DeviantArt is a great place to find tutorials or step-by-step photos of an artist's process. Though this blog post is called a review in the title, it is not actually a critique of the content but a study of the processes behind the creation of five digital paintings. I'm learning about technique by talking about it, and I invite you to do the same, if you haven't already.
"Maybe There Is Something Wrong--Steps" by AmandaTolleson
Considering how detailed the final panel is, it's amazing that the painting began as splotches of light peach, pink, gray and brown filling the space within a drawn outline. The splotches have indistinct edges and rub against each other. During each step of the painting, AmandaTolleson follows the drawn guidelines, and the character Castiel from the TV show Supernatural slowly takes form.
In the first panel, different splotches mark areas of shading on Castiel's face and clothes, while his hair remains mostly untouched. A vague, smoky background also takes shape and doesn't seem to change after the first panel. In panels two and three, AmanaTolleson focuses on Castiel's eyes, nose and the skin around them. The rest of his portrait is left alone, while in the top half of Castiel's face, splotches of color are either painted over with translucent brushes, or the splotches are blended together to form smooth skin, where each color seems to fade naturally into the next. Castiel's bangs begin to take shape, turning from a solid block into individual hairs. The wide brushes used to make the splotches are abandoned in favor of thinner brushes for finer details.
Castiel's right check, mouth and neck turn from abstract shapes to realistic forms. Suddenly, Castiel's face seems lifelike, while the rest of him is still made of flat splotches that resemble drops of ink in frozen milk more closely than clothing and hair.
At first glance, AmandaTolleson seems to prefer to finish one area completely before moving onto another area. However, she admits in the comments that she did extra work to Castiel's face throughout the process. AmandaTolleson certainly seems concerned with making sure all elements of the painting are done correclty and no detail lis sparred, since even the tie is given considerable attention. Hair-thin stripes appear, giving the tie texture, and the collar of the trench coat even has rumples.
"Dust Steps" by euclase
Considering how realistically euclase can depict human skin and clothing textures, I find this glimpse into (his? her?) process to be fascinating. Panels two through six remind me an out-of-focus camera lens being adjusted from blurry to clear. For this painting of Castiel with wings, euclase starts with an uncareful sketch that vaguely indicates where Castiel's head, facial features, jacket, and wings will be placed in the composition. In the second panel, what looks like a translucent brush with diffused edges is used to paint a blurred image of Castiel's skin, clothes and wings. The blurred image is solid enough that the background doesn't show through. In panels three through five, details are painted on top of the impressionist base layer, and the impressionist strokes are blended together. The rough outline disappears, and smooth skin appears on Castiel's face. Meanwhile, an ethereal glow appears to the left side of the background. The glow casts a diffused, smoky fog on the dark blue background and a sharp light on parts of Castiel's form.
"Wips from--Who will care for the Fallen" by ChaosAcathla
In the last panel, the complete painting shows Dean looking down to the left corner as a single tear trickles down his cheek. In the distant background on the right, the comet trails of falling angels--a reference to events in Supernatural's eighth season--shoot from the clouds.
In panel one, ChaosAcathla began with a detailed red outline atop a completely black field. Considering how much of the painting would contain lighter colors, it seems like an odd choice to start with such dark colors, although the red does seem to have high visibility against the darker background. In panel two, a 100% opaque brush seems to be used to create splotches that mark areas of strong skin tone changes, as well as distinct areas of light and shadow. While some lighting and shading effects appear in the proceeding panels, most of the effects don't appear until the last one. The tear drop is also absent until the last panel. There are a lot of details in the last panel that are missing from earlier panels; I wonder if this means that these later details didn't take as long to add or that ChaosAcathla simply chose to show the process to paint Dean and didn't want to share her process for painting the rest. Either way, it's clear that the foreground was painted first, then the background was added afterward, and then changes were added to the foreground to unite the two areas of the painting.
