Author: Jianfan Author: Anonymous Source:
This tutorial is very comprehensive and details the character drawing process and techniques. It includes the brushes used and the magic of commonly used layer blending modes. The author roughly divides the production into three major parts: the first part is the drawing of the line draft, an indispensable process in the early stage of the original work. The second part is the production of the background part. If it is too troublesome, you can use some background materials. The third part is the production of the character part. This part is relatively difficult, and the line draft needs to be converted into reality. Mouse painting requires a certain foundation, and it usually takes more practice to draw quality works.
Final effect
Let’s first explain the commonly used brushes.
Select the “Brush Tool” in the toolbar (purple box on the left toolbar), press the second key on the digital pen (equivalent to the right mouse button) or click on the small black inverted triangle in the brush options on the top bar. The brush option will appear, which is the brush that comes with the PS software.
In the brush frame shown in Figure 1, there are two settings: main diameter and hardness. These can be adjusted according to your own requirements during painting.
The red box in Figure 1 selects a brush, which is a brush with transition and overlapping effects. This brush is very suitable for drawing lines and coloring. Personally, I use brush No. 19.
The blue box in Figure 1 selects a brush, which is a brush with a fuzzy edge (called “feathering”). You can choose brushes with different degrees of feathered edges according to your needs. Often used to treat large areas or skin.
This type of brush can create changes in shades based on the pressure of your hand when drawing. So the pressure sensitivity level of the digital tablet is reflected here.
The application of brushes requires practice. You can choose other different brushes to try painting. For example, the No. 9 brush in the first row of the brush box can be used to draw line drawings, or the No. 9 brush in the sixth row can be used to draw line drawings. Brushes can be used to draw rough textured objects, etc. You have to experience it yourself.
There is also the commonly used “layer mode”. The drop-down menus in Figure 2 are the various modes. Each effect is different. You can build your own layer experience. The application of “layer mode” will be mentioned later. Get familiar with the location first.
1. Create a new drawing paper. “File” → “New” in the menu bar. The commonly used ones are A4 paper size 300dpi (dpi: resolution), which is a common size for magazines and some illustrations, and can be built according to your own requirements. But if you usually only use it for practice, you don’t need to build such a big one. You can build a smaller one. A width of around 1500 pixels is enough.
2. Create the drawing paper, click the brush tool, right-click to bring up the brush box, and select the No. 19 brush mentioned above. Used for drafting. PS gave it the name “Airbrush Pen Opaque Stroke”. (Place the mouse on the brush for a while and you will see the brush name) as shown below.
3. With your left hand, you can use the keyboard shortcuts braces “[” and “]” to control the size of the brush diameter. Determine the basic composition, character form and lighting. Draw the characters according to your favorite style. The draft is finished. (You can use more shortcut keys when drawing to increase the drawing speed. There are many shortcut keys mentioned below, so remember and practice more).
4. Create a new layer, use a brush to paint gray on the layer, and paint along the edges of the characters. Do not paint the characters gray. Don’t worry about the color yet. [Press the “F” key on the keyboard, and the drawing will be displayed in full screen. Pressing “F” once, twice, or three times will display different drawings in full screen or full screen. In addition to the magnifying glass in the left toolbar, you can also use the convenient shortcut keys “ctrl -” and “ctrl +” to zoom in and out of the screen. (On the right side of the keyboard), you can use the plus and minus keys to zoom in and out quickly and easily, improving the review speed.
5. Use another brush with feathered edges. As shown in Figure 7, the fifth line in the brush box is the first one.
5. Use the brush size of one side to draw the smoke shape at will. It should be natural. Just finish it roughly. Don’t draw too finely at first. Don’t be constrained by the edges of your character.
7. Start filling in the large color block, create a new layer, and click “Foreground Color” on the left to pop up the color box. Choose skin color.
