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Flickr’s suzi54241’s

Step by step painting tutorial

turning an ipad sketch into a painting

using SketchBook Pro app.

Exploring the New Digital

MurtaughSusan

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Start with a good drawing. In this case 3 containers of my favorite condiments. I did this with the number 4 pencil on the first page of SketchBook Pro brushes. I then duplicated the layer to make the lines stronger and collapsed them into one.

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Still using the no. 4 brush I start painting in color on a layer below the drawing. I try to make the strokes follow the contours of the objects. I usually paint the highlights on one layer then add darker colors on a layer below, then I collapse them and do a little touch up and blending.

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I am happy with the chili sauce, I make a new layer to start the grinder and jar. The luxury of 12 layers means I can do much experimenting without fear of messing up a part I already like. FYI, I have the brush set on hard, about 80% transparent and spaced out about 1.4.

Finishing up my color work. I’m trying not to get “too tight.” I like the way the brush strokes look here and don’t want to lose the fresh, casual look.

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Here is where we transform the original drawing into an integral part of the painting. In the layer pallet I turn on lock transparency. This allows me to change the black to any color I choose without going out of the lines so to speak. Only changing the line color, not a single surrounding pixel. Above you can see I’ve altered the chili bottle and part of label type.

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Here is the first go around of black sketch line turned into color. As I progress with the painting I may go back and refine these colors even more.

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New layer under others. Flood fill with dark khaki color. One of the advantages of using solid color is that areas in above layers that have not been painted clearly show up. I will put a layer above the khaki and paint in missing color, then collapse with the main painting.

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To make straight lines I make another layer above the solid color and use the square constrain tool. I make the painting smaller in my iPad window so I can drag the ends of the square way out of the picture frame.... Making those perfectly straight lines.

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To pop the containers out a little I use the airbrush tool. On a layer just below the “hero” figures. This sets them more apart from the background.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with the color, width and transparency of the airbrush, what is good for one piece may not work for another. Or don’t use it at all.

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To add more visual interest I’m going to use one of the built in templates of SketchBook Pro to add a grid to the upper portion of the background. Set the layer mode to multiply so the white background of the grid becomes transparent. Then erase the grid from the bottom portion of the artwork. To pull the whole piece together I add a boarder around the edges, again using the square constrain tool and larger no. 4 brush.

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Finally to bring home the “heat” I airbrush a little cayenne color to spice things up. To tidy up I collapse a few layers and export my psd to save on my home computer as a backup. The important thing is to save the layered file. Next week I may decide the background stinks and with a few clicks I could paint a new inferno. Or I could straighten and resize the objects making a whole new composition.

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