 There is one thing my poor ears are constantly assaulted
with from others and it's comparable to fingernails screeching
across a chalkboard. This "thing" has become almost as aggravating
as an itch that can never be scratched. Curious - well, it goes
something like this: "Oh it must be so nice being as talented as
you are, how I wish I had even half your talent," or similar
words! I know people mean well, but, in effect, they are contriving
a built-in self-excuse for why they think they can't paint. One
doesn't say to a plumber, "Oh you are so talented, how I wish I
could plumb like you." It is common knowledge that the plumber
spent considerable time learning the trade - no one is born with a
pipe wrench in one hand and a billing invoice in the other, and an
instant knowledge of the difference between a T-bone pipe and
T-bone steak. I don't mean to burst anyone's balloons but learning
to paint is exactly the same as learning to be anything from a
doctor to a sanitation engineer (garbage handler). No person alive
is born with the knowledge to be or do anything. It is as necessary
for us to be taught how to eat, walk and talk as it is to learn how
to be a lawyer, doctor, secretary, teacher, brain surgeon, singer,
musician or an artist. What is a prerequisite is a deep and
heartfelt desire to become whatever it is that most appeals to you.
If humans are granted any inborn abilities, it is the ability to
learn whatever they desire. Depending upon both environment and
monetary station in life, if you love something from your heart,
you will most certainly and naturally excel at it given the proper
opportunity. Is this not how great people are made, or how
greatness is acquired and/or achieved in any profession? Einstein
failed math and most of his early scholastic training, but after he
took a heartfelt interest in mathematics, he excelled and became
known commonly as a genius in his field. No artist is born with an
instant knowledge of how to paint anything. Even to learn how to
mix paint properly takes time. In digital art, you are not born
with the instant knowledge of how to operate PhotoShop 7, Paint
Shop Pro 8, Poser, Bryce, or any 2D or 3D software program. Each
and every piece of software has to be learned, usually, by long
sessions of trial and error. Although some can afford professional
training, time and learning are always long and
involved.
 
The above two images are not exactly the best examples to
illustrate the difference between what an untrained child might
draw as a human head and what might be the end product of someone
with a few years of experience behind them, but it will suffice.
The doodles of a young child might show promise of an artist in the
making, but those doodles, as we'll call them, originated from a
heart's desire to draw something human. The more the child is both
encouraged and permitted to draw, the better those small works of
art become. If they are not encouraged and, sadly, if finances are
restrictive, the artistic desires of the young child will
eventually dull if not vanish altogether. Many a child has dreamed
of becoming a doctor, but the lack of finances has ruined what
could have been a brilliant if not a life saving career in
medicine. The rich don't always make the best graduates. I don't
wish to elaborate upon the evils of our educational and a monetary
driven academic system. This tutorial is really about how easy it
is for a person with the inner desire to become an accomplished
artist, given the proper time to explore that desire. How To
Paint Ocean Bubbles Here for your perusal and opportunity to
paint, is a small excerpt from my How to Paint Sunlit Ocean Waves.
This is the Paint Shop Pro 8 Version; however, there is also a
PhotoShop 7 Version of the entire tutorial in the
marketplace.
Start with a 1280 x 1280 blank canvas with white as your
background. Using a soft brush set at about 30 pixels, make the
blue water colors and the various sand shades you see here. You can
easily do color samples from these pictures and a wonderful FREE
Color Copier called Color Cop. Do drop by and download your FREE copy.
Once you have your white background, divide the top one third into
sea colors as illustrated, and the bottom two- thirds into the
brown sandy colors shown. Using the FREE Color Cop above, you can
do color samples right off this PDF file, then transfer those
numbers to your paint program.
Using the smudge tool set at about 80 to 100 pixels (depending on
the original size of the image), begin softly blending both the
water and sand, each one into the other as shown above.
Add a new transparent layer. Now carefully paint a light blue foam
line as you see here. Pay attention to get the foam on the left
slanted inward to ward the center and the same with the foam on the
right slanted inward to the center. This is necessary for proper
perspective.
Select the airbrush tool and set it according to the samples in the
image below.
With the airbrush settings at those illustrated above, turn off the
Foam Layer by selecting the eye in the right hand menu. This should
cause the light blue foam you painted to disappear. Now begin
carefully airbrushing the sand from near the water color
(sparingly) by clicking the mouse button only once (or, if you're
using a graphics pen tablet, touching the pen to the tablet only
once). Repeat this process until you have given the sand a
relatively even speckled appearance. Start with a dark brown. Once
finished, select a much lighter brown (almost white) and repeat the
speckled airbrush dabbing procedure until you have speckled sand.
Create an even darker section on the sand to represent wet sand
where the water has been but since receded. This is where the
lighter speckles will be executed more sparingly. I've opened and
closed the Foam Line Layer to better get an idea of where the wet
sand is -- following the foam's curve. Notice with the Foam Layer
reactivated here, that the speckled sand beneath the water is
visible.
In this illustration, we have used the smudge tool set at about 75
to 100 and gently blended the wet sand area, which doesn't show the
speckled pattern as readily as dry sand. Only larger debris such as
pebbles and stones will show up in the wet sand. Now draw in a
blue/black shadow line around the foam edge for a 3D appearance.
Making sure that you have the Foam Layer selected, choose the
Eraser and set it to about 4 pixels. Using a small oval movement,
erase oval bubble sections to reveal the sand below; then select
black and set your brush tool at about 3 or 4 pixels and carefully
draw in a black line on the inside far side of the oval bubble. On
the outside bottom section, now draw a white line, and carefully
draw a white top to the bubble like a dome visible in the left most
bubble.
Use your smudge tool to soften the bubble edges and paint in a
white highlight on the top left side of the bubble. Make it
slightly curved as is illustrated to help give the rounded shape of
the bubble. Also, soften up the water edge of the foam and add a
few subdued shadow lines to the inner side of the foam sections.
There are numerous methods to create both the sand and the foam and
bubbles, but this is about the simplest of all of them.
Here's a finished shot of a larger section of the Foam Line.
Remember, my friends, this is a mini-tutorial taken and elaborated
on from my other two main tutorials How to Paint Sunlit Ocean
Waves in Paint Shop Pro 8 and PhotoShop 7 formats.
 Full versions of Jason's tutorial can be found in the
Renderosity MarketPlace. How To Paint Sunlit Ocean Waves - PSP8
How To Paint Sunlit Ocean Waves - PS7 We
invite you to take a stroll through Jason's Renderosity Art Gallery, and visit Jason's
Renderosity MarketPlace Online Store for
additional tutorials. April 25 |
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