Category Archives: Photoshop Painting

Digital Painting for Photographer Free Online Webinar

Digital Painting for Photographer Free Online Webinar

(only 50 seats available)

Freedom

02/12/2016   9:00 EST – 9:30 EST

This is an introduction to the digital painting for photographers in Adobe Photoshop.

Digital Painting for Photographers is unique techniques that transform your photographs to unique piece of art. The beauty of it that you don’t need to have any previous painting experience.

Agenda

  • Benefits of digital painting for Photographers
  • Introduction to Photoshop Painting Tools
  • The Mixer Brush Tool

 

Register

Importance of Daily Digital Exercise

Importance of Daily Exercise

 

Portrait

I found that daily exercise is very important for many reasons. Daily exercise helps with exploring/developing  new techniques, polishing your skills, pushing your artistic vision into another higher level, and teaches you how to be productive and not to be stressed under the “less time” pressure.

Adobe Photoshop Daily exercise: try to have 20 minutes every day to create something new in PS. its not supposed to be too complicated or perfect. Try to composite 2 or 3 images together (and the best practice is to composite random images, not images that you thought will be good with some composition. Just choose images with absolutely different style, schemes and start working on your  Photoshop composition).
Photoshop Painting: try different styles of painting every day. Don’t spend more than 20-30 minutes and you don’t need to finish your painting if you don’t have time. Just practice with brush strokes, colors, try different brushes.

Photography: simply keep your camera next to you all the time. See something > take the shot. Different light, different angles. Try it and you will see a huge improvement just in a few days!

Mobile Apps: what could be easier?!!! You have your mobile devices with you all the time! So Adobe Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Photoshop Mix and Adobe Photoshop Fix. Try them and you will be impressed with your improvement just in a few days!

Traditional Painting: use any paper you have. Don’t try to finish your masterpiece every day. Exercise with different brush, pencil strokes, composition.

Adobe Photoshop Painting vs. Adobe Photoshop Sketch Drawing

Adobe Photoshop painting vs. Adobe Photoshop Sketch Drawing

Created in Adobe Photoshop Sketch using iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

Santa

 

Many of you who know me know that a huge part of my digital imaging belongs to digital painting using Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Photoshop Sketch on iPad. I have different techniques in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Sketch, even a digital painting technique for photographers (and no, you don’t need to be a professional painter to be able to use this technique).

Many times I am asked what I prefer most to draw in: Adobe Photoshop CC or Adobe Photoshop Sketch. Now I will answer that question:

Adobe Photoshop

is my digital heart. I am using Photoshop with EVERYTHING (photo retouching after my photography sessions, photo restoration, photo manipulation, graphic/web design, painting, 3D, animation, and much more). For me nothing is impossible in Photoshop.
For digital painting in Photoshop I have three techniques:
Painting for photographers – where the primary tool is the Mixer Brush Tool and you don’t need to have any painting experience.
Painting – where you need to have painting experience or you are willing to learn.
A Combination of Oil Paint filter (yay! we got this filter back!) and the Mixer Brush Tool.
I am using a Wacom tablet for all my digital needs on the desktop and especially with my digital painting  workflow

 

Adobe Photoshop Sketch

The Adobe Photoshop Sketch experience or “traditional” method of painting/sketching  using an iPad is like you are using a “real” canvas of paper to sketch or draw. You don’t need to be in front of your desktop or laptop to start working on your project. You can start and finish your project using your iPad or you can start your project using your iPad and finish your project in your desktop app such as Adobe Photoshop CC or Adobe Illustrator CC.

 

 

 

Now the “vs” part:

Adobe Photoshop CC: I can create any image in Adobe Photoshop starting from an empty document such as photo manipulation or 3D and after that I can start my painting process in Photoshop (we can’t do that in Adobe Photoshop Sketch). Also I can start my painting process using my photo as a based layer or just a clear canvas / from scratch. I can start my painting in Adobe Photoshop and finish in Adobe Photoshop Sketch. I need to have a Wacom tablet or the Astropad app installed on my iPad Pro to be able paint in Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Sketch: I can start my painting project from scratch or use any images as a base layer (to trace it for example). In Adobe Photoshop Sketch we have AMAZING watercolor paintbrushes (we don’t have these brushes/live effects in Adobe Photoshop ). With the combination of Adobe Photoshop Sketch and Apple Pencil you have an absolutely amazing SKETCHING ability (before Apple Pencil and iPad Pro we were able to have this ability ONLY using the “traditional” method of sketching). Using Adobe Photoshop Sketch you can draw/sketch from ANYWHERE using your iPad.

Question: which do I prefer most? BOTH. I am using Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Photoshop Sketch every day. I can’t choose which is most important to me (like choosing which limb is most important to me). Both applications are different and both are very important to me. See my Adobe Photoshop work on Behance.net.

 

Digital Painting Made Easy with The Mixer Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Victoria Pavlov Studio

My favorite and primary tool in my digital painting is the Mixer Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop CC.

I have two styles in my digital painting:
Painting for Photographers (you don’t need to have any painting experience)
Painting from Scratch (you need to have painting experience or you need to be willing to learn how to paint 🙂  )

 

For the last few days I have received many questions about my favorite technique using the Mixer Brush Tool (digital painting for photographers)

My favorite technique:
Favorite Brush: Per Stroke Brightness Variance
Preset: Custom
Load Brush after Each Stoke ( clean brush after each stroke)

brush

Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 10.38.30 AM

Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom

Victoria Pavlov Studio

 

 

5 reasons to use Adobe Stock

Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC and Wacom

I was looking for stock images for a many years and I was not impressed with what I could see on a market  until I was introduced to Adobe Stock.

