Digital Painting 101

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Jamie

In our first proper video tutorial/demonstration, we go over the very basics of digital painting. From a loose digital sketch to finishing touches, this hour and ten minute lesson should get you ready to just dive in and paint your own Monster Cuties. Oh, and please excuse the farting. I must have had some beans with dinner.

This was captured in real time in HD so it looks great fullscreen.  Enjoy.

PS – Oh, I totally forgot his little hair tuft! Ah well. Next time I’ll do a hairy monster or something.

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  • http://carnivorous-cow.co.uk/ BonzaiRob

    Great tutorial, thanks a lot! I’m definitely gonna try out the film grain, and I never knew how layer masks worked before XD

  • http://www.monstercutie.com Jamie

    Ah yes, layer masks can be quite powerful when you get the hang of them.

  • http://webpages.uah.edu/~reimerd torsoboy

    Great first demo, Jami. I look forward to more of them. Mayhaps you could do some shorter “bit demos” or something where you just focus on one particular thing (like the custom brushes you mentioned for a later demo). Not on any particular painting or anything, but just something to where you can go into depth on one little thing and not bog down a larger demo.

    Anyways, enjoyed the Bob Ross stuff too (“happy little trees”). He’s my bad habit. I know I shouldn’t watch him! But he’s just so entertaining! Plus he has a rather maniacal laugh, which is disturbing.

  • http://www.monstercutie.com Jamie

    Oh yes, I plan on doing more little tips and such as time permits. I’m also getting a better mic so I don’t sound so freaking tinny.

    At my previous job, we used to watch Bob Ross on this big screen tele in the break room for lunch. It got to the point where it was really the highlight of my day.

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  • Seeth

    This was really, really helpful. Thank you!

    Your simple monster sketch, short-cut explanations, brush set-up, and the long-form HD recording were exactly what I was looking for but couldn’t find anywhere else. It would be selfish of you not to stop what you’re doing and record another one immediately, for my benefit.

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  • Johnny

    This maybe a really dumb question, but how do you make that 2nd window that shows your changes in the larger work area in realtime? I for the life of me can’t seem to find it.

  • http://www.monstercutie.com Jamie

    Go to Window>Arrange>New Window. It should be right above “Minimize” in the Arrange menu.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Brown/586700620 John Brown

    Hi Jamie,

    I’m fairly new to your site and I really enjoyed this tutorial and gave it a go because I’ve been wanting to learn a good way to get that “painterly” look and I just love the whole Monster Cutie idea.

    Here is the Cutie that I ended up with from rewatching this Tut and working along with you: http://malakh7.deviantart.com/art/My-Monster-Cutie-147832108

    I would love your feedback and suggestions if you have any.

  • http://www.monstercutie.com Jamie

    Hey John, dropped you a comment on your DA account. I’m Angryzenmaster over there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Brown/586700620 John Brown

    Wow I am in awe at how much watching your video walk-troughs has improved my work! You can see, in this WIP of a photo-reference portrait of Kevin Smith, how I am really learning how to play around with color. My line-work still needs a lot of work your techniques combines with what I have learned up till now is really paying off.

    http://malakh7.deviantart.com/art/Kevin-Smith-Portrait-WIP-148317892

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  • Joey

    I love the video so far, and as I’m trying to follow along I find some things hard to understand. I am new to photoshop (essentially bought it and installed it, drew some lines and played with stamps, brushes, effects) but have no idea what other things mean. you do an excellent job of explaining things but some things don’t make sense to me. One is at the beginning, (and this is in all tutorials I have watched so far), you say that the opacity is turned “on”. I have tried to draw out the same light lines that darken the more you trace over them but cant get it to turn out the same and figure it has to do with the opacity. i have adjusted the drop down menu at the top to about 30% opacity and get the same result you are showing, but on your video you have yours set at 100%. just wondering if there is another setting I am over looking or if this will yield the same results.

    But great video! I would like to see one where it goes even farther back in basics where you show different tools and settings and explain what they would do and help accomplish with a digital illustrators mindset instead of an average photoshop user. I would be completely fine if the video did not produce a finished project as long as it shows what tools can do and what settings are most used and the outcome of using them.

  • http://monstercutie.com Jamie

    @Joey, I’ve been meaning to get back to doing more tuts, but things have been very busy. You’ve given me a great idea though of going back to basic basic stuff. I’ve been using Photoshop for so long that sometimes things that are second nature at this point may be really complex if you’re just starting out. So I will keep that in mind when I do a relaunch of this blog.

  • http://www.fringefx.net Graphic Forums

    Very nice post. Thanks.

  • Chris

    Thank you for this really good tutorial!
    It helped me understand how to get started with digital painting and some techniques to try.

  • josh

    very cool, thanks for taking the time to record it. looking forward to more tips and tricks

  • http://twitter.com/ezzatyabdrahman Ezzaty

    may i have this pic to my blog ? i creadit u .. please..

  • http://ypcomic.com Jamie Noguchi

    Sure!

  • Jake

    Man, that was just what I needed to familiarize myself a little bit with digital painting! I followed along and got a halfway decent looking cutie monster, hehe. I used my mouse because I don’t have a tablet yet…boy, it’s awkward drawing with a mouse…oh well. :
    Thanks a lot! I’ll definitely be watching your other tutorials!

  • Pjotr

    Holy cow. I’ve been watching all kinds of tutorialtips and tricks videos for a few years now, and it’s rather sad that I haven’t ran into this one earlier. Unlike, like, 95% of the videos, you take your time to explain and show your process, instead of just saying thinks like “oh, we’ll just add some value here” and then the video goes to a 1000 times faster timelapse and then half of the video is just a still of the finished picture with some crappy music playing in the background, and that’s it.
    It also seemed that you were enjoying yourself while making this, your voice is clear and it’s nice to hear your thoughts about various matters. And a little fart humor never hurt anybody (not so sure about their sense of smell though).If I could, I would award all the Internets to you, sir. I’m going to watch the crap out of your stuff when I’ve got the time.

  • Jasperbakker1990

    I have the same problem. I just dont get it what settings you used and not showed us in the video. Please let us know.

  • Jasperbakker1990

    Oh i found out how. Its the pen pressure feature of the drawing tablet. If you use a mouse you will have to slide the opacity bar.

  • Hatstrosity

    Hey Jamie, do you have any other tutorials like this? I really loved this one, and want further instruction like this :-)

  • http://ypcomic.com Jamie Noguchi

    Haven’t done any more like this in a while.  I’ve been doing live streams on Thursday nights over at my justin.tv account which has some of this stuff.  I can answer any questions you might have during those sessions.  http://www.justin.tv/yellwoperil

  • Pigler

    LOVE IT MAN, thanks!

  • Joe

    Oh my gosh!! You turn your paper too?? I always get weird looks when I do that, I flip my paper around allll the time.