Intro

Hello everyone, I bid welcome to both old and new CSP user as myself, and if you don't know me, my name is Daniel, but my friends as in artist as myself do call and know me as Ado_draw.

On todays tutorial article course, I will be showing the various things I consider and do to be able to create a not so perfect but good oil painting artwork Master piece.

And the article is titled:

5 Tips to create a good digital oil painting Master piece.

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Now, what do you understand by drawing or painting [?]

 

Cause for me before I dive into anything I would always want to know it's function and implications.

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This above question may have ones before or even as this tutorial goes on, So I first want us to break the ice.

 

Now, when we talk about drawing or painting,

Both are forms of visual expression, and both can be considered art forms, but the main difference is that drawing is a process that is done with a pencil or a pen, and painting is done with a brush or a paint-pot.

 

Or we can also say Painting typically involves applying color to a surface using mediums like oil, watercolor, or acrylics. It often allows for a broader range of expression, depth, and texture.

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While Drawing, on the other hand, usually involves creating lines and shapes using pencils, charcoal, or ink.

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With that in mind, I will like to point out or resolve the below before we start proper,

 

QUESTION:

[ Is it proper to start up my oil painting or painting in General with a rough sketch ? ]

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NOTE🔹that it is not a taboo when we Rough sketch or quick sketch the form of the subject before painting; cause that is how painting is done in the traditional format.

 

 

And doing this process doesn't make one weak or lazy in art, it only builds the foundation to which your painting is formed upon, and I do advice beginners to mainly make use of this method which makes things easier, but when ever you feel that have grow enough you can then straight up start trying to paint without the rough sketch as done by most artist.

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1. Make a choice on the sets of sub tool brushes to use

As artist, be it a digital artist or a traditional artist; we do know that brushes comes in different shapes and forms, like take for example, when we say,

 

 

i. Shape of a brush (sub tool),

Brushes are shaped in our common regular shape such as square, circle (or round) and lastly triangular,

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Now in CLIP STUDIO PAINT (CSP), This three sets brushes are then further manipulated to create other sets of brushes which for now I will be calling "Form brushes".

 

 

ii. Forms of a brush (sub tool),

This can be either a round shape tip of a brush, that has be customized to have little holes in it or the round shape is stretch to look like a sphere or the round has it outermost edge blur out and more.

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Or for the square shaped brush tip,

it has it stretch to look like a rectangular shape or it's bended a little to appear curved,

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Or for the triangular shaped brush tip,

Which can also have its shape stretch to appear like a right angle triangle or the creating of little dots in the triangular shape to give a kind of sponge like look.

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All of the above mentioned are some of the ways which brushes tip come about.

 

Now the reason why we need to get a good clarity of this is that, for one to create his/her unique style of artwork Master piece, he/she need to know the tools to which he/she use and how they can be set to suit your work;

REFERENCE:

Like say "how a good samurai, needs to know his/her sword or when and how to sharp it" or "a teacher needing to know his/her students, to know how to effectively teach them"

With the above said, it then takes us to the next aspect.

 

 

2. Knowing the secret to how painting brushes works.

They are different sets of paint brushes in CSP but they a few used for painting, some like the acrylic paints, watercolors, pastels, or graphite which can be use for different purposes like filling, detailing, texturing, blurring or even smudging.

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This various brushes tends to have the own unique settings that allows them do what they do, and which getting to know how it is will also help you, say you want to adjust it settings. Let's see them,

+ For the filling painting brushes

Now say we have sketch matchstick and we are to fill it they so settings of CSP oil paint brushes which can get the work done, they are,

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•

•

 

 

+ For the texturing painting brushes

+ For the detailing painting brushes

+ For the blurring painting brushes

+ For the smudging painting brushes

3. Process to have in mind when oil painting in CSP

The below process or step you might call it, are the various things I put into consideration or do to better my painting process be it (oil painting or painting in general).

 

 

i. Pick and know the subject

Picking or knowing your subject is an important factor that we can not neglect or negotiate out of the picture. This aspect involves we getting to know the following;

 

- The nature of what we are painting (is it a character or an object).

 

- The divers colors which a needed for the painting.

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- And lastly note out the emotional you are trying to express to the viewers.

