Difficulty Level: Low/Medium - Average
Line-Art is not mine (Neon Dragon Art), CG is done by me.
If this is your first CG, and if you have not read Part I, go do so now. If you know basics to CGing but just looking for tips, then go ahead and continue reading.
The following are my own techniques that I discovered on my own through practice, however, I am 100% sure other people do the same techniques. Feel free to explore techniques or build off this during any time of the tutorial, it is the only way to develop your own personal style.
Say No to Flatness!
Depth, Highlights, and Shadows.
Sure cartoons do it all the time–flat colours and no fading shades, but you don’t have to. Instead, give it some life. To do so easier than you may think. If you ever took an art class during school this may bring back some memories.
Grab the Fuzzy Brush, Size 9. Zoom into the drawing (I will be using the dragon used in Part I for this tut) and begin putting shadows down, but keep the lines somewhat small! You’ll see why later on. As a general rule for me, I usually use the same colour used on the skin for shadows, because when the layer is set to multiply it will become darker. Make sure to do this on the “Shadows 1″ layer.
If you can’t figure out where to place shadows, create a lightsource by drawing an arrow or making a mark somwhere on the document to be the sun (on a new layer, you don’t want it there when it’s finished!). Think about how the dragons body would look if it were real — where bone structure would curve outwards (highlights would go here), and where parts of the body curve inward or are covered by other body parts (shadows go here).
There should be flat, boring, shadows now. Quick! We must fix this!
Simple smudge tool goes a long way.
The smudge tool will become your new best friend from now on. I’ve found it to give a very painterly and organic look when used properly. Use the same size brush, give or take a few pixels (whichever you feel comfortable working with), and begin to smudge the shadows you painted in to make them more natural looking. An example of what I mean is the second image on the right.
You will smudge almost everything for this entire CG. :)
Highlights - Give It Some Shine
Shadows alone won’t bring it to life. So it is important to highlight the appropriate areas. In this case my dragon is in a heavily shadowed environment, so highlighting won’t be seen in extreme amounts. The obvious place for highlights on this dragon though would be its claws and horns.
Use a size 5 Circle Brush, colour: #000000 (black), and begin colouring in the horns and claws. Don’t use the fuzzy brush! You want solid edges for horns and claws. Use size 3 for the smaller points on the claws.
To highlight the claws and horns, use a white or a very light grey. Grab a small Fuzzy Brush, then below that you should see a check box that says Fade Out, check it and set the Length to 30 px for horns, and about 40 px for longer claws. Brush downward so it fades out towards the points.
Claws, horns, rawrz.
For highlights on skin/scales, use a lighter colour than the skin colour and smudge it like you did for shadows. Try not to make it stand out a lot, it’s best when subtle and blends in well with the rest of the drawing.
Finished?
Sort of. These are just some in-depth techniques I use when CGing, so from here on it’s all up to you, the arist, on how far you want to take these newly acquired skills. Don’t be afraid to try things you’ve not heard of, the rules in art are meant to be broken. Of course it’s usually best to know the rules before breaking them…