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Description

A watcher recently asked me for a step by step tutorial. I posted my last one years ago and I’ve learned a lot since then. I hope this makes things easier for those with less experience, and those with more experience are welcome to share some hints of their own!

1. I start with a drawing on an A4 sheet of paper. The rough work’s done with a normal 4H pencil and the fine line work’s done with a 2B lead in a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. In keeping with the hard science of the Blood and Oil universe, this high-performance fighter was influenced by real planes including the Fiat G.55 and Lavochkin La-7. I’ve called it the Strela, which means “lightning” in Slovenian. The pilot’s mask and goggles are based on WW2 RAF/Commonwealth gear.

2. The drawing’s scanned at 600dpi and opened in Photoshop. I hit Select > All, Edit > Copy > Paste to make a copy in a new layer, select the background layer and hit Edit > Fill to change it to a blank white space, and Layer > New Layer > Mode > Multiply to add a new Multiply layer. Then I select the top layer (the drawing) and hit Layer > Merge Down. The drawing’s now part of the Multiply layer and I’ll add base colours under it. For this I select the background and hit Layer > New Layer > Mode > Normal. I’ve now got three layers to work with: a blank Normal layer background, a middle Normal layer for painting, and a line drawing in a Multiply layer to use as a guide. I select the middle layer and start with a neutral grey using a hard brush on 100% opacity.

3. Before I go any further I’d better add a background. If you use a photo (as I have) the weather and lighting conditions are going to affect your subject’s colours, highlights, shadows and tones. I’ve still got a lot to learn myself and find less detailed backgrounds make things easier – they also give a better impression of distance and space. Hitting Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast, Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation, or Image > Adjust > Colour Balance and experimenting with slide bars can help; so can Filter > Blur effects. The blue-tinged mountains I chose for this picture didn’t need any major adjustments. I then went back to the middle layer and gave the plane some basic colours using a hard brush on 100% opacity.

4. I’m still in the middle layer. I hit Layer > New Layer > Soft Light to add a new Soft Light layer and start adding basic highlights with a soft brush on a low opacity setting. I then hit Layer > Merge Down before adding basic shadows because I’ll do this in a Hard Light layer, and merging Soft and Hard Light layers tends to make a real mess.

5. Now I have three layers again. I’m in the middle layer and hit Layer > New Layer > Hard Light to add a new Hard Light layer. I start adding basic shadows with a soft brush on a low opacity setting. I’ll also merge this layer with the Normal layer under it before I add sharper highlights.

6. I keep repeating steps 4 and 5 to give the plane a more 3-D appearance. Using colours for highlights and shadows can give a better sense of depth and connection with the background. I’ll stick to subtle blues for now as I think they work best in this setting. Colours can be adjusted by hitting Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation, and if you’re not happy with the layer you’re working in it can always be deleted.

7. Now that the highlights and shadows are stronger I move on to finer details. I use a smaller, harder brush on a higher opacity setting for highlights on the gun barrels, pilot’s goggles and exhaust pipes. I keep adding details and increasing the strength of shadows and highlights.

8. The picture looks much better now but I don’t like the greenish tinge, so I hit Layer > Flatten Image to merge all three layers into one, then hit Image > Adjust > Colour Balance and use the sliders to make the picture slightly less green and more blue. I could have altered one or more layers before flattening the image. Lightening the uppermost Multiply layer can help remove rough or unwanted line work left over from the pencil sketch; adjusting the colours and tones of the foreground and background layers can give a better sense of depth. In general closer objects should have brighter highlights, darker shadows, sharper details and warmer tones.

9. I add markings in a new Normal layer. I’ve already got a lot (including numbers and alphabets, national/factional markings and personal/unit insignia) in another folder, so it’s faster to import these than draw them again from scratch. To match the red unit stripe on the fuselage and blue triangle on the wing with the curves of the airframe I hit Edit > Transform and used Warp, Distort and Free Transform tools until I got the right fit. The radio wire was easy; when you’re using the brush tool, holding down Shift between taps of your stylus or clicks of your mouse will give you perfectly straight lines. The propeller took more time. I added a new Multiply layer, created a circle using a large hard brush and slightly smaller hard eraser on 100% opacity, hit Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation and used the slider bar to lighten it, the Move tool to place it, and the Edit > Transform tool to change its size and shape. I then used soft erasers and brushes on low opacity settings to make it look less like a circle and more like four spinning blades. This stuff can be tricky, but as long as you remember to do it in separate layers, you can always delete the one you’re using, add a new one and start again!

10. I’ve nearly finished the picture but something doesn’t quite look right. I’ve got it – those square-framed RAF-style goggles don’t go well with the airframe’s curves. This wouldn’t matter in the real world, but this one’s mine and there’s nothing to lose from changing a few details. I paint new round-framed goggles in Photoshop and think they’re a better fit, not only for this aircraft but also its alternate world.

