Buy issue 167 (opens in new tab) or subscribe here (opens in new tab). This article originally appeared in issue 167 or ImagineFX (opens in new tab), the world's leading magazine for digital artists. You can also play with the colour balance, such as adding some very slight blues to the shadows and warms to the light. I’m going to use my Smudge brush and gently soften the edges.Īt the end of my studies I normally make the image slightly brighter and add a subtle Sharpen filter just to crisp things up a little bit (tap Adjustments > Sharpen > 20 per cent). However, I’m going to unify a couple more things around the image the edges on the foam are way too harsh in places. When you find yourself getting caught up in tertiary details, especially outside the focal point, it’s a good sign that you should move on. Use the Sharper filter to make your image crisper (opens in new tab)

I place this underneath my foam layer, reduce the Opacity and then distort it into place. I select my boat layer and tap Duplicate > Flip Vertical. There’s a few small details such as the boat reflection to paint. You’ll often see mistakes almost jump off the page when doing this. I’ll often flip the image horizontally every few minutes or even vertically to give my eyes a fresh look. I block in the body starting with the head, then hitting the chest, pants, hands and the oar.

I’ll use the boat as a guideline for where certain parts of the character fall. When approaching the figure I’ll build upon my first sketch it wasn’t that accurate and I need to recheck the proportions. I slowly add the decals and other details, using the main shapes of the boat as a guideline for the placement of details. I start by finding the base colours of the boat, which turn out to be these desaturated pinks/purples.

Once I’ve blocked in the boat's shape, I’ll Alpha Lock the layer and start building up the details. Alpha Lock your layers to start building details over them (opens in new tab)

Procreate tutorials