John K.

Rendering Your Prepped Inks

Added 2023-04-13 00:20:37 +0000 UTC

This is a continuation of these blog posts.

Once I have inked my drawing and filled in some areas with gradients I'm ready to render (shading and texturing) it. I am not trying to render a photo realistic 3 dimensional image like a CG character. Instead I am aiming for a stylized Golden Book look and in particular using some of Mel Crawford's painting techniques.

I'll start with a large area, the muzzle. First I select the fill layer in the muzzle group.

Now I can use the brush tools to add some shading. I pick a soft smooth brush and paint some shading on the left side of the muzzle and on the right where his chin is.

Next I select the 'snout' or 'mouth muzzle' shape and paint a shadow on the left and right. Note that I am trying not to paint shaded areas as parallel lines inside the shapes they are helping describe.

Now I'll draw the Philtrim using a thin brush.

And finally another darker shadow on the bottom of the snout.

Now on to the nose. I select the nose fill layer in the nose group.

Using the airbrush tool, I brush on a slightly darker area to the right of center of the nose.

Then I take a soft edged brush and paint a highlight on the upper left of the nose.

To balance this I paint a shadow on the lower right of the nose.

Now I go up to the 'select' item on the menu and drag down slightlt to 'Inverse'. This will allow me to paint around the outside of the nose without bleeding into the inside.

I paint a shadow using a soft brush.