(alenah´s) Demos & Step-by-step thread ..

[alenah]

hi, I am new to CA (been lurking for some time, finally decided to join too);

I thought I´d start a - kind of - demo/step-by-step thread of mine,
to share a few little demos (very simple, actually), painting steps or maybe some mini-tutorials or brush experiments that I´ve done and been posting in different forums/places for the last year or two;

(besides my regular illustrator´s and 2D-image-post-processing work, I´ve been working as a PS lecturer & author of tutorials/articles for some time, and got used to "record" - or at least capture some working stages of - almost everything I did, which I then used either as demo/illustration for my tutorials or as a project/teaching material for my students);
actually - not everything I´ve recorded (or will record) is worth posting here,
so I only will post some, a few of those little demos, from time to time, as I go ..
hopefully sharing them might be of some interest for someone here too ..
I am using Photoshop (my major) & Painter
(+ learning ZBrush, lately)

some of the demos are animated or real-time screen-captured *gifs or *movs
(though most of them are very short & simple, sometimes it may take some time to download, thanks for your patience);
hopefully everything will play ok,
a.

here´s a character concept - the Pirate - to start with ..








a creature concept (my CGS Open Figure Drawing Workshop entry) ..


& the technique I used for painting "organic" shapes ..
(painting & blending combined, Painter)


download: larger/a bit longer version here (*mov, cca 3MB) >>

+ testing similar (a bit different, though) technique


an old illustration - Dragon Embryo as I call it -
testing hyperrealistic-looking technique
(Painter, airbrush & blending techniques used)




download movie here, detailing - cca 3 min - pls note, big file! (*mov, cca 13 MB) >>

here´s demo of PS watercolor brushes I created
I posted more - incl. brushes - in a separate thread here at CA >>







and a little one, a bit more simple

[brather]

Hey. Thats cool.. Thanks..

[alenah]

brather, thanks!

some more ..
character concept (Painter X)








a (digital chalk) painting study (Painter X)



a few little, more stylized (medical illustration) demos, PS
(older illustrations I did back in 2007)












+ something really quick and simple (Painter X)




cheers,
thanks for visiting, a.

[alenah]

.. continued

a mouth study, stylized (PS)




Painter X




+ a couple of PS brush tests
just a simple value study for environment:



a bit more realistic attempt ..

[alenah]

.. here´s a few brush experiments results that I got
while trying to add the 3rd dimension to my flat 2D (PS) brushes
(Photoshop, zBrush)

2D - Photoshop:




2.5D - ZBrush:


download: here you can see its behavior "in action" >>
(*mov)



download: brush "in action" here >>
(*mov)

3D - ZBrush




I wrote a little bit more about how these were created (incl. ZB Alphas),
you can see it here (posted in my CGS sb) >>

a.

[alenah]

a hair study (Photoshop; Brush & different settings of Smudge Tool):











a different hair study:


here´s my concept-entry for the CGS Challenge "Steampunk Myths & Legends":
idea: a crazy Victorian scientist performing his nightmarish experiments with Medusa´s head
(since he can´t look straight into her deadly eyes, he has to watch the experiment through a mirror ..
(not finished, Photoshop, Painter, ZBrush)


+ my CGS Daily Sketch Forum entry for the topic No. 1700:
"Photo experiment - The Thing on the Stairs"
(orig. link, incl. other participant´s work) >>



the process .. (Photoshop, ZBrush)

[alenah]

here´s a few Alchemy doodles,
here I used randomly generated shapes as a base for "generating ideas" ..

this is .. just something



another one ..



and maybe a dark fire-daemon ..




thanks for watching,
a.

[alenah]

just a small update ..
(stylized illustration done for a Czech CG mag - for a PS airbrush tutorial)

[Pfir8ich]

Just WOW...thanks so much!

[neovirtu]

Alenah, thanks so much for this, it is really helpful...

I appreciete it alot, please keep it up!

One question though, in one of your character designs, you have painting the guy in greyscale, could you go into a bit more depth when painting ontop of grayscale, I know putting a Color layer and what not, but, when it comes to actual colours, what to paint and how.. because when I paint from greyscale, one or two colours, sweeped over, rathering than carefully doing it, seems to do the trick - so any enlightment about what you actually do for the colour process would be great.

Thanks.

[alenah]

Pfir8ich, thanks


neovirtu, thanks,

about your question -
yes, in general - using Color layer over a grayscale image is one possible way, which may work fine for some type of image (certain grayscale value ranges, not too much saturated colors that are beeing added, when the gray image contains nice/"clean" deep blacks etc.) - but -

I do not like this method - and therefore I do not use it that much - since this particular blending mode (Color) may be a bit too much agressive ..

personally - for this kind of colorizing - I am usually using Soft Light instead - and - (which is important) I never use it straight away in one single layer, but usually in more steps/layers, which makes it possible to build up the effect under better control ..

this technique works fine (as far as I know) for those who understand how "Soft Light" works (which means: how Soft Light may help, but at the same time being aware of how this particular blending mode may damage the image very easily too, when not used properly ..) - since - Soft Light blending mode (set either for brushes or for layers) is very versatile - and it can be used not only for its colorizing effect, but also for adding/lowering contrast, enchancing/softening the blacks, saturating/desaturating colors, adding structures, light effects etc.- depending on what kind of information you are working with within the additional upper/working "Soft Light" layer ..

I am sorry, I cant´go into deep detail right now (just dropped in for a second, actually, as I am busy, not too much active at CA lately) - but I´ll try to write some (simple & brief) tutorial on this, in case I find time .. (I have no idea when I´ll be able to, but pls stay tuned, maybe I´ll manage that some day .. )

hope my English makes sense,
take care, a.

[neovirtu]

Thank you alenah! I'll wait for you tutorial if you do feel like writing ...we are all busy!

Good luck!

p.s you're English is fiiiiiiinee