Speed Paint Volume2

Contents

Daniel Ljunggren016

Chapter 02: Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer

Nathaniel West008

Emrah Elmasli003

Emrah Elmasli012

Emrah Elmasli021

Chapter 01: Alien Hot Air Balloons

Rich Tilbury026

Rich Tilbury038

Chapter 03: The Slave Caravan crossed the Desert

Mike Corriero032

Mike Corriero052

Chapter 04: The Beast was poised ready to strike!

Robin Olausson057

Chapter 06: The City Centre looked

like a Jewel amongst the surroundings

Daniel Ljunggren048

Ignacio Bazan Lazcano042

Chapter 05: Man-Eating Plants

Marc Brunet066

Nick Oroc062

Chapter 07: It was a long way up but they

had no choice but to continue climbing

Serg S074

Robin Olausson069

Chapter 08: Once a Thriving City now

deserted and taken over by Vegetation

Ignacio Bazan Lazcano 083

Joel Carlo078

Chapter 09: Robot Scrap Yard

by Emrah Elmasli & Nathaniel West

chapter 1“Alien Hot Air Balloons”

www.2dartistmag.com Chapter 1

Alien Hot Air Balloons Speed Painting

Introduction:The topic is “Alien hot air balloons”. When they

first told me about the topic, the scene that I’m

going to paint was already in my mind. So, I

feel comfortable about what I’m going to do. I

did some thumbnail sketches and those were

enough for me to start.

Step 1:I want to finish this painting in 90 minutes

– maybe less than that, but not more. Before

starting to paint a “speedy”, I suggest you set a

time limit for yourself. This helps you not to over

detail your work and lose time.

I’ll use Photoshop CS3 for the entire painting

process. I open a new 2200 x 1200 pixel

canvas and create a new layer. The scene that

I’m going to paint will be an alien-ish world, but

I don’t want it to be so different from earth. So,

some minor changes will do. First thing to do

is to determine the colours. Green and yellow

sounds cool. Now, let’s block them in. I always

use large, textured brushes when I’m blocking

colours, so I’ll do the same this time. By using

yellow, green and grey, I quickly create the

background and foreground. I want to have two

light sources in the scene so I put two suns in

the green, alien sky. So that’s it for this step!

Let’s now go more into detail (Fig01).

Step 2:I open a new layer and set it to “Color Dodge”

from the blending mode tab. Now I grab a soft

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Speed Painting Alien Hot Air Ballons

anything you want by opening a new layer and

setting it to “Color Dodge” or “Linear Dodge”,

then painting in with a dark saturated colour.

My alien balloons are now hovering and glowing

(Fig04).

Final:For the final step I just paint some more details

in and add more contrast by “Curves”, again.

For the final touch, I paint in two figures with red

staffs in their hands. I think they are aliens too,

but I don’t care because the speedy is finished!

90 minutes!! Thank you for reading!

Emrah ElmasliFor more work by this artist please visit:

www.partycule.com

Or contact them at:

[email protected]

round brush and glow both of the suns with a

saturated, dark orange colour. This gives the

soft atmosphere I need. Now I can start putting

some details in. I use some textured and

scattered brushes to create the water effect on

the background, and some hard brushes for the

rocky feel in the foreground (Fig02).

Step 3:For this step I continue to add details with my

custom brushes. I also need some contrast in

my painting, so I open a “Curves” adjustment

layer and bend the curve to gain some contrast.

I do this a lot when I’m painting. I always

start with light colours and darken them in the

process. I also made some changes on the

colours by opening a new “Color Balance”

adjustment layer. I added some blue to the

shadows, which makes the painting even richer

in colour (Fig03).

Step 4:I can hear you asking, “Where is the balloon

dammit?” Well, it’s time. I start painting in the

alien balloons with a hard-edged brush. I want

them to have arms like squids and glowing from

inside. Keep in mind that you can always glow


http://www.partycule.com

mailto:[email protected]


Alien Hot Air Balloons Speed Painting

Step 1: For this speed painting I began to sketch freely,

with no preconceived notions, and waited to see

what would come out about. After a short time

of messing around with different shapes and

values, I began to see a vision of a large balloon

coming towards a foreground destination. In my

mind, I view air balloons as very tranquil, so the

scene began to take on that quality.

When first starting a piece I begin by laying in a

rough greyscale sketch. It is very important to

have a good value structure first and foremost,

with values grouped together to create a graphic

and dynamic piece. I would say that this is the

single most important stage in a painting, and

should be worked out before beginning with

colour. If your value structure works, then the

rest of the painting will follow easily, but if your

value structure is off then you will find the next

stages of the painting to be hopeless efforts until

the value structure has been corrected. Many

times, a painting is not dynamic simply because

the lights and darks are not pushed enough,

thus resulting in a ‘flat’ appearance (Fig01).



Speed Painting Alien Hot Air Ballons

Step 2: Now that my values are worked out, I proceed

on to glazing colour over the entire painting.

This can be subtle or extreme, but either way

I glaze the whole painting with one colour

to keep the palette unified. Then I begin to

add additional colour variations and levels of

saturation to develop the piece further. I am

always careful to maintain the value structure

throughout this stage (Fig02).

Step 3: Now that the overall palette of the painting has

been established, I begin to further develop

some details. I add in the balloon portion of the

hot air balloon, and then mirror it with the same

colour and shape in the upper right corner. I

also add a couple of figures and decide to add

in that same colour and shape language. This is

all in efforts to tie the balloon and the foreground

together, from a story standpoint.

At first I had indicated some trails of smoke

coming off of the ground, but decided to get

rid of them so as not to disrupt the landscape

too much. The sky begins to get tightened up,

along with the mountains (Fig03).

Step 4: I continue detailing the landscape further,

introducing textures and colour washes to

achieve the desired effect. The air balloon

changes quite a bit, and its design begins to

take shape. I also introduce additional colour

shifts into the sky, as well (Fig04).

Step 5: I now focus solely on the balloon, as that is our

main focus. I give it a bit of loose detail, and

blend it into the environment with some ambient

lighting on the outer edges of the balloon

(Fig05).


Step 6: I now add in additional details to the landscape

and foreground. Once done with all detailing,

I put some rays of light coming through the

clouds, hit a couple areas with some highlights,

and push the contrast in some areas to make

the scene a touch more dramatic. I add in some

highlights on the edge of the foreground to help

separate it from the landscape, and call this

painting done (Fig06).

Nathaniel WestFor more work by this artist please visit:

www.nathanielwest.net

Or contact them at:

[email protected]

http://www.nathanielwest.net


by Emrah Emasli & Daniel Ljunggren

chapter 2“Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer”


Speed Painting Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer

Created In:Photoshop CS2

Step 1The first thing to do is to decide what you’re

going to paint before starting a speed painting.

My topic is “Steam powered mechanical

destroyer”, so it’s a good idea to draw

something huge. I decided to paint a six-legged

steam powered spider kind of mechanical

device with big weapons. The environment is

going to be set in a cave, or something. I start

by blocking the colours in with a bold brush. I

also paint in the silhouette of the destroyer and

the other stuff around of it. I use warm colours

because I want a nice dusk-hour feel (Fig01).

Step 2For the next step, I can start to put in some light

sources, like the sun and some other artificial

lights, to ‘pop out’ the forms a little. To do

this, I generally open a new layer and select

“Color Dodge” or “Linear Dodge” from the layer

options, then paint in with a saturated and

darker colour (Fig02).

Step 3

After determining the light sources I start

detailing with bold brush strokes. I don’t zoom

in at this stage, I just apply the necessary

general details (Fig03).

Step 4This step is the same as the previous step. I

start to add the minor details now, like the grills

of the destroyer and the rock columns at the

back, and give some more form to the objects. I

also add a few more minor light sources (Fig04).


FinalFor the final step, I zoom in at last and tweak

some details, add bouncing lights, and so on.

Finished! Approx. 1 hour with PS CS2

Emrah ElmasliFor more from this artist visit:


Or contact:

[email protected]




Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer Speed Painting

Created In:Photoshop

Introduction After thinking about the topic for a while I

started imagining something that would be

suitable for a younger audience... maybe a toy

commercial with figures you could play with, with

one of these toys being the “steam powered

mechanical destroyer” (or so the description on

the back of the box would have you believe!).

I then thought that it would be more fun if it was

a big robot, yet still friendly. The “destroyer”

part was the main issue which I would have to

turn into something not so violent, to keep the

positive mood that I still wanted to achieve.

I could’ve gone another route – towards

something more serious, dark and violent – but,

personally, it wouldn’t feel very original. I’m

not saying a friendly robot is original either, but

maybe a bit more of an unexpected approach

to the subject title. I have interpreted the theme

more like a concept artwork than a painting, so

please treat it as such.

