TUTORIAL // creating original art
Added 2025-01-09 17:28:14 +0000 UTCIt's time for the first tutorial of the year! This one is on creating original art, and basically discusses my overall workflow for making an original painting. In order to do that, I use one of my existing paintings, Flourish, as a case study. I talk about the difference between original art and studies, which challenges come with creating original art, and how you can tackle issues that come up at each different stage of the creation process!
The main brushes I use in this process are:
The MaCaLabs HB pencil brush for the initial sketch of Flourish (there's also a Procreate version)
The hard round brush from my own brush set for blending and painting Flourish
I also use a textured brush during the thumbnail demo. That brush is the oil pastel brush from my own brush set.
Because this is an overall workflow tutorial, I reference a lot of other tutorials that cover more specific parts of my workflow, and which might be helpful if you have struggles in that specific area. Here's a full list:
Stage 01 // generating ideas
Stage 03// creating thumbnails
Stage 04 // rendering
Stage 05 // finalizing
Next to that, there's also the full process videos of Flourish and two other paintings that I mention in this tutorial. You can find them here:
Flourish // Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // phone version
Forest // Part 1 // phone version
As always, here is the cheat sheet with essential information from the tutorial, which you can also find attached to this post as a PDF file with clickable links:
I hope you find this video helpful and that you make some amazing painting concepts after watching it! Feel free to share any future tutorial suggestions in the #tutorial-suggestions channel in the discord server (If you don't know how to join, just follow the steps outlined here) or leave them in a comment below ❤
Comments
Hey Paloma! thanks for your kind words! and yes - I eventually merge the sketch lines with the colors and paint over everything. it all gets blended together!
Loish
2025-06-25 14:06:32 +0000 UTCLove this tutorial! Do you merge your lineart layer during the rendering phase and blend/paint over it?
Paloma McClain
2025-06-19 21:27:21 +0000 UTCi think that would definitely be a relevant one for me to make soon, since the last month has brought tons of change - more than i bargained for!
Loish
2025-01-30 12:09:21 +0000 UTCI love this painting!... and I love seeing the process and inspiration behind it. I think the the other two thumbnails had some great vibes as well. I'm especially excited to see the finished version of the scorched earth/dark mode Loish :) ...(I had some big unexpected changes in my life the last few years as well). Kind of like a forest fire...the destruction of the old makes way for the new...
JASON WILLIAMS
2025-01-27 06:41:26 +0000 UTCI'm so happy to hear that it was helpful, Jane! I hope you create some amazing artworks this year <3
Loish
2025-01-23 16:45:28 +0000 UTCThis one really helped a lot! I can see why I struggled to make original art in the past, because I was stuck going from the Idea/Thumbnail phase into an actual finished piece 🤯 This tutorial really breaks it up into easy to follow steps. I'm excited to make more art this year now 😃✨️ Thanks Lois 💙
Jane
2025-01-21 03:34:48 +0000 UTCHey there Loish, thank you so much for being so kind and inspirational all the time. I’m working on a personal project and also started a daily speedpainting challenge but it’s hard to come up with ideas or the outcome is not what I expected sometimes. Do you have any tips for that and also having consistency in your portfolio? Thank you!
Dilara Renkver
2025-01-17 08:45:32 +0000 UTCthat's a great way of looking at it!
Loish
2025-01-14 12:30:46 +0000 UTCthey can create really interesting effects! just experiment with them and see where that goes!
Loish
2025-01-14 12:30:16 +0000 UTCYou’re very generous. Thanks again.
Will Weston
2025-01-14 03:15:54 +0000 UTCI’m glad to see how you use layer modes. I’ve never used them much, well beyond multiply, lighter and darker. Thanks.
Will Weston
2025-01-14 03:00:25 +0000 UTCI relate to the overrendering issue. i try to help myself by reminding myself if this were an actual canvas, how much can i realistically lean down into the page and how small can a real brush get. if my digital brush is doing details that i cannot paint with a digital brush, i'm zooming in too much. also looking at other artists' detailed paintings and zooming in to see that it's actually just a few swipes of colors also help :D thank you for the video!
Buffie
2025-01-13 16:03:01 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you liked it FAI!
Loish
2025-01-13 11:54:19 +0000 UTCI'm glad you found it helpful! in the intial ideation stage, it's definitely good to just work super loose and focus more on your idea than on the details of the pose/colors! with practice, it gets easier to do.
Loish
2025-01-13 11:54:10 +0000 UTCglad you liked it michael!
Loish
2025-01-13 11:50:53 +0000 UTCI'm so happy to hear that!! looking forward to seeing what you'll be making - your art is always a delight!
Loish
2025-01-13 11:50:42 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you like them! they're always a delight to make, especially with such positive feedback each time!
