by Kessie Carroll

Created on: July 16, 2009

Photoshop is commonly viewed as a fancy photo editing program. But did you know that you can use it for making digital paintings?

Photoshop is a popular tool among concept artists. Once you know the basics of the tools and layer palettes, you can paint to your heart's content. The best thing about digital painting is that there's no mess to clean up afterward.

Painting digitally is much easier if you invest in a good tablet. Wacom is the standard choice by digital artists, as Wacom tablets are durable and easy to use.

You can also paint with a mouse, if you have a steady hand and a mouse that doesn't stutter. This takes a lot of practice.

You have your tablet and Photoshop, and you're ready to start a digital painting! How do you start?

With a sketch, just like with a physical painting.

Select the Paintbrush tool and pick a small size, and start sketching. If you make a mistake, use the Eraser tool. Or open the History window and undo one step at a time.

You can also sketch on physical paper, scan in the sketch, and color it in Photoshop.

Now open the Layers palette by clicking on Windows > Layers. Your sketch resides on the layer called Background. See the buttons on the bottom of the Layers window? Find the one called New Layer and click on it to add a layer. Click on this new layer to select it.

Layers are like transparent sheets of plastic. Painting on one layer does not affect anything on other layers. This allows you to paint over your sketch without removing it entirely. Your color will sit on the new layer, while your sketch sits on the background layer.

Change colors by clicking on the two colored boxes at the bottom of the toolbar. The front one is the foreground color that you are painting with, and the back one is the background color, or color of your paper.

Every artist has their own preferences about how to proceed with a painting. Some like to paint the subject first, while others like to start with the background. Photoshop makes this even easier, because you can create a layer for the foreground and the background, and work on both at the same time.

If you're in a hurry, use the Flood Fill tool to paint a large area one color. Or, if you like shortcuts, select the Gradient tool, fill the background with a gradient, and paint on top of that.

Experiment with the brushes. Photoshop has dozens of brushes that do all sorts of things. The Airbrush is good for painting, because it becomes lighter or darker according to how much pressure you apply to the stylus.

For fine details, use the magnifying glass to zoom in. This beats leaning close to a canvas until your nose almost touches the paint. Also, try zooming way, way out, to simulate standing back from the picture. It helps to get a fresh perspective.

Then there are the notorious Photoshop filters. Under the Filters menu, you will find such tasty special effects as Motion Blur, Lens Flare, and Clouds. Experiment with all of them, but don't over-use them. Every Photoshop novice uses way too much Lens Flare at one point or another. Moderation is key.

Painting in Photoshop is pretty simple. All you need to know is how to use layers, where to find brushes, how to change brushes, and how to erase. Just like in real media.

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