Total BEGINNERS guide to drawing in photoshop 2025

[ Music ]

>> My dudes, what's happening, man.

This is Trent.

As you know, I've been a concept artist
working in video games for almost 20 years now.

The majority of concept artists working
in the video game industry use Photoshop.

This is a software that you will
need to know how to use if you want

to be a concept artist working
in the video game industry.

Now yes, it's true, a lot of different
artists, if you're an Instagram artist,

you're an Illustrator, or do other jobs,
you know, you can use those other software

such as Procreate on iPad, or
Sketchbook Pro, or, you know, Krita.

There are a lot of other digital
drawing tools to use, software to use.

But we're going to be doing Photoshop because
that is what a pro concept artist is going

to be using when you go and
actually get a job at a game studio.

And this is going to be for beginners, but
it's also going to maybe open up your eyes

to some techniques and tools
that you might not be aware of.

All right, so enough of the intro.

This is going to be a pretty meaty video.

It's going to be pretty long, so, you
know, hopefully you can go along with me,

and I'll show you what all
these icons and buttons do,

and the basics of drawing using Photoshop.

Now first and foremost, you're going to be like,
"Yo, can I just be a concept artist with mouse?

Do I need -- can I draw on paper?"

No. You got to draw with a Wacom tablet or an
XP-Pen and you need some kind of input device

that has a pressure sensitivity to it.

Watch some of my reviews if you
want to pick up a really good one.

I recommend the Wacom 16 for a good starter.

It's a few hundred bucks, though.

All right, all right, all right.

Now here we are in Photoshop.

This is the 2021 version, so you're going to
notice the slick, gunmetal, dark interface here.

And the first thing that you're going
to want to do is go to file, new.

You could also hit command-n, as in Nancy.

And here we go.

We're going to set this resolution
to 300 and let's -- you know what?

What you could do here is just
pick one of these, these preset --

a lot of times, you'll find these preset ones.

You know, there's like for
print or art and illustration.

You might want to just go
with something like this.

One thing you'll notice is that they're
all set to 300 dpi, or it says ppi.

It's the same, dots per inch or points per
inch, which are just pixels per inch, basically.

So what you could do is just, you
know, click on that right there.

That's going to give you 1,000 width
by 1,000 height and that's fine.

But usually I like to go a little bit longer,
like wider, so I'll do like, I don't know,

like a 3,000 across by like a 1,500 tall.

And it's okay if this is set to, you know, RGB.

You don't need to change this.

You know, like just square pixels is mine.

All these other settings are really unnecessary.

These are the important ones which are really
just your pixel dimensions and your resolution.

Don't go lower than 300 resolution, though,
pixels per inch, because if you want it

to be something that can print or just
look nice, you know, that's going to do it.

If you don't like what you've done, you
could go over here to this icon right here.

This is the cropping tool
and you could say, "Well,

I just want it to be a little
bit, you know, more in like that."

Or you could go up here to image, and
go to canvas size, and this allows you

to make some adjustments to your canvas.

You know, if you wanted to change the
size of it, you might go, you know,

maybe you wanted to do like 8.5 by 11.

Let's do 11 wide by 8.5 tall.

So that's like a, you know, like
something that you would get, you know,

on a note paper or something like that.

Now obviously, you know, we've got all this.

Now I have these colors here set to this, so
it fills in the new area with this dark blue.

But like let's say we just want that
to be a completely white canvas.

Well, what you can do is you can hit
command-a, which would select everything.

You see these little ants.

That means that's selected.

But another way to do that is to just click on
this, a little button up here in the corner,

and then that allows you to make a selection.

And then once it's selected, you could
fill that in using the edit and then fill.

Which allows you to just fill it in
with whatever color you have selected.

Or I'm going to show you
how to change colors here.

If you click on this little color button
here, yours might already be white or black.

And then what you could do, the top
one is the one that you have selected.

So I'm going to set that to white, and
then I'm going to go up here to edit,

and fill with the foreground color.

If you choose the background color,
that's related to the second color here.

And that's like your basically
your eraser color, okay?

So that's fine and dandy.

We're all set up.

Let's get to drawing here.

So the first thing you want to do
is click on this button right here.

This is for the brush and the
brush tool allows you to draw.

Now if you've got a white canvas, and you've
got this set to white, and you try to draw,

you won't see anything because you --
literally, you're drawing with white.

But let's say that we change that color.

Click on the color icon, and then select
a new color, and then we make marks.

Whoa, okay.

Now we're cooking.

Now we're cooking with something here.

Now obviously, just like any program,
command-z is going to undo what you just did.

So I'm going to hit command-z.

But if you're on Windows, it'll be ctrl.

Whenever I say command, just
it's going to be ctrl, okay?

So command-z undoes everything
and shift-command-z redoes it.

