Digital Imaging I

Class 05: Digital Illustration

Topics

Photoshop Brush Engine
Colorizing a Photograph
Digital Illustration
Assignment 05

High five!

oh right…

Photoshop Brush Engine

Photoshop has developed a strong brush system that can produce results similar to real-world media such as pencil, pastel, or oil paints. It can also be utilized to create cool effects not possible with traditional media.

Painting Tools:

Photoshop’s brush system has a variety of options to control how it performs. You can see descriptions of the settings below and to the right. I suggest just playing around with them to get a feel for how they work.

Brush Tool

Settings

Brush Preset Picker: The alpha shape and other preset settings of the brush. Some brushes mimic real world brushes very closely.

Mode: This determines how the brush strokes blend with the canvas. Some are the same as the layer blending modes but there are some specific ones to the brush tool.

Opacity: Determines the transparency of the brush tool stroke.

Flow: Determines the rate of color applied while using the brush tool.

Hotkeys

B: Activates the brush tool.

[: Decreases the brush size.

]: Increases the brush size.
<: Scroll backward through brush presets.
>: Scroll forward through brush presets.
alt: Toggles the eyedropper tool.
ctrl: Popups the brush preset window.

Mixer Brush Tool

Settings

Brush Tip: The alpha shape and other preset settings of the brush. Some brushes mimic real world brushes very closely

Current Brush Load: Shows the current color on the brush and allows you to load the brush with the foreground color or to clean the brush altogther

Load Brush & Clean Brush Toggles: When activated these will load the brush with the foreground color and/or clean the brush after each stroke.

MIxer Presets: Presets that control the wetness, load, and mix of the brush.
Wet, Load, Mix, Flow: Wet determines how much color the brush picks up from the canvas. Load specifies how much paint is loaded onto the brush. Mix determines how much of the color loaded vs. color picked up is dominant. Flow describes the rate of color applied by the brush.
Sample All Layers: Allows the brush to interact with color in all layers or only the currently activated layer.

Settings

The settings are the same as the regular brush tool.

The mixer brush mimics real-world brushes allowing you to create masterpieces such as this.

Colorizing a Photograph

Colorization:

Much like restoring photos sometimes Photoshop is used to add color back into an image. This can really enhance and image and is also a good exercise in understanding the diversity of color in the world.

Digital Illustration

Photoshop has become the industry leading software for digital illustration. There are many other programs (some free) that are built with only painting in mind. These are fantastic but because they do not have the robust generalize image editing features of Photoshop they are simply not as capable.

Youtube Videos:

These are great Youtube Channels if you are truly interested in digital painting in Photoshop.

FDZ School: This is a collection of videos from a school that specifically teaches production design
SYCRA art videos: This guy makes nice foundation videos on drawing and painting

The Gift

I know many of you feel like you were not given the “gift” of drawing. This is not true. The ability to draw is not a gift, it’s a learned skill. Those of us that “can” draw effectively are simply gullible.

When we were young we made a terrible drawing. Our mothers (or fathers) said it was great and hung it up proudly. Spoiler alert, it was not. Subsequently, some of us believed them and continued to make terrible drawings until they were less and less terrible (though still pretty terrible). That is how you acquired the skill to draw.

Your parents are LIARS! I know because I lie to my children everyday. They suck at drawing. Please don’t tell them.

Drawing with a Purpose

Although drawing can be thought of as a fine art and a way to express oneself, it should also be treated as a basic form of communication. Think of it similar to your ability to communicate through written words. It’s just another tool to exchange ideas. For this reason it is worth putting in the effort to draw effectively.

Drawing Process

The process for drawing in Photoshop should be treated very similar to that in the real-world while also utilizing the fact that it is digital.

Visualize

If you are creating a drawing from life, take a visual snapshot. You have to look at the subject and try to memorize it as well as you can. Picture it on your canvas.

If you are creating something from your mind, study your subject (research what you are creating). Then picture it on your page. You can not create something you cannot see.

Ruin It!

Whatever medium you are working on, make a mistake immediately. If it is paper, just draw a line across it. If it is a sculpture, gouge it. This removes the blank void and also the fear of not creating something perfect. Once you remove this you are free to create.

Broad

Draw broadly and quickly. Make light test lines. Concentrate on the overall composition. You are not committed to anything on the page at this point.

Sculpt

Slowly build up the form of what you are creating. Add more and more lines. You will make more wrong ones than right but the right ones are in there. You just have to find them. Reinforce the correct ones. Leave the wrong ones alone. Do not erase them. It’s a waste of time and will ruin your flow.

Nail it Down

You have slowly developed the image. Now you should have a good idea of where your lines are. Commit to them. Try to avoid small sketchy lines. Longer more deliberate lines are harder to create but hold more impact.

Assignment 05

Image Colorization and Digital Painting:

In this assignment you will create two images. A colored black and white photo and a painting.

Image Colorization: Either find a black and white photo of a person or superficially create one. In photoshop you will add color to the image. The goal is to make it as close to natural and realistic as possible.
Digital Painting: You will manually create an image in Photoshop by utilizing its paint brush system. There are two ways you can create your painting. Either use a photo as reference underneath that you sample colors from or create an original image from scratch.

You will submit this digitally on Blackboard. All assignments will also include the project cover sheet. You can grab it here. Just answer the questions in the document.
Be sure to post your images on the Discussion Board for critique.

You will be graded on the following:

Project Cover Sheet
- Thoroughly completed and thoughtfully written with little or no grammatical errors.
Colorized Image
- Black and white image is fully colored with not just basic colors but with nuance and variation in hues. Final image looks natural.
Digital Painting
- Interesting and excellently crafted image with expert use of digital brushes. Strong implementation of color and value.
Craftsmanship & Creativity
- Beautifully and consistently completed throughout. Novel and interesting in comparison to peers.

Resources:

Project Cover Sheet: You may download the project cover sheet here.
Assignment Video Tutorials: You may watch the tutorial videos below to help you complete your assignment.

Assignment Video Tutorials

You may download the images used in the tutorials here.

Wait! Before you go!

Did you remember to?

Read through this webpage
Submit Week 05 image Colorization and Digital Painting Assignment on Blackboard
- Colorized image, digital painting and project cover sheet
Post your finished images and description on the Week 05 Image Colorization and Digital Painting Assignment Critique Discussion Board
- … and reply to at least two of your peers’ work on the Discussion Board