Wednesday, February 17, 2010

15 comments:

Nasan Hardcastle said...

Worth . . .the . . .download!
I've wondered for the longest time how you approached your paintings and learned so much from this.
Would you be able to share more about some of your custom brushes? For example, you talked about a 'grass brush' you used for textures in the shadows and other places. I know about the smudge tool, but wanted to know more about what the actual brush looks like.
Also, how did you make the selection for the leaves? I may have missed it, but really would like to know.
Thanks! Looking forward to more.

Luca said...

Hey buddy... this is GREAT NEWSSS! Sick stuff brother. Xia really surprised me. This is called "Good Vibe!" - I just downloaded it now, will go and watch it. Definitely will let you know my feedback.

(Finally I'll get to know about your brush work and how you achieve that sick look :) THANK YOU!

flaptraps said...

Hey Nasan!

thank you very much and im really glad it helped a bit. I hope you get something out of it. I know it was a little sketch but in the future like next month i think i'll have some more fun tutorials coming that should be really informative about creating the brushes and experimenting. So as far as your question goes, which is a great one, I'll be sure to drop a few of the brushes on the next one which will come with the download, that way you can see how they work, and use them, it would probably be a lot more helpful than me just trying to explain it:) i'll post up some brushes soon though! and as far as the leaves go, which you didnt miss cause i just copied them over from another pic i had, but what i did was use flickr, found photo of leaves blowing in the wind, copied it into photoshop, made it grayscale, changed the levels to really high contrast b/w. made selection of just black, copied it, and painted in some quick red, yellow, orange color, and now i use them a lot. I was going to make it into a brush actually, tell you what, I'll make it into a brush on the next one and give it to ya! cheers and i hope it helps!

Luca! Cool man happy to help, yeah i kinda go over a quick couple of things, but the next one will for sure go more into some of the brush creation process more and bringing shape and texture out of abstractness and really achieving your ultimate goal. Im looking forward to your feedback, it would be a great help! cheers mate, and i hope you enjoy the video.

rich

Nasan Hardcastle said...

Thanks Rich!
This method of creating an image is so radically different than how I usually approach a painting.
I thought you had used a brush texture at a really large size to create a selection for you leaves -and grabbed them from another painting.
Using actual leaves for leaves -what a concept. ;)

Luca said...

Richard, I did send you an email (hope it arrived cos I donno if the email I have is correct). I enjoyed it and how! I will be looking forward for the brushes as well for the future tutorials. I enjoyed it alot. One small suggestion is that when you record with Camtasia, try to crop out the interface of windows media player if possible. so that the focus will go just on Photoshop itself.

That's the only thing cos the rest speaks for itself! :) I THANK you and Mr.Idrawgirls from my heart! keep rockin dudes.

Ricardo Figueira said...

Hi Richard,

The tutorial is great but only has the video (.mov) tutorial ... no brushes, high resolution finished image or psd file... :(

Can you share more details (files and brushes) ?

Thanks

flaptraps said...

richardo! yeah really sorry about that, this was my first time and i didnt even think about all that stuff i was worried about the video but i'll be putting up a totally free file with some brushes and the high res images as well. Thats a great idea and i'll make sure to let u know when i get all that uploaded and ready, hopefully in the next day or two. thanks again for the feed back, it's a lot of help!

cheers

Ricardo Figueira said...

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the reply and attention.
I will wait for that update.

Cheers

Sascha Thau said...

Hi!

Just watched your tutorial. Thanks for the time and effort you put into it.

Ist it possible for you how you tackle something from scratch which will not end up as a quick sketch, without reusing older artwork. Or has it to be a constant circulation, old artwork goes into new, the new artwork is reused and again and again?

Looking forward for more.

flaptraps said...

Hey Sascha Thau,

first off thanks! and no it's not always in circulation like that, at work i have to start different ways. I use this method a lot though for just sketch painting and playing. In the future i'll show some other ways i go about things. this was more of an example on how to establish a quick palette.
hope this answers your question,

cheers
rich

Sascha Thau said...

Hi!

Okay, then I'll wait for the next tutorial(s).

I just wanted to say that, because of your distinctive style, these tutorials are something different then what you see from other artists and I very much want to know more about it.

And I like the fact that you do these for advanced artists.

Keep 'em coming. :)

Fernando Acosta said...

Hi Richard,

hanks a lot for taking the time to do these tutorials. I downloaded it early this morning and really enjoyed watching it.

I think it's really inspirational and also very helpful. I always struggle with environments so I will definitely try some of your tips on my future work.

Like Nasan suggested I would also like to know more about how you use the smudge brushes to get that painterly look. sometimes the pressure you use and the type of brush are the key, so I was wondering if in your future tutorials you could expand a bit on that?

Anyways, looking forward for more in the future and thanks again for sharing!!!

Fernando

Unknown said...

Hi Richard, greetings from Denmark!

I have just watched your tutorial (again). I got it with the the introduction discount but would happily have paid the full $15.

It's very inspiring to learn your approach to creating a custom palette for the painting. I'm new to making digital art and I know your techniques are for the more advanced student. However, I've learnt a lot and I'm definitely looking forward to the next tutorial. Hope you'll get more into custom brushes and how to use different settings for opacities, flow and blend modes to get the desired results.

If you'll try out another type of environment on the next one I personally like icy/snowy landscapes a lot... ;)

Furthermore, I second Sascha's suggestion of doing a painting from scratch without using old files as a base. On a more technical note I'd suggest that you try to get a little better sound quality on the next one (there's a little humming when you turn up the volume).

Keep up the good work. I also enjoyed the artwork on your blog (and on the Jamie Jones site as well, thanks for the reference). It's so cool... :)

Robert McMaster said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert McMaster said...

Hey Richard,

Love your style and this piece particularly. You have a great way of handling high-key pieces! Your means of quickly blocking in the silhouette makes so much sense as well! I found this tutorial to be a big help towards developing my own style. Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to hard to work 'tight' if that makes any sense. Your method really made me consider how art can be a much more random and fun means of creation.

I created a piece using your technique (and colour palette, hope you don't mind). Image is third post down. Looking to purchase your next download when I have the $$$! Cheers!

http://robmcmaster.wordpress.com/