The Ultimate Digital Painting Course - Beginner to Advanced

Welcome to the course, we're so excited to have you here! Really quick we would like to introduce our selves. We'd also like to plant an idea in your head that digital painting is a learned skill and anyone can learn to do it.

In this lecture you will go over the tools and software you'll need to take this course. We'll cover different painting programs as well as various tablets and styluses available for you to paint with.

It's very important that during you learning process that you have a support group. That's why we have created The Artist Inner Family Facebook Group & the Digital Artist Group so you can have that support. In the group you will be able to post your artwork as well as ask for help and critiques. Make sure you join and we look forward to seeing your artwork!

Join the Facebook groups and share your art with us as you go through the course. If you'd like critiques you can ask for them when you post. If not just expect some good old motivation from your fellow students!

This lecture will provide you with links to free photoshop brushes that you can use in addition to the standard brushes that come with the software you're using.

In this lecture you will learn how to set up your canvas settings. We'll cover canvas dimensions as well as what DPI you should be painting at.

In this lecture you will learn how to draw the human eye. This will be the beginning of an eye painting. The purpose of this project is for you to understand where you are skill wise. It's also so you can get your feet wet with digital painting. At the end of the course I invite you to repaint this eye and compare it with your first eye painting. This is a great way to measure the progress you've made.

In this lecture you will be painting your eye drawing. The first phase of painting in a drawing is called blocking out your colors. Blocking out your colors gives you a base to build the rest of your painting off of.

Once you have all of your basic colors blocked in and blended its time to start adding detail. In this lecture we will be detailing the form, reflection, and eyelashes. If this is all a bit overwhelming that's alright. You will be learning all of these techniques throughout the course and hone your skills.

In this lecture students will learn about the 3 main basic brush settings. Opacity, flow, and size.

In this lecture students will learn about the2 types of brushes, drawing and painting brushes. We'll start by drawing and then painting a tree trunk.

In this lecture students will learn about texture brushes and how and when to use them. We'll use a texture brush to add some moss to our tree trunk.

In this lecture students will learn about special brushes. We'll use a leaf brush to create some foliage for our trees.

When it comes to drawing and painting there is a hierarchy of fundamentals. I like to imagine each aspect of a drawing or painting (such as line or texture) as part of a building or pyramid. In order to create beautiful art you need a strong foundation. In this lecture I will break down drawing fundamentals from most important to least important. 

The building block of all drawings and paintings is line. Everything you draw and every brush stroke you make is a line. In this lecture you will be learning the importance of line and the part it plays in digital painting.

Contouring lines are usually the edges or profile of a form. In some cases contouring lines can be thought of as the edge line of a shape, color, or value. In this lecture I will show you an exercise that will teach you to see contour lines even if they're invisible.

Now that you understand line you must understand how line makes up shapes. Every image that you see can be broken down into simple geometric shapes that make up its composition.  In this lecture I will be teaching you how to look at objects as just a simple group of shapes.

In this lecture we will be learning how to block out a drawing with shapes. When digital painting you always want to start out loose an simple and slowly refine your painting. One way we can start out lose is by starting our drawings out with simple geometric shapes that make up the objects in our composition. 

In this lecture students will learn about the fundamentals of creating objects in 3d space. We'll trace over images to learn how to create wireframes to help us visualize the form of objects.

In this lecture students will learn about the value scale and how to recognize where a value falls along the value scale. We'll play game to help you test your skills.

There are two types of texture when it comes to drawing. The first is contour line textures and the second is value textures. In this lecture you will be learning how to draw contour line textures. This texture only rely on the contour lines of the surface and not highlights and shadows.

In this lecture we will do a quick overview of what perspective is and how it plays an important part of digital painting. We'll look at real world examples of different types of perspective.

In this lecture you will be learning about the different ways in which we can create space in our art. Space is referring to the distance and perspective between different objects. Such as the back and front legs of a dog or a mountain range and a foreground.  Space can be created by simply changing the size and placement of an object as well as its values.

In this lecture you will be learning how to draw 1 point perspective. Perspective uses something called the vanishing point. In one point perspective we will only have one vanishing point to draw all our lines to. 

In this lecture you will be learning how to draw 2 point perspective. In Two point perspective we will have two vanishing points to draw all our lines to.  2 Point perspective is what you will most often be drawing and most often see in real life.

In this lecture you will be learning how to draw 3 point perspective. In Three point perspective we will have Three vanishing points to draw all our lines to.  3 Point perspective would be used wen drawing something like looking up at a sky scraper.

