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Kiwisaurus — Digital Painting tutorial
Published: 2010-01-15 14:23:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 45809; Favourites: 601; Downloads: 0
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Edit: Adding some more serious things, mainly details for those keen on following it up and using the techniques as good as possible.First of all, this tutorial is made in photoshop, and mainly talks about tools available in the same program. The version does not matter, seeing as I stick to the simple options.
If you are using paint tool SAI or a similar program, you will notice you can't find the same brush or most of the shortcuts. I WILL make a tutorial for SAI eventuallym but for now I hope it will at least help you a little bit if I say you can use the regular pen tool on low opacity, paired with the brush tool for softer 'gradients'.
The way of selecting the colours in between and going over your shadows is one pretty much every painter in photoshop uses, and is often seen as one of the most basic elements of painting.
Ofcourse, you can always smoothen things up with the smudge of blur tools, there is nothing wrong with that, but please... use them for touchups and added effects, don't rely on them like I used to when I started out. Looking back at my hours of faffing about was somewhat hilarious.
I hope this tutorial will help you, but ofcourse... if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or PM me, or check out other tutorials in the groups designed for them ;D
-end of edit-
FINISH'D 8D ohohoho
Hope you like it!
Sorry for the length of this tutorial. It's a huge file, I know.
I wanted to show as much as I could but... well I could use some training on the 'short but sweet'-element.
Eric and Kyle aren't mine, ofcourse. They, and Southpark as a whole, belong to Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I just used them for the tutorial seeing as I had this painting planned for a while.
By the way, just ignore the massive rambling. I love text boxes.
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Comments: 91
THIS IS SO HELPFUL!! THANK YOU SO MUCH D'x *tears of joy*
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Gwaa, I'm really glad to hear that! No problem dear, haha
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thank you again Cx and happy new year~ C:
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that drawing looks absolutely amazing! The tutorial helped alot too. :3
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Why, thank you very much! x) Glad to hear that.
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Thanks a bunch x)
What do you mean with 'modify the nose'? Is there anything I should have clarified more? I did go over the smoothing process rather quickly, but it's really a matter of selecting colours, or, in case of the nose, using the harder lines as guidelines so you can fill in the 'dark planes' first, before smoothing and refining.
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Thank you 
*blending
*High light-ing
*shading
*smoothing*
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Welp, photoshop really only has two options, you erase or you paint xD
For blending, I simply use one of the two colours and softly (or with a brush on low opacity)stroke over the edge where the two meet, as seen with the little orb in the tutorial. It's a matter of selecting tones that lie between two shadows and going over them to soften it up.
Highlighting and shading is about picking the right colours, (in which case 'a darker/lighter version of your first colour' often doesn't suffice. Add a bit of variety when you go, eh. Purples and reds often work nicely.)
I have enough experience with Photoshop to get by without needing different tools for smoothing, but if you're really stuck on a hard spot or a really big surface, you could always use the blur tool to soften parts up.
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Aww, thank you for this. This is really helpful.
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Well, glad to hear
You could always check out my videos on youtube if you'd like to see it in action, a couple of the earlier ones are done with photoshop... It is sped up though, so I'm not sure if you'd find it very helpfup.
I've switchedSAI lately, which I'm still getting to know, so the recent videos might not be very helpful. They just show my process a little...
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Aw, that's fine.what's your youtube channel?
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It's Chicoritango, over here x) [link]
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nice tutorial !
must say , I think we all overuse the smudge/blur/dodge tools when we're beginners. I used to do the same and I feel so embarrassed about it now! And can't help but laugh at that sight xD
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Thank you ;D
Heh, it was really kind of a 'phase' for me... I felt like I had to settle on a style and pushed myself into something I didn't really enjoy but... I don't know, it was easy. I feel a lot more comfortable with my more paintery style now, hehe. Some of my old drawings still make me giggle, indeed xD
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you're welcome!
true !same goes for me
well keep up the great work!
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thank you so much for this tutoraial! I've just begun experimenting around with digital painting and your help has made it all look a little less daunting
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Oh, I'm really glad to hear you found it useful! ;D Digital painting really is loads of fun. Good luck, hmm 
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Heh, I know <) It's a little hard to explain it in words. I am planning one though!
But, I need enough time to be able to actually 'do' something in a recording session rather than having to piece together a bajillion bits afterwards xD
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Amazing tutorial! 
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Ahh, thank you very much :'D I know, it's different with SAI. I use it myself lately, more and more, but I figured photoshop's basic brush is... well, basic. It's lot easier to learn. Sai gives off great effects but it usually requires mixing brushes a lot more. I'm planning on making some sort of tutorial about it eventually though.
(I tend to go for pen tool, brush tool, airbrush, gouache... a bit of a mush sometimes, heh)
Glad to have helped ya eh, and thanks for your nice comment.
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You're very welcome!
And, yeah, I understand about photoshop's brushes and such.
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Well, stay tuned I guess 
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Awesome!
