Discover the tips, tricks and techniques that really work for concept artists, matte painters and animators. Compiled by the team at 3dtotal.com, Digital Painting Techniques, Volume 1 offers digital inspiration with hands-on insight and techniques from professional digital artists. More than just a gallery book - within Digital Painting Techniques each artist has written a breakdown overview, with supporting imagery of how they made their piece of work. Beginner and intermediate digital artists will be inspired by the gallery style collection of the finest examples of digital painting from world renowned digital artists. Start your mentorship into the world of digital painting today with some of the greatest digital artists in the world and delve into professional digital painting techiques, such as speed painting, custom brush creation and matte painting. Develop your digital painting skills beyond the variety of free online digital painting tutorials and apply the most up to date techniques to your digital canvas with Digital Painting Techniques for Animators.
Digital Painting Techniques (Masters Collection)
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Review
"[O]ffers a range of digital inspirations and techniques from some 25 professional artists. More than just a gallery of images, this features step-by-step techniques that beginners through intermediate users can easily follow, inspired by world computer graphics artists. Photography, computer and arts collections alike will relish this."---BookWatch
About the Author
3DTotal has grown from a student college project in 1999 to one of the largest online digital art communities on the Internet. With continual daily updates of CG news, tutorials, galleries, articles and resources, the site now attracts over 100,000 daily visitors. Based in the UK.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Digital Painting Techniques is a compilation of tutorials written by various talented digital artists. It is broken up into eight chapters with roughly five to seven tutorials apiece, and a gallery at the end. The physical book itself is well bound so that when open it lies flat for easy reference while you work.
The chapters are: Custom Brushes, Speed Painting, Matte Painting, Creatures, Humans, Environments, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and Complete Projects.
The tutorials, with the exception of a few, use Photoshop; the noted exceptions also use Painter. (In the final chapter, one artist also uses Artweaver and Gimp, while another uses Cinema 4D. But for sake of argument, assume this is a Photoshop digital painting book.) And some of the tutorials also come with assets available to download from the book's website.
As for the content, let's say that some tutorials were more thorough and useful than others. While the visuals that went alongside them were stunning, a few of the brush tutorials amounted to little more than how to save a new brush in Photoshop. But the remaining brush tutorials delved into the why and how of creating a custom brush for useful application and saving time, then illustrated its use.
Some of the subsequent tutorials were vague; one example step stating "use a textured brush"--with no indication or example of the texture, only a screenshot of the elapsed painting. Luckily that didn't happen too often.
Most of the tutorials provided screenshots of software settings, brushes used, and picture progress with clear explanations. Creature Concept 101 by Mike Corriero, Paint Luscious Lips by Anne Pogoda, The Human Face by Nykolai Aleksander, and The Environmental Series by Carlos Cabrera immediately spring to mind.
Finally, the book could have used another round of edits for consistency, especially in reference to software terminology. Also, some of the page layouts made it difficult to locate referenced figures throughout (i.e. see Fig 4, which would be an inset of another figure on a previous page). Nothing too egregious, but something to be aware of.
Overall, this is an excellent resource for digital artists looking for inspiration and to learn some new techniques. It comes with the caveat, however, that this is not a book for beginners; you won't find tutorials for preparing a digital canvas, mimicking paint consistencies, or color blending. So while this book won't replace a good foundational book on digital painting, it would make a great supplement.
The chapters are: Custom Brushes, Speed Painting, Matte Painting, Creatures, Humans, Environments, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and Complete Projects.
The tutorials, with the exception of a few, use Photoshop; the noted exceptions also use Painter. (In the final chapter, one artist also uses Artweaver and Gimp, while another uses Cinema 4D. But for sake of argument, assume this is a Photoshop digital painting book.) And some of the tutorials also come with assets available to download from the book's website.
As for the content, let's say that some tutorials were more thorough and useful than others. While the visuals that went alongside them were stunning, a few of the brush tutorials amounted to little more than how to save a new brush in Photoshop. But the remaining brush tutorials delved into the why and how of creating a custom brush for useful application and saving time, then illustrated its use.
Some of the subsequent tutorials were vague; one example step stating "use a textured brush"--with no indication or example of the texture, only a screenshot of the elapsed painting. Luckily that didn't happen too often.
