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.

When painting your own plants, it can sometimes be difficult finding the right color of green. I use several methods for selecting colors. One is to use the mixer palette in Painter. The palette shown below exhibits a whole array of great natural greens, and I never used green in the mix. Most of the greens were established by mixing black and yellow. Then around the edges, I mixed in some cyan and blue. To get some red for flowers, I then mixed in a little red and orange. The additive colors were all chosen from the basic colors shown at the top of the mixer.

Here is a bush I painted in Photoshop using only the colors from the mixer palette. As you can see, I will often place some background colors behind the plant as I paint just to see how it will display against various background colors in the final painting.

The final test is placing it in a few renderings to see if it blends well. If needed, I will make some highlight /shadow adjustments to finish of the plant before placing it in my library.

For those of us doing architectural visualization, our libraries of plant materials are very important. As I have mentioned before, I create my own plant materials, but it is how they are blended into the rendering that is important.

One very important aspect to consider, is the color of green we use in our plants. If using from your library, adjust contrast and shadow to make the plant blend with the surroundings. Then, adjust the color with a color overlay or a curves adjustment layer.

In this example, I adjusted the palm color with a curves layer to make it blend with the early evening sky. I also added some highlights and shadows to the fronds with some sampled colors.

I recently watched a special on cable about the history of Pixar. The story evolves as John Lasseter tries to introduce computer animation to Disney, only to find them bewildered by the whole idea. He starts Pixar to follow his dream, and the industry of computer animated movies takes the world by storm. Strangely, as the traditional animators see the success of computer animation, they begin to abandon the traditional arts. As I see it, the medium doesn’t really matter. It is all about content, content, content. Pixar‘s recent film, “Ratatouille”, is beautiful graphically, but it is also a very entertaining and well developed story. I do not believe it invalidates the hand drawn “Jungle Book”, it is simply a different art medium.

I see a similar battle brewing between traditional art and digital art. Digital art seems to be winning on sci-fi and game art, but that whole genre doesn’t seem to be well supported in the established world of art. I find this odd in that most traditionally painted art these days is scanned into digital form and sold in quantity as “limited edition prints”. Something that really drove this home for me, I recently ran across a web site or “club” where users could join and submit their artwork. Digitally produced artwork was not permitted. Now it’s their club, they can make whatever rules they want, but again I believe beautiful art is beautiful art. Oils, watercolors, acrylics, digital are all just different vehicles for true artists to tell their stories on canvas. Just looking at the beautiful digital work of Philip Straub, Ryan Church, or Katarina Sokolova makes my point. Is there work art?

I have been giving this a lot of thought, because I make my living as a concept designer and artist. I began my career using traditional oil paints. For many years, however, I have been working digitally. My question: will my career as an artist be stifled by the establishment because it is digital, or will I follow in the trend Pixar set and enjoy the benefits of a new medium?

My belief – art should stand or fall on the merit of it’s content, and not the choice of art medium.