Art Tutorial (aliased brush, oil painting look)
I've been using Pikmin Echo as a springboard for myself to practice new art techniques!
I had a few people ask me how I draw backgrounds in paint dot net, so I quickly drew this image you see below!
Now, there isn't one process I use, I mostly freehand it straight from the noggin to the paper. I barely use references, and I really should use them more often!!
But this should show an outline of generally what's going on in my mind when I'm doodling a doodle :)
I personally like to use either a light blue or a light orange!
This reference uses a light orange so I'll steal it.
Step 2: block the main contrast out with a big brush
There is a foreground and a background to this scene, a clear light and dark.
It's much easier to work with a blocked out pattern! It's like the sketching equivalent in this technique.
By the way, I'm using an aliased brush because I'm a pixelart nerd (so retro 🤓☝️) and also because it makes selecting blocks of color much less messy! But trust me, it will look soft in the end :)
Step 3: Look for blocks of common color
I see big patches of blue and orange when I squint my eyes, so I plot those in!
Look at how the light comes from the top right, it illuminates the trees on one side!
Step 4: Look for hue variations in the lights
Natural colors are never going to be flat or homogeneous--theres variations everywhere!
Add in greenish, reddish, bluish and yellowish patches, and even if at first it's a little scary to stray from such bold colors, I promise, gray is essential to making a truly vivid image!
Step 5: move on to the darks
The tree trunks in the left shade looked blue to me! So I toss in some blue splotches.
Don't worry if it looks messy. You can always clean up your messes later <3
Step 6: Fine detail in the very back
Going just like a traditional painter, painting the back first is perfect because you will later paint over the back layers with the front ones, creating realistic layers of texture!
It is much easier to go back to front than the reverse.
Think about the shape design and the flow of all of the elements.
The mountains curl up and down in very specific ways, and the trees look like circles from very far away, with leafless outliers few and far between.
Step 7: let's take a break from the canvas and do homework
learning how to simplify incredibly complicated shapes is crucial!
Trees, grass, rocks, everything in nature has very complicated structure, but you can simplify them very much!
With newfound respect for the complexity of nature, start noting down the elements of your scene in more detail.
You can move your reference around and crop it so that it's easier to perfectly replicate what you wish to draw....but....
personally, I like to use the reference more for vibes and just ad lib the rest!
Study the general shapes of your reference, and apply them in new, unique ways!
I hope this tutorial was helpful for you!
Please feel free to rb this post with any art you make with this! I'll be excited to see what you create :)
