Painting Tutorial

Here is the start screen painting for Dissonance! The positioning of the title and buttons is not yet finalized.

If you're wondering about my painting process, there is a tutorial under the cut.

The Sketch

I don't bother to make fabulous art in this stage. The point is to get the idea down. This painting will be defined by depth and lighting. It will not be inked, so I can afford to keep it simple.

It's important to have a flat 50% grey layer under the sketch layer for the next step.

The Underpainting

An underpainting is like a sketch of where the lighting is going to go. It helps make sure the objects in the scene stand out next to each other.

Currently, I have four layers: the grey background, the sketch, one layer where I paint only in black, and one layer where I paint only in white.

I can mess with the lighting in this stage. Things I can change include the levels, brightness, contrast, or even the color of the shadows. (When I paint with watercolors, I paint in shadows first, usually in a dark blue, red, or purple. This type of thinking rubs off on me when I'm painting digitally, so sometimes I know what color I want to start with. Not this time, though. Thankfully, digital painting is very flexible, and I can fix colors later.)

Choosing Colors

Now, using layer blend modes, I choose what colors I want, each on a separate layer so I can adjust the colors as I go. I have a basic idea of the color scheme based on concept art and props.

Different layer modes are useful for different things. I usually use Color, Overlay, Multiply, and Screen. It's good to play around with the blending modes if you aren't familiar with how they work.

First, I block in the lighter colors with Color mode.

Next, I block in the dark surroundings in Multiply mode.

The color choice stage ends with lighting effects. I duplicated the underpainting, colored it purple, put it on Multiply mode, and moved it to the top of the layer stack. This makes deep purple shadows. I also added the glow effects on the memory shard.

I use a separate layer for each color and merge them at the end, when I am satisfied.

I save this as a brand new psd, flatten everything except the purple shadows layer, and now it's time to paint!

Refinement

Choosing existing colors, I paint over the sketch. I don't bother with a new layer unless I'm experimenting. The black outlines are painted over in colors that vary based on the lighting conditions. I alternate between two brushes: one that blends in with surrounding colors, and one that is purely additive.

Here's where you apply what you learn traditionally in an art class, like shading things differently based on lighting, material, etc.

I decided to scrap the original painting of the memory shard and paint it again, choosing colors straight from Lumi, but brighter than her. Each element of the shard is painted in separate layers.

Refinement is the part of the process which takes the longest amount of time. I focus on making the lighting look believable.

Final Tweaks

I added the monster eyes peaking out, a dark purple aura to emphasize the darkness, and the crumpled paper texture we use on all our props.

I also messed with the levels to increase contrast. The point here is to make the bright lights and deep darks stand out. It increases drama, and drama helps storytelling.

And now I have a beautiful painting for our start menu! I hope you find this tutorial useful, please leave a comment if you do!