Hi guys, I’m here with my first Photoshop Painting scene. I just made it, took around 5 hours. The biggest problem was finding a brush that worked, the rest was pretty fun. Clearly I can improve in a lot of ways, any suggestions?
Anyway, I chose a random screenshot from my library and modeled a scene after it. This is from the game War of the Roses. The story here was, we were in a Medieval battle and we lost the last couple rounds, so I organized our players into a defensive position around a barn. There was no sign of the enemy from the front, but I went around back and they were approaching, and I was just in time. Me and the archer on the left held off those knights while their main force attacked the barn from the front. We lost ground until we were fighting in the barn, and the last few of our knights were fighting back to back, until we gained the upper hand and won.
in case you haven’t stumbled across him already, Feng Zhu (concept designer) has an excellent set of free tutorials on using Photoshop for concept art: http://fengzhudesign.com/tutorials.htm
i’m about 80% through watching all of his material. he’s pretty much mastered Photoshop, using only a fraction of its bells and whistles. i don’t intend to create concept art myself, but he has great tips and advice besides that.
now, having said all that [ ], the question is, is your piece concept art? in that case, you’re almost done! concept art just needs to set a scene and mood, and help tell a story. my only tips would be to distinguish one side from the other somehow, like making their uniforms slightly different color schemes or something. i can’t tell just from the image who is on which side. also, the figures need more value changes to make them 3d rather than 2d.
to get more feedback on a forum, it would be helpful to the readers (and potential commentors) to start off “I’m working on [a finished illustration for a book cover] [some fan art] [a painting for my portfolio] [some concept art for a Kickstarter project] [etc…]” because that gives us a context for making feedback that is meaningful. I just jumped to the conclusion that your piece is concept art since it had that look.
anyway, hope you’re having fun with this piece, since it’s always a good day to create art
Oh, good point. I made this as my first real attempt to paint something in Photoshop. It was spontaneous and doesn’t have much of a purpose. Origionating from a badly lit screenshot of the early days of the War of the Roses, the uniforms are practically identical (though I made changes to the scene) Thanks for the link to the design! I tried to follow it before, but I use a mouse for drawing and I got discouraged the first time I tried.
ah - i see. using a mouse is extremely limiting. you can vary the opacity and so on by constantly monkeying with your settings as you paint, but that’s pretty much a chore. i took the plunge and got a tablet, and it makes the world complete. they’re ridiculously expensive, but really worth every penny. i wouldn’t even attempt to compose artwork without one now. although, Blender works perfectly fine with just a mouse.
but really, drawing and painting any way you can is always better than not drawing or painting
Thanks for the link! I don’t want to commit to buying a tablet, because I’m bad at drawing as it is and also I am left handed and with “chicken scratch” (multiple teachers) handwriting. There is a good chance I won’t ever use it, so I was thinking of waiting for a cheaper alternative.
just get a tablet already! seriously , even a chap tablet will improve your work massivly, maybe not modelling ( i dont use a tablet for modelling) but for sculpting and texturing it is leagues ahead of mous work
I think the poses of the characters are really dynamic for one of your first attempts at drawing, I remember my first steps at drawing scenes with my characters, which always looked very blunt and boring because they didn’t have any dynamic at all And drawing with the mouse is a very daunting and un-ergonomic task, so congrats on pulling off such a scene with only a mouse
Edit: Also I think Wacom don’t produce the Bamboo series anymore, the successor is called Intuos Fun or something like that.
they’re ridiculously expensive, but really worth every penny. i wouldn’t even attempt to compose artwork without one now. although, Blender works perfectly fine with just a mouse.