Digital Painting Tutorials

Sometimes, the very thing that helps you learn is exploration and practice. When I first started painting, I painted anything and everything.

Here are five digital painting prompts for practicing and exploring. It doesn't matter what painting software you use, it's more important to jump in and create.

1. An ocean scene. This is fairly an easy one to practice painting. Start with painting a background made with shades of ocean blues and then play with different brushes to add white waves. Here's one I did that you can see what I mean: http://www.shibuistudio.com/quietinvitation.html
2. Find a photo of your Chinese Zodiac Animal sign and strive to draw or sketch it and then paint it. The key is to use the photo ONLY as a guide for your own drawing. Here's mine -- a rabbit :-) Click on my Rabbit and you'll be taken to a website page where you can discover your animal and see what I painted that may inspire you in your own.
3. Paint something in psychelic colors that allows you to brush strokes big and bold. Here's a sample of a landscape: http://www.shibuistudio.com/inforalanding.html
4. Practice drawing lines. I spend about 15 minutes a day just drawing lines and curves using my stylus pen. I notice that over time, it increases my skills. Just start with a color (I like to use chalk, charcoal or colored pencils in Corel Painter X.
5. Pick your favorite digital painting brush, favorite color and favorite shape. Allow yourself to paint whatever comes with these three elements. For example: 1) water, 2) trees, and 3) mountain

Have fun!

Someone forwarded this to me that gives the best description of digital painting...

If we use a computer to create visual artwork, would it be considered digital painting?

The answer to that would be - no. So, what is digital painting?

Digital Painting is an art form where artwork or painting is done in a fashion similar to that of traditional mediums like oil painting, water colors, color pencils, inking or others. Digital painting is done with the help of raster graphic tools or softwares like Painter, Photoshop, or GIMP.

Digital Painting is a subset of, or a specific case of Computer Graphics (CG). Computer graphics has presently grown into a very broad topic that involves photo-manipulation, 3D rendering, vector graphics, graphic effects, and also digital painting.

What separates digital painting from the rest, is that the process followed for the digital painting is more akin to the traditional painting processes. All of the artwork is usually done from scratch. Full scale effects are usually not used, and if it is used, it is done for localized areas. Even if it is used to modify the artwork, the base artwork would have been created by the artist.

The Digital Atelier
A digital painting tutorial on "pushing color" using Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial takes you step-by-step in painting a pansy using the pushing color technique to create depth and movement.

Painting a Landscape
A digital painting tutorial in Adobe PhotoShop by Alain Descamps from France. He takes you step-by-step in digitally painting a mountain scene.

Advanced Digital Painting
Ready for a more challenging tutorial? This tutorial covers everything from sketching to finishing touches. It's pretty complicated but a great tutorial if you've got the patience and time to learn.

Digital Painting Brushes
Digital painting process using brushes in Adobe Photoshop with a pressure sensitive Wacom Intuos tablet. This tutorial is for intermediates and advanced users in digital painting techniques.

One of the great things about digital painting is color -- all the colors you want without spending between $5.00 to $40.00 for one tube or jar. Of course, it helps to understand the theory of color and how to mix and blend. Below are online resources that generously share their knowledge and expertise on color.

Color Matters in Design & Art
At Color Matters, you can learn more about the concept of color approached from several disciplines: physiology, psychology, philosophy, and art.

Color, Contrast & Design
Though primarily a website devoted to journalism, I found this site to be educational and fun. The interactive exercises have you look at through different lens.