Step 01Before starting to draw or paint the full-sized

concept with details and all, a great and quick

way to find your design is with a few small

thumbnail sketches. This allows you to focus

on the general shape, the silhouette, and the

overall feeling of the concept. After a short

while of thumbnail sketching, I see something

that shows potential (Fig01). I also put in a

sloppy human figure to get a feeling of scale.

Working a bit further with it I find a design and

feel that I want to see a fully rendered version of

(Fig02).



Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer Speed PaintingStep 02Using the thumbnail as a reference image, and

keeping the main subject and the background

on separate layers, I start to sketch the robot

from a more interesting angle and in higher

resolution. I’m still working in greyscale

because then I can focus on what I want to

prioritise for the time being: design, proportions,

pose and perspective. I find that the main

challenge in this part of the process is to

achieve the same feeling in the perspective

image as with the thumbnail. If I would go on

with the next steps before nailing that feeling,

I know I would probably abandon it later on

because it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, so

being persistent in this step pays off (Fig03).

Adding some more volume and details to

the robot, and some brushstrokes to the

background, I try to find the kind of lighting

and contrast I want for this image. I add some

highlights just to remind myself where the main

light source will be (Fig04).

Step 03I set my brush to ‘Color’ mode and paint some

big chunks of colours on the background, as

well as on the robot (Fig05). Sometimes I don’t

find the colour I’m looking for when using this

method, because of the values of the painting

underneath, but it’s a quick way of deciding what

general palette the image will have.

I pause here, thinking about the impression I

get from the robot. I figure that I really need to

kill those highlights soon, as well as change the

colour to what I’m looking for. Creating a new

layer (normal mode), I start painting directly with

colours, and soon I see something closer to

what I had in mind (Fig06).



Speed Painting Steam Powered Mechanical Destroyer

better with the description of “destroyer”, too).

After that was done I felt ready to start working

on more detailed shapes and texture (Fig08).

Adding more details and rendering (Fig09).

Here I’m trying to make it look a bit more

realistic, removing a lot of the black from the

underlying sketch, as well as thinking of cast

shadows and bounce lights from the ground. I

put a few strokes on his head as well, trying to

figure out what I want that part to be like.

I did some more work on the background, made

a clearer sky, and redesigned some of his

firebox and his chimneys at the back, as well

as giving a warmer ground. I still wasn’t sure at

this stage what to make of his head (Fig10).

Step 06Finally I approach the face of the robot. I

considered having the robot being driven by a

man for a while (with the head as the cockpit),

but with the current scale of things I had

trouble making the chauffeur read clearly, so I

dropped that idea and went for a kind robot face

instead. This also helped strengthen the overall

positive feel. I put down some more work into

the firebox, showing more clearly that it was

something that could open and hold burning

Step 04While developing the concept for this robot I

came up with the idea of having it working in

a junkyard, where he would be “the destroyer”

of metal scraps. This would go well with the

overall positive feel I was trying to achieve, and

the background would be where I could suggest

it (Fig07).

Step 05During the previous steps I wasn’t quite sure

what to make of the robot’s left arm and hand,

but as I tried a few shapes I knew it would gain

visual interest instead of having two similar

arms. After a few quick designs I decided to

go for some kind of drill (this makes the robot fit


coal. Background details were also added, as

well as some stripes on the robot, and then he

was done! (Fig11)

Daniel Ljunggren For more from this artist visit:

http://darylart.com

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://darylart.com


by Emrah Elmasli & Richard Tilbury

chapter 3“the slave caravan crossed the desert”


The slave caravan crossed the desert Speed Painting

Created InPhotoshop CS3

IntroductionHi everyone! The topic for this chapters speed

painting is “The Slave Caravan Crossed the

Desert”. So we have a good excuse to paint

a cool environment! I didn’t have anything in

mind this time; I wanted it to be a random one.

There will eventually be a desert, but the rest is

a mystery for me as well. So, let’s start…

Step 1I don’t know how long it’s going to take this time,

but I want to keep it short. Let’s say 2 hours

maximum!

Anyway, the software I’m going to use is

Photoshop CS3, again. The canvas size is

2200x1200 pixels, again. Let’s start blocking

the colours in. I generally use a textured round

brush for this step. I paint with fast brushstrokes

until I get a nice mixture of warm and cold

colours. It soon starts to look like dunes in

daylight (Fig01).

Step 2I open a new layer and set it to “Screen” from

the blending mode tab. Then I start to paint

in some light on the foreground. I want some

strong lighting there, as if it’s under a very bright

sun. Just using orange and yellow would be

boring, so I use purple and pink to achieve some

richness in the colours. I apply these colours by

opening a new “Overlay” layer, so I can blend

them in really nicely (Fig02).



Speed Painting The slave caravan crossed the desert

Step 3Okay, so what if I add some hovering vehicles in

the scene? Sounds like a nice plan... but what

kind of vehicles? I want to keep them simple, so

let’s paint some chrome, toaster-like caravans.

Well, maybe they won’t look like actual toasters

but hey, they’re my caravans! Just some quick

brushstrokes on a new “Colour Burn” layer

will do the trick. Some nice silhouettes of the

vehicles (Fig03).

Step 4Now, I’ll try to give some form to these boys.

A fair amount of bouncing light from the

environment would be nice, to achieve a chrome

look. I continue painting on a new layer until I’m

happy with it (Fig04).

Step 5Well, I’m not happy yet so I’ll continue to detail

the painting: some clouds in the background; a

nice green mist, maybe? A cool-looking distant

planet is a good idea, too! Wait, what am I

missing here? Oh yeah, the slaves of course!

Let’s paint in some poor slaves under the

caravans, walking on the blazing dunes of hell.


Just a few little touches with a simple brush will

do (Fig05).

FinalYou know what? I don’t like the result! I think

I want a night scene instead of a day scene.

So, I duplicate the canvas and flatten it. Then

I go to Image > Adjustments > Exposure and I

tweak the colours until I achieve this look on the

final image. I also make some slight touches to

achieve a textured look – and that’s it! Here’s

our final scene. I hope you like it! (Fig06)

Thank you for reading!

Emrah ElmasliFor more from this artist visit:

www.partycule.com

Or contact:

[email protected]





Created InPhotoshop CS3

IntroductionFor this speed painting I decided not to make

the actual subject of the picture the focal point.

I liked the idea of making the caravan seem

almost incidental, in order to emphasise the size

of the desert which I wanted to almost consume

them. I wanted to put a figure in the foreground,

gazing upon the caravan from afar and whose

intentions remain unknown. Perhaps he is there

to rescue the slaves, or maybe he is a scout for

some war party?! Either way, he will serve to

add scale and depth to the scene, as well as

help the composition, essentially.

Colour Base

The first stage is to establish the overall colour

scheme and main features in the image. I

chose to use the Gradient tool (Foreground to

Background) as it’s very effective at creating a

blended land/sky starting point, especially when

you are dealing with a dusty or hot scene, such

as this (Fig01).

The next step was to create the distant sand

dunes, which in this case I did on a new layer

for the purposes of swift and easy editing later

on. In Fig02 I used a slightly darker tonal

version of the sand colour and simply painted in

the shaded areas to suggest the dunes.

Again, on another layer, I then painted in the

foreground, which can be seen in Fig03. I used

a couple of textured brushes and the standard

Hard Round airbrush to paint some palms

and the suggestion of a rock outcrop on the




right. You can see that, at the moment, things

are very roughly sketched in without any real

attention to detail. Having crude marks and

mistakes at this stage is not an issue as they

can be tidied up very quickly later on if need be.

These three layers make up the most important

components in the image and already describe

a desert scenario.

Focal PointsThe picture now needs to be “tightened” up

and the key elements put in place. The first of

which is the foreground character, which I will

put in the left to balance the palms and rock. In

Fig04, you can see the rough shape of the man

with a cloak that is being blown by the wind. I

wanted to keep him almost as a silhouette, so

that he reads more as a shape against what will

eventually be a sun-bleached background.

With our main character blocked in, it was time

to add some detail to the sky. I think you could

almost get away with it in the current state, but

some subtle clouds will add interest and a little

drama. Again, on a new layer, using a paler

version of the sky blue, I swiftly blocked in some

shapes, remembering not to be too worried

about things looking wrong (Fig05).

It was then time too add in the subject of this

challenge: the slave caravan. As I said, I

wanted this to almost appear incidental, so I

decided to have them trailing from the middle

distance off into the background. The other

thing that needed addressing was the contrast.

At this stage, it looks as if there is a bit of a

sandstorm as the tonal range is somewhat

limited.

In Fig06 you can see that I have painted in the

caravan, as well as darkened the foreground

layer and character which helps add depth to




the scene. This is where keeping the various

elements on separate layers is useful! I painted

some of the small slaves stooping as they walk

to help portray fatigue or hardship, perhaps

against driving wind and sand, and I also linked

them with a rope/chain.

