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Qinni β€” Step-by-Step Digital Painting Tutorial

Published: 2013-03-29 18:07:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 401875; Favourites: 14881; Downloads: 5780
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Description Reblog from my Tumblr ?

Please read my commentary before asking any more questions~! thanks

Finished Work:


Edit: I've had a few repeated question of how I work my lineart into the drawing.
I'd like to clarify that i don't really actually have a clean line-art. I have clean-sketches that I work under, but they're not what I personally call lineart. If you zoom in, they are very messy. I do merge the layers together at some point in step 5, and I continue to literally work the colours of the lineart into the skin (which is why i turned the sketch layer into overlay so the colours become very similar and nice to work with). That way I can get an almost none-lineart quality.

also, if you're wondering about canvas sizes, check out my journal about them: [link]

The program I used was Painttool SAI, but I think you can achieve similar effects via photoshop with a low-opacity textured brushes.

I hope this helped : ) Sorry it's so darn long. I kept it as short as I could but it's still a pretty long process.
Please keep in mind this is more of a guide to my painting process and how I technically go about doing this; It's not going to automatically teach you how to render or understand structure or anatomy (which I hope I will cover in more tutorials in the future.), which is very important, of course, to the painting itself. That's why I'll be slowly going through and doing more tutorials on anatomy and structure in the next few months, hopefully .

A good practice for rendering is actually to do still life and human sketches. preferably with a pencil, and not digitally (yet) . If you have any questions feel free to ask me

Step-by-step animation:


In the mean time, have some of my other anatomy tutorials:
Related content
Comments: 398

YahzeeSkellington [2015-01-16 19:36:19 +0000 UTC]

...this is very useful, and the art isΒ  very beautiful. Congrats!

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Nebbzilla [2015-01-11 20:14:24 +0000 UTC]

This is beautiful! I'm still trying to get comfortable with digital painting Ive been using the original CS for ages but I did download Sai to give that a try too This was very helpful I was always wondering about blending the line art

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Noviazi [2015-01-05 10:16:49 +0000 UTC]

How in the world do you do the shine that you have on the scales? If it was explained in the tutorial, so sorry but I must have missed it, haha.

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Qinni In reply to Noviazi [2015-01-11 20:23:57 +0000 UTC]

lol it's literally just going over each scale with the shading colour....it's very time consuming lolol x_x;;;

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Noviazi In reply to Qinni [2015-01-11 20:31:29 +0000 UTC]

Haha, I feel ya.

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DarinHuddy [2015-01-01 08:44:55 +0000 UTC]

Β Thanx for sharing. Much appreciated.

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Karaikou [2014-12-25 00:38:29 +0000 UTC]

This is exactly what I'm trying to do at the moment!! ;w; Your tutorials are great, please keep up the good work! ~

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TinyMushroom [2014-12-10 09:06:35 +0000 UTC]

You should make a tutorial book, I would definitely buy it!! You explain te essence of the things that makes the biggest difference in our drawings. T_T Thank you for all your hardwork of giving your time on making tuts for us <3

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Snap-Chip-Clip [2014-11-06 03:51:35 +0000 UTC]

Thank you SO MUCH for this! :'D

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ColorGold [2014-11-02 11:13:29 +0000 UTC]

O _O

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AClockworkKitten [2014-10-22 18:45:02 +0000 UTC]

How do you render, though?

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Qinni In reply to AClockworkKitten [2014-11-01 01:01:41 +0000 UTC]

to really understand how to render is really to understand the form; so understanding how the anatomy looks in 3d, which means to do more life-drawing and real-life studying. it's hard work and it will take time. Be patient and practice lots . I have a journal with a list of books that may help you, if you can afford to buy books . good luck~!

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Gmandz [2014-10-13 05:42:18 +0000 UTC]

i dont like to draw undigitally ( rarely practise with pencils and papers ) Β because i can feel and draw smoothly in digital. So any problem for my situation?Β 

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Qinni In reply to Gmandz [2014-11-01 01:02:36 +0000 UTC]

well, if you can overcome your lack of smoothness with a traditional medium, it will help your digital medium a lot too.Β 

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LovelyNoire [2014-09-23 23:08:49 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for this tutorial. I really want to try out digital painting and know this will help a lot. Thank you !

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kumeo In reply to ??? [2014-07-07 18:44:48 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much for this tutorial, I have been looking for a tutorial for Photoshop, though the ones I find are just not right for me, again thank you!

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hemam [2014-05-27 18:08:07 +0000 UTC]

Many thanks for this tutorial! Any piece of advice from an excellent pro like you is always unvaluable. I find very useful when people explains their workflow, since I am usually very anarchical and somehow random in my procedures.

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EZIZA [2014-05-24 17:19:56 +0000 UTC]

That was awesome! I dind't know DeviantArt has so many tutorials!

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SkyeFury [2014-05-13 16:02:36 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the tutorial, though I still have some doubts as to how to combine the lineart/sketch and the colors.

