Software Battle Part II (Putting it all together)

Last time, I explained there were several tools that I use when creating work. Photoshop, Paintstormsutdio and Corel Painter 11. Note that all versions of the software that I sue are old, except for Paintstorm studio. I don’t necessarily have access to all of the latest features, but that’s ok for me. When I use the tools above, I only need certain aspects of each program.

Here is how the work flow process usually begins for me.

Ideas (Strong Ones):

It all begins with a strong idea. Most of the time I spend drawing and experimenting with ideas or themes. I am constantly drawing from life, sketching on the train, jotting down words and thoughts to save for later. This is where carrying around a sketchbook proves to be super useful. For me sketching and drawing are the basic foundations for everything. I find if the drawing is weak, then the final piece is going to not come out great either. I then go home and edit the idea and do more thumbnails to see where I want the idea to go. Thumbnail, thumbnail, thumbnail is always the key. However, sometimes I will have such a strong visual already that I only need to spend so much time in the thumbnail phase. 

Do what you think works.

Convert to Digital:

-Then I scan the drawing into my desktop Mac (I have a computer that I only* use for drawing and painting - and a few other things, but I find that the less programs that I have on it, the better the computer functions in terms of performance.)

-I bring the sketch into Photoshop first to edit the drawing before I start doing anything else.

This is especially true with the symmetry of a drawing because I tend to draw favoring the right side of an image, so my drawings look a little right side heavy (because I am right handed).Viewing the symmetry and making sure that the drawing looks that right is the first thing that I do, that way I don’t have to spend time fixing it later on.

What Style Do I want to go for?

Think about what style you want to go for. Do I want a traditional painting look? Do I want a hi-res rendered look? Do I want something in the middle? It all depends on what I want to do with it. ie. What style of painting I want to go for. I jump around from program to program depending on what I want to accomplish or use them in combination. 

Photoshop: 

Is the best for accuracy and rendering effects. This is what makes it such a powerful program. However the brush engine renderings a lot like markers on a glass table, so you wind up having to do millions strokes just to get a swatch of color down. That was my reason for moving to other programs. So…

Corel Painter: 

is the program that I am using for most of my work. I really love the way that the brush strokes render. 

[For each of the programs I try to limit my tool set to a few brushes to avoid mental overload]. 

It’s always good to experiment with different brushes and bush types, because you never know what you will get out of it. For still lifes and work that I want to capture from real life, I will use Corel painter for most work. It even has a function that lets you create color palettes from an image and this I find especially useful.  The one downside is that the brushes are not that accurate for minute details. So I wind up bringing the work into Photoshop to final render and perfect the image.

Paintstorm Studio:

This is the program that I know the least about, and am still experimenting with.  What makes this program so great are it’s drawing tools, which surprisingly Photoshop and Corel painter don’t have*. If you want to draw a straight line in either of the other two programs, you can’t naturally do so (there are tools, and such, but I like my brush calligraphy work to feel as close to the real thing as possible).  I find that in Paintsorm, it’s not a problem. Just click on the ruler tool, and go to town. You can even draw ellipses and have perspective guides for 2 and 3 point perspective drawing. It’s pretty rad.

Once I am done with the painting and I feel the I have done all that I can do in either Painter or PSS, I always bring it back to Photoshop to finish. Where Photoshop shines is that fact that is was designed for editing images and accuracy with brightness, contrast and finishing effects. I make sure to bump up the saturation and the vibrancy to make the image resonate (but not too much). 

Lastly, I deliver the final piece, call it a day, take a break and then set up another (make sure to take breaks during and between projects).  Practice is key, and with each project you can experiment with the above or ignore it and find your own methods and tools.

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