Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Digital Painting Techniques is a compilation of tutorials written by various talented digital artists. It is broken up into eight chapters with roughly five to seven tutorials apiece, and a gallery at the end. The physical book itself is well bound so that when open it lies flat for easy reference while you work.
The chapters are: Custom Brushes, Speed Painting, Matte Painting, Creatures, Humans, Environments, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and Complete Projects.
The tutorials, with the exception of a few, use Photoshop; the noted exceptions also use Painter. (In the final chapter, one artist also uses Artweaver and Gimp, while another uses Cinema 4D. But for sake of argument, assume this is a Photoshop digital painting book.) And some of the tutorials also come with assets available to download from the book's website.
As for the content, let's say that some tutorials were more thorough and useful than others. While the visuals that went alongside them were stunning, a few of the brush tutorials amounted to little more than how to save a new brush in Photoshop. But the remaining brush tutorials delved into the why and how of creating a custom brush for useful application and saving time, then illustrated its use.
Some of the subsequent tutorials were vague; one example step stating "use a textured brush"--with no indication or example of the texture, only a screenshot of the elapsed painting. Luckily that didn't happen too often.
Most of the tutorials provided screenshots of software settings, brushes used, and picture progress with clear explanations. Creature Concept 101 by Mike Corriero, Paint Luscious Lips by Anne Pogoda, The Human Face by Nykolai Aleksander, and The Environmental Series by Carlos Cabrera immediately spring to mind.
Finally, the book could have used another round of edits for consistency, especially in reference to software terminology. Also, some of the page layouts made it difficult to locate referenced figures throughout (i.e. see Fig 4, which would be an inset of another figure on a previous page). Nothing too egregious, but something to be aware of.
Overall, this is an excellent resource for digital artists looking for inspiration and to learn some new techniques. It comes with the caveat, however, that this is not a book for beginners; you won't find tutorials for preparing a digital canvas, mimicking paint consistencies, or color blending. So while this book won't replace a good foundational book on digital painting, it would make a great supplement.
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