Make your digital art look like those classical paintings
Summary
TLDRThis video explores techniques for imitating traditional oil painting styles in digital art. The artist emphasizes that brush choice is less important than using pressure-sensitive tools and textured brushes. Key advice includes avoiding digital-looking tools like the fill or gradient tools, focusing on varied brush strokes, and embracing imperfections by not overusing the undo button. The video also highlights how to refine edges, mimic textures, and enhance depth and realism with techniques like layering brush strokes and using paint textures. Practical post-processing tips include adding vignettes and adjusting colors to enhance the traditional feel.
Takeaways
- 🎨 Traditional brushwork can be replicated digitally with careful technique and attention to texture and randomness.
- 🖌️ The type of brush doesn't matter as much as having a variety with textures and pressure sensitivity.
- ❌ Avoid tools like the fill, gradient, airbrush, and smudge tools, as they make the artwork feel too digital.
- 🖼️ Build up your background color gradually with textured brushes for a more natural and traditional look.
- 🔄 Instead of using the undo button, paint over mistakes to enhance the traditional feel and create happy accidents.
- 💡 Use desaturated base colors to build up both light and dark tones more effectively.
- 🔍 Avoid zooming in during the early stages of the painting; focus on large shapes first and details later.
- 🌟 For depth, use a blur effect on duplicated layers, erasing focus areas, and add paint textures to imitate oil paintings.
- 🎯 Soft, hard, and lost edges are crucial for mimicking traditional artwork, as they allow the viewer's imagination to engage.
- 📚 Classical paintings often feature darker edges and desaturated tones, adding focus and a melancholic feel.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The video focuses on achieving a traditional painting look in digital art by imitating traditional brushwork techniques and avoiding certain digital tools that create a 'digital' feel.
Who are the artists mentioned as inspirations for the brushwork style?
-The artists mentioned are John Singer Sargent and Lion Decker, both known for their magnificent brushwork in traditional oil painting.
What are the key tools the creator advises against using, and why?
-The creator advises against using the fill tool, gradient tool, airbrush, and smudge tool because they create computer-generated, smooth, or flat effects that make the painting look too digital rather than traditional.
How does the creator suggest building up the background color?
-The creator suggests using multiple brushes with different textures to slowly build up the background color, creating randomness and a more traditional look.
Why is avoiding the undo button important when sketching?
-Avoiding the undo button encourages the artist to paint over mistakes, which adds to the traditional feel of the painting by allowing 'happy accidents' to influence the final work.
What approach does the creator take to applying light and shadow colors?
-The creator prefers to start with a desaturated base color and then slowly build up both the light and shadow colors rather than using smooth transitions, which can look too digital.
What does the creator emphasize about edges in a painting?
-The creator emphasizes the importance of having a healthy variety of hard, soft, and lost edges to create more appeal, similar to traditional paintings where viewers' imaginations fill in details.
How does the creator suggest mimicking textures, such as feathers or hair, in digital painting?
-The creator suggests mimicking the structure of the object by aligning brushstrokes with the natural direction of the texture, such as laying down strokes in the same direction as feathers or layering them in the same way.
What post-processing steps are recommended to enhance the traditional look of the painting?
-The creator recommends adding a Gaussian blur to create depth, adding paint texture by overlaying a desaturated image, applying a vignette around the edges for focus and melancholic effect, and adjusting colors and values using a filter layer.
What general rules does the creator offer for achieving a more traditional feel in digital art?
-The general rules include not using the undo button, avoiding airbrush or smudge tools, painting on a single layer, and working zoomed out until major forms are established. These techniques help mimic the imperfections and layering of traditional paintings.
Outlines
🎨 Mastering Traditional Brushwork in Digital Art
This paragraph introduces the concept of replicating traditional brushwork in digital art, inspired by artists like John Singer Sargent and Lion Decker. The speaker explains how they successfully imitated the traditional look in their recent works. They emphasize that the choice of brushes isn’t as crucial as many think; any pressure-sensitive brush with texture can work, and a variety of brushes will help create a more textured, traditional feel. The author discourages obsessing over finding the perfect brush for digital painting and instead encourages experimentation with different brush types.
