written by Rodny Mella

Hong Mei Li is a seductive lady with deadly skills. She can mask innocence at the same time secrecy. Clean-up after a kill is a painting done with Photoshop CS2.

Before I start the painting I usually prep my brushes. I don’t really use special brushes just the ordinary brush presents in Photoshop. Occasionally I will mix new brushes depending on my painting need. As usual I start with 50% opacity and 50% flow for sketching.

For this painting I will use dark color background. Then I make a new layer where I do quick sketching of the outline in white or any color in bright contrast. This will be my general guide and eventually it will take form as the painting progress.

Next step is color filling the drawing. Still having 50% opacity I made a new layer on top of the outline. I choose red for the qipao dress and light flesh for the lady. I applied it quickly like in speed painting, the reason I use dark backround is that while I paint over the character I can also see where the shade will go.

Whenever I am working on the details specially if it’s a character I start with the head specifically the eyes. To maintain the color schematics I always place a color palettes beside the drawing.

"Making of Jonathan Shroud" by Mario Veltri
Hi there, my name is Mario Veltri I am a national and international award winner artist. I was published on many books and magazines as well as Advanced Photoshop and my actual work is Art Director for one of the biggest italian magazines company.

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

To maximise the realism of your character illustration we recommend using high quality photo references from the #1 reference website www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com

My aim in this tutorial is to show you all the steps of the work I did on this illustration.
Well. I started with some character concept drawing to find the best pose for the illustration I had in mind.

I placed the pose I did like the most in a new document and started to draw rough and big paints just to have an overall Idea of the color balance and composition.

To have an exact reference of the bricks perspective I created a poly model in Maya

and than I started to paint the background following the model perspective lines

"Making of Orange Armor" by Cesar Rizo
Hello everybody, well my process for concept work isn’t always the same and it keeps changing every now and them thanks to thing that I learn from co-workers or tutorials I find online or videos. Each concept it’s a unique piece and it’s going to have special requirements that other concepts won’t have. I hope this tutorial is useful for you, have fun and keep drawing!
1- First I do a quick sketch, Trying not to focus on anything particular right now… just trying to give it a feel for the pose, where the hands will be etc….

2- I go to DAZ studio (formerly known as poser) and make a pose with the figure as close as possible to my sketch, so I can correct the proportions and start suggesting where some elements will be, shoulders, head, hands, etc…

3- I do work a lit more on the linework, so by locking down the lines I can start playing with the colors, values and everything else that’ll decide the mood of the image.

"CYBER SPEED PAINTING" by STARR ALLEN SHAW

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

To maximise the realism of your CG character we recommend using high quality photo references from the #1 reference website www.female-anatomy-for-artist.com

The Shape Block In
This tutorial is not CG application specific, and can be easily applied to most painting applications.
I found that sketching a line drawing was taking a bit longer than I could afford. Shapes are much more labor intensive when they are defined by contour lines. My thought was that the brain would have an easier time creating simple shapes quickly rather than a combination of organized lines that form a shape. Also, with a simple silhouette shape I could add and subtract quickly to change its shape, with contour lines that becomes a complicated mess in no time.
1 – 2 : Starting with just a block-in of gray to create a form of a figure. I added some guides to indicate the underlining structure of the anatomy, this helps me when painting in value. The surfaces that face my imaginary light source are painted with light gray. Surfaces that receive less light are painted with dark gray. These value changes will make the brain understand the form and its depth quickly.
I wanted some wings, so I just threw down some framework. Details were added quickly with a custom brush.

The Colorize
The reason I paint in monochromatic values of gray for the initial block-in process is to limit the information the brain needs to observe, I can concentrate on form and composition and not worry about color schemes and strategies.
3 : I duplicate my grayscale layer and turn on lock transparency, or apply a mask. With the layer opacity around 50% I start the colorize process, adding tones, darks and lights. Rather quickly your grayscale will turned into full color. The Glaze is next, with an additional new layers added setting the Layer or Brush transparency somewhat transparent. Glaze in different or similar colors resulting in a hue with a painterly look of mixed colors.

