A painting from the moon
A painting from the moon SketchBook Pro tutorial By Patipat Asavasena
Introduction Welcome to my SketchBook Pro tutorial. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate my workflow and technique that I use to create my artwork in a step-by-step manner and talk about the tools that I use often in this application. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Patipat Asavasena (as known as 'Asuka111'). I'm a freelance artist currently living in Nonthaburi, Thailand. You can see more of my work at my deviantART page (asuka111.deviantart.com), my website (www.asuka111.net) or my Facebook fanpage. (www.facebook.com/ asuka111art) After I've got this assignment from Autodesk, I start with thinking about the subject and its story. The story behind this image is my old idea and I think it's the right time to bring it out. Here is the brief:
A brief story In the future, Earth's environment grow worse due to the highly increase in population and technology. Some land become inhabitant. Human begins to evacuate to space. There is one girl who dreams about visiting the ground of planet earth once in a lifetime. She has lived on the moon since her birth and only watches the earth from afar. It is almost an impossible dream because she has a weak body which can't stand against the cruel atmosphere on the earth. She can only imagine about the earth right now, but shall her dream come true some day?
Visualize the idea A painting in zero-gravity is the idea the pop up in my mind. I feel that it should make an interesting image. So, I draw 3 - 4 small thumbnail sketches to visualize my idea and then choose the strongest one after compare them together. Then, I roughly redraw that chosen sketch again in a piece of A5 paper.
Clean up sketch Scan the rough sketch from previous step at 300dpi and import it into SketchBook Pro. Then, create a new layer over the sketch and redraw the entire image. I also add more detail and correct the character's proportion. When I don't have any idea about things looks like, I try to find a reference. In this case, it's the hand pose, so I pose my hand in front of the mirror as a reference.
Clean up sketch
Inking Create a new layer for inking and decrease the opacity of clean up sketch layer (from previous step) at the same time. Then, I use Pencil tool to draw a clean line on that layer. TIP: If the pressure of brush doesn't feel just right, you can adjust it by go to Edit>Stylus Responsiveness
(above) Adjust Stylus Responsiveness
Create the colorscript Save the completed line art in separated file and then create a colorscript before actually paint the image. I quickly put some basic color to test the color scheme idea. You can create many colorscript and try various color combinations as much as you want, and then select the best one that works with your concept as a key visual for the later step.
Paint the background (phrase one) I start with a large broad brush to quickly paint the large area of the background. Then, I decrease the brush size in half and put some shadow. I don't stick with the details in this step, but just roughly painting the whole image.
Simple shade / setup the layers In this step, I divide the image into various parts (like character's hair, body, cloth and background) by creating a layer for each part and then put a solid shade of color in each layer. I create my own custom hard brush for this.
(above) Simple shading
Creating new Custom brush
You can create custom brush by left click and drag the gesture to New Brush command and then select the Paintbrush from the appearing dialog. New brush icon will appear in the Brush Palette. To adjust the settings, you can simply double click the brush's icon and the adjustment dialog will appear.
Brush Customization dialog
Double click at Brush icon to customize
Flat Paintbrush
Round Paintbrush
Pressure-size Paintbrush
Paint character's hair I use large Airbrush tool to paint soft shadow tone and then use a Flat Paintbrush to define the shadow area. Finally, I use a Pressure-size Paintbrush to refine the hair steak and highlight.
I recommend turning on Lock layer transparency in Layers window before painting. It prevents the paint to bleed outside the transparency area of the current layer so you don’t have to worry about the edge.
Paint the face I begin with painting the white highlight on character’s face and body, and then I use large soft Airbrush to lightly paint the red blush on nose fingers and cheeks. Then, create a new Multiply layer for painting the shadow. Eyes are important so I need to spend more time to them. I use a small Round Paintbrush to clean up the details.
Paint the cloth Use a large soft Airbrush to paint some shadow first and then I use a Flat Paintbrush to define the shadow’s edge. You can hold ‘/’ key and drag to adjust the angle of brush. It’s very convenient for painting the cloth.
Paint the background (phrase two) Back to background again, but this time I pay attention to the detail more than the first phrase. I use medium size Paintbrush to clean up the edge of background’s elements and use soft Airbrush to blend the color.
Minor details In this step, I add more details to the palette, floating color blob and paintbrush in character’s hand by using same technique as previous step. (Paint the simple color and lock layer transparency.) Then, I create an add layer and use large soft Airbrush to paint the glowing light effect.
Touch up and finish I merge all layers together and then use a very small Round Paintbrush to add tiny details in the image. (For example: rim light, eyes highlight, small floating particle, etc.) Before I’m done, I use Mirror canvas command to flip the image horizontally for checking any error. Then, I use Lasso tool to select and adjust the position of character’s mouth a little.
