Bug Drawing and Painting on Photoshop

With Steve Brown we had another 2D drawing lesson. Eager to find out what it was, I got to my chair as quick as possible and opened up the word documents that were provided. Today we would be learning how to shade and color in a concept piece. I'm slowly getting used to the idea of how to shade, what colors I should use in the mix, so forth. By doing this exercise, it helps me discover my skill.

The drawing that we have gone for today is a caterpillar solider. Steve had already drawn the concept, it was up to us to fill in the blanks and add in the minor detail.

The "Bug" colored in.

We started off simply by using the palette that was provided to fill in the gaps of the caterpillar. It sort of reminded me of a paint by colors activity. After that we then had to create a shadow layer, this will make it seem as if light in reflecting in some areas, but not in others.

The shadow layer.

For this effect, I had to create a new layer, place it on top of the colored one, make the previous image invisible, then by using a grey on the paint tool to cover up the parts where I wanted a shadow. Once this is completed, I have to set this layer to multiply. By doing this I can make it seem as if this layer is sitting just on top and the two layers will almost merge.

The result.

The image above is the end process. Its a very quick and simple way of creating a decent looking image out of almost nothing. We could move on from this though and I decided that I would take this to the next step.

What I got in the end.

This is what the final result was. I'm vigorously happy with what happened in the end, especially as I haven't really done digital art that much before. I love the way that his body looks reflective, almost as if a light was shining on him. Of course there's certain parts which I feel could be better, such as the neck and body, but as I've said many times before, practice is what its all about.