Basalt Island Digital Painting Study Part 4

BasaltIsland10B

Tonight I’ve finished off this study by doing the water.  Again the Shaddy Safadi tutorials gave me a real boost here.

  1. On a separate layer with just the water area selected, I brushed in the water highlights: BasaltIsland7B
  2. Then I created a water accents layer and brushed in the accents (darker areas): BasaltIsland8B
  3. Using Gimp’s Bristles 01 brush for painting in and erasing out, I built up the wave details: BasaltIsland10B

I learned some really useful techniques for rendering rock faces and water in this study:

  1. Block in with a solid brush.
  2. Use separate layers for block-in, highlights and accents.
  3. Use textured brushes to then refine the highlights and accents.
  4. For doing waves, first put in strong confident strokes and then chop them up into individual waves.