I’ve been posting progress of a recent piece involving BattleCat from the old cartoon, Heman lately. I’ve been asked a few times about how I go about painting something like this in photoshop, so I thought I’d put together a small step by step. I’m really not the most knowledgeable about the program, as I only began working in it about two years ago. I work in photoshop like I would on a canvas – how I was originally trained. I don’t use complicated brushes or fancy filters – only because I don’t know much about them. In any case, I hope this might help and feel free to offer insight if you know any tricks with photoshop.
- My work always starts out with a crappy sketch (above) Just to get an idea of what I want to put in the image.
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- With this piece, I flipped the image and worked out the pose a bit more until I liked it.
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- Then its on with the pencil drawing. I work with an irregular shaped brush on a normal setting with opacity at 100%. The brush works with the pressure sensitivity on my tablet so I can get dark and light without having to adjust anything. (the fact that I don’t know how to “talk” photoshop is showing…) I keep my sketch layer on a lower opacity than the final pencil layer so I can see my sketch while I’m drawing.
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- Now its time to add in some color. I’ve set my pencil layer to multiply (for now) and I have created layers for color – one for the rocks, one for BattleCat’s fur, and one for his armor. I like to use as few layers as possible when I work but in this case I needed to be able to edit the fur and armor separately. I’m adding in some modeling but not too much – just enough to get an idea of where I want my light-source to be.
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- If I were painting this traditionally I would have layed in the background first. However, with the magic of “layers” I can add in a background after I’ve painted most of BattleCat. For the background I used my “go-to” brush as well as a soft edges brush to make the clouds look softened here and there.
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-I’ve added in BattleCat’s stripes as well as add in some more shadows to his fur. I’ve done this on a layer above the fur but underneath the armor so I don’t have to worry about erasing too much.
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- Adding in some more shadows – this time to the armor.
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- Now I’m starting to add in some darker shadows over everything I’ve painted so far. These shadows are on their own layer and are a deep purple – as opposed to the darker greens and reds I was using for the armor and fur. I’ve also added in some whiskers at this point.
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- Highlights come in at this point as well as some cool reflective light to counteract the warmth in the piece. The highlights on BattleCat are a warmer, gold tone. While I’m painting all of this I will go back and forth in-between steps. I don’t paint the image completely step by step like this but this will give you an idea of how it all come together more easily.
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- Now I’m adding in some “ultra highlights”. Almost stark-white to give BattleCat some pop in his darker areas. I’ve also pushed back some of his limbs and his tail using a bit of atmosphere. This helps in giving the image a bit of depth.
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- Finally I’ve warmed up the piece by adding in a layer of gold tones on multiply. I set it to around 20% opacity. I’ve also added in some flecks of golds, reds and whites to the background along with some flags and things of the sort – keeping those on a lower opacity as well to keep them pushed back. At the end of the painting I’ll switch my pencil layer from “Multiply” to “Ghost”. “Ghost” is a filter by flaming pear that turns a line transparent. What I like about it is, that the line will become a darker version of whatever color is underneath it. The change is very slight, however if you scan in pencil drawings it will really come in handy. You can find that filter: Here. (It’s the download at the top titled: “Free Plugins”.
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All of the fur and texture on the saddle is created by my brush traveling back and froth on the wacom. I don’t use fur brushes or imported textures. This isn’t to say that they won’t save you lots of time and can’t look great – I just don’t know enough about them to use them confidently and I enjoy painting like I would be drawing in marker. Its just a preference for my personal work. For this image I used these brushes:
which you can download : Here. (That last brush, by the way, is my “go to” brush. I like the bristles and the slight texture it creates.
I also created a color palette to help with keeping the basic colors consistent. I don’t normally do this but it helps with something like this where color has to remain very vivid.
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Anyway, if you still have questions, you can contact me via the contact page or comment on this post. :)
Thanks for reading!
I should also add that BattleCat is © Mattel
This is Awesome!!! I can learn so much from this and I luv the way you put it together all the way to the finishing touched it looks like you didn’t skip a single step.
I really appreciate it=D
Thanks Madpoint! I’m glad it was useful for you. :) Your battlecat piece turned out really great as well! I hope to see you around for more challenges!
amazing work! who needs He-Man when you have a 2,000 lb. armored tiger riding into battle?
Thanks John! I know right? I mean they could have just made the show about a badass tiger, haha! Although, I’m sure they had to reach some sort of “man in loincloth” quota ;)
I’m not familiar with your work, this blogpost came up in my reader from a few sites so I decided to check it out. Really glad I did!
Did you do the pencil/line work for this in photoshop? I know that sounds like a very basic question but foundations and basics is what’s missing from my own work. I’ve been having problems finding a good line brush that I can use that replicates the same line style you’re using. I’ll continue to search through your blog and see what I can find but if you could point me in the right direction I’d really appreciate it.
I RT’d this blogpost. Again, thanks for all the info!
Hi Matthew, Thanks for stopping by my blog! I do in fact draw my pencil lines into photoshop most of the time. I use a brush from the brush-pack I mentioned in this post. It’s the last brush in the list from the download. You can download them here –> Three Simple Brushes I usually keep it on 100% opacity. I draw using black and I try to keep then brush size the same size throughout the drawing.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks you for the RT! :)
This is just nuts. I’m such a process junkie. Thanks for posting!
Thanks Ryan! Glad you enjoy it! :)
I have always wanted to know how you create your artwork!
I must say also, Adobe Photoshop is hard to handle, I think you’ve actually gone pretty far and well with it. But, GAWD, I seriously love how you draw your artwork, you make it look so traditionally done even though it’s digital! And also, this Battle Cat design is the best I’ve seen so far! Yet again, fantastic artwork, Brynn.
Thank you so much Lydia! I’m glad you liked the tutorial as well as the design. I learned a lot with this piece. :)
No problem! Is it okay though if I could try a picture and test out the tutorial, or is it more of just a personal art style?
Sure! I don’t mind. Hopefully it will help out a bit. I mean I’ve used tutorials to help with technique ideas but its always good to keep your own look to it ;)