David Belliveau, Author at Paintable

How to Pick PERFECT Colors in Photoshop (Coolorus Tutorial)

February 3, 2023September 29, 2016 by David Belliveau

How to Pick PERFECT Colors in Photoshop (Coolorus Review & Tutorial)

We love Photoshop… but the color picker sucks! Enter Coolorus.This handy Photoshop plug-in will completely revolutionise the way you color your digital paintings. It will not only will speed up your workflow, but also help you pick better colors, with less headache. If you often feel lost in a sea of color, Coolorus will help … Read more

Digital Painting Inspiration #005

January 26, 2021September 22, 2016 by David Belliveau

Every month we bring you a selection of mind-blowingly beautiful digital paintings for your inspiration! ‘The Shaman’ by Nagy Norbert By Darek Zabrocki ‘Mercy’ by Irakli Nadar ‘Desert Riding’ by Ahmed Rawi By Anirban Ghosh By Andrew Theophilopoulos By Alexis Rives Stars Over the Sea’ by Alex Andreev ‘Past Our Satellites’ by Fernanda Suarez ‘Moon’ … Read more

How to Use Photoshop Layers in Digital Painting: A Complete Guide

July 27, 2020September 15, 2016 by David Belliveau

Besides Ctrl-Z, layers may be the biggest advantage to painting digitally, rather than on paper or canvas Layers allow us to separate and work on every single element of a painting individually. This is incredibly powerful.For example, using layers we can:Work on individual elements, characters, or even brush stroke without risk of messing up the … Read more

10 Best Premium Photoshop Brushes for Digital Painting

July 27, 2020September 9, 2016 by David Belliveau

Beside every great artist, there is a great set of tools.. Good brushes won’t magically transform you into a truly skilled digital painter, but bad brushes will make it very difficult to get there. After all, bad tools typically take longer to work with, and often teach bad habits to get around their deficiencies.Sure, it … Read more

How to Paint Realistic Tears and Water Droplets, Step-by-Step

January 26, 2021September 2, 2016 by David Belliveau

How to Paint Realistic Tears and Water Droplets in Adobe Photoshop

We’re shedding tears of joy for how amazing our new Academy members are.. So in the spirit of learning, let’s take a look at how to paint them!The key to painting realistic teardrops is understanding the reflective properties of water. In this tutorial, we start by showing you the principles of painting a droplet of … Read more

How to Stylise Your Digital Painting Portraits by Adding Tattoos

July 27, 2020August 25, 2016 by David Belliveau

How to Paint Tattoos to your Digital Paintings

Here’s an easy way to give your digital portraits a bit of style and personality Painting intricate details such as tattoos can be tough.Getting a 2D graphic to match the contours and grooves of a 3D form is no easy task. Luckily we have digital tools such as Photoshop to help us out.While this tutorial … Read more

How to Fix ‘Blurry’ Digital Paintings with Hard and Soft Brushes

June 10, 2022August 18, 2016 by David Belliveau

Do your paintings look a little blurry around the edges? Chances are, you’re over-using soft brushes, without going in and defining enough sharp details with a hard brush. Using ONLY hard edge brushes won’t work either though – you’ll lose the smooth edges necessary to create soft transitions and gradients.The key is to use a … Read more

Useful Technique: The 5-Minute ‘Haircut Hack’

July 27, 2020August 11, 2016 by David Belliveau

Learn a simple way to add beautiful textures to your digital paintings with texture brushes.

How to Paint Kickass Details with Texture Brushes

February 23, 2021August 4, 2016 by David Belliveau

How to Use Texture Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

Learn a simple way to add beautiful textures to your digital paintings with texture brushes.

Use These 4 Colors to Paint Any Skin Tone

July 28, 2020July 28, 2016 by David Belliveau

When picking colors, It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the full spectrum available to us. Though it may seem counterintuitive, it can actually be a great help to strip back the amount of colors we allow ourselves to paint with.

Digital Painting Inspiration #004

January 26, 2021July 26, 2016 by David Belliveau

Every month we bring you a selection of mind-blowingly beautiful digital paintings for your inspiration!

How to Paint Realistic Eyes: The Ultimate Guide

June 2, 2021July 21, 2016 by David Belliveau

They say that eyes are windows to the soul… From our hidden thoughts to our deepest emotions, eyes can tell us an awful lot about someone. If we wish to paint a truly expressive portrait, it’s vital to learn how to paint realistic eyes. Let’s jump right in! STEP 1: Sketch An Outline 1. Begin … Read more

How to Color ANY Skin Tone in 5 Minutes with Gradient Maps

July 27, 2020July 14, 2016 by David Belliveau

How to Paint ANY Skin Tone in Under 5 Minutes

Coloring skin can be a tough task. It often looks flat and lacks the subtle complexity in tones that give it a realistic look. Luckily, Photoshop offers a very handy tool to aid us. The tool is called Gradient Maps, and with the right technique they can be used to easily color any skin tone … Read more

A Game of Tones: 35 GoT Inspired Digital Paintings

January 26, 2021July 10, 2016 by David Belliveau

35 Game of Thrones Inspired Digital Paintings

Besides being HBO’s most popular season (and undoubtedly one of the greatest) of all times, Game of Thrones has inspired an incredible amount of stunning artwork. We selected 35 striking examples for your inspiration. ‘Khaleesi Vossi’ by Ertaç Altınöz ‘Daenerys Targaryen Portrait study’ by Carl Ellis ‘Cersei and the Dead King’ by Andrew Theophilopoulos ‘Oathkeeper’ … Read more

