Although I don’t usually worry about coloring my artwork I do, on occasion, enjoy splashing around the old virtual paintbrush and have, again on occasion, tried to look up a new technique or tip from a tutorial. I find it entertaining that much like the old ‘how to draw’ instruction booklets from my childhood, these new online photoshop tutorials are pretty useless if you’re not capable of doing most of the work already. I remember having a ‘How to draw dinosaurs’ booklet as a kid and it was all: Step 1: Draw a circle, Step 2: draw a smaller circle, Step 3: connect the two circles with an oval, Step 4: draw a Brontosaurus. (Ask me to draw a brontosaurus one day. I’m really good.)

Anyway, despite all this I somehow managed to learn how to draw, paint, sculpt, count and fly. So to show my process of doing a little photoshop dabbling I figured I’d make my own cliche photoshop tutorial.

Step 1: Start with a drawing, doodle, or scribble. But really, a drawing would be best, because this is the most important part, you want to establish your basic composition and tone.

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Step 2: Build off of your drawing by slapping on some color. This is the most important step, you are establishing your color palette. For this piece my inspiration was Lady Elaine Fairchilde from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhoo. Usually building color up from the background first is the best method. Building front to back (like I did with the elephant below) is the advanced difficulty method, sometimes called the ‘why aren’t these colors working?!’ method.

Step 3: Finish up by smoothing rough areas and clarifying your piece. Pay attention to detail because this is the most important step, the final product! Add flair and SFX as necessary. OK, Congratulations, you’re finished!

Categories: Cyborg Elephants, Nadir Balan, Photoshop Tutorial, painting, robot, sketch
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