PROCESS VIDEO // clutter, part 1 (Patreon)

Hey patrons! I hope you’re all having an amazing 2023 so far! I managed to come down with the flu last week, so I’ve spent most of this year lying in bed with a box of tissues. It’s been rough! I feel a lot better after a week of being sick though, and will be recording this month’s tutorial next week. For now, here’s the process video of the clutter painting I made in November! I figure this one would be good to share because it shows my process for painting a more complex interior scene, something I haven’t recorded the process of in the past.

Here's the final artwork:

Some facts about this video:

• The video is sped up 250% - a little faster than twice the original speed.
• I have split it into two parts in total. this is the first part! Part 2 is here.
• The entire piece took me about 5 hours to paint, which was split up into shorter painting sessions.
• Just like with the mushrooms process I posted last month, Wes Gardner’s gritty butter brush was crucial in allowing me to render this one. The texture and shape of it worked great for rendering this in a more chunky style! You can find it here: http://cbr.sh/kfv7sa?ref=loish

NOTES ON MY PROCESS

For the initial sketch, it was important to keep the background and character separated. I don’t often draw complex backgrounds and my main challenge is always making sure the character is positioned well and is scaled correctly, so having the character on a separate layer gives me the ability to move it around and tweak the positioning and size so that I can get it right.

After that, I block in the basic colors. For this one I wanted to stick to a limited palette, since the drawing was going to feature a lot of detail. Having a palette with colors that are close in range gives some sense of unity and appeal to all of the clutter! In order to get this right, I use some color editing tools as always. Once I have the palette down (around 7 minutes in), I can start painting in some of the details and clutter using colors that are already on the canvas. This way I can gradually introduce some visual chaos without throwing off the color scheme.

Around 13:45 minutes in, it’s time to bring a little more pop to the colors and lighting. I do this by making a new layer and setting that to overlay. I then pick colors from the canvas and paint on this overlay layer, which creates bright and saturated areas on top of the color scheme. This is a way to bring more depth and vibrance to the colors while still using colors that were already on the canvas and keeping the colors unified. This is a trick I use quite a lot to create some more vibrance and intensity in my art - as long as you don’t overdo it, overlay can be a great layer mode for bringing some brightness into your painting.

After that it’s time to render! This was a difficult one for me because I really didn’t want to divert from the vibe of the rough version. I have the tendency to add more contrast as I render, but I didn’t want to do that here. So my rendering process was a lot about painting in detail without changing the values and colors that I already had. I start rendering around 16:44 minutes in and the most helpful tip I can give for pieces like this is to separate your image into the most essential layers. I had one layer for the character, one for the background without the clutter / clothes on the floor, and one for the clutter. Having the background without clutter allowed me to focus more on the perspective and foundational details, and having the clutter separated allowed me to clean up the edges without painting over the background.

Hope you enjoy this one! Part 2 is coming right up!