TECHNIQUES 20 PRO SECRETS FOR DYNAMIC LIGHTING
- EVOKE HEAT AS WELL AS LIGHT
Don’t forget that in the physical world, lighting often has other effects.
Notably, it’s often a source of heat and expressing this in a digital painting
can really make the lighting feel authentic. “A great thing to do to achieve a
spectacular lighting effect, especially if the light source is warm, is to add
saturated colours on the corners of sharp cast shadows. It really makes the
light look hot,” explains freelance illustrator Angel Ganev (angelganev.
artstation.com). “Another thing I like to do, is to paint small bits of different
colours on a Color layer, after I am done with rendering. This really makes
the piece come alive and you can rarely see it in photographs, since they
usually make the shadows too dark. Finally, after I am done with everything,
I almost always use the Color Balance [adjustment layer]. Making your
shadows just slightly more blue and your highlights just slightly more
yellow, almost never gives bad results.”
18. ADD REALISTIC LIGHTING
TO DIGITAL PORTRAITS
When you are working on solely digital artwork and you want to ensure realism in
the final result, then lighting is incredibly important. It is good to have a solid
workflow process that you know works and ensures that you have covered every
angle. This is something that illustrator Giulio Rossi has down to an art in his
expressive, quirky and hyper-real digital portraits. He works on his lighting
process after the basic colouring has been finished: “Usually I create close-up
portraits, so not having complex backgrounds to think about gives me the chance
to focus more on the face and I’m able to perform each step of the entire
realisation of the illustration separately. The first thing to think about, before you
start the actual procedure [of adding lighting] is to ask yourself, ‘Where do I want
the light coming from?’ This should be something that you’ve previously
considered during the sketching phase as well. I then try to imagine how each
single element should behave according to it: which parts need to be darker or
maybe brighter to get the desired effect.
“I apply lights/shadows on distinct layers using brushes; a simple Soft Round
brush for the most part, increasing its size and transparency for big areas and
decreasing it so I can add precise strokes to the smallest details. My favourite
Photoshop layer blending modes are Multiply for the darker areas and shadows,
and Soft Light to lighten skin and to create shiny hair reflections.”
© Angel Ganev© Giulio Rossi