Re:DYE

Good question @saprophilous. Lemme put this up so that those who are interested, can get a glimpse as well.

Alright, the illustration above is more than 6 months old, so it’s a bit outdated in terms of knowledge, but I’ll dissect it anyway. 

Question number 1: How do we separate planes? 

You have multiple ways, the most important one is through values, without them any painting will fail. You can separate planes through form, colors, as well as through chroma (low-high saturation). But, and this where your question comes in, you can separate planes through patterns. We will refer to them as “texture” (T blue) and “smooth” (S red) on this pajama party. Simplify it, think of the manga Berserk. Miura creates extremely intricate illustrations while being limited to only black and white; the reason it doesn’t go under in a muddy mess, is the use of well placed patterns on each individual object (hatching and screentones), as well as place to rest, let’s call it “oasis”. The red arrows above show you such a place, notice how the plain smoothness neutralizes the neighboring texture? This is a switch in planes. Pure texture all over the place would result in a mess, you can’t communicate form with texture alone. 

Let’s move on to some more elaborate examples in a few wip’s. I doubt that I’ll continue working on the majority of them, but at least they found some use now. Each around 500px, so either open them in a new tab, or use a monocle.

Mob Psycho 100 wip

Very simple, don’t drench it in texture. The example on the left has pretty texture-heavy brush strokes as well (upper edge of the canvas, around head, clothing), but it harmonizes quite well. Always make sure to leave the textures enough room to breathe, even the tiny areas, like on the uniform. 

Code Vein wip2

This is still in a very early phase, so think of it as where I would want the texture to be. Take Mia as example, I know that her hat will have a fur texture to it, so I’ll smooth out the neighboring planes, or in this case I’ll make the ceiling of the structure behind her reflective. This will all have a very diffused lighting, so the textures will be mostly eminent around the highlight areas.

Sword Maiden portrait wip

Create interesting shifts not just with textures, but also with hues and micro values. I know that the top of her head will be bright, quite smooth, almost silky, so I’ll contrast that with subtle textures in a range of dark green/blue hues, with some tiny bits of high chroma dark yellow. In most cases, textures are apparent in the areas where light hits- not quite where it get’s hit directly, but more around the midtones. Count the bounce light in as well, notice how the reflected light from below creates a subtle shimmering on her neck and cheek.

a21 & Undine wip

Nothing new really, analyze the light and floor from the picture above. Pic below, top of the head and feline ears are smooth, around mid of the head room for some textures again to contrast the smooth face.

Dragoon2 wip

Similar to the sword maiden, only here it’s full-plated armor except the smooth face. Always think of the material, and what kind of texture, if any, it may feature. Metal is pretty versatile, rust, cracks, dents etc. A cloth, as Gael’s, may not be as versatile, but I always like making cloth feel “alive”, see^ subconsciously I made the rags look like veins. Truly what a night.

Berserk - Godhand wip

Are you still with me, dear Hunter? We are almost done.

Just wanted to showcase a more complex painting, and what goes on when there is.. a lot of stuff going on. This will be quite big, around 15000px. You really have to separate values first, create a solid distinction between forms, I start with color, but I recommend everyone to start in grayscale first, adding texture should be the icing on the cake, but you should structure your painting while keeping the relation between all these planes in mind, from the beginning.

And for the climax. I exclusively use texture brushes, or more than anything, I like to create textures myself with a 1px-25px hard brush while painting. I believe it has more personality and unpredictability over photos. From hundreds of brushes I probably only use like a 5 in every painting. Here is one of the better ones, download on the right. Experiment with the settings, play around until it works for (you).

Well I hope this was somewhat helpful. It probably wasn’t anything other than confusing lol. 

Nevertheless, focus and Keep Grinding!