FIN. I see what you did there.Β 

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feki021 In reply to ??? [2014-05-04 05:51:32 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much for the tutorial, but I still know that I'm gonna such badly at this. My problem, is drawing in 3d like by myself, without any computer stuff. Shading basically; do you have any tips on that?

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Qinni In reply to feki021 [2014-05-05 16:35:23 +0000 UTC]

if you're talking about traditional mediums, then it all varies depending on which medium you're actually using. If you want to paint something 3d-like, your best bet is either acrylics or oil. Personally i prefer oil paintings since it doesn't dry as fast and there's a lot of old art masters to paint from.Β 

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feki021 In reply to Qinni [2014-05-08 00:52:50 +0000 UTC]

thanks.

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EastyBug In reply to ??? [2014-04-05 20:00:26 +0000 UTC]

How did you do the scales?

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EYEDZART [2014-03-29 12:19:43 +0000 UTC]

can i ask something? what is rendering? lol...i'm still a beginner and a noob

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Qinni In reply to EYEDZART [2014-04-05 20:36:29 +0000 UTC]

when it comes to painting 2d, rendering means to make something look three dimensional or realistic, not with lineart or cell-shading.

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encharmed In reply to Qinni [2015-12-19 02:24:24 +0000 UTC]

Do you know of any tutorials or tips on doing that? ;; I'd rather not delve into cell-shading tbh...

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Qinni In reply to encharmed [2015-12-19 19:39:16 +0000 UTC]

no tutorials or tips, sorry. I learned by doing still life, life drawing, and master-studies. no cell shading required.

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encharmed In reply to Qinni [2015-12-19 21:12:28 +0000 UTC]

okay, thanks

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EYEDZART In reply to Qinni [2014-05-19 05:05:15 +0000 UTC]

Ouhhh..i see..thanks a lot.

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kushinahime In reply to ??? [2014-03-22 05:30:11 +0000 UTC]

Thanks. It helps me understand a little. I am actually new to Paint Tool SAI.

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juliredpanda [2014-03-21 21:52:40 +0000 UTC]

I really love these tutorials of yours, they teach me very much!Β 

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elhaqiqie99 In reply to ??? [2014-03-08 05:09:13 +0000 UTC]

ohh god that's really cool, thanks for tutorial

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LittleLorel In reply to ??? [2014-03-05 02:33:57 +0000 UTC]

This is extremely helpful! Thank you soooooooooooo much! Lots of love!!

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mitablue [2014-02-13 13:55:52 +0000 UTC]

awesome

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Tsuikachu [2014-01-11 21:38:15 +0000 UTC]

This is so incredable, thank you so much for the tutorial! Your art is so beautiful!!

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HeroesRain [2014-01-10 16:41:47 +0000 UTC]

The picture is incredible. Thank you for the tutorial

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riicebowl In reply to ??? [2013-11-28 04:22:02 +0000 UTC]

love love love

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apeanutbutteredthing [2013-11-25 13:12:37 +0000 UTC]

What brushes do you have? It would be amazing to see them!

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aradoesntbite In reply to ??? [2013-10-28 00:26:25 +0000 UTC]

I'm great at traditional drawing but i dont know a thing about digital. do you use a pad? or just with you mouse?? how do you transform a picture into a digital painting (like fanart)??? sorry if im an ignorant but it'd really help

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KamKam3961 [2013-10-18 22:25:35 +0000 UTC]

Oh my gosh this is so helpful. Thank you.

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LluxStudio [2013-10-13 06:13:58 +0000 UTC]

I don't know if you understand how appreciated it is for you to put out tutorials, considering you might be the best artist on the site.

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Qinni In reply to LluxStudio [2013-10-16 16:25:34 +0000 UTC]

oh man, i really wish i was! hahaha but thanks so much anyways ~

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scarlletts [2013-10-12 03:54:32 +0000 UTC]

this is cool! so natural..

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endneo [2013-09-28 08:57:24 +0000 UTC]

This is wonderful!

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rennitsuga [2013-09-27 05:08:52 +0000 UTC]

helpful!

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zaphyrae In reply to ??? [2013-08-28 21:56:11 +0000 UTC]

Cool~

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Blaue-Rose [2013-08-27 20:11:52 +0000 UTC]

Great tutorial~!!!

Thanks for sharing~!!!

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5UNNYR4Y3 In reply to ??? [2013-07-25 14:42:03 +0000 UTC]

Wow, I cam back to this long after I had added it to my favorites, and I realized that I never tried out the brush settings that you use.


thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!


You're right, it feels like working with actual paint, which I absolutely love!

This helped so much with my most recent picture!

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kidoa In reply to ??? [2013-07-11 04:01:57 +0000 UTC]

will try..., later

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BjsX [2013-07-08 18:26:14 +0000 UTC]

didi u use the marker tool since step 3.?

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