Workshops

84 May 2007
 In depth Modern classical painting

Photoshop & Painter

MODERN
CLASSICAL PAINTING Marta Dahlig shows you how to add classical
painting qualities to your everyday works
Marta Dahlig
COUNTRY: Poland espite the passing of time it that makes a ‘classical’ painting? theoretical. This time, I’ll concentrate

D
CLIENTS: Complex Arts,
and constant technological And how can this be achieved? not on how, but what to paint. I’ll share
PosterLounge, Ballistic
advances that change the In contrast to modern realism, some hints and tips regarding the
Born in 1986, ways art is produced, classical classical stylisation goes far beyond mentioned key elements throughout the
Marta Dahlig
is a young
masterpieces remain as captivating as technicalities. Its secret is not to rely on whole process of composition and
and talented ever. They are, even in the modern day the brushes used, but instead to focus rendering. Where applicable, I’ll also
artist who has and age, an ultimate source of on the recognition and correct describe the differences between modern
been working with
Painter for years. She’s a
inspiration to succeeding generations implementation of all the key elements and classical ways of depiction of certain
freelance illustrator. of artists, both traditional and digital. that form the ‘soul’ of old masters’ elements, and I’m going to explain how
www.marta-dahlig.com These old paintings possess a set of paintings – the subject and colour to simulate traditional techniques with
DVD Assets unique qualities which, even though choice, composition and understanding digital media.
The files you need they’re hard to nail, make them stand of anatomy. As my study subject, I chose late
are on the DVD out still among modern artwork. Because most of the work is done 19th and early 20th Century paintings,
FOLDERS: Sourcefiles,
And so, one might ask the questions: inside the head on the level of planning especially those of Lord Frederick
Screenshots.
FILES: MartaFinal What’s the essence of this style? What is the image, this workshop will be mainly Leighton and William Bouguereau.
SOFTWARE: Painter X,
Photoshop CS2 (demos)

Getting started
1 The first step is to choose suitable
apply the colour of your light source
using the different brush modes
content for your artwork. There’s a huge available in Photoshop on top of the
variety of subjects that can be found skin tone results from step 2 (3).
among classical paintings and, for this
The sketching begins
workshop, I chose something I
personally find to be the essence of the 3 Once you have the basics defined,
classics – a female portrait, set in a you can start the actual sketching
natural environment. process. However, there are a few things
that should be understood beforehand.
Choosing colours
2 While it’s quite easy to think of
The definition of beauty has changed
immensely over the past centuries and
colour themes in your head, it’s often so women perceived as beautiful 100
tricky to actually choose particular years ago had qualities significantly
shades. I have, however, some tricks different than the modern icons of
which help me out in the process. Start beauty. Furthermore, over the past few
centuries the actual anatomy of women
has changed.
I will be mentioning these distinctions
throughout the workshop, but for now
three basic differences are needed for
initial sketching: smaller height of
women in the past, which directly affects
by picking one main colour that will be the proportions (shorter limbs), their
the skin’s mid-tone (1). Then, mix that wider hips and general figure plumpness.
colour with mid-tones chosen for the In short, avoid painting slender, willowy
foreground and background (2). To grab models and try to give your character
nice hues for highlights and shadows, some stereotypical feminine qualities.

May 2007 85
 Workshops

either a calm facial expression or a shy,

pensive look.
There’s one thing to keep in mind at all
times: a popular modern style of leaving
Still sketching!
4 Sometimes, as it was in my case,
the character’s mouth slightly open was
widely avoided in the past!
one sketch isn’t enough – my character
simply seemed to be too bulky and “not PRO airbrush or perhaps Painter’s Just Add Painting silky hair
enough Bouguereau”. This was caused by SECRETS Water tool. There are two main things to
two factors: general pose stiffness and It’s important to use these methods remember when painting hair: first of
the heavy body build – it’s extremely Doing research simultaneously. Limiting yourself to one all, it should always look combed and
When trying out a new
important for the character to remain style, be sure to study will result in either a blocky (Blender) or tidy, so avoid any messy freefalls, loose
graceful and natural. A way to avoid the chosen subject plastic (airbrush) shading. Plumper parts strands or fancy hairstyles. Keeping it
thoroughly. Shallow
rounded figures looking unattractive is (arms, thighs) should be underlined with simple grants the best effects. Secondly,
understanding will
to paint a character of a delicate and always result in poorer more blending, while parts with varying it’s not excessive texturing and shading –
slender build (longer neck, delicate arms outcomes and shallower convexity – stronger differences between every strand that counts in this case, but
and so on) with some excessive tissue ideas, so it really pays shadows and highlights – such as knees, achieving a general feel of softness. The
to spend a lot of time
over certain areas. beforehand gathering breasts, feet and neck might benefit from hair should seem silky and smooth. In
and analysing various rougher blending. order to achieve this effect, rely solely on
Blending and texturing
5
references, and the airbrush tool. Start with choosing
A rather common practice in
preparing yourself
for the challenge. 6 Defining facial features the mid-tone of your hair colour and
realism nowadays is to replace careful Now, let’s move on to the face. First mark the shape of the hair. Afterwards,
shading and blending with an excessive of all, refrain from portraying any bold choose a lighter colour and mark the
amount of textures. These effects are still facial features such as a strong jaw line, main highlighted strands.
stunning and make an artist’s work cheekbones, puffy lips or a big nose. The
easier. In the case of classical stylisation, face ought to be soft and subtle, so give it
however, I advise you to refrain from a round shape, full cheeks, little lips and
such practices. The point of this style is a small, straight nose.
to hint at the details with the typical As for facial expressions, avoid
brush set, just like the masters did, rather portraying strong emotions and giving
than actually paint them with any the character eye contact with the viewer.
shortcuts such as photo brushes. The vast majority of classical females are
As the figure constitutes the main focal staring somewhere into the distance with
point, our goal is to achieve a realistic
skin texture without using any actual
textures. This can be done by balancing
Smooth strand
rough and smooth blending.
Rough blending of the blocked colours 8 texturing
can be done with Blender, but might Gradually move on to smaller and lighter
need to be smoothed further with an strands. The more you draw, the more
realistic the hair will look. Remember
to constantly switch between hues and,
if you work in Photoshop, brush modes
during this step.

