tutorial tun der

8/6/2019 Tutorial Tun Der

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1Colour schemeBefore starting the

painting, I always devise

a colour scheme. I’ll stick

to this throughout the

painting process, adding

new tones or changing a

few as I go. Here I choose

a greenish brown for thebase of the background,

with some red, and

saturated green for all the

Melanie Delon shows you how to create ourenchantingly beautiful cover image…

aeries are one of the best

known inhabitants of the

fantasy realm, frequently

depicted in art and books.

Knowing the subject is important, but as

this is fantasy you can do whatever you

want with the basic faerie design. Here,

I’ll go for a very classical style: my faerie

will be naked with dragonfly wings, set

against a background of a large, magical

forest. My main faerie will be brought a

gift by another, smaller faerie. I usually

don’t think too much about the concept,

I prefer to let it unfold while painting,

which to me makes it more personal.

But if you need some help finding your

subject, it’s a good idea to do a little

sketch on paper.

I don’t focus too much on details at this

stage; these elements can be added later. Another thing which is important is the

story, and what you want to show in your

F

2Concept sketchNow I work on the sketch, placing the character and all the key elements, such as

the little faerie with the gift. I always do this step with both a hard Round brush and a

custom one, with a big diameter. I’m still not focusing on details here, instead doing the

illustration as a huge block, like in sculpture. You don’t need to do the sketch on a huge

canvas, a smaller one is better, and you can resize it when you are satisfied with the

composition and want to start detailing.

painting. I always try to draw the viewer’s

eyes to a specific element of the piece, and

that element will be more detailed, or

brighter than the rest of the painting.

Also, when I work on a “classical”

theme such as this, I try my best to bring

something special or unusual to it to give

it more of a personal touch and unique

twist. This can be a single detail, or a

funny colour scheme, for example.

I always do a lot of research for the

character’s anatomy and

for the

background.

Because faerie folk

have an essentially

human form, I

search for anatomy

photo references. It’s

the best way to learnanatomy properly and

avoid mistakes.

PAINTING AFAERIE SCENE

leafage. The character will be

colourful with some orange,

pink and tender yellow.

As you can see on the face

concept (right), I just lay

down in big blocks,

colours. The yellow/green

will be for the eyelids andthe lips will be very red, a

cherry-like colour, making

them very appealing.

November 200768

Workshops

MelanieDelonCOUNTRY:France

Melanie is a

freelanceillustrator

based in Paris.

She likes to

paint beautiful dreamy

fantasy characters. Her

past clients include

Norma Editorial.

www.melaniedelon.com

DVD AssetsThe files you need

are on your DVD in

the Melanie Delon folder

in the Workshops

section.

SOFTWARE: Painter X,

Photoshop CS3 (demos)

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In depth Painting a faerie scene

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3Sketching the detailsHere I start to sketch the fi rst

details, giving the main faerie a flower

crown. Again it’s more dots of colour than

real painting. For the crown, because I

want the whole piece to be very colourful,

I choose some very saturated colours, not

too dark and not to bright – midtones are

perfect. It’s easier to work the shading

with neutral tones as a base.

4The lightFinding the light source is really

important. I always try to put two

lightsources; a main one, which here will

come from the gift, and a second one,

more diffuse, which will come from the

forest. Light colours are pretty hard to

explain, and I usually go with my gut

feeling. Here I choose two primary colours – blue and yellow – for the light.

I also start the wings. I want them to be

almost transparent and iridescent.

5Final compositionI decide that the previous

composition is too boring, so I decide to

change it a bit, adding more background

on the left side. It’s important to let the

character breathe, so don’t hesitate to

add some ‘empty’ space around her if you

think this will be a good thing for the

composition. I also start to work on theforest, always in big blocks, adding the

tree trunks and the branch in the

foreground to balance the scene more.

6The faceNow it’s time to refine the face. I

want my faerie to be happy,

but also proud; her eyes will

be dark, and sparkling. I use a

lot of brushes to blend and

add details, but the main one

is a custom brush, very useful

to add softness and texture tothe skin. The eyebrows are

made with a Spackled brush.

7Refining the anatomyHer body needs some adjustment,

the arm and the hands are too big, so I

resize and erase some parts. I also finish

the blending with a Spackled brush, and

use the Blur tool to blur the result. I often

flip the canvas horizontally, which helps

me to find any little anatomy issues and

correct them quickly.