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a great tutorial, has helped me alot! thanks so much
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Ahh, no problem
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I have a quick question of personal experience:
I'm still relatively new to my tablet and was wondering if straight up drawing gets more natural as you go?
By no means am I great at drawing, but my sketching on the tablet versus on paper is much sloppier and my lines always feel shaky.
Also, thank you!
This tutorial was very easy to understand -- no fancy effects or layer work -- and I look forward to doing more experimenting with it.
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Okay I'll try my best here and put what I think 'to paper' (ahahaha leading off with a pun ftw), but my personal experiences don't completely overlap...
I, personally, didn't really have a traditional phase where I lined a lot, and when I did it was often messy. I just started digitally as soon as I heard it existed... So, I can't give you these tips based on experience, but hopefully it will make sense still coming from what I heard from others and what I, personally, feel as the difference now that I think of it.
Yes, when drawing traditionally your hand is really 'on the paper', you have contact with it, twist your wrists, press down enough to get a steady line...
when you get accustomed to that it's great and it's okay, but digital is different in the way you have to trust your hand to do what you would normally 'see' it do while you put your eyes on teh screen to see the magic happen. You don't really have that same 'contact' with your lines because you watch the screen and adjust what your hand does to make that little cursor get to the point you frikkin want it to and it takes A LOT of time for most people to make it an automatism. Ofcourse there's these big bad expensive tablets with a built in screen but then again, would you really want to block the view of yoru cursor with your fingers? exactly.
So don't worry, you'll grow in it a lot more, but trust me when I say it's good to step away from big projects and drawings you really care about sometimes to do tiny scribbles and linearts by the by, if not just to practice your lines. The more you repeat something the better it will go. And if it annoys you in the beginning you can try working zoomed in to have a bit more of a steady feel.
[/srs bsns]
WOW LONG COMMENT IS LONG, but I hope it kinda helped you, eh <) my first tablet drawing was this thing [link] and trust me I developed a new fetish for the zoom button xD
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Bravo to your sneaky pun skills. They tickle my fancy.
Little scribbles and linearts, gotcha. It's only slightly less convenient because you've gotta have a computer to do it. Then again, it's not like I don't spend plenty of time on here, anyways. *is shot*
[/semi-srs reply]
YES, BUT IT IS HELPFUL.
Fella tells me that the link is not found, but I'll take your word for it -- I already love working at 200+ percent.
Thank you buckets.
And just one more question: I'm working in PS CS5 and the brush settings are different -- no jitter options, specifically -- and I can't seem to turn off opacity sensitivity, any ideas? Sorry, I'm a noob. (And I'm now flooding you with questions, please don't drown.)
It only now occurs to me that all of this may have been more appropriately asked at your lineart tutorial. Oh well!
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Just your fancy? my pun manager is very dissapoint |C He will now be fired.
Also well yes you need a pc for digital art yeah but while you're watching tv or whatever you can just draw a little something, something easy peasy lemon squeezy, and try linearting it as good as you can just to get used to making the lines flowing. Here's another tip in case it helps you: take a sheet of paper and put it over your tablet. this gives you a little more grip. Chances are this isn't your problem but it can really help sometimes.
((also DAMN YOU FELLA! well if you're really interested you can go HERE [link] but beware of awefulness har har))
The brush settings are different? In what way? I don't have CS5 myself but as far as I know it should all be found under the same option for brushes (go to windows in case it's not there as a standard)... then you should see the opacity ticked off and just undo that. I don't really know where to find things like jitter in case it's not there either, you can send me a pm with a screenshot if you want... if you think that might clear things up for me? Otherwise, you can check the lineart tutorial but I highly doubt it has an answer there :/ SAWRY HUN
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But it tickled my spleen, too. That's the kind of pun writer you gotta keep around.
I've been doing that lately, so perhaps some good will come of it.
And, hmm. I hadn't thought of that -- it could help.
((It's not so awful. You've never seen what I draw. Unless of course you have, in which case I'd have to tell you that I haven't scanned or uploaded anything recent. In short, please don't look. It's embarrassing.))
The box doesn't look anything like the box on CS3.
I don't know if you can help, but plan to receive a note soonish.
Iss okay. :<
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My pun writer has an organ fetish... fantastic.
Well lemme know if it does eh, sometimes it's just the lack of grip that takes getting used to, eh.
((lawl I won't look I promise xD I took a quick glance before but I'm THAT kind of person that has over 3000 deviations to plow through and NEVER BLOODY DOES anyway, har har))
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hooray. i'll have him sent a piece of my liver.
I'll check, yah.
((thank you. and in that, we are similar.))
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This beats most of the other tutorials i've seen
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ohohoho, thank you, I'm flattered...
AND glad to hear it was of any help ey ;D
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ah, thank you very much for your feedback. I'm very glad to hear that
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its ok Keep in touch[link]
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This is great and easy to understand
Thatnk for uploading
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Ah, glad to hear ;D Thank you for your nice feedback, and no problem, hahah
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