Colour AdjustmentsThe picture was almost complete at this stage,

but a few small changes could make a huge

difference overall and tie everything together

nicely. In Fig07, you can see the layer structure

so far which will enable control over all the major

parts of the image.

First of all, I added some sunlight to brighten up

the whole picture. This was done using a Radial

Gradient blending from a pure white to a bright

orange. The layer was set to Overlay mode with

an opacity of around 35%, which you can see

in Fig08.

This has essentially injected some heat into the

scene and transformed it from a late evening

into a mid-afternoon. This layer, when set to

Normal mode and at 100%, looks like Fig09.

This layer was meant to depict the sunlight, but

I also added the actual sun on another layer.

This was done in a similar manner, except the

gradient was not stretched to the edge of the




canvas and was to blend from white to pale

yellow, set to Hard Light at 70% opacity (Fig10).

You can also see that I added some highlights

on the foreground rocks and tweaked the main

character slightly, as well as giving his spear a

metal tip.

This all but concludes the tutorial, but there

is one more quick layer to add in the form

of another Gradient. It was set to Multiply

blending mode and composed of a dark brown

to transparent layer from the bottom edge to just

above the caravan train. This helped bind the

foreground and add a little more atmospheric

perspective. The desert is almost swallowing

the slaves now!

The final image can be seen on the following

page (Final).

ConclusionI hope that you have enjoyed this month’s

speed painting exercise as much as I have. As

always, it was a challenge to do, but one that

was fun. I have always been keen on deserts

and so enjoyed this particular one!


I hope that I have showed how powerful colour

adjustments can be and how they can transform

an image. When the picture is broken down into

key layers it also proves how variations can be

achieved almost immediately, which is vital in

this day and age when producers and directors

require quick changes!

Richard TilburyFor more from this please contact him:

[email protected]


by Mike Corriero & Richard Tilbury

chapter 4“The Beast Was Poised Ready To Strike!”


Speed Painting The beast was poised ready to strike!

Introduction:The key to speed painting is textures; unique

patterns and shapes; the suggestion of forms

without too much detail, and a good sense

of light and direction. If you’re going to try to

communicate an image without rendering out

forms in detail, the use of custom brushes and

textures will help sell the conceptual idea of an

object. You need to captivate the viewer with

interesting details that don’t have to be hand-

painted one by one. These details don’t have to

be your conventional method of thinking and can

quite often be more abstract or intricate.

Quick SketchA quick line sketch, which doesn’t need to be

detailed, will help keep you on track but will

also leave enough room for creative changes.

I’m not even going to bother worrying about getting the anatomy down

correctly or adding things like eyes or defining the forms; I’m just laying

down a quick gradient fill on a Multiply layer (Fig01).

Separation of Planes and ElementsSticking to the Multiply layer so the sketch will still show through, I’m

separating the main elements which exist on a couple of different planes

with varying colours and values. The suggestion of a light source is

thrown into place. It can often give you an interesting effect if you paint on

a new layer and, instead of trying to fill in the elements, you use the eraser

to carve them out after painting over the lines. Leaving a couple of specks

which aren’t fully erased is okay and will just make the image a bit more

interesting and gritty! (Fig02)

Texturing with Custom BrushesWith the use of custom brushes, I’m taking a bit of creative leeway to

make some areas a bit more interesting with suggestive abstract patterns.



The beast was poised ready to strike! Speed PaintingIn the foreground and background I’m using some brushes to lay in texture

effects to the rocks and ground. Switching the size of your brush from

large to a very fine small point can also be effective in speed painting

details (Fig03).

Focal HighlightsHighlighting areas you want the viewer to focus in on, and muting areas

that aren’t important, will make the image much easier to read and more

interesting. The sky, although unconventional, has some added texture

that can be construed as light from the sun. A higher saturation of colour

and higher contrast in value will always draw more attention than areas

left in a dark shadow. This is why the two most important parts of this

image are either framed by a highlighted shape or located where a higher

concentration of saturated colours are. These two elements, being the

creature’s head and the unsuspecting prey (humans), are located on the

ground plane (Fig04).

Passage and CharactersI’m starting to define a few areas now to make a bit more sense of them.

Our two characters have been given a quick touch of highlights and colour

to suggest the light that is hitting the plane they are on. I’ve also opened up a passage-way

to suggest the path in which they are headed. This pathway helps ‘pop-

out’ the characters with some dark values against the highlighted values.

Specks of dust, leaves and some added break up to the ground, are all

done with custom brushes and the scatter option (Fig05).

Adjusting the ValuesA quick fix and change to the values helps give a better perspective of the

colours in use and how to define the shapes.

In duplicating the level, you can erase areas

that you don’t want to become too saturated or

areas you want to remain darker or more muted.

Sliding the black arrow to the right, and the

white arrow to the left, will give you a broader

range in values on the level adjustment table. In

doing this, you will also inadvertently pump up

the saturation of these areas (Fig06).

Making the Most of your LevelsThe layer options make it easier to adjust the

levels without completely losing the colour and




details. First, make a duplicated layer of the

original. Next, desaturate the layer to greyscale

and choose the auto level adjustment option

under Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels. This

will automatically adjust your image to the most

compatible dark and light values located within

the painting. Now take the original layer, place

a duplicate on top of the greyscale version and

choose ‘Color’ for the layer option. Finally,

create another duplicate and place that at the

top of every layer, setting the layer option to

‘Darken’. Flatten the layers, copy and paste it

on top of the original, and erase out the areas

which are too dark/too saturated, and lower

the overall opacity a bit. These are all quick

adjustments to fix the colour, hues, saturation

and values to really bring out the best quality of

the image (Fig07).

Tightening the Key ElementsAfter having adjusted the values and saturation

I’ve started to define the silhouette of the

creature while adding some texture and details,

especially toward the head region. I’ve chosen

to make the eye a bright orange to compliment

the colour scheme and to tie in the colours of

the characters with the creature, while adding

some elements of floating leaves and petals

(Fig08).

Let There be Light!On two new layers I’m using the Screen and

Overlay options to boost the value and colour

of the Sun. I still want the patterned effect to

show through and I want the beast’s head to

be visible but obtain a warmer glow from the

light. Erasing out a couple of areas and carving

out the silhouette of the creature will set my

sunlight in place without covering the important



The beast was poised ready to strike! Speed Painting

elements. This is really going to help frame the

head of the creature and draw more attention to

this area (Fig09).

I had worked on adding some scaly texture

to the beast’s body, but the only area that

really needs a bit of extra attention is the face.

Zooming in I’m just adding some highlights on

the scales, fitting him with some teeth to make

him a bit more menacing and geared up to

attack his prey. I’ve also provided him with a bit

of a pattern again, using the green and orange

colour scheme. A lot of these little details are

often painted on their own layers for quick

adjustments and editing options (Fig10).

Foliage and Fine-tuningOnce again, on a duplicated layer, I’m making

another adjustment that will be lowered in

opacity and portions erased. Under the Image

> Adjustments > Auto Contrast option I’ve given

the saturation and values one last tweak to bring

out all the colour and highlights. The characters

have been fine-tuned a little to make their

bodies a bit more easy to read, without detailing

them too much. Using some custom brushes

created by another artist I’m providing some

flowers, extra foliage, falling rocks, trees and

branches. These little elements are suggestive

and help complete the environment with some

lush additional life (Fig11).


The FinalTaking a look at the final image as a whole,

I’ll probably make a few last minute additions

and minor changes, but I think the important

details are defined in the focal points and the

overall colour and textures are working to the

advantage of the concept. The warm tones

and direction of the elements, as well as the

strong complimentary colour scheme, really

provide the look I was going for which brings

out a lot of drama and mood. That’s all for

this piece; most of the custom brushes I used

were created by Barontieri, Daarken and M@

(Fig12).

Mike CorrieroFor more from this artist visit:

www.mikecorriero.com

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://www.mikecorriero.com



The beast was poised ready to strike! Speed Painting

IntroductionFor this month’s tutorial I did not have a clear

picture in my mind before starting. I usually

have a vague notion as to how the image

may look, but in this case I really did not know

what I was going to do. I had imagined a few

compositions but was not happy with any, and

so I literally started without any idea as to how

the image would evolve. It was an interesting

experiment as I started to put down random,

large sweeping shapes in a purely abstract

fashion. It was within minutes that I saw a

composition and the concept was born (Fig01).

Building the StructureYou can hopefully see in Fig01 that there

are some architectural structures and the

silhouette of a lone figure wearing a robe. The

diagonal shape intersecting him was to be

a raised walkway upon which I would paint

my “beast”, who would eventually be about

to leap onto the character and do whatever

beasties do – ATTACK!! The robe suggested

a religious figure and so I gave him a hat in

the manner worn by a high priest or bishop, for

example. You can see that, as I was forming




the composition, I was intuitively developing

a narrative. This is not a necessary part of

the artistic process but it can help structure

the image in terms of mood, colour schemes,

perspective, etc. As the character was to be

of a religious nature, I imagined that the beast

was an assassin sent by an unknown assailant

– maybe someone of a different faction or

faith, or perhaps a politically motivated person.