🖌️ Creating a Traditional Look: Sketching and Blocking Techniques
Here, the focus shifts to techniques for achieving a traditional look in digital painting. The speaker advises against using digital tools like the fill or gradient tool, as these can make the painting look too digital. Instead, they recommend building up the background color using different textured brushes to introduce randomness, mimicking traditional methods. When sketching characters, it’s suggested to minimize brush strokes and avoid over-reliance on the undo button, adding to the natural, traditional feeling of the artwork. The speaker also discusses their preference for a desaturated base color and the importance of painterly brushes over airbrushes or smudge tools to maintain organic transitions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Brush Work
💡Traditional Look
💡Texture Brushes
💡Undo Button
💡Lost Edges
💡Blocking In
💡Paint Thickness
💡Vignette
💡Hard, Soft, and Lost Edges
💡Airbrush and Smudge Tool
Highlights
John Singer Sargent and Lion Decker were known for their magnificent brushwork, often using oil paint to create traditional pieces.
Digital art can imitate traditional painting techniques with pressure-sensitive brushes and textured strokes, achieving a similar aesthetic.
A wide variety of brushes with different textures is key to creating randomness, which is essential for mimicking traditional painting.
Avoid using the fill or gradient tools for background colors, as they create a too digital feel. Instead, layer textured brushes to build a more natural look.
When sketching characters, avoid the undo button and paint over mistakes. This contributes to a traditional feel and adds texture.
Blocking in base colors with desaturated tones allows for gradual building of light and dark values, maintaining a natural balance.
Use painter brushes instead of airbrush or smudge tools for transitions. Smooth transitions can look too digital, while textured brushes add depth.
Zoom out when working on large shapes and zoom in only for details. This ensures the overall structure of the painting is balanced.
Focus on creating a variety of edges—hard, soft, and lost edges—to replicate the appeal of traditional paintings and leave room for imagination.
When painting textures like feathers or hair, mimic their natural structure with directional brushstrokes to simplify value and lighting management.
Use different brushes for different textures—softer brushes for skin and harder brushes for reflective surfaces like hair.
Adding a slight vignette to the edges of a painting can enhance the focal point and create a melancholic mood, typical of classical works.
Create depth by duplicating the layer, applying Gaussian blur, and erasing focused areas. This step can enhance the painting without feeling too digital.
Use a paint texture overlay to simulate paint thickness, adjusting opacity to integrate it smoothly with the painting.
The final step of slightly adjusting colors and values in a filter layer can make the painting pop, though be careful not to overdo it.
Transcripts
John Singer sergeant and lion Decker
were two amazing artists known among
other things for their magnificent brush
work they were traditional artists so
they used oil paint but even in digital
art there are many examples where brush
work makes painting very appealing and
interesting usually my drawings are
rather clean looking but in my two most
recent paintings I try to imitate this
traditional feeling and I think it
worked pretty well so in this video I
would like to share how I managed to
achieve this traditional
look the most important thing about
brushes is that they don't really matter
as much as you might think really any
brush that is pressure sensitive and has
some kind of texture is sufficient you
do however want a wide variety of
brushes with textures that leave
somewhat different marks on your canvas
I think that the brush presets you can
find inside of your drawing program
already have pretty much anything you
need but if you really want to find a
brush bundle on the internet then just
use any bundle you can find just don't
obsess over trying to find the perfect
brush for digital painting trust me you
aren't going to find
it there is no one correct way to
approach a painting however I believe
the way I approached my painting is a
good way to make the final image look
traditional if you find a different
workflow that is simpler or creates a
better IM image then please let me know
in the comments when blocking in the
background color I advise you not to use
the fill tool and also not to use the
gradient tool because nothing screams
more digital than these computer
generated gradients or flat colors
instead use multiple brushes with
different textures to slowly build up a
background color that way there will be
a lot of Randomness in your painting and
it will look much more traditional
because Randomness does occur in
traditional painting next up when
sketching in your character use few
brush strokes and try not to use the
undo buttton I know it's tempting to use
the undo button but if you instead paint
over your mistakes it will add to the
traditional feeling you're trying to
achieve once the sketch is done you're
going to block in your base color
personally I like to use a desaturated
base color which is neither as light as
the light color and not as dark as the
shadow color that way I can slowly build
up both the light and the dark colors
then after that is done you can block in
the light and dark colors but when
creating transitions try not to use the
airbrush or smudge tool instead use the
painter brushes because perfectly smooth
transitions feel quite digital also when
