You might think Dutch artist Lois van Baarle has brushes where the rest of us have fingers. Influenced by her appreciation of anime, French comic art, and art nouveau, she has developed a style that’s all her own. See how Lois uses brushes in Adobe Photoshop to sketch, color, blend, and refine her digital paintings.
Lois starts with a rough sketch she created using a pressure-sensitive stylus and tablet and paints over it. She selects a color and chooses a rough brush to create an outline of the face and neck. She alternates brush sizes to create different width strokes — broader strokes for the face, thinner ones for the finer details of the hair. Once she’s done, she changes the layer opacity to 13% and creates a new layer. With the new layer selected, she refines the sketch by tracing the outline with a slanted, darker brush.
Lois then prepares to apply the first pass of color. In this multistep process, Lois groups the two outline layers and creates a new layer. Then, she uses a custom oil pastel from the Tool Presets and traces the outer edges of the sketch.
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Lois finds it more intuitive to paint on just one layer. With no need to keep track of different colors on multiple layers, she’s able to maintain an easy flow of drawing.
Lois applies the key colors without focusing on blending just yet. She fills the hair and clothing with orange, then fills the areas of skin with a pale peach using a soft round brush. She uses Replace Color to modify the Fuzziness, Hue, and Saturation of the peach to define the highlights on the face. Then, she highlights the hair with blue and locks the transparent pixels on the top layer to change the color of the faded edges of the hair without “spilling” the color onto the rest of the canvas.
In the final step to distinguish the parts of the picture, Lois changes the color of her brush and gives depth to the cheeks and color to the lips. She uses the Magic Wand tool to select the pink color of hair surrounding the face and then applies a paler peach color to that area using a brush set with low opacity so the strokes overlay each other. Then, she blocks the clothing with a darker color using a wide, soft brush.
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Lois perfects the colors through intuition and experimentation. She starts by choosing colors, then plays with sliders to tweak the Hue/Saturation/Lightness and Selective Color until she’s happy with the result.
Lois periodically duplicates a layer and works on a new one to track the progress of her drawing. The previous layer shows the image at an earlier stage and allows her to make sure the project is progressing the way she wants.
Lois uses the Gradient tool to create a blur between the different color tones of the cheeks for a smoother blend. She then selects and transforms the eye to resize and reposition it. Lois continues to refine features, colors, and textures of the face with more brushwork and adds cheek and eye highlights on a new layer.
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At this point, Lois does a lot of brushwork to finesse the details. Rather than using shadows and highlights, she likes to use different colors to give dimension to the hair, skin, and eyes.
In the final stages, Lois uses the Liquify filter to drag and pull parts of the eye, mouth, chin, nose, and hair to create subtle but realistic changes to those features.
Lois van Baarle has been drawing since before she can remember. She took some art classes along the way through elementary and high school, and a bit in college, but is mostly a self-taught artist who finds inspiration in artwork she finds while browsing the Internet, watching movies and animated films, and taking walks through nature.
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Lois likes to keep it simple and doesn’t add too many tools that could disrupt her progress. When choosing brushes for a project, she usually picks one and sticks with it, since switching brushes takes her out of her flow.
Lois practices sketching and speed painting to continue improving her skills as a digital painter. Sketching allows her to place more emphasis on flow and expression than on anatomical precision, and it reduces stiffness in her final drawings. Early on, she liked to use mechanical pencils (nothing fancy), art markers, colored pencils, and brush pens for inking. More recently, she’s been happy with her drawing tablet so she can create anywhere she happens to be. Lois focuses mostly on character design. But she’s worked with animation, both personally and professionally, and is currently in the process of producing two animated shorts.CAN YOU DRAW DIGITALLY WITHOUT A GRAPHIC TABLET? I'M GONNA SHOW YOU HOW | DRAWING TUTORIALtrishy (54) in #tutorial • 5 years ago (edited) Hi guys. If you have been following my posts, you'll see that I draw a lot digitally and a lot of people were asking if I'm using a graphic pad. The answer is "NO." Unfortunately, I don't own one. But is it possible to draw using a mouse alone. "Absolutely Yes!" I'm gonna share to you guys a little trick that I do and I hope this could be helpful to you guys if you are planning to venture into digital arts. Three days ago I posted a blog about Home Remedies to cure Cold/Flu including my own illustrations. And now guys I'm gonna show you the step by step process on how I drew my illustrations just by using your mouse and without any graphic pad in Adobe Photoshop. This will also serve as a tutorial for you guys who wanted to start in digital drawing. Setting up the tools and getting familiar First you gonna have to set up your tools. Click the brush tool icon or by simply pressing "B". Select the brush tip, size and hardness that you prefer on your brush. Then click the brush panel. The brush panel should pop up. Then check the "shape dynamics" and set the minimum diameter to 50% but you can go ahead and play with it as well but for starters, I recommend setting it to just 50%. And close it after that. And then click pen tool or press "P". And then make a line or shape using your pen tool. Then right click. Select "stroke path" Then a small box will pop up. Set the tool into brush and check "simulate pressure and click OK. And now you're ready to draw. Outline As I've metioned, I do not have a graphic tablet. So what I do is I draw first in a piece of paper upload the image into my computer and trace the lines. See what I did here? Coloring First you have to decide what color palette you will be using. It will be better to use just a few colors. And these 👇 are the color that I chose. You'll be using your pen tool here as well. Trace out the part where you want to color. Make sure to close all gaps. Then click new fill or adjustment layer like the icon encircled below. select solid color Choose the color that you want and click ok. And now you're ready to give color to your drawing. Start adding layers. Now i'm gonna show you how I added the layers of colors one by one. I will not explain it any further 'cause you'll be repeating the coloring technique that I showed you guys here until you are done. Here is another one. And there you have it guys. I hope this tutorial could be useful for you guys who wanted to try digital art. And some of the contest here on requires to be digital so this could be the start for you. Thank you so much again for reading my post. Follow me if you want to see more of this in the future.😃 "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."
