The Wounded Hussar: How to paint with Photoshop CS5!

[Nyil]

Okay. So I actually took screenshots at every opportunity that I remembered, so I'll be able to do this all in one post this time, and actually have it finished.

Before getting started, I feel it's important to run through the brush controls I use most for digital painting - I know a lot of people like to keep their with opacity and flow at 100%, but you won't get much of a painterly look that way. I like to use a wide variety of brush opacities for paintings, but the most commonly used ones for me are 70% opacity for blocking colors in, and 30% for shading. Flow is always around 60-70%. I also don't tend to use the eraser tool, but for where the eraser is a MUST, it's usually kept at 50% opacity, 100% flow.

For those of us who like to take a lot of time (I sure do), keyboard shortcuts can save a LOT of time, since some of us switch back and forth between the brush and eraser tools constantly. Every program has them, but since I use Photoshop CS5, I'll just go over those shortcuts here:
Brush tool - b
Eraser - e
Opacity - number keys, change the % by integers of 10
Move Canvas - space bar
Gradient - g
Eyedropper - alt (this is useful for shading!)
Brush size - Ctrl + Alt + drag
Full screen cycle - f
Show/hide all windows - tab
(I found every single one of these shortcuts by randomly hitting my keyboard, either by accident of by falling asleep on it and hitting the right keys with my face. ... I wish I were kidding about that last part. But the point is, play around and experiment!)

I do NOT endorse the heavy use of the dodge OR burn tool for art - in my opinion, art that relies too heavily on dodge or burn tends to look fake, and limits itself to an artificial white light source. Natural light tends to look prettier. The burn tool also doesn't give much variation in shadows, and shadows tend to be HUGELY varied! ... Just not if you're reliant on the burn tool. Use it once or twice for effect, but in general, stay away from these two tools.

Another important factor to bring into consideration is 'color temperature' - colors have temperatures, and, to make a long story short: blues are cold, purples, greens and browns can swing both ways depending on the colors around them, and yellows and reds are warm. When you think about colors in terms of temperatures rather than just colors, the whole piece can start to look a little more unified. Temperatures are especially important for me because I tend to like to shade with cooler colors, but if I want to draw something really unsettling (demonspawn sacrificing a baby or something), I'd shade with reds. Temperature has a huge impact on mood as well!
Temperature also helps keep the color palette limited. Too much color makes the painting too busy, and the eye has no idea where it might want to go and rest. Our eyes like having a place to rest! Having a few places of high contrast and detail, and then the rest of moderate/low detail will give the eye a place to rest, and will help create a 'flow' to the image. I can go on about this for hours, though, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

The last aspect is: story. I'm a huge nerd and can occasionally have problems concentrating on an image, so I like to come up with a story as I'm painting. It helps me develop a relationship with my characters, and I feel it helps give them a little bit of depth as well. I'll be going over my brief thoughts on what I was thinking in terms of story for each step of this little painting runthrough, but I'm not a writer, I'm just a nerd that likes to draw!

... For the record, I feel I should state that this whole thing took about 6-7 hours. Art is one of those things that takes time - rushing is where mistakes, both big and little, happen. Most of my huge mistakes generally come from wanting to get this stuff -done- and over with, so I've learned to take my time. Speed comes from years of experience and practice, and at that point, the artist will generally do some things really quickly so they can spend tons of time on other aspects that are important to them.

So with that, on to the tutorial!

First off: canvas size.

400 DPI
Width: 3400 pixels
Height: 4400 pixels

I like a lot of room to play around with. If I had the processing power, I'd have this at about 600 DPI. The final image, though, WILL get shrunken down. I don't like having to scroll a lot just to see someone's face - having to do that will immediately irritate me, especially if the painting as a whole looks especially beautiful. So, out of consideration to the viewer, I tend to shrink the final image down so it will mostly fit on one page.

So! First step: paintbucket in a basic background color. This is the first and last time I'll use this tool during this painting!


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warriorbackground1.jpg

I know I want to have the entire painting be a rather cool in temperature, so I'm going for a sickly grey-green color here. I don't really have a plan past that, though.

The Story: It's cold out.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warriorbackground2.jpg

So, time to start adding in some random shapes for the background. These are just splotches of color that will let me know the color scheme for the entire image - I do this before I start sketching because it helps me 1.) know what the character's standing on (so I don't have to make background adjustments later on, which could lead to a funky looking background) and 2.) decide on a color scheme for the character that doesn't clash with the background.
These splotches will get refined later.

On another note, since I don't simply shade with grays or darker tones of the undercolor, knowing the background and it's colors is good for me so I can get a hint of what color shadows I want to use. This is a relentlessly cold colored background, so I can guarantee you'll see a lot of greens for shadows in this. I'll probably be using light blues for some of the highlights as well.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warriorbackground3.jpg


Well, it's cold out so here's some splotchy snow. Done with the background! For now at least.

