The Beginner’s Guide to Digital Illustration in Adobe Photoshop - Learn to create amazing 2D art

1. Intro: Hello everybody and welcome. This is Israeli strategy and molar beta. We are 2D and 3D artists with our 13 years of professional experience, we have worked with clients from all around the world. And we have teamed up to bring you these digital illustration class. Israel is the one who created the illustration and basically the whole class. And I'm just helping out with the English translation. Now, in this class, you're going to learn how to create beautiful digital illustrations in Adobe Photoshop. And we're going to cover the whole process from creating the character structure, sketch, and line art, to coloring, adding shadows, highlights, and a few visual effect. By the end of this class, you will have a solid understanding of the whole digital illustration workflow in Adobe Photoshop. You will also be able to create the illustration that you can see on your screen right now. The information you're going to learn in this class can be applied to any other illustration that you work in the future. So by the end of this class, you will be able to create basically any illustration that you want within the same style. This class is for anyone who wants to take their 2D skills to the next level. Now, the techniques we teach our very easy to follow and can be applied to any other project you'll work in the future. So no matter if you are a beginner or an intermediate student, you will be able to follow along and create your own 2D illustration. In this class, we're going to use Adobe Photoshop for our main project. But the techniques you're going to learn will also work on any other two, the software. Get ready. And I will see you inside. 2. Project overview: Hello class and welcome back. Before we start, I would like to go over the project that we're going to be creating in this class. We're going to create the illustration that you can see on your screen right now. We're going to cover the full process, starting with an empty document. And we're going to work our way up to creating these beautiful spider went to the illustration. We're going to start by creating the character structure, making sure we get the correct anatomical proportions. Now, the structure is basically our character, but made with only basic shapes, like circles, rectangles, and triangles. Then we're going to draw the character sketch using the structure later we just created as our guide. The sketch is also very important because that's where we are going to add all the retail cell we're going to need in our illustration. After that, we're going to create the line art, making sure every single stroke is perfect. Then we're going to apply the base colors. And at this point, our illustration, we'll start taking shape. Later. We will add shadows and highlights to create volume and make our Illustrator equation look even better. We're going to finish by adding a Neon effect and creating a simple but effective background to make our illustration more interesting. And as I said, we're going to cover the full process in great detail. And that means that you're going to be able to follow along and create your own spiral Irwin to the illustration. In this class, we use Adobe Photoshop. But the techniques you are going to teach you a very easy to learn and they can be used in any other to the obligation that you have. Now remember that you can always use the discussion section of this class to ask questions or share your own illustrations. All you have to do is to go to the discussion section of this class. And here you have the different options to either start a conversation, ask a question, or share a project. Then you have to give a small description and add your own illustrations. We're going to be there to give you personalized feedback. Go ahead and download the Cloud resources, and most importantly, get ready to learn a lot. So let's get started and I will see you in the next lesson. 3. Photoshop shortcuts we will use in this class: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, I'm going to show you the different shortcuts that we are going to use to create our illustration. So let's start. As you can see, I have a document opened in Adobe Photoshop. Here on the left I have a set of shortcuts. And these are some of the shortcuts that we're going to use in this class. Now, shortcuts are very important because they are going to help us to work faster and more efficiently. And as you can see right now, I have the Direct Selection Tool selected. And that's why the icon of the cursor is the same as the icon of the stool because these tool is selected. Now let's see what happens if I press the B key on my keyboard. You can see that the icon changed and also the selected tool changed. Now, this tool is selected because the beak is the shortcut for the brush tool. And now that it is selected, I can use it. Now the other tool that we're going to use very often is the eraser tool. And the shortcut for the eraser tool is the lyric E on our keyboard. I'm going to press E. And right now you can see that these tool get selected the eraser tool. And now I can use the eraser tool if I need to. I can press B on my keyboard again. Now, the brush tool is going to be selected so I can use it. I can press again E on my keyboard. And now the eraser tool is selected so I can use it. So B is for the brush tool and E is for the eraser tool. Now another tool that we're going to use often is the Lasso selection tool. The shortcut for the Lasso selection tool is the letter L on our keyboard. I'm going to press L. And you can see that now I have the Lasso selection tool selected. I can use this tool to make freehand selections like this one. I'm going to deselect that selection by going to Select, and I'm going to use the de-select command. Perfect. Now another tool that we're going to use very often is the eyedropper tool, which is going to help us to copy the colors within our Canvas. Right now you can see I have the lasso tool selected. But if I press the I key on my keyboard, now we have the eyedropper tool selected. And now you can see the selected color is black. But with the eyedropper tool, I can change this color by just clicking on my canvas. As you can see, the color changes over here. When I click on the canvas using the eyedropper tool. These are the four tools and we're going to use the most when we work with illustrations in Adobe Photoshop. B for the brush tool, E for the eraser tool, L for the Lasso selection tool, and I for the eyedropper tool. Make sure you learn these for shortcuts because they are the most important ones when it comes to creating illustrations in Adobe Photoshop. Now let me go to my layers. I'm going to turn off the view for this one. I'm going to turn the viewer for the other one. Because here I have other shortcuts that are also very important. Now, the first one is the backspace. By pressing the backspace on our keyboard, we're going to be able to delete things within our Canvas and also within our layers manager. Right now you can see I have four different layers. One with these illustration at the bottom, two text layers, and another layer which is empty. I'm going to use the brush tool. I'm going to press the B key on my keyboard. I'm going to create some lines, any random lines. Now, you can see this layer is selected and these layer contains those lines that I just created. So with this layer selected, I'm going to press the backspace on my keyboard. And as you can see, the whole layer disappeared within our layers manager. And also the contents of that layer disappeared from our Canvas because we just deleted it. I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to create some lines again. Like so. I'm going to make sure this layer is selected. And I'm going to press the backspace again and again, the layer disappeared and also all of its contents. Now I'm going to create another layer because there's another use for the backspace. I'm going to paint again some random lines like that. I'm going to use the Lasso selection tool. Remember the shortcut is L on your keyboard. I'm going to make a selection like that. And if I press the backspace on my keyboard, you will notice that something different happened this time. If you go to the Layers panel, you can see that our layer is still there and part of the contents of that layer are still here on my canvas. But this time, what Gatorade is, what was within the selection area. I'm going to make another selection using the Lasso selection tool. Like so. I'm going to press again the backspace on my keyboard. And the same happened. And the reason for that is because when we use the backspace and we have an active selection, what is going to be the lady is only what is within that active selection. But if we don't have an active selection, the whole layer that we have selected is going to disappear. I'm going to deselect the selection. I'm going to go to select. And I'm going to use the de-select command. Now. I'm going to press again the backspace on my keyboard. And as you can see, the whole layer this appeared and also the contents of that layer. Let's move on to the next shortcut. And it is Command J. And we're going to use Command G when we want to group layers together. And what we have to do is to select one or more layers. In this case, I'm going to select all of these layers. I'm going to use the command G shortcut and see what's going to happen over here. I'm going to press Command J. And now you can see we have a new group. If I click here to expand it, you can see that this group contains all of our layers. So I'm going to take all of these layers out. I'm going to delete this group. So remember, all I have to do is to select the layer or group that I want to delete. And I'm going to press the backspace on my keyboard. And that's going to delete that group. And I'm going to add the same, but this time I'm just going to select these two layers. And I'm going to use the Command and G shortcut. As you can see now we have a new group. I'm going to expand it. And this group contains these two text layers. Now let's talk about the field command. And for that I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to take all of these layers out of this group. I'm going to delete this group. I'm going to select this layer here, and I'm going to use the Fill command. You can see the shortcut is Shift F5. I'm going to press and hold shift on my keyboard. And then I'm going to press F5. You can see we have a message here and it is going to ask us where we want to do with these. We're command. To start, we can use either the foreground color, the background color. Select any other color, use a parent or any other of these options. Usually you want to use either the foreground or the background color. I'm going to use the foreground color. You can see right now the foreground color is set to purple. And you can set the mode and the opacity. For now, normal and 100% opacity is going to be okay. I'm just going to click, Okay. Now we can see our layer get filled using the foreground color. I'm going to change this color. I'm going to use yellow. I'm going to click Okay. I'm going to use again the fill command. Remember the shortcut is Shift F5. I'm going to click Okay. And now our later GOT field using the foreground color, which is now yellow. I'm going to delete this layer, and I'm going to create another one because the fill command is also going to work if we have an active selection, I'm going to use the Lasso selection tool. Remember the shortcut is L on your keyboard. And I'm going to create a shape like this. And I'm going to use the field command. Make sure that you have these empty layer selected. And now we can press Shift F5 and I'm going to click Okay. Now they fill command, worked again, but this time IT field only what we had selected. I'm going to deselect everything. I'm going to go to select. And I'm going to use the de-select command. Now let's talk about the free transform command and the shortcut is Command T. So make sure you have a layer selected. In this case, I have this shape layer selected. And I'm going to press Command