This also walks you through your history here.

So the history here allows
you to do, and then undo,

and then redo all of your
actions, every brush stroke.

So like let's say that I do a bunch of strokes.

Let's say I just did like, you
know, 50 different strokes,

and this is kind of neat to
watch, by the way, to watch.

Okay, so let's go up our history.

You can see here how you can hit
ctrl-z or you can actually click

on where you want throughout your history
to go backwards or by, again, holding shift,

going forwards through your history.

So this allows you to make a few
mistakes and you can easily clean them up.

But again, I'm going to fill that in the
same way that we had filled it in before,

and I'm going to say go up
here to edit, and then fill.

But before, let's do the
background color because it's white.

Okay, now brushes.

The thing you have to understand
about brushes, if you right-click,

you pull up all of your brush shapes.

Now think of this like you've got a brush.

Let's say that you've got like a stick and
you want to choose which kind of a stamp

or which kind of a shape you
want to imprint onto the paper.

These brushes, now these are my custom brushes,

and different brushes are going
to have different properties.

So some of them are going to look really like
grainy and noisy and some of them are going

to have different kinds of
pressure sensitivities set to size.

Like this one, for instance, if we
barely press, we get like a small line.

If we press really hard,
we get a very thick line.

And this is the value of having a pen input
device, okay, is that we get this broad range.

Now some of our other brushes
are set to opacity.

So if we barely press, it barely
leaves any kind of an imprint.

But if we press really hard,
you can see the opacity.

It's very opaque.

It's a very solid color.

There's a few quick keys that you're going
to need to know if you're using brushes.

So and if you want to increase the size
of your brush, you use the right bracket.

To decrease the size of your brush,
you want to use the left bracket.

And then, of course, if you -- you'll
notice that you can increase the size.

This really comes in handy if you're trying to
get a broad range out of your brush, you know,

if you're doing a very large
painting, for instance.

You don't want to do the whole thing
with a tiny, tiny, tiny little brush.

You want to have a good range there.

The other key quick key that you're
going to need is the option key.

This is also the alt key on Windows.

And you'll notice how it changes the icon

into this little eyedropper here
which allows you to color dab.

You can color dab blended
colors and mixed colors.

This is an effective tool if you're
just getting comfortable with blending,

and creating gradients, and shading, you
know, because you can kind of color dab.

You can blend two colors together, and then
color dab that gray, and then now you have

that new gray, and then you can
color dab the blend of that.

Especially if you're using a brush
that only has like a 50% opacity.

For most artists, they're kind of hovering their
left hand over the option key at all times.

So I wanted to show you how the icon looks
different when you change brush sizes

and use the option key, but my capture
software doesn't capture the brush size

or shape, anymore.

So for the rest of this video, it's just
going to look like a normal mouse icon.

I know, even in the future,
nothing works, right?

So let's say that you don't want to color dab.

Let's say you want to pick a specific color.

Well, you'd click on this icon down here.

This is your primary color.

That's whatever color you have selected.

But you can quickly begin to see how you could
blend colors doing this by, for instance,

color dabbing and then using
light pressure over another color.

And your colors begin to blend.

Color dabbing in between and this is one way
that some painters will blend their colors.

This is kind of like having a little mixer
board if you're used to traditional paint,

having a little mixer board and then being
able -- it's a beautiful thing, though,

because in real life, you can't color dab.

You have to mix those colors again
to get the ones that you want.

But with digital, you can just lay
them down and then blend them later.

There you go.

So we get this nice gradation, right?

And this will be nice for us
to practice with, as well,

because another tool that
I use is the eraser tool.

Now when you're in Photoshop, if you
just flip over the pen, a lot of times,

like a Wacom pen will have an eraser.

And all it does really is take
the secondary color and uses that.

But if you were on a new layer,
for instance, it would erase

or completely make transparent that layer below.

Now what am I talking about
when I'm talking about layers?

This is going to be an essential thing
that you're going to need to know

about if you're doing things with Photoshop.

Well, first of all, we need
to understand the layer stack.

Now think of this like a layer
of a series of transparencies.

We're going to create a new layer here,
which you can also do with quick keys

by hitting shift-command-n, as in
Nancy, and that creates a new layer.

That layer is set to normal.

So everything that is transparent
is going to be see through.

You can look down at the image below it.

Because the whole image is transparent,

the whole layer is transparent,
nothing's changed in our image.

But let's say that we drew something.

Let's say that we drew something with a
bright red so that you can really see it here.

We draw over the top of this.

Now it looks like we're messing
up what we have, right?

But the thing is, that's only on
this new layer that we have here.

So if we click off the visibility of that, we
can see that we haven't really changed our image

at all because this is only
isolated to this element

and what we've painted here
is only on that one layer.

