Here is a new Photoshop creation and the steps taken to create it.
I start with my rough sketch on it’s own level on a mid tone background. |
I then lighten the rough sketch, then create a new layer and refine the drawing. |
Next I create a layer under the drawing layers and lay in my local color. Local color is the color of an object in neutral lighting. |
I now add a layer on top and start to lay in my light areas. I generally grab the local color with the eyedropper then lighten and warm the color for the lights. |
I often like to add a secondary light source. It adds interest and helps describe the form more. |
Here I’ve continued with my deeper darks and I’ve started to lay in some mottling in the skin around the eye. |
Here I’ve decided a wanted a very realistic eye. I took a picture of my own eye then lassoed it and dragged it over and added it to the illustration. |
Here I’ve added a layer of particulate in the air and started to play with the focus. I’ve also added a layer of out of focus foliage in the foreground. |
The finishing touch is adding a layer of grunge texture set to multiply. I like the feel that it gives the illustration. |
Here is a new photoshop character creation. I’ll be demonstrating my techniques at the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 17-19
A new character design done today in Photoshop.
The King of the Elves -Elves/Hidden Creature designs.
These are a series of characters I designed for a film I was developing a few years ago. Creating fantasy creatures like these is a joy for me. When I was young growing up in the Everglades of south Florida I spent a large amount of time out in the swamps and forests drawing and painting. I often imagined that there were creatures there that I couldn’t see. I’d like to add that these were all done well before Avatar.
I love painting gulls. Here is a new step by step of a pair of Laughing Gulls I digitally painted last night.
So, once again I like to start with a textured, toned background. This is several watercolor textures I have in my files layered and set on multiply over a warm tone. |
Next,I played with the textures a bit more and roughed in the gulls. |
I wanted to play with warms and cools in this piece so I next layed in a blue gradient tone. I also added shadow tones in the foreground for composition. The gulls also got shifted up a bit. |
Because of the feather detail, I decided I wanted to tie the drawing down, so I turned the texture levels off so that I could see the drawing layers better and begin to tie down the drawing. |
Tied down drawing with layers turned back on. |
Once again I wasn’t quite happy with the gulls compositionally, so I enlarged them a bit. This I felt was more pleasing. |
Now I’m ready to start rendering my values further. This is where I also start paying particular attention to color temperature. Especially between shadow areas and light areas. |
Here I’ve rendered the feathers of the back. |
Time to get to gull number two. |
Here I just use my eye dropper to grab the same colors of the first gull and I begin to render the second gull. |
Once the second.gull was rendered out I felt the background needed to darken. I wanted to get the gulls to pop better and have a better sense of light. |
As a final touch I compressed all the levels and color dodged the warm areas around the gulls on the ground to warm, and brighten it up. It gives a much better sense of light. |
One of my digital animal paintings, step by step
I first like to start with a textured, toned background. |
I then rough in the layout. This is where I resize and move things around to get the composition right. |
I then lighten that level, and create a new level to start the more refined rendering. |
Once the drawing is done I roughly start laying in local color. I set this level on multiply so that I can retain the texture underneath. |
Photoshop CS6 Sketch – Aaron Blaise
Thought I’d share this watercolor I did a few years ago
Here’s a new step by step approach to one of my Photoshop paintings.
Still not happy with the pose, I changed it again. This time I like it and I roughly lay in some lights on the monkey to get a better sense of how it will sit in the composition. |
Now I just start laying in color. The bark of the Baobob is somewhat shiny and therefore reflective of a lot of the surrounding color. I pay particular attention to changing temperature. |