PHOTOGRAPHY

Step 1: 

My tutorial assumes that you have a basic knowledge of how Adobe Photoshop functions as in basic brushing. They say “digital painting is much easier with a tablet than mouse”  I really agree with this because I was using mouse when I start to learn Adobe Photoshop digital painting. Now…here we go….first of all let‘s open a new document (approximately 700wide and 810 high, around 100 dpi resolution) and make a preliminary sketch.  (Ctrl+N or File > New). For now it is in 72dpi, but after changing the resolution to 300dpi (without re-sampling image) you can able to print it on A3 format in pretty good quality

 Adobe Photoshop is a wonderful program with great advances in its brush engine.  For this tutorial I use primarily one brush and below are the steps used to create it. I click on the Brush Tool (B) and choose a very thin, hard brush.  As you know, soft brushes are the blurry ones and hard brushes are more solid.

Step 3: 

Open the Brushes Palette (F5). Opacity jitter should be set to pressure, only effective if you have a pressure sensitive tablet. Brush Tip Shape – Set your spacing low, I use 7% here. Flow – On the brush tool bar set your flow to a low setting like I did.

The very first step of this tutorial is to draw the base sketches for the main idea. Drawing sketch is esseniton for every creative process. For the sketch file, please download the rar file. Here as you see in your tutorial file,  I am giving you the simple sketch  which I have draw  in Adobe Photoshop. Okay after , download my apple sketch psd file you are ready to paint the fruit.

After finishing the the sketch, I  set the sketch layer to “multiply”. I lock my sketch layer. And however, my tutorial won’t show you how to draw the sketch..but will teach you how to paint the sketch of a still life.

After arranging the sketch let’s choose our color palette.  Here, these  are my colours selections. The very first step is to choose right colors  for our still life painting.  Don’t get into thinking in classical colors.  You can change the main colors even to orange and yellow, with a whole lot of green. “Green” apples can be mostly yellow. Or weirdly purple. Or… you decide. I mean, it’s your picture and you can do what you want. J On the finished result as you noticed my apples are not classical red colored apples. Look at my finished still life illustration What colors did you notice?

Step 7:  

Now, make sure you have your light source defined to have realistic shading. Set the sketch layer to “Multiply” mode.Then create a new layer then name it as Apple coloring. This new layer will be our blocking color layer. Choose a large brush and began to paint.Decide where the shadows/whater will be… Now we’re ready to paint..  Make sure the color layer selected not the sketch.

Step 8: 

Use the large brush to do some general shading for the overall shape.. or we can color the layer with one of the selection tools.  In the toolbox, select the Polygonal Lasso tool. With this tool make a sample apple selection like I did. Then fill it with the Paint Bucket Tool.

Step 9:  

Don’t think that all red apples are “red all over,” or anything like that. They usually aren’t. Some red apples have purple shadows on them. Some favor green shadows. Some even have yellowish shadows like mine.

Step 10: 

And remember digital paintings are not so realistic like photographs.  I say,  If someone wants a photorealistic painting , let them use a camera. You now,  in these days it is very easy take a photograph with your  cellphone or camera. Why paint  a very very realistic apple? We  are painting. …..we are not taking photographs.  I really don’t want my illustration images  look like the real photographs. My goal in art is not true visual realism…. my aim is to come closer to what the eye and what the imagination  sees instead of that the camera sees. Ok if you agree with me then let’s continue with our still life painting. 

Step 11:  

Add this step we are ready to add the lighter values. Take the original color of the fruit and make some soft touchs with your brush. Try not to lift your pen too much. Too many stroke will destroy the smooth gradinet effect we are tryin to archieve. if you wanted to start a using a different color you can attach another layer and do more shading.  a clean and smaller brush, start applying the highlight while blending them into the main color and shadow color.

Step 12: 

Here I decide where the darkest areas are in the fruit and with a clean brush paint them in. The darkest areas will be near the base and on the side that is away from the light source. (Read Photography and light source) If your shades are darker than the actual fruit don’t worry this is probably going to make the painting more dramatic.

Step 13:  

Now it is tme to clean it up!  Taking ereaser tool erase all the acces skin that will be touching to the background. Taking a small  soft brush and setting is about 40% -30%. I go around with my brush tool that are going to be highly shaded. Start to add a new layers to add shades and shadows.  And shadows doesn’t have to be always be darker versions of the color used for the base color. it can be other colors too. Here I am trying some different colors for the apple.

 Step 14: 

 Now that the general details are almost fixed.  I’ll began a very detailed painting process,  I’ll take smaller brushes and add some even brighter highlights to the spots that are sparkling with reflected light. You will be amazed at how a few small details will bring the piece alive. For example, those little dark edges on the stem of the apples. Using a smaller brush, I begin adding smaller paint strokes to add detail and to blend the colors together…then I took a smaller brush and a darker opacity. I traced around the edges but olso defined some of the pencil shading around the character. Now this looks pretty good but it needs more work.

Step 15:  

Add the heighlight colors, thinking about how the light would fall on the object in this case an apple. You can blend the colors in now. There are a few ways to do this. Using the Smudge tool or using Guassian Blur filter or maybe blending with the brush. I have used blending with brush..if you want you can use the Smudge tool.

Step 16: 

Start to add a new layer to add shades and shadows. .. here this one is the other sketch.  Shadows doesn’t have to be always be darker versions of the color used for the base color. it can be other colors too. Start by the darker colors,then, little by little add the light. Taking ereaser tool erase all the acces skin that will be touching to the background. Taking a small  soft brush and setting is about 40% -30%. I go around with my brush tool that are going to be highly shaded. Remember, keep lighting sources in mind when shading your sketch…now it looks better.

I also want to add some drops of water.  I have used the smudge tool for the water drops. Stroke it in a few directions, as you see. Now I do think water drops don’t need to have much detail. Finish adding  light color as desired and then create an new layer for details. Take your time with the detailing process

Step 18:  

Well, I like the result…but I do think the apple is not the center of the eye…
Now let me mention about “The Rule of Thirds” . The Rule of Thirds was the creation of painters in the Renaissance. The aim of this style of composition is to provide a bit of background in the image, to allow the image  to tell a story. Renaissance painters found that the eye doesn’t rest on the center of a photograph.

To understand more easy,  let me draw totally three line one is horizantollay and the other one is vertical.  Well as you see, the basic idea of the composition style for the rule of thirds is to break your illustration into nine equal parts using imaginary lines to divide both the shot into three equal horizontal and vertical parts.  Here my  diagram below explains it much better than words. Now I have 8 elements to work with, four lines and four intersections. The idea is to place your main subject one a line or intersection. This tends to make your pictures more dynamic and less snapshot looking. There has been research done to indicate that taking pictures using this process actually makes it easier for your brain to process the image and possibly more pleasing to the human eye. In this shot, the apple layer has been placed at an intersection and has become a focus of the painting.