Drawing Brushes for Photoshop

So they say it doesn’t matter what brush you use in Photoshop you can achieve almost anything with any brush if you know how. I have heard this from just about every artist that works in digital art I’ve listened to. I agree it is not about the brush. It won’t make you better. However, I also agree with the idea that you need the right tool for the right job. When I first started working in Photoshop and trying to sketch in it because I love to sketch, I had a difficult time honestly because I was using brushes that came with Photoshop and getting hard dark lines. This messed with me as I like to draw lightly and gradually build up my values or go over a line and make it a bit darker when I like it. Having nothing but dark lines they all blended together and I had a hard time reading them and knowing where I wanted to go in my drawing.  So I looked around for brushes online and kinda found something I liked. It wasn’t the best but it worked for me well enough so I used it but still sketched mostly on paper then scanned it in to get a good drawing.

Then my computer got stolen and everything I had with it including all my software, digital portfolio and of-course my brushes in Photoshop. So I went about putting it all back, as much as I could anyway. I couldn’t find the drawing brushes I had been using or maybe they just didn’t feel right anymore or give me what I wanted. So I just drew with whatever but didn’t really use it for anything serious.

I then took an ink brush from an ImagineFX tutorial and changed its settings and got a drawing brush I liked. Then I changed them a bit more and liked it even more for sketching and shading. Here is a one minute life-drawing sketch I did with the light drawing brush.

 I use them set to about 5 pixels to draw with. If you leave it at that or around there and shade with the light drawing brush it will give you some texture as well making it seem more like an actual pencil drawing. The regular drawing brush I use mostly for dark lines that I want to bring out if they need it or with bolder paniting. I have these set so you can do a full range with the settings at 100% opacity and right now I am at 50% flow. The drawing below was done with just these 2 brushes no change in the settings 100% the whole time just control of the pen pressure.

I found that holding the pen straight up and down is good for the dark and hard lines where holding it as far to the edge as you can to shade like a pencil gives a very light stroke from barely perceptible to as dark as you want without having to lift or layer over an area to build up the gradation. You can go over an area though, with this same technique and lightly fill in the potential gaps left on your first pass depending on how fast or wide you made your strokes originally much like doing a smooth atelier drawing.  In-fact these are the brushes I used to draw and paint the “Valkyrie” piece I previously published here as I like to handle my painting like drawing in colour and be able to blend softly. I also used them in this piece section to draw in the flowers here and to put in the light colour in the background mountains behind them.

Now the really interesting part of this is I decided to use my light drawing brush for my eraser setting as well. And just like using it to draw I can lightly fade out an area or with more pressure erase an area all together in the same stroke. This is much more natural to me and I am loving it. I don’t have to set the eraser to a low setting and hope I don’t overlap making one bit of an area stronger than another because of that and then trying to blend it back in. I can just erase like I normally would on paper with a real eraser.

So, here are the brushes for you to enjoy because it sucks trying to find something good to draw with and get a natural media feel.

Alright, apparently I am having an issue uploading them here so if you want right now you can email me and I will email them out to you or you can wait and I will try to get them up ASAP.

Here is the link now to the brushes - http://www.mediafire.com/download/2m4p2qd5el93ctm/Ryan_Arms_Drawing_Brushes.abr

The Easter Bunny collecting eggs. Happy Easter!

Sculptis and 3D in Illustration

For this week I am going to continue on a little about references showing something closer to James Gurney use of building a small model mock up of what it is you want to paint then lighting it and going from there.

The other night I spent about 30 minutes in Sculptis, a free toned down version of ZBrush found here http://pixologic.com/sculptris. This extremely easy to use 3D modeling tool (as this was my 1^st time using it) let me create a quick reference for the Rabbit’s father’s head from my sketch of the Rabbit meeting his father in my fairytale series.  I was able to render it out, paint it and set the lighting - a bit. Now it is only a rough mock up as I didn’t paint it in Sculptis saving that for Photoshop later or overly render the sculpture. The lighting wasn’t like the more developed programs where I had different lights that I could control and set to where I want them but I could choose from a preset selection and get a variety of lighting anyway finding the one I wanted in the end.  It maybe more complex in it’s lighting but to this point I haven’t figured it out but then I have only used it once at this point. I can export it to Photoshop and with the more recent versions (I am on CS5) I can rotate it there and set it up how I want to use as a foundation with the lighting still in tact or just take a screen shot of it in Scultptis and use it as reference to paint in the shadows and lighting.