Now if we hit the eraser tool over this, you'll
see how it just erases to a transparency rather

than using that secondary color
that I was talking about before.

And that is because we are on a new layer.

So think of it like an eraser on that layer
which creates the ability to do, well,

you can make a lot of mistakes
if you do this, for instance.

So, for example, let's say that
you wanted to add in details,

you know, around the outside of something.

And this isn't -- I'm not
drawing anything particular.

This is just to showcase how you could use this.

So even using white, by the way,
which white is an opaque color.

So you could carve, or cut, or create
shapes, or even use this to create masks

that can be selections, all on this one layer.

And again, that is on one layer, so
we're able to move it or manipulate it

without disrupting or disturbing
the layer below.

Now when a layer is set to normal,
that's how it's going to behave.

But there are other layer
effects that you can use.

But the two that I will use the most is darken,

which essential only allows
darker elements to be visible.

So, for instance, if I use this
color over this, it's going to show.

But if I use white, it won't show
at all because it's darkening it.

And white is lighter than what is beneath.

So if you wanted to, for instance, just
have, you know, this be the darkest element

of your drawing, you could use a darken layer
and then paint over your lighter elements.

The lighten layer effect does the opposite.

So if you remember, I had a lot
of white that I had painted in,

and because it's on a lighten
layer, anything that's lighter

than the color beneath it will be visible.

If it's darker than the color
beneath it, it will not be visible.

Another layer type that I use or layer
effect is the multiply and multiply is nice

because it will sometimes
allow you to create shadows.

A lot of times, I'll just do
like a 50% gray to add shadows.

And that is pretty much the equivalent
of just adding black to a color

if you were mixing it in acrylic or oil.

Multiply will multiply your colors together.

All right, so you may be wondering,
well, you know, I've got these gradations

but it feels like hard-edged and chunky.

You see, this is like it's not
a smooth transition, right?

So there are some other tools that
you can use to make it smoother.

Probably you might want to like your first
impulse would be to go to this blur tool.

But you'll notice that the blur tool just
doesn't really do much blurring at all.

It's very miniscule.

It's only for subtleties and like backgrounds.

I barely ever use that.

Your second option is to go to the
smudge tool here and this is going

to have a little bit more
of a blending going on.

You can change your brush.

Remember, I was talking earlier about
how you can use different brush tips

to get different shapes.

And you'll want to find one that's got a
lot of noise, though, with the smudge tool.

I like to use this one, personally, but
this is one of my own personal ones.

Usually, it's one with a lot of space.

You may want to explore which
brushes are going to get you the kind

of texturing and material that you like.

There is also, in the last couple of years, they
added the mixer brush, which is this one here.

It looks like it's a brush with a little bit
of a water kind of a stain looking thing.

And this one does just a heck
of a job blending colors.

Let me pick a brush that I
think will work pretty well.

I like this one with the mixer brush because
it's got a little bit of a chalk texture to it.

And then you'll color dab and this creates
like a nice, grainy kind of a color blend.

So if you want to get a much more
natural kind of an oily brush texture

or paper texture, this is
a good way to get that.

So there you go.

So that's a nice way to get a little
bit more organic with your brushes.

But I don't want to go too much
more complicated than that other

than to say there's a lot you can do with this.

And you can get some very natural looking
brushes using Photoshop, using this combination

of some of these tools that I've just shown you.

Another technique that a lot of artists

that I know use is the selection
and fill or airbrush tool.

So up here, you'll find this little icon
right here, and this is a lasso tool.

Now you can use the polygonal
lasso tool or the lasso tool.

The difference is this.

So with the lasso tool, you can do rounded
corners, and shapes, and things like this,

and you can hold down the shift
key to add even more to it,

for instance, and draw in multiple shapes.

And then if you use the airbrush, let's create a
new layer real quick, and then use the airbrush,

you can do a -- you can see how you could create
some really neat airbrush selections using that.

And this is very handy if
you're filling in large spaces.

Because I did it on another layer, remember,
you could move it around, for instance,

and the polygonal lasso tool
works the same way except

that when you click, it creates a straight line.

And then the second time you
click, it creates a corner.

So this is really useful for creating
geometry or I'll give you an example here.

Like let's say that you were
going to draw in a box.

You know, you can make it look
like a very convincing box

by using the polygonal lasso tool
to create a perception of depth.

There we go.

Let's choose a yellow for that
side and then we'll, for the top,

we'll do something that's like a lighter yellow.

Watch how this works.

So this is really cool for
creating the illusion of geometry.

There we go.

Look at that.

Pretty neat.

If you wanted to select one of those faces,
for instance, say you already laid it down

and you can't go back to reselect it, right?

So you could go here to this selection tool.

This is the magic wand tool, a classic.

This has been around a long time.

