Digital Painting: Concept Landscapes

The great landscapes in game design and concept art are precise, fantastic and surreal, they are created by diligent, efficient digital painting techniques in Photoshop. . . and in this class, you'll learn them! You will learn a step-by-step approach to painting a concept fantasy landscape, covering every part of the process from sketching in Photoshop to the final piece.

You will learn to see space like an artist, conceptualizing the translation from our real world to the two dimensional.

What You'll Learn

• References. Where do you find ideas and inspiration? What should you research? Why is it important to get different kinds of references?
• Initial Sketch. You'll learn how to sketch efficiently in Photoshop, considering composition.
• Values. We'll explore communicating value in space within your digital painting.
• Composition Editing. Recreate the final compositions and split volumes into layers. Learn why using solids is important and why we keep edge information.
• Color. We'll add color and discuss basic hues & tones.
• Brush Detailing. We'll start our polishing phase by hand-painting details using Photoshop brushes.
• Texturing. You will learn how to apply photo texturing to your workflow and how it can help the detailing phase.
• Lighting & Effects. We will add final touches by adding cinematic lighting and some small effects and polishes.

What You'll Do

You will efficiently utilize techniques in Photoshop and apply them to create your own unique digital painting of an environment. You will experiment with light sources and rendering, color choices and depth. Rather than mimicking work, you will be empowered to create your own concept. You'll end up with a final piece of digitally painted artwork!

• Deliverable. You'll create a digital painting of a fantasy landscape in Photoshop.
• Brief. You'll use references to create a 2-dimensional sketch in Photoshop. Your composition will be treated with values to create three dimensions. Colors and textures will be added with acute brush detailing. Finally, you'll add lighting and effects to your composition to create a cinematic effect.
• Collaboration. As you go through the class, update your project and share your progress with your fellow students. Ask your peers for their perspective on your composition. Give each other critical feedback.
• Specs. By the end of this class, you will have artistic rendition of a fantasy landscape, painted in Photoshop.

An understanding of illustration fundamentals, a clear and focused process, and varied technical knowledge are crucial to being a successful digital painter. This course will not only teach you how to paint in Photoshop, but also how to see with an artist's eye and translate that vision to your work.