Creature Character Design (Photoshop) English subtitles

“I want to add light and shadow effects to my artwork, but I don’t know how to do it.”

“I often see artists online using grayscale-to-color techniques, but when I try it, the colors end up looking muddy.”

Hello everyone, I’m Wei, a lecturer with over ten years of experience in digital art teaching, animation, games, and publishing. During my teaching journey, character design and coloring have been topics of curiosity for many students, yet they also present challenges in the learning process. Common issues include:

Not knowing how to approach character design thinking

Uncertainty about how to apply lighting effectively

Colors often becoming muddy or unclear

In this course, I will use my artwork “Axolotl Mariachi,” which received a Special Mention in the 2020 Character Design Challenge, as an example to share my thought process in character design. I’ll cover my approach to layer management, basic lighting concepts, and color blending techniques in Photoshop. Through a simple character design example and the fundamentals of AO (ambient occlusion) painting, I aim to help you create characters with strong personalities and make coloring less of a challenge during the drawing process!

Let’s work together to make character creation more intuitive and exciting using Photoshop!

Why should you learn AO painting techniques?

AO painting techniques involve breaking down elements of light, shadow, and color into layers for interpretation, which are then integrated during the coloring process. In Photoshop, we can take advantage of layers to manage lighting, coloring, and other effects separately. This layered approach not only helps in developing a solid understanding of light and shadow concepts but also deepens your grasp of color theory, making it an excellent starting point for learning. In real-world applications and work scenarios, this painting method allows for quick and convenient adjustments during the coloring stage. Now, let’s dive into what will be shared in this Photoshop-focused course!

Review of Basic Functions

The first step in mastering AO painting techniques is to have a certain level of familiarity with the layers of the software being used. Therefore, before discussing AO painting, I will guide everyone through a quick overview of the software Photoshop that we will be using in this course. This will ensure that everyone is comfortable with the software as we dive into the painting process!

How to Efficiently Conceptualize Your Artwork

Many people enjoy creating their own original characters, but often struggle to efficiently integrate the concepts in their minds during the brainstorming process, leading to unnecessary time expenditure on their creations. In this section, I will guide everyone on how to consolidate pre-creation ideas and gather relevant information using Photoshop. This will enhance communication for self-creation as well as future discussions with clients, allowing for a more efficient approach to character design!

Important Scaffolding – Sketching the Line Art

No matter what kind of subject you’re working on, line art is a fundamental element that we must value and should never overlook or bypass. In this chapter, I will break down the logic and thought process behind drawing line art using Photoshop. Once we become familiar with the method of creating lines in Photoshop, it will allow us to deconstruct problems efficiently and simplify them when we encounter challenges in our artwork. Let’s focus on building a solid foundation for line art in this chapter!

Basic Concepts You Must Know Before Coloring

Starting from this chapter, we will guide you through the application of coloring tools in Photoshop, as well as the structure of light and color. Coloring involves managing multiple factors simultaneously, such as light, shadow, and colors, which can be overwhelming for beginners. In this chapter, I will break down and explain the components of lighting step by step, helping you build a solid understanding of light and shadow!

The Art of Storytelling: How to Create Captivating Light and Shadow

The AO (Ambient Occlusion) painting technique involves separating the consideration of light, shadow, and color. Building on the introduction from the previous chapter, we will dive deeper into the composition of light and shadow. When lighting is done right, the dramatic impact of the artwork becomes more pronounced. The key focus of this chapter is how to seamlessly merge all the elements after deconstructing the light, shadow, and color. If you’re looking to achieve a harmonious balance between color and lighting in Photoshop, this is a chapter you won’t want to miss!

Basic Concepts of the Thick Painting Technique & Developing a Sense of Depth and Refinement

Finally, we will discuss how to apply the basic concepts of the thick painting technique to give your creature designs a stronger sense of depth and texture. Through final touches and refinements, your work will gain greater completeness in its final stage!

This course serves as a bridge between beginner and intermediate levels. If you’re already comfortable with Photoshop and want to move beyond the basics and enter the realm of more professional artistry, this course is your best choice. We warmly invite you to join us—see you in class!