One of the biggest mistakes many beginner artist make when it comes to drawing in perspective is not scaling objects properly. An example of this would be if you drew a person standing close to the viewer. If you wanted to draw another person the same height but further down the street you need to know how much smaller they must be drawn in order to draw them in correct perspective.

Many times when artist are sketching or drawing they do not have time to draw perspective guidelines or its not necessary to have perfect perspective. In this lecture you will learn how to quickly rough in perceptive while you draw. Many times the vanishing points are so far off the canvas your guidelines will all be angled the same.

Now that you have a deep understanding of perspective you will learn how to draw a finished drawing in perspective. The first step to drawing in perspective is establishing a horizon line and vanishing points. Next is to block out your drawing or create a sketch you can use as a guide. I will provide a sketch for you in this project.

In this lecture students will learn about atmospheric perspective and how to create it in their paintings. We'll try it out by painting a misty forest landscape.

In this lecture students will learn about how light and color are interconnected. We'll cover the basic scientific fundamentals behind how light works.

In this lecture students will learn about highlights and shadows. We'll go step by step through the process of painting a sphere.

In this lecture students will learn how to think about their light source in order to help them choose the right colors for your lighting and shadows.

In this lecture students will learn about how to light an object from your mind. We'll use a generic shape and practice lighting it from 3 different angles.

Perspective applies to every aspect of your drawings and painting. Many times you can take shortcuts that make thing look like their in perspective but other times you will want to figure out the exact perspective of things. In this lecture I will teach you how to draw cast shadows in perfect perspective.   

In this lecture students will learn about the 3 components of any color hue, value, and saturation.

In this lecture students will learn about how light bounces a subjects surroundings. We'll go over how to paint reflected light into a scene.

In this lecture students will learn about ambient light. We'll cover how to determine the color of your ambient light and how to paint it in an image.

In this lecture students will learn about ambient occlusion.We'll look at some examples of ambient occlusion and discuss why it occurs.

In this lecture students will learn about how to add a second light source to an image. We'll paint an example image that you'll follow along with.

In this lecture students will learn about subsurface scattering. We'll talk about the science behind it and we'll use the same image from the previous lecture to try our hand at painting it.

In this lecture students will learn about how to paint a glowing object. We'll use the same image from the previous 2 lectures to create a glowing effect on the frogs eyes.

The best way to learn about light and color is to paint from life. In this lecture we will be painting a still life of a teapot. This painting will be simple enough for you to do but will still teach you a lot. 

In this lecture we will paint a still life photo of a skull. We'll see some of the examples of topics we've been covering like ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering.

In this lecture we'll do another still life, this time of a stone ball and a red book. We'll talk about reflected light and highlights.

In this lecture you will be learning the basics of color theory.  Color theory refers to how colors work together in you painting and how they play off each other. In this lecture I will be laying the foundation of how to create beautiful color pallets.

In this lecture you will be learning the importance of warm and cool colors. Warm and cool colors can effect the mood of your painting and can also create beautiful color contrast. You will also learn how a warm color can be a cool color and vise versa.

Creating a color pallet before you beguine painting can be very useful. A color pallet will give you specific colors you are allowed to use in your painting so you don't have to spend time choosing from millions of colors. In this lecture you will learn how to create a color pallet from scratch as well as how to copy color pallets from photographs and other artwork.

In this lecture you will be looking at examples of how color controls mood. Mood plays a big part of digital painting and color choice influences your paintings heavily. Sometimes the lack of color or de-saturation can control the mood as well. 

If you have a hard time choosing your color pallet then this lecture will help you immensely. Gamut masking is a technique used by tradition oil painters in which you limit your color pallet. The way this is done is by physically masking off part of the color spectrum. 

In this lecture students will learn about the basics of layers. We'll cover the layer menu and go over how they work and what you would use them for.

In this lecture students will learn about how layer organization works. We'll go over the different features of layers and how to name and color them.

Composition is made up of many components. Its incredibly important to create good composition in your paintings other wise nothing else will matter. Luckily designing your composition is a simple process. 

In this lecture you will be learning the importance of contrast and how it should play into your paintings. Contrast applies to everything form color to texture to values. In this lecture you will be painting a character design while applying everything you've learned about contrast.

When designing your compositions you will want to paint on different layers. By painting each part of your composition on a different layer it allows you to adjust that layer without disturbing other parts of your painting. In this lecture we will be taking a black and whit composition painting and adjusting the size, placement, and values of the layers in order to achieve a better composition.

In this lecture students will learn how to create a depth of field effect in their painting utilizing layers.

In this lecture students will learn about all of the photoshop layer modes and what you might use them for. We'll use a control image to compare how different layer modes affect an image with various colors and values.

