Tutorial: Painting a Rather Dour-Looking Blue Character Standing by a Candle


Tutorial: Painting a Rather Dour-Looking Blue Character Standing by a Candle

The focus of this tutorial is the character with reflected light and the candle with its glowing light. Both these subjects can be frustrating to the artist because of their seeming complexity. Though they seem complex, the digital world makes them much easier to paint than doing so ever was in the traditional world. The secrets of painting these subjects effectively are to simplify and to let the application do most of the work.

Getting Started

To begin painting your blue character, follow these steps:

  1. Start Photoshop as usual. Open your scanned sketch, or create a new image that is approximately 1800 pixels in height. Figure 19.1 shows a grouchy but generally likable creature. He has been scanned at 200 dpi in grayscale because we don't want to carry over to the finished painting any of the color or texture from the drawing paper. As you can see, the sketch is far from complete, yet we're not too concerned about this because we want to further develop the idea in the sketch. Do not spend hours drawing an extremely detailed sketch because you will only overpaint it. Your goal is to work smarter and not necessarily harder. The sketch is located on the CD-ROM for you to use if you do not have one of your own or if you do not have a scanner to scan one of your sketches .


    Figure 19.1: The scanned sketch.

  2. Once in Photoshop, resize the image so that it is no larger than 1800 pixels in the largest dimension. We really do not need an image that is larger in the beginning stages of a painting as we are not concerned with small areas in the painting at this point. We will increase the size of the image as we get to the point where we are adding more detail. Always save numerically named versions of your work so you can recover your work if you make a major mistake.

  3. At this point in the painting process, you need to decide what mood you want to convey in the image as well as what the main colors of the character and the environment will be. It's a good idea to do a number of color comps . These are very small images painted quickly to get a feel of the color scheme that you are looking for. They should take no longer than five to ten minutes each. Traditionally, these comps could be time consuming, but digitally there is no excuse for not doing at least one or two. Figure 19.2 shows an example of a color comp. In it, we have decided to make the main character a bluish color, and the environment slightly darker and complementary. The darker complementary environment will directly contrast the color of the main character and (we hope) will give some interest to the composition. Do not be afraid of making a wrong decision about the colors and environment; you can change them later. At this point, sometimes the hardest part of a painting is starting. Making a few preliminary decisions will at least get you working.


    Figure 19.2: Color comp. ‚   ‚  

  4. Now is a good time to decide what you are going to use as your main painting tool. This decision, though not a fundamental decision for the outcome of a successful image, most likely will affect several other steps in the painting process. For most of the painting in our blue character image, we will be using the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow in various sizes and opacities; this is one of Photoshop's default brushes. If you cannot see this brush in the Brush Preset Picker, reset your brushes. This brush is a good general-purpose brush that is easy to control when building up color.

Removing the White Areas in the Image

After you have made your color comp and thought about what you will do, it's time to get rid of the white areas in the image. Doing this is easy, and there are a number of simple techniques to accomplish this. This section discusses commonly used ways.

Before we get into how to remove the white, you need to start by copying and pasting the image of your character into a new layer. Double-click on the layer and name it Sketch or something similar. Go ahead and hide the layer you have just created so it is not visible at this time. Create a new layer, drag it under the layer with your creature's sketch, and fill the layer with color of your choice using either the Paint Bucket Tool alone or by rendering a lighting effect using Filter/Render/Lighting Effects over a colored fill. The Lighting Effects filter will not work on a transparent layer. We have decided to use the Lighting Effects and fill an already filled layer with a greenish-tan combination of colors. These colors will be a good complementary base for the main character. The layer is filled with an opaque combination of tan and greenish colors. Make sure that this new layer is active. Now here are your three choices (or you can do a combination of them) for removing the white areas of the picture:

  • Reduce the opacity of the layer to something less than 100%.

  • Under the Edit menu, select the Fade command and apply this at whatever percentage looks good to you. You will use the Fade command a lot with almost all filter operations.

  • Change the blend mode of the layer to Multiply. This not only makes the layer transparent but somewhat increases the contrast as a whole for the image.

