Digital Illustration Workflow

Even well-painted digital artwork can tend toward a certain 'slick' or affected look. Rigidity can set in when programmatic shading tools are used or when the software tries to mimic the natural interactions of a physical, painted medium. If however the program takes no steps toward blending painted strokes together, a greasy look can result. Because unmodified digital inputs can be ugly under scrutiny, artists use special methods or make custom brushes to cut back on that harshness. Traditional paints and washes on the other hand have a natural complexity that makes them interesting to look at and which lends a feeling of substance to a piece; but they are especially unforgiving and time consuming to employ.

In the image below we see the extremes: the one on the right is easy to create digitally but nearly impossible using brush and ink, the one on the left is made quickly with a physical brush but would not really be achievable digitally. Both effects are desirable in different situations. 

Left: Ink and Paper  Right: Photoshop Gradient Tool

If you set out to work alla prima you will probably create something that betrays the medium you use, but if you work carefully you can get traditional methods and digital methods to strengthen one another, creating something that exists more 'in a style' rather than 'in a medium'.   

Professor Cramwell's History called for a few environment illustrations. When making these backgrounds I tried to combine the strengths of a traditional method with digital processes. The character of the illustration is in the brushwork, but the colors can be dealt with more precisely on the computer, perfect edges and gradients can be made in-software, and the whole thing can be tightened up with software as well. The below image was used for the 'Modern Culture' topic as a background and to create it I digitally colorized an ink and acrylic underpainting before continuing with Photoshop brushes. I was able to bring the whole thing together fairly quickly and I felt it struck just the right balance between realism and illustration.

  

--Andrej