T. And now we can use the free transform option. I can increase or decrease the size of the selection. I can do basically anything that I wanted to do to transform this layer. I can press the Enter key on my keyboard. And now this layer GAD transform. Again, the shortcut is Command T, as you can see there. And if you press it by accident, you can just press the Escape key on your keyboard. That's going to cancel the command. And finally we have the hue and saturation command, which is Command U. Again, you can see that I have this layer selected. And if I press Command U, you will see that we have a new window here. This is going to help us to modify the hue, saturation and lightness values for these layer. I'm going to press, okay. And again, I can press again Command U to bring the hue and saturation option. I can modify the hue, saturation and the lightness of the layer that I have selected. I'm going to click Okay. And now I can delete this layer because I don't need it anymore. I'm going to make sure the layer is selected. I'm going to press the backspace on my keyboard. And those are the most important shortcuts that we're going to use whenever it comes to making illustrations in Adobe Photoshop. That's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 4. Sketching the character's structure: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to draw the characters structure. So let's start. Let's begin by creating a new document. I'm going to go to File New, and I'm going to select any preset. It doesn't matter. I'm just going to change the dimensions. I'm going to use 2 thousand by 2 thousand. I'm going to make sure that this is set to pixels. I'm going to set the resolution to 300. Here. We can't change the name for our document. I'm just going to call it illustrate. Imagine for now. I'm going to click on Create so we can have our new document. Now, all I have to do is to create a new layer. So I'm going to click here and I'm going to rename this. And we're going to call it structure. Now, I'm going to make sure that the brush tool is selected. I'm going to press B on my keyboard. And now I'm going to go to the top left corner. And I'm going to click here to open up my brushes so I can select the one that I need. I'm going to make sure that the general brush folder is selected and opened. And I'm going to select these brush right here. And I'm going to reduce the size. I'm going to set it to around seven. I'm going to make sure that the hardness is set to 100%. Now I'm going to go to the options at the top. As you can see here, we can set the opacity, flow and smoothing for our brush. I'm going to make sure the opacity is set to 100%. I'm going to make sure that the flow is set to 50%. I'm going to make sure that this smoothing is set to 20%. And I'm going to make a quick test just to see how this brush is going to behave. And I like it. I'm going to use these brush to start creating the structure for our sketch. I'm going to start by drawing a simple circle. This is going to be the base for the head. Then I'm going to draw a line at the center, which is going to be for the notes. And I'm going to draw two different lines, which are going to be where we're going to have the eyes. Then I'm going to draw this side of the head. I'm going to continue on the left side creating the jar. And I'm going to continue with the jaw on the right side. As you can see, this head is going to be it just a little bit. And then I'm going to refine those lines so we can see them better. And then I'm going to continue drawing the neck. As you can see these ys a simple neck. And then I'm going to continue drawing the torso. As you can see, we are creating very simple lines. And I'm just going to continue. Now. I'm going to create the shoulder. I'm going to make a small circle here. This is where the arm is going to come out from. And I'm going to make the sketch a little smaller because now we don't have enough space. Now it is smaller and we can continue. And as you can see, this is a very rough sketch and this is very important. At this stage. I am not trying to make it look pretty. And I'm trying to do here is to lay the foundation for these character. And I'm paying close attention and I'm making sure that I draw the correct anatomical proportions. And that's what is actually very important at this stage of the process, that you get the correct anatomical proportions. And as you can see, I just finished the leg, but I want it to be a little larger. So what I'm going to do is to use the Lasso selection tool. I'm going to select the leg area. Then I'm going to use the transform command. And I'm going to make these leg a little larger. Now, the leg is the size that we needed to be. And I'm going to use the transform command again, and I'm going to rotate it a little. Now I'm going to redraw the pelvis area. I'm going to fix these parts of the leg and I'm going to create than the and now I can continue drawing the lower leg. Now, as I said previously, I am making sure that I create this character with the correct anatomical proportions. However, you have to take into account that we are drawing a cartoon character. So these proportions are not going to be the exact same as the proportions for a realistic character. As you can see, the head is way too big for the rest of the body. But again, we are creating a cartoon character. And as you can see, I completed creating the lower leg, the foot, and the characters. But now I'm going to go to my different colors. And I'm going to change the color for the brush. I'm going to use a red color. And this is very important. And you're going to see why. I'm going to create the other leg. And as you can see, these leg is red. Now, the reason why I used a different color is we don't get confused with the other lines. At this point. We have a lot of different lines. And using different colors is going to help us to tell the different parts of the character apart. Now, I'm going to continue creating this leg. And then I'm going to create the foot. And for this, you can use any color that you want. Right now I'm using red, but you can use any other color. The important thing is that you can tell apart the different lines. Now I'm going to move on to the arm. Again. You can see how these different color is going to help us to tell the different elements of this character apart, especially when we have different lines overlapping. You can see we can tell where we have the arm and where we have the rest of the body. If we were using the same color, we wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Now, I'm going to change the color for the brush again. I'm going to use a blue color. And I'm going to use this color to create the chimney. As you can see, I'm creating just a basic cube. And this is going to be insulin. And this is where our character is going to be sitting on. I'm just going to create the base. And now the chimney is complete. With that. We have asked a completed creating the illustrations, structure sketch. I really like how it looks so far. And that's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching. And I will see you in the next lesson. 5. Sketching the character: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to draw the illustration sketch. Let's start. Alright. So this is where we left in our previous lesson. As you can see, we have completed drawing the illustrations structure sketch. And now we're going to create the main sketch. Now, the main difference between these two sketches is that for the one that we haven't really created, we used only basic shapes. You can see we use different circles, some cubes, and some triangles. And in general, we used only basic shapes because all we wanted to do was to create the illustrations structure. And part of that was to create a character with the correct pose and also with the correct proportions. But we didn't add any details to these character. For the next kit, the main sketch, while we're going to do, is to use this sketch that we have already and create a new sketch. But this time we're going to add some additional details. So let's do that. And what I'm going to do is to create a new layer. I'm going to click here to create a new one. And I'm going to call it sketch. Now, I'm going to select the previous layer where we have our sketch. And I'm going to reduce its opacity to only 25%. And that way, we can still see the sketch, but it is not going to get in our way when we draw the new one. Now I'm going to select again the new layer. Now I'm going to make sure that the color is set to black. And I'm going to draw a few lines just to make sure this brush is the way I want. As you can see, it is working the way I want. So now I can start drawing the new sketch. Now, I'm going to use the sketch that we have below as a reference. And I'm going to start drawing the new one. As you can see, I'm following the same shapes. But this time I'm going to add more details. As you can see, I am creating again the lines for the eyes and the line for the head. I'm going to continue with the neck. I'm just going to go ahead and draw the rest of the body. And here you can see I'm following the sketch that we have below. But this time I'm creating more details. Like here. I'm creating the characters just like so. I can continue with the rest of the body. I'm going to create the stomach. As you can see, I'm using the sketch that we have below as a reference. Now I'm going to continue with the back. You can see it is actually very easy to do because we already have the foundation, which is the character structure. And we're using it just to create these drawing. I'm going to create the arm. You can see it is very easy to do because we already have the structure. And all we have to do is to create the character's body. I'm going to continue with the lower arm. And with the other part of the arm. As you can see, I'm following the sketch that I have below, but I'm making sure that this sketch, the new one that I'm creating, has more detail. I'm going to continue with the hand and I can continue with the rest of the body. Let's create the legs. And here I want to say something that is actually very important. If you want to become an illustrator and create character illustrations like this one. It is actually very important that you learn the basics of character anatomy. Knowing the basics of anatomy is going to help you a lot because it's going to make your job a lot easier. If you know the correct proportions of each part of the body. It is going to become very easy to draw any character in any posts that you want. As you can see for me, it is actually very easy to create these kinds of drawings because I know the basics of character anatomy. And the same is going to apply to you. If you learn the basics of character anatomy, you will find that it's actually very easy to create these kind of drawings. Now what I'm going to do is to turn off the structural layer so we can see how these other sketch piece coming out. As you can see, it's coming out really, really well. And I like it. I'm going to turn back on the other layer and we can continue creating these sketch. Now, something that is very useful when you're creating an illustration is to flip the canvas from time to time. And this is because when we are creating an illustration or a drawing, we get used to what we see. And we didn't see the imperfections if we are looking always at the same thing. But when we flip the canvas, we're going to be able to see those imperfections are a lot easier. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go to the menus at the top. I'm going to go to image. Then I'm going to go to Image Rotation. And I'm going to select flip canvas horizontal. And now we can see the same image, but this time it's flipped horizontally. And now I'm going to turn back off the view for the structural layer so we can see only our sketch. I'm just going to zoom out a little bit because that also helps. And as you can see, this looks really, really good. And then this process is going to help you a lot because you're going to be able to see the imperfections are lot easier. Here I can see something that I can change. I'm going to raise these parts of the leg. I'm going to redraw it. I'm just going to make it better. Like so. And I can continue looking for some other imperfections. If I don't find any other imperfections, I can continue working on the sketch. I'm going to refine some of these lines. If I need to delete or erase something, I can do it very easily. Like so. I can continue refining some of these other lines. I'm also going to redraw this other leg. All I want to do here is to make sure that this sketch looks as best as possible. I'm going to do the same with these other ones. Once I have completed making all the changes I need, I can go back to image, image rotation and select Flip Canvas Horizontally. Again. We can continue working on the sketch. I'm going to turn back on the visibility for the structural layer so we can see our reference. I'm going to make sure that the sketch layer is selected. I'm going to create a new one. And in this layer, I'm going to create this chimney. I'm going to use a different color, as you can see here. I'm using red. And I'm going to create these chimney. As you can see, this is very easy to do. We're not adding too many details. All we're doing here is to create the basic sketch. I'm going to move this layer down in the hierarchy. And I'm going to turn back off the visibility for the structural layer. And now I'm going to add some other details that are going to be very important in our illustration. I'm just going to create them here. You can see, I'm just making a quick sketch. I am not adding too many details. I'm trying to do here is to create the base for the line art. Because while we're doing here, these lines that we are creating here, I'm not going to be in our final illustration. This is just the sketch. As you can see, this is coming out really, really well. That's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching, and I will see you in the next lesson. 6. Adding details to the sketch: Hello glass, and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to create some additional details to the sketch. So let's start. So this is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, our sketch is almost complete. All we need to do is to add some details like the eyes, the nose, and some elements of the characters custom. Now, I can do these into different ways. The first one is to keep the sketch that we have already and create those details. I will need to erase some of these lines and create new ones. But I can use the sketch that I have. The other way is to create a new layer and create a complete linear sketch. Now, I'm going to take the second option and I'm going to create a new layer and a new sketch, because that way I'm going to be able to create every single line again. And I'm going to be more careful about each of these lines that I create. Our sketch is going to be much better than this one. And we will also have those new details. Those are the two ways in which we can do it. But you can select the way you want. If you want to keep this sketch and just modify it, you can do it. As I said, I'm going to create a new sketch. I'm going to start by creating a new layer. I'm going to call it sketch two. And I'm going to select the first sketch. I'm going to reduce its opacity to twenty-five percent. I'm going to select the second sketch layer. Here. I'm going to create the new lines or the new sketch. As you can see, I'm using the same brush that I was using previously. I'm just going to create these new sketch. Here. I'm going to add a hoodie. Because this character is going to be wearing a hoodie. You can see I'm taking into account the image that we have below. I know where I have to place these hoodie. I'm just going to continue with the rest of the body. Again. As you can see, I'm using the sketch that have below as a reference. So I know where I have to place these different lines. I'm going to continue with the head. And as you will see, sometimes I erased some lines and I make them again. And that's something that you want to do as well because sometimes the first drug that you place is not going to be perfect. All you have to do is to erase it and do it again. Now I'm going to continue here with the hoodie, like so. And I'm going to erase these lines here. I'm going to make him Again like that. I'm going to continue with the chest area. As you can see this time, I'm making these lines better. And the sketch is going to look better in general. And I'm going to continue with the stomach. I'm going to add also the arm. You can see I'm trying to make these lines as best as possible because this is going to be our final sketch. Even though these lines are not going to be in our final illustration, because this is only the sketch. We want these lines to be as best as possible because this is going to be our guide when we create the line art. I'm going to continue with the leg and the foot. With the other leg and also the other foot. As you can see, this is really easy because we already have our guidelines behind. And now I'm going to go to the face area. I'm going to turn back on the structural layer so I can see the different guidelines. And with these guidelines, I can create the eyes. I'm going to create the other eye right over here. And these eyes are just like a drop of water. You can see they are very easy to make. And I'm going to use the Lasso selection tool. I'm going to select that. I am going to use the free transform command to make this a bigger. Now, I'm going to create the nose. Now we can move on and we can start creating the different details to the custom of this character. I'm going to change the color a little bit. I'm going to use a gray color. I'm going to start creating those details. You can see we're creating the different details to the Custom. I'm going to change the color back to black. I'm going to continue with these details. And this is very important because this is going to be the base for our line art. Now since this is a character that already exist, what I'm doing here is to look at references. I can place all of the important details. I don't want to miss any D Does that are very relevant to these characters. Like the details here on the arm and all of the details in general. I'm going to move to the feed area. I'm going to create the details on these food. Then I'm going to move on to the other foot. I'm going to add those details as well. As you can see, this is very easy, especially if you are looking at references. Now, I'm going to create the hand. This is going to be a simple hand. It is just going to be resting on these chimney. So I'm just going to draw a hand and the fingers. I'm going to raise some of those lines. I'm going to do it again. Like so. And this is very important, as I said previously, if you're on like the strokes that you created, all you have to do is to erase those strokes and create them. Again. I'm going to raise this hand again because I don't quite like how it looks. So all I'm doing here is to add the hand. And once I like how it looks, I can move on to the other areas. I'm just going to raise that part. Now. I like how it looks. So I'm going to flip the canvas horizontally again. Now, you can see that this is going to help us because we are going to be able to see some details that we missed or some imperfections. I'm going to round this area a little bit. I'm going to erase the excess lines. As you can see. Now, this looks much better than previously. And I'm going to continue by modifying these. I am going to select it using the Lasso selection tool. And then I'm going to use the free transform command. Once they've reached transform command is active, I'm going to click on this button here. This is going to allow me to modify my selection using a grid. Once I liked the shape, I'm going to click on these checkmark here. The transformation is applied. At this point, I can flip the canvas horizontally again. This is how our sketch is going to look. I like it. I think we did an excellent job. That's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching. And I will see you in the next one. 7. Cleaning up the sketch: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to clean up our sketch and we're also going to add some additional details. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And I'm going to start by cleaning up the sketch. I'm going to use the eraser tool. I'm going to erase these lines that I have here because I don't need them anymore. And I'm also going to modify the neck and the back area. I'm going to raise those lines there. I'm going to make these character alleles lemur. Now you can see this looks way better than previously. I'm going to use the Lasso selection tool to select that line. I'm going to use the free transform command to modify these line. Like so. As you can see, now, this looks way better. Now I'm going to select the whole character, including the chimney. And I'm going to shrink them down. I'm going to use the free transform command. I'm going to shrink these down because as you can see, the foot at the bottom is not complete. So I'm just going to make this smaller. And I think I have to make it even smaller. So I'm going to select those layers again. I'm going to shrink them down even more. And now I can erase these foot here and I can redraw it. Now. This is what I've been telling you in the previous lessons. Sometimes we will have to erase some of the work that we have done previously and redo it. And it is not a big deal. The important thing is that when you do it, is to make the sketch better, the illustration better. So that's what I'm doing here. Now I'm going to work on the chimney. I'm going to get closer here. And I'm going to add some details to these chimney because right now all we have here is a cube. I'm going to go back here. I'm going to flip the canvas so I can see these from the other side. Now. I'm going to continue modifying these character a little bit like so. You can see I'm cleaning up all of these lines that are way too thick. Now I'm going to move on to the fit. And I'm going to redo the back of this food. That's going to look better. I like it better that way. I'm going to go back and flip the image again so we can see it from these other side. Now what I'm going to do is to work on the chimney. I'm going to reduce the opacity for this layer. And I'm going to select the layer where we have our sketch. I'm going to redraw the chimney, but this time I'm going to make all of the details that we need to add. These looks better. You can see I'm adding some cracks. And I'm just going to make this chimney look way better. As you can see, I'm adding some imperfections to the chimney. I'm just going to draw these lines. Like I said, I'm adding some cracks and some imperfections in general. This is going to make it look way better. We have to do now is to continue adding details to these chimney. I'm going to continue with this other side. We're going to add more details. As you can see, this is going to look way better than previously. I'm going to redraw this side. Like so. And I like how it's coming out. I'm going to add some more cracks here. Now I can turn off the chimney layer and I can continue working on this sketch layer. As you can see, now, the sketch looks way better than previously. All of the work that we have done is paying off. Now I'm going to do is to add another small detail here, which is some kind of liquid. I'm not sure how these liquid is called. But if you know about Spider-Man, You may have seen these kind of material. All I'm doing here is to add some kind of thick liquid. I'm going to zoom in just to add some more details to these character. I'm going to refine the hair and also the face. I'm going to zoom out. And as you can see, now, this looks way, way better. And as far as I can tell, this sketch is ready. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching. And I will see you in the next one. 8. Drawing the line art: Hello glass and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to draw the line art. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, our sketch is complete. Now we have all of the details that we need. And what we're going to do now is to create the line art. I'm going to start by creating a new layer. And I'm going to call it line art. I'm going to select the sketch layer and I'm going to reduce its opacity to about twenty-five percent. And I'm going to select again the line art layer. I'm going to use the brush tool and I'm going to make sure that the color is set to black. I'm going to start creating the line art. Now I'm going to create thicker lines. I'm going to change the size of the brush. I'm going to use ten. The lines are thicker. They have to do here is to follow the sketch that I have below. I'm going to undo everything because I wanted to make sure that these lines are in the way I need them. I'm going to continue with this other part of the hoodie. And then I'm going to continue with the face. And here I'm going to rotate the canvas just a little bit. So it's easier for me to create these other line like so. I can continue working on these line art. As you can see, I'm making some of these lines thicker. I'm going to continue here with the neck. I'm going to continue with the chest. As you can see in this is very easy because all we're doing here is to use the sketch that we have below as a reference. And we're just raising those lines. The only difference is that this time the lines are going to be thicker. I'm going to continue down with the stomach. I'm going to add more details here. Now. I'm going to continue with the arm. I'm just following the sketch that we have below. All I'm doing here is to create those lines, making sure that they look very smooth. Now, I'm going to create the hand. I'm just going to create these different fingers. Like so. I'm going to refine these lines here on the hoodie. If I turn off the sketch layer, you can see how this is coming out. I can flip the canvas horizontally to make sure these looks the way I want. I'm going to continue by drawing the back. Now for this one, I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to move it below our line art layer. And I'm going to create the back. I'm going to do it again. And I'm going to erase these parts of the line here because it is overlapping with the hand. And then I can join the two layers together. I'm going to select the line art and then new layer. I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Merge Layers. Like so. Now let me zoom back in and I'm going to work on the legs now. I'm going to continue with these other ones. Like so. As you can see, this is very easy. Now I'm going to continue with the back of the leg and also with the foot. As you can see, all I'm doing here is to create these lines that I have already in the background. But I'm making them a little thicker because this is the line art. And these lines that we're creating are actually going to be in our final illustration. And that's why we are paying a little bit more attention to these lines than what we did with the sketch. Now let's continue with this other foot. Like so. And now we can continue here with the rest of the details of this illustration. Like these too many. Now, this chimney is not complete. As you can see, we still are missing some details like the breaks that create the chimney and a few more details. But don't worry about it. We're going to create those details in this part of the process. In the liner process. We could have done it while we made the different sketches. But there's no problem. We're going to do it here. As you can see, I'm adding some cracks, the same ones that we added previously in the sketch. And this time I'm just creating the line art for those cracks. And I'm going to continue on the side of the chimney. Like so. Now I'm going to add these other crack. This one is bigger. Like so. I'm going to continue here on the left. As you can see, this is very easy. Now I'm going to turn off the view for the sketch layer to see how the liner looks. And I like it. So I'm just going to continue working on these chimney. I'm going to add a lender. And I'm going to flip the canvas just to make sure that these looks good. I like it. I'm just going to modify these lines here. I'm going to make them thicker. Also, these one like that, that's going to look better. I'm going to flip the canvas again. I'm going to continue. I'm going to turn back on the sketch layer. And I'm going to continue adding details this time on the face. As you can see, edges added the eyes, and I'm going to add the notes like that. As you can see, this looks good. I'm going to flip the canvas again just to see how this looks from the other side. I'm going to flip it back. Perfect. Actually, I'm going to remove the face. I'm going to use the Lasso selection tool. I'm going to erase all of those pixels. I'm going to redraw the face. I'm just going to create a smooth line there. Like so. I'm going to connect these lines. I'm going to get closer. That's going to look better. And now I'm going to create again the face. I'm going to make the eyes. Now, these other ones, like so denotes perfect. As you can see, the line art is almost complete. All we need to do is to create the bricks for the chimney. But we're going to do that in the following lesson. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 9. Finishing the line art: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to continue creating the line art. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And in this one, we're going to create the line art for the brakes. So what I'm going to do is to get closer here to achieve the area. And I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to call it guides because I need some guides for the brakes. And I'm going to create some really quick lines. These are going to be the guides for the breaks that we're going to create. Like so. Now I'm going to erase all of these different lines. And since I have this in a separate layer where I'm going to do is to reduce the opacity of this layer. I'm going to use twenty-five percent. And I'm going to create another layer and I'm going to call it breaks. I'm going to start drawing these different bricks. As you can see. All I'm doing here is creating different blocks. And I'm making sure that there is a small offset in-between these different bricks. I'm trying to make them a little different from each other. Like so. Now I can continue on this other side. I'm just going to continue creating these different bricks. As you can see, this is actually really, really easy to do. All I'm doing here is creating these different blocks. Like so. I'm just going to continue with the ones at the bottom. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just make sure that it looks like we have breaks there. I like how it looks. And I'm just going to turn off the guides to see how this looks. And I like it. I think that this looks really good. Now I'm going to flip the canvas horizontally to see how these looks. Perfect. I'm going to select these lines here on the left, and I'm going to rotate them a little bit. Now, this was very easy because remember we have these different breaks as a separate layer. This was really easy to do. I'm going to select the first liner layer and I'm going to clean it up using the eraser tool. I'm going to erase the lines that iron it and I'm going to add any other lines if I feel that we have to make some of these lines a little thicker, I'm just checking the whole line art to make sure that everything looks the way I want. I like how it looks. I'm just checking the last time and I'm just going to make sure that everything looks okay. And now I'm going to go to the feed area. You can see here we have some lines overlapping. I'm just going to raise those lines In. Sure. Everything looks okay. All I'm going to do now is to select the two liner layers. And I'm going to merge them together. So I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Merge. Like so. Now the liner layer is complete. And since I'm not going to use the guides layer anymore, I'm just going to delete it. I'm going to select these other layers, which are the sketch layers. I'm going to group them together using the command G shortcut. Now we have a folder. I'm just going to call it sketch. And now our file is clean and our line art is complete. Right? So that's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching. And I will see you in the next one. 10. How to create clipping masks in Adobe Photoshop: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to talk about clipping masks in Adobe Photoshop. Let's start. As you can see, I have a new document opened, and this document has three different layers. You can see the first layer is the one we can see here is a simple gradient. I'm going to turn off the view for this layer. And I'm going to turn on the view of these other layer. You can see this is some simple text and we can still edit this text. So I can add more text like that. I'm going to delete those letters. This is just some regular text. I'm going to turn off the view for this layer. I'm going to turn on the view of this other one. You can see this is just a simple shape. So those are the three layers that we have here. Now, I'm going to explain to you what clipping masks are. In Photoshop. Clipping masks are a way in which we can use one layer to define what's going to be visible and what's going to be invisible in another layer. I'm going to show you a quick example so you can understand this concept better. Let's go back to our document. And I'm going to turn off the view for this gradient layer and also the view for this shape layer. Because I want to have only these text layer visible. Now, let's say that I want to add some color to these texts, but not just any color. I want to add the colors of these gradient, the exact same colors. Now the easiest way to do it is to have these two layers together. And then I'm going to convert this one into a clipping mask. To do that, I have to have the layer that I want to preserve or the shape that I wanted to preserve. In this case, I have to have it at the bottom. And the other layer, in this case, the color layer. I have to have it on top. Now that I have these two layers, I'm going to right-click on this layer and I'm going to select this option, Create Clipping Mask. I'm going to click there. And now our text has these colors applied. Now, notice that this layer changed, or at least the icon of these layer. You can see if you pay close attention, there is a small arrow pointing down on the left side of this layer. And that's going to indicate that this one is now clipping mask to these other layer. Now I can release this clipping mask if I right-click over here. And I select these options, Release Clipping mask. And everything is going to go back to the way it was previously. I'm going to add it as a clipping mask again. I'm going to right-click here, and I'm going to select Create Clipping Mask. Now that this is a clipping mask, I can still modify these layer. For example, if I select the Move tool, I can move this gradient around. I'm going to do that. I'm going to move this gradient around. As you can see, if I move it too much, this is going to leave us with some black areas here because our original text was black. I'm going to move these back like that. You can see now this is blue, mostly. I can move it even more. Now we have these other colors. We can move our clipping mask around, and we can also move our main layer, in this case our text. I'm going to select the text layer and I'm going to move it around. As you can see. I am moving these texts around. Now. I can still modify our text. So if I double-click here, I can add more layers. In this case, I'm just going to add the letter S, like so. Now you can see that our text changed, but we still have these layer as a clipping mask. So these later is also being affected by these clipping mask. Now, there are two ways in which we can add or remove clipping masks. And the first one is by right-clicking on the right side of the layer that you want to add or remove as a clipping mask. So I'm going to right-click here. And I'm going to use either the Release Clipping Mask option or I can right-click and select the Create Clipping Mask option. Like so. I'm going to release it. I'm going to show you another