Back to all courses

Digital Painting 101

Overview
Master the fundamentals of digital painting at your own pace with this all-new Lunar Academy course featuring Mooncolony Senior Artist Alexandre Leoni.

This course, led by Alexandre Leoni, guides you through the essentials of digital painting with an emphasis on the fundamental skills needed for employment in the video game industry. Starting with an introduction to the basics, Alexandre highlights the importance of a structured workflow using a pyramid model—shapes and forms, values, edges, and colors—to create a solid foundation and streamline your process.

Learn the significance of shapes for dynamic and appealing illustrations, practicing simplification and silhouette experimentation. The course then delves into adding depth with perspective, mastering cubes and cylinders, and applying horizon lines and vanishing points through practical exercises.

Understanding values is crucial as you explore shades of gray to add depth, local and light values, and value grouping with practical examples. Edge control is another key aspect, where you will experiment with hard, soft, and lost edges to enhance composition and direct viewer attention using various brushes and tools.

Lastly, the course touches on color theory and practical issues like monitor variations and printing. Alexandre emphasizes value control for consistency and shares intuitive color selection tips and schemes, concluding with a practical exercise that applies color to a demo painting. These techniques prepare you for the demands of professional digital painting, enhancing your portfolio and putting you on the path to career success.

Chapter 1 - Introduction (44 seconds)

Begin your next adventure as Alexandre Leoni takes you through the fundamentals of painting 101, and how to craft your perfect approach along the way.

Chapter 2 - Structure (2:01 mins)

This chapter highlights the need for a structured workflow in painting. A chaotic process can lead to frustration, while a structured approach simplifies decision-making and maintains control. Using a pyramid model—starting with shape and form, then values, edges, and finally colors—ensures a solid foundation and workflow.

Chapter 3 - Shapes (11:24 mins)

This chapter focuses on the importance of shapes. Leoni shares his top tips on how to use shapes to instantly make your illustrations more dynamic and appealing. Practice simplifying shapes and experiment with silhouettes for appealing designs to finish this chapter.

Chapter 4 - Form (10:12 mins)

This chapter delves into adding depth to your drawings using perspective: creating the illusion of three dimensions on a flat 2D surface. You'll learn the essentials of cubes and cylinders in perspective, understand concepts like horizon lines and vanishing points, and how to correctly apply the "Cube Rule" for a more realistic look. Complete this chapter with practical exercises to help you grasp these concepts.

Chapter 5 - Values (20:16 mins)

This chapter dives into the realm of black-and-white painting, focusing on values – the different shades of gray that give depth to your artwork. You'll understand the significance of value simplification, separate local values from light values, and learn how to manipulate them effectively. Leoni introduces the concepts of light families and shadow families, discussing how light interacts with different surfaces and forms. With practical examples and exercises, you'll grasp the nuances of value grouping and apply them to your own work.

Chapter 6 - Edges (4:27 mins)

This chapter explores the intricacies of edge control in digital painting, focusing on three main types: hard, soft, and lost edges. It emphasizes using these edges strategically to improve composition and direct viewer attention. Experiment with different brushes and the lasso tool to achieve diverse textures and shapes. Mastering edge control will enhance the depth and quality of your artwork.

Chapter 7 - Color (33:47 mins)

Last but definitely not least, Leoni jumps into the realm of color, tackling tricky issues like monitor variations and printing quirks. He emphasizes nailing down value control for consistency across platforms, and shares intuitive color selection tips. From monochromatic to complementary, he covers various color schemes with practical demos. The course ends with a final practical exercise applying color to a demo painting, showing how early decisions shape the final artwork.

Overview
Master the fundamentals of digital painting at your own pace with this all-new Lunar Academy course featuring Mooncolony Senior Artist Alexandre Leoni.

This course, led by Alexandre Leoni, guides you through the essentials of digital painting with an emphasis on the fundamental skills needed for employment in the video game industry. Starting with an introduction to the basics, Alexandre highlights the importance of a structured workflow using a pyramid model—shapes and forms, values, edges, and colors—to create a solid foundation and streamline your process.

Learn the significance of shapes for dynamic and appealing illustrations, practicing simplification and silhouette experimentation. The course then delves into adding depth with perspective, mastering cubes and cylinders, and applying horizon lines and vanishing points through practical exercises.

Understanding values is crucial as you explore shades of gray to add depth, local and light values, and value grouping with practical examples. Edge control is another key aspect, where you will experiment with hard, soft, and lost edges to enhance composition and direct viewer attention using various brushes and tools.

Lastly, the course touches on color theory and practical issues like monitor variations and printing. Alexandre emphasizes value control for consistency and shares intuitive color selection tips and schemes, concluding with a practical exercise that applies color to a demo painting. These techniques prepare you for the demands of professional digital painting, enhancing your portfolio and putting you on the path to career success.

Meet your mentor
Alexandre Leoni

With 14+ years of artistry under his belt, Leoni is a notable figure in Brazil’s creative community and an invaluable asset to Mooncolony’s art team. Now he's ready to help take your art skills to the next level with Lunar Academy mentorships and courses.

Cooperated with
No items found.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between courses and short courses?

The courses are long-form, in-depth pieces of content that have been shot in person with our artists in a studio environment. They are the ultimate way to learn intimately alongside Mooncolony artists.

Our short courses are shorter pieces of bite-size content which are more informal and aimed at casual learning. They are the perfect chance to learn new techniques quickly.

When will you be releasing more content?

New Lunar Academy course content are released monthly. To be notified when new content is released, join our mailing list or follow our social media pages.

How do I access my course library?

You can access your course library by signing in here.