How to add a soft fantasy glow to your art Using a soft brush with a low flow works nicely to apply glow around highlights, and I recommend doing this at the final stages of a painting. If you really want to achieve a global glow effect there are simple shortcuts, but know that this will change the colour values in your picture quite a bit. Unless, of course, this is the effect you are aiming for. Add a flattened […]
20 fantasy art tips 1 – Fantasy skin Skin is an extensive subject that can be great fun to study. When painting skin for a fantasy-related piece, you can stretch the rules further than if you were creating for a more traditional genre. Monochromatic skin tones is a good start, but by capturing all the different levels of colours and different skin types, and then experiment with this, you can still end up with a monochromatic expression even though […]
Old style pin-up art the new way See the creation process of a modernized pin-up artwork and get the know-how to do it yourself. Painting pin-ups can be a whole lot of fun, no matter if you go for the old-school vintage cheese-cake kind of look or if you want to add a modernized twist to it. You don’t have to be a pin-up artist to create pin-up art, but to achieve the very special look and feel, you will […]
Painting beard It’s easy to make short beard or stubble look too neat, noisy, or perfect. Beard should look a bit messy, contain many colours, and consist of quite thick stubble or hairs. Start off with a slightly darker grey colour to de-saturate and mark the area. Just as when painting hair, make sure to start off with the darker stubbles or hairs and work your way up towards the brightest details on top. Working from a dark base up to brighter layers of […]
Know your values Make your values balanced by implementing some very simple rules about light and shadows in your already existing work-flow. There is a whole lot of theory when it comes to creating art, and it’s up to each and every one of us how much of this we want to put into action when painting, rather than rely completely on our artistic sense. There are no definite answers to what is the best way of working, but I […]
Colour Learn how to control your colours, and take advantage of different colour theory principles to make your art pop! There is a lot of theory and studies on colour principles, and you don’t need to know them all to be able to create good compositions. You can push your art a lot further by simply taking advantage of a few of the most commonly used principles. (C) Henning Ludvigsen Hands down, on the ranking of the most important art […]
Core drawing skills and workflow Nail down your own core drawing skills, and start building your very own methodical way of working to reach your goals. (C) Henning Ludvigsen “How do you work?” – is something most artists get asked often. I think this is what makes art so very interesting, because it’s our individual ways of working and skills that differentiates us from each other and makes our paintings unique. Build your workflow methodically to get the most out […]
100 new ways to paint! • Tips 01-19. Ideas and philosophy. 1) Philip Straub – Artistic legacy “For me it’s about leaving an artistic legacy behind, a body of work that will hopefully inspire young artists and entertain people well after I’ve passed on”, explains Philip Straub. “With each painting I create, I try to improve my skill set and add another piece to the puzzle that is my overall body of work. For me creating art isn’t a […]
Volumetric light – Understandig light in 3 dimensions What happens when light shines through objects in hazy air and gets partially blocked by transparent, coloured surfaces? Let’s experiment with theory of volumetric light. What happens when the light rays become visible because of light scattering which occurs due to haze or dust? Light turns into a visible 3-dimensional shape. And even more interesting; what if semi transparent, coloured material occurs in some areas and partially blocks the light […]
When working with fantasy-related art, you will probably sooner or later deal with painting slime and goo. If you’re planning on creating threads of classical dripping Ghostbusters kind of slime, the best thing is naturally to paint it all from scratch, as any layer styles or automated settings just won’t pull it off, and it will look odd. For an easier approach, like more of a non-dripping kind of slime, you can use another technique to get you somewhere close. […]