Tutorials
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| Digital Painting Walkthrough: Dragon Thrall (April 2007) | Watercolour Painting Walkthrough: Impressions (June 2004) |
Recycling Artworks that haven't worked out (Part Time Painter post)
Fighting Artist block - Experimentation (Part Time Painter post)
Things I've learnt along the way
Digital Tips
For digital images I work in Photoshop and Painter with a digital tablet. Most of my work is 300 dpi and about A4 size. That equals big! (50MB + depending on layers... some are about 300MB by the time I finish). I work in a couple of different ways:
- Pencil sketch, which is scanned into the computer, then a sepia tone applied., I paint over and under the sketch, adding textured backgrounds.
- Greyscale painting, which is then altered to have brownish hue, and then paint over the top at about 30% opacity with colours
- Or my current menthod which is to paint in colour, blocking out the sketch elements.
I swap and change between photoshop and painter as I love the oil brushes in painter, though they tend to chew up memory like it's going out of fashion. Sometime I simply sketch in Painter with oil brushes, then upsize the image in photoshop, adding more and more details.
Speedpainting is also a great way to improve your skills. This involves limiting your time to something like an hour, and just paint on one topic. Don't overthink what you are doing, just paint. You can focus on a technique, experiment with a new style, even play with a new program. The only constraint is time.
Traditional Tips
Materials for watercolours:
Paper:
I have about 5 or 6 different lots, in varying sizes and varying qualities. I use Arches 100% cotton 140lb Smooth or Medium for nearly all of my paintings, though I've used Canson and Strathmore before as well. Hot press/ smooth is great for detail work whereas cold press is more suggestive and requires slightly different handling. I stretch my paper to prevent buckling and it makes it easier for me to set up on an angle (personal preference). Paper is a matter of experimentation and choice.
Paints:
I generally use Windsor & Newton. Unfortunately nowhere in my area used to sell pans so I had to resort to tubes and a pallete that I mix in. One thing to note, there is a big difference in the vibrancy of Artist quality vs Student Quality. I also use sepia pitt pens which are filled with Indian Ink, though I do use Indian ink and brush as well.
Colours:
Fleshtones - generally I use a cadmium orange mixed with alizarin crimson and sometimes a touch of permanent rose. For shadows I'll add in blues (pthalo/ ultramarine)/ greens (viridian) / purples (generally a mix of ultramarine and permanent rose) to my base mix and mix burnt sienna with alizarin. You don't 'need' all of these colours, I just make a slightly pink-orange/ peach colour and layer pale washes for general skin and choose a cool colour for the shadows.
Links to some of my favourite tutorial sites:
Elfwood FARP - excellent resource for beginners and advanced artists alike.
Epilogue Tutorials - from master sci-fi fantasy artists. Well worth a look!
Dee Dreslough - How to draw dragons - some intersting tutes on basic dragon construction
Sumaleth's Art Links - organised collection of links to everything and anything art related