Whatever the reason, the idea was now tangible

enough to illustrate the title.

In Fig02 you can see that I have now refined

the initial shapes and developed the tonal

range. I decided to make the foreground dark,

maybe in the shadow of towering columns or

buildings, and the background would show

tall buildings bleached out against a bright

sunlit sky. I have painted in the beast, who is

ominously shadowed by the architecture around

him, almost camouflaged. Its gaze is aimed

downwards, focusing on the target below; its

knees slightly bent and ready to leap. The

priest has his arms crossed in an authoritative

manner, unaware of his impending doom.

Colour SchemeThe essential components of the image have

now been established and it is time to add some

colour to the scene. I added a warm brown

across the foreground as a Soft Light mode on

a separate layer, and added a similar colour

across the background but this time setting the

blending mode to Hard Light. The result can be

seen in Fig03 where the towering buildings in

the background now appear faded and warm in

the distant sunlight. The overall palette is warm

and I decided to echo this in the foreground

also, to help bind the different spaces and

suggest a strong source of light.

Adding Detail and TextureThe picture now has some colour and so it is

time to start putting in a few details to suggest

some of the textures in the materials. I decided

to use a standard Chalk brush and focus on

the near doorway and wall supporting the priest

(Fig04). You can see where the textured brush

has been used to help describe the stonework,

and I have also defined the background

buildings as well as increasing the intensity of

the sky. The doorway in the near foreground

still looked a little undefined at this stage so I

suggested an entrance, and for interest I placed

a light above it which would softly illuminate

some detailing down the right side. I used a

white with the Layer Style ‘Outer Glow’, and

then applied a green colour on a new layer set

to Overlay to show the reflected light on the door

frame and interior wall (Fig05).

These small areas of textured canvas help



The beast was poised ready to strike! Speed Paintingsuggest details without the need to illustrate

them, but at this point the image needed a more

clearly defined beast as this was the subject

of the title. I kept this on a separate layer just

so I could make quick alterations if need be. I

painted a more defined silhouette to start with

and then added some subtle highlights to add

volume, as well as some demonic green eyes

(Fig06). I painted a purple colour across the

priests robes to also help make him a focal

point. At this point, whenever I looked at him, I

kept seeing Admiral Ackbar from Return Of The

Jedi (I think it must have been the shape and

colour of his head!).

Time for a costume change: I added some

definition to his robe, toned down the colour

scheme and turned him into a human (Fig07).

Final StagesThe priest now at least looked more human

and so, with the overall image at semi-finished

stage, it was time to tie-up any loose ends and

add some final refinements before calling it a

day, so to speak.

You can see in Fig08 that the background

buildings have been made less orange and

instead I have focused the more saturated areas

around their tops, as though the sunlight was

just clipping them. I also swapped the warmer

foreground colour to a cooler hue, leaning

towards the green and blues, but this just did

not seem to work somehow and neither did

the support struts under the raised walkway –

changes were therefore needed!

First of all, I changed the perspective of the

struts because they were clearly wrong, and

then I set about unifying the picture a little

more. I added a further warm tone set to

Multiply across all the foreground objects and

then erased into it around the doorway light. I

also moved the creature right and scaled him

down a tad, so as to keep the perspective more

accurate – this is precisely why having elements

on separate layers can be valuable sometimes!

One final adjustment was a Soft Light highlight

under the priest, so as to differentiate the space

between this and the near foreground. The final

image can be seen here (Final).

ConclusionThis has been yet another enjoyable learning

experience, as are most paintings/drawings.

This time around I started without any defined

idea in my mind and so improvised from the

very beginning. The interesting aspect about

working in this way is that the chances are you

will arrive at a destination you could not have

foreseen beforehand, which makes the process

exciting. I am happy with the overall result and

like the composition in this one, although, as

always, I am keen to explore this further and do

a more detailed version in the future. However,

I think next time I will choose different eye

shapes as I think my beast does unfortunately

look somewhat like a ‘ninja turtle’!

Richard Tilbury For more from this artist visit:

http://www.richardtilburyart.com/

Or contact:

[email protected]


http://www.richardtilburyart.com


Intro Text

by Ignacio Bazan Lazcano & Daniel Ljunggren

chapter 5“Man-Eating Plants”


Man-Eating Plants! Speed Painting

Created In:Adobe Photoshop CS2

First of all, you must decide what to do with

your picture. This is the most important thing

to do, because it’s not very often that the best

idea comes out – magically – from a unique

brushstroke. If it were like that, then our whole

history would be different! The best thing is to

make several sketches – at least four – to give

yourself a variety of options and to help you get

a better composition and cover different styles

(Fig.01).

Here, I worked my sketches using black ink, a

pen-nib and a paintbrush. My idea was to give it

a more traditional stamp and to take advantage

of natural textures one can obtain when using

a paintbrush. Sometimes it’s good to combine

several techniques in order to get unique results

(Fig.02).

Once I had several options, I chose the one I

liked most, which was the one I felt had more

action and dynamism (Fig.03).



Speed Painting Man-Eating Plants!

I opened a new file, at 3000 x 1800, and pasted

in the sketch. First of all, I tried to analyse the

composition. I realised that objects weren’t

arranged in the ideal way (Fig.04); I therefore

selected the “plant hunter” with the loop, turning

it from the middle of the picture to the right

side of it (Fig.05). Finally, I added some more

hunters to give the composition more drama

(Fig.06).

To get depth in my picture, I accented the

contrasts by adding vegetation and better

defining what was placed in the foreground. For

this purpose, I created several paintbrushes.

As my idea was to go on with the traditional

technique used to make my sketches, I decided

to set my paintbrushes using the spots you get

when pressing a paintbrush against the wall. I

used black watered-down ink and a paintbrush

to spot a paper sheet, testing different pictures

on it. To save time, you can also use Photoshop

to draw them directly (Fig.07).

The following step was to choose the spot I liked

most, turn it into a new paintbrush, and then cut

it and paste it on a new document (CTRL + C +

N + V) (Fig.08).

In Fig.09, you can see how the paintbrush looks

in my picture. I then touched the whole picture

up, especially the hunters and the flesh-eating

plant (Fig.10).

With the subject being a plant, I already knew

what the leading colours for my picture were

going to be, and I knew that green and orange

would match better.



Man-Eating Plants! Speed PaintingI selected the whole canvas and then applied

copy merged (Fig.11). Once I had joined the

whole image together in one layer, I changed its

colour to green scale (CTRL + U + COLORIZE)

(Fig.12). I achieved a contrast by creating a new

layer and painting it orange at 100%, changing

the layer to the Color Dodge option. I did this

on the grass and on half the hunter’s body.

Remember that to create distance amongst

objects and make them stand it, it’s best to use

“warm” colours for the foreground and “cold”

colours for the background (Fig.13).

I selected the principal lights with a loop to

focus points of attention better. I used the loop,

selecting strongly lit areas, and filled them with

blue colour using the bucket tool (Fig.14). I

changed the layer to the Overlay option, 100%,

and then used the eraser to brush 30% of the

mask’s border in order to get a better fusion of

colour in the background.

Continuing with the lights, I used a lot of green

colour on the flesh-eating plant to make it stand

out. I opened a new layer and painted the moss

colour on the plant’s surface green, using the

Overlay option at 100%. Thus, I obtained a vivid

green colour (Fig.15).

To add cold tones to the background, I opened

a new layer, selected the bucket from my tool




bar on the “gradient” option, chose a blue-green

colour, and finally used the Vivid light option at

70% on the same layer (Fig.16). To separate

the plant from the bluish background, I made a

new layer and used an orange colour, opacity

30%, in the Screen option at 100% (Fig.17).

The next step was to add all the remaining

details to the flesh-eating plant (Fig.18). To do

this, I used one of the textured paintbrushes I

created for this picture, and the basic rounded

paintbrush. I gave the plant more definition,

added palm trees behind, and improved the right

hunter’s anatomy and position. The background

had too much white colour, so I added blue to

get a better contrast between the plant and the

back (Fig.19).

To finish, I placed a pair of spears over the plant

to make the scene more violent. If you wish

you could also use a new layer with a textured

photograph, to make it more realistic.


I hope you enjoyed reading this as much

as I enjoyed the experience of making it.

