The Rebel Caterpillar

Article by Irene Laschi  This week I'll explain how to draw the leaf and finish the Cherry illustration. STEP 7: Adding shadows on the leaf Create a layer, Multiply mode, above the others. Selecting the paths I made for the leaf veins, create a selection (right click: anti-alias on, 0 px feather) and start working on this new layer with a very soft brush (low opacity and flow as always). I created more than one layer (one layer = one color) within a group to find the perfect balance between generic shadows and specific shadows on the leaf, using dark green and a blue-green. Deselecting and adding a layer mask to the group, erase with a soft erase tool the areas that seem too intense. STEP 8: Adding texture To enhance the realistic effect, I used a custom Photoshop effect to create little veins between the main ones. In this specific case I chose the Bevel and Emboss effect, changing its default settings to obtain the wanted result (it had to seem very natural)....

Article by Irene Laschi  Last week I talked about digital coloring in Photoshop, this week I'll explain how to draw and color a realistic illustration using Photoshop only. I wrote this tutorial few years ago for the magazine Advanced Photoshop Germany; to draw both the tutorial illustration and the other illustrations of the article I used Photoshop CS3 and a Wacom Bamboo tablet. You can see all the illustrations I made here . For tutorial, I chose a cherry, because I like the way the light reflects on the surface and the simple structure of its leaf, but you could follow this tutorial to draw anything you want. STEP 0: Preparing the canvas Open a new document in Photoshop; insert the right dimensions at 300dpi (if you want to print the illustration in a second moment, otherwise choose the most suitable resolution depending on the final usage). For the cherry I decided to work on a 9x13cm canvas at 300dpi, so that the final illustration of the cherry would be big...

Article by Irene Laschi How could a chiaroscuro drawing made on paper be colored in Photoshop? I asked myself this question when I started drawing illustrations as a professional illustrator, more than 10 years ago. I was used to draw both colored and black and white drawings with traditional media on paper, but I wanted to learn different solutions, using digital media too. Rather than starting with digital paintings I tested a mixed media: handmade drawing on paper + digital coloring. I drew these illustrations for Citizen K magazine some years ago, and they are a good example of this mixed media. The following tutorial is the method I used in this specific case, and I consider it my standard one.  It's really easy, but of course it's not the only possible one. If you want to try, you just need a good monochromatic drawing, a scanner, Adobe Photoshop (even old versions are ok, I used CS3 for ages and now I'm using CS6) and a graphic tablet (a Wacom Bamb...