Illustration tutorial

You paint an abstract study in four stages in the Paint workspace. Each stage adds layers, and no layer is merged.

The study

The study is a 1200 × 1200 drawing of three overlapping shapes: a curved ribbon, a disc, and a tilted block. Loose scribbles and hatch marks lie on and around the shapes.

The stages

1. Sketching: a color rough and a pencil sketch.
2. Line art: ink lines above the faded sketch.
3. Base colors: a masked color layer for each shape.
4. Rendering: shading on clipped layers, and a PNG export.

The finished layers

The finished drawing has these layers, from top to bottom:

Layer	Contents
Line art	Ink lines
Ribbon texture	Cream hatching and highlights, clipped to Ribbon
Ribbon shading	Shadows and sage accents, clipped to Ribbon
Ribbon	Teal, masked to the ribbon
Disc shading	Shading and a highlight, clipped to Disc
Disc	Ochre, masked to the disc
Block shading	Shading and hatching, clipped to Block
Block	Terracotta, masked to the block
Sketch	Pencil lines at 22% opacity, hidden
Color rough	Flat colors at 50% opacity, hidden
Paper	White

Example files

You can start from the end of any stage. Download the stage’s file, choose File > Open… or press Ctrl+O, and select the file. The drawing opens in a tab of its own.

Stage	File
1. Sketching	01-sketch.capy
2. Line art	02-line-art.capy
3. Base colors	03-base-colors.capy
4. Rendering	04-finished.capy

The PNG export of the finished study is abstract-study.png.

First stage: Sketching.