On Saturday, I had a friend, Mike Mays drop by for a drawing session where we went over various concept art techniques. I did a quick 1 hour demo exercise to build up painting skills.
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| Credit Photo Reference: Craig Hart |
For the exercise we discussed how color theory can be applied to push the depth and focus of a painting. The snowy landscape is a classic example of the use of complementary colors to help separate the various planes in the image. During the exercise, I explained that for starter it is ok to use the color extractor tool, but ultimately the goal is to be able to locate colors just by using your observational skills. I then showed the various brush shapes used for the painting. I stayed mainly with the default PS round and crunchy brushes, though I did use a custom cloud brush for the smoky mist at the top.
Mike has a comic book illustration background but wanted to move toward the painterly concept art style. I recommended that he study the "Color and Light" book by James Gurney and Noah Bradley's painting channel on YouTube. To get better at these pieces is to familiarize yourself with fundamentals until they become second nature.