Most of the tutorials provided screenshots of software settings, brushes used, and picture progress with clear explanations. Creature Concept 101 by Mike Corriero, Paint Luscious Lips by Anne Pogoda, The Human Face by Nykolai Aleksander, and The Environmental Series by Carlos Cabrera immediately spring to mind.
Finally, the book could have used another round of edits for consistency, especially in reference to software terminology. Also, some of the page layouts made it difficult to locate referenced figures throughout (i.e. see Fig 4, which would be an inset of another figure on a previous page). Nothing too egregious, but something to be aware of.
Overall, this is an excellent resource for digital artists looking for inspiration and to learn some new techniques. It comes with the caveat, however, that this is not a book for beginners; you won't find tutorials for preparing a digital canvas, mimicking paint consistencies, or color blending. So while this book won't replace a good foundational book on digital painting, it would make a great supplement.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book assumes you have experience in the programs it refers to (which is mostly Photoshop) and doesn't give step by step approaches, but rather a summary of each featured artist's thought process in each section. The paper quality of the book is good, light glossy pages and is softcover so it may be easier to lug around despite the size. The book also offers downloads (through links) such as brushes presented in this book.
This book starts off with a very good chapter on brush creation and building. It gave me some tips on how to create my own brushes, rather than just a thorough step by step. I prefer the former since it leads to more individual thought process on creation of my own brushes.
Some sections like the Speedpainting section I found a bit weaker due to the fact that the constraints with how many pages each person was given didn't allow for as much information as I'd like. I'm getting something of a "step by step" in speedpainting, but not much on what makes the process so different from any other step by step of any other painting (Speedpainting is just a digital form of Ala Prima. Many people think it has to do with a time constraint, but that's just dependent on how each artist decides to set up his/her personal challenge). However, saying that I did like some of the inspirational art advice given by artists in this section. That advice doesn't leave you empty handed.
I also liked the creature design, human and environmental sections.
If you are familiar with 2d Artist PDF magazine (which is from the same company), the tutorials are mostly of the same setup. Another good comparison would be Imagine FX. This is to say you will not be given hand-holding, step by step instructions only to have your artwork be a copy of the artist giving you a demo. You need to practice and work things out on your own.
One of the other problems in this book is that artists have their own terminology or due to the fact many artists are not using the same version of Photoshop you might be a little confused at some of their processes.
If you are unsure of this book, 3dTotal is kind enough to give you a sample chapter of the book on their own site so you can see what you're purchasing.
I really enjoyed this book despite some of the problems with terms, and some of the sections lacking a bit more depth. The brush chapter is one of my favorites, and it was smart of them to put it as the first chapter in their book.
This book starts off with a very good chapter on brush creation and building. It gave me some tips on how to create my own brushes, rather than just a thorough step by step. I prefer the former since it leads to more individual thought process on creation of my own brushes.
Some sections like the Speedpainting section I found a bit weaker due to the fact that the constraints with how many pages each person was given didn't allow for as much information as I'd like. I'm getting something of a "step by step" in speedpainting, but not much on what makes the process so different from any other step by step of any other painting (Speedpainting is just a digital form of Ala Prima. Many people think it has to do with a time constraint, but that's just dependent on how each artist decides to set up his/her personal challenge). However, saying that I did like some of the inspirational art advice given by artists in this section. That advice doesn't leave you empty handed.
I also liked the creature design, human and environmental sections.
If you are familiar with 2d Artist PDF magazine (which is from the same company), the tutorials are mostly of the same setup. Another good comparison would be Imagine FX. This is to say you will not be given hand-holding, step by step instructions only to have your artwork be a copy of the artist giving you a demo. You need to practice and work things out on your own.
One of the other problems in this book is that artists have their own terminology or due to the fact many artists are not using the same version of Photoshop you might be a little confused at some of their processes.
If you are unsure of this book, 3dTotal is kind enough to give you a sample chapter of the book on their own site so you can see what you're purchasing.
I really enjoyed this book despite some of the problems with terms, and some of the sections lacking a bit more depth. The brush chapter is one of my favorites, and it was smart of them to put it as the first chapter in their book.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
A professional artist and friend said that one could not make original art in Photoshop. Here is the book that proves her wrong.
Gifted artists take the reader step by step, predominately in Photoshop, through their technical process. Practically speaking this is a reference book, not a series of lessons, each one building on the previous lesson.
