Learning Digital Painting

Course details

Never painted digitally before? You don't need a lot of special equipment to get started, just some creative ideas, a computer, and the right software. John Derry will help you learn the rest: mixing paint, working with layers and brushes, using color creatively, and sketching. He also covers uniquely digital techniques, such as dipping a paintbrush into a photograph or painting with cloning. Even if you've never picked up a conventional paintbrush, the techniques in this course will help you start creating your own unique works of art.

Learning objectives
Customizing mouse behaviors
Using a pen tablet
Painting with Painter, Photoshop, or apps like Procreate 2
Working with brushes
Using layers as a compositional tool
Painting from life
Using a photograph as your paint
Clone painting

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - Advantages of painting digitally

1. Expressive Input Devices

03 - Customizing mouse behaviors
04 - Introducing the concept of axes of motion
05 - Using the pen tablet and stylus
06 - Understanding the Intuos and Cintiq options

2. Expressive Painting Applications

07 - A world of options
08 - Emulating analog media with Painter
09 - Going beyond traditional image editing with Photoshop
10 - Painting with the iPad app Procreate 2

3. Digital Paintbrush Mechanics

11 - Introduction to brush mechanics
12 - Brush tips - Variations on a theme
13 - Brush color behavior
14 - Brush and surface interaction
15 - Emulating media via physical modeling
16 - Through the looking glass

4. Painting Abstractly

17 - Introduction to abstract painting
18 - A great way to explore brush qualities
19 - Using color to express emotion
20 - Layers as a compositional tool

5. Painting What's in Your Mind's Eye

21 - Introduction to sketching as creative self-expression
22 - Preliminary sketching
23 - Paint to your skill level
24 - Going back in time - Undo

6. Painting from Life

25 - Interpreting reality with digital painting
26 - Working from a still life in a home or studio
27 - Using a photo to capture and edit a still life
28 - Exploring some tips for working on a portable tablet en plein air

7. The Photograph as Wet Paint

29 - Dipping a paintbrush into a photograph
30 - Separating brush work from color and composition
31 - Use a dry brush to smear a wet photograph
32 - Work nondestructively using layers

8. Clone Painting

33 - Funnel a photo through your brush
34 - Using the funnel method to act as a paint reservoir
35 - Sit back and let the app do the heavy lifting

Conclusion

36 - Next steps