8. Press the shortcut keys Alt+Delete to fill in the foreground color. (ctrl+Delete is the background color)
9. Click and drag the filled skin color of this layer to the lower layer, and compare the layer order in Figure 10 and Figure 11.
10. Change the layer mode of one layer to “Multiply”. The skin layer will become transparent and you can see the line drawing below.
11. Press ctrl+e to merge this skin layer with the next layer. This layer will become skin color.
12. Select the background of the previous layer. Use “Hue/Saturation” to adjust the desired color. “Hue/Saturation” in the menu “Image” → “Adjustments” → “Hue/Saturation”. You can also use the shortcut key “Ctrl+U” to quickly open it. Remember to turn on the Colorize checkbox in the lower right corner of the box so you can tint the black.
13. After adjusting the color, change the layer mode of this layer to “Hard Light”. Colors are brighter. Note that each layer mode has different effects.
14. Create a new layer, use a large (300) brush with often feathered edges, and gently paint a few strokes of a color similar to the background on the edges of the character and the shadow of the skin, so that the character and the background can be harmonious. Content, the colors should not be too independent, the colors must influence each other to make the content of the picture compatible, not too jumpy or irrelevant.
15. Change the layer mode of this pastel layer to “Light”, and you can see that the original gray color has turned into a very bright blue. Even the lines have changed color.
16. The basic colors are enough. Now let’s start the detailed painting. Be careful at this time. The brush is the same as in Figure 4. When writing, pay attention to the direction of the facial muscle structure, and use braces to scale the brush, as mentioned in Step 3. When refining with a brush, you can press the shortcut key “Alt” to turn it into a color straw while sucking in the surrounding colors to paint.
17. Complete the facial skin according to the light and shadow. Pay attention to painting in harmony with the color of the environment. Pay attention to the detailed color changes. You can use the two brushes in Figure 1 to mix them.
18. Complete the rough skin, then flip the picture over to see if there are any errors in the structure. This step is very necessary. Because human eyesight is not symmetrical, you need to do the same when you first start drawing line drawings. Frequently flip the picture to see if there are any errors in the structure. Make timely adjustments to avoid errors. In the menu “Image” → “Rotate Canvas” → “Flip Canvas Horizontally”.
19. Rotate the screen back. After carefully modifying the structure, start drawing the hair. The hair is a new layer underneath the skin layer. As shown in layer 4 in the picture below, the hair brush is the same as in picture 4. Pay attention to the weight of your strokes and paint them in conjunction with the background. Draw subtle smoke.
20. Select light red, and use a large feathered edge pen to lightly draw a stroke. The face will have a smoky color and make the skin of the face richer in color. Then adjust the details to fit the surroundings. The face and hair also began to fit together.
21. Enlarge the canvas and draw the details of the face. Use the brushes in the image below to paint details.
22. Draw eyes, eyelashes one by one. Draw from the inside out, still paying attention to the direction of the structure, and draw the eyebrows, eyelashes, and lips. Eyes are the windows to the human soul, so we must pay attention to the portrayal of the character’s eyes. This kind of portrait painting should pay more attention to the painting of the eyes.
23. Make final local modifications. Highlights on small areas.
24. Add tattoos. Find a dragon pattern among the materials (it is best to draw it yourself), and pay attention to the tattoo method below.
25. Hide all layers except the tattoo layer. Just click out the eyes in the layer box. Click it again when needed. Now click them all, except the dragon layer. Open “Select” → “Color Range” in the menu.
26. After the pop-up box comes, use a straw to pick out the white part. This is the part that needs to be removed. Then press OK.
27. You can see that the white part has been selected. This is why you need to hide other layers, fearing that the white of other layers will be selected.