Now I am not trained in 3D sculpting or using the programs. I have MudBox and Maya on my computer for over a year now since I was able to pick them up for free as a student but never really touched them especially since the Maya interface is more complex then I have time to figure out. An introduction to Maya and some 3D animation are on my list of DVDs from Gnomon now for winning 2^nd last month in the Sketch Theatre Forum contest. I might as well put them to use and expand my versatility in the arts hopefully expanding my employability as well.

If I can build up in 3D what I want to Illustrate I can make it that more believable when I do Illustrate it though. At 30 minutes for a solid head reference of a horned fantasy character it can be a time saver. It would take me longer to set it up and photograph it. And if I sculpt the character once I can pose it and use it again for other Illustrations and be assured they will look the same in each Illustration. Plus one of the things I wanted to do was make figurines of the characters as part of the merchandising for the storybook.

I would also recommend the free Google SketchUp for building 3D models of your buildings and some other things. It was originally started as a program for architects and is therefor best suited to more man made objects with hard corners and surfaces but you can find several free models of things in their library. You can also set the time of day for lighting so if your Illustration is to take place at sunset you can set it for that and get those long dark shadows you need. It is easy to use and I think I will start using it myself. I know several Illustrators use it in Concept Design as well as Illustration but had forgotten about it until Dan Dos Santos mentioned using it in his class the other day for this exact purpose.

And finally if you have any doubts about the ligitamacy of using photo reference for your Illustrations here is a fun post from Muddy Colors about it.

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2014/01/artist-selfies-everybodys-doing-it.html

And if that doesn’t convince you look up Norman Rockwell’s process. He used photographs that were set up, modeled and used specifically for his Illustrations. And I don’t know anyone who would argue with Rockwell on painting.

So, I managed to take 2nd place this month in the Sketch Theatre Forum's monthly contest. The subject being a knight in armor. Not bad for me. It is another 10 Gnomon DVDs which aid in my own art education and lets me pick the ones I had left over from last month that I didn't get to choose. At about $60 a DVD it's not too bad for a few hours worth of work. Now, if I could be selling the sketches for that much I'd be really happy!

Illustration Workflow

With 9 weeks at Smart school for Illustration there is one thing that is unanimously done and it seems for all Illustrators it is the same - the use of light boxing/tracing to get a nicely rendered piece. Without fail every professional Illustrator I have meet, talked with or just listened to admits to taking some very well set up photographic reference and then using them to quickly copy the image to their canvas and referencing them especially for lighting and several other things. The basic workflow then becomes something like this:

1.     Quickly layout some thumbnails to develop an idea. These are for you so can be as messy or clean as you want them to be and only need to be a couple inches squared. The big reason for them really at this point is to make sure that your painting (image) has a nice composition in large shapes and a quick abstract read you don’t need details at all here. Andrew Loomis and others recommend working in no more than 4 shades of black & white being – white, light grey, a darker grey and black to establish foreground, middle ground (second middle ground) and background. You can use the colours in any order to get the feel and depth you want usually though it is accepted that the foreground is the darkest with the strongest contrast and the background is the lightest with the least amount of contrast.

2.     In a professional Illustrator setting you will develop 3 of these into more worked out sketches, in Concept Design it may be closer to 5 or 6 but you will also probably be showing a lot of your thumbnails as well for that. These don’t have to be very big but do need to be big enough to show the client what the idea is, potentially about postcard size 4”x 6” or so. You don’t want to waste too much time on this stage doing elaborate drawings before the client picks one they like.

3.     Then once an image is decided upon then go shoot some reference images. I say shoot your own as you then have all rights to use it as much or little as you want. Get costumes, dress up as the characters you want in your piece so you know how the fabric folds and the lighting falls on them. Set up the lighting you want to make sure this happens. Take multiple photos. Dan Dos Santos takes 100s of photos for a single piece as do others. I get about 4 or 5 shots for each possible pose I may use and should probably do more. One of the reasons for this is your final image is probably going to be a cut and paste mesh-up of all the other photographs typically called “frankenstining”. When I was in college and taking a design class the instructor had us go through magazines cut out images that we wanted to use from the background to the foreground and all the characters in it. Now with computers you can arrange them in Photoshop, cut and paste, change the colour to match and develop a clean looking image already.

4.     Which brings us to the next step. We’d lay them out and match our sketch. Then we would go to a copier and make at least 2 copies, one black and white and one in colour. If you do this in Photoshop print out both copies of the image corrected to being as close to what you want your final image to look like as possible.  This is where using something like Photoshop, Painter, Gimp (which is free and just like Photoshop) or Pixia (also free), ArtRage or any of the other photo/art software really shines. You can develop a complete colour comp of your image so if you are working traditionally you have exactly what you want to paint laid out and thought out already.