Remember, no matter how much time you have,

you must pay great attention to your original

sketch to get the best results! (Fig.20)

Ignacio Bazán LazcanoFor more from this artist visit:

http://www.neisbeis.deviantart.com

Or contact:

[email protected]




Man-Eating Plants! Speed Painting

Created In:Software Version Information

IntroductionIn the previous speed painting tutorial that I

wrote for 2DArtist, I used a rather methodical

approach (thumbnail sketching to greyscale

painting to colour painting), so I thought I should

do quite the opposite this time. Starting the

actual painting directly with colour is, personally,

riskier because there is more to deal with at the

same time. On the other hand, I think it’s a lot

more fun, and I can skip the actual “greyscale to

colour” step, which can be painful sometimes.

PAINT!I started by just throwing down some colours and contrast onto the empty

canvas. I used large texture brushes, trying different colours together and

going for a somewhat warm palette (Fig.01).

I had a vague idea for the composition; I knew I want a human character

standing pretty much in the centre of the lower half of the image, looking

up at some nasty carnivorous plants. I created a new layer and painted

in some big shapes which suggested the foreground plants were looking

down on an imaginary character (Fig.02).

Because I didn’t like the colours at this stage, I tried a more reddish

palette using the Hue/Saturation settings. Along with that I refined the




shapes a bit more, pushing the left plant back a

bit and adding a dark silhouette representing the

character (on yet another layer). The feeling of

water splashing against the rocks (or whatever

it is the character is standing on) was all by

chance, but this gave the idea of having the

plants emerge out of a swamp (Fig.03).

At this point I was thinking that the foreground

should receive a local light, but I wasn’t sure

about the rest of the painting.

The huge head of the main plant was taking

up too much space and focus, and the way

the stalk was shaped made it feel like it was

bending, trying to fit inside the painting. I wasn’t

happy with this, so I used the Lasso tool around

the plant, and scaled it down. To free up even

more space I made the canvas larger at the top,

and added some paint to that area (Fig.04).

I added some lighter hues to the ground,

suggesting reflections, which made the

swamp water look more realistic. On top of the

background I created a new layer for some

distant plants and trees. I painted some light

behind the trees, and added a few design

elements to the foreground plants and the

character.

It was now time for more refining and detailing

(Fig.05). I worked on the main plant, trying to

find a decent design. The background plants

were defined and some hints of vegetation on

the ground were added.

Because I felt that the image needed more

colour variation, I added more Cyan/Blue to the

background, which made the painting a lot more

interesting to the eye.

I added more design elements in an attempt to

make the plants look more interesting (Fig.06).



Man-Eating Plants! Speed PaintingI wasn’t sure about the plant on the far right; as I

feel the placement and the side profile made for

a stiff and obviously planned composition. The

plant would probably have attacked already if it

was such a short distance from the character,

so I removed it completely.

Now I wanted a more unified palette again, so

I added a warming photo filter, which felt better

(Fig.07).

I started to move things around a bit; the closest

plant was shifted so that the head was in line

with the golden ratio, which made for a better

composition. I tried moving the character around

as well, to see if it added to the composition, but

because it didn’t work with the alignment of the

plants, I let it stay where it was.

I added more vegetation to the background to

give it more of a forest feel and I refined the

details of the ground and the foreground plants.

Because I felt the shape of the main plant was

rather boring, I gave it a more interesting look

(Fig.08). Not as “evil” as the one before, but

more creepy!

Adding a “black & white” adjustment layer on top

of all other layers enables you to quickly spot

any values that don’t quite work. The closest

plant and the left plant further away had values

that were too similiar in Fig.08, so I adjusted the

values to pull the foreground plant closer to the

viewer.

I began working on the character, giving him a

more dynamic pose and readying him for the

coming attack.


The left foreground plant should focus more on

the character so I fixed that (Fig.09). I gave the

closest plant a longer stalk and a more sinister

look, with sharp teeth and lots of tentacles.

I used some big brushes to apply contrast in

certain areas, making the painting slightly more

comfortable to the eye. A few vague rays of

light in the top left corner were added, then

some final levels adjustments and the painting

was done!

Daniel Ljunggren For more from this artist visit:

http://darylart.com

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://darylart.com


by Mike Corriero & Robin Olausson

chapter 6“The City Centre Looked Like a Jewel Amongst the Surroundings”


Speed Painting The city centre looked like a jewel amongst the surroundings

Created In:Adobe Photoshop

IntroductionThe key points behind successful speed

paintings are textures, unique patterns, shapes,

the suggestion of forms, without too much

detail, and a good sense of light and direction.

If you’re going to try to communicate an image

without rendering out forms in detail, the use

of custom brushes and textures will help you to

sell the conceptual idea of an object. You need

to captivate the viewer with interesting details

that don’t have to be hand-painted one by one.

These details don’t have to be your conventional method of thinking and

can quite often be more abstract and indicate intricate details through the

brush strokes.

Base LayerAfter laying down a quick base colour with the paint bucket tool, I decided

to throw down some quick suggestions of shapes with a simple, square

brush. I’ve used the brush tip shape and dynamics option to adjust the

brush a bit, also giving the brush some spacing so the quick strokes will

create a bit of a pattern. At this point, although I’m working with a topic,

I’m not quite sure what’s going to come out of this yet so I’m just playing

with random abstract strokes (Fig.01).

Choosing the focal pointI’ve quickly chosen where I want the focal point to be and, in keeping

with the same square brush, I’m just laying down a quick base of lines

and shapes for what will be a type of shrine. The steps, the square tile

patterned lines for the wall, and the arch above, all help to push the viewer

towards this area – the hot spot of the painting. A quick splash of a bright

value and a saturated gold instantly draws your attention to this spot. I’m

going to stick with the square brush throughout the entire painting, but

I’ll be switching the tip shape and adding dual brush and textures to it for

a gritty appearance later on. The textures will give the painting a more

detailed look without any real extra effort or work (Fig.02).

Quick lighting and FormsWith darker and lighter values of the same colour tones, I’m starting to

define the arch with some added strokes of detail, although still very

quick and rough. I’ve also reinforced the steps and angled walls with



The city centre looked like a jewel amongst the surroundings Speed Painting

stronger and more saturated hues, once

again drawing your attention to the main focal

position. Without too much thought the design

is taking on some Asian architectural and object

influences, so the jewel of this painting will be a

golden statue; something similar to a Buddhist

figure but it will be left very rough and allow

the viewer to really interpret what it is they are

looking at (Fig.03).

Cool Shadows and Shining ThroughDuplicating the layer allows me to make a quick

adjustment to the colour of the overall image.

An Auto Levels adjustment changes the colour

scheme to blues and purples, which is perfect

to offset the warm golden hues radiating from

the jewel of the city. In lowering the opacity

of that level a bit, I decided to go in and erase

out the areas where the focal point is situated,

letting the original colours shine through. At this

point I can start to throw in some refined details

and bright hot spots on the statue, and the arch

above. In order to have the square brush follow

the form of the arch I just set the brush shape

dynamics to initial direction (Fig.04).

Rows of Beams, Bricks and RailsOnce again, just by adjusting the brush options

of the square brush, I’ve slimmed down the

shape, adding more spacing with some opacity

and flow jitter, and have begun suggesting

some different materials. The size, shape and

angles alone will determine what they are meant

to portray. In this case, I’m using vertical lines

to just give the steps some texture while also

providing the base of the railings. Above the

shrine and the arch much larger and thicker

squares give off a rough impression of bricks.

The reason this square brush was chosen

for the topic is because it can be adjusted in

so many ways and used to show something

of structure, while also allowing me to paint

highlights and shadows on a lower opacity and

pen pressure setting (Fig.05).

Adjusting the LevelsA quick adjustment to the levels brings the

main attraction forward. This levels adjustment

darkens the shadows and brightens the

highlights, whilst also increasing the saturation.




So now the cooler shadows fall back and the

jewel really begins to pop out and give off the

golden vibe I’m looking for (Fig.06).

Majority of DetailThe majority of suggestive detailing is going to

be given to the focal point of the image. Some

textures have been added to the tiled walls

surrounding it, but I want to make sure that

smaller and tighter shapes are located within

this jewel. I’ve very lightly gone in and defined

some of the shapes by shading around the

highlights and suggesting that the statue is

holding something of value. The bright violet

really draws your attention in now and it makes

you curious what this glowing object is. They

could in fact be jewels, diamonds or perhaps

something of a more ethereal nature. This

is once again left up to the viewer to decide

(Fig.07).

Finalising what is ImportantTowards the final stages I’ve just made sure

that the surrounding environment is in perfect

contrast to the jewel, in both colour and detailing

as well as design. The surrounding shapes are

more haphazardly thrown together; they are

more gritty and of less importance. It’s indicated

that there are forms of walls, bricks, tiles and

random objects of unknown design. These

remain in the darker and cooler toned values

so that the main attraction comes forth without

effort. Some detailing is made to the railings,

warmer red orange tones are added where light

transitions might take place, and the structure of

the stairs is reinforced.

