Community Sketchbook--post your sketches

[starryshadows]

That is great. What method did you use?

Thanks! I used the Krita program, but I went with some brushes that mimicked watercolor and oil paints. For the water, I used one oil brush and for the sky I used several watercolor and oil brushes. The watercolor brush I mainly used for adding smaller areas of color. Then I layered on the stars. I really liked working with these brushes. I've been kind of experimenting with different brushes to see what different effects I can get in my digital art.

 

[tall73]

Thanks! I used the Krita program, but I went with some brushes that mimicked watercolor and oil paints. For the water, I used one oil brush and for the sky I used several watercolor and oil brushes. The watercolor brush I mainly used for adding smaller areas of color. Then I layered on the stars. I really liked working with these brushes. I've been kind of experimenting with different brushes to see what different effects I can get in my digital art.

Cool! That is another reason I like digital. You can do mixed media without having to figure out what paper works with what.

Are you making your own brushes, downloading, or using default? I thought about eventually switching to Krita since a lot of folks seem to think it is a good program, and my Corel Photopaint is becoming dated.

 

[tall73]

Isaiah 42:3-4
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.

Colors! Live - Smoldering Wick by tall73

Adjusted in Corel Photopaint.

 

[tall73]

 

[starryshadows]

Cool! That is another reason I like digital. You can do mixed media without having to figure out what paper works with what.

Are you making your own brushes, downloading, or using default? I thought about eventually switching to Krita since a lot of folks seem to think it is a good program, and my Corel Photopaint is becoming dated.

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about digital! Everything else about it I find to be so much harder than physical mediums. I honestly do like physical mediums more, but I like the ease of just getting out my tablet and painting versus setting up an easel, getting a canvas, mixing colors, and then cleaning up. It just takes a lot of time.

I mostly use the defaults; I'm still getting used to digital, so there's a lot I don't know how to do. I'm trying to keep it simple until I'm more experienced. That said, I did download 3 watercolor brushes because I like creating a more natural look. I've been trying out lots of different brushes and watching tutorials to figure out what they all do.

I definitely recommend giving Krita a try if you ever feel like it! I've really enjoyed using it, plus it's free.

 

[starryshadows]

My latest! I really like doing these skies! they're more abstract and more about color. I'm working on some flowers next.

 

[starryshadows]

View attachment 263944


Isaiah 42:3-4
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.

Colors! Live - Smoldering Wick by tall73

Adjusted in Corel Photopaint.

I love the lighting in this! Beautiful!

 

[tall73]

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about digital! Everything else about it I find to be so much harder than physical mediums. I honestly do like physical mediums more, but I like the ease of just getting out my tablet and painting versus setting up an easel, getting a canvas, mixing colors, and then cleaning up. It just takes a lot of time.

I mostly use the defaults; I'm still getting used to digital, so there's a lot I don't know how to do. I'm trying to keep it simple until I'm more experienced. That said, I did download 3 watercolor brushes because I like creating a more natural look. I've been trying out lots of different brushes and watching tutorials to figure out what they all do.

I definitely recommend giving Krita a try if you ever feel like it! I've really enjoyed using it, plus it's free.

My wife felt that digital didn't mimic traditional mediums well for her, even when using Corel Painter, which is designed to do such.

So I can see how it would be hard to transition if that is what you are accustomed to.

I have done way more digital than traditional, so to me it is more about getting a traditional look than worrying about the process being similar.

And just little things like not having to wait for things to dry, being able to color sample with the eye dropper at any point, rather than trying to re-create the color mix, etc. make it so much easier.

I get that for traditional painters those are shortcuts. But if you started with digital anyway it is just the way it is, and it is a time saver. It frustrates me to go back to traditional at times.

I should probably watch more tutorials on digital painting. Ironically most of the tutorials I have watched have been for traditional media.

One thing I really like about the program I am using on the Nintendo is that it is super simple. You only have three brush types-flat round, soft round, and bristle. The bristle is just a simple round brush with some bristle shapes. I use it for most things. The challenge for me is to use a simple brush to develop patterns, textures, etc.

Eventually I might go back to using more complex programs like Painter, etc. with customizable brushes, etc. However, I like the notion of getting as much as a can from a single tool to learn how the process works.

 

[tall73]

My latest! I really like doing these skies! they're more abstract and more about color. I'm working on some flowers next.View attachment 264025

I like the shooting star in this one. I agree that you can put all kinds of colors into skys and they can still work. And they are not so rigid that you have to get a particular likeness to work.

Flowers I find to be tricky at times.

 

[tall73]

I love the lighting in this! Beautiful!

Thanks, I looked up examples of videos of oil lamps to get an idea of what the lighting might look like. Then I stylized it a bit with more brush strokes thrown in. And rather than start with the subject matter itself, I started painting in the lighting around the object, then put the object where it would go in the lighting, then blended the two.

With such low lighting the shadows get really dark, which is a challenge for me because I tend to not get my values strong enough (a common problem). In digital you can make up for it in some ways with contrast. But it works best to plan it from the beginning. By starting to put the lighting in the background first it allowed me to get a better idea of the full range of values immediately for reference when working on the primary subject.

Normally what I do is to put in a mid-tone first then build the values out light and dark from there. That is better than starting with white, because white tend to overwhelm the values and you put things in too light.

This one I started with a dark maroon and then some black, so darker than mid-tones, then built up form there to get the darker look.

 

[starryshadows]

My wife felt that digital didn't mimic traditional mediums well for her, even when using Corel Painter, which is designed to do such.