5.     We would put charcoal, graphite or transfer paper to rub on the back of the image copied to the right size that we wanted to paint it and trace over the image to layout everything in place. Or use a lightbox to trace the image on to your paper if it is thin enough.

A quick word about lightboxes. I never understood why people pay large sums for them. There are windows everywhere. All you have to do to have an instant lightbox is tape up your image and the paper over it with the light behind it and voila instant lightbox no matter where you are. You can also lay down some glass and shine a light from underneath if you want a flat one or are working at night. No real cost to you just as good as paying $100s for it.

Then clean up the line work you now have on your “canvas” (Illustration board and stiffer painting surfaces are easier to do this on than an actual canvas.)  and possibly lighten up any areas that you may not want to show through depending on what type of medium you work in and how thick you paint. In Photoshop you can basically trace/light box the image by lightening the layer with the photo reference and drawing your line work on a normal layer on top of it.

6.     You can then start painting, basically copying and using the colour copy to match the paint colours. We would mix the paint and then apply a small amount to the colour copy to see if it blended or stood out from the colours there.

Now this is also assuming you have lighting and a colour scheme that works together, if not you will have to change those elements and can’t match the cut outs as easily but in taking your own photographs you can set up everything to make sure it all works together. Which is again a major plus in having something like Photoshop to correct all this before hand. And that is it the basic steps to get a nice laid out image and render it as wonderfully as the professionals do. And they all do it so why not you?

As I write this out I am presented with the all time question from a contest that I have entered with this piece: If you just paint what you have laid out in your reference photos the are you copying? This is a big on going debate and has been and will be from generations past to generations to come: Tracing and duplicating your reference image colours is why you lay them out in the 1^st place.  We are just saving ourselves painstaking time (money) and making sure our images are as technically correct as possible. It should not stifle your creativity to have them or make up for your lack of technical ability to draw freehand and mix your own paints. Picasso and every other famous abstract artist once upon a time were extremely talented at what they were doing. Which I firmly believe you have to understand the rules of art and be able to create it on your own before you can break them and be successful at it.

So is it a bad thing? That’s for you to decide. I do heavily suggest you actually learn to draw and don’t just do simple photo manipulation as is popular today. I personally will put my drawing skills up against anyone. If there is one thing I have gotten compliments for from every professional I have meet including Iain McCaig is that I can definitely draw. And a good drawing is the foundation to a good painting as painting can be looked at as being nothing more than drawing with a brush.  But if you want to compete with the pros, in the allotted time frame they have, working on multiple projects at once you are going to have to learn to make good solid use of references.

As a closing recommendation on the subject check out James Gurney’s book “Imaginative Realism” about using references to make your image believable.  

For a recent Diablo III contest. I think I might like the sketch more but then I really dig line work and sketches.

Preparing Sketches for Digital or Online Use

Okay, I have sometime to knock out a few more portfolio pieces since I am shooting for a May deadline so I can try to make it to Spectrum Art Live and pick up some work. I want to do more to the level of this last piece “Artemis & Orion” which has gotten some good reviews. The sketch for it did in-fact just get me 1^st place at Sketch Theatre Forum’s monthly contest Lover’s Embrace, which is a prize of 15 Gnomon DVDs ad worth a bit of money. So that will help my education and replace some of the one’s I had that were lost when my computer was stolen this past August. Here is the sketch.

Now for a little bit of education today and one of the things that bothered me for a long time until I talked with Justin Gerard. Great guy met him at Spectrum last year. He recently married Annie Stegg, another wonderful Illustrator. Together I think they are trying to corner the market in storybook illustration. Justin had some wonderful prints of watercolour pieces he had done. So I asked him how he got such deeper colouring with watercolurs. He told me that he scans the original then places a multiply layer and an overlay layer on top of it in Photoshop. It is a simple thing to do but it works wonders for the piece. I recently used it after scanning pencil sketches to get a clean line but still retain the actual look of a sketch. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Though I will say given the parameters of the Sketch Theatre competition I didn't use it on the image above.

The whole simple process is as follows:

1^st Scan your sketch or drawing at 600 dpi or better in grey scale (it looks so much better this way).

2^nd Open it in Photoshop and duplicate the layer twice.

3^rd Change the 2^nd layer to Multiply and the 3^rd to Overlay. Then adjust the opacity of the layers to give you a clean look.

You may need more than one Multiply layer if it is a light sketch and you want a darker line. If this is the case merge the 1^st multiply layer and the original scan then duplicate the now darker line work.

And that’s it to having clean looking sketches as you can see. It works well for any traditional pieces and even to heighten colouring from digital works.

This one was done with coloured pencil over marker then scanned in and heightened with the method above before adding the digital background.