Vector Genius Presents – A Photoshop Painting Tutorial by Sean Monagahn – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cover Art
Step 1
- Whenever working digitally, I always start off with a pencil sketch that I scan in as the basic structure of the piece. This sketch needs to be fairly well thought out since it’s going to become, essentially, the final product. After scanning it in, changes can be made, but, of course, the sketchiness and the original pencil texture of the scan, which I choose to incorporate into the work, won’t be available any longer.
Step 2
- I prefer to work dark to light, so after scanning, I throw on a very dark layer and change the blending options on that junk to multiply so that the scan shows through just barely enough to see it. From here on out, it’s really a process of building up layers, drawing everything out of the dark.
Step 3
- Building up…
Step 4
- …and up
Step 5
- Once I’ve finished the figures I outline those suckers to pop them out from the background, and add a little backlighting, not getting too light for the sake of keeping the dark atmosphere. I also work up the environment around them, as well as any extra props or gear in the frame, using the same dark-to-light method throughout.
Step 6
- If you google anything with the word “texture” next to it, you’re almost guaranteed to find a copious amount of usable images. Go ahead; try it. Anyway, for this piece, I found some sort of gritty stone texture, put it over everything, and switched the blending option to multiply (I’m a big fan of multiply). I didn’t think it was enough, so I duplicated the texture layer, and erased out the figures from it so they wouldn’t sink into the background too much.
Step 7
- Throw a title on there, add a little texture, put the logo in the corner, and Bob’s your uncle; you have a completed piece.
