Tutorial

This is a brief explanation of the process that the artist follows to make a full color digital illustration. The program is Photoshop, in Mac with a Wacom Intuos tablet.

 

The making of Celtic Goddess II

 

Step 1. Tracing

The first stage comprises the basic roughs of a scene. This is a new version of previous image called Celtic Goddess, with a retro-alternative history-fantasy approach.

The rough serves us to nail the idea. Loose and quick drawing that already have the actual scene defined: Composition, sizes and proportions of all elements, as well as their relations.

After doing this, An image was created in Poser and Bryce, 3D programs that help to get the perspective and main shading of the figures.

This is followed by an extensive search of photo references, not to just copy them, but to use them as helping tools, for form, shape, shade, color or texture rendering in the image.

A final pencil drawing is created -with green Staedtler lead, a pity they have discontinued them-. The figures were drawn in a separate paper, scanned and added to the backgroud in Photoshop.

The tracing was changed to browns, to have a more natural looking hue.

Definite pencil rough	Auxiliar scene in Poser and Bryce	References 1: car and different objects	References 2: Female figure and shading	Main figures pencil tracing	Final scanned tracing

 

Step 2. Stablishing the layers

The purpose of this stage is to have separate layers for the different elements, so we can work with them in an easier way.

A new layer is created, to trace in it the masking contours, using a 1 pixel wide line and a deep blue tone, just over the main shapes of the tracing.

Then we add a scanned textured paper that will serve us a a base tone, and merge it down over the background. The tracing is moved to an upper layer ands set to Multiply mode.

Masking layer	Textured background added	Main tones stablished

 

Step 2. Rendering the background

First we render the most far away element of the image. In this case is the sky and the car. To do this, we select the desired shapes with the magic wand, in the Masking layer, and then go to the background layer to work in it. Sometimes it is very useful to work in a new extra layer, so we can alter it or change it when we want. First: shades. Then midtones and finally the highlights. Custom textured brushes are used, to keep the natural feeling of the background.

The walls and floor are rendered now, with the help of aditional scanned textures, applied in different layer modes, like Multiply or Soft Light. We define the projected shadows of objects too.

The surrounding objects are painted, carefully, one by one, according to their own surfaces. Bright reflections for metals, soft transitions for fabrics. Another texture was added to the green cloth at the left -as Multiply- and some modified letters were placed in the cans at the right.

Sky and car	Interior walls and floor	Surrounding objects	Enhaced elements

 

Step 3. Rendering the figures

This is when the foreground figures receive their volume treatment.

We start with the gnomes. From dark to light, the shadows are applied with a soft round brush, in multiply mode, taking care of following the image main light source. Then the middle values are worked with textured brushes. In some places there are tonal enhacements adeed, with round brushes in overlay mode, as we can see in the faces, that have orange hues to give them a richer aspect. After that, we put the highlights, -not white, but brighter tones of each color-, also with textured brushes. The skin areas of these characters receive an extra layer of texture -in multiply mode- to give them a particular soft grainy look.

Note that the girl's left hand was modified; a new hand was scanned and pasted, as the previous one was somewhat strange, perhaps too wide and the fingers were wrong. Now she receives the shadow treatment. In some contour areas, the tracing -in its own layer- is toned down or erased completely, to merge it to the added shadows.

		-To be continued-
Gnomes	Girl's shadows