Learn About Texture Painting Techniques!

Wouldn't you like to learn all about how to paint textures? This texture painting tutorial will do just that so you will know some of the common methods for painting on the computer!

The goal here is to use your digital art program and apply what you know about drawing light and shadows to these objects!

In other words, you are not drawing what the object looks like. Instead, you are looking for where the light will hit the object correctly! Once you practice looking for the light, it becomes easier to draw the object. Eventually, it will create the object that you want!

Let’s begin with a few examples so you understand this works!

1. Texture painting convex objects

As you start drawing your first complicated object, always decide where the light source is coming from. For illustration purposes, I will put on the top left hand corner. The purpose of this exercise is replicate how the light behaves on a curved outward surface.

First, begin your drawing with a solid black circular shape drawn on a separate layer. When you draw convex textures, the point that sticks out the most will receive the most light!

Pay careful attention to the edges! See the color differences when an object is closer to the light source? You can paint any type of textures so long as the lighter it is, the more elevated and closer to the light that particular section is!

After this, you can draw complex shapes that are sticking out simply by painting areas of light in the general shape. It can be as random as you want. Like I said, the goal is to imagine the light only and to see the object by the light it is reflecting off!

2. Texture painting concave objects

As the opposite of convex objects, this exercise allows you to learn how to draw complex shapes that are sunken in. Again, I will place my light source on the top left for illustration purposes.

Start up a new layer with a new circular shape. Your goal is to draw how the light hits an object that is sunken in. Once again, you need to think where the light will hit the concave shape and draw in the light correctly based on your imagination!

Paint in areas of light to highlight your sunken object. Near the edges, paint in areas of shadows instead of light to create that sunken effect. Also, you may need to redraw the shadow that the new light casts on one instance of the complex object.

Do you see the differences between the two exercises? From this example, it could be an impression of a footprint or a random print. Always remember: the goal is to visualize where the object hits the light and the shadows it creates!

3. Texture painting complex surfaces

In this part, we are working on two basic surfaces: round surfaces and flat surfaces.

For round surfaces, any light hitting on it will have a nice gradient of color tone. For example, try to draw the texture of a wavy flag!

As usual, start with where you want the main light source should be. In order to draw complex shapes with the smooth surface, take your smudge tool to blend the tones together when you’re doing round surfaces.

For flat surfaces, just set your opacity on your brush according, and start filling in the areas of light! The colors will not be smooth. Instead, there will be a mix of dark and light areas.

Think of a diamond or gem! The main point is to have the different opacity strokes stack on one another to create this type of effect!

As these strokes stack, you will get different types of flat surfaces depending on how you want your rock to look like. If necessary, you can also create custom brushes that resemble squares or triangle. Then, you can give ‘patches’ of shapes that will have one color tone!

4. Moving forward

From the examples you have done, you will notice that it all starts with one general shape. As you draw complex shapes on a regular basis, remind yourself how the light hits the object.

Moreover, remember that light defines what the object really is and not the shadows! This is why you never focus on drawing shadows first. Instead, use it as a base to paint light on!

In this example, the brown mountain ranges were done on one layer. But by creating convex and concaved texture painting techniques, I can make it stand out!

The same can be applied to the background mountain ranges where I use these techniques to separate it from the sky!

Learning how light works, as you draw complex shapes, is what will get you ready for creating 2d digital art masterpieces. Continue to keep at it and you will start to see where light will hit the objects in your drawings naturally!

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