Sam Nielson Painting Process
I was trying to follow a tutorial to see how Sam Nielson does his awesome painterly style for cartoons but I kept getting hung up on how to do the lighting layer. I think this is how it is done and thought I would do a quick example to explain it. It’s nothing like Sam’s work but it should explain the process. Now go forth and conquer the world with the Sam Nielson painting process.
My only problem with this process is that it’s kind of hard to select the right flat color. Also the picture would need some work beyond the lighting layer for highlights as overlay won’t get you all the way to pure white unless it’s on white and you don’t want any of the flats to be white to start with as the lighting layer will have no effect. The occlusion layer is for areas where no light will be getting to like cracks and such. I don’t understand all of the process but this is a start.
Previous Comments
from Claudio Rodriguez Valdes on April 17, 2010
Nice character!
from cade on April 17, 2010
Thanks. Thanks for stopping by as well.
from jack foster on April 17, 2010
Great post! Thanks for letting us in on the process. I think you’ve dome an exemplary job with the illustration and the lighting. Nice work Claudio
from cade on April 17, 2010
No problem Jack. Thanks for the compliment about the illustration but this is just for practicing this method of coloring so it’s not even close to what it should be.
Nice work Claudio (I’m just going with it).
from khwhitaker on April 18, 2010
very nice illo and an interesting post, thanks for the link, I’ve been to the character design blog, but not this one.