Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Adventures in Digital Painting

A couple years ago I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Wacom tablet as a joint birthday present from my extended family. Most of them didn't know what it was, but I explained it was like an Etch-a-Sketch and that I was really happy!

Recently I found some great tips on www.danidraws.com. Dani Jones is a great illustrator (and teacher). Her video tutorials demonstrate digital painting techniques that really make sense to me. The key (in one sentence) is to use textured brushes to build the color with varying degrees of opacity.

The first image is the final illustration. I've removed the line art on the second image so you can see the technique a bit more clearly. To see great illustrations and tutorials visit Dani's website!

6 comments:

Abigail said...

Wow, I would have never guessed that was digital. Very nice.

John B. Watson said...

I have mixed feelings about tablets and digital brushes replacing the real things, but I can't help but be shocked and awed into jumping on the digital bandwagon to some extent. I guess a happy medium between the mediums is best. You're definitely learning to use the tablet to impressive results. Very convincing snow effects and funny illustration to boot! Maybe Santa will bring me a Wacom tablet if I'm a good boy this year...

Mrs. Chili said...

COOL! LOVE the look on the boy's face - you captured panic well...

Dani said...

Great job! You can really see the influence from your traditional work, which I think makes for the best digital stuff. Glad to see the Wacom tablet isn't intimidating you too much.

Anonymous said...

Nice illustration/painting.

It reminds me of those childrens book illustration. :)

Andy J Smith illustration said...

Great idea and great execution!