Description

A watcher recently asked me for a step by step tutorial. I posted my last one years ago and I’ve learned a lot since then. I hope this makes things easier for those with less experience, and those with more experience are welcome to share some hints of their own!

1. I start with a drawing on an A4 sheet of paper. The rough work’s done with a normal 4H pencil and the fine line work’s done with a 2B lead in a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. In keeping with the hard science of the Blood and Oil universe, this high-performance fighter was influenced by real planes including the Fiat G.55 and Lavochkin La-7. I’ve called it the Strela, which means “lightning” in Slovenian. The pilot’s mask and goggles are based on WW2 RAF/Commonwealth gear.

2. The drawing’s scanned at 600dpi and opened in Photoshop. I hit Select > All, Edit > Copy > Paste to make a copy in a new layer, select the background layer and hit Edit > Fill to change it to a blank white space, and Layer > New Layer > Mode > Multiply to add a new Multiply layer. Then I select the top layer (the drawing) and hit Layer > Merge Down. The drawing’s now part of the Multiply layer and I’ll add base colours under it. For this I select the background and hit Layer > New Layer > Mode > Normal. I’ve now got three layers to work with: a blank Normal layer background, a middle Normal layer for painting, and a line drawing in a Multiply layer to use as a guide. I select the middle layer and start with a neutral grey using a hard brush on 100% opacity.

3. Before I go any further I’d better add a background. If you use a photo (as I have) the weather and lighting conditions are going to affect your subject’s colours, highlights, shadows and tones. I’ve still got a lot to learn myself and find less detailed backgrounds make things easier – they also give a better impression of distance and space. Hitting Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast, Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation, or Image > Adjust > Colour Balance and experimenting with slide bars can help; so can Filter > Blur effects. The blue-tinged mountains I chose for this picture didn’t need any major adjustments. I then went back to the middle layer and gave the plane some basic colours using a hard brush on 100% opacity.

4. I’m still in the middle layer. I hit Layer > New Layer > Soft Light to add a new Soft Light layer and start adding basic highlights with a soft brush on a low opacity setting. I then hit Layer > Merge Down before adding basic shadows because I’ll do this in a Hard Light layer, and merging Soft and Hard Light layers tends to make a real mess.

5. Now I have three layers again. I’m in the middle layer and hit Layer > New Layer > Hard Light to add a new Hard Light layer. I start adding basic shadows with a soft brush on a low opacity setting. I’ll also merge this layer with the Normal layer under it before I add sharper highlights.

6. I keep repeating steps 4 and 5 to give the plane a more 3-D appearance. Using colours for highlights and shadows can give a better sense of depth and connection with the background. I’ll stick to subtle blues for now as I think they work best in this setting. Colours can be adjusted by hitting Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation, and if you’re not happy with the layer you’re working in it can always be deleted.

7. Now that the highlights and shadows are stronger I move on to finer details. I use a smaller, harder brush on a higher opacity setting for highlights on the gun barrels, pilot’s goggles and exhaust pipes. I keep adding details and increasing the strength of shadows and highlights.

8. The picture looks much better now but I don’t like the greenish tinge, so I hit Layer > Flatten Image to merge all three layers into one, then hit Image > Adjust > Colour Balance and use the sliders to make the picture slightly less green and more blue. I could have altered one or more layers before flattening the image. Lightening the uppermost Multiply layer can help remove rough or unwanted line work left over from the pencil sketch; adjusting the colours and tones of the foreground and background layers can give a better sense of depth. In general closer objects should have brighter highlights, darker shadows, sharper details and warmer tones.

9. I add markings in a new Normal layer. I’ve already got a lot (including numbers and alphabets, national/factional markings and personal/unit insignia) in another folder, so it’s faster to import these than draw them again from scratch. To match the red unit stripe on the fuselage and blue triangle on the wing with the curves of the airframe I hit Edit > Transform and used Warp, Distort and Free Transform tools until I got the right fit. The radio wire was easy; when you’re using the brush tool, holding down Shift between taps of your stylus or clicks of your mouse will give you perfectly straight lines. The propeller took more time. I added a new Multiply layer, created a circle using a large hard brush and slightly smaller hard eraser on 100% opacity, hit Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation and used the slider bar to lighten it, the Move tool to place it, and the Edit > Transform tool to change its size and shape. I then used soft erasers and brushes on low opacity settings to make it look less like a circle and more like four spinning blades. This stuff can be tricky, but as long as you remember to do it in separate layers, you can always delete the one you’re using, add a new one and start again!

10. I’ve nearly finished the picture but something doesn’t quite look right. I’ve got it – those square-framed RAF-style goggles don’t go well with the airframe’s curves. This wouldn’t matter in the real world, but this one’s mine and there’s nothing to lose from changing a few details. I paint new round-framed goggles in Photoshop and think they’re a better fit, not only for this aircraft but also its alternate world.