28. Then press the Delete key on the keyboard to remove the white part, thus extracting the dragon pattern.
29. Then remove the color of the dragon, go to “Image” → “Adjustment” → “Decolor” in the menu. Make the dragon gray.
30. Press Ctrl+U and use “Color/Saturation” to adjust the “Brightness” to decrease.
31. Now open all other layers (click on the layer’s eyes) and press “V” to change the tool to the move tool. Drag this image to the face and press Ctrl+T to transform the image. (To transform, go to “Select” → “Transform Selection” in the menu. It is usually convenient to press Ctrl+T.) Then click on the “field” font option in the upper property bar of PS, so that the selected part of the pattern becomes a grid. It can be freely transformed.
32. Adjust slowly, pull the points and lines of the transformation frame, and press the face circle to transform the pattern into the shape you want it to fit into.
33. Then press “Enter” or double-click the transformed graphic. Just decided on the tattoo.
34. Because the tattoo is just a line drawing, create a new layer below the tattoo and use a brush to add some color to the tattoo.
35. After adding some color slightly, select these two layers and merge the line and color layers. Click and hold the tattoo layer, then hold down the “Ctrl” key and click on the color layer to select the two layers, and then press “Ctrl+E” to merge the two layers.
36. Use “Hue/Saturation” to adjust the color. Watch Buju 12. Click “Coloring” and adjust the parameters in the “Hue” column. The pattern turns rose red. After making adjustments, change the tattoo layer mode to “Multiply”. Reduce fill level.
37. Then use the leather tool to erase the area covering the eyeballs and gently erase the highlights and some edges. Pay attention to the changes in the picture below. Make the pattern and skin more compatible and natural.
38. Create a new layer on top of the tattoo layer, add a mole on the forehead, and finish drawing the hair on the forehead and the rest of the hair. In this way, the character is basically completed.
39. Create a layer below the layer of Buju 38, and then adjust and add elements. Appropriate painting and decoration will not make the character look too monotonous. I won’t go into the detailed drawing process for accessories, it’s the same as for characters. Notice how the ornaments are drawn around the light.
40. To adjust the color of accessories, still use “hue/saturation”. The whole picture is completed.
Final effect:
Author: Jianfan Author: Anonymous Source:
This tutorial is very comprehensive and details the character drawing process and techniques. It includes the brushes used and the magic of commonly used layer blending modes. The author roughly divides the production into three major parts: the first part is the drawing of the line draft, an indispensable process in the early stage of the original work. The second part is the production of the background part. If it is too troublesome, you can use some background materials. The third part is the production of the character part. This part is relatively difficult, and the line draft needs to be converted into reality. Mouse painting requires a certain foundation, and it usually takes more practice to draw quality works.
Final effect
Let’s first explain the commonly used brushes.
Select the “Brush Tool” in the toolbar (purple box on the left toolbar), press the second key on the digital pen (equivalent to the right mouse button) or click on the small black inverted triangle in the brush options on the top bar. The brush option will appear, which is the brush that comes with the PS software.
In the brush frame shown in Figure 1, there are two settings: main diameter and hardness. These can be adjusted according to your own requirements during painting.
The red box in Figure 1 selects a brush, which is a brush with transition and overlapping effects. This brush is very suitable for drawing lines and coloring. Personally, I use brush No. 19.
The blue box in Figure 1 selects a brush, which is a brush with a fuzzy edge (called “feathering”). You can choose brushes with different degrees of feathered edges according to your needs. Often used to treat large areas or skin.
This type of brush can create changes in shades based on the pressure of your hand when drawing. So the pressure sensitivity level of the digital tablet is reflected here.
The application of brushes requires practice. You can choose other different brushes to try painting. For example, the No. 9 brush in the first row of the brush box can be used to draw line drawings, or the No. 9 brush in the sixth row can be used to draw line drawings. Brushes can be used to draw rough textured objects, etc. You have to experience it yourself.
There is also the commonly used “layer mode”. The drop-down menus in Figure 2 are the various modes. Each effect is different. You can build your own layer experience. The application of “layer mode” will be mentioned later. Get familiar with the location first.
