Work In Progress: Landing Platform Part 3

Now that the colors are chosen I realize that I don't have a good idea of the tonal quality. The bright coloration is confusing the issue so I desaturate the image in Photoshop. I have a strong drawing background so I play to that strength. Painter has excellent drawing brushes and I know I can get results with them.


In Painter I create a grayscale palette to work with. I want the full range of value so I make sure to sample from white and black and then do some mixing in the mixer palette to get a nice range. I save a color set from the mixer but there are far too many mid tones to deal with. After I have thinned my selections down a bit, I have a good grayscale palette. Now I can begin to work in value to make the image more dramatic.

My favorite brushes are the soft charcoal, square chalk, opaque smooth brush, and dull pastel pencil. With these I can achieve a good range of textures and edges. I also like to use the flat eraser to get a sharp edge.

The light comes from the right and slightly behind so I concentrate on deep shading and bright highlights. I also want some texture to show through on the platform with some reflected light so I save the deepest blacks for the darkest linework.


I also begin to work in a little texture and define my shadows. Leaving out the color at this stage lets me concentrate completely on value since the final image is going to have a limited palette. I can add the color in later when I have the composition and values right.

Next: Working The Details.