In the YouTube video tutorial posted on April 19th, 2020, I showed how to use highlights and shadows to define features on your creation. They are a wonderful addition to digital art as they generate a nice false impression of a real photograph.
This easy trick transforms any drawings, or two-dimensional images, into stunning three-dimensional pictures, giving them shapes and form.
We call this in French, “Trompe l’oeil” which translate into English into “optical illusion.”
In order to achieve the effects, just remember the three very important rules
1. Always use a soft round brush! No need to say more… 😊
2. Always begin with low opacity and low flow (your brush setting as shown in the picture below), as it is easier to go darker than the other way around. You brush settings are going to become your best friends. You will spend a lot of your time changing the opacity and flow levels as you progress onto your creation.
• Opacity controls the denseness of the paint (the more you increase the opacity, the less transparent is your paint stroke. A 20% paint stroke is more transparent than a 90% paint stroke that is so dark and almost black, you can’t see through).
• Flow controls the speed at which paint is laid down by the brush. Imagine painting with a spray paint can. The harder you push down on the spray, the more coating you get… if that makes sense. So, when your brush flow is set to low, it’s like your paint brush is light and fluffy… when the flow is set at 100% it’s like you emptied a bucket of paint on your canvas. Very dense and heavy!!!
IMAGE OF BRUSH SETTING
The Opacity and flow shown here are for your brush settings.
What setting I use???
I usually start with the following:
• 50% flow and 23% opacity for the shadows. Then, I increase or decrease these numbers as needed.
• 50% flow and 15% opacity for the highlights. Then, I increase or decrease these numbers as needed.
3. Always create two new layers on the very top of all the other layers in your work area.
• One layer for the “Shadows” with a blending mode set to Multiply.
• One layer for the “Highlights” with a blending mode set to Overlay.
Why on the very top?
Because their blending mode is not set to normal***, like the others.
• The shadow’s layer blending mode is set to multiply, as we want to darken whatever is below.
• The highlight’s layer blending mode is set to overlay, as we want to lighten whatever is below.
*** Please note that when you create new layers in Photoshop, their blending mode is automatically set to normal.
Finale notes
• I always advise people to create a palette of color on one layer and make sure to stick with the colors chosen. It’s a good idea to plan to save time. Then, when you are ready to work, you just use the eyedropper to pick the color of your palette, as shown in the video tutorial.
As a reminder, you pick up colors by holding the ALT key on your keyboard and clicking at the same time on a color on your palette.
• When you paint don’t forget to change the size of your brush using the brackets on your keyboard. Brackets are located beside the letter P of your keyboard, as shown below.
This one here decreases your brush size This one here increases your brush size
I hope this to see you soon for another tutorial.
Until then,
… CREATE SOME GREAT ART!!!
Corinne Zaragoza,
Author and illustrator.