"Puppy Eyes - WIP" by szjoz
In panel one, rough, thick lines mark the desired placement for Sam's eyes, chin, hair and jacket. The lines are black and nearly blend in with the dark gray background; if this is indeed how szjoz painted it, then the lines must have been hard to see.
Atop of the painting itself, though presumably in a separate layer, are brush-stroke-painted swatches of the colors used in the painting. I can only see four colors, which is an impressively small range that she/he uses amazingly well.
After the outline is made, szjoz paints on top of it and within it using thin, messy brush strokes. The result doesn't contain the splotches of thick, blurry strokes used by euclase, AmandaTolleson or ChaosAcathla. instead, I presume that szjoz continues to paint with thin, messy strokes until entire areas are filled in and the brush strokes overlap so much that it is hard to see individual strokes. I think that is what happens in panels two and three. The final painting still has hints of impressionism, but the brush strokes are not nearly as obvious as they were in the earlier stages of the process. Sam's face and clothes go through the most changes throughout, but all elements are painted simultaneously. A lot of attention is turned to using the four colors to clearly differentiate each element. Sam's skin takes on a warm, almost red peach coloring, while his jacket collar is tanner. The background, meanwhile, seems almost green.
"Through this Darkness - steps" by P-JoArt
This painting goes through so many more changes than the previous four I've written about. From this step-by-step view, it seems that P-JoArt likes to experiment with color, and she/he doesn't mind discarding lots of work and trying something new, if the last idea doesn't pan out.
In panel one, P-JoArt begins with a rough sketch of clothing and hair contours and a more confident sketch of facial features. Castiel and Dean's face and Dean's hand use thicker and darker lines than the rest of the drawing. What's most interesting here is that two colors are used--a pencil-gray for most of the drawing and a white pencil for Dean's left arm, probably to ensure that Dean's sleeve is easily distinguished from Castiel's body. Dean's hand is cupped around Castiel's head, so Dean's arm covers a large section of Castiel's chest, and the white pencil makes this very easy to see. There's a hint at the very back center of the drawing that Dean's other arm is also drawn with white outlines, again to set it apart from Castiel's contour lines.
The drawing has power--the thick contour lines around their faces place emphasis on Castiel and Dean's expressions of sorrow. I'm touched by how strongly the emotions are conveyed even in this first step of the painting.
In the second panel, the sharp lines in the outlines of their faces are lost (temporarily) as their bodies are filled in with some thick and rough paint strokes. In panel three (captioned as ".b/w shading:") the rough paint strokes are blended together and detail work is added, and the power of the scene begins to return as a glowing outline highlights their profiles. There's not enough light in the piece, though; there's too much shadow and too many grays.
In panel four (".color tests:"), P-JoArt experiments with colors. It seems that the artist will paint all the shading first before adding color on top, unlike the other artists I mentioned. P-JoArt certainly doesn't seem to mind the extra work this entails. In panel four, their clothes now have some color. Castiel has brown hair, Dean is blonde, their skin begins to develop peach tones, and a blue light draws attention to between their noses and lips. Where the light comes from is unclear, but it emphasizes this private moment between them by drawing further attention to their faces.
In panel five, blue hues are abandoned and replaced with reds. P-JoArt also changes the Dean's jacket colors and Castiel's trench coat colors. The red definitely brings out the peach in their skin, and they begin to look livelier than in the earlier panels. There also seem to be multiple light sources now, and some distracting red light is now reflected on the back of Dean's jacket. Dean's jacket it detracts attention from the center of the composition.
In panel six, colors everywhere in the painting change yet again. The red light mostly disappears, and the light reflected on Castiel's back is brighter.
For panel seven, the color layers are turned invisible, and P-JoArt adds blue shading to the base black and white layer. The color layers are made visible again, and the blue shows through them in panel eight.
The last two panels show added details. A tear trails down Dean's cheek. The feathers of Castiel's wings acquire more details. Castiel peers into Dean's eyes and no longer looks down. A ghostly background begins to form. The background has vague shapes of buildings painted with whites and light grays on a darker gray field, like a negative image.
