30 replies to this topic

[parel]

Here are three stages of a render.

Rough Sketch and Sections.
I work in layers like a lot of designers here. The process starts off with rough sketches done here in Painter Classic. Dont worry about the line quality. As the sketch progresses, I find the forms that I like and then proceed to drop the opacity of the "scratchy line layer" to about 10% and sketch a layer on top with more precise lines. I use photoshop ellipses in Photoshop Elements here.
In many ways a wacom tablet is cheaper than a traditional rendering set complete with ellipses, markers, paper etc:
 1.jpg   233K   493 downloads

First Stage:
work in greyscale to design the form. Dont worry about color at this point and calculate how the light plays off of your surfaces. As a rule of thumb surfaces facing the light can be rendered close to white with highlights, surfaces that are parallel to the light rays are the darkest and surfaces facing down recieve bounce light from the floor. This is a way to start
 CARR_copy2.JPG   71.19K   912 downloads

[parel]

Once you have a good greyscale then you can think about color. In this render I sparingly applied a purple color to a new layer (with transparency set to multiply) that I created on top of the greyscale. The secret to smooth color application, and this applies to the greyscale portion of this render as well- is to render with LARGE brushes. Use smaller brushes to erase away hard edges and use the lasso tool to get rid of large swathes of paint that you dont need

Attached Files

•  CARR_hardshadow_copy.jpg   51.4K   644 downloads

[parel]

Once the color was in I realized that the sketch still looked a little hazy. So in Photoshop (PS) I adjusted the levels to bring out the purple a little more. The idea at this stage is to pass a blurry eye test ie when you blur your eyes the render should still pop, and have areas of interest. For this render it meant that the lights had to get lighter and the darks darker.

Then I made another pass with the digital airbrush to strengthen the line work and bring accentuate reflections and shadows.

Attached Files

•  CARR_hardshadow4.JPG   56.25K   887 downloads

[Renzsu]

Awesome, don't mind if we pin this topic?

[waikit]

thanks parel for your effort on this fantastic tutorial.

[parel]

You are welcome. Thanks for the pin!

[parel]

Dream,
I think that the relaxed feel comes from the quality of the stroke. Actually the whole relaxed feel is a little calculated on my part. I tend to draw very rough sketches to figure out a shape with a lot of sections etc. After I find the shapes I like I pick some lines that I want to put down.

Rough sketches help me to understand what is going on with the shapes and this helps me to render the values of the shape well. so even the "spontaneous" feel of a sketch can be calculated.

[parel]

Hey! found some sketches on an old CD! BTW ditman- these are all digital sketches, but I use the digital counterpart to pencil, pastel and airbrush most of the time.

Attached Files

•  roughs.jpg   152.89K   441 downloads
•  rough1.jpg   233K   237 downloads