[TUTORIAL] Quick Paintbrushing in Photoshop

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Nanu
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Posts: 2032
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[TUTORIAL] Quick Paintbrushing in Photoshop

Post by Nanu »

The technique demonstrated here is very quick and doesn't place much emphasis on detail. It's nothing complicated, and more or less aimed at quick visualizing. The whole process is much more pleasant with a Wacom tablet. I highly recommend getting one - trust me, it's worth the money!

Step 1

Okay, the very first thing you need to do is a sketch. This can be a drawing you'd scan or it could be directly drawn in Photoshop. In this case, I've quickly drawn something in Photoshop. It is inspired by [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16607]vIKING's New design on water-dreugh.[/url]

Create a 800x600 document, 72ppi. Draw this in a new layer named sketch. It is always better to keep things organized; sometimes an image will require more than a hundred layers! You can use the most basic brush @ size=3 and hardness=100%.

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6700/step1sketchingyd3.jpg[/img][/url]

Step 2
When this is done, create a new layer under sketch and rename it base. This is where you will paint the base colors of your drawing. Don't worry about the details, they'll be added later if you so choose. Use the same brush that you used in Step 1, but with a bigger size.

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8561/step2nr3.jpg[/img][/url]

Step 3
Now it's time to shade our dreugh. Using the dodge and burn tools, paint where appropriate in the same base layer. Use dodge for highlights and burn for shadows. I recommend temporarily marking from where light comes from with an arrow. This helps visualizing what areas should be lit.

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2266/step3xb1.jpg[/img][/url]

Step 4
This is the final phase of your quick drawing. Take the smudge tool and in the tools properties, set its mode to saturation. This will make those fat black outlines. Use the smudge over your sketch layer. Then create a new layer named details and place it under sketch and make some detailing with a small basic brush, at white. You can then smudge (don't forget to set the mode back to normal) this layer too if you feel it's necessary. Finally, create a new layer between the white background and base and paint to brown strokes with a more natural brush...

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7991/step4do6.jpg[/img][/url]

You are now mostly done. You can add a few more details if you want, and sign your name!

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5169/finaljl1.jpg[/img][/url]

I hope this helps! If you felt it was useful and created something nice afterwards, I want to see it! Oh, if you want to inspect the PSD file, it's below.

[url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/download.php?id=11396]PSD FILE[/url]

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