4 : Custom brushes (if available in your application) will speed things up tremendously. I made my own for the hair, rocks, fire, tattoos and other objects that where too repetitious to paint more than once.

I know this is just my method and others of you may have far better ones. This is just for those of you that may need some help with a process of speed painting I found useful.
Thank You for your time – Starr
(c) STARR ALLEN SHAW, www.starrshaw.com

"Making of Illochim" by Sven Sauer & Igor Posavec
Prolog
The CG image "Dead Angels" is a thrilling digital artwork showing the close encounter of the hero and a long extinguished angel race called "The Illochim". Matte painting artist Sven Sauer meets 3d artists Igor Posavec and Antoan Simic to create an emotional and intimidating depiction of the moment where the last seal of the legend is broken and the real truth behind the myth of angels and the unknown behind it are revealed. The CG illustration was inspired by the Perry Rhodan adventures, and the aim was to compose a striking shot in radial composition, with a mix of expectation and fear, mystical elements, organic forms and thrilling cold colors.

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

To maximise the realism of your 3D objects and creatures we recommend using high quality photo references from the #1 texture websites www.3D.sk and www.environment-textures.com

The Illochim (Herbrew: Engel) was here represented as an ancient race out of the depths of space. To create a different view on the misinterpreted creatures, Antoan Simic started first with the rough sketches of the chimera that gave birth to the legends of angels and dragons alike.

This Illochim Model was created in Max as basic geometry with approximately 4000 faces, and brought over to ZBrush for detailing.
Antoan Simic has spent the biggest part of the creation time to define all wrinkles, muscles and veins, since the model was later a part of
cinematics and large scaled images. We finally ended up with 4 million faces of geometry. The following step was to bring all those details into 3DSMAX.

Igor Posavec created the 16bit displacement map in ZBrush, applied the UVs on the basic 4000 face geometry and added scene composition and light setup. He used the FinalRender Displacement Modifier and the FinalRender Dirt Shader to achieve the mummified look of the skin. The best solution for the skin was a mix of a few procedural shaders that mimic aged skin spots and veins. Finally the Illochim was rigged and brought into the folded position inside of the frozen tank.

" SciFi Environment Concept " by Björn Wirtz
1. Using the example of this ScfiFi Environment Concept I am gonna tell you a bit of how i approach and finalize a painting. There are several pretty different ways of how i begin with an image. The starting point can be a loose pencil sketch, a colour scheme i‘d like to experiment with, a definite image i already have in mind or just the simple testing of a new brush i‘ve created. I‘ve made the experience that oftentimes it leads to very interesting and unusual paintings when you just start out with no idea in mind, just laying down some colours, playing with shapes and putting down some spontaneous brushstrokes. After some while you start to see things in the abstract forms you‘ve created and suddenly the whole image starts to evolve in your mind. With this painting here the starting point was indeed just some quick abstract sketching with a new brush i was testing. Playing with huge shapes and a dramatic lighting i‘ve finally created some huge abstract architecture. I‘ve called this quick sketch finished then and i had no intention to develop it further at this point.

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

For inspiration we recommend using high quality photo references from the #1 references website www.environment-textures.com

2. Browsing through my digital sketchbook folder a few days later i‘ve spotted the loose sketch of these giant shapes and thought that it might have some potential and be worth revisiting. As i was painting again i decided to transform it to some kind of huge scifi indoor scene. Using the simple hard round brush with pressure sensitivity checked i‘ve sketched in some air bridges to connect the main architectural shapes. Now it was also time to lay down some perspective lines so that everything will look correct. It is a rather simple perspective here with one main vanishing point in the middle of the image.

A quick way to get these perspective lines is to create a brush like shown in Fig.2.
3. As you can see there‘s an obvious colour change here. I‘ve decided to make it look more like an outdoorscene by adding more blue sky tones to the image. You should always be open for colour changes in your paintings, just play around with the colour balance tool from time to time to see if another colour scheme won‘t look even better or maybe enhance the paintings message. I mostly use the colour balance tool as an adjustment layer, by adding a layer mask with some black to white gradient i am able to apply the colour change to a specific area. This time i limited the effect of the colour balance layer just to the top part because this area of the architecture would naturally receive more of the blue tones from the sky. At this point i have one important advise for you, and that is that the best tutorial ever is nature itself. Just keep your eyes open everywhere and carefully observe how light behaves. I don‘t say that it‘s easy but i will tell you that it will payoff for you. Ok, back to the painting now. There‘s not much more to say here other than that i have defined the architecture further.