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Workshops

F r ee t r ans f or mC t r l / C md +T

Use this to modif y the size of a selectedar ea or a f ull lay er , r ight click upon it to enable y ou to f lip the element.

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11Texturing the

background To bring more depth of field and more

texture, I will add a lot little dots of light

or shadows with a custom brush. I do this

step on a different layer set to Soft Light.

Of course you can change the shape of the

brush, or mix a few different ones, which

will bring more colour variations to the

background. You can also duplicate the

background, flip it horizontally and set it

to Soft Light with a very low Opacity, to

add an extra touch of texture.

8The little faeries The main character is almost

complete, so I can start to do some work

on the little faeries who are fluttering

around her. They will be very small, so I

don’t need to push the details too far.

They will be naked with huge wings and

ears, and a funny haircut. I don’t want

their faces to be too realistic, so I decide to

make them look more like a cartoonish

doll than a real woman.

9The forest The forest will not be very detailed, because its not the main subject. I usually

start sketching the trees, and some wild branches here and there with a basic Round

brush, then blur the final result. Next I duplicate the layer and set it to Soft Light, with

a very low Opacity. After that step, I add some little dots of light with the custom brush

you can see on the screenshot. I repeat this stage several times. Once the forest looks

great, I duplicate the whole layer again and set it to Soft Light.

10DetailsI want to add some details on the

foreground branch. I use a Spackled

brush to paint little veins on the branch.

I follow the curve, repeating this several

times. I don’t need to over detail the tree,

and don’t paint each leaf one by one. It’s

good idea to create a custom brush with

a few painted leaves for this step. Once

the leafage is done, I add details and light

on only a few leaves, and blur the rest.

12 The wings The wings are probably the most important element for a faerie.

I want to make them very diffuse, colourful and a bit transparent. So

on the base, I paint little brush strokes of colour with a Spackled brush.

I erase some parts of the wings, and blur the tips. I create a lot of

texture layers until I’m satisfied with the result.

Mer ge l ay er s d ow n

C t r l / C md +E T his shor tcut is pr etty handy w hen y ou need to mer ge dow n lay er s

quick ly .

November 2007 71

In depth Painting a faerie scene

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15Magic glow

Now that I’m happy with the face,I have to add the final touch of light. For

this I pick a very bright violet colour, and

on another layer with a custom brush

(you could use a hard Round edge with a

very low Hardness) I lay down the glow.

I prefer using brushes to do this than a

filter, because I don’t want to have a

perfect glow, little variations are great and

always produce a more believable result.

17Final step The illustration is now complete. After merging all the layers together, I duplicate

the final illustration and set it to Soft Light (again with a very low Opacity). This will

bring a bit more light and colour intensity.

November 200772

Workshops

The secrettexturingbrushThis is another custom

brush I use for the

background, wings also

and sometimes skin. I

have made it in Painter,

and it brings a lot of

colour variations to

anything. I usually paint

large brushes strokes

with it and set the layer

to Soft Light. I used it

here to paint tree trunks.

13Painter stageI usually switch to Painter very

often during the painting process. I find

it very useful to fix, blend, and add

texture. With an Oil Palette Knife brush,

I paint lightly upon the wings (on a new

layer) to unify the whole texture.

14The tiaraI want the tiara to be very delicate,

almost like a gold web, with a little leaf

design incorporated into it. I use a basic Round brush set to Shape Dynamic. This

brush is pretty handy when you want to

add little details to an image. To make the

gold appear very shiny, I pick a very

saturated yellow tone, and add some dots

of light here and there and slightly blur

the whole element.

I also add a more colour intensity to

the flowers with the same brush

technique I used to add more texture to

the background in step 11.

16Checking stageNow the illustration is almost

complete. I usually do the last bits of

blending in Painter, and blur some parts

in Photoshop. It’s really important to have

everything well integrated, so don’t

hesitate to add more background colour

to the character if you think that you need

it. I also add some faerie powder and

finish the little faeries.

T he Bl ur t ool R

T o blur something quick ly . I use it w ith a low Str ength ( 20%) and w ith a basic Round br ush w ith Har dness 100%.

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