制作南瓜樹

每個萬圣節(jié)我都想做一幅幽靈般的畫。有一年，我做了一件叫做南瓜樹的作品，我用一個南瓜燈穿過了一棵老樹�，F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有點老了，所以現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不在我的作品中了，但一兩年后，我用這篇文章來做了，這樣我就可以把這個主題稍微推一下，讓它更有活力，并應(yīng)用我從數(shù)字繪畫中學到的東西。

Every Halloween I try to make a spooky painting. One year I made a piece called The Pumpkin Tree where I crossed an old tree with a Jack-o-lantern. It's a bit old now so it's no longer in my portfolio, but a year or two later I followed it up with this piece so I could push the theme a little more, make it more dynamic and apply what I'd learned about digital painting since the last one.

縮略圖

這可能是整個過程中最重要的一步。有時你可以制作出大量的縮略圖，試圖把你的腦袋里的東西涂在畫布上。在最右上角的圖像中，我喜歡場景中的深度和南瓜樹的表情。然后在左上方的縮略圖上，我對他的震驚表情感到非常興奮，這讓我覺得他可能會在場景中被別人嚇到，因此最后的縮略圖我添加了一個小技巧或者處理器。這篇作文也很大膽，很生動，我想要它是關(guān)于男孩和樹的，其他所有的東西都應(yīng)該支持它，然后坐好。

thumbnail

This might be the most vital step in the whole process. Sometimes you'll nail it sooner and sometimes you can be churning out lots of thumbnails trying to get what's in your head onto the canvas. In the top right image in the set of four I started to feel like I was getting warm. I liked the depth in the scene and the pumpkin tree's expression. Then in the top left thumbnail on the set of three I really warmed to his shocked expression and it made me think he could be scared of someone else in the scene, hence the final thumbnail where I added a little trick-or-treater. This composition is also very bold and graphic, I wanted it to be about the boy and the tree and everything else should support that and sit well back.

工作

首先，我將文件從2000px提升到4000px。這幅畫的工作流程很重要的一點是，縮略圖真的把所有東西都釘在了一起，所以所有的重大決定都已經(jīng)做出來了。這并不總是這樣的，當你從一個小到大的時候，某些事情會隨著各種各樣的問題變得更加明顯。

Working big

First I up-res the file from about 2000px to 4000px. What's great about the workflow of this particular painting is that the thumbnail really nailed everything, so all the major decisions had already been made. This is not always the case as sometimes, when you go from small to big, certain things can fall apart as various problems are more noticeable.

So I take all the separate layers which I'd used in the thumbnail and start to apply some basic layers of paint just to lay down approximate colors. Nothing fancy and no layer modes or effects except maybe a dodge around the flames.

所以我把縮略圖中用到的所有圖層都放在縮略圖上，開始涂上一些基本的顏料，只是為了畫出近似的顏色。沒有什么奇特的，沒有層模式或效果，除非在火焰周圍躲閃。

修正量

我現(xiàn)在正試著確保物體正確地閱讀，地面飛機有形狀和維度，樹坐在上面，看起來就像在三維空間里。所以我用草刷創(chuàng)造了一層草。我使用隱含照明，首先顯示一些點燃的剪影樹的黑暗的形式,然后空間照明的草會給我們黑暗的一個閱讀空間,然后再回到前景深草對一些綠色的輪廓與光草。所有這些都創(chuàng)造了良好的地面紋理。我還決定把這棵樹從地上抬起來，好像他有腿似的，這使他更有個性。

Correcting volume

I'm now trying to make sure things read properly and that the ground plane has form and dimensionality and that the tree sits atop with it all looking like it sits in 3D space. So I created layers of grasses using a grass stamp brush. I used the implied lighting from the mouth to give me an excuse to show first some lit silhouettes against the darker form of the tree, then a space of illuminated grass which will give our dark headstones a read, then back into the foreground darker grass again for some more grassy silhouettes to read against the light grass. All this creates nice ground texture and also sells the lighting because it's landing on objects in the scene. I also decided to lift the tree off the ground, almost as though he has legs, which further personifies him.

二次照明

我想所有的藝術(shù)家都知道建立顏色對比的重要性，所以這里我要采取必要的步驟來對暖場進行冷卻。即使沒有一個大的藍色天空來提供二次光，我想我還是會把它放在一起，因為它不僅有助于描述一個三維的形式，而且還能增加情緒。當溫度降低時，我們可以更欣賞溫暖。我開始在樹的光區(qū)添加紋理和形式。我想讓他有一種老而粗糙的樹皮。

Secondary lighting

I think all artists know how important it is to set up some color contrast and so here I'm taking the necessary steps to play some cools against the warms. Even if there wasn't a big blue sky to provide a secondary light, I think I'd just put one in regardless as it not only helps to describe a three-dimensional form but also adds mood. We can appreciate the warms even more when they're set against the cools. I'm beginning to add texture and form in the light areas of the tree too. I wanted him to have old, gnarly bark.

