In this tutorial Jean-Francois Bruckner tells us how he was creating his work «Waters» describing the techniques he used and giving useful tips.

Introduction

I’ve done this speed painting for a reference for a comic I’m working on. First what I was thinking about before beginning this image was not a precise description but just the feeling I wanted to have in the book.

In a speed painting this is what I like, you don’t have to think about details but feelings, strength of the instant stroke and colors; no need to clean your painting here, what you have to do is to be quick, not for the challenge of making a “Rush” painting, but to keep the initial idea, to keep the strength of your first stroke and intention. So, to the “process” now:

STEP 1

As soon as I had something in my mind, I was looking on some of my photos directory to find a picture that could fit the mood I wanted for my illustration, and I found this one. It is a shot I took in a forest near my town and that I knew could be interesting for my project.

Basic Photography

After the Median filter

The first step here is not to use it as it is but just for the basis on my virtual canvas; (Almost all Concept Artist use this method, because it is a really quick way to put the base of your image).
I use Photoshop Cs5 and the filter Noise/Median (at 17) to begin with the painting and made a copy of my layer (shortcut ctrl+j) and applied a fresco filter, I put the opacity of the layer to 15, to give some consistence to the median.

STEP 2

After that I began to draw my character and changed the size of my image for the need of my composition. For the drawings I used a very simple brush, a square one at 100% opacity.
I created a new layer to do so and I painted with this simple brush and erased around the shape of my strokes.

The idea for a Speed Painting is to be quick, so draw your lines and shapes very quickly just having in mind your picture and the feeling of it. No details here, just shapes and volumes, be always simple. Begin with the back and go to the front of your picture.

STEP 3

I have the most important parts of my image, it took me only 10-15mn this is primordial for me to do these firsts steps quickly, because doing so, I concentrate my work on the idea and not on the image.
Now I go on adding more density with an overlay layer at 30%. I used a very soft brush for that and applied my brushstrokes very quickly. Often, a more quick way to do that is to duplicate your first image on a new layer and put the mode in overlay at 20-30%, and this will boost your picture.

STEP 4

At this stage of my image I found that the composition was not enough interesting so I changed the size another time, with the function content aware scaling of Photoshop to scale my picture horizontally without stretching the most important parts of the painting.

The image stretched horizontally with the function content aware scale.

STEP 5

Now I added more details to finish the picture, always in a new layer to erase and to create shape very quickly and easily.


Image with the new details added on a new layer.

STEP 6

Final step of my image; I added some minor details and some frame to give a more natural feeling for the painting.


That’s all! It took me around 30mn to finish this speed painting; for me the idea is not to be quick but to put your first idea on the paper. I should rather work 10 times on a picture to have something near my initial intention than working and working on the same image and losing all the dynamism and originality in the process.

I’ve added the brushes used for this image, and this is the brushes I used almost 80-90% of the time for my pictures; don’t hesitate to create yours and to experiment with different settings.
Download this brush

When you work on a picture always begin in a low resolution for the basic and then resize the image to a bigger size, doing so you’ll work on details very easily and when you’ll reduce the picture for the print or for the web, you’ll have great sharpness and impression of fine details even in a speed painting.

Good work all! Never forget the most important thing in your learning, great pictures or paintings or anything else is not made by genius but only by men or women like you. So their secret is the same for all of them: Work it is the only way to progress, to create your style, to be yourselves. And when you work for something you like, this is not work, this is pleasure and accomplishment! So create even if you find that you making crap, this is your crap and you have to respect it for that!

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