I am professional photographer, digital artist, and educator. I am working and teaching  Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Muse, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Lightroom, and all Adobe mobile applications and I found that Adobe Stock is the BEST source for my design, photography, painting, education workflow. Why?

Reason 1:
I’ve heard many people say: ” I am a professional photographer, designer and I am not using any stock images”. Hmmmm so if you need any professional  image, background, graphic image to build your clients “travel with us” website you will go around the world to take pictures of the places were your client offers services? And keep in mind that as usual our clients don’t know what image(s) they will use and they are depending on us to show them at least a few examples that they can choose from. So if you multiply all the costs of traveling around the world, and the time just to take pictures, your price for client’s website will rise up significantly and I am not talking about the extra time that you need to build the website. My question is: will your client wait at least 7 extra months and pay 99% more than he/ she should pay just to let you use your own images? The answer is NO and NEVER.
So reason #1: use Adobe Stock images to make your workflow more productive along with building great communication between you and your client.

Reason 2:
When you working on your client project and you’re not sure which image you or your client  will use with your design, simply download a “preview” version of the image(s) your want to use, finish your design, project, show it to your client and if your client approves your design simply click on Adobe Stock image > License image and you will visually see  that your Preview image will be replaced with high resolution, ready to use royalty free image. You don’t need to do any EXTRA steps that will increase your workflow time and your client will receive the final copy of the approved project in no time!
So reason 2: Fast and stress free workflow

Reason 3:
Quality
Adobe Stock is a worldwide library (40 million +) of the best photographers, digital artists, designers.  All images are with HIGH quality ready to use right away.

Reason 4:
The price
You have many optiosn to subscribe to Adobe Stock
1: As a Creative Cloud member you are saving 40% of the monthly plan!!!!!!
10 images a month
US $29.99 / mo
Annual plan, paid monthly

  • Add to a Creative Cloud subscription
  • Additional images at US$2.99
  • Rollover up to 120 images

2: 10 Images a month
US $49.99/mo
Monthly plan

  • Additional images at US$4.99
  • Rollover up to 120 images

3: 750 images a month

US $199.99/mo
Annual plan, paid monthly
  • Additional images at US$0.99

4: Single images are just US $9.99 without a subscription

Reason 5:
If you are a photographer, digital artist, 3D artist, graphic designer you can make money selling your work. You can sell your images, even the ones taken with your smart phone!! You can make money from your work just from your home using your computer!


 

 

 

 

ParticleShop Plugin for Adobe Photoshop

Geisha

ParticleShop is a brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop.

I was introduced to ParticleShop the brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop at Photoshop World 2015. I liked the demo and I decided to buy and try this plugin ( You can download the trial version to try first).

First of  all I want to point  out that if you are looking for a great painting plugin this in NOT your plugin. I can’t imagine using this plugin for my type of painting. My primary and one and only application for my all digital painting work is Adobe Photoshop CC and most of the time I am using the Mixer Brush Tool. Also I am using Adobe Sketch ( Adobe mobile drawing application) as well. So if you will ask me what is the best application for a digital painting I will answer: The ONE and ONLY Adobe Photoshop CC.

I am not using any third party plugins.   As an  Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber the main and primary reason for  me to use ParticleShop plugin is that this plugin is works with the newest version of Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 and the one one license you purchase will be installed for Adobe Photoshop CC  and Adobe Lightroom as well.

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 1.53.28 PM

The ParticleShop plugin is a great plugin for any type of artistic retouching. It’s amazing with hair and high fashion retouching, and if you like to apply any effects to your image you’ll probably like it. Because ParticleShop is the brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop you have access to all powerful Adobe Photoshop futures, including layers and if combine the plugin with other Photoshop features you will create a very powerful image. With the ParticleShop plugin you have control over your image, you can control the brush strokes:  light, color, and angle. You can apply multiple brush(es) effects in one image. Combine, change the  color,  and opacity of the brush. You can apply brush strokes effects and return to Photoshop and apply the layer mask, duplicate the layer and continue your workflow using Adobe Photoshop. If after that you want to  return to ParticleShop you can do it at any time.

I like the plugin and will use it for sure with my design and art workflow.
I have only two complaints about the Starter Pack Options:

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 1.53.05 PM
1: I wish I had at least two different types of each default brushes.
You can buy additional brush packs for $29.99 each but I am not sure I will spend $29.99 for each brush pack (each plugin has 11 brushes and  so it would be 11 packs) just after I spent $49.99 for the plugin. If I would have at least two different combinations  of each brush as a Starter Pack Options I would feel much better.
2: I had trouble making some of my brushes big enough for my image ( 6016 x 4016 ) even after I made  the Brush size by Maximum = 750 ( Starter Pack Options)
Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 2.02.41 PM

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 1.52.53 PM

Geisha

Before

Geisha

After

 

Fotolia
 

From “traditional” to digital painting

I always believed that we have reached the point that there are no more boarders between “traditional” and digital art.  Using Moleskine and Adobe apps we can jump from a “traditional”  pencil painting to digital painting using Adobe Photoshop CC.

I started my project using the  Moleskine Smart Notebook (Creative Cloud connected )

IMG_3294

 

Using the FREE  Moleskine, a Creative Cloud connected app I took picture of my sketch . The image was saved in my Creative Cloud folder.

IMG_3293

And I finished my project in Adobe Photoshop CC  using a Wacom Tablet

11010990_10155744478600392_7108298322535764797_n

Wacom Intuos Pro Pen and Touch Medium Tablet (PTH651)

Wacom Cintiq 13HD Interactive Pen Display (DTK1300)

 

 

Musician

Musician painted in Adobe Photoshop CC and Wacom using Mixer Brush Tool

Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom
Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC & wacom