Hi, guys! This is David from Paintable, and today I want to show you how to
actually draw transparent liquids. And I'll give you an example by drawing tear.
Hey guys! So today, I want to show you how to design liquids or teardrops. And for that,
I'm going to show you first here the theory, and then I'll show you how to actually
do a teardrop. So first thing that you need to know is the direction of your
light. So the arrow here is going to represent that. And once you know the
direction of your light, you know that the opposite side where the light is coming from,
it's going to be where it's supposed to be lit. So right now you see it's a
little darker where the light hits, and it's lit at the back. Then you will need
to add a highlight, with a little bit of diffused light, so that's like the reflection
a bit more of the light on the surface of the drop. You have an occlusion shadow
in here, because the light is really from the side, so you see that it's really
sharp here, so it's a little bit blurry here. And then the only thing I want to show you now is
just to just give that illusion that it's actually transparent, it's
fun to have like some of the diffused light that comes in it, in the object.
So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to use a layer of color dodge, and I'm just going to paint
a little bit more light that's coming inside the teardrop, and I'll make sure that
that light comes out as a beam of light.
And that way, it kind of gives you the illusion that there's a beam of light getting in, and it lights the whole bubble of water,
and then it goes out. And that's how you actually design some liquid.
So now, this is the theory.
Let's try to apply that to actual tears. Ok so one thing that is good to know is
that is that this technique can be applied on every kind of liquid that you
want to actually draw. You just have to repeat the same steps today. We're just
going to do it on tears but you could do it for anything else that is liquid and transparent.
Okay so the first thing you want to do is to design the shape of your tears.
And you'll see that sometimes it's the most difficult part.
so you need to find something that will look sort of natural, that will find its
way towards the face. So I'm going to make just something like this.
So the tears will go down here and then hit the side of the nose, and go down here.
So once you designed that, my trick is to actually make a copy of the illustration
that you already created. So I'm just gonna go back to my illustration here, and I'm
going to make a copy, and I'm going to use that copy to actually paint.
And now what I have is, like you see, a copy in the shape of the teardrop. And what I'll
do from here is I'm going to click on the lock, and I'm going to lock the pixels, basically.
It's gonna lock transparent pixels. When you click on it basically, what it does is that you can just paint on that shape now.
So what I'll do is I'm going to take my soft round brush, and I'm going to take
some white, and I just want to light up a little bit more the bottom part here,
because the light is coming from the top, and hits the tear, and therefore is going to lit the bottom.
And I'm gonna make the rest a little bit more at dark,
because like we saw, where the highlight hits, it gets a little bit darker.
So I'm going to use the skin tone a little bit darker here, I'm just gonna darken the rest of it a little bit, just like that.
Alright, so now that I have the base, I'm going to need to make the occlusion shadow along the way.
So I'm going to create a new layer on top, and I'm going to use that to make the occlusion shadow.
So for the occlusion shadow, I'm making sure that I put it on a separate layer because I'm probably gonna make it
a little too dark. Then I'll be able to just go and make the layer transparent a little bit.
Alright, so now that I have that on a separate layer, I'll be able to just go down the opacity--
--I hope that makes sense--And I'm going to take an eraser with a soft round brush,
and I'm just going to erase a little bit here so it goes down nicely.
Alright, from here I'm going to create a new layer, and what I'll do is I'm going to take the soft round brush,
and I'm gonna start creating the highlight where light hits.
And so the light comes from the top so-- here it's not an exact science, guys--
When it comes to tears, it goes over the body, it has different
shapes, different forms, so you're going to have to guess a little bit. So you
have to work a little bit for it, because it's not just a round bubble like the
example I gave earlier. This time, it's organic.
So just try to do your best. So here, I am going to just find a place like this,
and I'm just going to start designing some sort of highlight here,
then I'll switch to white, and I'll be like, alright, so--
I think that the highlights should be around here, so let's say that's my highlight.
So that's where it hits. So from here, I'm just going to continue to refine it a little bit.
I'm gonna create a new layer. And I think it should be darker around where the highlights are.
So I'm just gonna take the color of my occlusion shadow here, and I'll just
make the opacity at 20%, and I'm just going to start painting a little bit
all around it, just to darken that part.
Alright, that seems good. I'm going to switch back to white, and put back my opacity to 100%
Create a new layer again, and I'm just gonna have a little bit more reflection at the bottom.
Take the soft round brush, and just soften up a little bit.
It starts to look like something! So now what I'm going to do is I'm going
to create that reflection that goes on the skin. So I'm going to create a new layer,
and I'm going to use color dodge. Now when I use color dodge, I'm going to
use a soft brush, I'll make sure that the color I'm using is that too pale.
If I'm using something pale, it's going to burn everything. But if I'm using
something dark, and add a little bit of pink in it. If it's too pink, then just
take something in the middle, like this. I think that should be fine.
And I'm just gonna go ahead and paint a little bit on it. And I'm going to play with
the opacity, I'm going to put the opacity down, until it looks something
that's more realistic. I think that's good.
And from here, I'm just going to need to refine it a little bit.
So I'm gonna go and add a new layer on top of it, and I will take my brush here and I'm going
to make the occlusion shadow a little bit less apparent. I think that's just too
much there. So I'm just gonna cut the color on the side, and I'm just going to paint a little bit on top of it.
Alright, that seems to be nice. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to take all
the layers I created and I'm just going to put them in a group. So I have my tear here,
and I'm just going to push down the opacity a little bit lower, because I
think it's just too apparent right now. Just going to bring it down.
That seems better. And now I'm going to create just one layer with everything,
so I'm gonna do COM + E, and it's going to create just one layer. And I will be able to just delete the part
that I don't need. Like I don't need this part here. And that should be a little bit more
transparent so I'm gonna delete a bit of those parts, and I'm just going to continue with
refining it. I'm going to add another layer and sometimes like here, we can see
like the tears are just breaking down. So I'm going to add some breaking down here.
So I'm gonna going to take the color of the occlusion shadow here and I'm just
going to break down the edges. So there's an edge here, and therefore there's
going to be a highlight here.
And just like that, it's going to add a little bit more realism through this tear.
Maybe add some more highlights.
And add a highlight here.
And yeah, I think that's pretty good so far.
I'm just going to read them all together. And I might just push down a little bit the opacity again
just to make sure that's not too bright.
And here you have it guys.
And that's it for this tutorial, guys!
Academy members can follow along at home by downloading this layer PSD
in the Resources section of the Academy.
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