Keep Up With Rosewater!
- I may add some updates to here other than what I post in my main journal entry
Art News and Updates
I'm planning on drawing something in the next few days. I'm still not sure what yet. I've also been getting people asking me when I'll livestream again. Please don't keep asking me. I'm not sure when I'll livestream again. I don't feel like streaming for a while and asking won't make me stream. I apologize for the inconvenience.
I hope it helps 
1ST STEP: LINEART
Many people seem to think that I actually draw my linearts directly in photoshop. Actually, I don't. I draw all my linearts traditionally, or by hand first and then I scan them to my computer. Some people may prefer drawing their linearts digitally, which is fine but it might be easier for you do that if you own a tablet >.<' Since I paint everything with a mouse, it's just easier for me to scan my linearts instead
However, there's one thing that I learned about digitally painting any lineart work that you do: make sure to draw in the details that you want if you want to paint any details. For instance, if you want a detailed dragon, try drawing out some of the scales first and then when you go into the painting portion of it, you'll be able to know where to paint your scales, and so on and so forth.
After having drawn out your lineart, I usually load it into photoshop as a simple .jpg file and I try cleaning it up, like erasing parts of the lineart that I may have messed up on such as if something wasn't in proportion, or if there are smudges on the lineart that you can erase, and things like that; just pretty much making it look neater and cleaner for painting.
2ND STEP: SETTING UP MY LAYERS(This set up is done for Adobe Photoshop CS6, which is the program that I use for painting all of my pieces, so the setup may be different depending on which program you're using.) This is a very crucial step for me and this is the same setup that I've used for all my pieces ever since I first used Photoshop 5 years ago After drawing out the lineart by hand and scanning it to my computer, I create a separate lineart layer for that with the mode set to 'multiply.' I never touch my lineart layer unless I want to either hide it or mask it, otherwise, as far as the actual painting goes, I never paint on that layer unless it's directly on the mask layer I created for it (sometimes I'll go in and change it a little if the lineart is really messy, but no actual painting on that layer).I then create another layer right under my lineart. I make sure that I have white as the foreground colour (where you have the default black and white colour pallete for your brush colours). I want to make this my background layer. In order to do that, I go to the layer menu on the toolbar -> new-> layer from background with a white background colour.
I then create a separate layer above the lineart layer, which is my 'highlights' layer, with mode set to 'screen.' That's where I do all of my highlighting, which for me in how I paint, is extremely important. I cannot stress that enough.
After that, beneath the lineart layer, I'll create a main colour layer with mode set to 'multiply', which if I'm doing dragons, then I'll just paint the entire canvas on that layer specifically with the overall colour that I want to paint the piece (no details or highlights go here, just the overall general colour). If I'm painting anime, then I create a separate layer for skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, clothing colour, etc, all set to multiply.
Then I'll usually create one other layer for the details, mode set to 'multiply.' This is where the shadowing will go. If I'm doing my dragons or even wolves, I only use one detailing layer. Sometimes if I'm painting other things such as anime, I'll have a separate shadow area for different things, like skin details, eye details, hair details, etc so they're not getting mixed up.
I will also usually create duplicate layers of the same thing that I broke up to work on individually (for example, for my highlights, if I have a dragon and water in the picture, sometimes I'll have just a highlighting layer for the scale highlights for my dragons and a separate highlights layer for like say the ripples in the water and such). I'll sometimes do the same thing for my detail layers too.
highlights
lineart
Main Colour
detail
Background layer (the one that I would create from layer -> new layer -> background from layer)That's the basic setup of how I use my layers for every painting that I do 3RD STEP: THE ACTUAL PAINTING PORTION For the painting part of it, on my main colour layer that I create, I usually try to pick out a colour scheme that I want for my piece and I just pretty much paint the entire layer with the colours that I've chosen (I don't ever worry about the quality on this layer, I just paint the overall layer with what colours I want. No actual skill for this one and those who have seen my livestreams should know XD).
The actual painting that I do lies really in my highlights and details layer. For my highlights (while having the highlights layer selected), I'll use the lighter colour of the main colour that I've used, I'll have my paint brush as a 1 pixel brush with both the flow and opacity for my paint set to 100% (I wouldn't recommend setting the flow to 100% unless you feel comfortable using it that high, otherwise it still works if it's 60% or higher) and I zoom in about 500% so that I can see the details that I'm working on. This is a very crucial step and it takes a while but once you get the hang of it, it's awesome
Again, this may not be your style in painting, but this what I personally do, especially for my dragons
The detailing portion doesn't have to be that concise. You can just zoom out a little bit and making your brush radius larger and, while on the detail layer, not the highlights layer, you can paint over the parts of the piece that you believe need the shadows. At that point, you can then play around with the highlights and shadows to see how you think they can blend together in the piece.
TOOLS THAT I USE PERSONALLY IN PHOTOSHOPThere are typically only three tools that I use constantly: paint brush, eraser, and the smudge tool. I don't ever use any special effects (unless I'm doing rain, and in which case, I usually use the Gaussian blur motion tool that I have, but even then, I rarely do that). Sometimes I'll play around with the pen tool if I'm doing anime, but again, I don't do that very often. I'll also occasionally use the lasso tools (when I'm painting the chest plates of my dragons to paint the edges) and the selecting box tools to move things around and such. Otherwise, I don't ever use special effects or lighting effects to that nature. I actually am not familiar with how to use those special effects very well so I just practically stick with what I know and try to build it from there.
For how I paint, the smudge tool is my best friend It creates the painting effects that I want for like my scales and stuff.
WHAT SORT OF TABLET DO YOU USE?I've probably stated this many different times, but I'll go ahead and say it again. I use a mouse to paint everything. I don't have a tablet, I've never owned a tablet. I didn't even know what a tablet was until after about a year of using photoshop and at that point, I was so used to using a mouse that I just didn't see it as something worth getting. I might get a tablet in the future though, but for right now, I'm comfortable with painting with a mouse and I'm proud to say that I use a mouse to paint all of my pieces. I hope that this was somewhat helpful to all of you out there who are digital painters I'm still learning how to paint and learning different techniques with each time that I paint something so my techniques may be different down the road, but for right now, this is what I normally use and do for when I'm ever painting anything. With all due respect,Rose 
Some Funny Stuff
It feels like I'm motherfucking stuck... in this duck. It makes me want to quack, like... WTF IS THAT???