way in which we can either add or release a clipping mask. And it is by coming in-between the two layers that you want to apply the clipping mask two. Then when you are right in-between them, you can press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard. And you will notice that the icon of our tool changes. Now it is showing a rectangle with an arrow pointing down. I'm going to click there. And as you can see, this is going to make the same thing. It's going to convert this layer into a clipping mask. And we can do it again. I'm going to press and hold the Alt key on my keyboard. And I'm going to place the cursor in-between these two layers until the icon changes. You can see now if I click there, the clipping mask is going to be released. I can do it again. I'm going to place the cursor in-between the two layers. Press and hold the Alt key and click there. Now I'm going to release this clipping mask because I'm going to show you that this is going to work also with pixels. In this case, we're working with text. I'm just going to release this clipping mask. I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Release Clipping Mask. I'm going to turn off the view of these gradient and also the view of these texts. I'm going to turn on the view for the shape. Now, I'm going to convert this layer into a clipping mask, but this time for this other layer. Now for this to work properly, these layers have to be close together. I'm going to move this shape up. And I'm going to make sure that the shape is below and the gradient is above. Now they are close together. And I'm going to turn back on the view for this gradient. And now I can convert this layer into a clipping mask. Remember, we can do it in two ways. One is by right-clicking, selecting, Create, Clipping Mask. And now we have the same effect that we had previously, but this time with the shape layer. I can also use the Alt key on my keyboard. Come in-between these two layers. Press and hold the Alt key and click there to either release the clipping mask to create a clipping mask. Now when it comes to creating digital illustrations in Adobe Photoshop, clipping masks are very important. I'm going to show you why. Let's say that this shape is something that we are creating. Let's say a character. I know it doesn't look like a character, but let's say it is a character. Let's say I want to add some highlights and some shadows. What I'm going to do is to create a new layer above all of these layers. So I'm going to select this one. I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to call this one highlights and shadows. And then I'm going to make this layer into a clipping mask. And this is another very important thing. We can have multiple clipping masks affecting one single layer. All I have to do is to have my layer above these other layers. And I'm going to place the cursor in-between these layers. I'm going to press on hold the Alt key, and I'm going to click there. Now you can see we have two different clipping masks affecting the same layer. Now I'm going to make sure that these highlights and shadows layer is selected. And I'm going to decrease its opacity because I want to add highlights and shadows. I'm going to use 50%. Now, I'm going to use the brush tool. And I'm going to start with the highlights. I'm going to select a white color. I'm going to start painting some highlights, assuming that our light is going to come from this direction. I'm going to start painting just some highlights. This is not going to be perfect. I'm just trying to show you how this is going to work. You can see I'm adding these highlights and this is very easy to do. Now I'm going to switch to a different color. I'm going to use black because I want to add some shadows. And I'm going to start painting the shadows. Again. This is not going to be perfect. I'm just trying to show you how this is going to work. Like so as you can see, we added some highlights and some shadows very easily. And we didn't have to worry about getting outside the boundaries of our main shape because we are using a clipping mask. It doesn't matter if I paint outside of the boundaries of this shape, nothing is going to appear. What is going to appear is only what is paying it within the boundaries of our shape or shapes. For example, if I paint here at the center, this is going to appear. But if I paint outside, nothing is going to appear. And I'm really painting outside here. And we can see that if I release this clipping mask, I'm just going to right-click here and I'm going to select Release Clipping Mask. As you can see, all of these different elements that I painted our steel here, including these shadows. You can see I went outside of the boundaries of this shape, both on the shadows and the highlights. But I didn't have to worry about it because we were using a clipping mask. So I'm going to add this layer as a clipping mask again. Remember we can get in-between these two layers. Press and hold the Alt key on our keyboard. And I'm going to click there. And I'm just going to create another layer. Because I want to show you that we don't have anything below. I'm going to select a different color and the color, I'm just going to use a yellow color. I'm going to fill the whole layer. So I'm going to use the shortcut Shift F5. I'm going to click, Okay, I'm going to call this one background. I'm going to move it to the very bottom. And as you can see, nothing is outside of the boundaries of the shape. I'm going to release this clipping mask. You can see that everything is still here. It's just that the clipping mask is preventing all of these information from showing. I'm going to add the clipping mask again. This is how clipping mask work in Adobe Photoshop. And as I said, this is going to be a very important part of the digital illustration workflow because it is going to help us to work faster and easier. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 11. Applying the base color: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to apply the base color. Let's start. Alright, so this is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, we have completed creating the line art. Now, you can see that I have some colors here. And this is the color palette that we're going to use. You're going to have access to this color palette. If you go to the download section of this course, go ahead and download these color palette so you can work along. Now, I'm going to zoom in and I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to call it black. Now I'm going to turn on the visibility for the second sketch. We can see all of those details. And I'm going to select the layer that we just created, the black layer. And I'm going to work on this layer. I'm going to use the eyedropper tool to copy the first color, which is going to be this pink color. I'm going to zoom in and I'm going to start painting right here. Now, I'm going to pause here because I want you to notice something. The base color layer is below the line art layer. That means that if I paint over the line or lines, this is not going to show because this layer is below the liner layer. If I go over the line art, this is going to look good and we're going to still see the whole line art because the color layer is below. Now let's continue. I'm going to paint the whole thing as you can see here. And I'm going to go to the legs area. I'm going to paint these leg and also these other one. The whole lower body is going to be this color. As you can see. I'm just being careful here on the edges. I'm tracing these lines. Once I paint all the edges, I can select a bigger brush and paint the interior. And now I'm going to continue with these other side of the leg. And I can select these whole thing using the Lasso selection tool. And I can feel it like that. I'm going to continue with the brush tool. I'm going to paint the whole leg, including the boot. As you can see. I am changing the size of the brush just to make sure that I have more control when I need more control. And that I can feel moral space when they need to feel more space. I'm going to continue here on the back. I'm going to paint these different details here. They are the same color. I'm just going to continue painting these details. Now. Here I want you to notice something that is actually important. The name of our layer is black, but we're painting all of these details in pink color. Now, all of these details we're painting in pink are going to be black. At this moment I am using pink just so we can see the difference between the line art and what we're painting. If I use black while we paint is going to be confused with the line art, and we may get confused. So I'm using pink for now just to tell the difference between the line art and while we're painting. But in a few moments, I'm going to change the color to black. I'm just going to continue painting all of these details in pink. And later on, I'm going to change this color to black. I'm going to make sure everything looks good. I can turn off the sketch layer. Now what I'm going to do is to change this pink color into a black color. And for that, the first thing that I'm going to do is to select the black color. I'm going to use the eyedropper tool, and I'm going to select these color from my color palette. And then I'm going to click on the lock transparent pixels option like that. Then I'm going to fill the layer like so. And now I can turn off the lock transparent pixels option. And this way, this is going to change to black, to the color that we have selected. Now, I'm going to create another layer, and I'm going to call this one pink. I'm going to copy these pink color using the eyedropper tool. I'm going to start painting these details in pink, starting here on the arm. So I'm going to draw the outside area. Then I'm going to fill the inside. You can see this is really easy to do. I'm going to refine those edges and I'm going to move onto the back. I'm just going to create the small detail that we have here. I'm going to paint it. As you can see, I'm using only the brush tool. And I'm going to make sure that these area looks as best as possible. Like so. Now I'm going to move on to the head area. I'm going to start painting the hoodie. You can see I'm using the same technique. I'm painting first the areas on the outside, and then I paint the inside. That way is much more easier. I'm going to rotate the canvas and I'm going to continue painting these character. Now we have to move on to the chimney area or the column area. So I'm going to select the color palette layer, and I'm going to create a new layer. Now I selected the color palette layer because I want this new layer to be at the very bottom in the layer here again, that's important because this is going to be the chimney or the column. We want this layer to be at the very bottom. Now I'm going to rename this layer that we just created. I'm going to call it the column. And I'm going to go to these different colors here on the color palette. I'm going to use that dark gray. I'm going to use the same technique. I'm just going to paint the outside areas first, making sure I follow the line art. Like so. And also these areas here at the top. Then I can use a bigger brush to fill all the interior that we also need to paint. I can also use the Lasso selection tool. Select that area and feel it. Now I'm going to move onto the top of the column. And I'm going to the same this time using these reddish color. I'm just going to paint this area first, the outside area. And after that, I'm going to fill the interior area. But first, let's continue painting the outside area. You can see this is very easy because this is a really simple shape and just a simple cube. I'm just going to fill all the interior. Like so using a bigger brush, that's going to make it easier and faster. I'm going to make sure that I don't miss any spots. Like so. Now this looks really good. Now I'm going to zoom out to see how this looks. And I like it. I'm going to create another layer and I'm going to call it white because the areas that I'm going to paint now are going to be quite. Now. Since the background is white, it's better if I use a different color because