And what that does is it selects
the solid body of a surface.

So, for instance, here it has to
be on the layer that's selected.

So if we go to that layer below and
we select here, you'll notice, look,

it's only grabbing colors that are that similar.

They're connecting.

They're one sort of an object,
I guess, in a sense.

It's the way it's seeing
it is because the pixels,

right next to the pixel is the
same color, so it grabs that.

And like here, if we click this one,
it'll just grab all the dark ones here,

you know, and now that's your selection.

So if we go back to our layer above it
where we had done that polygonal lasso

and then we select this face, for instance, we
could even go in here and add in a little bit

of airbrush to that selected face.

And you can begin to see how you could even just
do entire drawings just using the selection tool

with an airbrush.

And I know some artists that do their
entire paintings with just selection tools,

and airbrushes, and just a
little bit of that mixer tool

that we -- that I had shown you, earlier.

There's some other key things that you're
going to need to know if you're going draw

with Photoshop, one of which is the
transform tool and how to use the transform.

So what I'll do is I'll use the selection tool.

I'll make a selection, hit command-c, which
will copy it, command-v will paste it, right?

Once it's pasted, you'll notice
it pasted on to a new layer,

so that's on its own layer right there.

Now if you hit command-t,
you can do the transform.

Transform allows you to rotate it, skew it.

If you hold down the shift
key, you can squeeze it.

And if you hold down the command key and grab
a corner, you can even do one of these things

to squeeze some of your objects
into a perspective, for instance.

So I use this a lot, for instance, if
I've got to like resize a character's eye

or just resize a part of something.

You know, if you had like an element here and
you're like, eh, maybe I want to make this part,

you know, a little bit longer, you know.

Then you could do something like this
and maybe do a distortion like that.

And then you could just go in and like
clean up while it's on its new layer.

So that's a technique that I use an awful
lot and you're going to see me do that a lot

in the drawing that I'm about to do.

All right, let's hit it with the time lapse.

All right, how does all this
stuff come together?

All right, you're going to see me
drawing on the bottom layer here

and it's basically there
just doing the sketching.

You know, you -- the digital tool
isn't going to do the drawing for you.

You're still going to have to
learn how to draw, okay, okay?

The digital tools are just there to
make it easier for you, all right?

This is a bit of a common misconception.

A lot of people think that digital
means it does -- it draws it for you.

No, man. You still got to learn how to draw.

You still got to learn your basic
fundamentals, how to create perspective,

and how to create depth, and how to
create clustering of your details,

and clustering of your shadows,
and all that stuff.

You're going to need to learn how to turn forms.

You're going to need to learn your fundamentals.

The drawing tools, they don't do it for you.

Just getting my brushes isn't
going to make you draw like me.

You're still going to have to understand
how to turn forms, and how to design,

and how to like control the viewer's eye.

And that's why I made all my other tutorials.

If you're getting into drawing, you know,
you can check out my easy art lessons

if you're really early on,
if you are a beginner.

And you can learn to draw pretty cool stuff
in just a matter of a weekend, you know,

and then it's just a matter of practicing
and getting comfortable with using the tools

to get the results that you want.

So hopefully, this video is going
to help you along in that regard.

My advice is to not compare
yourself to other artists.

Don't compare what you're
doing to what I'm doing.

Don't try to draw the exact same thing.

Try to draw your own face of a character
using the tools that you just learned.

To do this drawing, I just used
two layer types, normal and darken.

I didn't even use a multiply layer.

And then I used my watercolor brush,
which is a lot of what you're seeing here.

You can get that in my brush pack.

And then I also use my spatter brush, which
is just like a toothbrushy kind of a spatter.

It simulates like if you were to just spray,
you know, white paint across your image

and you can see it in the
image to get that texture.

That's what I'm -- that's what -- how I'm
getting that texture is mostly with the brushes.

So you're going to want to
explore your own brushes.

You're going to want to explore
other people's brushes.

A lot of artists post their brushes and
they make them available online if you want

to get a specific artist's look or feel.

But make no mistake, just using somebody
else's brushes won't make you draw like them.

It'll help you to get a certain look or effect
but you'll still need to learn how to draw.

This character is the ancient Tenza who
appears in the "Twilight Monk" series

of novels and art books that I work on.

If you want to learn how to draw, if
you want to learn how to turn forms

and actually create cool-looking buildings and
characters, like what you're seeing me draw

and like what I draw here on my channel.

Well, guess what, man?

I've created a series of easy art lessons
and these are super-simple, broken down,

real-time videos teaching you how to draw.

You can draw within a weekend.

And, of course, I also have
a lot of other art tips here

on my YouTube channel, so
don't forget to subscribe.

And dudes, I am here every Wednesday and
sometimes more, so I will see you then.

Ciao, baby.

Oh, yeah.