Introduction
 
For someone who's never painted digitally, there are quite a few things to consider, although they may not be all too obvious in the beginning.

To remove any kind of misconceptions you may have about digital painting: neither the computer, nor Photoshop will do the work for you. You have to be able to draw or paint to produce paintings of any sort. The only thing that is different opposed to traditional art is the fact that you don't have to wait for the paint to dry, and there are quite a few things that make the painting process easier.

If you've never used Photoshop, it's recommended that you first get to know it a littlebit before jumping into starting to paint; it helps to know your tools.

So, this is where this tutorial comes in.

The things I am going to cover in this tutorial will include the following:

Basic PS Settings
• Scratch Disk Settings
• Opening a new file & Canvas Settings
• Changing Colours
• Canvas Sizes
• Docking Palettes

PS Brushes
• Which Brushes to use?
• Basic settings
• Installing Brush Sets
• Loading Brush Sets
• Making Custom Brushes

Drawing Tablet
• Changing settings
• Getting used to the pen - exercises

Use of Colour
• Grass isn't always green
• Colour Theory (by Socar Myles)

The Use of Layers
• The Meaning of Icons
• Creating Layers & naming them
• Moving Layers in the Palette
• Merge Visible Layers
• Merge Linked Layers
• Layer Sets
• From Scan to Transparent Layer
• Transforming Layers
• Flatten Layers

Painting
• Do I need to be able to draw to paint in PS?
• Pre-painting sketches - yes or no?
• Basic detailed painting steps
• Saving your Painting
• Special: Evil Tools

One last piece of warning: If you are hoping for a magic solution, there is none. You will not become a great painter overnight - it takes some time, patience and practice.
 

 
PLEASE NOTE: This tutorial is based on Photoshop 8 (CS), so certain settings and functions of tools may vary in earlier versions, and I am unsure how useful it would be to those using other painting programs.

Also, parts of this tutorial simply rephrase and illustrate in more detail what is already explained in Photoshop's manual.
 


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