INSANE Digital Painting Technique - Photobashing Concept Art Tutorial Photoshop

this video is sponsored by envato

elements

hey guys how's it going hope you're

having a wonderful day in this video

tutorial i'll create this digital

illustration from start to finish

while also showing you an incredible new

photo bashing technique which will

really help you add photographic

detail in your artwork quickly and

effectively you'll also learn how to use

images in 3d to help you in your digital

painting or concept art workflow

so without wasting any more time let's

do this

so the first thing i do is to drop a

base plate image onto the canvas

this is really helpful because now i can

build stuff on top of it

and i can take color reference to this

base image

after that i added a photograph of the

sky because

right now i'm looking to establish some

sort of horizon

and get the basic sky and water done i

chose a dramatic sky

to create more interest in the artwork

next i selected a blue color and started

painting some rock shapes

these rocks are at a distance so i used

a lighter value of blue for them

then i moved on to the bigger rock shape

in the mid ground

i used a darker valley of blue for this

one because it's closer to us as viewers

i also added a little rock to accompany

the big one just to add some contrast in

terms of size

now the area in the middle is too empty

so i created some more shapes there

again these would be at a distance so

comparatively

lighter value is used for them they are

also taller and pointier at the top so

we have a combination of three types of

interesting shapes

on the very left we have some shapes

that look like distant mountains

on the right side we have some big

blocky shapes closer to us

and in the middle we have some really

interesting taller

rocks that almost look like a man-made

structure just to balance these shapes

out in the composition

we can of course tweak some shapes here

and there view the artwork at a distance

and see what looks best to the eye now i

darken the sky at the top left create a

vignette effect and to keep the viewers

interest in the middle of the

composition

this also washed out some details on the

sky and added a cool

dark cloud effect which i'm really

enjoying i also made a selection around

the cloud in the middle

copied it rescaled it and transformed it

to the point where it looked

good i also want to mention that

sometimes using a photo

as it is in your artwork might limit

your creativity

when it comes to composition so you can

either change the photo significantly or

you can first

paint the shapes just like i did for

this artwork after you paint the main

shapes and compositions you can add

photographic details

later let me show you the technique

through which we're gonna add those

photographic details

we'll do that using something called the

layer mask so let's say i want to have

this rock in my painting

i'll fill this rock with a solid color

we'll name this layer as

rock shape now i have this picture of a

rock here

i'll just put it over my rock shape

layer

now it's very important that our rock

shape and the photo texture image both

are on separate layers the photo texture

layer should be on the top

of the painted layer now here's what you

gotta do you gotta move your mouse

cursor between these two layers

then press and hold the alt key and then

click see what happens

the photo texture layer is inside the

rock shape layer

you can move it transform it warp it

experiment with it as much as you like

until it looks good once you're happy

with it here's what you need to

do click on this icon which says layer

mask

right at the bottom of this layers menu

it will add this white box next to your

texture layer

now click on that box and with the black

color selected

use your paint bucket tool to fill that

black color

on your rock see what happens the

texture is gone but we're gonna paint

the texture back so

choose the texture brush that you like

and this time select the white color now

start painting on the rock and see the

magic happen

so for this technique to work in this

artwork it's very important that these

rock shapes are on separate layers

using the same technique that i just

showed i inserted

a photograph of this mountain into the

shape of those

rocks i painted earlier i transformed it

resized it moved it around until i felt

like it fitted better then i created a

layer mask

filled it out with black so it

disappeared from the canvas and then

selected the white color and painted the

underlaying photograph

back into the artwork i'm painting it on

the right side of the rock where the

light is hitting

if i want to paint back the details i

have to select the white color and if i

want to erase what i painted i select

black i also adjusted the levels and

erased the photo where it's not needed

now using the same brush tool if you

paint it with black color

it will erase the texture layer and if

you paint it with white

it will add that underlying texture this

is a really really useful technique

i'll be using the same method to create

photographic details on all of the other

shapes that i painted

starting with the one on the left this

technique saves us a lot of time

now some artists might want to hand

paint all those details using custom

brushes

instead of photos and that's fine too

but that would take a lot of time and

mostly for concept art jobs you don't

have much time

you are required to produce results fast

and generate

ideas very quickly so you gotta find

ways to speed up the process

that's where these photos in 3d come in

they really add a ton of detail in a

very little time

also it happens very often that you

create two to three artworks

send it to the client and to them only

one is usable

and the other two might be discarded so

if you put hours and hours working

on that excruciating detail in an

artwork and the client just discards it

it'll hurt more compared to something

you spent

a few hours on you wouldn't worry about

that but this reveals a true fact

the client doesn't give a damn about how

long you have spent on the details of

those rocks he doesn't care if you have

used custom brushes or photos or 3d what

he's interested in is the final result

the whole artwork

does it solve a problem for the client

does it convey the mood

does it give direction to the 3d artists

to work from

if it does all of the other stuff is not

important

so here as you can see i've used photo

texture on

all of the distant mountains and i've

added another rock shape in the middle

