the image we're working on: direction of lighting, volumes, perspective and the position of every single element. If we didn't follow this important reference during the implementation process we would be at risk of creating bad harmony between the various components of the design. We may well end up with high-quality individual elements, but if the overall image looks ugly then we would've failed in our task.
A positive outcome depends very much on the balance of a design, so try not to get bogged down with attention to detail.
From issue 20.
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Feathers and Angel Wings
Wings and feathers can be tricky to paint. Melanie Delon explains her technique for creating a realistic look...
Painting wings is quite similar to painting hair: the first time you do it seems impossible, but in fact it's not, and there are little tips that can help a lot.
Before I start painting, I always do some photo research; in this case I looked at a lot of bird pictures to understand the feathers and decided what kind of design I wanted. Then I did a little concept sketch to test out a few colours.
When I paint wings, I think of them as a block; I never paint feather by feather, always as a whole element. I add in details later, once the lightning and the shape are okay. Working on them as a block helps to unify the wings and stops you getting too wrapped up in minor details.
Wings can also reflect the character's mood or attitude: you can do this with colour, or by making the wings lighter or heavier. Here, I want to avoid the image coming across very clean and pure: she's not an angel, so her wings will be more like a bird's – a bit dirty and old.
When painting wings and feathers, I usually use two brushes. For the base and the shape of the feathers, I use one that's very smooth and quickly gives me the kind of lightness I want. Then I use a spackled one for adding the details.
Now let's look at how to paint the wings and feathers, step by step.
From issue 22.
PLEASE NOTE: Because of bandwidth restrictions. Marta's videos are not available online.
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Create a sci-fi landscape
Adam Benton makes use of Bryce and Photoshop to create a sci-fi landscape scene including a derelict spacecraft...
Back in the late 1970s when I was a young lad, I was hungry for science fiction of any kind, and the discovery of a book called Spacewreck – Ghost Ships and Derelicts in Space opened my eyes to a whole new world of sci-fi art, by the likes of Chris Foss and Peter Elson.
As the name suggests, it depicted all manner of abandoned, derelict and ancient spacecraft in space, or on various kinds of alien planetary landscapes. Those images had a profound effect on my own creative visions, and in recent years the versatility I found in the digital toolset have enabled me to realise some images in that vein myself, including the one on these pages – The Last Ark.
In this workshop, I'll test-drive Bryce 6 (although the main features used are available in Bryce 5 also), and show how I created this scene using it, some Photoshop layer and Alpha channel compositing, and a small amount of Cinema 4D to create and export the wrecked ship model. Although I will be principally using Bryce, this workshop is also about realising a final 2D sci-fi image using a combination of both 3D and 2D tools.
From issue 14.
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Creating the right mood
Reduced to tears trying to add a sense of feeling to your painting? Don't be – Natascha Roeoesli shows how to capture the mood with a few key techniques
Evoking feelings is probably the most challenging aspect of painting. However, there are many subtle methods you can use to give a painting that special feel you're looking for.
Mood refers to the general effect of a painting, with all the elements coming together to arouse emotions and stimulate thoughts. There are quite a few ways of creating mood, including subject matter; scenery and composition, to name but a few.
In many cases, your own interpretations and preferences will determine which colours you use or which elements you include. The eye of the beholder is a significant factor in this respect: the colour blue, for example, can represent depression to one person and serenity to another.
The important thing is to be aware of your own ideas of colour and mood and how they relate to your audience. If you keep that in mind you can't go wrong. In other words, if you include elements that your viewers are familiar with and can relate to, you're on the right track. Now let's take a closer look.
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Digital Hairstyling
This workshop will guide you through the process of painting hair in Photoshop using the correct brushes and a streamlined workflow. By John Kearney
Have you ever wanted to paint hair in Photoshop, but didn't have a clue where to start or how to go about it? In this workshop I'll give you an insight into the process I use when painting hair for my fantasy characters. I will guide you through a reliable workflow, and give you some useful tips to provide you with all of the necessary fundamentals needed for painting hair. I really recommend using a digital graphics tablet for this tutorial, because a tremendous amount of subtlety will be needed from your brush strokes in order to accurately paint a convincing hairstyle – trying to do it with a mouse alone would be incredibly daunting and difficult. To follow the tutorial, you'll need to know how to create custom brushes, so dig out those older issues and familiarise yourself with the process if you don't already know.
Hair comes in so many different colours, shapes, and styles, that it would be impossible for me to provide you with comprehensive information on how to paint hair types ranging from wavy perms to dreadlocks! Therefore, in this workshop, I'll focus on how to create a stylish hairdo from start to finish that utilises many techniques relevant and applicable to any hairstyle you can imagine. Once the basics have been digested, you'll be able to adapt many of the techniques to suit your own needs and those of the task at hand.
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Paint air battle cinescapes
Ever fancied creating dramatic cinematic scenes like this air fight? Ryan Church takes the pilot seat…
Before beginning a concept sketch or painting for a movie, I usually work with the director and review the script for that particular scene. In the case of this tutorial, the scene is an air battle. To create this illustration two-dimensionally, I begin by researching actual aircraft in order to understand their construction, the main features required for flying, their markings, materials and reflective properties. All this research will help me to create fictional aircraft based on something known and understood.
In this scene, I decide to paint air combat ships fighting across a night sky. In the final composition, the eye will move from left to right with a large aircraft in the foreground contrasting against the light of the background and the rocket exhausts. It will become evident as your eye moves across the frame that a large ship is closing in on a smaller ship, which is itself chasing three other planes farther ahead.
I decide to use smoke and condensation trails (contrails), as well as the light from the rocket ship in the foreground, to move the eye quickly from left to right as the scene unfolds. It is important in such a composition to have a foreground, a middle ground and a background. In this particular scene, the middle ground depicts large airships in strong one-point perspective. They are placed along the perspective line to draw the eye in and across, and create a sense of depth and space. The background draws you in, so you then see another large airship and some carefully arranged ground details. This is my favourite type of painting – one that faithfully depicts in detail the aircraft's design, but also illustrates the illusion of speed across a motionless frame.
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Can ArtRage Studio Pro finally topple Corel and Adobe as the best digital painting app?