We have decided to set the layer's Mode to Multiply. The results, shown in Figure 19.3, leave us with a brownish image to work with. Merge down the layer on to your background, and save your image.


Figure 19.3: Setting the Mode to Multiply.

Painting the Blue Character

Now it's time to paint our sullen friend. Follow these steps:

  1. Make the layer with your character's sketch visible and change its blend mode to Multiply. This causes all the white of the layer to become transparent and lets you see the original sketch over the background layer. This will become useful in later steps to check the accuracy of your drawing as you paint over the background. Create a new layer and, with one of the Airbrush Soft Round brushes, begin to block in the color for the character. This should be done on the layer that is between the background and sketch layer. Your strokes will begin to cover the sketch but never mind; this is why we have the top sketch layer set to Multiply. Do not try to stay within the lines. It is more important to work quickly and establish the general color theme and clean up the ledges later. Figure 19.4 shows the layer being painted with the Airbrush. Notice how it is indeed covering the sketch underneath.


    Figure 19.4: Airbrushing color onto a new layer over the background sketch.

  2. Using the Eraser tool, clean up the edges of the color that we have airbrushed on the middle layer. Make the Sketch layer visible to give you a guide if your airbrush strokes have covered your underlying sketch. Figure 19.5 shows the middle layer with the edges cleaned up and the top Sketch layer visible as a guide.


    Figure 19.5: The results of using the Eraser tool to clean up the edges of the character.

  3. Our little blue fellow is centrally located within the canvas. This is not good as we are going to want to add a candle in front of him. We need more canvas to work with. In the Image menu, select Canvas Size. Click the middle box that is highlighted by the red arrow. This will increase the size of the canvas to the left of our character, giving us the room needed to add a candle. In the Width box, increase the size to 1800 pixels. This gives us a square image. Figure 19.6 shows the Canvas Size box with the new settings.


    Figure 19.6: The Canvas Size box.

  4. As you can now see, our character is not located off center to the right of the image. There is now enough space to eventually add a candle. However, you will note a distinct problem with the image at this point. There is a white band on the left side of the canvas. It may be another color, depending on what your background color was set to. Quite obviously, we need to get rid of this. We have several ways to do this. One would be to fill the area on the canvas with a custom gradient, but we are going to use another approach. Select all the background, copy it, and paste it back into the image. With the Magic Wand tool, select the white area and hit the Delete or Backspace key. This gets rid of the white but you now have transparent over the background layer. Open the first saved version of this painting where you first finished creating the background. Copy the background from this image and paste it into your current image. Move this layer below the image with the character on it, and move the bottom layer around until it fills the transparent area. Then merge these two layers . You may need to move around your airbrush color layer and the top sketch layer to get them into alignment. Figure 19.7 shows the result of all this layer copying and pasting.


    Figure 19.7: The larger image with the background cut and pasted.

  5. Using the blending technique described in Chapter 11, we blend the edges together the best we can. We also decide that our character needs a floor to stand on. Up to this point he has been floating in the air. Possibly a checkered floor would be a nice touch. Using Photoshop's guides, set up a grid in the image that creates a nice checkerboard pattern. The exact sizes of each grid space will be determined by the image size. When the grid is set up, make sure that the Snap to Grid option is checked, then use the rectangular selection and make a selection of one of the grid sections. Hold down the Shift key and continue to make rectangular selections, forming a checkerboard pattern. Save your selection. On the new layer, using any brush of your choice, paint in the dark or light tiles. Invert the selection and paint in the opposite color tiles. Save your file. You now have an image where the character is on one layer, the checkerboard floor is on another layer, and the sketch is still on the topmost layer. Figure 19.8 shows the image to this point.


    Figure 19.8: Blending the background and painting in the checkered floor.

  6. When painting both traditionally and digitally, it is a good idea to set the value range of your painting early. Begin painting with darker colors but indicate where some of your lightest lights will be located. Block in color in both the figure and the background. Do not get into the coloring-book habit of trying to stay in the lines, but do get in the habit of saving your image as you progress. The image to this point is a good example of this.