The first chapter is custom brushes. Six artists describe their technique.
The second chapter is speed painting, how to quickly lay out your painting. Again several artists share their approaches. The third chapter is on matte painting, at which point I realized that I could not read and comprehend everything in every tutorial.
The chapter on creatures had several approaches. Probably the most valuable lesson was "Creature Concept Design 101," which illustrates the practical considerations when creating your own creatures.
The chapter on humans applies to almost any 2-D medium. "The Human Face" is a magnificent tutorial. "Painting Realistic Skin" was amazing, with surprising techniques.
The next two chapters are "Environments" and "Sci-Fi & Fantasy" that show techniques for overall painting. Carlos Cabrera takes one painting and modifies it into five different weather conditions.
The final chapter shows complete projects, followed by a gallery of paintings that exemplify the techniques of the book. Sometimes the word awesome is a cliche and sometimes it truly applies to what one sees.
This book assumes that you either already are proficient at Photoshop and/or you have a manual handy. Or you can simply leave this book out as a coffee table book.
One word of caution: Because of the number of illustrations in color, the book has a heavy chemical smell. I have had this book for several weeks and it still is off-gassing.
Gifted artists take the reader step by step, predominately in Photoshop, through their technical process. Practically speaking this is a reference book, not a series of lessons, each one building on the previous lesson.
The first chapter is custom brushes. Six artists describe their technique.
The second chapter is speed painting, how to quickly lay out your painting. Again several artists share their approaches. The third chapter is on matte painting, at which point I realized that I could not read and comprehend everything in every tutorial.
The chapter on creatures had several approaches. Probably the most valuable lesson was "Creature Concept Design 101," which illustrates the practical considerations when creating your own creatures.
The chapter on humans applies to almost any 2-D medium. "The Human Face" is a magnificent tutorial. "Painting Realistic Skin" was amazing, with surprising techniques.
The next two chapters are "Environments" and "Sci-Fi & Fantasy" that show techniques for overall painting. Carlos Cabrera takes one painting and modifies it into five different weather conditions.
The final chapter shows complete projects, followed by a gallery of paintings that exemplify the techniques of the book. Sometimes the word awesome is a cliche and sometimes it truly applies to what one sees.
This book assumes that you either already are proficient at Photoshop and/or you have a manual handy. Or you can simply leave this book out as a coffee table book.
One word of caution: Because of the number of illustrations in color, the book has a heavy chemical smell. I have had this book for several weeks and it still is off-gassing.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I would have read the reviews.
Another artist that I very much respect & admire recommended this series of books, so I bought it without looking at the reviews... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Atilla MullQueen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring! Beautiful!
While this book is chock full of techniques, particularly for Photoshop, INSPIRATION is the greatest tool this book offers. Read more
Published 1 month ago by TexanInWashington
5.0 out of 5 stars
Il migliore
Ho acquistato sia il volume 2 che il volume 3 ma quello che preferisco è proprio questo volume. Dopo aver letto questo libro, sarete 1000 passi avanti, garantito!
Published 2 months ago by Donato
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ótima compra.
Para quem quer dar uma turbinada nas suas pinturas digitais esse livro é um excelente começo, tutoriais bem explicados e ilustrados.
Published 4 months ago by Alex Genaro
5.0 out of 5 stars
its nice to have it home..
i recomend this i item to everyone, who likes the digital art.. artbooks are great it shows you many technique how to draw..
Published 4 months ago by Duic
5.0 out of 5 stars
outstanding
Very informative and well written, I would recommend this to any designer / Illustrator. I am learning so many new techniques.
Published 5 months ago by Russell Katuin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
Amazing book. My abilities have increased tenfold. Highly reccomended if you're proficient in digital art and wish to increase your capabilities.
Published 5 months ago by Maxwell ortiz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Great technique, great tutorials, i recommend this book to beginners and even pros. It was easy for me to follow this book.
Published 5 months ago by lake21
1.0 out of 5 stars
Reprints of old tutorials from magazines. Available for free online.
When looking through this book I knew I had already seen those tutorials, not just one, many were familiar. Read more
Published 6 months ago by A. Maes
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 'Must Have' for any digital artist!
This is Definitely a book that genuine artists will find to be of great value. Artistic talent and intellect will certainly go hand-in-hand with this indispensable guide! Read more
Published 7 months ago by Joey G.
