Lesson 14.2- Digital Painting

After learning the techniques of digital colour painting we had to put them into practice on a painting of an animal.

First I drew an outline of my animal drawing in the main features as well as some areas of bold colour. I did this on a new layer from my drawing and using a small, hard brush to create a clear outline. I then created a new layer for the colour, switching the opacity tool on and using a soft brush so I can blend the colours together. I started with one block of colour that represented the other colours as a base for my painting.

I then removed the original image from behind my painting and made it smaller to go at the top of the page. From this I used the eyedropper tool to pick out different colours that appear on my animal. I then painted on the base colour all the areas where this colour appeared. To blend it in I kept switching between the base colour and the added colour, using the eyedropper, to smooth the colours seamlessly together pressing lightly with my pen to overlay colours.

I then kept repeating this process to add in highlights and lowlights to my painting, overlaying all the colours so they work together. After a while I no longer needed my outline layer so I deleted this so I could see how my painting was building up behind the outline. Without the outline I added in more tones to create depth and suggest outlines for features. I I kept changing the size of my brush to add in smaller/ larger areas of colours. I used varying pen pressures to add different tones of the same colour to blend.

I think this painting is successful because I have used a range of colours to build up an interesting and colourful painting that accurately represents my original photo. I have blended the colours well so they work with each other. However in the original some areas of colour stand out more which suggests I have over blended in some areas; I need to add more varying tones and try and keep them in the blending process. As well as this the whole piece appears blurred as I have only used a soft brush. I need to finish the drawing by adding outlines and details with a small, hard brush. Although I will be able to improve these limitations as the painting is still unfinished.