The final step isn't in this graphic; instead, it can be found at http://fav.me/d3183ux / :thumb183456393:. Dean's jacket has some texture, and his back is now lit. The buildings in the background are still ghostly, but instead of just being silhouettes, there are now indications of windows, overhangs and streetlights. Diffused light seems to shine out of the windows of the building on the right. Fog curls around Castiel and Dean and drifts down the street. There seems to be a bit of red in this final image, so perhaps the earlier red layer wasn't abandoned like I'd thought.
Each artist has his or her own method, and I am absolutely fascinated by it all. There are many similarities, but the differences are there, too. The paintings by AmandaTolleson, euclase and szjoz are portraits, where the main subject of the composition stands in the foreground before vague and two-dimensional backgrounds. ChaosAcathla and P-JoArt's paintings show scenes where the subjects stand in the foreground while setting details or other key information can be found in the background. In all of the paintings, the main subject or subjects occupy most of the space of the compositions.
Szjoz keeps a layer of swatches atop the painting throughout the process, while the other artists presumably use swatch palette windows provided by their painting software. Each painting begins either with a detailed line drawing or with a rough sketch. Some artists carefully stay within the lines they'd drawn, and others constantly alter their ideas about how various elements should be portrayed. In some paintings, a base layer contains solid splotches of color, and these splotches are then blended together to create realistic skin, hair and clothes. Szjoz tries a different method and uses thin brush strokes throughout the entire composition, painting again and again until the strokes begin to blend together and disappear. In some paintings, the background forms at the same time as the foreground, while other artists focus on the foreground and ignore the background until the end. P-JoArtist changes large, key details of the piece halfway through the painting, seemingly discarding old ideas in favor of vastly different ones, while other artists stick with their original intentions until the end.
Digital painting is a time-consuming process, which I know from personal experience. Each element must be built upon bit-by-bit until the result is achieved. The finished paintings are incredibly detailed, but each painting began very simply. I've learned a lot about various digital painting techniques through studying these five paintings.
"Maybe There Is Something Wrong--Steps" by AmandaTolleson
Considering how detailed the final panel is, it's amazing that the painting began as splotches of light peach, pink, gray and brown filling the space within a drawn outline. The splotches have indistinct edges and rub against each other. During each step of the painting, AmandaTolleson follows the drawn guidelines, and the character Castiel from the TV show Supernatural slowly takes form.
In the first panel, different splotches mark areas of shading on Castiel's face and clothes, while his hair remains mostly untouched. A vague, smoky background also takes shape and doesn't seem to change after the first panel. In panels two and three, AmanaTolleson focuses on Castiel's eyes, nose and the skin around them. The rest of his portrait is left alone, while in the top half of Castiel's face, splotches of color are either painted over with translucent brushes, or the splotches are blended together to form smooth skin, where each color seems to fade naturally into the next. Castiel's bangs begin to take shape, turning from a solid block into individual hairs. The wide brushes used to make the splotches are abandoned in favor of thinner brushes for finer details.
Castiel's right check, mouth and neck turn from abstract shapes to realistic forms. Suddenly, Castiel's face seems lifelike, while the rest of him is still made of flat splotches that resemble drops of ink in frozen milk more closely than clothing and hair.
At first glance, AmandaTolleson seems to prefer to finish one area completely before moving onto another area. However, she admits in the comments that she did extra work to Castiel's face throughout the process. AmandaTolleson certainly seems concerned with making sure all elements of the painting are done correclty and no detail lis sparred, since even the tie is given considerable attention. Hair-thin stripes appear, giving the tie texture, and the collar of the trench coat even has rumples.
