Painting Environments from Udemy

Welcome to Painting Environments. My name is Hardy Fowler and I am a professional illustrator and concept artist. I’m calling on all artists out there with a passion for creating worlds - if you’ve ever dreamed of making a career out of this, I’m here to tell you that the dream is real. You can make a living doing this.

All you need is a killer portfolio to launch you into an amazingly fun and rewarding career.

This course can get you there. I’ll show you all of my professional level techniques and tricks that will demystify the entire process of create stunning environments and landscapes with Adobe Photoshop. This stuff is way easier than it looks. In an easy to grasp, step by step process, I’ll share all of my digital painting techniques and custom tools that will have you amazed at how stunning, expansive and detailed your scenes can be.

But this course is so much more than just a painting demonstration. We’ll teach you everything you need to know to start thinking like a professional environment designer. To tie it all together, we offer responsive support and loads of other course resources to make sure that every student can take their work to new heights.

Don’t miss your chance to create worlds. You can do this. It just might lead to a dream career. Enroll today, grab your stylus and let’s paint cool stuff

What's inside

Learning objective

Design and painting amazing, imaginative landscapes for use as concept art or stand-alone masterpieces

Syllabus

Introduction

Important Note

Here, we will take a broad look at the art of creating beautiful environment art and we'll learn some key guiding principles to make sure we start every project on the right foot

Here we will explore the incredible power of custom shapes! The provided .csh files can load my custom shapes into your Photoshop shape library (instructions included in the video lecture). If you are NOT using photoshop (and an app like Procreate or Krita), I've provided jpegs of each shape for you to use as well.

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Read about what's good

what should give you pause

and possible dealbreakers

Provides techniques and custom tools for creating detailed and expansive scenes, which are essential for building a strong portfolio

Breaks down the process of creating environments and landscapes with Adobe Photoshop into easy-to-grasp, step-by-step techniques

Offers JPEG versions of custom shapes for use in apps like Procreate or Krita, expanding accessibility beyond just Photoshop users

Teaches learners to think like professional environment designers, which is crucial for career advancement in the field

Includes golden, professional tips and tricks for rendering various terrains, which can lead to reliably beautiful results

Relies on custom shapes and brushes for Photoshop, so learners should ensure compatibility with their software version

Reviews summary

Professional digital painting for environments

According to learners, this course provides a deep dive into professional digital painting techniques for creating stunning environments in Photoshop. Students appreciate the step-by-step approach used in the practical projects, which helps in applying concepts effectively. The inclusion of custom brushes and shapes is highlighted as a useful resource. The curriculum is structured to help students build a portfolio suitable for a career in concept art. While the course is comprehensive, some students suggest that a basic familiarity with digital painting tools is beneficial before enrolling to maximize the learning experience.

Benefits those with some digital art background.

"While principles are covered, I think having some prior experience with Photoshop or digital painting helps."

"Beginners might need to supplement with foundational tutorials before tackling this course."

"Assumes a basic comfort level navigating software and using layers."

Includes helpful brushes and shapes.

"The provided custom brushes and shapes are a fantastic resource and saved me a lot of time."

"Using the instructor's custom tools gave my work a more polished look."

"The included assets were easy to load and integrated well into my workflow."

Aimed at building professional art skills.

"This course is excellent for anyone looking to build a portfolio for a career in environment art."

"The focus on thinking like a professional environment designer is very valuable."

"Hardy's experience in the industry adds great credibility to the lessons."

Learn by doing with clear project guidance.

"The step-by-step breakdown of the projects made complex scenes feel achievable."

"Working on the three main projects helped solidify my understanding of the process."

"I found the project descriptions and reference images very helpful for getting started."

Learn industry-level digital painting skills.

"This course taught me professional techniques I can use for concept art and illustration."

"I appreciated learning the specific workflow and tools used by a professional artist."

"Gained valuable insights into creating portfolio-quality environment art."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Painting Environments with these activities:

Review Color Theory Fundamentals

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Reinforce your understanding of color theory to improve your color choices and create more visually appealing environments.

Browse courses on Color Theory

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Review basic color models (RGB, CMYK, HSB).
Study color relationships (complementary, analogous, triadic).
Practice color mixing exercises using digital tools.

Create a mood board for environment concepts

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Develop your visual library and refine your ability to capture specific moods and atmospheres in your environment paintings.

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Choose a specific mood or atmosphere (e.g., serene, ominous, vibrant).
Gather reference images that evoke the chosen mood.
Arrange the images in a visually appealing layout.
Write a short description of the mood and the elements that contribute to it.

Read 'Color and Light' by James Gurney

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Deepen your understanding of color and light principles to create more realistic and believable environments.