The story: It's so cold there's snow on the ground. ... What? I said I wasn't a writer. Get off my back!


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior1.jpg


Okay, in a new layer above the background, it is now time for a sketch. It doesn't need to be perfect - in fact, I keep it pretty loose so that I can make changes later if I feel so inclined. I still have no idea what I want to do, so I go through several characters and poses and genders and outfits until one feels right for the moment. Sometimes I'll use a really large brush and just -splotch- in a character pose, and trace some lines on top of that to see if it fits. Luckily, I didn't have to do that here.

The story: There's a flamboyantly dressed warrior woman, who looks as if she's struggling, or casting. It's too early to tell at this point. What will happen next?


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior2.jpg


I don't bother to clean up the sketch, and in a layer beneath the sketch and above the background, I block in some basic colors and shadows. I really want to get a glimpse of how the full composition of the image might turn out so that I can make some decisions based on this knowledge. The colors are very cool, and to keep with this cold theme, the shadows are variants of greens and grays. Normally I'd mix in some blues, but a sickly green is a good color for this since the whole image is meant to show the unpleasant feeling of the war.

The reason I'm keeping with the cool color scheme is because I want to do something vaguely moody, and if I decide to do something with warm colors (casting, blood, etc), I want that part to really, really stick out. If she were triumphantly returning home from a battle, though, that would be a different story - I'd paint her in many warm, bright colors, to make her really stand out from the background. But she's not. She looks like she's either in the midst of a big battle, or she's limping home from a battle. So cool colors it is.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior3.jpg


In a layer above the sketch with my brush opacity at 60% (and using a hard round brush), I start to paint in over the lines using the base color of whatever object I'm shading in - not the shaded or the highlight colors. If I feel that part needs to be shaded or highlighted, I'll get to it later, but for now I need this stuff to pop out so I can recognize it from the background. I'm still trying to decide on the entire composition and what expression she might have right now. I'm leaning towards discouraged/sad/disillusioned/wounded, because of the overall body language and color scheme.

The story: She's returning from some battle, it looks like she just barely escaped with her life.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior4.jpg


I've painted over all the things I care about most for the time being, and now it's time to add some designs, because this would be pretty boring without a fantasy fashion element - flamboyant designs, here I come! I take a basic hard brush and just doodle in some random lines. Whatever looks good, I keep and refine, and whatever I don't like gets painted over. This is literally just a random doodle moment to keep things loose and fun - and some really pretty designs can come out of random doodles!

It's here I start erasing bits of the rough undersketch. I keep my eraser at 50-30%, so that if I feel the sketch really adds to the piece, I can keep bits there, just a little less dark and obnoxious. If the sketch happens to be holding part of the painting together, then I keep it there. For now.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior5.jpg


I'm having a little trouble seeing the character and having her pop out of the background, so I add in a few refining highlights. I'm going with a light bluegreen so it doesn't stick TOO much out of my cool theme - yellow 'natural light' highlights will come in much later.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior6.jpg


I'm refining a few details here, particularly on the face. I try a bunch of sexy eye open expressions, but nothing looks quite right, so through process of elimination, eyes closed it is. I eventually get a really pretty pained expression out of her, so I think she's wounded. It goes along well with the rest of the image anyways.

In a layer above everything else, I use white (since it stands out so much) to refine the features that have yet to be painted over - the hands, the sword, and her thong (teehee)

The story: The hussar, a princess in her village, is fleeing from her first battle. She was betrayed, and having had to slay her own childhood friend in order to survive has cut her deep.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior7.jpg


I've painted over the white lines now, and refined one or two details. The neck thing looked a little bare with only lines there, so I added a few more details to busy it up a little. Since it's so cold, I also want to show how it impacts the character. I draw her breath in - the same sickly green as the background. It's almost like her soul is leaving her body!

The story: Her wounds cut deep, she tries to limp home, unsure if she'll even make it back to see her father again, and tell him of the betrayal.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior8.jpg

Her stocking looked a little boring, so I took a harlequin diamond pattern I found on the internet, layered it over and used the Transform tool (ctrl + t) to make it the right size/direction. I lowered the opacity of the harlequin layer, and used the warp tool to make it look as if it were conformed to the leg, and then liquify to make it look like there are folds in it, so it can look as much like the cloth underneath as possible. Here's a picture of the warp tool:


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior9.jpg

(After this step, that layer with the harlequin pattern will not be touched again)

Those dots that are circled? You just click and drag those to make edits to the image. You can use this trick to modify a LOT of stuff - if you've stamped some clouds into the painting and want to make those look more real and custom, for example, you can Warp those. This isn't a substitute for actually work, though - As you can see, the underpainting of this stocking is already pretty solid. It just needed a little bit of detail to spruce it up.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior10.jpg

I wasn't a huge fan of how her breath on the cold air looked - it looked wimpy with not enough power or impact. I want the viewer to see how hard she's breathing. So I paint over the breath I put in before, and paint in something new - this character looks proud; too proud to be breathing with her mouth hanging open and her tongue lolling out of her mouth. So I have the breath coming out of her nose. I also stylize it, since I can't really resist stylizing any kind of cloud when I have the chance. Swirls are awesome.

