Digital Painting 101


Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 1:48 pm 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.


10 Responses to “Digital Painting 101”

  1. 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

  2. Facebook User

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

  3. 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.

  4. Facebook User

    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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Facebook User

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

  8. 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.

  9. Facebook User

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

  10. 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

5 Trackbacks/Pingbacks to “Digital Painting 101”

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    [...] 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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My name is Jamie Noguchi. I'm a freelance illustrator and this is my Monster Cutie. Check out the about section for more information on the site. For more about me, poke around the "Other Works by Jamie" links.

Monster Cutie updates once a week on Mondays. If you have any ideas for tutorials, articles, and features or would like to contribute, please contact me at azmnews@gmail.com.

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