Digital Painting Fundamentals

Digital Painting Fundamentals(61 Lessons )

Digital Illustration and Advanced Techniques(0 Lesson )

Painting in Color Using Blending Modes

Lesson by

Proko

Jon Neimeister

inDigital Painting Fundamentals

673

Assignments 12

Downloads 4

Painting in Color Using Blending Modes

Lesson by

Proko

Jon Neimeister

in Digital Painting Fundamentals

673

Assignments 12

Downloads 4

It's time to give this process a try! Make your own painting using the reference photo in the downloads tab.

I've also attached an image of my final painting and my PSD to give you a more detailed look through my process.

Kassjan Smyczek

•

2mo

Really enjoyed the process of greyscaling the image first and then using blending modes and adjustment layers. In the end I was not happy with the face so I did it again. In the Assignment-section of the next video I put the same painting in a different environment.

@jasonj33

•

1yr

Getting the swing of digital painting more and more, still have a few things to figure out but this class has helped me a lot

@hyki

•

1yr

Very late on this one lol. Regardless, I enjoyed using this process. Like a lot of other people it was confusing at first to try and understand occlusion shadows, especially deciding what was an occlusion shadow and what supposedly wasn't. Eventually I had to set some hard rules for myself and stick to them to avoid getting too carried away. Another huge problem for me was trying to keep my values in line throughout the whole process. I'm looking at my image in grayscale as I write this and hoping I did a good enough job. Finally, I had some issues blending my sketch and painting together, and for a large part of my process I had the sketch sitting on top of my painting unblended. Even as I moved on to the actual painting part, I wasn't exactly sure how to incorporate the two together. I'm excited to keep trying this method though. My brain needs some sort of process to follow in order to get the best results, so I'm going to keep trying this again and again to hopefully work out my issues and problems. This was overall a great baseline and Jon explained things very well. Thanks Jon.

@tomasmax

•

2yr

A little lite, but here is my assignemnt. Thanks for the lesson, I like to try to learn new approach, but I have a mixed feelings about this method. I felt that I saved some time that my blending layers are taking care of shadows so I can focus more on flat colors, but on other hand I felt abit of mental friction when deciding and seperating occlusion shadows from core shadows and higlights so after some struggle I ended up merging all my shadows and higlights into one layer with overlay mode and have only one multiple layer for just core shadows. Then I painted my colors over it. So right now I don't feel any strong advantages over the previous process (Colorazing grayscale paiting - demo1) where we painted a layer with values and let blending mode take care of colors. But thanks again for the lesson, of course I am glad I tried new approach, I guess I will probably appreciate it more with more experience.

Holly Laing

•

2yr

A bit late but I finished my assignment. I followed along with the video and used a similar painting process. I'm fairly happy with the result, though I do think some of the shading (particularly on the fabric in the basket) could be improved, I still have a bit of a hard time getting the image to look as realistic as I'd like. Any feedback would be most appreciated! :)

Nicole Drews

•

2yr

Alright, a little late but here's my assignment. Not really sure how I feel about this process. In theory I like the step by step and organisation, but having a bunch of layers with a bunch of different blending modes got confusing and overwhelming for my lil add brain. Probably I just need more practice with this kinda workflow though. Also I kinda got confused with the term Ambient Occlusion, I thought it was the darkest part of shadows where no light or reflected light could reach? But it didn't seem to be used like that in the demo. So my AO and Core Shadows kinda got mixed and messy. Maybe I'm just overthinking it though. I think next time I'd just combine the two into one layer. That being said, I'm really glad we're going through all these different workflows. It's nice learning different processes and figuring out what you like and don't like as well as having different options/solutions for different pieces. So thank youu, I'd probably never learn these or think to try them without this course