1. Create a new drawing paper. “File” → “New” in the menu bar. The commonly used ones are A4 paper size 300dpi (dpi: resolution), which is a common size for magazines and some illustrations, and can be built according to your own requirements. But if you usually only use it for practice, you don’t need to build such a big one. You can build a smaller one. A width of around 1500 pixels is enough.
2. Create the drawing paper, click the brush tool, right-click to bring up the brush box, and select the No. 19 brush mentioned above. Used for drafting. PS gave it the name “Airbrush Pen Opaque Stroke”. (Place the mouse on the brush for a while and you will see the brush name) as shown below.
3. With your left hand, you can use the keyboard shortcuts braces “[” and “]” to control the size of the brush diameter. Determine the basic composition, character form and lighting. Draw the characters according to your favorite style. The draft is finished. (You can use more shortcut keys when drawing to increase the drawing speed. There are many shortcut keys mentioned below, so remember and practice more).
4. Create a new layer, use a brush to paint gray on the layer, and paint along the edges of the characters. Do not paint the characters gray. Don’t worry about the color yet. [Press the “F” key on the keyboard, and the drawing will be displayed in full screen. Pressing “F” once, twice, or three times will display different drawings in full screen or full screen. In addition to the magnifying glass in the left toolbar, you can also use the convenient shortcut keys “ctrl -” and “ctrl +” to zoom in and out of the screen. (On the right side of the keyboard), you can use the plus and minus keys to zoom in and out quickly and easily, improving the review speed.
5. Then choose another brush with feathered edges. As shown in Figure 7, the fifth line in the brush box is the first one.
5. Use the brush size of one side to draw the smoke shape at will. It should be natural. Just finish it roughly. Don’t draw too finely at first. Don’t be constrained by the edges of your character.
7. Start filling in the large color block, create a new layer, and click “Foreground Color” on the left to pop up the color box. Choose skin color.
8. Press the shortcut keys Alt+Delete to fill in the foreground color. (ctrl+Delete is the background color)
9. Click and drag the filled skin color of this layer to the lower layer, and compare the layer order in Figure 10 and Figure 11.
10. Change the layer mode of one layer to “Multiply”. The skin layer will become transparent and you can see the line drawing below.
11. Press ctrl+e to merge this skin layer with the next layer. This layer will become skin color.
12. Select the background of the previous layer. Use “Hue/Saturation” to adjust the desired color. “Hue/Saturation” in the menu “Image” → “Adjustments” → “Hue/Saturation”. You can also use the shortcut key “Ctrl+U” to quickly open it. Remember to turn on the Colorize checkbox in the lower right corner of the box so you can tint the black.
13. After adjusting the color, change the layer mode of this layer to “Hard Light”. Colors are brighter. Note that each layer mode has different effects.
14. Create a new layer, use a large (300) brush with often feathered edges, and gently paint a few strokes of a color similar to the background on the edges of the character and the shadow of the skin, so that the character and the background can be harmonious. Content, the colors should not be too independent, the colors must influence each other to make the content of the picture compatible, not too jumpy or irrelevant.
15. Change the layer mode of this pastel layer to “Light”, and you can see that the original gray color has turned into a very bright blue. Even the lines have changed color.
16. The basic colors are enough. Now let’s start the detailed painting. Be careful at this time. The brush is the same as in Figure 4. When writing, pay attention to the direction of the facial muscle structure, and use braces to scale the brush, as mentioned in Step 3. When refining with a brush, you can press the shortcut key “Alt” to turn it into a color straw while sucking in the surrounding colors to paint.
17. Complete the facial skin according to the light and shadow. Pay attention to painting in harmony with the color of the environment. Pay attention to the detailed color changes. You can use the two brushes in Figure 1 to mix them.
