Introducing #digital art #Photoshop tips #Tutorials

Hello

This is my second post and I was thinking about what would be a good post to write and share for visitors of this blog who I assume are illustrators, writers, or people who are interested in making children's book.

I've attended SCBWI several times, went to Critique meet ups and attended picture book class last year. I've noticed that there are a few people who were interested in digital painting and wanted to use Photoshop as digital tool for their art.

So, I thought it will be nice to share what I use to create illustrations on Photoshop.

These tool I am explaining below are what I'm using at work and I have learned from working in animation studios. It is very helpful and you will save lots of time if you know the right tools to use! :)

In this post, I break down into Brush / Layer / Adjustment.

Here are some tips I'd like to share here and I hope everyone finds this information helpful! :)

Firstly, I want to talk about Brush and some brush setting you can play around with.

If you want to give some texture to your work, what you can do is, you can grab texture online and copy and paste on the layer. Here, you might change the normal layer to overlay and bring the opacity down to make it look more natural.

However, it's really up to you as an artist to decide!

Does this happen to you, that you are making over 100 layers and having a hard time finding the layer you want?

Here is a little tip for that one.

Short key for this tool is "V"

Let's say you are on the other layer and want to find the layer you want quickly. While pressing the Control key, click the image on the layer you are working on and it will automatically find your layer. See how comfortable that is! (It was really a struggle for me before I knew about this tool..:/)

Snapping layer tool

How to use it?: Press the ALT key on the layer below you want to snap on.

What it does? : It will only allow you to paint that layer that is snapped on.

Masking tool

How to use it?:Click this box shape thing

What it does? : You can use it to erase only the layer which you have selected.

These tools give you control over the layers you are working on.

Lastly, I want to talk about quick adjustment tools that will help you find value and color, either saturation or desaturated color. Curve, color balance and level adjustment layers are found in small icons on the bottom of layers. Curve is quick way to make adjustment in value and color brightness.

Color balance is a very good tool to make the color harmonized into warm or cool tone. It's great for getting overall mood out from illustration. Level adjustment is similar to Curve but I prefer to use Curve. It's personal choice so you can choose whichever works for you.

I hope this was helpful for some of you who are interested in learning about Photoshop tools.

Here is also my Photoshop Brush tool preset I am using for illustrating my work, please check it out if anyone interested in it!


Thanks and Happy illustrating! :)


Nicholas
Designer | Illustrator
www.nicholas-hong.com