so we have the basic composition ready

we have the sky

and the sea and the distant mountains

now we need a pirate ship i need to get

a photograph of a pirate ship exactly

for

this particular angle i need it from the

back view and it needs to fit here on

the left side of my composition

it should also be copyright free and

it's better if it's a png so that i

don't have to kill myself

making clean selections around all those

ropes and stuff

of course you can spend several hours

looking for the perfect photo to fit

into your artwork but if you're smart

and want to save time

you can use the 3d asset from envato

elements which is also the sponsor for

today's video if you don't know what

envato elements

is it's a must-have tool for artists and

creatives they have a huge

library of over 52 million assets that

you can use in your creative projects

which include royalty free stock photos

footage fonts

music templates graphics 3d and more let

me show you how it works

so i needed a pirate ship for my artwork

here on the search bar i selected 3d

and entered pirate ship it gave me a lot

of assets to choose from

i selected the one that i like rotated

it to

an angle that i needed and hit download

this photo was downloaded as png which i

can slap

right onto my composition in photoshop

it's that easy

no need to make selections around a

photo no need to waste your time

removing background of the image

just set it to the right angle download

it and use it in your artwork you can

download as many assets as you want with

just

one subscription which is really

affordable and worth every dollar so use

the link down in the description to get

your subscription

now you won't regret it trust me on this

one so now we have the ship in

our artwork i made some color

adjustments to the ship

made a selection around it and on a new

layer filled that selection with

a dark blue color then i created a new

layer mask around this layer and

painted back the details of the shape

mostly on the right side where the light

should be hitting i also kept some of

the areas blue

and in shadow with less detail this

really helped the ship

fit in the environment better i also

transformed the ship

and tried to correct the angle which i

felt was slightly off then i painted

shadow just

underneath the ship with a darker color

of blue and also some waves and water

splashes using one of my favorite

brushes

by the way if you want to get this free

brush pack please feel free to download

it through the link below

i don't think you'd need any other brush

if you have this brush back

it's massive after that i'll just be

tweaking some levels correcting some

edges and painting some light and shadow

on the ship

mostly i use only one brush to do that i

call it the father of all brushes

if you want to see that in action go

check out my other video on free brushes

and their use

i'll link it here that video did really

well by the way

you all seem to like it very much so

thank you so much for your appreciation

by the way if you haven't joined the

discord channel i'll put a link down in

the description for you

you can share your artwork and stuff

there i really enjoy looking at all of

your

artwork i also plan to do some paint

over videos in the future so make sure

you drop your entries and i might be

able to repaint your artwork there are

illustrations that i do for my freelance

clients

and commissioned work i can't post them

on youtube because

youtube is for videos right so i post

those artworks on instagram

if you haven't followed me there please

do you'll find so much exclusive content

there

alright so once i finished working on

the ship i moved on to the sky

i wanted the clouds to be a lot bigger

to kind of fill

the left side of my composition i also

wanted the whites of the clouds to show

behind the ship

it will make the ship's form re-better

after that

i refined the edges and i'll add some

highlights on the ship

mostly on our right side of those sails

the sails also look

very dark at the moment so i'll add a

lighter color at the bottom of them

after that

some more white splashes just underneath

the ship

and highlights on the water i added some

more splashes on those

rocks as well next it's time to work on

the big rock

on the front so i found a suitable

picture scaled it up

used the texture of the rocks within

that shape i painted i'll experiment

with it

move it around and see where it looks

good once i'm happy with it

i'll change some settings play around

with levels and color adjustments

to make it a bit darker and bluish so

that it fits better in the environment

then i thought i'd paint some highlights

maybe some greens at some of the places

on this big rock so yeah i'm doing that

the foreground looked too empty so i

painted some more rock shapes in the

foreground i

made them relatively darker i'll work on

it later but first

that distant pointy mountain doesn't

look very good to me it's too

distracting so

i just corrected that and then there are

some minor adjustments with the texture

of this front

rock i cut a little patch from that

photo and pasted it on top of the area

where it looked

weird and then corrected the brightness

and color temperature to

match everything i felt this rock lacked

shadows so i painted some darks where

needed i often use a soft

round brush with a low opacity to create

separation between things that are at

different distances

just like i did with these rocks it's a

really handy technique and helps a lot

in creating some atmospheric perspective

in your scenes

i also darkened the water just beneath

the big rock and painted some more

details on the water waves emerging from

the back of the ship

and now i'll be adding a photo texture

to the foreground rocks and match color

later on using levels saturation color

balance and brightness sliders i also

picked up some 3d trees from envato

elements

matched their lighting and color to our

artwork and put them on the foreground i

darkened the sky from the top left but

kept the clouds fairly lighter after

that i just made some quick little

adjustments here and there

and then i selected a light brownish

color set the layers blending mode to

color

dodge and painted highlights on

different areas mainly at the top edges

of the rocks

and even on the background lastly i

added some birds and made

minor adjustments overall i'm really

happy with the results

let me know what you guys think i hope

you learned something from this video

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alright then i'll see you guys in the

next one take care

you