24 Captivating Digital Painting Tutorials

As a person with a traditional art background, I used to harbor aggressive thoughts towards using a computer; especially when it came to design and art. Quite a long time ago the computer graphic industry was not as developed as it is today. However, traditional artists were looking to computer graphics not only as a clumsy art tool but also as a threat towards their career and their artwork. Today, I use a pen for putting the first lines to my ideas and then from there I move forward to use my digital tools.

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Now-a-days, artists have the digital hardware and software tools available to create digital art as similar to or better then the traditional media, thanks to the variety of possibilities and capabilities. The computer has become one of the tools an artist will use, joining the same ranks as the pen, pencil and a chisel. Although you do not feel the tools the way artists used to when working with traditional artwork; the computer is a different kind of tool and it needs another kind of sense to be able to excel in using it as an artistic tool. Besides needing the knowledge of the software and hardware abilities and capabilities, the artist needs to understand how to use the software and which tool included in the software is the best to create the desired effect.

Since there are many tools available to be used so that you can use to create digital art; we will divide the digital art below according to the tools used to create it. These divisions are as follows:

3D based digital art

3D digital art depends mostly on 3D tools such as 3Ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Mudbox, Zbrush, etc. These 3D tools create the digital art in the 3D space while you are creating the artwork. Photoshop has always been the basic tool to create effects, final touches, textures and backgrounds; this type of digital art is similar to the traditional method used for making sculptures.

2D based digital art

In this type of digital art you depend on 2D tools such as Photoshop, Painter and Illustrator. This type of digital art is much similar to the traditional art as it works on the 2D dimensions, and uses the talents of the artist to create the depth in the image using lights, shadows and other artwork elements. Adobe Photoshop is the main tool in this type of art as well.

Photo manipulation

This type of digital art relies on the ability to work with digital photos; by modifying, editing and using them to create the desired effect. The end result can be quite different then what was originally seen in the original photo. Since Photoshop is the best application for photo editing, it is the main application that is used to create photo manipulation digital art.

As you can see from the above categories, Adobe Photoshop is the main tool while working in digital art. Furthermore, you can use Adobe Photoshop to create digital art without the need for any other tools. However, in this post, I do not want just to share with you the artwork, I also want to share the experiences behind the below artwork; each having been completely or partly done in Adobe Photoshop.

In the below digital art inspirations I focused on two main factors; these artwork pieces are done using Photoshop and the focus on humans as the main concept of the artwork.

There are two main style of digital artwork in Photoshop; the first style depends on digital painting using brushes. This style is more similar to oil painting as some brushes can give the same effect as the traditional brushes. While the second style is based on lines that can be done inside Photoshop or drawn on using a drawing application such as Illustrator. Let’s start by sharing some of the amazing digital artwork over the web.

Study of a Demon

Field of Daisies

Mongol warrior

Doves

Warcraft Erindae Firestrider

Amber

Bride of Lucifer

The Oracle

The Witching Hour

Umbrella Sky

Varvara

The Storyteller

Digital art for Shane Madden

Digital art by Adele Lorienne

Digital art for Yu Cheng Hong

Digital art for John Kearney

Digital art for Michael Hideux

Shrapnel

Digital art for Paul Wright

Girl Portrait

Master of Illusion

The Manikins’ Portrait

Gaia

Christian Nauck’s Portfolio

Digital art by Bente Schlick

Digital art by Kerem Beyit

Farseed

Charlotte

Hostile Takeover

Golden Panda

Escape From Neon City

Snatch

Viking: Battle for Asgard

Redhead

Stay

Admiral

Commission: Declan

Commission: Ellarwyn

Hana

His Only Friend

Lackadaisy Perennial

Mayanda Commission

Portrait of a Girl

White Phoenix

Broken Dawn

The Repression Of Frustrations

You can notice that the below digital art is different than the above digital paintings. The below digital art is based more one lines or may be sharp lines in some artwork. The lines in the below examples are sharper than above and this can be done either in Photoshop or, the artist can draw the lines in tools such as Illustrator and take it into Photoshop to paint over it.

Emerveillement

Pepper Freedom

Tifa Lockhart

Micro. Phonic Girl