All posts in Tutorials

In this video Daarken will take you through his process of creating a character from a simple black and white sketch in Photoshop. There is no audio commentary in this video and the video is sped up by 4-6 times. The sketch in the video is unfinished since the end process was not able to…

In this video Daarken will show you how to use the custom rain brush that was created in the last tutorial to add some rain to an existing painting.

In this tutorial Daarken goes over one way to create a custom rain brush. Many times you will want to avoid using too many custom brushes because they tend to be very obvious if not used correctly, so make sure not to overdo anything when using custom brushes.

In this tutorial Daarken shows you how to use adjustment layers in order to add to or change your color palette. The great thing about adjustment layers is that they don’t permanently alter your image. If you don’t like the changes, you can always turn off the adjustment layer and go back to your original…

Often times it is important to keep different elements on separate layers, especially when it comes to concept design. In this video Daarken shows you how to create clipping masks to help you keep your different elements separate and speed up your painting process.

In this video Daarken shows you one way to create masks using the quick mask option. There are many, many ways to create masks, so this is just one method.

Creating actions can really help increase your efficiency. In this video Daarken shows you an example of how to create an action that will allow you to use the fire gradient map trick that was shown last week with the click of a button. You can download the action here, or by visiting the Actions…

In this tutorial Daarken shows you an easy way to paint fire using gradient maps. A big thanks goes out to Steve Argyle for this awesome technique.

Sometimes in order to save time or make something look a little more believable or realistic, photo textures can help. Daarken shows you how to add a texture overlay to a painting in order to give armor a more realistic feel. The key is to be subtle and paint opaquely over your texture overlay.

Working zoomed out can allow you to see the “big picture” and make sure everything in your composition flows well and that your image reads. There are times when you need to zoom in, forcing you to lose sight of the big picture. Daarken shows you how to create a new window of your painting…