So I can see how it would be hard to transition if that is what you are accustomed to.

I have done way more digital than traditional, so to me it is more about getting a traditional look than worrying about the process being similar.

And just little things like not having to wait for things to dry, being able to color sample with the eye dropper at any point, rather than trying to re-create the color mix, etc. make it so much easier.

I get that for traditional painters those are shortcuts. But if you started with digital anyway it is just the way it is, and it is a time saver. It frustrates me to go back to traditional at times.

I should probably watch more tutorials on digital painting. Ironically most of the tutorials I have watched have been for traditional media.

One thing I really like about the program I am using on the Nintendo is that it is super simple. You only have three brush types-flat round, soft round, and bristle. The bristle is just a simple round brush with some bristle shapes. I use it for most things. The challenge for me is to use a simple brush to develop patterns, textures, etc.

Eventually I might go back to using more complex programs like Painter, etc. with customizable brushes, etc. However, I like the notion of getting as much as a can from a single tool to learn how the process works.

Nice! I think sometimes simpler is better. It can be overwhelming when there's tons of different brushes. Plus, I think if you can get the look you want with just one or two, there's no need to go for more complicated brushes.

Yeah, I think whatever medium you start off with, there's a sort of learning curve switching from one to the other. I think they both have their pros and cons, so it's a matter of what you like more. For me, it often depends on my mood. (and to be honest, how lazy I'm feeling haha).

I don't think it's necessary to switch what you use, especially if you like the results you get from it. Plus it's really cool that you've been able to create this painterly style from a couple brushes.

 

[starryshadows]

I like the shooting star in this one. I agree that you can put all kinds of colors into skys and they can still work. And they are not so rigid that you have to get a particular likeness to work.

Flowers I find to be tricky at times.

thank you! Yeah, it's kind of a relief from working on more detailed paintings to switch to something simpler.

I agree! Flowers are ridiculously hard. I always start thinking they'll be easy, then I struggle so much with them. We'll see how mine turn out. I tend to go more abstract-y with flowers.

 

[starryshadows]

Thanks, I looked up examples of videos of oil lamps to get an idea of what the lighting might look like. Then I stylized it a bit with more brush strokes thrown in. And rather than start with the subject matter itself, I started painting in the lighting around the object, then put the object where it would go in the lighting, then blended the two.

With such low lighting the shadows get really dark, which is a challenge for me because I tend to not get my values strong enough (a common problem). In digital you can make up for it in some ways with contrast. But it works best to plan it from the beginning. By starting to put the lighting in the background first it allowed me to get a better idea of the full range of values immediately for reference when working on the primary subject.

Normally what I do is to put in a mid-tone first then build the values out light and dark from there. That is better than starting with white, because white tend to overwhelm the values and you put things in too light.

This one I started with a dark maroon and then some black, so darker than mid-tones, then built up form there to get the darker look.

That's so cool! It sounds like it was a really fun light study! I really love that classical style of painting with the deep darks and warm lighting. I watched your progress video; you make it look so easy lol! I thought it was really cool how you captured the lighting so quickly with the background. I find it interesting that you planned a lot for your painting. To be honest, I usually just kind of jump right in without much thought. Maybe a more thought-out approach would help me out too!

 

[tall73]

That's so cool! It sounds like it was a really fun light study! I really love that classical style of painting with the deep darks and warm lighting. I watched your progress video; you make it look so easy lol! I thought it was really cool how you captured the lighting so quickly with the background. I find it interesting that you planned a lot for your painting. To be honest, I usually just kind of jump right in without much thought. Maybe a more thought-out approach would help me out too!

Don't get me wrong. I usually don't think it out ahead of time all that much. But the reference I had was without the lighting so I had to get a better handle on that. The lamp was similar to one found at Qumran with the Essenes, so something like a first century example.

Some paintings I just paint. Some I look off reference and follow it pretty closely, especially if I take my own pictures. Sometimes I combine the reference ahead of time in photopaint, and some times I change the entire lighting in a reference photo that I took to get what I want first, then paint it.

And if you figured out watching the video you can dig around that site and find some really awesome painters. There are a few industry pros there who do concept work.

 

[tall73]

I agree! Flowers are ridiculously hard. I always start thinking they'll be easy, then I struggle so much with them. We'll see how mine turn out. I tend to go more abstract-y with flowers.

I think it is because they have very slight and soft variation in shading, but to get that both smooth and define the shapes precisely takes some doing.

 

[tall73]

I really love that classical style of painting with the deep darks and warm lighting.

Lately I have been working on the color scheme and lighting a bit more than I did previously.

One of the things you can do is adapt the reference ahead of time with the colors you want. The original picture I took is on the left. One of the good points of the image is the shadows from the tree trunks. The angle shows it was getting fairly late in the afternoon. But the photo is a bit washed out, and shifted to blue. I used some golden and red tones to give more of a golden hour lighting that you get just before dusk to emphasize the shadows. By darkening down the lights I could get more contrast in the image without blowing out the highlights.

 

[tall73]

Colors! Live - Munin

If you get a chance, check out this guy's gallery. He is able to do amazing stuff in a very short time.

 

[tall73]

Doing some testing using a different way to do textures. You make harsh scribbles underneath, and then do washes on top. The texture shows through in places you want to show leaves, grass, etc. and you cover it over otherwise. Kind of fun to play with. I saw an artist using it in Colors.

 

[tall73]

Scribble experiment.

Colors! Live - Scribble test path by tall73

 

[tall73]

EDIT: posted finished version later.