Introduction Welcome to my SketchBook Pro tutorial. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate my workflow and technique that I use to create my artwork in a step-by-step manner and talk about the tools that I use often in this application. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Patipat Asavasena (as known as 'Asuka111'). I'm a freelance artist currently living in Nonthaburi, Thailand. You can see more of my work at my deviantART page (asuka111.deviantart.com), my website (www.asuka111.net) or my Facebook fanpage. (www.facebook.com/ asuka111art) After I've got this assignment from Autodesk, I start with thinking about the subject and its story. The story behind this image is my old idea and I think it's the right time to bring it out. Here is the brief:
A brief story In the future, Earth's environment grow worse due to the highly increase in population and technology. Some land become inhabitant. Human begins to evacuate to space. There is one girl who dreams about visiting the ground of planet earth once in a lifetime. She has lived on the moon since her birth and only watches the earth from afar. It is almost an impossible dream because she has a weak body which can't stand against the cruel atmosphere on the earth. She can only imagine about the earth right now, but shall her dream come true some day?
Visualize the idea A painting in zero-gravity is the idea the pop up in my mind. I feel that it should make an interesting image. So, I draw 3 - 4 small thumbnail sketches to visualize my idea and then choose the strongest one after compare them together. Then, I roughly redraw that chosen sketch again in a piece of A5 paper.
Clean up sketch Scan the rough sketch from previous step at 300dpi and import it into SketchBook Pro. Then, create a new layer over the sketch and redraw the entire image. I also add more detail and correct the character's proportion. When I don't have any idea about things looks like, I try to find a reference. In this case, it's the hand pose, so I pose my hand in front of the mirror as a reference.
Clean up sketch
Inking Create a new layer for inking and decrease the opacity of clean up sketch layer (from previous step) at the same time. Then, I use Pencil tool to draw a clean line on that layer. TIP: If the pressure of brush doesn't feel just right, you can adjust it by go to Edit>Stylus Responsiveness
(above) Adjust Stylus Responsiveness
Create the colorscript Save the completed line art in separated file and then create a colorscript before actually paint the image. I quickly put some basic color to test the color scheme idea. You can create many colorscript and try various color combinations as much as you want, and then select the best one that works with your concept as a key visual for the later step.
Paint the background (phrase one) I start with a large broad brush to quickly paint the large area of the background. Then, I decrease the brush size in half and put some shadow. I don't stick with the details in this step, but just roughly painting the whole image.
Simple shade / setup the layers In this step, I divide the image into various parts (like character's hair, body, cloth and background) by creating a layer for each part and then put a solid shade of color in each layer. I create my own custom hard brush for this.
(above) Simple shading
Creating new Custom brush
You can create custom brush by left click and drag the gesture to New Brush command and then select the Paintbrush from the appearing dialog. New brush icon will appear in the Brush Palette. To adjust the settings, you can simply double click the brush's icon and the adjustment dialog will appear.
Brush Customization dialog
Double click at Brush icon to customize
Flat Paintbrush
Round Paintbrush
Pressure-size Paintbrush
Paint character's hair I use large Airbrush tool to paint soft shadow tone and then use a Flat Paintbrush to define the shadow area. Finally, I use a Pressure-size Paintbrush to refine the hair steak and highlight.
I recommend turning on Lock layer transparency in Layers window before painting. It prevents the paint to bleed outside the transparency area of the current layer so you don’t have to worry about the edge.
Paint the face I begin with painting the white highlight on character’s face and body, and then I use large soft Airbrush to lightly paint the red blush on nose fingers and cheeks. Then, create a new Multiply layer for painting the shadow. Eyes are important so I need to spend more time to them. I use a small Round Paintbrush to clean up the details.
Paint the cloth Use a large soft Airbrush to paint some shadow first and then I use a Flat Paintbrush to define the shadow’s edge. You can hold ‘/’ key and drag to adjust the angle of brush. It’s very convenient for painting the cloth.
Paint the background (phrase two) Back to background again, but this time I pay attention to the detail more than the first phrase. I use medium size Paintbrush to clean up the edge of background’s elements and use soft Airbrush to blend the color.
Minor details In this step, I add more details to the palette, floating color blob and paintbrush in character’s hand by using same technique as previous step. (Paint the simple color and lock layer transparency.) Then, I create an add layer and use large soft Airbrush to paint the glowing light effect.
Touch up and finish I merge all layers together and then use a very small Round Paintbrush to add tiny details in the image. (For example: rim light, eyes highlight, small floating particle, etc.) Before I’m done, I use Mirror canvas command to flip the image horizontally for checking any error. Then, I use Lasso tool to select and adjust the position of character’s mouth a little.