Overall, the most important aspects of this

painting are complete; there is enough texturing

and detail to keep your interest and to describe

what you’re looking at, while still remaining

rough and open to interpretation. And that’s

it! Just remember that the key to a focal point

is through the contrast of values, saturation of

hues and the direction of shapes (Fig.08).


Mike CorrieroFor more from this artist visit:

www.mikecorriero.com

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://www.MIKECORRIERO.com




Created In:Adobe Photoshop

Introduction:Speed-painting, for me, is about capturing the

most essential elements within an image in

the least possible time, whilst still keeping as

much detail as possible. Form, light, values,

composition, contrast, colour, edge quality, and

so on, are all really important elements in order

to get the results you are looking for. I don’t

have any particular order in which I build up my

images, since different methods work better for

me with different types of images. Sometimes

I go for textured work with a lot of custom

brushes, and even stamps made out of photos,

whereas other times I just go for simple custom

brushes and standard ones to keep things more

simple and practice pure painting speed.

Blocking-in:Since I was going to do a landscape type of

image with a town, meaning lots of man-made

objects, a good foundation of a perspective grid

was really important. To get the imagination

going I needed some kind of shapes going on

and not just a simple white background with

a stiff perspective grid, so I made a “stamp

brush” of a texture and then used it as a custom

brush to paint in some random background

noise (Fig.01). While following my perspective

grid I distorted and added another stamp of

an architectural structure to fit my perspective,

and with a big brush I painted in some values

to define more hints of structures and a ground

plane (Fig.02).

The next few steps are about the same

procedure, adding some stamps and more



The city centre looked like a jewel amongst the surroundings Speed Paintingbrush strokes to indicate form and value

changes. Keep in mind your composition and

contrast and don’t go too dark or too bright with

your values since we want to save this for later!

Colouring:I’m not too concerned with which colours I

start out with, because if I don’t like them I can

always change them pretty easily if things are

backed up or on different layers. It’s pretty

much all about having fun, and what can be

more fun than playing around with lots of

different colours? After all, isn’t that what every

child finds most enjoyable about painting?

When I first started to colour this piece I made

some new layers and set the mode to either

Multiply, Dodge, Screen, Overlay, etc. It really

doesn’t matter though, as long as you find

a combination that feels good for you! After

you get something you’re happy with, it’s time

to get more serious! Think about what your

light source is, where it’s coming from and

what temperature that light would have, and

then counter the shadows with the opposite

temperature.




Adding details and depth:

With some customised edgy spacing brushes

I tried to emulate the feeling of foliage. The

important thing to remember here is to have a

nice sharp brush that produces crisp edges.

After you get the basic silhouette done, it’s time

to add dimension to the objects, working from

big brushes to smaller ones and adding a light/

dark side to the objects. Another good way to

get crisp edges is to use the Lasso tool to select

an area and then, with a large brush, paint

inside of it (Fig.06 and Fig.07).

Levels and highlightsOK, so another fast way to paint in lighting

is with the Dodge tool, although it’s too often

the entire image a bit and added more lighting

to get the mood I was looking for. And that’s it

(Fig.08 and Fig.09).

Robin OlaussonFor more from this artist visit:

http://www.robin.reign.se/gallery

Or contact:

[email protected]

overused so be sure to use it wisely! Think of

where your light source is coming from and what

type of a surface the object you are dealing with

has. Is your object wet, metallic, translucent?

All of these different types of surfaces will make

a difference in how the light reacts with the

object. I personally felt that the image was a

bit greyish or dusty, so to correct the contrast I

used Ctrl + L to access the Levels. I darkened




by Nick Oroc & Marc Brunet

chapter 7“It Was A Long Way Up But They Had No Choice But To Continue Climbing”

www.3dcreativemag.com Chapter 7

Speed Painting It was a long way up but they had no choice but to continue climbing


The idea behind this subject matter came to me

reminiscing my childhood in the Mediterranean.

I remember as a little venturer playing with a

type of vegetation on which some kind of fragile

cherry would grow. These delicate cherries

would explode with a mere touch and splatter

me with what ever liquid they contained. Luckily

for me they weren’t poisonous.

My main thoughts behind this speed painting

consisted of: exploding cherry, team work,

amplitude, and especially humour. I wanted to

create a team effort of 2 venturers climbing from

one vegetation platform to another using nothing

but rope, a spear and exploding cherries. My

main focus was to create a directional focal

point depicting the altitude they had to travel

from each platform.

In Fig.01, I roughed out a composition. I

personally don’t like working on a white canvas

so a simple grey tone gradient solved that

problem. Doing so also helps me gage my

values. Using a freehand perspective guide,

I blocked in some silhouetted shapes. This is

the stage where I don’t think about detail...only

composition. It’s fast and easy and can be done

in a matter of a couple minutes.

Fig.01-A displays the six brushes I used to

create this painting. Brush A is a standard

hard edge round brush and the rest are part

of my collection of custom brushes that I’ve

created over the years. As you can see I’ve

selected a small range of organic looking

brushes that appealed to me and will facilitate

rendering out my scene in no time. Creating

the brush settings is a very personal thing.

What’s important to keep in mind is simply to

experiment and save the brushes. Create a

folder with a library of these brushes for easy

access and just load them up in Photoshop

depending on the subject matter you will paint.

When I’m unsure of a color palette, I start off

with a value painting. It’s a safe and quick

approach that allows me to knock out an image.

This allows you to not have to worry about color.

Fig.02 illustrates this step. This stage took me

about 40 minutes to produce. With my base

sketch underneath and composition set, all I had

to worry about were four things: textures created

by my custom brushes, character posing, depth,

and mood lighting

Once I was content with the value painting, it

was time to add color. I try to keep my layers

very minimal to maximize desktop speed and

also to not get lost over loads of layers. I

http://www.3dcreativemag.com


It was a long way up but they had no choice but to continue climbing Speed Paintingcreated a new layer over my value painting and just started painting some colors using some texture

brushes. (Fig.03). Notice how the colors are darker and warmer on the bottom left, and brightens

and gets cooler as I worked my way up to top right. My reason for doing so is simply to create more

contrast between the foreground and the background (warm vs cool). I then set the painted texture

in overlay mode (Fig.04). This then tints my background without losing too much detail in my value

painting. The only problem I have with using the layer overlay mode is that the colors get pretty dull

and washed out. But it’s a good base to start with. Fig.05 is the stage where I start to bring back

to life those colors that got very dull by simply color picking them, increasing the saturation, and

glazing lightly over the colored areas to liven them up.

Fig.06 is the final stage where I started to add

some particle effects, finishing details, and

sharpening up the image.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as did

creating it. Always keep in mind to have fun

with every piece and to makes lots of happy

mistakes. Keep things simple without deviating

to far from your main goal.........illustrating an

idea.


Nick OrocFor more from this artist visit

www.nickorocart.com

or contact

[email protected]


It was a long way up but they had no choice but to continue climbing Speed Painting


IntroductionAs artists, one question we often get is “Where

do you get ideas for your pieces?”. Normally I

always have something in mind when I start a

piece and that idea itself it triggered, most of

the time, by something I will see browsing the

internet as I think it is one of the best sources

for inspiration. But when it comes to speed

painting, things are not quite the same. At the

very start of the process, I will skip a key step

which is “building and defining my idea”. I think

that is what makes speed painting really interesting, you just go and start,

having absolutely no clue where you’re going.

Shaping things upHaving no idea what to do normally forces me into painting very abstract

shapes as a start. I then build upon those shapes and ideas will start to

flow. In this particular case, I know at least two things; I want to have a

sky in there somewhere and I want to draw rocks. Call those self imposed

guidelines or whatever, I’m just feeling that way today I guess. After

only a few couple of brush strokes normally I start to get a clearer idea

of where this is all going and it became clear after only a few minutes

into the painting that the subject would be a mountain of some sort. The

theme being “It was a long way up but they had no choice but to continue

climbing”, I am now kind of going in the direction I told myself I would not.



Speed Painting It was a long way up but they had no choice but to continue climbing

I wanted to come up with something a little out

of the ordinary, so that when people look at it

they would tell themselves “Well I wouldn’t have

thought about that!”. I’ll have to do something

about that! (Fig.01)

Then there was light!Light is always a very important part of any

painting I do. It helps set the mood of the piece,

determine the time of the day, the temperature

but is also a double edged sword: if you screw

it up, the whole piece will end up looking like

an ugly butt. At this point in a speed painting,

you just live with what you have so far and try

to make it look like something interesting. So

far two things are already decided, the light is

coming from the left and it’s a very sunny day.

Painting lights is always a challenge for the

brain; you have to put yourself in the sun’s point

of view and try to imagine what you see and

what you do not. Things you see will obviously

be lit, while the rest will be in the shades. My

composition being a little boring, I’ll use light to improve it and bring the

viewer’s eyes to wherever I want in the image. It’s like subtle mind control.