"Dust Steps" by euclase
Considering how realistically euclase can depict human skin and clothing textures, I find this glimpse into (his? her?) process to be fascinating. Panels two through six remind me an out-of-focus camera lens being adjusted from blurry to clear. For this painting of Castiel with wings, euclase starts with an uncareful sketch that vaguely indicates where Castiel's head, facial features, jacket, and wings will be placed in the composition. In the second panel, what looks like a translucent brush with diffused edges is used to paint a blurred image of Castiel's skin, clothes and wings. The blurred image is solid enough that the background doesn't show through. In panels three through five, details are painted on top of the impressionist base layer, and the impressionist strokes are blended together. The rough outline disappears, and smooth skin appears on Castiel's face. Meanwhile, an ethereal glow appears to the left side of the background. The glow casts a diffused, smoky fog on the dark blue background and a sharp light on parts of Castiel's form.
"Wips from--Who will care for the Fallen" by ChaosAcathla
In the last panel, the complete painting shows Dean looking down to the left corner as a single tear trickles down his cheek. In the distant background on the right, the comet trails of falling angels--a reference to events in Supernatural's eighth season--shoot from the clouds.
In panel one, ChaosAcathla began with a detailed red outline atop a completely black field. Considering how much of the painting would contain lighter colors, it seems like an odd choice to start with such dark colors, although the red does seem to have high visibility against the darker background. In panel two, a 100% opaque brush seems to be used to create splotches that mark areas of strong skin tone changes, as well as distinct areas of light and shadow. While some lighting and shading effects appear in the proceeding panels, most of the effects don't appear until the last one. The tear drop is also absent until the last panel. There are a lot of details in the last panel that are missing from earlier panels; I wonder if this means that these later details didn't take as long to add or that ChaosAcathla simply chose to show the process to paint Dean and didn't want to share her process for painting the rest. Either way, it's clear that the foreground was painted first, then the background was added afterward, and then changes were added to the foreground to unite the two areas of the painting.
"Puppy Eyes - WIP" by szjoz
In panel one, rough, thick lines mark the desired placement for Sam's eyes, chin, hair and jacket. The lines are black and nearly blend in with the dark gray background; if this is indeed how szjoz painted it, then the lines must have been hard to see.
Atop of the painting itself, though presumably in a separate layer, are brush-stroke-painted swatches of the colors used in the painting. I can only see four colors, which is an impressively small range that she/he uses amazingly well.
After the outline is made, szjoz paints on top of it and within it using thin, messy brush strokes. The result doesn't contain the splotches of thick, blurry strokes used by euclase, AmandaTolleson or ChaosAcathla. instead, I presume that szjoz continues to paint with thin, messy strokes until entire areas are filled in and the brush strokes overlap so much that it is hard to see individual strokes. I think that is what happens in panels two and three. The final painting still has hints of impressionism, but the brush strokes are not nearly as obvious as they were in the earlier stages of the process. Sam's face and clothes go through the most changes throughout, but all elements are painted simultaneously. A lot of attention is turned to using the four colors to clearly differentiate each element. Sam's skin takes on a warm, almost red peach coloring, while his jacket collar is tanner. The background, meanwhile, seems almost green.
"Through this Darkness - steps" by P-JoArt
This painting goes through so many more changes than the previous four I've written about. From this step-by-step view, it seems that P-JoArt likes to experiment with color, and she/he doesn't mind discarding lots of work and trying something new, if the last idea doesn't pan out.
In panel one, P-JoArt begins with a rough sketch of clothing and hair contours and a more confident sketch of facial features. Castiel and Dean's face and Dean's hand use thicker and darker lines than the rest of the drawing. What's most interesting here is that two colors are used--a pencil-gray for most of the drawing and a white pencil for Dean's left arm, probably to ensure that Dean's sleeve is easily distinguished from Castiel's body. Dean's hand is cupped around Castiel's head, so Dean's arm covers a large section of Castiel's chest, and the white pencil makes this very easy to see. There's a hint at the very back center of the drawing that Dean's other arm is also drawn with white outlines, again to set it apart from Castiel's contour lines.