  7. Notice in the previous image that the character is crooked on the floor. We need to straighten him up a bit to be sitting more vertically. This step also takes a bit of courage on the artist's part as we are going to merge the character's colored and sketch layers. Hide the background and floor layers. Make sure that one of the remaining visible layers is active and select the Merge Visible command. The colored and sketch layers are combined into one. We have one problem: there is now a white box around the character. Select the white color using the Magic Wand tool and press Backspace or Delete. Unhide the two other layers and have a look. There is a rough white halo around the character. Never fear, as we work we will clean this edge up using a combination of brush tools and the Eraser tool. From the Edit menu, select Transform/Rotate and rotate your character until he is more vertical and flat on the floor. Figure 19.9 shows the character in a more level stance.


    Figure 19.9: The characters layers are merged and then rotated to a more vertical position.

  8. Begin to reestablish the drawing of the character, working from the darker colors to the lighter. Using the Eraser tool, erase some of the white from the edges. Make sure you are working on the character's layer and not on the background or the checkered floor layer. Save your image at this point (see Figure 19.10).


    Figure 19.10: Establishing some of the darks and erasing some of the white edges.

  9. The character is low on the floor, so we move the layer up until the character is sitting on the top of the checkered floor. As you can see in Figure 19.11, the form is starting to develop and feel more substantial and the color is rich. We have begun to work on some of the smaller details, such as the eyes and nose.


    Figure 19.11: Moving the character up to sit on the top of the floor and working on some of the smaller details.

  10. We continue to do a significant amount of work on the character. His general color from the tip of the ears to the feet is mostly established at this point. Additional work is done in the smaller detail areas such as the eyes, nose, and ears. Figure 19.12 shows our character at this point.


    Figure 19.12: The character with richer color and additional work in the detail areas.

  11. Figure 19.13 shows a closeup of the character's face to reveal the level of detail and finish at this point.


    Figure 19.13: A closeup of the face showing the level of detail at this point in the painting process.

  12. Now is a good time to begin thinking about how to handle the background surrounding the character. Right now the background is way too light to paint in a candle and have it look like it is glowing with light, so we need to darken it in some way. We do not want an overall dark feeling, though, and would like to keep a bit of light background against the dark side of the character. Here is a way to do this. Create a new alpha channel and fill it with a radial gradient. The channel should look something like Figure 19.14.


    Figure 19.14: The new alpha channel.

  13. Make sure the background layer is active. Load the alpha channel you just created as a selection. Copy the background using the selection and paste it back into the image. Change the blend mode for the new layer to Multiply. Figure 19.15 shows the new layer at this point. Notice how much darker the background layer looks. You may want to change the opacity of the new background layer slightly to suit your taste.


    Figure 19.15: The second background layer with its blend mode set to Multiply.

  14. The color of the background needs to be changed to be more in harmony with the character. Make sure that the new background layer is active and in the Image menu, select Adjustments/Hue and Saturation. Move the Hue slider around until you establish a pleasing color theme. Merge this layer with the background (see Figure 19.16).


    Figure 19.16: The color theme of the image is more cohesive and harmonious.

  15. At this point you cannot really tell where the figure is in the space of the painting. Now is the time to add a shadow of the creature on the back wall to give a sense of space in the image. The position of the shadow can give a visual clue as to how deep the space is in the picture. In this particular case, we want the picture space to be relatively shallow , so the shadow will be higher in the picture plane. To create the shadow, do the following. Make sure that the layer with the character is the active layer. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer with the stylus or mouse. Everything that is not transparent is automatically selected, which is exactly what we want. You will notice there is a line of ' marching ants ' around the character. Create a new layer and name it Shadow. With your selection still active, fill the selection on the new layer with a dark color selected with the eyedropper tool from somewhere in the background. Clear the selection so that nothing is selected. From the Filter menu, select Blur/Gaussian Blur. In the preview window that is now displayed, move the slider to get a nice blur. For an image this size, a radius of about 20 pixels will give a nice effect. Figure 19.17 shows the image and Gaussian Blur preview window.


    Figure 19.17: Gaussian Blur applied to the shadow layer.