you're blocking in the shapes try not to
zoom in and only when you've established
the large shapes you can then zoom in to
add the details when refining the
Shadows try to keep the different kinds
of edges in mind what I mean by that is
try to have a healthy variety of hard
soft and lost edges in your painting
edges are really important and I think
they are one of the reasons why single
sergeants paintings look so appealing
all of these soft and lost edges leave
much to the viewer's imagination whereas
in digital painting all shapes are very
clearly defined and your brain doesn't
need to interpret the shapes which is
suitable for many purposes but if you
are trying to mimic traditional
paintings then try to use many soft and
lost edges I can really recommend Marco
B's video on this topic in case you need
further clarification when you are
refining your painting and have to deal
with a very particular structure texture
try to mimic the structure of the thing
you're trying to paint with your brush
Strokes take these angel wings as an
example when I painted These Wings I
mimic their structure by laying down the
brush Strokes in the same direction as
the feathers and also layering The
Strokes the same way the feathers are
layered which is to say the long
feathers first and then the shorter ones
that way you don't need to think about
lighting and values too much and instead
leave the work to your brushes another
thing to keep in mind is to use
different kinds of brushes for different
textures for example the transitions in
skin colors are much softer than in hair
because hair is much more reflective
therefore you should use a harder brush
for hair and a softer one for
skin once we are about done with the the
actual painting there are a couple of
steps more we can take to enhance the
traditional feeling one thing I like to
do is to duplicate the whole layer and
then add a gion blur to it I will then
erase the parts which are in Focus so it
will give my whole painting a bit more
depth although that step doesn't really
have anything to do with making it look
like an oil painting The Next Step does
though now we will try to add some paint
thickness to achieve this effect you
will want to find some paint texture on
maybe Pinterest or Google and then
import it to your drawing program you
need to then resize it so that it covers
your whole painting and desaturate it
lastly set its blending mode to Overlay
and then adjust the opacity of the whole
layer so that the paint texture doesn't
look too out of
place another thing I've observed in
many classical paintings is that they
tend to get darker at the edges this not
only enhances the focus point but also
gives the whole painting a bit of a
melancholic feeling to imitate this
really sloppily we can add a slight
vignette around the painting of course
it would be better to try and already
create this transition from light to
dark around the edges while you're still
painting but if you forget about it
during the painting process then
creating a vignette around your whole
painting does the job just
fine and after that the last thing I
always do to my paintings is create a
new filter layer and slightly adjust the
colors and values so that the whole
painting kind of pops out more try not
to overdo it though since most classical
paintings tend to look a bit
desaturated and that's it already for
pause processing here is a list of the
layers we just added in case you want to
screenshot it or something now aside
from post processing there are also a
whole lot of things you can can do
during the drawing process in order to
make your art look much more
traditional so these rules I'm talking
about they are more like guidelines or
things that I like to keep in mind while
I'm painting first of all try not to use
the undo button instead just paint over
your mistakes I have observed with my
own art that when I paint over my
mistakes a bit of these mistakes still
shine through in the actual painting and
I think that all of that noise can make
your painting look really appealing
moreover when I don't use the undo
button I tend not to obsess over every
line they don't have to be perfect I
just use them as they are as BOS likes
to call them they are happy little
accidents secondly try not to use the
airbrush or smudge tool because these
tools which create mathematically
correct transitions look really really
digital instead you can layer different
brush Strokes or use a brush that has a
low opacity thirdly paint on one layer
only not only is that the way
traditional painters had to draw but it
also takes away a lot of the cleanness
or Perfection you often see in digital
painting additionally in the beginning
stages of your painting you should
always be zoomed out and only after
having blocked in the major forms you
can then zoom in to add the details
otherwise the lighting scenario or
proportions might be off and you
wouldn't even notice it because you're
already focusing on the details so
that's not only a rule to apply when
you're trying to achieve a traditional
look but also one to use when you're
painting in general here is a list with
all the points I just mentioned because
you might want to occasionally have a
look at them while drawing I know that
at least I like to do that in order to
keep all these guidelines in mind when
painting and that's it already for this
video If you create a painting based on
this video you could tag me on Instagram
because I'd love to see your results or
or if you need some feedback on it I'd
be happy to help you out all right then
um remember to drink water and maybe
check out my other videos
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