The drawing has power--the thick contour lines around their faces place emphasis on Castiel and Dean's expressions of sorrow. I'm touched by how strongly the emotions are conveyed even in this first step of the painting.
In the second panel, the sharp lines in the outlines of their faces are lost (temporarily) as their bodies are filled in with some thick and rough paint strokes. In panel three (captioned as ".b/w shading:") the rough paint strokes are blended together and detail work is added, and the power of the scene begins to return as a glowing outline highlights their profiles. There's not enough light in the piece, though; there's too much shadow and too many grays.
In panel four (".color tests:"), P-JoArt experiments with colors. It seems that the artist will paint all the shading first before adding color on top, unlike the other artists I mentioned. P-JoArt certainly doesn't seem to mind the extra work this entails. In panel four, their clothes now have some color. Castiel has brown hair, Dean is blonde, their skin begins to develop peach tones, and a blue light draws attention to between their noses and lips. Where the light comes from is unclear, but it emphasizes this private moment between them by drawing further attention to their faces.
In panel five, blue hues are abandoned and replaced with reds. P-JoArt also changes the Dean's jacket colors and Castiel's trench coat colors. The red definitely brings out the peach in their skin, and they begin to look livelier than in the earlier panels. There also seem to be multiple light sources now, and some distracting red light is now reflected on the back of Dean's jacket. Dean's jacket it detracts attention from the center of the composition.
In panel six, colors everywhere in the painting change yet again. The red light mostly disappears, and the light reflected on Castiel's back is brighter.
For panel seven, the color layers are turned invisible, and P-JoArt adds blue shading to the base black and white layer. The color layers are made visible again, and the blue shows through them in panel eight.
The last two panels show added details. A tear trails down Dean's cheek. The feathers of Castiel's wings acquire more details. Castiel peers into Dean's eyes and no longer looks down. A ghostly background begins to form. The background has vague shapes of buildings painted with whites and light grays on a darker gray field, like a negative image.
The final step isn't in this graphic; instead, it can be found at http://fav.me/d3183ux / :thumb183456393:. Dean's jacket has some texture, and his back is now lit. The buildings in the background are still ghostly, but instead of just being silhouettes, there are now indications of windows, overhangs and streetlights. Diffused light seems to shine out of the windows of the building on the right. Fog curls around Castiel and Dean and drifts down the street. There seems to be a bit of red in this final image, so perhaps the earlier red layer wasn't abandoned like I'd thought.
Each artist has his or her own method, and I am absolutely fascinated by it all. There are many similarities, but the differences are there, too. The paintings by AmandaTolleson, euclase and szjoz are portraits, where the main subject of the composition stands in the foreground before vague and two-dimensional backgrounds. ChaosAcathla and P-JoArt's paintings show scenes where the subjects stand in the foreground while setting details or other key information can be found in the background. In all of the paintings, the main subject or subjects occupy most of the space of the compositions.
Szjoz keeps a layer of swatches atop the painting throughout the process, while the other artists presumably use swatch palette windows provided by their painting software. Each painting begins either with a detailed line drawing or with a rough sketch. Some artists carefully stay within the lines they'd drawn, and others constantly alter their ideas about how various elements should be portrayed. In some paintings, a base layer contains solid splotches of color, and these splotches are then blended together to create realistic skin, hair and clothes. Szjoz tries a different method and uses thin brush strokes throughout the entire composition, painting again and again until the strokes begin to blend together and disappear. In some paintings, the background forms at the same time as the foreground, while other artists focus on the foreground and ignore the background until the end. P-JoArtist changes large, key details of the piece halfway through the painting, seemingly discarding old ideas in favor of vastly different ones, while other artists stick with their original intentions until the end.
Digital painting is a time-consuming process, which I know from personal experience. Each element must be built upon bit-by-bit until the result is achieved. The finished paintings are incredibly detailed, but each painting began very simply. I've learned a lot about various digital painting techniques through studying these five paintings.
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