Creating the desired motion in a painting is not always the easiest thing to do, especially when the work has to illustrate certain features in a design. One method is to paint colorful, attention grabbing details; red is always a good candidate for the eye catching color.

The use of bright red umbrellas positioned in this courtyard immediately grab the viewer’s eye, and move them through the space. Because the red is a complementary of the green landscaping, they also provide a lot of contrast within their surroundings.

As you can see in the full view of this design of a resort spa, the bold accents provide tension and movement, in an otherwise earth tone color palette.

When creating architectural illustration, it is important to set a mood and create atmosphere. The use of lighting is a fabulous way to do this. Porch lights shining at the door, and warm lights shining through an open window both create a welcome mood.

The use of historic details will bring something familiar and traditional to a new architectural design. The iron latticework, arched windows, and period lighting create interesting detail and takes this visitor on a journey into the past.

Subtle texture to stucco and stone details will add depth to an otherwise uninteresting surface. A little roughness, grain, and grit will turn a plain lifeless wall face into one with character.

The warm textures of weathered wood add age and show the finishes have endured storms, sun, and wind. There is something in a weathered face that is comforting and familiar.

Rough paint and varied colors will add richness and age to the details. Fresh paint might make things look like new in real life, but in an architectural illustration, variations in the paint along with some scuffs and peeling paint can add tremendous life.

Recently I painted a piece of artwork detailing a new community park which features a proposed fountain as a focal point. Not only did the fountain need to reflect the actual design, but so did the landscaping. This was not particularly difficult, but creating the background presented a challenge. I had to hint at the existing geography of the surrounding area, without making it prominent in the scene. I also needed to create some depth in the work, as some of the background features fade into the distance.

To focus the foreground and make the background appear farther away, I used lighter, less saturated colors on the background objects, while maintaining minimal detail and contrast. This forced the darker, highly detailed objects into the foreground, thus providing a visual separation between the two. The foreground objects were painted even darker, and with the details still sharp, were painted in a very impressionistic style. This moved the depth of focus to the fountain midway between the foreground and background.

Many of the details are lost in the reduced version you see here on the web, but the final painting was printed over four feet wide revealing sharp detail in all three planes of the work.

There are always complex ways to do things, but I tend to favor simple, effective techniques. What if you are doing a dusk or night rendering in Photoshop, and you want to add some lights, shining in the darkness? Select a simple feathered brush, sample the color of the light, and make one quick dab at the location of the light bulb. That is it!

In this architectural illustration, I added a string of festive lighting by tapping the brush at even intervals at the eave line. The color is a very pale yellow, which gives the appearance of clear bulbs, but it could just as easily have been brightly colored lights. The same technique will work on a more complex light fixture such as a carriage light. Paint the carriage light, then tap in the glowing bulb. Place the glow on it’s own layer in case you want to turn the light on and off!

If you are scanning in linework and you want to create a color illustration from it, it is easy to do in Photoshop, here’s how. Make sure your linework is on it’s own layer. Set that layer’s blending mode to multiply. Create layers underneath that layer and begin adding color. The lines will still show, but you will see the color underneath. If you want the lines to disappear, move your color layers above the line layer. Here is an example of an illustration I created using this technique.

If you want to fill areas with color you can do that too. Choose the Paint Bucket Tool, and make sure the “All Layers” option is checked. Go to your color layer and fill. This method will keep the color separate from the line layer. If too much area fills, go to the line layer and close any “leaks” in the linework. Use as many color layers as you need, but I have always found it best to never add color to the linework layer. The reason is that each layer has it’s own mask. By using color layers with a strategy, you automatically create selections that can be used for fine tuning your illustration later on.

I would like to preface this by saying each artist should do what works for them, and believe me, I have certain patterns I stick to when working on a new piece. I have lately realized, however, that some of my patterns have changed over the years. Years ago, I would sketch out my concept and then, basically, illustrate the sketch. After working digitally for quite a while now, I have to admit, I have not sketched an idea in a very long time.

Between the power of layers, and the ability to manipulate shapes by scaling, rotating, warping, and other fun techniques, I have developed a whole new approach. Starting with basic constructs, I will mass out shapes, twisting and pulling the masses until I am happy with the composition. I will then start to work in details, using lots of layers, to complete the piece. As new details, colors, and thoughts are introduced, I will refine the relationships to maintain the original tension and balance of the composition.

By taking this approach, the artwork will grow and change as the process takes place, allowing for one, fast paced, creative flow from beginning to end. The final work may look just like the initial concept, or it may be something completely different.

The most difficult part of this method is knowing when to stop. By saving progress steps along the way, if you find you have engaged the piece a little too much, you can revert back to a simpler version of the work. I know, for some of you, abandoning that initial sketch is a very difficult thing to ask. Give this method a try. You may take yourself on a wild creative ride, and find a side to your creativity you never knew existed.