  16. Our shadow layer is on top of the character layer. Click and hold on the Shadow layer and drag it down below the floor layer. The only layer that should be behind the Shadow layer is the background. With the Move tool, move the Shadow layer to the left and down from the figure. Change the blend mode to Multiply and adjust the opacity to suit your tastes. Figure 19.18 shows the Shadow layer moved into place. It now appears that the main light on the character is coming from the top right and casting the creature's shadow on the wall behind him. Once again, save your file.


    Figure 19.18: The creature now has a shadow on the wall behind him.

  17. It is time to add the candle to the painting. We will put it sitting on the checkered floor just to the left of the creature. It will be created on two separate layers. One layer will be for the flame and one layer for the candle itself. Create a new layer and paint in the candle body. It is a very good idea to have a good photographic reference or an actual candle burning in front of you. Notice how the flame makes the somewhat translucent candle slightly lighter nearer the flame. Take into consideration the prevailing direction of the main light and paint the body of the candle accordingly . Use the same brush but with slightly less opacity so that the colors can be built up gradually. Paint in the candlewick with a slight glow at its tip. Figure 19.19 shows the painted candle.


    Figure 19.19: The painted candle.

  18. On a new layer, paint the candle flame. Pay special attention to all the subtle colors visible (see Figure 19.20).


    Figure 19.20: The painted candle flame.

  19. If you are not happy with the position of the candle, link the layers and move both layers together until you find a position within the painting that you like. Figure 19.21 shows the final position of the candle in the painting. Notice how the candle is positioned in a very dark area of the background. This is not by accident since the best way to make something look light is to place it next to something dark. We want the candle to look very light.


    Figure 19.21: The painted candle in relationship to the creature in the painting.

  20. Create an additional layer to paint the subtle glow around the candle flame. We will be changing the blend mode of this layer to Vivid Light. You may want to work on the layer in the Normal mode or in the Vivid Light mode. Using one of the larger airbrush tools at a low opacity and starting with a red color, gradually replacing it with a yellow, paint in the glow around the candle flame. Figure 19.22 shows a closeup of the painted candle glow. When you have results that you like, save the image once again. It may seem redundant to keep saving the image but losing an hour 's or more work can be very painful.


    Figure 19.22: The painted candle glow.

  21. Figure 19.23 shows the whole image and how the glow interacts with the background.


    Figure 19.23: The complete painting after painting in the candle glow.

  22. Let's begin to paint in the background and get something more interesting happening than a simple gradient. Load the brushes in the Chapter 19 folder on the CD-ROM. These brushes were used to give the background the varied and rough texture. Using the brushes in larger sizes (anything around 200 pixels or so should work fine), select a color from the background layer and paint some interesting-looking textures. You can do this on a new layer or directly on the background. If you decide to work the textures on a new layer, make sure that you merge it down to the background when you get a look you like. This is important for the next step in our painting. Since you are working on individual layers, you don't even need to worry about the character. You will also notice that the textures look very nice when painted under the Shadow layer (see Figure 19.24).


    Figure 19.24: Textures painted into the background to give more interest.

  23. The textures that we have just created are interesting to look at but slightly flat. They would look better with some feeling of dimension. There is a very easy way to do this in Photoshop and that is using Layer Styles. To create a Layer Style, you simply double-click on the layer you want to apply a style to. It will bring up the Layer Style menu showing numerous check boxes and options. Before we actually get to apply a style there is one thing we need to do. In your image, hide all the layers except the background layer. Simply click on the small eye icon to hide the layer. With only the background now visible, go to the Edit menu and select Define Pattern. This will create a new pattern that is identical to your background. Select the background layer and copy and paste it as a new layer. Layer Styles will only work on layers, after all. Double-click the new layer that is a duplicate of your background. The Layer Styles menu appears. We are only going to be concerned with the Bevel and Emboss options, so make sure that menu is checked. Deselect any other options. Two submenus are available: Contour and Texture. Right now we are concerned with the Bevel and Emboss menu. We want to change the default light angle and Highlight Mode color. Figure 19.25 shows the light angle set to 49 degrees and the Highlight Mode color set to something a bit more harmonious with the background than white. You can leave everything else at the default unless you just want to experiment.