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ii. Make use of reference photo

As we may have heard over and over again, having of reference is important for and the process has been there since far back. So know that before we can even start laying down the grand sketch of the artwork, we need to have good references that denote the kind of dynamic expression we want our figure to have, the various kind of colors to add and so much more, so don't be hang up on the idea that you just need I reference, go use multiple reference to better what you want to show you viewers.

 

But,

NOTE🔹never to use reference as your work or tracing and publishing it, you can trace your reference to better understand the way the creator did his/her proportion and more, but I do not advise you publish it could i believe that is copyrighting of the creators work

 

 

iii. Make thumbnail sketches

This aspect ‘thumbnail' may seem irrelevant to most, but it is a great process which i have found over the year very important. This aspect help grand show the format at which that paint work final appearance will be, and this process can be done showing multiple aspect (perspective position) of the scene, like take the below examples;

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Keep in mind that this process is not the work you will finally show the viewers, one can freely craft out the various ideas in our head while keeping to time as well by rough painting the work as shown in the above image.

 

 

4. Oil painting process:

At this point, we can now start with the using or implementing of the above, To start the oil painting process of our concluding oil painting tutorial article.

 

As I did mentioned before above, we need know the subject or object we want to draw and have a good reference the denotes the closely similar structure of the figure, the positioning and even the perspective you want to paint the figure, which for this tutorial I will be drawing a [Wacom Stylus Pen] and here below are some references of a closely similar object ( an image of a pencil and a iPad stylus pen).

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i. Make a pencil rough sketch of the subject

Quickly block out the heavy shape of the subject with a closely similar reference already in place, like the say the outer form of the subject,

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On that note, we can now,

 

 

ii. Add another layers

In this aspect, we use the available of CSP layers to our advantage; cause when one is painting traditional we are limited to painting on one paper plane but in digital painting, we have the luxury of multiple layers (or papers) to which we can painting freely.

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iii. Proportionality

This as can not be over nevasize, for it largely about the relationship of the size of one element when compared to another in a scene. When drawing or painting realistically, proportion is important. If the proportions are incorrect, then the resulting image will look less realistic or abstracted.

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Alternatively, artists can use proportion for effect, given their work a kind of stretch or elongated kind of looks,

 

such as the Stylus pen looks bend and elastic like materials but in real life is not, or another example is the character which is stretching his/her hand to carry the pen which from the view point of angle make the hand looks like a stretch or gigantic person hand.

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To achieve this kinds of effects demands the use of Grids lines and curving some of the [x and y axis] creating multiple intercept points as shown below,

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Looking closely at the various intercepts, we will notice the each vary differently cause of the shape of the objects or subjects natural appear some being either round or square in shape,

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Now, when we look a the Proportionality of they various objects and subjects in the image one has created, we tend to notice that the lines of the x and y axis are curved lead from the tip of the stylus pen down to the bottom of the stylus pen and same process can also be since on the character as well, giving they their various looks.

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iv. Layout the Background

Background laying tend to come in different ways base on the artist, like some artist like to paint their background before move the the figure while some other artists like to add their background at the end of the artwork.

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But for this today tutorial, I would like us to build up the oil painting work of the artwork starting from the background -to- the figure.

 

Now, before we layout the background, we first need to consider the next aspect firstly,

v. Texturing

This is a process that is applied to the models to provide realistic surfaces, and it's also a set up to create depth and effect.

It is highly advisable that when ever you want to paint, one need to make use of textures, cause a plane surface without textures may look unrealistic and style like in appear as shown for the two separate below image,

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For even in real life most things are not smooth l, the reason why I said most things is that, when some objects or things has a smooth surface like take a stainless steel for example while others have a rough surface like that of a rock for example.

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I would like you to know that they are two way to which textures effects can be applied, one by the brush effect and while the other as a layer effect as clearly noted below.

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With the in mind, how one applied then each.

 

 

• For the adding of textures effects to a brush,

We can add texture effects to our sub tool brushes by first locating the brush we want the be a texture brush which for this tutorial I will be making use of the oil paint brush, click on the [Tool property], in it dashboard is the [sub tool details] icon, click on it, another dashboard will appear with different options, select that of [Texture],

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Now that we are in the [Texture] settings, we can then adjust the settings to what we want which for this tutorial I will just be making use of the below image texture settings.