The story: As she walks, she's breathing hard. The princess is too stubborn to cry, but she knows that if she were even to open her mouth, she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior11.jpg


I decide that my warrior is definitely wounded. I paint in some blood - I like how it really pops out. Red is such a lovely warm color that really pops out of the cold surroundings, though it's muted by the cool browns I added in.

At this point, I show it to a few friends to ask how the blood and wounds look. Our own Damaris pointed out that the fact that the skirt thing wasn't affected by the blood/thing that made the wound in the first place, it looked a little fake. I agreed, and made some changes.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior12.jpg


Here we go. Now the cloth is torn and stained by blood. I used the cloud brush to get that stained cloth effect. I also used the cloud tool on the eraser to erase bits off, to make it look a little less stamped on. If I wanted to go the extra mile, I'd also use the liquify tool to make it look painted on, but this isn't the focal point and I'm feeling like I need a coffee break, so it stays how it is.

The story: her wounds deep, the hussar struggles to move onward. She doesn't know if she'll be able to make it, her wounds are deep, her head is light, and she feels as if she could drop dead at any time.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior13.jpg


I've had my coffee break, and feel nice and refreshed. It's about this time that I take a look at the background and decide that it's too sparse. I add a gnarly tree in the background to take up space. Since it's not really the focus of attention, I don't add a lot of detail. A big secret to paintings is, add details on what you want the viewer to focus on, and take details away from things you don't want them to focus on. For example, if I were to add in a lot of complicated lines and fur and jewelry and highlights and shadows and whatnot to the face, the eye wouldn't even have time to look at the rest of the canvas. But there's more to it than that - knowing how much detail to put in is a huge point as well. There's really no magic rule for this, it's just a matter of taste and experience. Experiment around and find what works for you! I used a pretty heavy black on her face to draw attention to it, as well as detailing the fur there. There's also a good bit of attention drawn to her wounds, since the warm reds stick out from the cool everything else so well.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior14.jpg


I continue to add a few points of interest to the background, keeping in mind that I don't want to add too many details to distract from the main point of interest: the wounded hussar. The piece is called the Wounded Hussar, not The Sickly Green Background, after all.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior15.jpg


I start adding in fur details - I use a pretty big brush for this instead of my normal itty bitty brush because I want to keep a rough, impressionistic look to the whole piece. The arrows show the direction of the fur.

Adding fur to a character is an art in and of itself. You don't want to add too much, which would make your character look way too busy and hard to look at, but at the same time, it's a painting, so you don't want to add too little. My general rule of thumb is to just shade the edges of big shadow changes. Again, the overall level of detail in this is pretty loose, so there's no need to go overboard with the details.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior16.jpg


I've added my fur details to the whole body here.

The story has been abandoned, because at this point I feel the character is developed enough for me to make judgements on color and form, and I just really want to get this freaking piece finished.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warrior17.jpg


Highlights time. I take kind of a greenish yellow - something warmer than most of the image - and add it into the picture where I feel the lightsource would make the most contact, and to places that I want to stand out just a liiiiittle more. I also take this chance to deepen some of the shadows, to strengthen the contrast of the entire image, and to make the hussar seem closer.


http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae343/Nyil_Hegedu/warriorfinal.png

And here, after roughly 6-7 hours, we have the final image. At the last minute I decided to add a scraggly flag and some arrows and weapons lying around, to make it look as if she's limping away from a big battle or something. Anything that sticks out to me as vaguely unpleasant (stray lines from any of my sketches, shadows I don't like, highlights I don't like, edges that are too soft, edges that are too hard, etc) gets taken care of here. And done! Here's the finished product on FA:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7143624/

For the record, my cruddy little story isn't necessarily the only thing that went on. Anything could really be happening here, and if anyone has any ideas, I'd really love to hear them!


I feel I really should say this, but I'm really thankful for everyone who helped with this - Thanks to Damaris and Fancy-Fancy for putting up with my throwing incomplete paintings at you and asking "PLZ TELL ME HOW MAKE BETTER PLZ" (and actually making good suggestions), and thanks to llearch for suggesting I show the layers in use at every step!