PROCESS VIDEO // white hart - part II

Here’s Part 2 of the process for my White Hart, my 3DTotal commission! Part 1 was posted right before this one.

Here’s some information about this process video: 

• It has been sped up by 200%, so 2 times the original speed. 

• I split this video into 2 parts. This is part 2 of 2!

• This painting session took me about 5 hours, split up into two drawing sessions.

• I mostly used the hard round brush from my own brush set to paint this. I also used a lot of brush & smudge combinations to paint and then soften edges. 

• This is painted in Adobe Photoshop. You can replicate a similar workflow in Procreate, with the exception of the gradient tool and the number of layers used! 

Here are some helpful resources that can help understand this process in more detail: 

• Creating a strong composition: In this video, I explain how I create basic elements of my composition and move them around to create readability and visual impact. That’s something I do a lot during this process, where readability is a priority!

• Lighting as a design tool: This video shows you how you can apply lighting in a way that serves your design needs, rather than needing to be accurate. That’s something I do a lot for this commission!  

FINALIZING INSIDE OF THE SHAPES

The second part is all about finalizing and cleaning up the image, while making sure not to mess with the shapes that I established earlier. The shapes are meant to be readable from a distance, and as soon as I modify those, I risk losing that readability. So I do my best to paint within the lines and to ensure that any detail that I add enhances the image, rather than weighs it down. This is challenging, because the focal point of my art is usually the face of the character I draw, but for this painting, it’s definitely the deer that’s front and center. So rather than really boost the contrast in the face, I need to keep it subtle and soft so it doesn’t compete with the deer. This takes a while for me to get right, but opting for a gentle glow finally does the trick! 

OUTER GLOW LAYER MODE 

For this painting, I use the outer glow layer mode quite a lot. I’ve broken my image down into a few main layers (the girl & her arms, the deer, and the vines) and I’ve given each one a bit of a glow. This layer mode is a great way to give a magical effect that adapts to the outer contours of the layer. If you change anything, the glow will change with it. My general rule of thumb for painting glowing effects is to give the glowing element a bright color that is close to white, and to give it a colorful glow - in this case an ochre tone. The combination of a bright hue with a colorful bleed around it makes it look really magical! A substitute for this effect would be duplicating the layer, blurring it, setting to to screen and then tweaking the color. You’ll get a similar effect, but it’s best to do that when you’ve finalized the details of your layer. 

CLIPPING MASKS

Something I’ve been using more and more often lately are clipping masks for shading. This is a mask that you add on top of a layer, and then everything you paint on that layer stays within the contours of the layer below it. It’s basically a way to paint “inside of the lines” while still working on a separate layer. It’s ideal for rim lights and adding gradual, soft shading that you can modify as you go! Especially for high contrast paintings like these, this is a fantastic tool. 

I hope you enjoyed this process, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know!