Genius? Yes. (Fig.02)

The paletteJust like lighting the scene is crucial, the color palette is even more. In this

case, like in most, the colors take their importance when the lights are set.

Only then you can tell from which direction are the backlights coming from,

how the ambient light is affecting the colors and so on. In this painting I

have a very bright sun hitting the left of the cliff, so I want to have some

colors on the other side to make sure I do not have too big of a bright/

dark contrast going on. This is all considering the cliff is not really the focal

point of the image. With the two characters I’m planning to add, I really

don’t want anything else to steal the show. Best solution in this case is to

boost the refraction from the sky on the rocks. If you think about it, those

rocks in the shadows are still being lit by the subtle blue light coming from

the sky. (Fig.03)


CompositionI like what the composition look like so far, but

I’m starting to think I might have a problem when

the characters are done. I want them to be the

focal point of the image, but I’m thinking at the

same time that I really want to give the image

the feeling they still have a long way to go,

emphasis the height of the mountain. Normally

at this point I any characters I was planning to

put in there should have been blocked in already

to prevent such composition tweaking that far in

the process. (Fig.04)

With the little men thrown in there finally, I’m

able to see my options better. All I had to add

to fix the compo were a few simple huts with a

really punchy red, leading the eyes all the way

to the top. (Fig.05)

ConclusionAll that is left after that is about 30 minutes of

tweaking and polishing to make it look a little

more decent. For the entire piece, I used about

4 custom brushes, no textures or anything else.

I like to be able to paint everything myself, at the

same time it helps develop speed without relying

on your custom brush sets too much. I also used

a single layer for everything, helps to give it that

“painted” look.(Fig.05)

About halfway in the process, I came up with

the idea something dangerous was chasing

them from the bottom, which is why they were

climbing. I fixed my mind only at the end,

imagining these were lava monsters coming

out of an overflowing lava river surrounding the

mountain. Being distracted, those two unlucky

folks got stuck in a bad situation trying to escape

to save their lives.

Now you’ll ask me “Why is the one in yellow not

helping his friend?”

I’ll tell you why... He’s not his friend alright!?

Mark BrunetFor more from this artist visit

http://bluefly.cgsociety.org

or contact

[email protected]

by Robin Olausson & Serg S

chapter 8“Once A Thriving City Now Deserted And Taken Over By Vegetation”


“Once a thriving city now deserted and taken over by vegetation” Speed Painting


The idea behind this image came from those

abandoned cities in movies like 28 Days Later,

Dawn of the Dead etc. I wanted to take one of

those moments and turn it into something really

beautiful, instead of dark and menacing. With a

standard squared brush, with the opacity set to

60%, I started painting in some basic shapes to

get my imagination going. My intention was to

create a back, mid and foreground relationship

as early as possible. Always keep in mind the

perspective you want to use; for this scene I

used a basic 1-point perspective, with some

minor vertical adjustments, for the simple reason

of keeping the process quick and easy (Fig.01)!

Here I defined the depth in the image by

darkening the foreground a touch and adding a

dark gradient from the sky downwards, to make

it feel like the city is emitting some light as well.

Some secondary details were added in the fore/

middle ground to boost up the imagination and

to get some more ideas of how the city was

going to look. These were just random lines

made without thinking about what I was doing

really. You need this randomness in order to get

variety into your images (Fig.02)!

More objects and refinements were made with

the intention of making the composition look

more interesting and trying to create a pathway

to lead the eye through the image. Up until

this point almost everything had been painted

with simple round/square brushes. I saved the

textures for later on (Fig.03).

Here was my first introduction of colour to this

image. To get some fast details and colours

going on, I took one of my recently painted

images and played with it a bit; duplicating,

flipping and cropping it; changing the layer

settings of it and then applying it over my current

image as an Overlay layer, just to get some

free details and colours going on. I altered the

perspective with the Transform/Distort tool to

convey a better feeling of scale. With custom

brushes set to Spacing, the windows in the

buildings were painted fast and loosely; no

details were added at all, I was just trying to

keep everything as simple as possible (Fig.04

and Fig.05).

The colours still needed more work, so here I

tried to add more interesting ones by duplicating

all merged layers (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E) and

playing with the curves and layer modes.

The city was supposed to be abandoned and

untouched for quite a while, and what shows



Speed Painting “Once a thriving city now deserted and taken over by vegetation”

that better than overgrown vegetation? The

easiest and absolutely quickest way to paint

vegetation with a high level of detail is to use

custom brushes. You can use photographs as

well to gain lots of free and fast details, which

I have done for the windows and for some of

the cracks in the road in the foreground. Since I

lost a lot of the light whilst playing with the layer

modes, I reinforced the lighting in the image

with a brush set to Colour dodge. If you don’t

get the relationship values and the lighting right,

it doesn’t matter how cool the objects that you

paint are; it’s absolutely necessary to make the

image look 3D and not flat (Fig.06 and Fig.07)!

ConclusionStart loose and fast; keep in mind the fore/

middle and background relationships and where

the light is coming from. Try to think about what

you are adding to your painting in a simplified

way, and see if it enhances the composition

or not. Keep the most contrast in the area

where you want your focus to be and save your

highest contrast for that. Don’t be afraid to try

new things! Even if a thing you recently added

to your painting looks wacked, don’t worry

too much about it; try flipping/playing with the

Curves and layer modes and see what you

can come up with! Always flip your image in all

directions to get a fresh look on things and to

get new ideas as well. Sometimes when I flip my

image I see a new thing in it – maybe a monster,

a cool building or something else useful! Just

take the Lasso tool and copy it and reuse it in

your original, un-flipped image.

There are a lot of things I could improve in this

image, like upping the contrast and changing the

values, but overall I’m happy with the outcome.

Robin OlaussonFor more from this artist visit:


Or contact:

[email protected]





“Once a thriving city now deserted and taken over by vegetation” Speed Painting


IntroductionThe outcome of a painting cannot be

determined in the first stages of its creation; an

image usually evolves with the artist over time.

ResearchThe process that I used to approach this brief

started out with some research into interesting

shapes. It’s always a good idea to have some

kind of reference for what you’re drawing, but

this time around I wanted to see what I could

achieve from a two-hour speed painting without

using specific references!

Step 01So for this painting I started off with a standard

round size 13 brush, with pressure dynamics



Speed Painting “Once a thriving city now deserted and taken over by vegetation”

turned off and 75% opacity. The colours I went

with for this overgrown city were neutral and

earthy tones (Fig.01).

Step 02In the beginning stages I tried to focus on

shapes and the negative space of the image,

and tried not let the perspective of the piece

hinder my search for these shapes. At one

point I had a cityscape, but then it turned into

an interior shot after I put in the three vertical

structures, and so I decided to go with that

instead.

I try not to put in the perspective lines when

starting an image, as I like to be able to search

for shapes with a greater freedom. At this point I

decided on the composition and that the space I

was painting was going to become the base of a

building that had been taken over by vegetation,

as the brief suggests (Fig.02).

Step 03Once my composition had been decided, I

started to think about the lighting and shadows.

Adding a complementary light source from the

bottom left helped with the colour contrast and

I used red to indicate rubble and to introduce

some reds to the shadows (Fig.03).

Step 04At this stage, adding some perspective lines

helped me out with the repetition of objects, and

to define the shapes from Step 01. At this point

it was a good idea for me to check the values

in the image. The order of values I used were

a value of 10 for the foreground, a value of four

for the mid-ground (the area where the light hits

the floor), and six for the background (Fig.04).

A good way of thinking about this is: light, dark,

light, dark – it’s never ending! But when have

dark next to dark, you lose the edge (although

sometimes you may want that!).

Step 05After adding a figure to set the scale, I decided

that I wanted to create an uneasy feeling for

the character. Having verticals in your image

creates stability, and so angling them to the left

and darkening the value of image seemed to

help create the illusion that I was hoping for. I

then painted out one of the centre pillars of the

image in order to give it more hope, and to lose

the repetitiveness (Fig.05).

Step 06At this stage I started bringing it all together. I

added more detail using a standard brush with

the texture option checked, and I angled the

brush to the perspective of the image (Fig.06a).

The main change here was to separate the

values of the atmospheric perspective of the


image, where the objects seem to become

closer in value as they reseed in the space

(Fig.06b).

FinalAt this point I was happy with the image

because it conveyed mood, environment and

scale. If this image was used as a piece of

concept art, it would give the 3D artist a good

starting point. If it was a matte painting then the

use of photographic textures would be the next

step, as well as cleaner edges and greater use

of the selection tool.

