110: Useless Painting Guide
It's not good if I start this post saying that I'm scared, right?
Because I am, but I won't give up, you'll get your useless painting guide made by Lex, just because!
First of all, if you haven't already, go read pamkips' painting guide which is definitely better than this one could possibly be! Plus, she's a genius and a lovely girl and a ultratalented one so go. NOW.
If you've already and you're still here (Good Lord, you're brave!), thank you, and I hope that you might find some of my rants useful in some way.
But don't bet on it!
THE BRUSHES!
Okay let's start with the easy part, I have cs4, and I use the default rounded brushes, which, I suppose, are in every photoshop ever released.
As you can see, these are the veeeery basic tool for painting (even Pam's said it so yay!).
HOW DO I MANAGE:
badly, but as I told you, I've prepared some videos to show the progress from cap to icon, the videos are long-ish (15m) so they might get boring a bit in the middle, I'm sorry there's no audio but if you watch them full screen you should be able to see everything, but still, I'm writing you some basic stuff you might want at hand:
paintedicon from Lex CCC. on Vimeo.
I usually paint on a 100*100 canvas because I'm stupid, in the video though, I've worked on 500*500 canvases because it was better. If you decide to start painting, you might want to try working on a larger canvas, just because it gives you more room to play around with brush sizes and such. In this particular video, I've removed-repainted the left side of the background because I wanted it to be very clean to recolour mostly, but even because that's one of my favourite way to remove backgrounds (If I can avoid, I never cut away subjects! Examples:
When you see new layers popping into the video, it's my usual preparation steps: copy all layer, paste -> multiply or screen if the cap needs it and such. Not going to repeat it all over, I'm sure if you've stumbled upon one of my other tutorials, you know exactly how I prepare my base.
If you're wondering WHY I've used a pen-pressuder opacity to repaint the sides of my background is easily explained: I like the ligher marks that are left behind; both layers (orange and green) are set on multiply.
In the video I use different brushes to paint white and black stripes over my icon, the brushes should be in the default pack too, the only different setting is that I select the voice: "ANGLE JITTER-Pen Pressure" in my brushes panel and remove the "Pen pressure" from the size jitter, just because I like them better when they've the same size. But you should try and see what you can actually do with other brushes!
As you may notice, I use the usual adjustments layer in between steps because I find it easier to achieve a decent colouring instead of just painting boring white lines and than recolouring them after my colouring process. This way you can pick colours from your canvas as you go; as a rule though, I try to use always colour a couple shade lighter than my actual pick on the canvas, this way the lines will stand out!
The final outcome of this video though is this:
ANOTHER FUCKING VIDEO FOR YOUR OWN PLEASURE
iconza3 from Lex CCC. on Vimeo.
Okay this one is totally random I didn't even know why I shot it, anyway, I'm working on a cap I love but never actually managed to use in her full potential. I've recoloured part of the background just because I like the idea of split background, though, if you want to be ~precise, you should always consider the impact your colour will have on the subject. Since I'm not precise, I don't give a damn!
OH, YES, I use the colour fill layer to paint, that means that I invert the mask on the layer and then paint it over. Sorry in the video the mask just turns black for no reason, but I don't know where to look in the menues to do that, so if you're as stupid as me, click on your mask and hit ctrl+i, and it will turn black.
#YESTHATDUMBIAM
OUTCOME:
INFORMATION YOU DON'T REALLY NEED.
Since this guide sucks already, let me give you some other useless informations; I do paint hair strand on most of my icons, not only because I like doing that, but sometimes because using bold colours just eats up borders, not only on hairs, but on faces too, these are a few examples of "let's get your nose back" icons:
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1) her profile was eaten up by the light so I used a darker brush to repaint it (with an enormous zoom)
2) the left side of her face was basically gone, so I've defined it back.
3) SAME, but here you can see I've used a brush coloured as the lighter part of her hair (a tiny brush, probably a 2px)
4) SAME, forehead and shirt!
Now, if you know me, you know I'm no painter, but I LOVE using stupid colour, so I just made another video for your viewing pleasure with some WEIRD colouring, I though about doing something like these:
Back then, the #4 icon has been called out on anon icon because it was HORRIBLE and GREEN and horrbile. True, but you know what? Who cares? It has been my default for ages because I loved it so much! Anyway, this is the WEIRD way to paint, you forget about your original colours and focus on giving what you want! Which is the best part of doing this!
Just remember: DO THIS FOR YOUR OWN PLEASURE and you'll be fine!
painting from Lex CCC. on Vimeo.
FINAL COMMENTS
We're almost over, if you're still here, you're my hero and I love you so much!
Now, final things you might find handy:
- if you paint on a 100x100 canvas, use tiny brushes (2-3px) to paint hairs, and lines over your subjets, because, believe me, bigger brushes tends to make messy huge lines. DO NOT WANT.
- if you feel insecure to paint straight away, use the colour fill layer, instead of an empty layer. I do that most of the time, especially when I want to use different/bold colours
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1) the light blue lines over her eyeberow, mouth and hair were totally random until I put a light texture on them
2) the background has been repainted and I've used light blue (faces) and purple (hands, hair, clothes) lines to give it a more intense look
3) those light blue lines all over hair and face.
4) her face, and clothes have a dark pink line
5) WHITE LINES wouldn't you tell?
- you need to move around your brushes setting because mine probably won't work for you. I honestly think that I've just recently found my perfect match, especially for the smallest lines. I struggled with them a lot before, not I'm getting better, especially after raising my minimum diameter setting!
- TRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
And this is the end. Now, please, go and read Pam's guide and flail all over her marvellous person and do stuff.
If you've questions though, I'm here!