Ctrl+Paint - Black and White Photo Studies (Skill Drill)

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/black-white-photo-studies

Are you having trouble painting light and shadow? This series will build your black & white fundamentals. Instead of teaching new principles, I’ll guide you through a progression of four photo-study drills. Each drill targets a specific aspect of black and white rendering, focusing your efforts on essential concepts. Like musical scales or athletic routines, these assignments are designed for repetition and can be practiced at any skill level.

Video game arenas are fun, challenging, topics to illustrate.  A jungle arena might have beautiful, winding, paths - but hidden underneath is a rigid blueprint of strict dimensions and gameplay requirements.  As a result, the space is both aesthetically pleasing and mechanically sound.   This series offers you an assignment to design one of these rich gameplay spaces.  Like other portfolio builders, I'll be demonstrating my response to the assignment, but you'll be working on your own interpretation.  Instead of my artwork, the focus is on the decision-making process - allowing you to apply the guidance to your own portfolio piece.

Even if you’re confident with a pencil and paper, digital linework in Photoshop is a challenging skill to master.  Instead of repeating the common advice to ‘just practice’, I’ve broken the challenge down into individual skills.  Part 1, “Gesture”, starts in an unexpected place:  loose scribbles. 

Ctrl+Paint - Digital Sketching: Technical Drawing
https://ctrlpaint.myshopify.com/collections/essential-skills/products/digital-sketching-4-technical-drawing

Freehand sketching is an important skill, but even it has limits.  When industrial designers sketch mechanical subject matter they use rulers and ellipse templates.   Even though your canvas is digital, you have access to equally powerful tools.  This series showcases a straightforward approach to clean, technical, lines in Photoshop.  Starting with simple objects and examples, it helps you master vector tools which artists commonly avoid - leading you toward fast and efficient line work.

In this self-directed video series, you and I each design a video game weapon (or set of weapons). Though I’ll explain my personal process and methods, it’s not about copying my design - the focus is your project. Don’t expect a painting tutorial. Instead, I’m providing the structure for you to create a work of your own - starting with brainstorming, visual research, and planning. The best designs don’t only look good - but fill a specific need, and tell a story. Are you ready to give it a try?

After tackling grayscale painting, color is a daunting subject for many beginners. This video series takes a very traditional approach to teaching the subject: observation.

Do you want to paint fluidly, on a short layer stack, without giving up the precision of layers?  This series arms you with the tools to do exactly that.  We’ll explore frequently overlooked Photoshop features that give you the best of both worlds.

Understanding form, space, and structure will dramatically improve your drawing ability.  "Linear Perspective" is the key to these aspects of drawing, and is often avoided by beginners.   This series offers an alternative approach to perspective: freehand sketching with a grid.