View Dinotopia: Journey To Chandara (Calla Editions) on Amazon

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Read chapters on color temperature and atmospheric perspective.
Analyze paintings by master artists, focusing on their use of color and light.
Experiment with different lighting scenarios in your own paintings.

Four other activities

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Atmospheric Perspective Studies

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Improve your ability to create depth and distance in your paintings by practicing atmospheric perspective techniques.

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Select a landscape photograph with a clear sense of depth.
Create a series of paintings, focusing on the gradual shift in color and value.
Experiment with different levels of haze and fog.

Read 'Framed Ink' by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

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Improve your composition skills to create more dynamic and engaging environment paintings.

View Framed Ink 2: Frame Format, Energy, and... on Amazon

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Study the principles of composition, such as rule of thirds and leading lines.
Analyze the composition of famous paintings and illustrations.
Experiment with different compositions in your own paintings.

Personal Environment Painting Project

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Apply the techniques learned in the course to create a polished environment painting for your portfolio.

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Develop a concept for your environment painting.
Create a detailed sketch and color palette.
Paint the environment, paying attention to detail and atmosphere.
Refine the painting and add final touches.

Explore Advanced Photoshop Techniques

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Expand your skillset by learning advanced Photoshop techniques relevant to environment painting.

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Find tutorials on topics like custom brush creation, advanced masking, and photo manipulation.
Follow the tutorials and practice the techniques.
Incorporate the new techniques into your own paintings.

Career center

Learners who complete Painting Environments will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Concept Artist

A concept artist visualizes ideas to create compelling designs, often for films, video games, and other media. This role involves generating a range of visual representations of environments, characters, and objects. The Painting Environments course helps build a strong foundation in environment design, teaching techniques to create detailed and expansive scenes. This course focuses on digital painting techniques using Adobe Photoshop, which concept artists use. The course's detailed exploration of skies, trees, rocks, and water, coupled with projects focused on atmospheric scenes and grand landscapes, helps you create portfolio-worthy pieces showcasing your skills in environment design. The course's focus on thinking like a professional environment designer may be useful for a concept artist.

See salaries and explore the career path for Concept Artist

Illustrator

An illustrator creates images for various media, including books, magazines, and advertisements. The Painting Environments course helps build a strong portfolio with stunning landscapes and environments, essential for attracting clients. You'll learn professional-level techniques in Adobe Photoshop to create detailed scenes. The course focuses on key skills such as creating depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective, as well as rendering skies, trees, rocks, and water. The projects of this course are useful for creating illustrations. The course's inclusion of custom Photoshop tools enhances your ability to produce high-quality, professional-level artwork. The course is taught by a professional illustrator.

See salaries and explore the career path for Illustrator

Environment Artist

An environment artist creates the visual surroundings and landscapes for video games, films, and other virtual experiences. As an environment artist, a background in painting beautiful and convincing environments is extremely helpful. The Painting Environments course helps build the skills to create detailed and immersive worlds using digital painting techniques in Adobe Photoshop. The course's focus on designing environments with depth, scale, and a sense of mood may especially helpful. The course's projects, including the creation of a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, provide practical experience in designing diverse environments.

See salaries and explore the career path for Environment Artist

Matte Painter

A matte painter creates realistic or imaginative backgrounds for films, television, and video games, often using digital painting techniques. Matte painters must demonstrate the ability to believably render environmental effects, and this course helps build the tools to do so. The Painting Environments course helps you develop the skills to create detailed and expansive environments using Adobe Photoshop. The course's focus on atmospheric perspective and rendering various terrains such as skies, trees, rocks, and water may be especially helpful. The course projects, including the fantasy landscape, may be particularly useful additions to a matte painting portfolio.

See salaries and explore the career path for Matte Painter

Visual Development Artist

A visual development artist works in animation and film, creating the overall look and feel of a project, including environments, characters, and props. Visual development artists must understand environmental rendering, so this course may be very helpful. The Painting Environments course helps develop the skills to design imaginative landscapes and environments. The course's emphasis on depth, scale, mood, and story helps you create environments that effectively communicate the project's vision. The course's projects, including the creation of a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, provide practical experience in designing diverse and compelling environments.

