killing.lesson (photoshop)

[killing.people]

here is some more tips on how i paint. this would most likely be helpful to beginers in photoshop

here is the same brush, using a wacom and different settings and some shading and texturing strokes



on the top i show what happens to a stroke when you lower the flow percentage. to the right is a render (gradient) with one stroke like that of a pencil (the flow is at 5%.) i dont usually paint like this.

the three marks on the very right are the different pressure settings for my digital tablet (wacom). they buttons on the upper right face of the tablet. from left to right: soft, medium, firm.

below those marks are marks at 100% flow, to show what happens to a stroke when you lower it's opacity. to the right of them is my dominant shading technique which consists of mulitple strokes layered ontop of eachother. on the bottom i use the same technique, just using different strokes and stuff.

edges play an important role in an image, and being concious of them can only help you as you paint.
this is basically the same technique i have always used, but i use a soft brush to block in the forms.

see those extra set of number keys on the far right of your keyboard? that is called you numpad. you can use your numpad to quickly change the opacity of your strokes.
for example, if you hit 1 = 10%, 2 = 20%, 53 = 53%, 100 = 100%, 05 = 5%

you can hold shift and draw a straight line. i used all these techniques in this demo:



while using the brush tool, if you hit alt, the brush tool will turn into the eyedropper tool and you can select a color, release alt and paint with your brush.

i use all this for blending. like in this next demo i made for all of you, i have two colors and i select one of the colors and mark it on the other at - in this case at 50%. i select that color and undo = ctrl+z. make a mark in the center at 100%, then add two more marks on its edges at 50%, select an edge's color and repeat the process. then i lower my opacity to 20% and go to town.

i clean up the edges by marquee selecting an area and filling that area with white.
hitting ctrl+backspace will fill with your background color and alt+backspace will fill with your foreground color.



if you hit the "d" key, it will reset your foreground and background colors to black and white.

in this next demo, i am showing you many different variations of tricks. in this demo i hope to show you how overlapping shapes can create forms and how, when i work, i go back and forth back and forth. note the effects of a complete wash of value. if you have black and white shapes and brush over them with a 50% gray, the black turns from 100% black, to 75% (a guesstimate) and the white turns from 0%, to 25% (also a guesstimate) but i hope you get the point: doing this will remove contrast, giving you mid tones that you can add those 100% and 0%'s right back in. ideally, this turns your 2 tone image into a 4 tone image - which can be continued; giving your image a larger range of values.



through all of these demos i have used one of my favorite brush technique, i would think would be called cutting. at any rate, this technique can be used with traditional medium, the nice thing about digital is the forgiveness. you could paint black on white and white on black all day with photoshop. its a simple concept, but it can be very helpful and fun, check it out:



i hope this was helpful for someone. play with these concepts and you you may learn something more.
these are some of the little things i use to create my artwork.


*whew* ..

-killing

[Swoop]

Awsome dude.. got some great tips there i didnt know anything about and will surely help me get my coloring down when i get the time and curage to try again

being a perfectionist isnt easy

[J.Mac]

Great job killing this should be very helpful to many people I am curious do you make many kinds of brushes with varied edges or do you just alter the round brush? i am learning to create brushes myself and playing around is key for succes, but i am curious to know what other people are using too. good stuff!

-Jesse

[killing.people]

experimenting and testing my current techniques are two very enjoyable aspects of creating artwork. i have played with cutom brush settings, even creating my own brushes very breifly - i have my comfort zone for brushes, i find myself going back to the same ones, every now and then i will get the urge to play.
the thing with creating my own brushes that turns me away is that i could have been painting. but if i got in there and played with all the settings i could paint normally, and attempt to create a texture and think, wow i could just make a brush like that one i had when i was playing around, make one mark and be done with it, then i can see how it is worth it.
that is definately an area i want to improve on, thing about art is, there are tons of areas that we need to impove on all the time, but can really only think of one area at a time.

thanks for the comments.

[Skank]

awsome man
im still a n00b when it comes to PS, so i gotta ask, is that the default brush? or are you using some of the other round brushes.
and do you ever lower the flow? ive never tried that, i always just lower the opacity when i blend, and i find that i have to go over the area ALOT, or else it looks blotchy...i think now that ive seen how you do it, it will make it alot easier to blend....i will practice it =)

thanks for sharing!

[mtw]

Thanks for the tips. I'll look them over again when I get time to work on the computer. Switching from real brushes to computer programs hasn't been easy for me.

[Shakar]

:eek: I just tried your tutorial 3 and could not just stop trying it again! I really like it! I am totally new to all kinds, paper or with photoshop. Now I can do something by myself

Thanks!

