Painting with Light and Shadows

Use this tutorial to help you to creatively add depth to two-dimensional, flat images.
Use these steps to light up your artwork…

1) Try these steps on an image you are currently working on or any stock image you may have.
2) Press and hold down the ALT key + click the “Fill or Adjustment Layer” button   

3) In the “New Layer” window, name the layer and change the Mode to “Screen”.  Press OK.

4) Notice now that the image has now lightened up and the Adjustments tab is showing.

5) Next, fill the Layer Mask with black by selecting your Fill tool along with changing your color to black.  Now, fill the entire image.  Now notice two things that the image has become darker in tone and the Fill Layer has turned from white to black.

6) Now, we are going to duplicate the same steps again with some minor changes.  Again press and hold down the ALT key + click the “Fill or Adjustment Layer” button.  In the “New Layer” window, name the layer and change the Mode to “Multiply”.  Press OK.  You’ll now notice that the image has been darkened

         
7) Now, fill the screen again with black using the “Darken” layer.  Notice now that the image has lightened up and that both the Lighten and Darken Adjustment Layers appear black.    

         
8) Press “D” on the keyboard and the foreground color will change to white.  We’ll now paint on the image with the color white.
9) Next, we’ll need to select a very soft brush with low opacity.  After selecting the Brush tool or by pressing “b”.  Now, right-click on your image to modify your brush settings.  Change the “Master Diameter” to the desired level and then move the “Hardness” level all the way to the left or 0%.  In addition, lower the opacity to 50% or lower.

10) Now, start painting on the Lighten layer.  To increase the amount of light, either brush over the image multiple times or increase the opacity. 
11) To add shadows, select the Darken layer and paint with the brush. 
12) This image has had some light and shadows added to enhance colors.

13) Here is what the “Lighten” Adjustment Layer looks like.  To see this on your image, simply hold down the ALT key and click your black Adjustment Layer.

14) Finally, here is what the “Darken” Adjustment Layer looks like.  This gives you an idea of what shadows were added.

                                
Using this technique to paint with colors is much like using the dodge and burn tools.  I like this method as a way of having more control of what I do.

Have fun and happy painting!

Frank Freeman is a freelance artist, trainer and CEO of Artistic Gurus, Inc. a training company that focuses on how-to videos in the 2D, 3D, Traditional Arts, Comics, Anime and Manga fields. http://www.artisticgurus.com/ or http://www.rentartvideos.com/

How I learned Photoshop

I was so happy and content in my world of 2D black and white.  It was enough to have to learn line weights and perspective.  I was quite satisfied with my work.  I think at some point, for most of us, something tends to come along and shake things up in a big way.  For some it may be that person you know that did something so outrageously cool or that book that came out and displayed some amazing art.  For me, it was seeing comic books like Battle Chasers, Wild Cats and Danger Girl.  Whatever it is, these moments require change and growth.  In this article, I dive into my thinking and methods which continue to inspire and motivate me in my ongoing journey to learn digital painting with Photoshop.

I’m dating myself here but I can remember this time as if it were yesterday.  My grandmother bought me a nice new 386 computer that ran Window 3.1.  I was so excited at the possibilities.  One of the first things I bought was a grayscale palm-held scanner.  What a relic.  You basically had to place it over the picture and drag it down the page.  If you didn’t do it right, the image would be scrunched on one side because you didn’t drag it straight.  But once you got through that headache and the image was in the computer, it was time to color.  Back then, I remember putting the picture in Microsoft Paint (I know now that this was horrible but it was all I had).  I spent hours coloring pixels.  I had a lot of fun but those images were simply atrocious.  There is no other way to put it.  So this may have scared me away from coloring my images in the beginning.