if I use white, I'm not going to be able to tell where I have painted and where I haven't painted. I'm going to use any random color. I'm going to use brown fur now. I'm going to start painting the hoodie area, like so. And also the face area. I'm going to paint most of the parts of these characters that we haven't painted. I'm going to continue painting most of these character, including the back area, the chest area, and also this area down here, including the arm. I'm going to get closer here because I wanted to be a little bit more precise here. I'm going to paint these hand like so. I'm going to make sure everything looks okay. And that I didn't miss any spots. As you can see, I had some areas here that needed to be. Now, this looks much better. I'm going to modify the hue and saturation values for this layer. So I'm going to press Command U to bring up the hue and saturation window. And I'm going to change the lightness value. I'm going to bring it all the way to 100. And I'm going to bring the saturation down all the way to minus 100. And I'm going to press Okay. And as you can see now, those pixels that were brown are now white. Now I'm going to create another layer. And I'm going to use this just to test that this is white. I'm just going to paint in the background like so. And as you can see, the areas that are white are still white because they are not part of the background. They are in their own separate layer. And that's the way we need it. I'm just going to delete that layer because I created that layer just to show you. But it was not really necessary for our illustration. I'm going to continue working on these Illustration. Then I'm going to make sure that I have these blue color selected using the color picker. So now what I'm going to do is to select the pink layer. I'm going to turn on the lock transparent pixels option by clicking there. We have talked about these objects in a previous lesson. You already know what the stars. I'm going to start painting some lines. These are going to be part of the characters custom. And this is just like a spider web. Like so. As you can see, that this looks really good. I'm just going to continue here on the back area. I'm going to make a similar pattern like so. I'm going to modify this a little bit, fix some areas. I'm going to make those lines a little thicker. I'm going to do the same here on the hoodie. I'm just going to create a few lines. And I'm going to create a spiderweb pattern. As you can see, this is very easy. I like how this looks. Let's go back to the black color layer and let's make sure that the lock transparent pixels option is also turned on. We can continue here painting some details here on these boots. As you can see, this is just part of these characters custom. And I we're doing here is adding small details that are going to make these look better. I'm going to continue here on these other boot. I'm going to add the same details that we added on the other boot. Like so. As you can see, this is very easy because we have the electrons burned, pixels option turned on. So we're not really worried about getting outside the boundaries of these character illustration. You can see this looks very good. Now I'm going to select the column layer and I'm going to copy these color using the eyedropper tool. I'm going to make it a little brighter just by moving these little handles here on the colors. And I'm going to paint these areas like so. As you can see, this is going to make these areas look better. They're going to pop out. And we're going to do the same with the bricks area. So I'm going to select that gray color. I'm going to make it brighter. And I'm going to use it to paint these correct areas. As you can see, this is actually very easy to do and it is going to make all of those details look much better. As you can see, this is how our illustration looks. So far. I think we are on the right track to getting a really good illustration. And that's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 12. Creating volume: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to start creating volume. So let's start. Alright, so this is where we left in our previous lesson. And I'm going to start by selecting the black layer. And I'm going to create a new layer on top of that black layer. And then I'm going to create a clipping mask. Remember, to create a clipping mask, all you have to do is to place the cursor in-between the two layers where you want to create the clipping mask. And then all you have to do is to press the Alt key on your keyboard. And when you have that little icon with a square and an arrow pointing down, you have to do is click. Then you will have your clipping mask. Now, remember I have a complete lesson explaining in detail what clipping masks are and how to use them. If you want to know a little bit more about this topic, go ahead and go back to that class. Right? Now, once we have these clipping mask, I'm going to rename this layer. I'm going to call it volume. Now, I'm going to select these dark red color. And I'm going to modify it a little bit. I'm going to make it a little blue. Then I'm going to start painting. I'm going to modify it a little bit more like so. And then I'm going to use a different brush. So I'm going to go to my brushes and I'm going to go to the general brush folder, and I'm going to select that first brush there. I'm going to start painting. Like so. Perfect. Remember the opacity for this brush is set to 100%. The flow is set to around 55%, and the smoothing is set to 25%. As you can see, all I'm doing here is adding volume by adding these color. And that's exactly what we want. And now I'm going to switch to the eraser tool. I'm going to go to the brushes for these Eraser tool. And I'm going to change to these brush right here. I'm going to start erasing some areas like so. And as you can see, this is very easy. All we're doing here is controlling the volume that we're creating using both the brush tool and the eraser tool. If I need more volume, I'm going to use the brush tool. And if I want to decrease the volume, I can use the eraser tool. Now I like how this looks. I'm going to do now is to change the hue and saturation values for these layers. So I'm going to press Command U. Here. I'm going to change the hue, saturation and lightness values for this layer. Once I like the results, I'm going to click, Okay, Perfect. Now I'm going to continue adding volume to the other parts of this character. I'm going to select the pink layer. I'm going to create another one. I'm going to call it volume as well. I'm going to create a clipping mask. I'm going to copy these pink color. I'm going to modify it a little bit. I'm going to make it a little darker. And I'm going to reduce the brush tools or opacity to 50%. Now I am going to start painting the shadows. Like so. Since I am creating these shadows in a different layer, I can change the layer mode. I'm going to use Multiply and see how it looks. As you can see. Now this looks better and I'm going to modify the shadows that I just created using both the brush tool and also the eraser tool. I'm trying to do here is to create volume. And I'm going to continue modifying these volume. I want to create volume also on the white parts. So I'm going to select the white layer and I'm going to create another one. I'm going to call it volume. I'm going to make it a clipping mask. I'm going to select the purple color and I'm going to make it brighter, like so. And I'm going to start creating volume on the white parts. As you can see, all I'm doing here is the same that I did previously. I'm using the brush tool to add volume, and I'm using the eraser tool to remove volume. I'm going to reduce the opacity for this brush to around 50%. I'm going to continue adding volume this time on the arm and also on the rest of the body. As you can see, I modified the size of the brush according to what I need. If I'm working on small details, I'm going to make it smaller. If I'm working on regard details, I'm going to make the brush bigger. And now let's add volume to the bricks. I'm going to select the color layer and I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to call it volume. And I'm going to make these into a clipping mask. I'm going to select that dark gray color and I'm going to make it even darker. I'm going to start adding volume by painting around these bricks. As you can see, this is really easy to do. All we're doing here is follow the breaks that we already have using these brush. I'm just going to continue with the rest of the bricks. And also here at the bottom. Like so. Perfect. I'm just going to reduce the opacity for this layer. I'm going to use 70%. And I'm going to do the same. But this time with the top part, I'm going to select that reddish color. I'm going to make it slightly darker. I'm going to start adding volume. We're going to do it the same way we have done it with the rest of the elements. As you can see, this is going to make this image look much better. Because now it has volume. Now I'm going to select these volume layer corresponding to the black layer. And I'm going to change its blending mode. And it looks like hard light is going to look the best. We're going to use hard light. And now we have completed adding the volume that we need to these illustration. As you can see, it looks very good. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 13. Adding shadows: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to add shadows to our illustration. Let's start. So this is where we left in our previous lesson. And I'm going to start by selecting the volume clipping mask corresponding to the black layer. And I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to make this layer a clipping mask of the black layer as well. And I'm going to call these clipping mask shadows. Now I'm going to select this purple color. And I'm going to change the brush because I want my brush to have hard edges. I'm going to go to my different brushes and I'm going to select this one. And now I can start painting the shadows on these character. Now, to paint these shadows, I have to pay close attention to where our main light is coming from. As you can see in this illustration, our main light is coming from the top left corner. That means that most of our shadows are going to be on the right side of our character. Now, I'm going to change the blending mode for the shadows layer. I'm going to use Multiply. As you can see, this is going to give the shadows a more realistic look. Now I'm going to select the volume layer. I'm going to change its opacity. I'm going to reduce it a little bit. I'm going to select again the shadows layer. I'm going to continue painting the shadows. As you can see, I'm paying close attention to where my main light is coming from. And I'm creating the shadows on the opposite side. And I'm going to add some shadows also at the bottom of the foot. Like so. I'm going to continue adding some shadows to this character. Now, this is going to be really easy to do if you always keep in mind where your main light is coming from. And also keep in mind that if you have two different objects close together, one of the objects is going to cast a shadow on the other. So right here I'm placing some shadows because we have the arm and the stomach close together. And I'm going to continue adding some shadows to this character. And we're going to do the same process with the rest of our layers, including the pink layer. What I'm going to do is to select the volume clipping mask corresponding to the pink layer. And I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to rename it. I'm going to call it shadows. I'm going to convert these layer into a clipping mask. Now it is going to affect only our pink layer. Now I can use the Brush tool to start creating these shadows corresponding to the pink areas. I'm going to start here on the arm. As you can see, I'm adding shadows also to the spiderweb. Like so. I'm going to change the blending mode for this layer. I'm going to use Multiply. You can see now these looks better. I'm going to start adding more shadows on these areas. Like so. I'm going to go to the top and I'm going