Mixed Illustration Techniques: Combine Watercolor and Photoshop

Mixed Illustration Techniques: Combine Watercolor and Photoshop

“I hope you have learned a lot with this course and that it has helped you to continue imagining your own scenarios. I am looking forward to seeing your illustration and knowing what you are going to be inspired by! Before saying goodbye, we are going to recap a little so that you have at hand the steps we have taken and thus make it easier for you to develop your project: Conceptualize and prepare the illustration First of all, look for a theme that inspires you and that you want to draw, something that excites you! The history of art and civilizations is always a very interesting source, but other themes also occur to me such as cities, trips or some jungle or forest-like scenery, or even something more playful: a circus! After deciding the theme, you have to do your research, choose the elements you want to draw and look for photographic references to facilitate it. Next, make several small pencil sketches to test different compositions (remember to make small groups and a larger element in the foreground). And then with pencils, with watercolors or with Photoshop, which is more practical, develop several color schemes to see which one works best for you. Remember not to choose many different colors and play with neutral tones, as we saw in Unit 2.

Paint the elements With all the above in mind, you can now paint each element separately. Do not try to be too realistic or complicate with volumes (watercolor is not like that, take advantage of the stain). Don't make a blockbuster either. And do not get frustrated if something goes wrong, you can correct it afterwards and take advantage of it. Here I show you some of my painted elements, but remember that in unit 4 I left you all the clean elements in Photoshop with the original drawings included in each file, in case you want to see them. Edit and compose your elements to get the final result Then scan your drawings and clean them in Photoshop (be patient!) And build the composition. Here you can repeat motifs and generate other resources that you need. You will finish the whole process with an illustration of your own, from your imagination, with the appearance of watercolor, but that has really been worked in digital. Photoshop is going to help you a lot to see what works for you and what doesn't in a scene, both in terms of composition and color. This is my final illustration: Now it's your turn, share your final project with all of us by clicking on "Create your project". Remember to share both the final result of your illustration and the steps that have led you to it. It would be great if you showed a picture of each step and added a brief explanation about what you have done in each one. Show what your references have been, your sketches, the elements of your illustration painted ... So I can give you feedback. Many times we are capable of drawing loose things, let's say, but we do not know how to create a whole, and even less to generate depth. Relying on digital techniques gives us the freedom to TRY, and even more so with a technique as difficult and laborious as watercolor that leaves us no room for error! I am in the forum to help you with any questions or traffic jams. I also encourage you to share both your work and your opinions and frustrations, because you learn a lot and it helps a lot to connect with others, and we are all here for that, see you soon! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final project In this lesson we are going to review the final project. First of all, I have chosen Egyptian art as thematic to make the whole representation and draw all my elements. But it really is super important that you choose your own theme. I love to go a bit into art history, to the history of civilizations, mythology. It seems to me that it is a super rich source at an imaginary level and narrative, even mythology. Imagine a Greek myth or Norse mythology, whatever. You have to look for a source that you think will give you resources, both figurative and decorative. Just as I have s...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Mixed Illustration Techniques: Combine Watercolor and Photoshop

• Level: Beginner
• 98% positive reviews (51)
• 858 students
• 4 units
• 24 lessons (5h 18m)
• 17 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Software

  Adobe Photoshop

• Areas

  Digital Drawing, Digital Illustration, Traditional illustration, Watercolor Painting