    Figure 19.25: The Bevel and Emboss menu.

  24. Highlight the Contour menu. Notice that we have a bevel around the outside of our painting. We want to get rid of this. The shape of this contour is determined by the shape of the small, gray thumbnail. The default is from the lower-left corner to the upper-right corner. We are going to change this. Click on the thumbnail itself and not the small triangle flyout menu. This will bring up the Coutour Editor. Drag the small square all the way to the left side of the displayed graph. Notice how the bevel around the painting disappears. This is the effect we want. Figure 19.26 shows the Contour Editor menu and the position you should move the small square to.


    Figure 19.26: The Contour Editor.

  25. Highlight the Texture menu under Bevel and Emboss. In the Pattern thumbnail display select the pattern that you created from the background. Do not change the Scale slider but adjust the Depth slider to your own liking. Figure 19.27 shows the Texture menu.


    Figure 19.27: The Texture menu.

  26. You will now see a great three-dimensional effect added to your painting's background (see Figure 19.28).


    Figure 19.28: The painting with a three-dimensional background.

  27. More work now needs to be done on the checkered floor. The small checkers are just too busy for the composition, so we will make them larger. Using the same procedure as earlier in the chapter we create a new checkered floor with slightly larger tiles. Because we want it to also appear to interact with the light in the picture, a slight linear gradient is applied over the checks on a new layer, and this gradient layer's blend mode is set to Multiply. Merge these two layers into one and apply a Layer Style as described earlier to give the floor some texture. You do not need to first create a pattern of the checkered floor this time, though. Just pick a nice pattern that will give you a slightly rough look. Figure 19.29 shows the new floor with the Layer Style texture.


    Figure 19.29: Changing the checkered floor.

  28. The floor is still a bit uneven . There is sometimes no better way to fix something than to simply go in and do some painting. With the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush, go in and paint each check to clean up and finish the floor. At this point the creature himself is way too saturated in color for the muted feeling of the rest of the painting. Select the character's layer and adjust down the saturation so he is not quite so bright. Figure 19.30 shows the painting at this stage with the checkered floor cleaned up and the saturation of the character adjusted down to make him slightly less colorful .


    Figure 19.30: The adjusted character and reworked floor.

  29. Something is just not quite right with the painting. What is missing is the light of the candle shining on the creature. This is the time to add light shining from the candle on the character. Again, to avoid any costly mistakes, create a new layer to do the painting on. Pick an orange color, and begin to paint along the contour of your character. The goal is to get the character looking as if he is being subtly lit from the candle on the floor. As you move along the contours of the character, change the color to a more red color as you get further from the candle flame. As you get closer to the flame, select a slightly more yellow color. Do not make any of these candle colors lighter than the lightest colors on the creature's light side. If you do, you will punch 'visual holes' within your painting. When you have reached a point where you are happy with the effect, go ahead and merge these layers. Figure 19.31 shows the light of the candle painted onto the character.


    Figure 19.31: The candlelight painted onto the character.

  30. The floor still needs a bit of additional work. On a new layer, paint by hand some cracks and holes. You need to paint both the dark crack and the light edge where the crack reflects the light. Doing this will give the illusion of depth. Figure 19.32 shows the painted cracks in the floor.


    Figure 19.32: Some new cracks in the floor.

  31. We are almost finished. He needs a bit of hair on the top of his head. Once again, create a new layer and paint the hair. If you do not like the look of what you paint, simply delete the layer or select the whole layer and delete its contents and try again. We give him a kind of balding little lock of hair. Figure 19.33 shows the new hairpiece on our creature.


    Figure 19.33: Painting in the hairpiece.

  32. Now for the final touch. What creature would be complete without some bumpy skin? Painting on a new layer and selecting colors from within the figure itself, paint some bumps on some of the skin areas. They do not have to be perfect as we are looking for a general impression instead of photographic rendering. The image is now finished as shown in Figure 19.34.


    Figure 19.34: The finished painting.




Digital Character Design and Painting
Digital Character Design and Painting: The Photoshop CS Edition (Graphics Series) (Charles River Media Graphics)
ISBN: 1584503408
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 112

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