Tutorials

The Freedom Of Limitations

By Chris Oatley

Here’s a new portrait study in a digital “scribble” technique with which I’ve been experimenting.

[ download the high res version ]

I used a very limited number of values.

…and if my Photoshop Brush Settings had been any simpler, I could have done it in Mario Paint.

100% Opacity. 100% Flow. No feathering. No soft edges.

Obviously, there’s no color.

The expressiveness came only from the “Scribbly” Brush Tip and the physical gesture of each brush stroke.

[ download my Scribble Brushes ]

If you’re feeling frustrated or overwhelmed with your paintings, consider setting up some extreme limitations for yourself.

I believe you’ll find the limitations quite freeing.

Try eliminating certain aspects from the process in order to create some mental space for greater focus or creativity.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes…

Easier Edge Control For Digital Painters (Part 2): Rotate Brushes In Photoshop With Custom Wacom Settings

By Chris Oatley

In part one of this tutorial, I explained how to combine custom Brush Presets, Keyboard Shortcuts and Actions to quickly and easily rotate your Photoshop Brushes as you paint.

That trick alone can make your brush technique smoother, more intuitive and more like traditional painting.

However, there are two points of friction that can be relieved if you have access to a Wacom Tablet or Cintiq with programmable ExpressKeys or a Touch Ring.

In this tutorial we will:

Set up the Touch Ring and/ or ExpressKeys to rotate your brush.
Create a Radial Menu for quick selection of your Rotating Brushes.

Smoother, more intuitive digital painting techniques are just minutes away…

Easier Edge Control For Digital Painters (Part 1): Rotate Brushes In Photoshop With Hotkeys

By Chris Oatley

Detail_Head_of_a_Capril_Girl — Note the beautiful, atmospheric edges in this detail of Sargent’s ‘Capri Girl.’

Interpretive edges are one of the most appealing and beautiful aspects of oil painting and watercolor techniques.

Edge control isn’t easy in traditional painting but when it comes to digital painting in Photoshop, edge control has been almost mechanically impossible.

The angle of a brush stroke is essential for sophisticated edges.

Before I designed the workflow revealed in this tutorial, I knew of only two disappointing solutions to this problem:

1.) You could spend up to $100 on a special stylus with rotation capability like the Intuos4 Art Pen (or the 6D Art Pen for older tablets and Cintiqs).

This option is really expensive considering that the rotation control isn’t always dependable.

The Brush Tip Angle Control in Photoshop — The Brush Tip Angle Control inside the Brush Settings Panel in Photoshop

2.) You could constantly click over to the Brush Settings Panel and rotate the Brush Tip Angle manually.

This option is clunky and incredibly disruptive to your workflow.

Today I’ll show you how to set up a custom rotation control for your Photoshop Brushes so you can quickly and smoothly change the brush angle as you’re painting.

Part One of this tutorial will work in just about any version of Photoshop. This alone can really smooth out your digital painting workflow and save you tons of time.

Part Two requires Photoshop Actions and a Wacom Tablet or Cintiq with the programmable ExpressKeys, Touch Ring or Radial Menu.

Read on for easier edge control!

The Hudson River Painters Vs. The Texture Monster :: Digital Painting Tutorial

By Chris Oatley

'Among The Sierra Nevada Mountains' by Albert Bierstadt — The painters of The Hudson River School used tons of texture but they kept it under control. [ Painting: ‘Among The Sierra Nevada Mountains’ by Albert Bierstadt ]

The Texture Monster is on the hunt.

We all must remain watchful for no painting is completely safe.

When The Texture Monster attacks, it will SMASH your subtle values, PUMMEL your perspective, SKEW your sense of scale and CONFUSE your compositions.

…unless you trap it and tame it.

So how can you protect your paintings?

You will need three ancient weapons to trap and tame The Texture Monster.

In this post I’ll teach you how to use these ancient weapons with a horror story, a history lesson, a video tutorial and a Downloadable PDF that you can share, print, load onto your mobile device etc…

So read on.

…if you dare.

How To Write Great Character Introductions

By Chris Oatley

I just watched Disney’s Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs for the first time in years.*

I found new appreciation for this legendary film during the scene where the Seven Dwarfs come home from work to find that their woodland cottage has been invaded by a potentially-malicious housecleaner. The suspect is, of course, the obliging 1930’s ideal-housewife-in-a-princess-dress known as Snow White.

The audience knows about Snow, but the Dwarfs don’t. Walt Disney and Company masterfully introduce us to seven characters at once – which is a challenge most storytellers would work around or cheat on.

How did they pull it off? By creating a movie inside of the movie.

As the film continues to age, the temptation to dismiss it on account of the antiquated humor and political incorrectness grows. But despite the misogyny, the film is a fine specimen of visual storytelling.

Today, I’ll share one lesson that we can learn from this Disney Classic – How To Write GREAT Character Introductions.
[Read more…] about How To Write Great Character Introductions

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