4. I am pretty satisfied with the progress at the moment but start to get the feel that the whole scene looks a bit dead and lifeless right now. Therefore i start sketching in some spaceships. Besides bringing th image to life they also fulfill other important functions. At first they lead the viewers eye into the painting, then they tell the viewer something about the whole scale of the architecture and finally several different sized ships create more depth.

"Mech Dragon Battle" by Alex Ruiz
1) I start the sketch in a very cool online app: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/, w hich really does emulate the splatter technique made popular by Pollock. And I like to start out my images in an abstract way, so this was perfect!

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

To maximise the realism of your CG projects we recommend using high quality photos from the #1 texture website www.environment-textures.com

2) Next I take the white out of the image using Levels. I then start throwing down r andom shapes that wrap themselves around this black blob thing. I use custom shapes, the pen tool, and the lasso tool to make these shapes, and the transform functions under Edit to manipulate them. I guess the point I’d stress here is, it’s not about any one of these tools; it’s about understanding form and volume, and knowing how to draw things around a form.

3) Now I’ve added a subtle color gradient to the background to give a sense of atmosphere. I also continue to add shapes and blue lights to this ‘thing’ ( I still don’t know what it is at this point).

4) Here I’ve decided to add a human element to give a sense of scale, and a mountain range to give a sense of depth. Both were drawn quickly with the lasso tool, the filled in.

"Making of Qiane " by Shreya Shetty

3Dtutorials.sk recommendation:

To maximise the realism of your CG character we recommend using high quality photo references from the #1 reference website www.female-anatomy-for-artist.com

Qiane is a character from a story I am developing so I had a pretty strong idea of how I wanted her to be presented. The story is based in an alternate dimension, a world that shifts in and out of the universe as we know it. Qiane is the Goddess of Illusions, the queen of Eithanas (as the world is called) and the personaification of the false realm itself.Shifting between the living world and the afterlife, those who get into Eithanas may not get out, unless the Goddess wills them so.
The daughter of Rakhn,she inherited his power of weaver-magic. But while Rakhn prefered to weave his way into the fates of the living, Qiane wove her magic into creating her own world.Though, what her hands created, her sight destroyed. So she veiled her eyes, content to live in her own illusionary world and see through Valha and Mentit, her pet crows.
I was highly in love with the Pre-Raphaelite Art and Orientalism and I wanted to bring in some of the same rich, lush feeling into my artwork. So I first started with a couple of color keys to set the mood. I knew I wanted some richly textured fabric in the painting to add to the grandeur and I finally settled on a warm red-orange scheme with some purple blue to balance it out a bit. While I tried out the colour keys I also tried a few combination of poses for the composition and finally settled on a traditional iconic profile view.

This is the fun part! After I decide on my sketch, I usually go about collecting reference or shooting some myself. I already had some references for the style I wanted (paintings by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Waterhouse, Bouguereau) and the next thing to do was to have a photoshoot with a model. It is very important to have references when you’re painting/drawing. I think using a reference doesn’t make you a lesser artist, it makes you a smarter artist as long as one does not turn a slave to the reference (which means copying your reference blindly without analysing it and/or making no changes whatsoever). You might like certain aspects of a particular reference – colours, form, mood etc at the same time you might feel it is lacking something, which you can add by yourself in the painting. It is important to keep an open mind.
Once I have my reference images ready, I slowly start to mould my sketch into place.
I usually start with a smaller resolution, about 500×700px@300dpi and gradually increase it as I start adding more detail.I start with blocking out the basic shapes with big brushes when I start out and as I move along the painting I fill in the details. The first thing to remember whole painting is to define your light source and position and start blocking in the shadows.This helps to get a three dimensional feel to the painting.