5 years ago in #tutorial by trishy (54) $ 5 .13 Past Payouts $5.13, 0.00 TRX - Author $3.91, 0.00 TRX - Curators $1.22, 0.00 TRX
How To Draw Digital Art
I've known some people who prefer drawing with a mouse rather than a tablet! It's interesting to see what new ways people come up to creater their art and work with their own tools! I imagine that drawing with a mouse could be quite difficult but also I think it'll help with some things in a different way that the tablet does. Great informative post and great drawings, Loved them!
I don't own a graphics tablet and I am still not keen to embrace digital art. Maybe not yet anyway. But maybe I will give it a try using GIMP and use the tracing method as suggested by you. Thanks!
At this point, Lois does a lot of brushwork to finesse the details. Rather than using shadows and highlights, she likes to use different colors to give dimension to the hair, skin, and eyes.
In the final stages, Lois uses the Liquify filter to drag and pull parts of the eye, mouth, chin, nose, and hair to create subtle but realistic changes to those features.
Lois van Baarle has been drawing since before she can remember. She took some art classes along the way through elementary and high school, and a bit in college, but is mostly a self-taught artist who finds inspiration in artwork she finds while browsing the Internet, watching movies and animated films, and taking walks through nature.
Digital Thick Coating Tutorial
Lois likes to keep it simple and doesn’t add too many tools that could disrupt her progress. When choosing brushes for a project, she usually picks one and sticks with it, since switching brushes takes her out of her flow.
Lois practices sketching and speed painting to continue improving her skills as a digital painter. Sketching allows her to place more emphasis on flow and expression than on anatomical precision, and it reduces stiffness in her final drawings. Early on, she liked to use mechanical pencils (nothing fancy), art markers, colored pencils, and brush pens for inking. More recently, she’s been happy with her drawing tablet so she can create anywhere she happens to be. Lois focuses mostly on character design. But she’s worked with animation, both personally and professionally, and is currently in the process of producing two animated shorts.CAN YOU DRAW DIGITALLY WITHOUT A GRAPHIC TABLET? I'M GONNA SHOW YOU HOW | DRAWING TUTORIALtrishy (54) in #tutorial • 5 years ago (edited) Hi guys. If you have been following my posts, you'll see that I draw a lot digitally and a lot of people were asking if I'm using a graphic pad. The answer is "NO." Unfortunately, I don't own one. But is it possible to draw using a mouse alone. "Absolutely Yes!" I'm gonna share to you guys a little trick that I do and I hope this could be helpful to you guys if you are planning to venture into digital arts. Three days ago I posted a blog about Home Remedies to cure Cold/Flu including my own illustrations. And now guys I'm gonna show you the step by step process on how I drew my illustrations just by using your mouse and without any graphic pad in Adobe Photoshop. This will also serve as a tutorial for you guys who wanted to start in digital drawing. Setting up the tools and getting familiar First you gonna have to set up your tools. Click the brush tool icon or by simply pressing "B". Select the brush tip, size and hardness that you prefer on your brush. Then click the brush panel. The brush panel should pop up. Then check the "shape dynamics" and set the minimum diameter to 50% but you can go ahead and play with it as well but for starters, I recommend setting it to just 50%. And close it after that. And then click pen tool or press "P". And then make a line or shape using your pen tool. Then right click. Select "stroke path" Then a small box will pop up. Set the tool into brush and check "simulate pressure and click OK. And now you're ready to draw. Outline As I've metioned, I do not have a graphic tablet. So what I do is I draw first in a piece of paper upload the image into my computer and trace the lines. See what I did here? Coloring First you have to decide what color palette you will be using. It will be better to use just a few colors. And these 👇 are the color that I chose. You'll be using your pen tool here as well. Trace out the part where you want to color. Make sure to close all gaps. Then click new fill or adjustment layer like the icon encircled below. select solid color Choose the color that you want and click ok. And now you're ready to give color to your drawing. Start adding layers. Now i'm gonna show you how I added the layers of colors one by one. I will not explain it any further 'cause you'll be repeating the coloring technique that I showed you guys here until you are done. Here is another one. And there you have it guys. I hope this tutorial could be useful for you guys who wanted to try digital art. And some of the contest here on requires to be digital so this could be the start for you. Thank you so much again for reading my post. Follow me if you want to see more of this in the future.😃 "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."
5 years ago in #tutorial by trishy (54) $ 5 .13 Past Payouts $5.13, 0.00 TRX - Author $3.91, 0.00 TRX - Curators $1.22, 0.00 TRX
How To Draw Digital Art
I've known some people who prefer drawing with a mouse rather than a tablet! It's interesting to see what new ways people come up to creater their art and work with their own tools! I imagine that drawing with a mouse could be quite difficult but also I think it'll help with some things in a different way that the tablet does. Great informative post and great drawings, Loved them!
I don't own a graphics tablet and I am still not keen to embrace digital art. Maybe not yet anyway. But maybe I will give it a try using GIMP and use the tracing method as suggested by you. Thanks!
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