How to Paint Hair Quickly and Effectively

March 10, 2021July 5, 2016 by David Belliveau

Painting convincing hair can be difficult. We break the process down into a few easy-to-follow steps. For a full tutorial and walkthrough, watch the video at the end of the post. 1. What NOT to do.. When painting hair, the temptation is to go in with a small brush and begin painting every individual strand … Read more

The Beautiful Digital “Oil Paintings” of Isabella Morawetz

July 27, 2020April 18, 2016 by David Belliveau

Meet Isabella Morawetz, a talented young designer and digital painter from NSW, Australia. Looking at any one of Isabella’s paintings, one would be forgiven for mistaking it as oil on canvas. Using a combination of gritty texture overlays and custom brushes (which she also sells), Isabella has perfected a style that fuses traditional with digital … Read more

Weekly Digital Painting Inspiration #003

January 26, 2021March 10, 2016 by David Belliveau

Digital Painting Weekly Inspiration #003

Every week we bring you a selection of beautiful digital paintings by some of the world’s most talented artists. ‘Have a Little Heart’ by Karl Liversidge ‘3’ by Y ‘Gremlin’ by Rostyslav Zagornov ‘Happy Women’s Day’ by Fang Xinyu ‘Crossing’ by Alex Andreyev ‘Saving Pandora’s Box’ by Wisnu Tan ‘Red Tree’ by Nagy Norbert ‘Light … Read more

The Spectacular Mixed-Media Digital Portraits of Richard Johnson

July 27, 2020March 4, 2016 by David Belliveau

Many artists go from paper to pixels. Meet the artist that does the opposite. After seeing his work in our Facebook community, we asked Richard to share some insight into his unique work-process. This Californian-based artist paints spectacular digital portraits, then turns them into one-off masterpieces by printing and painting over them by hand.We cover … Read more

Weekly Digital Painting Inspiration #002

January 26, 2021February 26, 2016 by David Belliveau

Digital Painting Weekly Inspiration #002

Every week we bring you a selection of beautiful digital paintings by some of the world’s most talented artists. DOC by Flore Maquin ‘Catwoman’ by Yaşar Vurdem Bobby Chiu ‘Jump!’ by Yifan ‘Carved’ by Tony Yin ‘Helmet’ by Alexis Rives ‘Sunny Day’ by Rene Gorecki ‘OEM Maintenance’ by Maciej Kuciara ‘First Jump’ by Jakub Rozalski … Read more

Weekly Digital Painting Inspiration #001

January 26, 2021February 18, 2016 by David Belliveau

Digital Painting Weekly Inspiration #001

Every month we bring you a selection of mind-blowingly beautiful digital paintings for your inspiration! ‘Babara Palvin’ by Kittichai Reaungchaichan ‘Darth Chico’ by Ricardo Chucky ‘Good Karma’ by Irakli Nadar By Bobby Chiu By Yuri Shwedoff ‘Equinox’ by Charlie Bowater By Anirban Ghosh ‘Jungle Mercenaries’ by Mark Sanford ‘Austin Powers’ by Flore Maquin ‘Duel’ by Mauro Fanelli … Read more

5 Books Every Digital Painter Has to Read in 2016

July 27, 2020February 11, 2016 by David Belliveau

These 5 books deserve a place on any digital painter’s shelf. With the amount of resources available online these days, we often forget to look to more traditional mediums for learning and inspiration. We’ve put together a list of 5 essential books to help you through every stage of your journey to learning digital painting. … Read more

20 Inspiring Digital Painters to Follow on Instagram (Part 1)

July 27, 2020February 3, 2016 by David Belliveau

Thanks to it’s visual nature, Instagram is the perfect social network for artists. We’ve dug deep and found 20 insanely talented digital painters to follow for your daily dose of inspiration. 01. Dan LuVisi – @danluvisiart With an impressive portfolio of paintings done for the likes of DC Comics, Hasbro and Universal, Dan LuVisi’s current … Read more

50 Breathtaking Digital Painting Portraits

March 10, 2021January 28, 2016 by David Belliveau

50 Breaktaking Digital Painting Portraits

From Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile to the Girl With the Pearl Earring, portraits have been at the center of art throughout history. We’ve featured 50 striking examples of artists that have taken this beautiful art form into the 21st century. 01. – 03. Thiago Moura Januário Looking at Thiago Moura Januário’s extensive portfolio of portraits … Read more

How to Blend Colors in Photoshop: 4 Essential Techniques

February 22, 2021December 11, 2015 by David Belliveau

How to Blend Color In Photoshop: 4 Essential Techniques

Knowing how to effectively blend colors is arguably the most important aspect to digital painting. Like painting, there is no one ‘right’ way to blend. Photoshop offers a number of tools you can use, and it is up to you as an artist to decide how and when to use them. This depends both on … Read more

Step-By-Step Case Study: “Luna” Digital Portrait

July 27, 2020December 11, 2015 by David Belliveau

Digital Painting Case Study: The Making of David Belliveau's 'Luna'

Painting portraits doesn’t need to be an intimidating task. David Belliveau talks us through the exact steps he used to paint his ‘Luna’ painting. Though a lot of time obviously goes into a painting like this, the process itself is relatively straightforward. David generally starts in black and white, which gives him the freedom to … Read more

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