Concept art question

[toukairin]

Hi, I have a question I hope you pros will help... I came across alot of people saying they adjust the opacity in PS to do concept art.... do you pros adjust the flow of the brush as well, and what is the advisable opacity I should use?

[Mat Kaminski]

Hi, I have a question I hope you pros will help... I came across alot of people saying they adjust the opacity in PS to do concept art.... do you pros adjust the flow of the brush as well, and what is the advisable opacity I should use?

I HIGHLY recommend you start with 100% opacity and 'block' your shapes in. I'd even go so far as to recommend you start with greyscale and then work your way into color. Use the greys to find interesting areas of light for your painting

Once you get that taken care of, I usually drop my opacity to about 10% or so and really slowly blend the colors together. Some exercises you can try out to get this to work right would be to take one color on one side of the canvas (say... green) and then paint another (blue?) on the opposite side. Get them to touch in the middle, now without using any other tool than the paintbrush, turn down your opacity and slowly try and blend the colors together.

Oh, and if you don't know where the picture I'm linking is... here's how to set your window back to default:

Window (at the menu at the top) -> Workspace -> Basic

Now when you click on the brush tool, you should get the following at the top of the window...

[toukairin]

Thanx Matte Art... do you also adjust your flow?

[Mat Kaminski]

No, I don't really. I use the brush properties to determine things like that. As well as tablet sensitivity.

[Reedux]

To each his own!

Personally I adjust them accordingly.
Hard surface vs soft surface, Hard/soft edge, light to dark transition.

You get a smoother transition when lowering flow and opacity.
You can of course get the same effect using a light touch with your wacom, but I tend to get cramps if I have to focus that much in my pressure so I'd rather gently brush it in using lower flow and opacity.

For really soft stuff.. I tend to have like 80% opacity and 19% flow.

Try it and see how you like it.
Make one portrait using 100% and one using those stated above and see which you like the best =)

[bizarre]

it's not so much a matter of changing your entire workflow as it is learning that there's a really fast way to do it.

the number keys, 1-0, will change your brush's flow or opacity instantly. i say or because it typically alters the last selected adjustment.

so, 3= 30%, 33= 33%, 0= 100%, 9= 90% and so on.

try it. you'll like it. I promise.