OIL PAINTING IN DIGITAL MEDIUM
An experiment and exploration
I've been learning hwo to paint in oils at Watts Atelier and I just loved it's uniqeness and how organic the process was. Since I'm primarly a digital artist, I have always wanted to be able to emulate real oils in a digital medium, so I started exploring different possibilites of achieving similair feeling using Photoshop! Let me introduce you to the process behind it!
As I'm starting when painting on canvas, I create the underpainting which sets the foundation for the future opaque layers of paint. Underpainting is just a thin layer of warm paint that is glazed over with a focus on construction, proper placement of the subject's features and the overall composition. I tend to spend a lot of time figuring the sketch out, so I don't have to worry about problems with proportions or anatomy later on.
Once I'm done with the sketch, I let the paint 'dry'. just as I would do when painting in real oils. To simulate that, I create a new layer on top, so that the opaque paint layers do not interact with my underpainting. I start to introduce colors into the subject, focusing on warm/cool relationships and the form.
Here is what I would consider not a finished painting, but a finished sketch! I love leaving out empty areas to the canvas, so that the viewer can deconstruct the painting, looking at it's story from the underpainting stage to the final render - all in one picture.
Here is my another try, this time in portrait. I have tried to go even deeper with the little surface details, that give you an illusion of paint acutally sticking out form the canvas, like there is a very thick and wet layer of paint there. You can see it in the picture below!
