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Mechis
12-07-2003, 10:29 PM
Hi all,
I recently decided to start learning how to paint in Photoshop and was hoping that you guys could help me out a bit. I'm working on following Stahlberg's fantastic cloud painting tute (http://androidblues.com/cloudtut.html), but am having problems. You can see what I have done here:

http://www.geocities.com/marcuslee80/wip.html

Some things that I'm having trouble with:
1) In the tute, he says to block out the cloud in one color, then hit preserve transparency and airbrush the edges. In the pics he shows, he makes a 'cauliflower' look. However, when I try this, I get either white with a blue rim (the underlying color) or a solid white border. How does he achieve the 'cauliflower' look?

2) I can't figure out how he get's his cloud texture (in the middle of the cloud, not the edges). Is he just tapping on the screen to get the rounded cloudy appearance? My clouds seem to have streaks in them or something.

3) How do y'all get smooth color transitions? Stahlberg says to brush with a hard edged brush and then he somehow smooths out the color transition, but doesn't explain how. Is he using smudge? Or a different tool?

Any other tips? I'm a newbie painter and am not really sure what steps I can take to improve on this (even though I know it needs a ton of work!!!)
Thanks,
~Mechis
JackaL(px)
12-07-2003, 10:57 PM
Cool, i just started to learn to paint, did that tutorial around last week time, but i did the above one, not really finished but its here (http://reaction.nsr-net.co.uk/clouds.jpg).This was my first ever serious time with painting. After that i went on to look for a stockphoto of something i wanted to draw, preferably human as i want to practice drawing people before i venture off to other things. Found a picture of an eye and started doing this (http://reaction.nsr-net.co.uk/eyepainting.jpg) (hope you dont mind my linking)

Are you using a mouse? i did for mine, hopefully getting a wacom this wednesday though :D

Suppose practing is the best thing for it really :D
Mechis
12-07-2003, 11:41 PM
Cool. Looks pretty nice :) Did you just do that one cloud painting and move on, or did you do more? I'd like to stick with it for a bit and do it a few more times. Hopefully I'll improve!
JackaL(px)
12-08-2003, 08:01 AM
I just did the one, i felt i would rather draw something more controlled and with less freedom, i may be wrong in saying that clouds arent precise :P but i wanted to paint something with more boundarys, like that eye :D
leigh
12-08-2003, 10:35 PM
I think your colours and stuff are looking fine, but the biggest problem you have is that your clouds like kinda wet and heavy, as opposed to light and fluffy. Your edges are way too harsh - soften them up a lot.

In the end, it's all very well to follow tutorials and such, but you should also improvise on the steps shown when you can. Experiment with alternative ways of achieving the same effect.
Mechis
12-08-2003, 11:31 PM
I see what you're saying Leigh. In the tute, he says to use the sharp edged brush though, so that's what I was using. hmmm.... maybe I'll try it again with a fuzzy brush.

Thanks!
Stahlberg
12-09-2003, 04:47 AM
Hi Mechis, got your message. Thanks for trying my tute. :)

I looked at your image, and it looks about halfway there. I still think the hard-edged brush for such cumulus clouds is a good idea because they're usually sharp-edged, and you can more easily blur the edge later, than try to get a sharp edge out of a blurry one. But I think there are two things:
1. you should try for a smaller size airbrush near the edge, it should be about the same size as the hard-edged brush near the edge, then a bigger one a bit further in. Make sure pressure-sensitivity is on.
2. you should make another layer, repeating the whole process, almost completely covering the first layer but showing a thin margin around the edges. This is repeated several times, making the margin wider as you go 'inward', in my example I think I used 4 or 5. See this image:
http://www.androidblues.com/cloudb4.jpg
(Maybe you missed it cause it's on the right hand side of the page?)

About how I blur the sharp-edged brushing in the other cloud, you can use any method you prefer: the blur tool, the smudge tool, airbrushing intermediate tones across it, or a combination... to me the best way is the smudge with a hard-edged brush, because you can get a directional feeling to it, more control.
Mechis
12-09-2003, 05:46 AM
Wow. Thanks for the response. I will try again this weekend and post the results. Thank you so much for your help!
~Mechis
Mechis
12-09-2003, 06:32 AM
OK. I couldn't wait. I did a quick test and I think my results are better (it still needs work though...)

I just did a small test- so I just did a small ball type of cloud.
Please look here:
http://www.geocities.com/marcuslee80/wip.html

I tried establishing a light source coming down from the top left. I tried to use that to establish some depth to the cloud. I'm not sure if that comes through or not.

I think the ball definitely has a softer/nicer feel than my other pic. That's because I started using the smudge tool to try to blend colors. I used three layers for my little cloud.

Question- When painting with the white airbrush, do you paint out to the edge of the original cloud color? Or are you painting just inside of the edge and then blurring that to get a smooth gradation? It's a bit hard to tell from the pics because the colors are so similar.

Thanks!
~Mechis
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