Schoolism course - Internship 1
Digital painting - Bobby Chiu
Laura Nooijen, DDM3A
Throughout 3/4th of my internship, I worked on the Schoolism course 'Digital Painting' from Bobby Chiu. With this course, I wanted to learn more about Photoshop and its tools, in order to step out of my comfortzone as a Procreate-on-iPad user.
One of my learning goals for my internship was to experiment with different materials and techniques, therefore the program Photoshop, as I never used it and wanted to learn to use different programs that might come in handy for my future job as an illustrator.
I started with the basics of the basics: brush use. Then, it went from easy steps to bigger and more challenging steps, like realistic shading and learning what light and surfaces do to colours.
I have learned so much by doing this course!
I will show you my process first and then evaluate.
Lesson 1 & 2:
Basics & Brush Exercises
In lesson 1, I learned to use a lot of different hotkeys/shortcuts in order to stay in the flow when drawing.
Bobby explained brush use and that a blending tool was not needed if you managed to control the flow and opacity of a hard brush in the correct way.
The assignments for this lesson were to copy his different grayscale gradients and shading techniques with only the flow and opacity of the brush. First on simple lines and shapes, then more complex shapes and surfaces. Also with the help of layermasks.
My internship supervisor gave me feedback as well to help me make the very best out of this course.
For my first attempt with the complex shapes, she gave me feedback about how I should use sharper and darker shadows (under the hood of the mushroom) to make it pop more. Same for the flower.
Lesson 3:
Portraits And Adjustment Layers
For the first assignment (left), Bobby had made a solid silhouette with very light shadows for me to paint over with grayscale. Starting of lightly to the darkest of shadows, adding highlights throughout the process as well. Here, I also learned to use the curves and levels functions to add the lightest highlights and the darkest shadows to create a better contrast.
In the second assignment (right), I had to paint the whole portrait from scratch without a silhouette or already-made shadows, using the same techniques.
Lesson 4:
Colorizing
In this lesson, I started to learn about different kinds of blend modes, what they do with different colours and how to use them.
While Bobby explained this, I had to give colour to this creature he made in only grayscale, using these blend modes.
With the blend mode 'color dodge', I had to paint in these warm highlights and create a bloom-effect by using a soft brush on low opacity.
Lesson 5:
Painting Workout
For this lesson, I had to paint the same model over and over again to learn to draw faster and faster.
I only did half the amount of what the assignment told me to do, because I was quite busy with other internship tasks in this moment and I was under a lot of stress.
I was also thinking about giving up this course because of it, but my supervisor supported me and convinced me to push through, as I had already learned a lot so far.
So, not the complete exercise, but my greatest learning moment here was to not give up!
Attempt 1 with already-made silhouette from Bobby Chiu:
Attempt 2 without silhouette (from scratch):
Attempt 3 from scratch again, this time including a bit of colour using blend modes (was not part of the assignment, just practiced for myself):
Lesson 6:
Sketch Language
Here, I learned a different way of thinking and thus a faster way of sketching.
Bobby Chiu explained it is important to keep looking at the picture as a whole and think, with every step you take, what the most important step is that you have to take next. You should not dwell/focus on the small details.
The assignment was to sketch the given reference pictures in 20 minutes, using the mindset Bobby explained.
Lesson 7:
Speed Painting
The same exercise as the previous one, but this time I had to sketch a whole room.
Now this was a difficult one. I still have a lot to learn about perspective drawing and I do not draw rooms that often, and on top of that, there is a time-limit again.
In the first attempt (left) I had an hour, but it took me a bit longer as I had to get used to the perspective.
For my second attempt, I only had 20 minutes again and I struggled even more to get the perspective right.
I am not proud of these attempts, but it is all part of learning and now I know what I could work on to improve in the future.
Lesson 8:
Textures
In this lesson, I mainly learned to use photos of varying textures on a base and transform and wrap them around the curves of the creature, so it looks like it is his skin or bag.
I started with using a picture of the ground as background and made it misty-looking. Then, I painted a little over the ground so there was not such a harsh transition between ground and mist (maybe a few sticks or leaves or a bit of dirt sticking out from the mist). After that, I coloured the given grayscale creature with the use of blend modes again and then I could start with the textures.
Because of the way the light falls on the creature, I had to make it as convincing on his skin texture by painting small highlights on the bumps.
I am really happy with the result!
Lesson 9:
Understanding Color And Flying Hippos
The last lesson!
Here, I started off with learning about colours and how (reflections of) light, shadow and different surfaces (like water) can manipulate/influence these colours.
I was only given a sketch of a hippo with wings and everything else I had to do myself. From grayscale to colours to making it nighttime as an extra challenge. With everything I had learned throughout the course, I had to do this final exercise and I am really proud of it!
I also learned about another handy tool in Photoshop: auto-contrast.
My supervisor also gave me handy feedback throughout the process, about studying the skin textures of a hippo and tiger to really make it correct.
Evaluation
'Digital Painting' from Bobby Chiu was a challenging course, but I am proud of myself for pushing through and completing my learning goal 'Experimenting with different materials & techniques' (in this case, Photoshop).
I went from barely any knowledge and usage of Photoshop to strong basic knowledge of the program. I am normally a Procreate user and draw on my iPad, but I have stepped out of that comfortzone with this course and do not mind to use Photoshop now and then.
I now understand different kind of functions Photoshop offers and how I can use them. I also learned a different way of thinking, working quicker and more efficiënt, understanding light and reflections and how they influence colours.
Besides that, I learned to paint in a whole different style as well and an other way of shading (grayscale). I learned how to use masks, blend modes and functions like hue/saturation, curves and levels. Everything to make a painting faster, but at the same time better.
In short: I have experimented a lot with different kind of materials and techniques and am now able to use a program I rarely used before in a much faster way.
The next course I want to do is for my other learning goal 'Designing expressive characters of which their personality is clear to see'. For that, I will be doing the 'Expressive Characters' course from Wouter Tulp.
Thank you for watching!