[MindCandyMan]

Thanks killing this is good stuff man...glad you posted it thanks!

[DaemonMagus]

That was beautiful, I was having the hardest time figuring out how to paint in photoshop until I read this.

[Big-Dave]

This is a grat technique. I suppose you could use it to reduce values in backgrounds and increase in forgrounds if you were doing B&W landscape too?

[AttackCat]

awesome tutorial man. I was just trying to figure out some techniques for my tablet, i've only had it a week and it's so much damn fun! Those animated steps were so helpful, very clear. Thanks Killing!

[RefrigeratorCo]

Thanks for posting this. It helped me.

[AmadorL]

will try this out once i get my puter up and running again

[killing.people]

im glad these are useful.

Originally posted by Big-Dave
This is a grat technique. I suppose you could use it to reduce values in backgrounds and increase in forgrounds if you were doing B&W landscape too?

i would imagine so. there are hundreds of tools photoshop has to offer. the more you know, the better off you are, in my opinion.

[Crowfoot]

Thank you so much, this helped me A LOT! I didn't know how to colour in photoshop before, and now I know a technique I can practise. Thanks for the time it took you to put this up.

[AmadorL]

Hey Killah do you have anything like this for Painter 6?

-A

[killing.people]

no sorry, i do not know painter very well. i use painter basically the same way - i am working with getting a more textural feel to my paintings using painter.
i do have an old tutorial that goes over some mental process, using painter 7, rather than direct technical applications if you are interested:
http://members.cox.net/wisdim/Tutorial_01.htm

[AmadorL]

thanks for the link

[sorvan]

Great !!
I got all of it, except the piece where you draw the torso... could you explain in some more detail which steps you took to create the different images displayed?
For example in the 3rd image, it just looks to me you are painting the whole thing black, and then onto the 4rd image, it that just one wash (if so, which ;-))?

questions, questions,aargghh!

thanks!
Sorv

[skatay]

i am referring to the ball on the post example, with the shadow. you rough it in with a soft brush--got it. then you sharpen the edges on one side, all of a sudden and make it crisp and clear-- don't got it. how did you do that.

BTW-- edge mastery is probably the most neglected skill in painted art, IMO.. and this is a great tutorial cause you address it!

[killing.people]

sorvan: that demo is rather unclear. i was attempting to bring something very simple into light that you could add to your belt of tools.



i was trying to show the effects of a wash, making 4 values out of 2. when this is repeated, you get 6, and so on. i would [edit] NOT [/edit] use this tequique for an entire piece, though it would prove interesting. it is something you should be thinking of when you are making transparent strokes, i hope that helps!

skatay: there are some great tutorials in this forum if you dig around. i remember raeding some very good ones that address edges as well. i used a hard brush against the edge of a soft, almost like erasing the fuzzy edge. it is rather simple, here is an image to hopefully better help you see what i did:



hope that helps!

peace!

[sorvan]

hey killing.people,
thanks that clears some up!
Grtz
sorv

[Monkeyshens]

Wow, thanks that really helps me. I don't know how to paint on photoshop and this is great for me to learn with. Keep up the good tutes -Peace

[killing.people]

crumbs of enlightenment

[infested pixel]

Thanks killing, aside from the gradient technique of the colors I also learned more about PS shortcut thanks again.

[2ma2]

Just found this piece of highly nifty info. Thank you a bundle! Now really, I've been fiddleing around with PS quite alot, but this brief tutorial enlightened me beyond belief on some aspects. Thanks for sharing!

[AmadorL]

Where Is The Killa?

-a

[killing.people]

i'm around .. :p (this internet is soo huge!)

[rollb82]

I just wanted to say thanks for putting your demo online. I spent today sitting around with my new wacom and trying out all your tips. Here's what i ended up with.

Originally Posted by killing.people

sorvan: that demo is rather unclear. i was attempting to bring something very simple into light that you could add to your belt of tools.



i was trying to show the effects of a wash, making 4 values out of 2. when this is repeated, you get 6, and so on. i would [edit] NOT [/edit] use this tequique for an entire piece, though it would prove interesting. it is something you should be thinking of when you are making transparent strokes, i hope that helps!

skatay: there are some great tutorials in this forum if you dig around. i remember raeding some very good ones that address edges as well. i used a hard brush against the edge of a soft, almost like erasing the fuzzy edge. it is rather simple, here is an image to hopefully better help you see what i did:



hope that helps!

peace!

[Lats]

The tips are great, but I'm currently working with just a mouse. What hardware do u use with photoshop? Do u know the preferred hardware by the majority of the artist. I'm curious because I am looking for one for myself.