One of the most fantastic aspects of painting digitally is the seemingly unlimited variations of paint colors. This can also be a curse when trying to find just the right color. As a result, I continually build libraries of colors by sampling from various available sources. Online color selectors, pantone charts, and photos can all be great places to find colors. You can save the sources in a folder to sample from when the need arises, or you can sample the colors and save them in the Photoshop swatch library. Here are some sample colors from my library that will all work very well when painting plants or landscapes.

Just slide the image off into Photoshop and sample away. Give the colors a try on your next tree or flowering bush.

I have always felt that there are three sides to improving art skills or design skills. The first objective, the “Creative” side, seems to be inherited to some extent, but there are many techniques and exercises to improve creative thinking. Keep in mind, even the most creative minds hit blocks now and then. They must overcome their “blocks” as everyone does. Exercises in creative thinking are varied and sometimes kind of crazy, but usually fun!

Secondly there is “Technical Expertise”. Whether you are painting with traditional watercolors, painting digitally in Photoshop, or laying out a website in Dreamweaver, there are skills that must be learned in order to create your vision effectively. By mastering the needed skills, you can concentrate more on realizing your creative vision, and less time figuring out how to accomplish the task. Many tutorials and learning materials seem to concentrate on technical expertise. They are usually fun, but often are oversimplified. Paint this here, and draw this here, now run a curves layer and set opacity to 20%… This will help you create the particular assignment, but a huge ingredient is missing. That ingredient is: Why do you do this?

Which brings up the third objective, and to me the most important one. That would be “Theory”. Theory is the underlying knowledge of art and design. Why does glass look the way it does? Why do shadows fall the way they do? Why do colors contrast differently when placed side by side? What effects do grids have on composition? How could Seurat paint detailed paintings with nothing but strategically placed colored dots? Why is that building proportionally challenged? What color is a cloud? How does light reflect when it hits water?

My mind is racing with these questions constantly. Many can just be answered by observing the world around you. Learn to not only look at the world, but actually see it. You will get some strange looks from people when they see you staring at a rock, but I guarantee they will not understand it’s texture, color, specular highlights, shadow intensities, or it’s complexity of shape. But how can you represent one, if you do not know these details?

Another great place to look for insights into theory would be the work of other artists. Look at famous artists, of course, but also look at the work of contemporary artists. The exercise I generally employ is to observe as much art as possible from many sources. When a piece of work jumps out at me, and makes me say “Wow!” as soon as I see it, I stop and analyze the piece to see what impresses me about the work. Is it composition? Is it color? Is it texture? Why do I like it? Why, why, why?

Only by exposing ourselves to new experiences and learning from them can we grow as artists. Look at the details and try to understand the theories that make them all work. With theory and technique in your grasp, your creativity can run wild.

I am very saddened to hear that Andrew Wyeth has passed away at the age of 91. He has long been one of my favorite artists. His most recognized work is probably “Christina’s World”, but two of my favorites are “Trodden Weed” and “Faraway”. Two books about him are presently in my library. The book “Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic” is a wonderful book about him, and “Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography” has an excellent collection of his artwork. I recommend them both. If you are not familiar with Andrew Wyeth, you can see his official website at AndrewWyeth.com. Some more of his beautiful work can be seen at the Museum Syndicate and on the site of Mr. Wyeth’s representative.

One of the common tests used in a 3d renderer is a simple sphere demonstrating materials and lighting. I am going to use a similar test to illustrate some 2d concepts. The following graphic was painted completely in Photoshop. The total time was under five minutes.

Granted it is nothing special from an artistic point of view, but when you are enhancing a 3d render in Photoshop, it is very important to understand what makes your 2d objects blend seamlessly with the render. Shadows are obvious of course, but never use black. I always like to use a darker, complementary color to make it pop. Use a blur filter to match the edges produced in the render.

Always remember to add specular highlights, they will add an extra bit of realism to your object. Then sample colors from the surrounding areas, and with a reduced brush opacity add some color to adjacent surfaces on your object. This will give the illusion that light is being reflected from surrounding objects. The next step is to copy merge adjacent areas and paste onto your object to add possible reflections. This step will depend on your material properties.

Finally, tint the whole object as required to make it look like it was rendered with the same light source. For example, if your render’s light source simulates dusk, you may need to tint your object with a little purple or blue.

This may seem like a lot of steps for each object in your rendering, but practice will enable you to do it quickly. The result will be added realism to your work. Practice with a simple sphere, and study how all of the material properties come into play within different environments. You may also find this knowledge will help you with your material development within the renderer.