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JNetRocks — Tutorial: Digital Painting
Published: 2010-10-02 13:12:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 88579; Favourites: 1364; Downloads: 3048
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Description
Got some requests for a more in depth look at coloring techniques, which have changed for me a lot in the last year or so, so I decided to do a new tutorial. Hope that you guys find it useful.See the finished image here: [link]
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Comments: 229
I hope that it is helpful to you.
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How long did it take you to create this? I always feel like the authors are just whipping through when I read tutorials like this, and I'm sitting there struggling ...
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That's understandable. Digital painting is a lengthy process usually but when you create a tutorial you have to try to summarize. I tried to highlight the most important parts so that you could see the process without having to video record it or anything.
Generally I spend the first hour alone on sketching. Playing with poses, shifting a leg here, an arm there, working on designs.
The next 30-45 minutes on cleaning up the sketch into a nice clean version. If I'm doing a line art than it can take a full day.
The black and white luminosity shading I usually do in about 10-20 minutes and the 'base' under colors in only 5-10.
The next part, the basic shading can take 2-5 hours. I start with real basic colors, covering up the sketch lines beneath but then work into smoother and smoother shading.
Adding details and continuing to smooth the shading usually takes another 2-3 hours, and an additional 1-3 playing with lighting effects and composition.
In total, I think this image took me about 18-20 hours over 2.5 days.
Don't feel bad if you're starting off slower, the first part is to find a process that you are comfortable with. Once you become more familiar with the process it will get much faster.
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Thank you so much! your tutorial is very inspiring, and with this perspective you have provided on time frame leaves me much more encouraged to embark on a project like this. My fatal flaw has always been not spending enough time on things because I get frustrated if it doesn't look perfect right away.
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hehe, I think that we all do. I'm a horrible traditional sketcher/drawer so I usually have to push through the utter ugliness of my sketches lol. I still have a lot to learn but keeping encouraged and continuously practicing is the best thing to do.
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Thanks so much! Very new to digital coloring and this will be great to refer to! 
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My pleasure! I really hope it is useful.
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Thank you so much I hope it helps!
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Be sure it will.
Thank you for sharing.
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thank you for this great tutorial !
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You're welcome I hope that it helps!
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*worships the drawer* you have saved me from the horriple digital mess of doom
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lol, I am glad that it helps, even if only a little!
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Oh, without a doubt. Extremely. I've been trying to find the best way for me to color in my drawings and this might just be it. Thank you so much
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Great tutorial,Thanks for sharing,Great Work!
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Thank you I hope that it's helpful!
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Wow nice one JM this is awesome nice job. Very useful.
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You're welcome, please enjoy!
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CS5? Jealous. Looks awesome 
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Yeah I just got the CS5 Professional pack not too long ago. Have to learn a lot of the programs for school. Soundbooth, Aftereffects, Premier, etc. The 3D painting capabilities in Photoshop are a lot of fun working with 3D models.
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Ooooohhhhhh <3 I am actually working on a digital piece right now! Maybe I'll read through this all the way and see if I can't pick up any hints!
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lol <3 It's about time I haven't seen anything from you in a quite a while.
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Thanks this was so helpful!
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very cool how it came out with the luminosity effect, if I try to do a black-white shading and use one of these layer effects it always looks creepy, I think its important to think already of the brightness of the different parts in the picture before coloring and its a tough call for me.
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I have a hard time with realistic lighting because I tend to do a lot of glowing effects, fire and jewels and my lighting tends to get lost, so I found that this helps me set up the lighting ahead of time. I hope that it's helpful!
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hmm... but for example how do you manage to make the brightness of the skin as you wanted it? If I do the shading first and put that layer effect to it I am not satisfied with it, because I have contrasts but I don't know hoe bright the skin exactly has to be. Is that just learning by doing or can I orientate me anywhere?
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Skin is tricky because there are so many tones that you can choose from. Every person has their own unique marks and pigmentation. I usually start with the most saturated version of the tone I'm going for, so if I want a person who is somewhat tanned I go with a very saturated peach color. If I were doing someone with dark skin I would choose a saturated light brown. You should have room to add shadows, reds and pinks for blushes, and highlight areas. If you start too dark the shadows become black blobs. If you start too light than the highlights get washed out.
You'll definitely learn by doing!
What you can do if you're following a method like this is block in your skin on a separate layer and then once you have turned the shading layer to Luminosity mode alter the colors of your Skin layer through the Hue/Saturation/Lrightness control (Control+Shift+U I think or Image>Adjustment>Hue/Saturation/Lightness)
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thank you very much, that will be helpfull I think.
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You truly must have been reading my mind... I have been fighting almost non-stop with one picture (my very first try using this coloring style) and I think I see what I was doing wrong - I hadn't really solidified a sketch before going in with the painting, and I was getting very into details right away with the first coloring bit, and ... well, suffice to say, it was frustrating
I appreciate this tutorial very much, thank you for taking the time to create this!
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Ah yeah I do that a lot too, jump into the details, haha. Then I realize that I have to paint over it to get the basics right. Having a solid sketch is the absolutely most important thing imo. If you are an advanced artist you can probably make something wonderful out of a few lines, but especially when just beginning having your idea solid helps so much through the process.
I really hope it is helpful!
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Very very useful. I always thought the Luminosity layer was useless, but this sounds way better than the Multiply or Clipping mask coloring method.
Thanks for the tutorial!
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Multiply tends to only darken where as Luminosity actually shades black to white. I don't know the Clipping mask coloring method, but I find this is pretty good! I hope it's helpful.
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