Tutorials I: For beginners (and anyone else)

   Hello, nice people who ended up on my blog!

   Today, I'm doing a post on drawing/digital painting, specifically on how to do this and that. Or in short: In the following paragraphs I'm going to show you tutorials that I used when I started to draw/paint digitally and those that I'm still using. Hopefully, they'll be a help to you as well and shorten your own search for tutorials. (No video tutorials though, I hate video tutorials.)

   Note: All of the tutorials below focus on realistic or semi-realistic painting styles so that excludes anything cell-shading related.



   I. One of the very first tutorials I used on a digital painting was a hair tutorial. I know, hair is one of the easier parts of the human body to draw but as beginner I found it tricky to achieve a realistic look. And so I strolled through the Internet to find an easy but efficient method on how to make hair look like well, hair. (I love semi-realistic drawing/painting styles so the easy, typical manga/comic method wouldn't do for me.) This is the tutorial I ended up with, the same method I am still using:

Simple Hair Painting Step by Step by WingedGenesis5
(registration required)

This is one example on which I used the tutorial.

This tutorial is very easy to understand and works with most software - even with graphics tablets with no pressure sensitivity (it only takes a lot more afford). I sometimes also use this technique on fur. EDIT: Since this tutorial requires a registration and I see that that's "a problem", I might do my own tutorial on how I paint hair/fur, is anyone interested?

   II. The next problem I had when starting was the skin color. It seems so simple (at least it did to me) to mix together some colors that looked like skin and just use darker shades of that mixture of colors for shadows and brighter shades for highlights. Well, that is clearly wrong because it creates an unhealthy and most of all unrealistic look. And that, in most cases, is not what we want to achieve, right?
   There're a couple of things that one has to learn about skin and the best way to do that is to look at it. That method helped me and still does with most things that I want to draw. Examine it in different light sources and poses and try to understand how it works or what colors it could be made of.
   With skin that made me realize that using orange as the main color doesn't get me to the level of realism that I wanted. And mostly, it doesn't consist of just one color or hue but very different colors blended into another. That doesn't only make the skin look authentic and realistic but also healthy, vivid. (I use the same method on basically anything, if wanted, I can blog about my personal tricks, too. Comment below!)
   After some tiresome searching on the Internet to find a proper tutorial (that is not a video!), I came up with these awesome tutorials.

Color Theory Mini: Skin by twin-tail

   This one is my favorite and was also my first tutorial on skin colors. It's simple but very helpful and made painting so much more fun! Also, it's pretty good when you're still insecure about which colors should be used since this technique is very variable once you've understood the basics. A good foundation, so to say, on which you can build with your experiences to reach the next level. 

Coloring Skin Tutorial by sleckt

   This amazing tutorial explains the shading of skin color on one of the trickiest parts of the human body: Hands. That's one reason why I chose it for this blog post since hands are made out of pure evil when it comes to drawing/painting them and I usually mess up the highlights/shadows. Also, it's only a 6-steps-tutorial and focuses on a realistic look. 

Basic Face Shading Tutorial by Kayness

   Last but not least one of the best tutorials I've ever stumbled upon! This one -though- doesn't focus on picking the right skin colors but on how to realistically shade a face. I really recommend reading this tutorial till the end, it's very helpful/useful and easy to understand! 

   III. The following tutorial deals with no heavy subject as shading hands but I still find it's important. It's a short one that shows the different effects of basic/simple brushes on examples. Also, there's a short note of the artist explaining their favorite technique. 

the loish brushset by loish

   IV. I would like to share this link because it's very inspiring, supportive and motivating and I dearly recommend reading it. It's not a tutorial per se but well, that depends on you ;) The author explains how to become a better artist, which things are important and how to achieve them. I especially recommend reading number 8! 

   Finally, I want to share my favorite tutorials on deviantART with you, there're a lot more than just basics and also drawing references. (I do have a lot more but those are pixiv-only, demanding registration.)
   I hope that I could help you a little with the above tutorials and I'm looking forward to see your art - yes, yes, link me, I love art!

   Questions, wants, needs, answers, requests? Feel free to post a comment :)