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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@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.
[...] night I recorded a digital painting tutorial/demo of this cutie guy for Monster Cutie. I’ve been meaning to do more with my tutorial site and now I think I might be on the right [...]
[...] parenthesis. Unfortunately, some of the most useful shortcuts are not accessible so easily. In the Digital Painting 101 video, I used Space Bar for the Hand Tool and Option for the Eye Dropper (I would say those two are [...]
[...] PDRTJS_settings_272600_post_172 = { "id" : "272600", "unique_id" : "wp-post-172", "title" : "Cool+Blog", "item_id" : "_post_172", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Flaughingphoenix737.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F09%2Fcool-blog%2F" } I recently came across a really interesting blog called Monster Cutie that has this immensely helpful tutorial on digital painting: http://monstercutie.com/blog/2009/03/27/digital-painting-101/ [...]
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March 30th, 2009 - 7:25 am
Great tutorial, thanks a lot! I’m definitely gonna try out the film grain, and I never knew how layer masks worked before XD
March 30th, 2009 - 8:27 am
Ah yes, layer masks can be quite powerful when you get the hang of them.
March 30th, 2009 - 8:04 pm
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.
March 30th, 2009 - 8:52 pm
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.
April 4th, 2009 - 6:23 am
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.
December 18th, 2009 - 8:13 pm
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.
December 19th, 2009 - 6:20 pm
Go to Window>Arrange>New Window. It should be right above “Minimize” in the Arrange menu.
December 24th, 2009 - 3:56 am
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.
December 24th, 2009 - 9:26 am
Hey John, dropped you a comment on your DA account. I’m Angryzenmaster over there.
December 28th, 2009 - 5:04 pm
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
May 12th, 2010 - 8:12 pm
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.
May 12th, 2010 - 10:54 pm
@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.
June 23rd, 2010 - 2:29 am
Very nice post. Thanks.
July 6th, 2010 - 8:55 am
Thank you for this really good tutorial!
It helped me understand how to get started with digital painting and some techniques to try.
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