1. Design & Illustration
  2. Digital Painting

Sculpt Your Idea: How to Quickly Paint a Snow Griffin in Adobe Photoshop

Scroll to top
Read Time: 6 min
Final product imageFinal product imageFinal product image
What You'll Be Creating

There are many methods of digital painting. You can paint in grayscale and color later, you can use various Blend Modes to create maps like those in 3D programs... But sometimes you don't really have time to waste on thinking and planning. What if you wanted to paint something quickly, just to check how your idea looks outside of your mind?

In this tutorial I'll show you how to "sculpt" a character quickly using colors and mainly a single textured brush. All the shading and coloring will be reduced to very few steps. You can use it to paint a concept art, or to create a base for more refined illustration.

Tutorial Assets

1. Establish the Idea

Step 1

Create a New File. Fill (G) its background with 50% gray. Create a New Layer and use an irregular brush to quickly block a few versions of your idea. Draw them small and sloppy.

The brush you use for this should be a bit messy and unpredictable, like my Texture Sketch. You can also try one of the ready-made Gouache & Acrylic brush set.

digital painting thumbnail sketchesdigital painting thumbnail sketchesdigital painting thumbnail sketches

Step 2

Choose the sketch you like the most and use the Lasso Tool (Q) to duplicate it to a new layer (Control-J). Lower the Opacity of this layer and remove the previous one.

digital painting thumbnail sketch how to startdigital painting thumbnail sketch how to startdigital painting thumbnail sketch how to start

Step 3

Create a New Layer; name it Lines. Use any brush you like to quickly sketch the details. It doesn't need to be a clean piece of line art. Just make sure you know what you want to draw. When you're done, remove the previous layer.

digital painting quick line art sketchdigital painting quick line art sketchdigital painting quick line art sketch

Step 4

Lower the Opacity of Lines to about 20%.

digital painting line art opacitydigital painting line art opacitydigital painting line art opacity

2. Create the Base Lighting

Step 1

Create a New Layer below Lines. Use a hard brush (like my Ink) to paint the general shape with a solid color. It shouldn't be super detailed, because we may change the edges during shading. Name the layer Base.

digital painting basedigital painting basedigital painting base

Step 2

From now on, all the new layers should be clipped to Base. To do it, hold Alt and click the line between the layers, or simply use the shortcut Control-Alt-G.

digital painting clipping maskdigital painting clipping maskdigital painting clipping mask

Step 3

Create a New Layer (remember to clip it) and fill it with the color of the darkest shadow of your scene. Here, it's dark blue.

digital painting shadow colordigital painting shadow colordigital painting shadow color

Step 4

Create a New Layer and fill it with the color of the surface affected by the ambient light. Here white fur becomes bluish when illuminated by weak ambient light around. Name the layer Ambient.

digital painting ambient light colordigital painting ambient light colordigital painting ambient light color

Step 5

Add a Layer Mask to Ambient (you can learn how to do it in my short tutorial: Layer Mask vs. the Eraser Tool in Adobe Photoshop). Fill the mask with black to make the layer disappear. Then use a textured brush to paint the illuminated parts, leaving crevices filled with shadow.

digital painting ambient occlusiondigital painting ambient occlusiondigital painting ambient occlusion

Later, you can use a soft brush to soften the places where the shadow is almost absent. Basically, your goal is to create a kind of overcast lighting.

diigtal painting overcast lightingdiigtal painting overcast lightingdiigtal painting overcast lighting

Step 6

Add a Layer Mask to Base and use a mix of brushes to create the proper shape.

digital painting layer mask clipping maskdigital painting layer mask clipping maskdigital painting layer mask clipping mask

3. Finish the Lighting

Step 1

Create a New Layer. Decide where you want to put the light source and illuminate the character according to it. Use the color of the terminator—the band between the light area and shadow area. It's usually a highly saturated version of the local color. If you're painting skin or white fur, it's a good place to use the subsurface scattering effect.

digital painting terminator colordigital painting terminator colordigital painting terminator color

Step 2

Create a New Layer below Base. Paint the maximally illuminated ground and the shadow on it. This will be a brightness reference for your eyes.

digital painting shadow grounddigital painting shadow grounddigital painting shadow ground

Step 3

Create a New Layer and add another portion of light, leaving the band of the terminator.

digital painting main light colordigital painting main light colordigital painting main light color

Step 4

Create a New Layer and finish the lighting, using the brightest version of the local color.

digital painting final lightingdigital painting final lightingdigital painting final lighting

Step 5

Because the feathers are very thin, light shines through them to the other side. Use this property to achieve a cool effect:

digital painting feathers subsurface scattering wingsdigital painting feathers subsurface scattering wingsdigital painting feathers subsurface scattering wings

Don't forget to illuminate the part right under the "glowing" feathers.

digital painting subsurface scattering light throughdigital painting subsurface scattering light throughdigital painting subsurface scattering light through

Step 6

Create a New Layer and shade the part of the body that's in shadow, using a slightly brighter shade coming from the light reflected from the ground. Use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to pick the colors that are already there to blend the terminator for a furry effect. Gradually lower the Opacity of Lines until they're not needed anymore.

digital painting quick fur painterlydigital painting quick fur painterlydigital painting quick fur painterly

4. Refine the Painting

Step 1

Create a New Layer and work on the details. Be careful—the more detailed an element, the sloppier the other part will look. Uniform look is the key here.

digital painting details concept artdigital painting details concept artdigital painting details concept art

Step 2

This is the right moment to use any of the popular "fur brushes", if you want. They work miracles if you use them on a shaded character, picking the colors from its surface.

You can create your own fur brush with How to Create Custom Brushes to Render Fur in Adobe Photoshop, or learn how to create advanced fur in the Creating Animal-Inspired Fantasy Creatures course.

digital painting fur brush how to usedigital painting fur brush how to usedigital painting fur brush how to use

Step 3

Create a New Layer in the background (under Base) and use a Soft Brush to create a white glow behind the character.

digital painting white glow behinddigital painting white glow behinddigital painting white glow behind

Step 4

Create a New Layer and use the same brush to soften the fur. Dark fur may not need it, but it works great for white fur with a lot of subsurface scattering.

digital painting soft furdigital painting soft furdigital painting soft fur

Step 5

Create a New Layer and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Adjust the amount of noise so that the contrast is high.

digital painting noise contrastdigital painting noise contrastdigital painting noise contrast

Step 6

Go to Filter > Liquify. In the editor that opened, use the Warp Tool (W) to smudge the dots into lines, creating an effect of fur.

digital painting liquify fast furdigital painting liquify fast furdigital painting liquify fast fur

Step 7

Change the Blend Mode to Overlay, and lower the Opacity until the effect looks natural.

digital painting quick fur effect overlaydigital painting quick fur effect overlaydigital painting quick fur effect overlay

Step 8

Create a New Layer, but don't clip it this time. Refine the picture.

digital painting all details refinedigital painting all details refinedigital painting all details refine

Step 9

You can play with the background to present the character in a more interesting way, but make sure not to overshadow it!

digital painting finish render backgrounddigital painting finish render backgrounddigital painting finish render background

That's All!

This was rather fast, wasn't it? You can use this method to present your idea to someone, or to decide if you want to go on with this illustration and render it in detail.

Hungry for more? Check my other tutorials on the topic of digital painting:

Advertisement
Did you find this post useful?
Want a weekly email summary?
Subscribe below and we’ll send you a weekly email summary of all new Design & Illustration tutorials. Never miss out on learning about the next big thing.
One subscription. Unlimited Downloads.
Get unlimited downloads