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Art Lecture #2 begins here. We're drawing a background scene, which can be used as title screen graphic or an adventure game screen. The red signifies the walkable path for a character, the blue signifies a character's size. With those size references, let's begin painting a tropical scenario with cliffs and a waterfall in the background. (edited)

2:55 am

I think this would be more sensible for the perspective.

Slightly thinner road. Okay.

Now let's make a bunch of layers

How many?

2:56 am

Also do I need a tablet for this?

Nah.

2:57 am

One second.

2:57 am

So the first layer is jsut the sky.

Ah. Paint Shop Pro. Didn't know it was still a thing.

It isn't. I'm still using it though

2:58 am

The second layer is the cliff wall

I'm following along.

3:00 am

Then we've got water

3:01 am

Maybe the cliffs could be lower?

3:02 am

Roughly split into thirds with sky, cliffs, water?

3:02 am

I think they look fine as is, but they can be lower.

Mhm. Added the waterfall.

3:05 am

You can add a second layer of cliffs like this, now

This is a lot like painting.

3:07 am

Some soil/hills on a new layer

3:10 am

Going for a dark green because the main character will be green.

3:10 am

Can always adjust things later I guess.

The surface of the ground we'll be walking on.

some foreground terrain

How often should I be posting my work? I don't want to clutter up the channel too much.

And at this point, let's name the layers and save everything, so we don't lose our work

3:13 am

Exactly the way you're posting

my naming convention ended up as seen on the right

Yeah, I approximately have my layers named as such.

3:16 am

And the thing saved to a folder where I keep all my artwork for this month.

Now let's choose a direction for the sun

Top left? That seems to be what everyone goes with.

Assuming we're looking north, I'd say the sun has risen from the northwest

3:18 am

Therefore, the cliff surfaces facing us will be dark

3:19 am

the cliff surfaces facing east will be even darker

3:19 am

western surfaces will have a little brightness to them

3:19 am

and the tops will be the brightest

3:20 am

I hide the layers that get in the way, and I take a brighten/darken brush

Huh. Gimp doesn't have that. I can make masks and use multiply/overlay layers though.

3:21 am

You can also just have a transparent white/black brush. Whatever you prefer

3:23 am

I add some grooves and cracks, and I shade deeper the darker sides of the bigger cliffs that stand out, and should cast shadows on the other ones.

3:24 am

and use a big brush to make the ones further away/deeper inside darker.

Following along as fast as I can.

I draw some diagonal lines to disintegrate the straight patterns a bit.

3:30 am

Hmm...

Very nice, nicer than mine even.

3:30 am

And then you draw the rest of the damn owl

Thanks.

If you have any filters, you now have an opportunity to use them to enhance the cliffs

3:32 am

I copied the cliff layer, and found an emboss/scultupture filter

3:32 am

I set its blend mode to overlay, and decrease the transparency a bit

3:33 am

In some areas, the effect of this filter layer doesn't look particularly good. I'll erase those bits.

3:34 am

With a big smooth erase brush

I think I missed something. I used GIMP's emboss filter.

3:35 am

Oh, I turned the transparency way down

3:36 am

There we go

I did some lighting afterwards because I didn't feel satisfied that the light was coming from the northeast. Use your own taste

3:38 am

After this, we repeat the process for the front cliff layer. But Actually, I'm going to cheat, and simply copy pieces from these cliffs we already drew; brighten them a bit, and paste them over the front cliff sketch.

3:39 am

Uh, if you don't mind, I'll just shade them individually...

Sure. I pasted a bunch of stuff, and erased their edges off with a sharp eraser brush.

3:45 am

Then I'll shade the terrain in the foreground, so light reaches only the top parts that are facing the sun, and the sides facing us (we in the south, looking north), are darker.

3:46 am

Fore the foreground terrain, that effect can be even more contrasted, like we are observing this scene from shadows or something.

Still following along

Being lazy, I replace the sky with a gradient.

Very beautiful.

I didn't really like how the embossed cliffs looked so I removed the filter. I'll just go over this later with a fine comb.

3:49 am

Thanks.

I make the waterfall visible and add some basic shading. By the way, for your image, I would make the highlights more pronounced for the background terrain.

Ah. Okay.

3:51 am

I'm going to just be a minute. Gonna make a cup of coffee.

Sure.

3:52 am

I have the lighten/darken brush and I make 1 pixel wide strokes all across vertically, darkening and brightening randomly. But I bias the lighter lines toward the top of the waterfall, where the water turns, and is facing the sun more.

Okay. I'm back.

and I might do the same with the main body of water, except with horizontal strokes.

