A decade spent in art education, followed by another 10 years immersed in digital painting techniques have enabled me to identify the different ways of approaching commercial work, and helped me to uncover new ways of expressing my ideas in my personal art.
I usually work in Procreate on an iPad, and Photoshop on an iMac Pro, switching between both applications. For this workshop I created the sketches on an iPad and finished the piece in Photoshop, taking advantage of the bigger screen size and the program’s larger range of tools. You’ll see how even basic effects such as Lighten, Darken and Color Burn layer blend modes, Gaussian Blur and Liquify can help you to create those pro-level finishing touches.
Digital art tools either attempt to imitate the effects of traditional media, or take a painting approach that, for the most part, is far removed from real-world processes. My work doesn’t resemble a ‘real’ painting at all, apart from during the early sketch and line-art stages, and when developing shadows and background. Instead, I rely on Photoshop to enhance parts of the image as I go: first by developing the mood of the artwork, and then adding details throughout the scene. It’s a totally different approach to working in traditional media. Here, I’ve used vivid colours, light blooms and gentle rendering to express my love for the films of Studio Ghibli.
1 Generate rough sketches
The ImagineFX team’s idea for the cover is “a girl hugging a plush toy, maybe a Totoro one”, so I start by creating four sketches in Procreate: three with Totoro and one with a shark plush toy. I’m mindful of the cover layout, so the face of the girl and her soft toy should roughly be in the middle of the composition.
Denne historien er fra April 2020-utgaven av ImagineFX.
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Denne historien er fra April 2020-utgaven av ImagineFX.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world