Draw and Paint Better with Krita: Discover pro-level techniques and practices to create spectacular digital illustrations with Krita

Master the art of digital painting with the help of this full-color guide by learning how to implement blending layers, as well as use brushes, color wheels, and techniques using the power of the free tools provided by Krita

Key Features

• Unlock the powerful tools offered by Krita to create customizable UIs
• Discover useful tips, tricks, and hacks to build compelling designs and speed up your digital workflow
• Learn how to use the brush tool and manage colors to create beautiful artwork

Book Description

Krita is a free, open-source digital painting program with industry-leading functionality and a creative suite of tools able to bring any visual idea to life. It allows for a fast, clean approach to creating digital art, without the hassle of pay-to-play or subscription license fees, but just like all other art software, it takes time and effort to learn it.

This book provides a comprehensive look into functional tools, visual problem-solving, and leading painting techniques using Krita to unleash your inner artist. You’ll learn the functionality and tools of Krita for creating digital and print-quality work as well as explore manipulation toolsets, custom brush creation, overviews of color spaces, and layer management. As you progress, you’ll get to grips with ‘key styles’ needed to make professional-grade digital art, through techniques such as photobashing, 3D paint-overs, and more traditional painting methods, along with covering how Krita handles these workflows. Next, you’ll work through a few step-by-step art pieces using the skills and tools learned throughout the book.

By the end of this Krita book, you’ll have a solid understanding of the Krita work environment and be able to bring your artistic visions to life with a myriad of leading industry-standard techniques.

What you will learn

• Use layers, layer management, and layer blending modes to make images pop
• Understand Krita's default workspace and customize it
• Understand the terminology of digital visual communication (dots per inch, resolution, and more)
• Explore color in a digital space, such as RGB profiles and Look-Up-Tables (LUTS)
• Discover the color wheel for painting and learn how digital color (light and alpha channels) works as opposed to traditional painting materials
• Focus on proper layer management for easy, non-destructive manipulation of art pieces quickly

Who this book is for

If you're an artist wanting to take your artwork and portfolio to a professional level, then this book is for you. You'll need some experience using art creation software (ideally Krita, Photoshop, or Clip Studio Paint) before you jump in, but beginners willing to use external sources to keep up will find plenty of useful information. Artists looking to upgrade their skills for work in the entertainment industry will benefit the most from this digital art book.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with Krita
2. Reviewing Canvas Properties and Color
3. Utilizing Layers and Layer Groups
4. Utilizing Brushes and Tools
5. Implementing Layer Blending Modes
6. Composing Using Krita's Toolbox
7. Changing The Feel With Painting, Values, And Sliders
8. Controlling Chaos - Organizing Your Workflow
9. Setting Up a Still-Life Study
10. Enforcing Fundamentals
11. Working With Concept Art
12. Refining and Creating Cinematic Concept Art
13. Going beyond These Pages

Wesley Gardner is a freelance illustrator and artist. Some notable clients include Cubicle 7, Adidas, Monte Cook Games, Guildhouse Games LLC, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Black + Cameron, and BAM! Box. Wesley's work has been featured in various intellectual properties such as Warhammer 40k, Mad Max, League of Legends, Old Gods of Appalachia, Varia, plus more that are currently in development. Wesley is open to freelance/contractor opportunities in the board game, card game, motion picture, and video game fields. When he is not taking on professional client work, he can be found creating tutorials and teaching resources covering art techniques, with topics ranging from color theory and composition, creating custom brush packs, and getting traditional looks for digital paintings. Wesley is proficient in the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem, alongside a large number of PC-based digital painting and photo manipulation software. This includes being given the title “Featured Artist” for Escape Motions and their Rebelle 5 product in 2022, as well as being given an “FXPose” feature in Issue #190 of ImagineFX Magazine. He also has experience and is comfortable with art integration workflows in various 3D and game development engines, such as Blender, Unity, and Unreal. He is also well-versed in a variety of production styles, including photobashing, 3D rendering, keyframe art creation, or traditional painting (essentially, whatever serves the purpose of the project!).