Nathies way to create a fantasy realm.

Hi folks!
People ask me often if I could make a tutorial how to paint. I am bad at explaining things, well, at least in a foreign language, but I can show you different steps of my pictures and explain what I did there.
(click to enlarge)

First one thing: you should be familiar with basic lightning/shading, color sources and such stuff. You should also have basic knowledge in Adobe Photoshop, a lot of patience, really a lot, a tablet and of course a comp.

My equipment right now: 19" screen, 8x11" wacom graphire (cheapass version, the intuos is the expensive one, i have tried both and don´t see a difference in them, i guess it´s just the name.) and I use a Mac dual core G5 with CS2.


Let´s start.

Painting is all about light.
Because you are not painting an object, you are painting what happens when light touches the object or the absence of that light, the shadows.

Just keep that as basic thought in mind.



At first has to be of course the idea. :) Today I wanted to draw something spooky, forest/tree fantasy setting.

Sometimes I do a pencil sketch, scan it and start to color it, and sometimes, like here, i just open a file and put the basic colors as a underpainting into the file and give it the first shape.

My picture here has a size of 5800 x 7500 pixel size at 300 dpi - 130 MB in one layer. Add 2 or 3 layers more and it is a secure way to crash your comp.

Don´t be afraid of strong colors and high contrasts. A forest is not only green and brown. A forest has tons of colors. Never forget - a picture starts to live with colors. 

Here are the first picture where I got the idea and the first try out of brushes. I use the David Nagel brushes alot (free texture brushes, you can get various sets here:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshopbrushes/Free_Adobe_Photoshop_Brushes_to_Download.htm




As you can see in that screenshot, I use only one layer.




Here I started to give the wood a first raw texture, which I drew with the acrylic brush in Painter Essentials. (screenshot 2). It isn´t necessary that you own both programs, I am just to lazy to create a dry acrylic brush for PS, and I love Painter too, so sometimes I switch, but there is no real need for it. :)

I also changed the right light source a bit, I wasn´t sure about it.



So, the basic things are done. That took me 4 hours work so far. Now I can start with all the details. The first detail shot is below, after 3 hours more work.

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How to draw bark closeup:

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...two hours later. Time for a coffee now. LOL



So, here I worked on the meadow. I needed a break from the barks. ^_^ another 2 hours. (well I hope that doesn´t sound that I´m a snail or that I have all time of the world, by all means not, I just want to tell you that it needs that much time to make it proper.)




this is how the picture looks at the end of this day. I think it is 1/3 done.




Now I cleaned up the upper area and brought shape and details into the tree. I added also a little waterfall and stones to the foreground. I am still unsure what to do with the hole in the tree. 4 hours more work. (I just write that for my own record too to see how long I needed finally.)




Here I worked on the stones and waterfall, the little wooden path that leads inside of the tree and drew some details.
A forest is a biological junk room, there are twigs, plants, grass, petals, and whatever grows and rots there. To give the forest foreground a certain amount of realism, draw some chaos. :)




Hah, I´m coming closer to finish this one. :) Working time on this today 5 hours, and if you see the foreground needs still some work. I have expected it to be several hours more until it is finished, but it seems that i need only 5-8 hours.
Next weekend. :)




Finished! yay! Here are some closeups.



Here´s the finished piece. I put a sharpen filter over it to sharpen it slightly, and well, picture is finished, the next landscape will be a swamp I think. Something scary, beacuse I´m in the mood for that.

Click to enlarge!





I hope you enjoyed my little "how nathie does it" tutorial! If you have any questions, post them in the comment box! :)



[So, I was wrong with a swamp, we go on with a tower. ]

Creating A Fantasy Realm 2