Coloring

Tested coloring with a 3D character (a free 3D model from 3dtotal.com).



And also colored my last painting, here's the result:



Here's some coloring tutorials:
Polykarbon Channel Coloring
Skintones
Digital Comics Coloring
Painting Skin Tones
Steeldolphin Digital Coloring
Art Tutorial

First Painting

I was a bit fed up with theory, so decided just to paint something instead. So here is my first painting.



He's a weird dude, but actually I'm quite suprised it turned out quite cool. The stuff I have read must have rubbed off, because that is a significant leap forward since my first doodle. I used the grayscale method outlined here: Henning Ludvigsen Workflow. I did not use any reference, well that easy to see :-) Maybe next step is to colorize him then...

Brushes

Today I have played around with brushes. There are so many free brushes on the net, just google for it and you'll find tons.

Here are some I like:
I-Netgrafx (these are good for mattepainting).
brushes from Linda Bergkvist
Creative Mac Brushes

And there are many creative ones here:
Deviantart
Adobe Studio Exchange

On the left is an image I made while playing around with the various brushes (click on it to see a larger version). It was very fun....and that pic is made up 100% of brushes I found today. Many of them are bitmap brushes, but I also used more normal brushes for the haze, transitions, grass and extending the water.

I also found an app where you can preview your brushes: ABRviewer. This is very useful since previewing them in in photoshop is not that fast, and one do not want to have all the brushes loaded at any time.

Here is a tutorial how you can create your own custom brush.

Here are a bunch of tutorials how to make creative cool brushes.

Perspective

This java applet pretty much explains 2 point perspective.

Here is a great turorial on perspective and basic drawing.

Here is a tutorial how to make a 2 point perspective grid in photoshop.

In landscape paintings getting the right perspective is essential for making it look real. I have read that the most important thing in matte painting is getting the perspective and the values right, so therefore I learn these two basics first.

btw the Vanishing Point tool in photoshop can be a great tool for placing/cloning textures in perspective.

Color theory

been reading through some tutorials about colors. Found a cool app that explains color theory quite easy, it's called Color Wheel Pro. They got a trial version to download, and it shows how the different color schemes works. It also go a help file that explains the color schemes and also the pros and cons when using the different schemes, so this is a very helpful tool in understanding color.

Another very helpful tool is the
Color Wheel Photoshop Action that can be found at Adobe Studio Exchange. It takes the foreground color and makes a custom color wheel based on the color schemes, in other words, a palette to use in your paintings or design.

A simple color theory tutorial can be found here.

A tip about photoshop is to switch the color pallette to HSB (by default it is RGB), because this makes it easier to change between monocromatic colors, which is the easiest color scheme to use when designing something. One only change the brightness/value and/or the saturation. Another scheme close to the monocromatic is the analogous scheme, that also creates a harmonious feel. So for webdesign or the likes, then these two works great, but in painting one also need some more contrasting colors and then the triad scheme is popular. More to read about these schemes in the tutorial and the app mentioned.

Artists

been browsing through several galleries to find inspiration and just to enjoy the diverse artwork beeing created and published on the net for all to see and discuss. Here are some artists I like:

Digital Painting:
Anry Nemo
Craig Mullins
Steven Stahlberg
Henning Ludvigsen
Linda Bergkvist
Jason Chan
Ryan Church
Gary Tonge
Bruno Gentile
Natascha Roeoesli
Phillip Straub
Jamie Jones
George Hull
Robert Chang
Khang Le
Kerem Beyit
Stjepan Sejic

Matte Painting:
Dylan Cole
Christian Lorenz Scheurer
Alp Altiner
Chris Stoski
Daniel Kvasznicza
Mathieu Raynault
Raphael Lacoste
Yanick Dusseault

As you see I have listed many Matte Painting artists...and the reason is that my motivation to learn digital painting is to go on to matte painting. In other words, learn the basics first and then move on to what I desire. I have a background in 3D, and will eventually combine 3D and digital painting Stahlberg does, but eventually move on to mattes with 3D in them, like Alp Altiner.

Those I listed was pretty much the elite, but I have also a long list of less known artists, who also deserve to be listed. There are so many amazing talents out there, and I get so inspired by browsing their galleries...so here are some I have put in my bookmark list after browsing Deviantart for some time:

anarasha
aspius
barnaulsky-zeek
bionic7
blueblack
brokenboy
cooliologyer
dilekt
eireen
fredy3d
funerium
heise
jasonengle
luminoire
melyannam
nissun
robertmekis
sallow
spyroteknik
swampy
tigaer
zilla774

Tutorials

Been searching the web for Digital Painting tutorials. Here's my favorites:
gfxartist.com
3dtotal.com
cgsociety.com
photoshoptechniques.com
deviantart.com
photoshop101.com
henningludvigsen.com
about.com
3dbuzz.com

Some video tutorials:
manfacedgods.com
carloscabrera.com.ar
area-56.de
3d-palace.com

Another good learning tool is openCanvas, which is a shareware painting program with a record/playback functionality. In other words you can download other peoples recording of their artwork and watch it step by step being painted in openCanvas.

Thank you to all the tutorial makers! So many talents making it easy and cheap for us newbies to learn. Now it's time to dig in.

Digital Painting

The intention with this blog is to show my progress as I am learning digital painting.

I intend to spend a couple of hours every day, and will post here when there's some progress. Here is a pic of my current drawing/painting skills. As you see, I start from scratch. I will be studying free tutorials on the net and link to those I think are good. I have learned 3D this way, and it is amazing how much free info/tutorials there are on the net these days....no need to buy a book. I also will screenrecord my progression, and upload the videos to my website (vfxdude.com) for you to see. If just my bandwith limit holds up. hmmmm I saw a host with no bandwith limit, maybe I will get an account there.

btw I have no tablet, so I will paint with a mouse. I will probably buy a tablet very soon, one is very limited with just a mouse to paint with. Pressure sensitivity is very important...

Yep that's it for today, more tomorrow...