Quick Render Tutorial

Today's before bed doodle is... whatever this 5 minute digitalart thing is....Done in Photoshop with my custom brushes. Steps below if you want to try it yourself.

Step 1. Paint bucket a background color.

Step 2. With a solid hard round make your character silhouette. Use only 2 colors. 1 for the skin and 1 for the hair and body suit. You can choose a split complimentary colour scheme for your 3 colors like I did if you want and tweak the brightness and saturation to your liking.

Step 3. Add your form shadow. This is your soft shadow that defines the overall shapes of your form. Create a brightness and contrast adjustment layer. In the properties tab, switch this this default. Bring the brightness all the way down. In the layers menu change the layer mode of this adjustment layer to multiply.

Step 4. Create your form light. This is the soft lighting that falls in the center most parts of your shapes and helps define the overall shapes. Launch another brightness and contrast adjustment mask. Switch to default in the properties tab. Leave where it is in the amount sliders. Change the layer mode to screen. Invert the mask and paint onto the center most areas of your form shapes.

Lastly add your hard shadow. On a new layer, change the mode to linear burn. Change the fill amount to 35%. Use black as your color and paint on your darkest shadows and your drop/cast shadows.

Add some extra simple stuff in any negative spaces that you want. Keep the extra things neutral colors (white, black, grays, tans, or browns). And you're done.