With the advent of Procreate and Photoshop, creating art has never been easier. Now, I know saying that digital art is “easier” can be a touchy subject, but it’s true in many respects. Traditional art forms like painting do not have an undo button. They also don’t have a way to store exact colour swatches in unlimited amounts, delete layers of paint, or manipulate an entire composition with a few clicks. I’m not trying to knock digital art though; it has its place and requires its own unique set of skills. But for some artists, myself included, the process of digital painting doesn’t spark the same kind of satisfaction. The tactile nature of making art using your hands is part of the experience, even if it comes at the price of a massive clean up.
Using a grid in Photoshop can help you plan your composition accurately.
For those of us committed to a tangible canvas, we can still integrate digital art into our practice without crossing over to it entirely. There are several tools within Photoshop and InDesign that can be used on-screen to help create art off-screen. Below are the three I use most.
Grid
If you’re painting from a reference photo onto a larger canvas, using a grid is a great way to lay out your composition accurately. While you could simply draw a grid directly onto a physical photograph, uploading it into Photoshop and using the grid function will save you the trouble of drawing all those lines twice and keeps you from ruining your original photo. In addition, it allows you to zoom in on the picture which can make it easier to see small details. A grid is not always necessary for larger canvases, but if you’re working with a complex composition or subject matter that needs to have exact measurements (e.g., architecture), using a grid can save you a lot of frustration later on.
Using the eyedropper tool will give you a CMYK breakdown of how to mix a paint colour.
Eyedropper
I’ll be the first to admit it: I struggle with colour matching. My main issue is that I’m often reluctant to go as dark or intense as I should, and the picture ends up looking dull. I can see what the colour is that I need to make, but I second-guess myself and hold back. By using the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, I can click a spot on my reference picture and create a swatch. Sometimes being able to see a colour swatch outside of the context of the image can give you a more realistic perception of it. In addition—and this is my favourite part—the swatch will show the CMYK breakdown of the colour, which is immensely helpful for mixing colours. Our brains have very rigid ideas of how things look, and they aren’t always that accurate: grass is green, the sky is blue, etc. So we sometimes let these preconceived notions influence how we mix the colours rather than relying on what we are objectively seeing. By looking at the CMYK breakdown, you can get a better understanding of how to mix the colour, which is particularly useful when dealing with lots of similar tones or reflected colours.
Combining all of your reference photos into a digital canvas can help plan your layout.
Combining images
When you are creating one painting using multiple reference photos, InDesign is a great tool for laying out your composition. If you start a new document that has the same page dimensions as your canvas, you can combine all of your references into one spread. This is ideal for testing out different compositions before settling on one. You might find that a different layout works better than your original idea.
Even if you’re a staunch traditionalist, digital tools can still play a role in creating your art. Don’t restrict yourself by brushing off new technology. It can make you a more efficient and precise artist. If you’re a beginner, using these tools can help you understand colour theory and composition better while you’re still getting the hang of things. Most importantly, keep making art!