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Dodge & Burn

Dodge & Burn: How to Fix Highlights In Your Paintings (+ a Cool Trick!)

The dodge & burn tools can be a great way to add more highlights, shadows and contrast.. IF used in the right way!

Dodge & burn can be a great way to quickly add highlights and shadows without muddying your colors. And today, I want to show you an unusual trick that makes them 10x more useful!

Watch the video to find out how:

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10 thoughts on “Dodge & Burn: How to Fix Highlights In Your Paintings (+ a Cool Trick!)”

  1. Merci beaucoup David pour tout ce que tu fait, pour ton site, pour tes cours, pour ta sympathie, j’apprécie énormément! Une question: pourquoi travailler sur un autre calque 50%gris +overlay? Ce n’est pas la même chose simplement de dupliquer le calque et travailler dessus? Je me permets d’écrire en français, j’ai cru comprendre que tu le parles aussi. Merci encore…. pour moi le plus dur’ c’est la perspective….

    Reply
    • Merci Marie, oui je parle français mais pour être certain que tous puissent comprendre je vais te répondre en anglais 🙂 …

      I’m using a 50% gray on a new layer because I don’t wanna compromise the original illustration. Once I’m happy with the result I then merge everything down. Making a duplicate of the illustration and applying the effect directly on that duplicate would work as well. But I couldn’t go back. With the 50% gray I can always simply paint grey to erase what I did. It give me more control 🙂

      Reply
    • I would say observe life and photos. Typically you can do a mostly smooth painting and just use hard (sharp) edges to draw the eye to areas of detail, or for hard transitions between two objects or planes (in this example of the girl, the line of her fingers against her cheek, or her nostrils–those are abrupt plane changes that are best served using hard brushes).

      Reply
  2. Your videos never fail to amaze me, they’re like Photoshop hacks!! Like, I know what the tools do, but man when I watch your tutorial videos I feel like I actually UNDERSTAND them and how to use them!

    Reply

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