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And with that we are done with the adding of textures to our sub tool brush, you can try that out on other brushes as well, and looking in the image below is the Application of the newly created sub tool brush.

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If you want more studies on how to add texture to you brush, you can try out other great articles from other artists as my self in CSP tip site, but below are some links.

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Now,

 

 

• For adding of the texture effects onto layer,

All we need do is first, have the image we want to add the texture to one one layer, which for today's tutorial, I will be making use of the paint burning matchstick image.

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Now while in the CSP canvas, click on the [material] icon which can be located on the palette bar on the left hand side of CSP default window setting indicated (1), click on [monochromatic textures] indicated (2), then drag the texture effect on the canvas indicated (4), for this tutorial, I make use of the [faux wood] indicated (3) to give the matchstick a wood like appearance,

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NOTICE

How in the image below, the [Layer] indicated (1) dashboard an image layer was created for the added monochromatic texture effect indicated (2), and with the added texture add makes the painted matchstick pop out more uniquely.

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The final appearance of the matchstick after the adding of texture effects.

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With the above done,

vi. Define shape and it's base colors

The first thing I do on my [Wacom Stylus Pen image] to define the various subject and objects in the scene is to freely add the base colors of the entire art piece using rough display of colors but placing the various necessary colors where they are meant to be and also not minding how it looks at that moment, the general is just to define where the various designated colors are going to be place and leave it at that, keeping it simple.

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Moving to the aspect of defining and give forms appears of the figure in the image such as the shadow area, halftones areas and lights area as shown in the image below,

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Now to know how the above stage or aspect the [Wacom Stylus Pen] image comes together or is painted to become what you see above, we need to also consider another concept called,

vi. Values and Form

As a [beginning artist] in short, do not confuse Form for value, please do note that the are two different concepts,

Form creating the illusion of the figure using light, halftones, shadows and even ambient effects,

Meanwhile Value as previously noted make use of colors (hues) and define it's figure by the use ranges of contrast colors.

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Value is one of the elements of art that dictates how light or dark a color appears. Whether you're working with acrylic paints, watercolors, pastels, or graphite, a basic tonal shift in the value of a color can communicate light source, focal point, and depth,

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or it can even define depth and even how further away an object by the use of dark or fading greyish color,

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Over the years, I’ve found the easiest way to learn about light and shadow is by using one hard, single light. It could be the sun, a light through a window or an artificial light.

 

 

When I work up one of my sketches into a more developed drawing, I would have a more conscious approach to the lighting setup, composition and design of the piece, whereby I make use of either one, two or three value to define my object of figure.

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A hard light clearly demonstrates each distinct area to be aware of, exaggerating the widest tonal range and when you’re a beginner it’s the simplest way to see the difference between the tones.

 

So I do advice that as a beginner diving newly into using Values, looking at single lighting set ups demonstrating the theory of form on a sphere.

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Learning simple form principles will enable you to see the fundamental shapes of which all of nature is comprised. The cone, the cube, the cylinder and the sphere.

 

The principles we’ll look at on the sphere, can be applied to the curve of a rod, the fullness of a teapot or vase,

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Then you can now move on to putting all you have learned into practice on a drawing and painting of an apple,

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Or mangoes using colors next week,

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to test your strength and what you have learnt.

Now to the tutorial oil painting work [Wacom Stylus Pen] image.

 

With the values now well l out,

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I move onto the next concept,

vi. Blocking and refining

In this aspect, we need to create a new layer above all the rough sketch layer, and we will then start to block out the sketch lines showing by using the add base colors of the subject.

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Then after we have block out the rough sketch lines, we can now move on to refining the image by add of the little details like take for example in the image below, the red triangular, blue square and yellow circle shape on Stylus Pen or the fading effect on the tablet and much others as noted below with the red arrows.

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And with that done we have finished the piece.

 

Here below is the finish appearance.

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In Conclusion (Practice - practice)

As all great artists do know, practicing of a concept makes perfect. So I will tell you this without a proper practice of oil painting using what was explained above as guidelines, you will always tend to find oil painting difficult, but with a steady practice little by little you will get good at it. You can also try other articles by other illustrator on CSP tips site. And for now, I will be signing out, see ya.