Loish
2025-01-13 11:46:13 +0000 UTCYou’ve covered so much in this video. Thank you. Lots to review.👍🏻
Michael H
2025-01-12 14:30:00 +0000 UTCYou mention that the early loose sketches don’t need to be accurate.👍🏻💙❗️ That accuracy can be developed as you progress. Thank you for that reminder!!
Michael H
2025-01-12 13:52:08 +0000 UTCLooking forward to watching this one this morning! ☕️🤔🙂
Michael H
2025-01-12 13:28:24 +0000 UTCA big thank you for this video🫶 I watched halfway through yesterday and got so motivated that I started working on one of my absolute dream projects (a dark, moody portrait of Howl) and only finished watching the video today. So thank you so much for the insight and inspiration. I’m really excited to see the amazing thumbnails and finished illustrations you’ll create this year!🥰🤌
Antonia Höfs
2025-01-12 12:16:52 +0000 UTCThank you so much Loish for another in-depth well thought out tutorial, it's incredible how much inspiration your videos provide!
France
2025-01-12 01:13:22 +0000 UTCLove this, thank you for sharing. Also wanted to comment and say how grateful I am that your tutorials and newsletters are so succinct, rich and organised, it makes it super easy to read, watch and/or follow along. Thank you for sharing all you do!
India Barnardo
2025-01-12 00:06:52 +0000 UTCJust finished watching, another amazing video!! I love how you always present your tutorials in nice neat lists and with pictures. I also really appreciate how you focus on troubleshooting where we get stuck and developing the skills we need to work on - it's easy to forget in creative fields that it's not talent or born skill that defines our abilities, but practice and perseverance. Thanks so much for sharing this video!! I will definitely be watching it multiple times
Celeste
2025-01-10 23:34:32 +0000 UTCLoved this tutorial, it definitely will help me in trying to THINK about a drawing going into it. Half the time i feel like I aim to get the pose and the color palette and then im no longer thinking and am just drawing. I am still in the building stage with art and everything so definitely want to figure out how to create original art and this helps a lot!
Jamie Seroogy
2025-01-10 22:46:23 +0000 UTCHello! I particularly like this tutorial. I find it very useful and educational. Showing a concrete example in comparison with an illustration that we already know helps me to better understand and assimilate the ideas developed. Thank you for your good work ✨
Faimano
2025-01-10 19:55:54 +0000 UTCI usually just paint them quite zoomed out, so they appear small on screen but can be used as a jumping off point for the painting! Sometimes I need to upscale them a bit beore starting the painting but since it's a very early stage, it doesn't present too many issues.
Loish
2025-01-10 11:59:02 +0000 UTCSo when you talk about thumbnails do you do them in a smaller size then the planed painting or do you do them in the same size so that you can just continue the painting process on them? Great tutorial, I'm definitely gonna try puting down ideas like this. I find this stage to be the most intimidating and maybe having the starting point ready will help.
Mizidora
2025-01-10 05:28:26 +0000 UTCYes!! I’m so excited to watch this. This painting is one of my all-time favorites of yours 💖
Celeste
2025-01-09 22:16:09 +0000 UTCso glad you like it - can't wait to see what you create 😊
Loish
2025-01-09 21:44:46 +0000 UTCglad you like it! thumbnailing can definitely be tough, with practice it can get a lot easier though!
Loish
2025-01-09 21:44:28 +0000 UTCWow, this tutorial was so inspiring and exactly what I needed right now! Love how you explain things in such a clear and approachable way - like you’re speaking to every level of artist and once :) Thanks for making this, It’s made me so excited to dive into my own original work!
vmdrawz
2025-01-09 21:34:54 +0000 UTCThanks Lois! This tutorial is perfect for detecting weak points and thus being able to strengthen them! What is most difficult for me is the thumbnail stage!
Vakuu Void
2025-01-09 21:05:51 +0000 UTCso happy you like it!!
Loish
2025-01-09 20:24:06 +0000 UTCthanks so much! i feel like it's so important to let artists explore ideas in their own way, especially with all the gatekeeping that's out there.
Loish
2025-01-09 20:23:52 +0000 UTCOne of the this I love the most about your tutorials and teachings Is that you give us permission in a way to be true to our personal style (not matter how cheesy that sounds xD) but really, the part were you mention finding and accepting your storytelling style as something that can help us create more freely feels like the most sane thing I heard this year :'D
Laura
2025-01-09 20:18:51 +0000 UTCHi Lois! I love this video! it was super insighful and I absolutely love this approach that has like 50% of technical knowledge but also some other 50% of painting analysis. I really appreciate as well to see all the references (including your photo) it was super usefull. And this "Flourish" painting is one of my absolute favourites! Well done once again. I'm so thankfull to be able to enjoy all your work <3
Inês Garcia
2025-01-09 20:17:46 +0000 UTCI love the detail you put into these tutorials!!!
ana ortega
2025-01-09 18:11:00 +0000 UTCSuper helpful!
ana ortega
2025-01-09 18:10:42 +0000 UTC
