2 Dec 2018, 04:35

@nyrrylcadiz Aww, thank you so much, Nyrryl! I might make a video when I have some free time 🙂

Before I developed this process, tried to do a 'digital' watercolor, but it was never really quite convincing or satisfying. But I love the flexibility of digital, so I figured I would combine the two! I started out only fixing flubs I made while painting, then really changed my outlook after needing to make changes after class crits or version my art for multiple uses at work.

By painting traditionally first, in addition to being fun, it lays the groundwork and produces the quintessential watercolor texture and accidents computers can't yet. I usually work in color from the beginning too, so that also lets the paint do funky cool stuff computers have yet to learn. With that done, I then have the freedom to do whatever I want 🙂 Once I really screwed a characters face up real bad near the end of a painting, repainted it traditionally, then stiched it in and only I knew.

I scan in additional textures and blooms which are what push it over the edge in my opinion and make it more convincing. I also stumbled upon a perfect speckly PS airbrush that makes editing watercolor really nice. Blending modes are also crucial to this kind of process. I guess I separate it in my mind like the traditional step as the painting step and the digital part of this like photoediting.

This piece has more of a digital painting feel to it since it all digital color and lots of textures, but it's possible to hide smaller edits l. I always try to keep the overall watercolor magic. One day, I'll make it completely seemless! It helps to have experience painting traditionally to be able to make PS do what you want. As far as I know, the only way (so far) to get that authentic look is to put authentic scans into the image while still taking advantage of digital tools.

Some artists do 'digital watercolor' work which is really cool and amazing, but the edges never quite look right for traditional paint. They might fool you from a distance but a little closer and you can tell. I keep edges forever in mind whenever I take a piece from the WC stage to the PS stage. The transparency and diverse attributes of pigments makes it hard for programers to crackk completely.

All this technical froufrou is why I have to do traditional sketches to keep my sanity 😂, although I end up scanning and tweaking those to post too lol! Sorry for rambling! Once I get started about watercolor I just go!