In this lesson, we’ll learn to properly use Photoshop layers to help make the process of constructing our paintings a bit easier.
Newest
Jason Hald
1mo
@arthurln
3mo
I dreaded this assignment, the amount of things to do seemed too much. And indeed it was. I have a hard time deciding when to stop, it may not be completely finished but that's all I could give. I failed the cloth/veil, I am not comfortable with the lasso tool, and the chainmail is also rough. The biggest mistake was to merge all the layers at the end and working on it a little more, completely forgetting about the goal of the assignment. So for the next assignments I think I will do another one and this time keep all the layers.
Also, how to add the FX ? Is it coming in the next lessons ? Because I really want to be able to add the blur.
Petar Hristov
4mo
Did a bit of exploration during the assignment, strayed from the reff as well
Salatiel Chuc
8mo
I would love to hear some feedback on how I can improve, thank you.
@hollybernard05
1yr
I really appreciate having these assignments. They push me to improve. I didn't think I could tackle such a complicated piece. After finishing it, my confidence increased. It was especially helpful to see which tools you used to paint different parts of the image in this lesson. Thank you!
@jasonj33
2yr
So I think I'm starting to grasp onto the digital painting process, this might be a stupid question. I heard in the demo that you paint over top of your line art. From what I saw in the beginning, you did one sketch for the gesture, then a separate sketch layer for the final details. So when you start painting, are you painting over top the second sketch layer? I typically made a separate layer for my flats on top or my sketch layer, do I need to start putting my flats layer below to get a better blending effect? Traditionally, I have no problem blending colors and using different brushes but this is so different.
Ling Fung Sze
2yr
This is a challenging one, it took lots of time and I am glad that i have made it.
Just with this demo from Jon i have learnt so much on digital painting already. Looking forward on next lesson for further learning.
I found that the connection between layers sometimes is too sharp e.g. between the neck and the fur, maybe just need more practice that i can find a way to make the transition smoothier.
Julie Bille
2yr
This Shaman figure was a very hard one to nail. I used a default brush in Procreate to make the head chain instead of making a new brush as Jon suggests.
I did all in Procreate and added a photo of my layers.
Now off to next assignment :)
Ieva Paleja
2yr
This is my assignment. The reference of this demo was too complicated for me, so I took my reference from the medieval painting. I made separate layers for body (plus face), hair in front of the body, hair behind the body, dress, crown, book, smartphone, hands behind the book.
Apolonster
2yr
This was a hard assignment. And took some time to complete, but i liked the process and result.
@reesa
2yr
Enjoyed this assignment. Was able to keep to the layer structure until about the final 15-20% then I found it easier to just copy all and merge then do final paint.
Alexis Saldivar
2yr
I tried that trick you did by coloring the edges of the figure, then selecting the background and then inversing the selection to fill in the inside of the figure but it didn't work. When I used the magic wand it also selected everything inside the figure. Is there anything I did wrong? I don't think I left any opens spaces when I colored in the edges.
Kris
2yr
I have a lot to say but I'll try to keep it short. Overall though, this painting felt really good. I see countless visual flaws on top of the series of technical mistakes I made along the way but regardless of that, this is the first time I've ever been able to link up so well with my digital tools and that was a great feeling after close to a year of struggling with it.
Past that, my goal for this painting was to focus mainly on my rendering, I completely ignored everything else, including composition, which makes the focus point of it a bit fuzzy. I also kept it simple and stuck to the round hard and soft brushes, sparsely using the double sided. I struggled mainly with the semi-transparent glove and even more with the rendering of the metal, which was surprising, I assumed that would be the easy/fun part. I ended up simplifying a lot of those details because they were giving me so much trouble. I would appreciate advice on how to properly approach those.
Another issue I had was the amount of time I was enthusiastic to work. Throughout these paintings, I feel like a week of working on it consistently for a couple hours is the most I can give and past that I start trudging through it, dragging my feet. It's not that I don't like painting, it's like the painting itself becomes a bit stale. I'm almost certain that it has to do with the number of mistakes I'm constantly making which makes the painting almost seem like a chore by the end, but I'd love to hear other opinions on this.
In the meanwhile, it seems that we have a bit more time so I'll be starting another one but, I feel like this is a good step up from my initial paintings, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and critique.
Till next time, have wonderful day!
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2D Art Lead at Hi-Rez Studios