Hi there! Hi there! my name is Stefani and in this tutorial I will show you how from your own photos you can create interesting scenarios for your drawings> A <) /

 

Here is the video tutorial:

1. What do we want to draw?

We will start with the conceptualization of the scenario, which we want to do as well as the planning.

 

Identify what idea you want to carry out and the focus you want to give it.

whether we have a photo in mind that we like and want to make a drawing based on it, or a specific idea and then we would have to search for images to complete it.

 

Once we have our idea ready, it is time to look for the photos, for beginners it would be best to start with a main photo and add details with complementary photos, this you can do throughout the process.

The way I integrate the photos is with the selection tools and the clipping mask.

 

Do not worry about doing this in a very detailed and clean way, the photos will work as a kind of guide on which we will draw so we do not need everything to look perfect.

 

To add extra elements in the main photo, the most important thing is to understand the perspective, since if you are not placing the element in a position which does not have congruence with the perspective of the rest of the photo, it will look unnatural.

 

If you have problems locating the horizon line and therefore the perspective, what you have to do is remember that the horizon line is at eye level, when you have already identified it the rest is easier, since the rule that We must continue is: everything that is above the horizon line we are looking up, and everything that is below the line we see it downward, it sounds obvious but it is something that we can forget and that can make a great difference when integrating elements.

2. Color

This stage is one of the most important since color is the visual tool that will communicate the mood of the drawing. The mood is the atmosphere of our scene, it transmits the general feeling of our drawing.

 

For this step we will use the chromatic circle!

we can separate the oclres into two groups:

1- Warm colors.

2- Cold colors.

 

warm colors are usually associated with warm things, such as sunlight or fire, they are colors that feel happy, active and full of vitality

 

The cold we associate them with the sky, water, winter, etc. These colors feel soothing, calm, but can also be used to convey sadness.

 

For example, in this photo I decided to change the colors in order to exaggerate the sunset a lot and make the mood warm, evoking energy and feel cozy.

The same photo with this other color palette looks totally different, right?

Color influences how we perceive the mood of the image.

 

Factors to take into account and that affect the mood are: Brightness and color saturation.

 

♦ Saturation is how vivid the color looks, the closer the color gets to gray the more desaturated it is.

♦ Luminosity is basically the amount of light that a color has, the more light a color has, the closer it is to white, the less light the color has, the closer it is to black.

 

 

The perception of color varies completely depending on its saturation and lighting. For example, looking at the following photo:

What comes to your mind? What looks dull, looks sad maybe? Despite being warm colors it does not look energetic.

 

But what if we see the same image at higher saturation and luminosity?

Do you perceive it the same as the previous one? no right? this one feels more alive more energetic

 

If you take these elements into account when choosing the colors you want to use for your works, you will be using the perception of colors to your advantage.

If you are interested in learning more about how humans understand and perceive color in terms of emotions, I invite you to look at the psychology of color and the wheel of emotions by Robert Plutchik.

3. Color Application

Now that we know more consciously what colors we will use, it is time to learn to manipulate them with clip studio, for this we will use several tonal correction tools, these can be applied directly on the photo layer or on a separate layer, I like to do it in a separate layer, as there is more control over the tool.

 

 

I usually use the following tools:

♦ Gradient map

♦ Tone / sat / lum

♦ Curves

♦ Color balance.

3.1. Gradient Map

The function of this tool is basically to replace the original colors of the image, for those that you put in the gradient, they go from light colors to the darkest, so it works by placing the colors in the order that we want them to occupy in the light image to dark.

 

 

We can move the arrows that indicate each color to configure how reduced or extensive each color is seen in the image.

 

This tool has some default gradients and you can even download them in the materials and assets section of clip studio paint, in this case use this gradient:

 

3.2. The Hue / Saturation / Lightness tool

This tool has 3 bars that respectively represent its title (hue / sat / lum).

The first bar is to change the pure color of the image, we can change from color “b” to color “c”.

 

The second bar can saturate or desaturate the colors in the image.

The third bar can add or subtract light to the colors in the image.

 

These two bars work by intensities, the right side is greater intensity, therefore greater saturation or luminosity, while the left side represents less saturation and light.

 

To achieve better results with this tool, it is best to move all the bars when altering the colors, since they complement each other.

3.3. Curves

This tool helps us to lighten or darken the pixels of an image, but in a more controlled way than the luminosity bar in the previous tool, in general terms the curve works as follows:

Likewise, the upper point of the line represents the point with more light in the image and the lower point the point of the image, leaving the middle tones along the line (which when moving it we turn it into a curve).

So if we want to darken and or lighten the values of the image, we begin to configure the line bringing it closer to light or dark depending on what we want.

If we want to lighten the dark colors we move the lower point, it works in the same way for the light point.

 

3.4. Color balance

This tool will help us to correct or balance the colors of an image, since what this tool does is add or subtract the colors that are reflected in the bars. It has 3 bars, which on one side have the primary colors and on the other side the secondary colors and therefore their complements.

With these tools we can modify the temperature of the image, making it warmer or colder.

We can also create interesting color contrast, since we can choose whether to alter the midtones, shadows or highlights.

 

4. Time to draw!

In this last stage is to start drawing on the base that we have just built

Remember that you do not have to follow everything in the photo to the letter, you can take the liberty of changing and / or exaggerating the elements that you deem appropriate.

 

I suggest painting in layers, to maintain order between the foreground, mid ground and the background to work in a more controlled way on them.

 

Do not forget that the contrast is not the same in all areas of the drawing, the closer something is, the more contrast it has, and the further away the contrast is, the lighter it is.

 

Also note that the colors change depending on how close and how far they are within the image, the further they are, the more they blend with the color of the environment, the closer the color is more pure. In the following example they are all green, but when they are at different distances the colors change.

 

Having the contrast and the color change depending on the distances of the elements within the drawing will help to create a more effective depth effect.

EXTRA

 

Maybe you want to draw on the photo and streamline your workflow by using the photo directly, if that is the case, to better integrate the photo within a scene you can use the "Pictorize" effect, this gives it an interesting touch to the photo, it softens details, gives an effect of "Painted" and if you want to exaggerate it more, you can make some retouching with some brushes, do not forget to make a color correction if necessary, such as adding more luminosity and saturation, or even changing the colors geerales with color balance or gradient map and voila! it will integrate better with the characters you want to include.

 

The effect settings that I use:

Final score!

Thanks

The tutorial ends here, I hope it has been helpful! Thanks for watching!

Hopefully you will be encouraged to try these ideas within your creative process> w <) //