Serg SFor more from this artist visit:

http://deadlinestudios.com

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://deadlinestudios.com


by Ignacio Bazan Lazcano & Joel Carlo

chapter 9“Robot Scrap Yard”


Speed Painting Robot Scrap Yard


When I was approached to create this speed

painting, I initially began with a slightly different

idea than what the final version turned out to

be. My original concept was to have a set of

characters digging through a pile of junk in a

scrap yard, in a somewhat typical layout and

setting. As with most of my illustrations, I usually

work things out as I do them, and most of my

images usually never turn out exactly the way

they’re started. While I didn’t deviate too much

from the original concept, I feel the final image

does have a bit more of a science-fiction flair

to it.

I began this image with an extremely rough

sketch done on paper (Fig.01). By my own

admission, I’m the absolute worst when it

comes to sketching! It’s not so much that I’m

necessarily bad at it, I’m just extremely lazy

and I like to work everything out as I paint. The

most important thing at this point for me, was to

establish a rough layout for the scene. Once this

was achieved, I moved on to laying down colour

and values. I did this by setting the properties of



Robot Scrap Yard Speed Paintingthe sketch layer to Multiply mode and creating

a new layer underneath to paint on (Fig.02).

Here I roughed out some colour ideas and some

quick values to gauge a little bit of what the

depth of the scene would look like. In this case,

I felt the characters were a bit too prominent in

the scene, so I adjusted their size in the sketch

layer and I added the crane silhouette from a set

of industrial cityscape brushes for Photoshop

(Fig.03).

Although I liked the way things were moving,

I decided to experiment a little with some

more colour ideas and the overall mood of the

image. I thought that maybe looking for robot

parts during a stormy night scene would really

emphasise just how crappy the characters’ line

of work could be (Fig.04). I knew sooner or

later I’d have to start working on details for the

scrap yard, so I turned to ZBrush for a little help.

The great thing about ZBrush (apart from being

an incredible modelling application) is it can

also be used to create “greebles” (Fig.05a and

Fig.05b). For those who don’t know what that is,

a “greeble” is a way of creating intricate surface

detail on an object without a whole bunch of

complicated modelling. In this case, I used some

simple cylinder shapes and added a default

texture to them. I then masked the object based

on the texture’s value intensity and extracted the

shapes using inflate deformation. From here,

I imported the greeble renders into Photoshop

and applied them to my image using a mixture

of layering and adjustment techniques. I also

began to work on additional details, including

the building to the left, crane lights, and metal

slab in the centre of the scene (Fig.06).




At this point I felt the image was becoming a

bit too dark and muted, so I decided to work in

some colour, beginning with the sky (Fig.07).

The effect I was aiming for was along the lines

of the same lighting you would expect to see

during the magic hour of an evening. I liked

the way the brighter colours contrasted against

the silhouettes and also the way they gave the

image a less-claustrophobic feel. Satisfied, I

decided to stick with this new colour scheme

and worked it into the rest of the image (Fig.08).

I also added additional detailing to the crane as

I felt it looked a bit skimpy and a bit too modern

for the image’s overall theme.

Pausing for a moment to reflect on the work

I had completed, I quickly realised that there

were some issues with the positioning of the

silhouetted characters. It was apparent that

this part of the image wasn’t clear, so I decided

to shrink the characters down further and add

some sort of utility vehicle, which helped add

a bit more clarity to this section of the image

(Fig.09). I also realised that, at this point, the

image itself was completely void of anything

resembling an actual robot, and although it

appeared to look like a scrap yard I may not

have done the best job of translating the idea

of it being a “robot scrap yard” as I could have.

Adding the robot at the side of the building

(although admittedly last minute) was something

I felt brought the idea home a bit better.

From this point on, it was a simple matter of

refining the image. Detailing on the utility vehicle

as well as certain areas along the metallic slab

helped tighten the image a bit more (Fig.10).

After a few Level adjustments and some colour

correction, I considered this painting finished.

Overall, this image took roughly five hours

to complete... hardly a “speed” painting by

some standards, but extremely fun either way.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this piece

as it did give me the opportunity to get out of

my normal painting habits and allowed me


to experiment a bit. I hope you enjoyed this

walkthrough and if you have any questions or

comments, please feel free to contact me any

time!

Joel Carlo For more from this artist visit:

www.joelcarlo.net

Or contact:

[email protected]

http://www.joelcarlo.net




Created In:Adobe Photoshop CS3

The best thing about speed painting is that it

doesn’t limit your freedom. It also allows you to

put whatever comes into your mind first, rather

than thinking too much. It is pure energy and

movement, and it shows the artist’s mood! So

for this tutorial I had the intention of not being

so technical about showing the development

of the image, and to instead demonstrate the

advantages that this freedom offers.

As a first step I painted in greyscale with rough

lines to develop the general concept. At this

stage I paid particular attention to the light

and shade, focusing the image at the point

of reading. Everything has to fit in, little by

little; you don’t have to worry too much about

polishing things up – everything just has to flow

naturally (Fig.01).

Here I plunged into the colour! I already had

things defined well enough in my mind to start

working in colour at this stage, and I didn’t have

to worry about whether I’d made an accurate

calculation with the perspective or if I had the

shapes of objects right – I just threw myself into

the inaccuracy and vagueness of it all! I didn’t

want anything to stop me going onto the next

step (I believe that the best way to speed paint

is to learn rules well enough in order to break

them easily!). To colour the greyscale image I

use the “Colorize” option (Ctrl + U) (Fig.02).

In order to choose the colours for your scenes,

the main thing you have to consider is if it is by

day or by night; if you are in a closed room with

artificial light or if you just want to apply colours

as and how you wish. It all depends on the story

you want to tell through your image!



Robot Scrap Yard Speed Painting

subtly so that it goes unnoticed and adapts

better to your image (Fig.06).

In order to give a little more light to the whole

drawing I created a new layer, applying some

brightness and contrast (Fig.07).

Once I had the atmosphere and colour

established in general, I started with the step I

like most: “scraping”. I named it thus, because

With my basic colour established, I started to

define the space better by adding a touch more

light and a few more shadows. The drawing

leads you and tells you where to move along.

I believe that there is some sort of “chat” that

goes on between an artist and his masterpiece

(Fig.03)!

In order to brighten up the front light, I put a

yellow overlay layer all around the points of

interest. This is just like magic! What often

makes a drawing look beautiful and spectacular,

is its approach and brightness (Fig.04).

To give the drawing better texture, I used a

single photograph and then leaned it over the

whole canvas. I then de-saturated the photo

into greyscale in order for it to be later adapted

to any surface of the drawing. You only have

to place the texture layer wherever you need it,

and set it to Overlay (Fig.05).

I don’t usually use textures in my images, but

it always helps if you can add some additional

elements or tints to your paintings. Try not to

overuse textures and use them with an opacity

of 50%, or if not you can also erase the sides

to work with volumes you have to scrape each

element of the drawing (Fig.08). Doing this

gives me speed and, at the same time, a certain

amount of texture to objects.

So I started to work on defining the volumes of

each element. You might wonder why things

with spots and rays make drawings look better;

well to understand this it is necessary to know

values, materials and volumes. The ideal and




perfect exercise for this is the study of geometric

figures. This is why, with only a small dot of light

and a spot, an object can be understood. The

incorrect application of light can distort or flatten

an object. The most common mistake is to put

the brightest light on the contour of the form,

flattening the object (this generally happens in

cylindrical forms) (Fig.09).

It was not necessary for me to use any other

images as references for this piece, as I wanted

everything to come out of my head – to feel free!

I also didn’t use too many layer effects either,

except for the Overlay of the light. My intention

was to make it more “plastic” (Fig.10).

When I noticed that I had almost finished my

work, I realised that it could be better. Therefore

I added an additional structure in the middle

to get some extra depth in the composition.

Finally, I made the spots that interested me the

most stand out, by using a higher intensity of

light (Fig.11).

The best way to apply this technique with

looseness, as well as accuracy, is to draw

untiringly (Fig.12).

I hope that you like this piece and have found

something useful from the tutorial walkthrough!

Ignacio Bazán LazcanoFor more from this artist visit:

www.neisbeis.deviantart.com

Or contact:

[email protected]




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IntroductionThe Matte Painting eBook is a 39-page guide showing you, over 5 parts, the basics of Matte Painting, whilst also giving some more advanced techniques in the final chapter. We asked industry professional, Tiberius Viris to take an interesting photograph and to create an easy-to-follow set of tutorials about how to add varying conditions to this – or any other – scene.

This eBook is aimed at beginners, as well as those who already have some experience with matte painting – advanced knowledge of Photoshop is required in both cases. If you are not familiar with adjustment layers, layer masks or channels (RGB), you should read about these topics prior to starting this tutorial.

Chapter 1: Day to Night Chapter 2: Sunshine to Snow Chapter 3: Storm Chapter 4: Fire and Smoke Chapter 5: Tips and Tricks

Speed Paint Volume2

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