to start adding shadows to these other pink area, like so. And also here on the other side. As you can see, all I'm doing here is adding shadows to the pink areas. Later on, I'm going to modify the shadows. I'm going to add shadows also, true the spider web design. Like so. I'm going to zoom out to see how this looks. I like it. I'm just going to reduce the opacity to the volume clipping mask corresponding to the white layer. I'm going to use seventy-five percent. I'm going to create a new layer and I'm going to call it shadows. And I'm going to convert it into a clipping mask. Now, I can start adding some shadows here. I'm going to copy these purple color and I'm going to modify it a little bit. I'm going to make it a little brighter. And I'm going to use the brush tool to create the shadows on the character's head. And as always, I am taking into account where our main light comes from. Our shadows are going to be mostly on the right side of our character. So here I'm adding the shadows on the hoodie because he's on the right side and also on the right side of the character's face. Like so. I'm going to fix this area. I'm just going to make sure this looks okay. I'm going to use the eraser tool and the brush tool to fix this area. I'm going to continue adding shadows here on the neck. I'm just going to add a shadow here because the head is going to be casting a shadow on the neck. I'm going to move to the chest area. I'm going to add some shadows here as well. Also here on the back, like that. And also here on the arm. I'm going to add just some shadows there. Like so. As you can see, this is very easy to do. I'm going to continue here on the stomach. I'm going to fill this whole area. And then I'm going to use the eraser tool to erase this part here at the center. Now, remember that if you want to improve on any scale, including detailed illustration or detailed drawing, what you have to do is to practice a lot. I highly recommend you to create your own illustration. You can follow along and create this illustration, this project that we're doing here. And you can also create your own illustrations. Remember, the more you practice, the easier it will become and the better the resource that you will get. Okay, let's continue. Now. I'm going to select the white layer and I'm going to create a new one. And I'm going to call it red. As you can see, this layer was created as a clipping mask. And I'm going to get closer to the eyes because I want to add some red line around the eyes. I'm going to clean up what we need. I'm going to do the same on the other eye. I'm just going to outline the outside of the eye. Like so I like it. And I'm just going to clean up these. Looks better. Perfect. I like it. I'm just going to refine these outline. I'm going to do the same on the other eye. And since one eye is on the shadow area, I want to add some shadows to that red outline as well. Now I'm going to copy these purple color and I'm going to change the brushes blending mode to multiply. And I'm going to turn on the lock transparent pixels option. And I'm going to reduce the brushes opacity. And I'm going to paint these I like. So now you can see those eyes have different red colors because one is on the shadows and that's what we need. I'm going to reset my brush. So I'm going to bring the opacity back up to 100%. I'm going to change back the mode to normal. And now we can continue with our illustration. And I'm going to select the volume clipping mask corresponding to the column layer. And I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to make this layer a clipping mask. And I'm going to call it shadows. I'm going to select these gray color. I'm going to start painting these shadows here. Now you can see this is a light gray color, but I'm going to change the blending mode for this clipping mask. I'm going to use Multiply. And you can see now these becomes a shadow. I'm just going to start painting the shadow here. I'm going to add a shadow corresponding to the characters right leg hour here. Like so. I'm going to add more shadows here on the brakes. As you can see, all we're doing here is adding more details. This illustration looks more interesting. Now it is very important to tell you that, yes, I am adding shadows to make the illustration more interesting. But I am also being very careful on where I place those shadows. This is not just adding shadows because I want to add shadows. I have to add them wherever I feel like they need to be. And to know where we need those shadows, all we have to do is to take into account where our light is coming from and where we have elements that are going to cast shadows on these column, including the character's body parts, like her legs and her arms. I'm going to add some shadows here because her legs are going to cast shadows on these column. Like so. I'm going to add some more shadows here on the right side. Like that. You can see now this looks way better because now where our character is sitting has some shadows. I'm just going to zoom out to see the full illustration. And I liked the result. I hope you like it as well. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching. And I will see you in the next one. 14. Adding highlights: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to add highlights to our illustration. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, if we look at the shadows corresponding to the pink area, you can see that these shadows are way too strong. I'm going to start by fixing that. I'm going to select the shadows layer corresponding to the pink layer. And I'm going to reduce its opacity. Now they look better and we can continue. So I'm going to select the shadows layer corresponding to the black layer. And I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to convert this one into a clipping mask. And I'm going to call it light or highlights. Now, I'm going to select these color using the color picker. And I'm going to make it brighter. And I'm going to reduce the opacity for the brush to 50%. I'm going to paint a line. And once we have that line there, I'm going to copy this color using the eyedropper tool. And I'm going to take back the opacity for the brush tool all the way to 100%. I'm going to use this new color that we just copied to create our highlights. So I'm going to undo that. I'm going to start creating my highlights. Now. To create the highlights, we're going to use a similar process than the one that we used when we created the shadows. Remember, we are going to take into account where our main source of light is coming from. In this illustration, the main source of light is coming from the top left corner. And this time, since we're adding highlights, our highlights are going to be in the same direction as our main litres. That means that our highlights are going to be mainly on the left side of our character and also on the top side. That's what I'm doing here. You can see I'm adding the highlights on the left side. I'm going to use the same technique to add more highlights on these character. Always taking into account where our main source of light is coming from. As you can see, this is going to make our job really easy. Because all we have to do is to know where our main source of light is coming from. And we have to paint our highlights. I'm going to add some highlights here on the foot. Like that. Also on these other ones. Like so. Perfect. And I'm going to continue adding highlights to these character. Now, I'm going to select these gray color and I'm going to make it brighter because I want to add another set of highlights. These ones are going to be brighter. And I'm going to do is to add these other subtle highlights right above. The main highlights. As you can see, these are going to be a little brighter. And this is going to make our illustration look even better. I'm going to fix the other ones. I'm just going to copy that color. And then I can continue adding the brighter highlights. As you can see, I'm adding highlights also to the chest area. I'm also going to add highlight to our pink layer. I'm going to select the Shadows clipping mask corresponding to the pink layer. And I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to call this one highlights. I'm going to make it a clipping mask. I'm going to copy these pink color. I'm going to make it brighter. And I'm going to start adding those highlights. As you can see, I'm adding the highlight here on these spiderweb pattern. I'm going to do the same here on the hoodie. I'm going to add these highlights wherever we have these pink color. Now let's continue. I want to add some highlights to the back of this character. So I'm going to select this dark blue color. I'm going to change the brush because I want a brush with software edges. And I'm going to select the highlight clipping mask corresponding to the black layer. And I'm going to start adding some highlights here. Like so. It's very subtle, but it's going to make these look better. Now, I'm going to select again the highlights clipping mask corresponding to the pink layer. I'm going to select this light pink color. I'm going to start adding those highlights here on the back of the character. To make this look better, I'm going to decrease the opacity for our brush to around 60%. And I'm going to try again. I'm going to use the same color to paint some additional highlights. Now, I'm going to select the volume clipping mask corresponding to the white layer because I want to fix some of these areas. I'm going to use the eraser tool. I'm going to change the brush to these soft brush. I'm going to start erasing these color that we painted previously. So this is going to make the illustration look better. Now we can continue. I'm going to select these clipping mask and I'm going to create a new layer. I'm going to call it highlights. I'm going to convert it into a clipping mask. Now I'm going to select these white color and I'm going to start painting some highlights here on the face. I'm going to make sure that the opacity for this brush is set to around 40%. I'm going to create that highlight there on the jaw, also here on the back. And I like how it looks. It looks much better. Now, I'm going to add highlights to the column. I'm going to select the Shadows clipping mask corresponding to the column layer. I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to convert it into a clipping mask. And I'm going to rename it, I'm going to call it highlights. Now I'm going to zoom in and I'm going to select a light gray color. I'm going to use this color to create the highlights. I'm going to make a test like so. And now I'm going to use the brush tool to create these highlights. I'm going to add these highlights using the same technique that we used previously when we added the other highlights. So basically what I'm doing is to add these new color to the sides of our objects. In this case, I am adding them to these bricks. And you can see this is going to make our illustration look much, much better. If you want to, you can add even more detail for this illustration. I think the detailed we have added is going to be more than enough to make it look interesting. How I'm going to do here is to continue adding those highlights. I'm going to fix some of these highlights there. Like so. Then I'm going to add some highlights to this red area. I'm going to copy this light red color. I'm going to use it to add these highlights to this red area. As you can see, this is really easy to do. And it's going to give the illustration more detail. And it's going to make it look more interesting. We are almost finished with the highlights. I'm just going to add some final touches over here. Like so. This is how our illustration looks. So far. I like it a lot. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 15. Adding details: Hello glass and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to add details to our illustration. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And in this one, we're going to add the symbionts, which are some kind of alien thing that leaves within the Marvel universe. So don't worry about what this is. Just know that this is some kind of alien thing. So we're going to paint something that looks like a liquid. And I'm going to start by cleaning up these file. I'm going to select these clipping mask at the top. I'm going to go down in the layer hierarchy. I'm going to press and hold Shift. And then I'm going to click on the column layer. That way all of these different layers are selected. And then I'm going to group all of these layers together using the command G shortcut. I'm going to rename this group. I'm going to call it colors. If I expand this group, you can see that all of these layers are in here. Now I'm going to select the Shadows clipping mask corresponding to the white layer. I'm going to modify these purple color a little bit. And I'm going to use a different brush. So I can get soft edges and I can add also some shadows. I'm going to do the same hour here. I'm going to add some shadows there. Also here. And also on other parts of these character, just where it makes sense according to where our light is coming from. Like so. I'm going to add another shadow here on the neck. Now, I'm going to collapse this group. Again. I'm going to turn off the viewer for the color palette layer. I'm going to move this layer inside the sketch group. Now I'm going to select the line art layer, and I'm going to click on the lock layer option because I don't want to modify these layer by accident. So I'm going to lock it. Now. I'm going to select the colors group, and I'm going to duplicate it. I'm going to right-click on it. And I'm going to select Duplicate group. I'm going to click Okay. And I'm going to rename this as colors backup. I'm going to turn off the view for Darwin. And I'm going to right-click on the copy that we just created. And I'm going to select Merge Group. Now we have our whole illustration within one single layer. And we still have our group with all of the different layers that create this illustration as a backup folder. That way we can modify this illustration if we want to do it in the future. For now, I'm just going to rename this layer to Color. And I'm going to create a new one. And I'm going to call it symbionts because this is where we're going to place that alien thing. I'm going to do it by using the brush tool. I'm going to select a dark color, like a black color. I'm going to turn on the sketch layer so we can see where we have to place the symbiotic. And I'm just going to start painting these alien thing. As I said, this is some kind of liquid. And we have to do is paint, something like the thing that I'm creating here. Here is actually kind of easy because this is just some kind of alien liquid. It doesn't have to have a specific shape. All you have to do is to create some kind of liquid. As you can see, I'm just following the sketch that we have below, but I'm also making sure that I add enough details. So this looks good. As you can see, I'm continuing creating these symbionts. And if you want to, you can look for references online. You can have a better idea of what this is and how to create it. For now, I'm just going to follow the sketch that I have below as a reference to create these symbiotic. I'm just going to continue. Now. I'm going to fill up the spaces at the center. I'm just going to use a bigger brush and fill those spaces. I'm going to continue adding more details. Now, if you're following along and if you're creating your own illustration, like the one I'm making, I just wanted to say that these symbiotic, which is the shape that we're creating, is optional. If you want to create it, go ahead and create it. But if you want to skip it, go ahead and escape it. I'm creating it because I think that this is going to add a little bit more interest to our final illustration. Now what I'm going to do is to use the Eraser tool and erase some of these areas. We can have some holes. As you can see, this is going to make these symbiotic look more interesting. Like so. Now I'm going to switch back to the brush tool. I'm going to create a new layer and I'm going to convert it into a clipping mask. Now I'm going to select this color and I'm going to make it brighter. I want a really light gray. I'm going to start adding some highlights. And remember, whenever we add highlights, we always take into account the direction from which our main light comes from. And I'm just going to continue adding those highlights. I'm just going to use the brush tool. And I'm going to add those highlights on the outside of the symbiotic. And I'm going to continue like so. As you can see now this looks better. Now this shape will creating is actually very easy to make. However, the rest of the illustration may be a little bit more challenging for you. All I wanted to tell you is that you have to keep practicing. If you want to get better. The more you practice, the easier it will become and the better the results that you will get. Keep practicing and you will see how your illustrations improve. Remember, the more you practice, the better you will get added, and the better the results you will get. And also the easier it will become. Now let's continue finishing up the highlights for these symbiotic. Now, I'm going to create a new layer. And I'm going to make sure this is also said as a clipping mask. And now I'm going to change the color. I'm going to use this layer to add some variation to the overall color of the symbiotic. I'm just going to add some color there. You can see it is very subtle, but it's going to make it look better. Now, I'm going to reduce the opacity for this layer. Like so. I'm going to select these three different layers. They simulate layer and the two clipping masks. I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Merge layers. Now they have become one single layer. And I'm going to rename this layer to simulate. And as you can see, now, this is complete and I like it. That's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching. And I will see you in the next one. 16. Adding a simple neon effect: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to add a simple Neon effect to our illustration. So let's start. This is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, our illustration is almost complete. Now, I'm going to do is to add a simple but effective Neon effect. That's going to make our illustration look better. I'm going to start by creating two different layers. I'm going to create one and I'm going to call it lights. I'm going to create another one. And I'm going to call it neon. I'm going to take these two layers and I'm going to convert them into clipping masks. I'm going to select the lights layer. And I'm going to change the brush to this one. And I'm going to change the color as well. I'm going to use an orange color like that one. I'm going to start painting some areas of these character, especially the areas where our main light comes from. You can see I painted the face and I'm painting the rest of the body. As I said. And paying close attention to where I have to place the scholar because this is going to represent our main light. Now I'm going to use the eraser tool, and I'm going to change the brush for these Eraser tool. For this one, I'm going to start erasing some of these colors that we just painted. Basically what I'm doing here is to give shape to these highlights that we just created. I'm going to get closer to make sure that I erase the areas that I need to erase, especially the areas where we have our shadows. As you can see here, where we have shadows, I'm going to erase those areas. And I'm going to switch back to the brush tool. And I'm going to add a few more strokes here. Now, I'm going to change the blending mode for this layer to see how this is going to look. In other mode, I'm going to use vivid Light. And I'm just going to reduce the opacity for this one. I'm going to use 30%. Like that. I'm going to modify some of these areas. I'm going to erase some areas here. Like so. As you can see now this looks way better. I'm going to continue editing these lights. When you're doing these, what you have to pay attention to is where our main light comes from. So we're going to take that into account to know where we have to place these light and also where we have to erase some of these color. Now, I'm going to try with a different blending mode. So I'm going to use overlay. I like these better. I'm just going to adjust the opacity. I'm going to use something around 60%. And this is going to look much better. Now, I'm going to select the neon layer. I'm going to get closer here to the fit area. And I'm going to copy these blue color. And I'm going to convert these into a regular layer. I'm going to start painting these neon effect. As you can see, all I'm doing here is paint a little bit of blue, like so. And this is going to give us the effect that we want. I'm also going to add these blue color, some other areas of the illustration. Just to make sure that this looks as good as it can. I'm going to add here on these lines. I'm going to change the color to white. And I'm going to reduce the opacity for this brush. I'm going to add some white lines there. This is going to make this look even better. I'm going to continue doing the same on this other foot. Like so. I'm going to select that blue color. Again. I'm going to change the opacity again. I'm going to reduce it to 40% and I'm going to start painting some of these glow on the brakes because this is going to have to affect the surrounding elements. And as you can see, this looks very good. I like the results. And all I'm going to do now is to make this layer again a clipping mask like so. As you can see, this effect is going to help our illustration look much better. That's all for this lesson. Thanks a lot for watching, and I will see you in the next one. 17. Creating the background: Hello class and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to create the background. So let's start. So this is where we left in our previous lesson. And as you can see, our illustration is complete. And all we need is to create the background. What I'm going to do is to create a new layer at the bottom of the color layer. And I'm going to go to the different shapes that I have here. I'm going to use the Ellipse tool. Then I'm going to click and drag, making sure I press and hold the Shift key on my keyboard. So we get a perfect circle. I'm going to open up the Properties panel. I can see the different properties of the circle. I'm going to start by changing the fill. Right now it is set to none. I'm just going to select this one. And I'm going to apply a gradient. I'm going to select the stroke option and I'm going to set it to none. I'm going to change the kind of gradient I'm going to use radial. Or they have to do now is to select the colors for these gradient. For this one, I'm going to select a blue color. For the other one. I'm going to select a purple color. As you can see, I'm using very light colors. I'm going to modify the midpoint a little bit. I'm going to modify the blue color a little bit. I'm going to make it just a little more saturated. I'm going to do the same with the purple color. I'm going to modify an allele. I'm going to click Okay. And I'm going to close these properties panel. I'm going to go back to the different shapes. I'm going to select the last option, which is the custom shape tool. Once it is selected, I'm going to go to the Properties panel at the top. I'm going to click there to be able to select a different shape. And I'm going to select these lines that I have here. I'm just going to click and drag to create these lines like so. And I'm going to change the fill. I'm going to apply a white color. Like so. I'm going to select those new shapes, leaves and these lines. I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select rasterized layers. I'm going to merge them together. So I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Merge Layers. I'm going to rename these to background. Now, these background is complete. With this. Our illustration is finally complete. And if you look at it, you can see that this looks very beautiful. And that means that we have done an amazing job. That's all for this lesson. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next video.