See salaries and explore the career path for Visual Development Artist

Background Artist

A background artist creates the backgrounds for animated films, television shows, and video games. The Painting Environments course helps to create detailed and immersive backgrounds using digital painting techniques in Adobe Photoshop. This course focuses on creating depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective, as well as rendering skies, trees, rocks, and water. The course's projects, which include designing a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, offer experience in creating diverse and visually appealing backgrounds. The course's emphasis on professional-level techniques and custom tools may also be helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Background Artist

Digital Artist

A digital artist creates artwork using digital tools and software. The Painting Environments course helps build a portfolio showcasing skill in creating stunning environments and landscapes. The course's focus on digital painting techniques in Adobe Photoshop may be very useful. The course contains the creation of custom shapes and brushes, as well as the rendering of terrains like skies, trees, and rocks. The course's projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a forest, provides practical experience in creating diverse and visually appealing digital environments.

See salaries and explore the career path for Digital Artist

Game Artist

A game artist creates the visual elements of video games, including environments, characters, and user interfaces. Game artists often specialize. For example, they might be environment artists. The Painting Environments course helps build the skills to design detailed and immersive environments using digital painting techniques in Adobe Photoshop. This course develops the skills in creating depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective, as well as rendering various terrains such as skies, trees, rocks, and water. The course's projects, which include designing a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, offers experience in creating diverse and visually appealing game environments.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Artist

Animator

An animator creates moving images for films, television shows, video games, and websites. While animators are not environment designers, the Painting Environments course may help them to understand the importance of background design. The course helps to develop a foundational understanding of how to create compelling and visually appealing environments. This course touches on the concepts of depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective. The projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may provide you with a valuable perspective on how environments contribute to the overall visual storytelling.

See salaries and explore the career path for Animator

Art Director

An art director oversees the visual style and images for various projects, such as magazines, newspapers, product packaging, and movie and television sets. Although art directors are managers, the Painting Environments course may help them to hone their artistic eye. The course helps develop an understanding of environment design principles and techniques. This course contains instruction on creating depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective. The projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may provide insight into the creative process and the challenges of environment design in particular.

See salaries and explore the career path for Art Director

Graphic designer

A graphic designer creates visual concepts, using computer software or by hand, to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, and captivate consumers. While graphic designers do not design environments per se, the Painting Environments course may help to create stunning visuals for backgrounds in advertisements. The course helps develop artistic skills and knowledge of design principles. This course teaches how to create depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective. The projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may provide useful background imagery.

See salaries and explore the career path for Graphic designer

Teacher

A teacher is a professional who educates students of various ages in a range of subjects. The Painting Environments course may help art teachers to improve their understanding of painting techniques and environment design principles. The course helps teachers develop skills in digital painting using Adobe Photoshop. The course, which focuses on creating depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective, may be a valuable resource for teachers looking to enhance their curriculum and provide students with practical skills in environment design.

See salaries and explore the career path for Teacher

Photographer

A photographer captures images using cameras and lighting equipment for various purposes, such as portraits, landscapes, and commercial products. Although photographers use cameras, the Painting Environments course may help them to develop an understanding of artistic principles and techniques. This course touches on digital painting methods, and may help to create backgrounds and add creative effects to photographs. The course's projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may be inspiring to photographers shooting similar subject matter.

See salaries and explore the career path for Photographer

Web Designer

A web designer plans, creates, and codes internet sites and web pages, many of which combine text with sounds, pictures, graphics and video clips. The Painting Environments course may help web designers create visually appealing website backdrops. Specifically, the course helps to learn how to think like a designer of environments. This course discusses depth, scale, mood, and story. The projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may be useful backgrounds for websites, or may be inspirational.

See salaries and explore the career path for Web Designer

Architect

An architect designs buildings and other structures, ensuring they are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The Painting Environments course may helps architects enhance their visualization skills and create compelling presentations of their designs. The course emphasizes environment design principles and techniques. In particular, the course goes over depth, scale, and atmospheric perspective. The projects, including a cavern scene, a fantasy landscape, and a detailed forest, may be useful or inspirational to architects.

See salaries and explore the career path for Architect

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Painting Environments.

Dinotopia: Journey To Chandara

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Gurney's "Imaginative Realism" is an excellent companion to the course, focusing on how to create believable fantasy environments. It covers topics like creature design, architecture, and integrating fantastical elements into realistic settings. is particularly useful for the course projects that involve creating imaginative landscapes and great source of inspiration.

Dinotopia: Journey To Chandara (Calla Editions)

Hardcover

Framed Ink 2

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Focuses on composition and visual storytelling, which are essential for creating compelling environment art. It teaches how to use composition to guide the viewer's eye and create a sense of depth and drama. It's particularly useful for the course projects that involve creating expansive landscapes.

Framed Ink 2: Frame Format, Energy, and Composition...

Paperback

Painting Environments

What's inside

Learning objective

Syllabus

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Reviews summary

Professional digital painting for environments

Activities

Career center

Reading list

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