From Dark To Light - a digital painting step-by-step tutorial
Tutorial dating from 2006, but not much has changed about my methods :)
This “dark to light” method is different from what I usually do. Normally, I start my paintings with a middle-toned background and paint in the shadows (darker areas) first, then the lighter ones.
Here, I started with a very dark background and built up forms from there, painting almost nothing but lighter tones. The shadow areas in this painting are not painted in, but are parts of the background that were spared.
The painting tool I used was Photoshop, but this method will work in any digital painting program, provided that you use a graphics tablet and have a basic understanding of your tools.
Step I: Apparition from the dark
I began with a dark brown background, and lightly textured it by painting over it with different brushes in slightly different colors.
Next, I painted her face using a dark ochre tone. The shadows at her neck, nose bottom, eyes, etc. were not painted in, but simply left out or painted over very lightly. 3-dimensionality is beginning to show. As you can see, I still use lines to remind myself where some of the major shapes are.
The Photoshop brush settings I used are: Hard-edged round brush; modus normal, opacity 100%, flow 6~16%, edge sharpness 100&.
Bottom line:
- The background tone you choose will set the general mood for your painting and influence your color choices.
- Experiment! Make it look “right” in the early stages – it will be hard to correct later.
As you can see, I paint over the face again and again, modelling the forms. No dark shadow color was used, only an ochre-golden color that becomes lighter and more saturated with every step. Notice how the features become more clearly defined by the stronger contrasts (step 3) and how the skin becomes more golden, especially where the “mountains” are: the nose, cheekbones, chin, etc. The lips also get a touch of color. And for the first time I use a really dark color, almost black, to paint her hair.
I am going for a sfumato-like effect, not trying to imitate Mona Lisa, but something mysterious of that kind!
Bottom line:
Start with the big, simple shapes. Don’t bother about detail in the early stages, it’s more important to get your general idea right and to make a strong composition.
Even more “gold” is added to her skin to make her features look 3-dimensional. I used the color of the hair to paint her pupils, lashes, eyebrows and nostrils.
To make the skin look more “alive”, I used a warm reddish-brown hue and painted her cheeks red. Also, observe how the edges where shadows meet the gold skin tone were painted over with that red. Compare her neck in this step to that of step 3, and you’ll see the almost-not-there touch of red.
Notice that the light is actually warm – you can see that when looking at the gold highlights. The shadow, in comparison, is cool, a dark-greenish gray.
By the way: it is popular to make warm-light-cool-shadow skin tones by using light orange for the skin and purple/pink for the shades. Many comic artists do this. This is absolutely fine and can look great, as in the illustrations of Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim, but it’s important to realize that orange-purple isn’t the only way to make warm light and cool shadows. There are so many other colors so that possibilities are practically endless!
And yes, a major sin was committed by using the smudge tool here and there to create soft color transitions. But be careful with smudging – too much can make your painting look unnatural. Use a low opacity setting for the smudge brush (preferably a speckled one), and carefully smudge the edges.
Bottom line:
- When blending, always use more than just two colors (dark and light) but also use the colors in between - and some warmer and lighter tones to bring life to the shadow and light areas.
- When the light is warm, the shadows will be cool. When the light is cool, the shadows will be warm.
- Be careful with the smudge tool.
Little details were added such as tiny pale-pink highlights on her nose, eyes and lips. Actually the highlights were bigger and stronger at first, but I found that they looked unnatural and were “screaming”, so I painted them over.
Bottom line:
If something goes wrong, don’t erase it (and even try to withstand the temptation of ctrl+z). Instead correct it by painting over it. Your colors will look richer and you’ll get a more natural-looking texture when many colors lay on one another.
And here’s the finished piece!
It took me about 1-2 hours to paint.