火和皮膚

所以這一步很有趣，因為我們在畫一棵樹，但也要記住它不只是一棵樹，而是一個雕刻的南瓜，里面有火。我做了一些研究，看了一下杰克燈的照片，看看我如何能在一些次表面散射和半透明狀態(tài)下工作。這確實有助于說明他是什么——一個被掏空了的南瓜樹!為了達到這個目的，我把他的嘴巴和眼睛稍微厚一點(像南瓜的肉)，然后巧妙地把道奇工具應(yīng)用到任何一個很薄的地方，坐在光源的前面。這主要是在他的牙齒上看到的，它有一個很好的橙色光。

Fire and flesh

So this step is pretty fun because we're painting a tree, but also remembering that it's not just a tree, but a carved pumpkin that has a fire inside. I did a little research and looked at photos of jack-o-lanterns to see how I might work in some sub-surface scattering and translucency wherever I could. This really helps to illustrate what he is - a hollowed out, well, pumpkin tree! To that end I gave his mouth and eyes a little thickness (like a pumpkin's flesh) and then went about subtly applying the dodge tool to any areas that were thin and sitting right in front of the light source. This is mainly going to be seen in his teeth, which have a nice orange glow to them.

組成框架

在這里，我感覺我們好像被放大了一點，所以我稍微縮小了一點。與右邊的對比也有很大的差別，與左邊的對比也不夠。在左邊我們可以看到他的輪廓，主要是在上肢。這似乎平衡了整個構(gòu)圖，所以它不是很明顯地集中在樹和男孩的臉上。我也開始在樹本身中畫更多的細節(jié)。

Composition framing

Here I just felt like we were zoomed in a little tight, so I shrunk everything down slightly. There was also too much contrast to the right and not enough contrast to the left. On the left we can now see his silhouette that bit more, mainly in the upper limbs. This seems to balance the overall composition so it's not too obviously focused on the face of the tree and the boy. I've also started to paint in more detail into the tree itself.

進一步的變形

這對我來說可能是最有趣的方面——在樹的美的紋理上，用一種溫暖/涼爽的燈光，讓更小的表格更容易閱讀。我給了他一種肋狀的、凹凸不平的樹皮，它能很好地包裹在形狀上，給人的印象是他大概是一個圓柱體。當它轉(zhuǎn)向月亮時，它只會拾取一點邊緣光。我還在上面點了一些樹皮，這些樹皮通常會給人一種令人毛骨悚然的感覺。

Further texturing

This might be the most fun aspect for me - noodling away on the yummy texture of the tree with a nice warm/cool lighting set up to make it easy for smaller forms to read. I gave him a sort of ribbed, bumpy bark which wraps nicely around the form and helps to give the impression that he's roughly a cylinder shape. As it turns toward the moon it'll pick up just a touch of rim light. I also up-lit some of the bark that pushed out which always tends to give a spooky vibe to a painting.

背景元素

現(xiàn)在我對樹的紋理感到滿意了，我強迫自己把它放下(渲染是如此的有趣)，然后繼續(xù)清理其他的環(huán)境。所以得到了一些常春藤，我增加了這個小男孩的尺寸，因為他很小。

Background elements

Now that I'm happy with the tree texture, I force myself to put it down (rendering is such fun) and get on with cleaning up the rest of the environment. So the graves get some ivy and I increase the size of the little guy as he was pretty tiny.

小細節(jié)

所以一旦所有主要的組件都完成了，我就開始在所有的小細節(jié)中工作，在一個很大程度上是大膽的，簡單的形狀的場景中增加一個復雜性。這是大的，中等的，小的形狀原理，直到現(xiàn)在我一直在做大的和中等的。我給男孩加了一些顏料，給他一個冰球面具，一把木制的劍，還有一個小搗蛋的袋子。如果你仔細看，袋子上有一個小小的南瓜臉。我覺得加入蝙蝠和小紅眼睛只會增加萬圣節(jié)的情趣。這幅畫的最后一個音符是，男孩和右邊的樹有一個非常微妙的邊緣。這只是一點點，但它確實有助于展示剪影和可信度的燈光。

Small details

So once all the main components are done, I start to work in all the little details, adding a sprinkling of complexity to a scene that's largely bold, simple shapes. It's the big, medium, and small shapes principle and up until now I've been working on the big and medium. I add some paint to the boy and give him a hockey mask and a wooden sword as well as a little trick-or-treat bag. If you look closely there's a tiny pumpkin face on the bag. I thought the addition of bats and little red eyes would just give that extra layer of Halloween spice. One final note on painting here - there's a very subtle rim light on the boy and the right side of the tree. It's only a little, but it really helps to sell the silhouettes and the believability of the lighting.

第二遍

所以在做這件作品之后，我回過頭去更新它，因為有一些東西在困擾著我。 我不喜歡樹左側(cè)的輪廓，我也覺得顏色可以推得更多一點。 所以我拿出文件，糾正了這些問題。 最后的一點就是為這件作品添加一些維度 - 深度的場景效果加入到背景和前景中，真正將注意力吸引到需要的地方。

Second pass

So a while after I made this piece, I went back to update it as a couple of things were bothering me. I wasn't keen on the silhouette of the left side of the tree and I also felt the colors could have been pushed a little more. So I got out the file and corrected these issues. And one final touch just to add some dimensionality to the piece - a depth of field effect added to the background and foreground to really pull the attention to where it's needed.