18. Complete the rough skin, then flip the picture over to see if there are any errors in the structure. This step is very necessary. Because human eyesight is not symmetrical, you need to do the same when you first start drawing line drawings. Frequently flip the picture to see if there are any errors in the structure. Make timely adjustments to avoid errors. In the menu “Image” → “Rotate Canvas” → “Flip Canvas Horizontally”.
19. Rotate the screen back. After carefully modifying the structure, start drawing the hair. The hair is a new layer underneath the skin layer. As shown in layer 4 in the picture below, the hair brush is the same as in picture 4. Pay attention to the weight of your strokes and paint them in conjunction with the background. Draw subtle smoke.
20. Select light red, and use a large feathered edge pen to lightly draw a stroke. The face will have a smoky color and make the skin of the face richer in color. Then adjust the details to fit the surroundings. The face and hair also began to fit together.
21. Enlarge the canvas, ���Facial details. Use the brushes in the image below to paint details.
22. Draw eyes, eyelashes one by one. Draw from the inside out, still paying attention to the direction of the structure, and draw the eyebrows, eyelashes, and lips. Eyes are the windows to the human soul, so we must pay attention to the portrayal of the character’s eyes. This kind of portrait painting should pay more attention to the painting of the eyes.
23. Make final local modifications. Highlights on small areas.
24. Add tattoos. Find a dragon pattern among the materials (it is best to draw it yourself), and pay attention to the tattoo method below.
25. Hide all layers except the tattoo layer. Just click out the eyes in the layer box. Click it again when needed. Now click them all, except the dragon layer. Open “Select” → “Color Range” in the menu.
26. After the pop-up box comes, use a straw to pick out the white part. This is the part that needs to be removed. Then press OK.
27. You can see that the white part has been selected. This is why you need to hide other layers, fearing that the white of other layers will be selected.
28. Then press the Delete key on the keyboard to remove the white part, thus extracting the dragon pattern.
29. Then remove the color of the dragon, go to “Image” → “Adjustment” → “Decolor” in the menu. Make the dragon gray.
30. Press Ctrl+U and use “Color/Saturation” to adjust the “Brightness” to decrease.
31. Now open all other layers (click on the layer’s eyes) and press “V” to change the tool to the move tool. Drag this image to the face and press Ctrl+T to transform the image. (To transform, go to “Select” → “Transform Selection” in the menu. It is usually convenient to press Ctrl+T.) Then click on the “field” font option in the upper property bar of PS, so that the selected part of the pattern becomes a grid. It can be freely transformed.
32. Adjust slowly, pull the points and lines of the transformation frame, and press the face circle to transform the pattern into the shape you want it to fit into.
33. Then press “Enter” or double-click the transformed graphic. Just decided on the tattoo.
34. Because the tattoo is just a line drawing, create a new layer below the tattoo and use a brush to add some color to the tattoo.
35. After adding some color slightly, select these two layers and merge the line and color layers. Click and hold the tattoo layer, then hold down the “Ctrl” key and click on the color layer to select the two layers, and then press “Ctrl+E” to merge the two layers.
36. Use “Hue/Saturation” to adjust the color. Watch Buju 12. Click “Coloring” and adjust the parameters in the “Hue” column. The pattern turns rose red. After making adjustments, change the tattoo layer mode to “Multiply”. Reduce fill level.
37. Then use the leather tool to erase the area covering the eyeballs and gently erase the highlights and some edges. Pay attention to the changes in the picture below. Make the pattern and skin more compatible and natural.
38. Create a new layer on top of the tattoo layer, add a mole on the forehead, and finish drawing the hair on the forehead and the rest of the hair. In this way, the character is basically completed.
39. Create a layer below the layer of Buju 38, and then adjust and add elements. Appropriate painting and decoration will not make the character look too monotonous. I won’t go into the detailed drawing process for accessories, it’s the same as for characters. Notice how the ornaments are drawn around the light.
40. To adjust the color of accessories, still use “hue/saturation”. The whole picture is completed.
Final effect:
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