Sam Nielson: Painting Process

Someone asked a question about the process of painting a character, so I'll take a stab at that one.  There are many processes that each have their strengths, but for the sake of learning this is what I'd suggest.  This process is based around the way 3d rendering programs work, using separate passes and combining them together for the final effect.  Separating the processes in this way helps you think through what needs to be done.

First of all, start with a sketch.  Don't try to design a character as you paint, unless you are really advanced and probably not even then.  Inked line art is fine.

Pick up the lines as a layer, and switch the layer type to multiply or Gel if you're in Painter.  Turn the opacity way down so the lines aren't getting in the way of what you're doing.

These next steps can almost be done in any order.  On a background layer put in flat colors, like you would if you were painting an animation cel.  Keep the values fairly dark and even---even white surfaces should be a medium gray at this point.  I'll usually have a color scheme in mind; in this case I used an analogous scheme (red/orange/yellow/brown)contrasted against a single "compliment" (the blue).

On a separate layer, paint the occlusion in.  I'll talk more about occlusion some other time, but basically think of the cracks where the ambient light of the scene can't easily bounce into.  I put a white background in so you could see it better.  Don't be too heavy-handed or feel like you have to render out the entire scene this way!

Now, on a new layer, paint in a single light source.  If this is a basic character rendering you probably want this lighting to be fairly neutral in color, but a simple warm/cool lighting scheme should be fine.  I often start with hard edges on everything, like a cel-shaded image, and then I soften the edges where the form curves or I fade out any planes that are trending toward the terminator (I talked about this in another post).  I painted in the lit areas with white but switched the layer type to "Overlay" so it would keep my colors.

Here is what the lighting layer and the occlusion layer look like when they're both visible on a blank background.  See how sculptural it looks already?

Here's what those layers look like applied over the colors I painted earlier:

If you want any more lights in the scene, use a "Screen" layer, which acts as a true additive layer.  And you can use other layers to tinker with the colors and texture in the scene.

Now you have a fairly good start to your painting and you're ready for the polishing phase.  I'll save that part for another post though, later.