User blog:Mrodd/Water ~ A How to Guide.

'Ey, after a couple of users have so rudely glared at me and pointed fingers questioning how I can make some crappy sketch into a wonderful scene, I decided I may as well show you all...



Anywho, this image still isn't finished but I decided I may as well take you through how I did each and every part of it, starting with the water... Since that's more or less what I did first.

But! Before I can even try and teach you how I do my art, it is recomended that you use Sumopaint, as it's the only art program I use, and I can't help you, if you don't use what I use. Click ME! Anywho, when you click the link it should give you a white layer already, you can choose to use this, but you might find it is a tad too small. If that's te case in the top left, click File, then new image. (I tend to use 800x800 Pixels, but it's up to you.)

So yeah! let's do this!

Step Uno: The Sketch (Of Pure Epic-Sauce.)
Yeah, see, I can sooo speak Spanish. Anywho, the first step is to create some sort of sketch so you know just what it is you want the image to end up looking like. When I sketch things out, I tend to use the ink tool, which can be found under the magic wand and above the eraser. The sketch shouldn't take too long, since it is a sketch. The sketch can be on a new layer or on the white layer already there, it doesn't make a difference! Here's the one I made, you get a cookie if you can actually tell me what it is.



Step Deux: What's my Water type?
Yeah... I speak French too, I'm just cool like that I guess. Since I have dedicated this blog to making water, we need to make the water. Now, in this particular scene, I want it to be fairly bright outside, with very clean water. Though, not a sunrise or sunset.

Note: If in the image, there is a Sunrise/Sunset/Moon present, the actual water will need to be coloured differently, but some more information on that later.

So the second step is to understand what type of water is in the image, then figure out what colours will be in the water. As I said before it's going to be clean/bright water, which means I need very light and bright shades of blue.

PS. Since I don't want to spend an entire hour typing out what different colours each type of water needs, if you need help with this post a comment, or pm me, or simply leave a message on my talk page and I will get back to you soon.

Step Three: Finding the Pallette
Yeah... Sorry, I don't know many languages... Basically, now that you understand what water you want in your image, it's time to actually put the water in it- If that makes any sense. To do this, you will need a new layer in your image.

Note: A layer is basically a new page, but it goes over the current image, you use layers so you can easilly go back and erase parts of the image without affecting the rest of it.

To create a new layer, go to the bottom right, where it has the layer tab, and click the first little button on the bottom. The image is basically a blank piece of paper with a +. (If people have issues finding this I will post an image of it, but... It's not that difficult.)

Now that you have a new layer, you will want to name it water, to do this simply double click on the layer (In the layer tab) and type in water.



After this create another layer, and name it Pallette, this should go above the water layer. Now, you will need to create your pallette for the water, this way you can easilly go back and find the exact colours you used to create the water. To do this, you will need to first adjust the brush, since they always have it set to the "Dry Brush" and that isn't very helpful. To adjust the brush, go to the brush tool (It is right beside the ink one from before.) And click flow, and make it 100%. After you do this, click the small arrow right beside where it says brush, and then click the circle. (The one that is full.) It should look like this...

Hopefully I didn't kill your brains with all of that, because now we actually get to do something. Make sure you are still on the Pallette layer, do this by clicking it. Now on the right side, above where all of the layers are, is the colour picker, you can use this to find the base shade of your water. Now, the shade will basically be the "normal" part of the water, so it shouldn't be super dark, or super bright. When you have found the perfect colour, use the brush tool and make a small circle in the top left of your image. After you have the base shade, find a slightly lighter, and slightly darker shade of the colour and repeat. You should end up with something like this:

Step Four: Creating the Base
Now, after I have most-likely scare you all away with the amount of words in this tutorial, it's time to really do some "Art." Find the curve tool, it's the line that's gently arced. And use it to outline where you have put the water in the sketch. You should use the base colour you chose before, to select the exact shade use the colour EyeDropper tool, (Directly above the left arrow button-tool) and click on the blue in the palletter.

Note: Make sure you are on the WATER layer, if not you will kick yourself later. Also, you might need to change the diametre of the lines, depending on how large the water is.



After you have outlined the water, like so:

It's time to fill in the water completely, thus creating the base of your water. To do this, use the paint bucket tool, if you don't know what that tool, is, please go back to elementry school. Once you have found the tool (Tough job, I know.) go to the top area, where it should know show; Tolerence: 10%, and change it to 88%. This way it should fill the entire thing in.

Note:If the entire screen becomes blue, you didn't close the outline in properly, or you are on the wrong layer. Use Ctrl+Z to undo it, and fix the problem.

Step Five: Finger Painting
The image should look something like this, depending on your sketch.



Now that you have that done, it's time to finger paint. This is likely the part i have the most fun doing, but it could just be me. Use the Magic Wand Tool (Above the ink tool) and click on the water base you have made. This will prevent any colours from leaking out of the water. Now go to the dark shade of the blue you chose and go to the brush tool, set the diametrer around 6 and start creating random strokes around the edges of the water. Doing this should create something like this:



After you do that, you want to do a similiar style with the lighter shade of blue, this time however in the center area, and partially brushing over the darker shade. Which will create something like this:



Anywho, after you have finished doing that, I recomend going back with the same three colours (And similiar shades of the blue and repeating, to add more "Detail" so it will look more realistic.) This should be what it looks like:



That's all. You have your water, finger painted style.

Step Six: Details, details.
So, apparently that whole finger-painting look, isn't what people want to see. Who knew? The next step should finalize the image, atleast the water part. To do this next step, make sure all the wate ris selected, you can do this by right clicking the layer on the layer tab, and clicking select all pixels. After you have done that go and choose the smudge tool, it's the finger. And adjust the diametre to 5-15, depending on the look you want. I've chosen 6... Start to smudge, from top to bottom, in left-> right motions, never letting go on the mouse, until you reach the bottom.

Note: You can do this in columns, or the entire thing at once, it changes how it looks though. I like to do it in columns.



That's with the first column finished, after you do one, keep going untill the entire body of water has been smudged...



Now, if you look at the above it just looks wrong. The centre is way too light compared to the sides, this happens when your shades of blues are too different, but luckily it's fixable. Simply change the diamtre of the smudge tool to ten. Start in the centre, where it's lighter and smudge outwards in simple streaks, repeat untill it's fixed.

Also, if you can clearly see the lines where you smudged, and it does not look right, simply smudge over it again, this time with a larger brush. Water is hard to get done right the first time, and considering how this is my third time doing it... Yeah..

Note: When you are done, It might be a good idea to blur the water, depending on how similiar the colours in the water look.



That's all for now. Be on the look out for the next blog which will cover the grassy bits.


 * It should be stated, that in the water, there are more details that will need to be added, however until more of the scene is built up, they can't be added.

If you have questions comment and I will do my best to reply?

  Forever Young  Talk  19:47, July 16, 2012 (UTC)