3:59 am

Shading the deep areas between the gaps of the cliffs, and which parts of the water should be shaded by the cliffs if sun comes from northeast. Then brightening, with a large smooth, brush, the foreground.

4:02 am

Actually, I might go a bit easier on those shadows.

4:02 am

The cliffs still need a lot of work, but yeah, this is coming along.

4:04 am

I think I'm finding hard right now to decide between smooth and hard brushes.

4:04 am

I guess smooth brushes for big details. Hard brushes for little ones.

It's only meant to be a base for the time being.

4:04 am

I think the front of your waterfool looks very fall, but I'd make it brighter

4:04 am

WHat the hell did I just sa

4:05 am

The front of your waterfall looks very BRIGHT, and I'd make it DARKER

4:05 am

I'm blurring out my river

4:05 am

with a motion blur, because I have such a filter at my disposal

4:08 am

I tried to meld together the waterfall and the water somewhat.

4:09 am

I think there needs to be foam where it's hitting the water?

4:10 am

Sort of like this?

Hmm nah

4:10 am

RIght about where the waterfall turns

4:10 am

Currently it looks like the waterfall bends at the middle

4:10 am

Which it shouldn't

Hmm. I'll need to correct that at some point, but I'm not sure how for now.

4:11 am

Guess that's what I get for using the color levels tool.

Anyway, the next step is to add a foliage layer, on top of the ground and back terrain layers.

4:12 am

and draw a bunch of bushes just with lines shooting out, sketching roughly, covering most of the edges.

4:15 am

Same for the back cliffs, but this time it's more like blotches, following the shapes and formations of the cliffs somewhat, and jutting out from the cliff edge. And some small specks here and there.

4:18 am

Same for the foreground cliffs, a new layer to add foliage over them. Try to reach out with the foliage on this layer, to "meet" the ones in the background cliff foliage.

4:19 am

Very good. I might not make such a thick line on the right hand side there. I'd make it more of a disparate, viney connection.

Okay

And I'd make the foliage cover the edges a bit more, and run down the sides. Use it to give an even stronger idea of how the terrain flows on the cliffs, and hide some bits using it

Got it

I added a second foliage layer over the ground, with just little short strokes for patches of grass. Covering the bottoms of the further shrubbery, which touches the ground.

4:29 am

I just remembered I have a tablet connected to my computer. Tried using the stylus to do the patches on the ground.

4:29 am

Cliffs still look a bit bare.

I'm adding a foliage layer on top of the foreground terrain.

4:31 am

You can add some more random bits squiggling vertically or diagonally along teh cliff walls. Perhaps thinner bits, and once that break up often.

4:31 am

Maybe more of the effect you did with those two plateaus with connecting vines.

4:32 am

On the right hand side of your image.

wish i can join in this looks and sounds fun to do

Do you have GIMP?

4:33 am

I could upload my file so far.

4:33 am

(Warning: lots of unnamed layers)

I have GIMP, PSP9 (thanks to Aurora) and Asprite

4:33 am

I mean I whould but I'm packing Moving out of state in a few weeks

Okay. By all means, watch.

I am

4:34 am

Continue I'll catch up its not a big deal

I'm gonna add one last layer and just mercilessly draw some huge silhouettes covering the entire image

4:43 am

Looks like a place I'd like to be

4:44 am

One moment

4:47 am

Back

I tweaked mine quite a bit to get the blades sharper

4:49 am

In your case, I would make the right hand tree a lot thinner and move it aside. It hides too much of your nice cliffs. I'd also stretch the left hand tree to be much taller, so the leaves don't obscure your beautiful cliffwork as much.

Like this?

4:50 am

Oh, forgot to thin out the right tree.

That looks quite pretty. I like that.

Thanks. Didn't want to hide a potential screen exit so I thinned the right tree.

Nice.

4:54 am

Now with a very broad brush, I'd apply overall shading onto the grass. Not precise, just big strokes, the ones on the vertical cliff walls go d arker, the ones at top brighter, etc. Just follow the terrain mostly.

4:56 am

Front cliff foliage...

4:58 am

Rear cliff foliage...

4:58 am

Rear terrain foliage...

5:00 am

Ground foliage... I adjust the brighten/darken brush to be smaller, and I make the tops brighter, the bottoms darker

5:00 am

And the foreground terrain foliage...

