In this free 25 minute video course on Skillshare, Jasmine Love takes you through her digital painting technique using Photoshop and a pen and tablet. She demonstrates her complete process from hand drawn sketch to the final illustration. The subject of the painting is a pumpkin, making this a great Autumn seasonal project.

It is nice that Jasmine gives her students a jpg download of her hand sketch of a pumpkin, so they can follow along with her step-by-step. She also gives two other jpgs, which are the color palettes for the pumpkin and the stem. The students can import the color palette jpgs in to the project and use the Eyedropper tool to select the colors.

Before she begins the demonstration, Jasmine gives an overview or walk-through of how she created the project. Using a watercolor brush and a light yellow color, she started by painting in the basic pumpkin shape. Next, she added darker tones to define shadows and lighter tones for the highlights. Her technique is to create color and dimension in her paintings, by adding color from light to dark.

Once in Photoshop, Jasmine begins a new project and discusses how she uses the Layers panel and Layer Groups to organize her project by color groups. She gives her reasoning for paining each color on a separate layer, so that she can make color changes or use Blend Modes to refine the colors. She also discusses how to use the pen sensitivity tools for both opacity and size control, as she builds up color layers for the pumpkin. She demonstrates her technique for creating texture and color variation by building up thin brush strokes. Once the pumpkin is complete, she repeats her process for the stem.

In the next video, Jasmine adds the details. She shares her favorite Photoshop brushes and brush settings for this task. She also discusses how she uses Blend Modes to refine color on a layer and demonstrates how to rotate the painting artboard, just as in traditional painting. Switching from the orange and green tones of the pumpkin, Jasmine uses red and blue tones to add detailed lines and swirls to complete the painting.

In the last video, Jasmine challenges her students to complete and share a mini assignment. This challenge is to draw a simple sketch of a fruit or vegetable, practice the painting techniques covered in the class and upload the finished work.


Digital Illustration Basics: Painterly
Jasmine Love, Designer, Illustrator, Optimist
Duration: 25 minutes

Disclosure: As a participant in the Skillshare affiliate program, some of the links in this article are affiliate links. However, my opinions are completely my own based on my experience.