How I Art - Progress GIF

I wanted to do a progress gif/tutorial of one of my artworks for absolutely AGES so here you go!

This is unusual for me in that the lineart is entirely digital (I usually draw my lines on paper then scan them in, which is what this was traced over for a change) but the rest of the techniques are pretty much the same as usual.

The first step of this looks weird as I had changed the background colour after a couple of layers and filled it in so the gif wouldn't look weird, but I couldn't fill in the lineart so apologies if that's confusing.

-------------

My main shading technique consists of two types - 'scribble-smudging' and 'fluffy shading'.

Both will hopefully become apparent in this guide. XD
-------------
 
STEP 1- Put lineart on a new layer and resize to whatever scale I want, then set the layer to 'multiply'



STEP 2 - My secret weapon is texture, more specifically a photo I took of some sandstone. (from a gravestone if I remember correctly) I resize so the grain is very fine, then set to 'soft light' and lower the opacity a little. Then obviously get rid of all the excess outside the lines with the magic wand tool - I do this after every layer.



STEP 3 - New layer under both of those (I usually create separate folders for 'horse colour', 'rider colour' and 'tack colour' and one underneath everything else for the background when I come to it, and stick the texture and lineart right at the top out of the way.) and start colouring with a big hard brush. Because the texture has its own colour, the shading might look a bit odd so I often tweak the saturation/hue of the texture layer as I go along. At this stage I'm just putting in the most basic areas of colour and shadow.



STEP 4 - Next I start smudging everything together with a soft brush - it doesn't have to be hugely neat, its more about blending the transitions than anything else. You can use 'gaussian blur' to blend but I prefer to smudge as I feel it gives far more control.



STEP 5 - On another new layer, I add big fluffy areas of a lighter colour with a soft brush.

 


STEP 6 - Next, its time for the more detailed shadowing - on another new layer (pretty much every step is on a new layer, just fyi) I do lots of rough scribbling with a hard tipped brush - think crosshatching and the like. It doesn't need to be neat as it'll all be smudged half to death in the next step.

Apparently there's a limit to the number of thumbnails you can stick in a description so I've had to switch to links. :/

7

STEP 7 - Once all the shadowy bits are scribbled, start smudging! (excellent use of alliteration) I usually set this layer to 'soft light' although 'normal' can work depending on the base colour. Sometimes I'll do a couple of versions of this on multiple layers so I don't overdo things.

8

STEP 8 - Next up is the opposite - highlighting! Exactly the same technique but with a much lighter colour - scribble away to your heart's content and then smudge away! This is usually 'screen' or 'colour dodge' but there's no right or wrong answer, just see which looks best at the time. I lower the opacity a little here too so things aren't too stark - same with the shadowing.



9 10

STEP 9 - With that done its back to the big fluffy brush and some general shading. This softens things up a bit more and stops the highlighting from looking too OTT. I'll do a couple of layers of this, sometimes tweaking the hue/saturation to taste.

13 14


STEP 10 - Mane and tail time now! Same as before, just a big hard brush for the first blocks of colour, get rid of the excess then start shading. This time I'll use the burn/dodge tools rather than the scribbles. I hadn't got the colour quite right here so I tweaked that before moving on.

16 17

STEP 11 - I usually remember the details at about this point, so the eyes and hooves are added in. XD

STEP 12 - I added another layer of scribble highlights here as Tam was looking a bit dull, and added a fluffy layer of warmth to the mane and tail as well as yet another fluffy shadow/highlight layer.

21 22 23
24 25 26

STEP 13 - Tam is now done, onto David! He gets pretty much exactly the same treatment - hard blocks of colour, then smudging, followed by scribble/smudging and some fluffy shading.

27 30 37


STEP 14 - I remembered that Tam actually has a bridle at this point, so that gets coloured as well, along with any clothing/accessories. Both get their warpaint as well, set to 'overlay' The torch turned out far better than I ever anticipated but I can't remember how on earth I managed it so you're on your own for this step, haha!

42 44 46

STEP 15 - Next its time for the fun part - the background! This particular show called for some stands with people so I cobbled together some rough bleachers with copious use of the rectangle selection tool and lots of twisting and turning. I wasn't really interested in making it look hugely realistic as I always blur my backgrounds anyway.

47

STEP 16 - The crowd started out as one line of incredibly basic shapes and colours which was then copied and pasted on a few layers and rearranged/recoloured so they looked a bit more natural.

48

STEP 17 - I filled in the background with some sand/grass and the suggestion of a building in the distance, then stuck a dark to light gradient on another layer on top set to 'multiply' and the opacity tweaked a bit.

49 50

STEP 18 - I added some light from the torch to Tam and David set to 'soft light' and some shadows set to 'overlay'.

51

STEP 19 - Next I added some sandy texture to the ground with some brushes over a few layers, and added a dressage fence at the back because I'd forgotten it earlier, lol.

54

STEP 20 - I wanted to have some projected lights and shapes like one of those fancy arena shows, so I found some free to use pictish symbols online and after adjusting the perspective, set them to a combination of 'vivid light' and 'soft light'.

55

STEP 21 - Nothing says 'drama' like smoke everywhere, so I added in some mist with a really good cloud brush I found somewhere and set the layers to 'linear dodge' and 'pin light' and lowered the opacity of both so it looked more like smoke and less like I'd just drawn big blobs all over the place. XD

56

STEP 22 - I added some random streaks of light with an equally random brush and some careful use of the motion blur filter, set to 'screen' I also gave the horse and rider a final layer of shadowing.

57 58

STEP 23 - Finally, I hid the horse and rider folders, merged all other visible layers, copied the resulting single background image and then undid the merge. (because I'm still a photoshop noob and I like keeping backups. XD) I then pasted the background picture into a new layer below the horse and rider (but above all the unmerged background layers) and duplicated it. The top layer was then subjected to the 'gaussian blur' filter and then the foreground erased with a big soft brush so the still sharp version below shows through. I know there's probably a much easier way of doing that but this is my way. XD

All that remained was to add my sig and crop if neccessary (I think I cropped it earlier in this piece)

So that's it, all my secrets are out, haha. XD

Here's the final piece!