Is this Sanic Green Hill Zone?

you actually changed your name to Magnet

5:03 am

smh

5:04 am

At this point I will make a completely separate image, and draw a bush like this, with bright green lines

5:05 am

Darken my brush, then draw more, but slightly shorter lines

5:06 am

and so on

I thought magnolias were magenta, not magnetic

One foliage layer at a time, I'm gonna use this more detailed bush to make the foliage layers nicer

adjusting the brightness, and so forth

5:09 am

Pasting a bunch of different sized copies over it, then erasing some, and applying it as an overlay layer

5:10 am

5:12 am

I think I did it wrong. Still, I like how it looks.

5:13 am

5:14 am

5:16 am

After copying many times a squished shrub to make prettier grass, I'm using an eraser brush with a low density to erase some stuff in a rough noisy pattern

5:16 am

and once again for another layer, I will repeat the process

5:17 am

5:18 am

5:22 am

With everything on full display, I trim my bushes to make everything look good

Okay. I did not quite get that step before. Doesn't matter though. I like how my thing looks anyway. But I know there's always techniques to improve things.

5:23 am

I think this will work fine as a test backdrop.

5:24 am

I can't really make the grass on the path too dense because there's only going be like a background and foreground layer.

5:24 am

In the actual game. But your thing looks really nice though.

I trimmed the foliage around the ground so as to make it more visible.

5:25 am

And I'm shading the ground layer itself so the ground is darker where there's the base of some thick shrubber

5:25 am

y

5:25 am

The foliage layer in the back still needs something done about it.

5:26 am

I'm goign to do a cheap trick

5:26 am

Duplicate the layer, and add a bevel effect

5:26 am

5:27 am

and a shadow

5:28 am

The layer where I applied the bevel effect is transparent, so I can adjust how much the bevel effect shows

5:28 am

Same for the shadows

Yeah. GIMP's bevel tool kind of sucks.

5:29 am

But it's noise tool is pretty good.

I'll add some noise to the original layer too.

Yeah, noise = instant texture.

While I'm at it, why not to the ground

Looking very nice.

and the cliffs

5:35 am

Finally, I wasn't too satisfied with that gradient, so I made a new one

5:37 am

Lest we forget the splashes for the waterfall.

I redid my sky as well, posterizing it to give it more of a pixel arty look.

5:37 am

Made a classic Amiga sky.

Maybe adjusting my water colours and correcting shading where it clashes too much.

5:41 am

I'm copying the top edge of the waterfall a few times and shifting increasingly, to give it a bit of a 3D effect

Eh. I think I've got something now. Something I can use.

I would add shadows for the green shrubbery on the cliffs, and trim them where they are thick, so they taper out.

5:45 am

Then it blends into the image better and does your beautiful cliffs justice.

Sort of like this?

a topmost overlay layer can change the ambience in a desired way

1

adanior

Sort of like this?

I think you need to change the shading of the vines quite a bit. They stick out from the image, instead of blending to the 3D cliffs.

5:51 am

Their brightness needs to match what's on the cliff, so if it's on the far side, it needs to be much darker.

Oh shading ON the vines.

Yes, that also.

5:54 am

Wait

5:56 am

Accidentally had a layer on I wasn't using.

I'll call it a day with that

5:58 am

It could be tweaked by hand, but for the sake of demonstration, it'll do.

5:58 am

I'll conclude the second art lecture here.

Thank you very much. I could've followed things a bit better, but I got a lot out of this.

5:58 am

Following to the letter isn't the point really. So long as you get ideas about how to do this.

5:59 am

At this point you might now build a few images out of this, with certain layers visible on each. Consider also if you animate some things, so you make alternate layers for animation. I usually make 3-5 frames.

6:00 am

Something you can use in the game, anyway

I don't really plan on having tropical environments, but this is a good bit of practice and a good "test" screen to use.

6:01 am

When I get the player's sprites done, I might show off a few screenshots of the game here if that's okay.

Real artists draw it on the dirt in their backyard and digitalize it with the nokia.

Thanks for your time!

For future reference

jungle.pspimage

657.59 KB

adanior

Thanks for your time!

You're welcome

Aurora

Art Lecture #2 begins here. We're drawing a background scene, which can be used as title screen graphic or an adventure game screen. The red signifies the walkable path for a character, the blue signifies a character's size. With those size references, let's begin painting a tropical scenario with cliffs and a waterfall in the background. (edited)

If @Zombie @dunkelschwamm @AstroCreep: King of the Monsters @Justy & Raymond want to pin it, that's where the lecture begins.

6:14 am

Next time, I think I'll have a Tablet and draw Justy's reqeust for me, and teach about drawing characters in perspective.

adanior

Click to see attachment 🖼️

I really love the atmosphere there, by the way.

6:15 am

Makes me wanna be in that place

Thank you

Wolf 3D palette applied