Apples, pears
and tissues
While it’s important to mark the
plumpness of the character, it’s crucial
not to go overboard with it (unless you’re
aiming at a more Rubenesque

86 May 2007
 In depth Modern classical painting
stylisation). When it comes to larger
body shapes, we can specify two basic
types: apple and pear. The apple is
characterised by excessive tissue being
gathered around the stomach, while in
the pear type the tissue is concentrating
in the hip-thigh area, with waist
remaining thinner. The pear is obviously
much more feminine, and that’s the
most advisable type to choose for our
classical females. at the level of detail, without going
Underline the softness of the stomach completely overboard.
and the slight convexity of it with To render a painterly forest, choose a
additional shading (red arrow). Extra dark green shade of your liking and make
tissue gives otherwise flat areas some some general colour blobs in the
convexity and so adds some extra background, marking the depth. If you
highlights accordingly (blue arrow). have any trouble planning the
To underline the general softness of the background, study some classical
body and, at the same time, enable it to paintings for inspiration. In my case,
blend with the background better, pick analysing Bouguereau’s Biblis turned out
an airbrush of a skin colour and run to be a wonderfully educating experience
with it over the edges of the body (white for my work.
arrow), creating a glow.

B for better breasts

13 Leaf blobs
10 The classical way of painting
Now pick a lighter colour and with
Painter’s Chalk or Charcoal brush, with
breasts differs quite a lot from the Jitter set to around 4, make some
modern trend. Instead of double D, stay coloured dots, which will simulate
at size A or B without underlining the blurred leaves. Play with hues, angles
cleavage. Breasts should also remain of
natural shape (they are, after all, made 12 Sketching
background
the and brush sizes, constantly making
those blobs. Once you’re satisfied with
of fat tissue), so avoid that unnatural As the character is our main focal point, the results, lower the Jitter to 1 and, on
silicone-like firmness. Remember to the sole role of the background is to fill top of existing dots, make small dots of a
keep the nipples small, too. the space around it. It shouldn’t be too different hue to enrich the green.
detailed nor drag any attention away
Hands and feet
11 The feet should be kept small and
from our female, and so a simple forest is
going to serve this purpose perfectly. Of 14 Grass made easy
Painting grass is quite similar to
the hands delicate and slender, the base course, painting trees and leaves is a very the technique we used for the
of the palm being not too wide and time-consuming thing to do, but the background. First, do some non-
fingers long and narrower at the tips. point of the stylisation is to merely hint contrasting blobs of various colours with
a Jittered brush (just like in the previous
step). Now create a new layer (which
you’ll need for the next step) and one by
one, do some separate leaf blobs of
different colours and brightness, some
short lines simulating blades of grass,
stick and so on.

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 Workshops
moods, original poses, to adding
interesting elements and so on. While
preparing this workshop, I wanted my
painting to retain a 20th century spirit,
yet still be original and separate itself
from the classics. This decision brought
led me to add a little surreal twist to the
image. My initial idea was a subject every
human being can relate to – problems
with finding true happiness in life. To
graphically depict this, you can see I’ve
added a keyhole near the woman’s heart interpretation. I wanted to hint at a
and a key in her hand. sadder, darker side of my idea, for
If you’re lacking inspiration, try to start happiness isn’t easy and sometimes
by thinking about some metaphors that seems impossible to find. So, I painted
you’d like your painting to carry and more keys that my character had
imagine ways of depicting them. If that discarded because they didn’t fit.
15 Rendering water
Painting water is no easy task, PRO doesn’t work, start from the other end –
think of an element that’s very unfitting And we’re done!
especially when it comes to colour SECRETS for the image and then associate some After you’ve got everything in
choices. When painting a stream, for Cropping meaning with it. place – the character shaded, background
example, create a colour that’s a Working with images done, the narrative elements added –
where only a part of a
combination of greyish blue and make
use of the existing greens. For the latter,
character is shown can
sometimes be very tricky
17 Expanding
meaning
the take one last critical look at your
painting. Is there anything else you
create a temporary transparent stroke – an artist has to decide If you haven’t already, try to consult could do? Or anything to improve? Play
what to show and what
over the painted grass and use the Eye to crop out of the
others about your ideas – you might end with your work: flip it horizontally,
Dropper to pick the colours. picture. It might seem up expanding your ideas further. In my fiddle with saturation and check whether
To indicate movement, add some tempting to show as case, I felt the keyhole and one key Photoshop’s Colour Balance tool can
much of a character as
highlights over the water surface with a possible, but sometimes
weren’t enough, as they didn’t permit offer any nice results.
colour lighter than the base. If you want it’s much better to give much room for imagination and
to create a nice texture over the water, up some details for the
sake of composition.
copy the layer created in the previous step
For example, in the case
containing the leaves and blades of grass of bust portraits, it’s
(not the base colour blobs), drag it on to more efficient to crop
the top of the head as
the water surface and change the layer
well – otherwise the
mode to Soft Light. You might want to image might look
adjust the layer’s saturation and opacity. crammed and the
character ‘stuffed’ inside
the painting.
16 Turning surreal
It’s always a good idea to add some
narrative elements to your painting in
order to enrich its meaning. There’s a
unlimited number of ways to do so,
ranging from depictions of intense

88 May 2007