Tsotne Shonia

•

2yr

Hey @Nicole Drews ! I'm still an apprentice so don't take my word as gospel but I wanted to sprout my opinion here. The first time going through a process like this is always confusing, but I've tried it on a few more paintings by now and it definitely gets easier. Also, over time, you will naturally think of ways to simplify / change some steps and make it more intuitive to you. On Ambient Occlusion. I was also taught that at first, but no, AO doesn't only affect crevasses. A lot of artists just simplify it that way. AO is a trick used by 3d softwares. Whenever two objects are close to each other, it gradually darkens both and often (faintly) affects a large part of an object. The darkening is not linear, but accelerates with proximity. Along with ambient light, it is what gives the illusion of form "in the shadow side". When rendering an image, a 3D software will do an "ambient occlusion pass", rendering all the AO on its own, to later add it in the final render. Checkout "3d ambient occlusion rendering" on an image search engine to see some examples It is mostly visible on forms illuminated exclusively with ambient light, hence its name. It is negligible / "invisible" on forms lit by a direct light source. Marco Bucci has 2 excellent youtube videos on ambient occlusion/light for painters. If you're interested, he will explain it far better than I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fLV5ezO64w and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwLQ0cDb4cE Anyways. We're not 3d softwares and there's no need to do an actual AO pass. The goal of this layer is to create the illusion of 3d form to trick YOU to help you make better decisions in the following steps. Also, stylisation plays a big role in how dark and how much shadow you want to put. So, keep in mind the theory. But cheat, have fun and experiment. Even Jon mixed some form shadows with AO. And he put AO in places that would be lit by the light source, as if they were halftones. Finally, I wanted to give some feedback on your assignment. On the positives : Overall I think you placed the shadows pretty well. I like your work on details. I also like your balance of soft and hard edges. On things to improve : The figure in your painting feels quite stiff. I know, the reference is just as stiff. In similar situations, here's a few ideas of things you can exaggerate in the future : curve the skirt (I overdid it in my assignment, you don't have to go that far) curve the folds on the skirt rearrange the folds so that they give a feeling of "pointing towards the face (focal point) from different angles" (don't make it too obvious either) spread the feet (I just copied Jon for this lol) Also, to me (personal taste), I think you are overusing "black". In most lighting setup, the "shadow side" is illuminated by ambient light. I suggest you give it a color and pull your shadows towards that color instead of pulling them towards black. If this is confusing, checkout the 2 videos from Marco Bucci I mentioned earlier. Hope this helped :-)

onigi *pronunce [on-ie-gee]*

•

2yr

Using the method of solving one problem at a time was challenging as I tended to draw randomly before I started watching this course, but I feel it would be really efficient when we get familiar with it. I'll keep trying this until I memorize the whole process. It took too much time to draw her fabric and its folds, so I need to study them more. It became not attractive as I aimed. Maybe I should've made more arrangements.

@myccal

•

2yr

So I started with the line work, which isn’t attached, but then made the clipping layer for the figure. I added layers for what I saw as the occlusion shadows, and the background. Then each color got a layer. I then added layers for cast shadows and the basket texture. I added an overlay layer where I tried to push the lights and darks a little and introduce some coolness to the shadows and some warmth to the light. I added a soft light layer with some highlights, then a layer to add some more reds and pinks to the skin. Then an add layer to make some shine, and finally a color layer with some orange and blue over the background. I did find myself wondering exactly how to tell the difference between occlusion shadows and cast shadows. Also I wonder if there is a trick to changing things after you have a bunch of layers. Like if I want to shift the pose a bit or say move the arm. Then do I just have to update every layer? Or if I want to liquify the face a little to shift the expression. Is that best to flatten it and then liquify? Or is it best to just repaint layers so I can maintain the structure? Thanks for the lesson. Really enjoying the course.

Tsotne Shonia

•

2yr

Interesting process. I've seen similar ones float around on the web, and I enjoyed having your take on it. I'm eager for what will come next >:D Here's my submission. I followed the process fairly closely but didn't spend too much time on the final painting pass, except maybe on the face. In fact I'm surprised how far this got, considering it took me only about 3 hours