So, what was my moment and how has color changed me?  Well a few years ago, I and a friend of mine wanted to publish our own comic book.  This project amounted to a lot of work and no published product.  However, I did learn so much from the process.  My friend was the writer and was going to do all the art work so I needed to learn how to color.  I had no idea at the time how much I had to learn.  There were so many fine comic book colorists doing some fine work that I looked to as examples.  I guess I always took their work for granted.

It helps to learn Photoshop when working on a project or when you need a specific solution.  The early days of my Photoshop experiences were times when I wanted to color a comic book page or give a cool image to a friend.  Usually in these events, you don’t really have a full grasp of what the program can do but you know what you’d like to do with it and you learn if it is actually possible to do it or if you need to do something else.  In this process, we tend to gain some unexpected nuggets that we can save and use later.  Today, with sites like YouTube and professional tutorials, we are able to learn much faster and more conveniently get the information we need.  I think one of the biggest keys to learning Photoshop is deciding to learn it no matter what.  No matter how overwhelming the toolset is.

With any new application that I’m interested in learning, I like to get the big picture as to what it can do and then break it down into pieces.  If I was a newbie to Photoshop today and I wanted to learn it, I would go online or look at some of the latest digital art books by the pros.  Seeing what they can do is very motivating and gives you an idea of what can be done.  Next, I’d look at all the menus to get an idea of my options.  Menus are usually broken down into sections.

Finally, we can all learn from someone else.  Especially a pro or those who posses skills that are much more advanced than our own.  I can always come away with something that I didn’t know.  Access to this information today is very available.

Frank Freeman is a freelance artist, trainer and CEO of Artistic Gurus, Inc. a training company that focuses on how-to videos in the 2D, 3D, Traditional Arts, Comics, Anime and Manga fields. http://www.artisticgurus.com/ or http://www.rentartvideos.com/

Should Artists Adopt the iPad?

Apples release of the iPad has been very well received.  As an artist, my initial interest was in drawing on the device.  I wondered if a lite version of Photoshop could be downloaded on it.  I was disappointed to find that there was only a Photoshop Express app.  This app is little more that a photo viewer and a minor editor.  A more robust version may have to come a little further down the road.  I do all my work on a PC with a Wacom Tablet in Photoshop.  Being able to consolidate these items would be great.  I also would like to draw right on the screen.  Drawing on the screen is much like drawing on paper but unfortunately, I don’t have an extra $2,000 to put down on a Wacom Cintiq. 

To my joy, there were a few notable apps.  I first found a FlipBook app which is a great little tool for bringing your doodles to life.  Continuing my research, I found two impressive apps.  Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro and the ArtStudio app are great little programs for drawing and painting on the iPad.  Both work with layers and can use different brushes.  However, it is a little difficult (but not impossible) to draw and paint with your finger.  It may be a good idea to purchase the Pogo Sketch Stylus if you plan to do a lot of drawing.

It looks like you really can have a “digital tablet” that can be used to quickly produce compositions of different qualities wherever you are.  Sitting at the airport, you can work on some of your storyboards or do some quick sketches of your people-watching.  You can do a client visit and instead of lugging around your laptop, you can pull out your iPad and do something fast and at the same time impressive.

Let it be known that the iPad has lots of competitors.  Apple is truly the trailblazer and sets the stage for other solutions.  It is yet to be seen if other products will make access to downloadable apps so easy and available.  That is what makes the iPad so appealing and just plain old cool.  In most cases, you are choosing between wireless carriers and GUIs or Graphical User Interfaces run on various operating systems like: Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Palms WebOS, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS, Archos 5 (on Android, Linux and Windows 7) and Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS.  If you aren’t in a hurry to jump into one of these gadgets, it may be better to wait and see how things shape up.  But for all those die-hard Apple users, waiting isn’t an option.

Frank Freeman is a freelance artist, trainer and CEO of Artistic Gurus, Inc. a training company that focuses on how-to videos in the 2D, 3D, Traditional Arts, Comics, Anime and Manga fields. http://www.artisticgurus.com/ or http://www.rentartvideos.com/