In this lecture students will download the file and play a game where they must put the layers in the right order and set to the right mode.

In this lecture students will learn about layer masks. We'll learn how to use layer masks and how to create them.

In this lecture students will learn about the selection tool. We'll use it to create different faces using the downloadable resources.

In this lecture students will learn about the fill and gradient tool. We'll use the elephant from the layer masks lecture to practice creating gradients.

In this lecture you will learn about the Blur tool. There are a handful of blur tools and blur tool options. By the end of this lecture you will know how to use all of them.

In this lecture you will learn how to use the warp tool. The warp tool has different modes that allow you to warp images in specific ways.  The warp tool is very useful for warping paintings and changing the sized and angles of shapes.

In this lecture you will learn about all the different filters you can use with digital painting. Some software's may not have all of these filters but they will have most of them. Filters allow you to filter your paintings through different effects such as blur or ripple. 

In this lecture you will learn about adjustment layers and how they work. Adjustment layers allow you to adjust different aspects of your image such as color and value.   

In this lecture students will learn about gradient mapping. We'll use an example to try creating a gradient map.

In this lecture students will learn about how to master brush control. We'll do an exercise to help you practice brush control.

In this lecture students will learn how to use digital brushes to blend 2 colors or values together. We'll use the brush tool and eye dropper tool to get a smooth transition between t2 colors and then 3 colors.

In this lecture you will be learning about edge control and how it applies to your digital paintings. Edge control refers to the hardness of softness of your brush edge. Controlling your edges helps you control the focal point of your painting. 

The first step with all paintings after you draw your sketch is to block out your colors and values. There are different ways of doing this and in this lecture you will learn about all of them. Sometimes you want to block out your painting under your sketch and other times you will wont to block it out on top of your sketch.

In this lecture we will be painting a still life form start to finish. For this lecture you will not be provided with a sketch. We must start with a blank canvas and draw it ourself.

In this lecture students will learn how to paint highly specular shinny objects. We'll use a ball as an example and render it with a shiny chrome like surface.

In this lecture students will learn how to paint rough surfaces. We'll use the same ball as an example and render it with a rough surface.

In This lecture students will learn how to paint matte surfaces. Matt surfaces don't bounce much light due to its micro rough surface. 

In this lecture students will learn how to paint glossy surfaces. We'll use the same ball in the previous lectures to render a glossy finish.

In this lecture you will learn how to paint translucent surfaces. Translucent surfaces are not quite like transparent surfaces. Translucent surfaces trap some of the light inside the object that is translucent. This gives the object a murky look and will also cause the shadow to be tinted the color of the object.

In this lecture you will be learning how to paint head studies.  Head studies allow you to study, paint, and understand the form of the human head. Head studies should also be kept simple and a little messy. The more of these you can do the better you will become at painting people.

In this lecture you will learn how to paint the human nose. Painting the nose is simple once you understand the form. By the end of this lecture you will have a fully finished study of a nose.

In this lecture you will learn how to paint the human lips. Painting lips is simple once you understand the form. By the end of this lecture you will have a fully finished study of lips.

In this lecture you will learn how to paint the human ear. Painting the ear is simple once you understand the form. By the end of this lecture you will have a fully finished study of an ear.

In this lecture you will learn how to sketch out the underdrawing for your portrait. Having an underdrawing for your portraits is very important. Your underdrawing will provide structure and will allow you to adjust the proportions before you start detailing your painting.

Now that you have your under sketch complete and it matches your reference image you can now start blocking in your colors. I like to block my colors in beneath my sketch layer that way I can still see my line drawing when I begin to paint in the details. 

In this lecture you will be painting in your portrait drawing and blocked in colors. This is where you will begin to cover up your line art and add highlights and shadows. We will also be adding the detail on thins such as the eyes and lips.

In this lecture we ware going to begin a landscape painting. The first step will be to Block out the different profile shapes of the landscape and divide them into separate layers. We will turn these layers into clipping layer masks and paint them in the next lecture.

In this lecture we will be taking the different layers you blocked in, in the last lecture and converting them into clipping layer masks. This is so we can paint all the detail into our landscapes without having to worry about painting outside the shape. By the end of this lecture you will have a fully finished landscape painting!

In this lecture I will teach you how to create thumbnail designs for your environments. Thumbnails are very important for designing your environments and composition. Thumbnails allow you to try out many different ideas without investing to much time. 

In this lecture you will be painting an environment from start to finish. You will be learning how to super impose textures into your painting from photos. This will make you painting go much quicker and also make it look more realistic.