Have you ever looked at digital artwork and wondered how in the world did they do that? Since I have recently decided to expand my own work into digital painting, I compiled a list of my Top 30 favorite tutorials that I believe would be most beneficial to various skill levels in digital painting. While this list of tutorials may not make you a master like Daniel Dociu or Marta Dahlig, they could at least get you started down the path of creating your own digital art.
Digital Landscape Painting
by Patrick Keith
Painting done in Photoshop with only the airbrush tool set to different sizes and variable Opacity. Great for beginners!
Sci-Fi Poster Art
by Fabio Sasso
Great use of combining stock photography and using Photoshops blend modes, distortion tools, and filters.
Painting Cloth and Hair in Photoshop
by Mystical Modality
Photoshop tutorial based around lots of layers, filters, and techniques. I would classify this as an intermediate skill tutorial.
Wonder Woman Pin Up Digital Painting
by Patrick Keith
This is one of my favorite tutorials. Not only is it a great subject matter but the instructions are written clearly and concisely, the result is a more advanced image but the tutorial is written so that even beginners can practice it.
Create Striking Portraits
by Hoang Nguyen
PDF downloadable tutorial written for Photoshop focusing on the main object of the painting with minimal background work.
Create a Cool Starfield
by Bernhard Stockmann
This tutorial came in very handy for one of my own works. It is written for Gimp, and is simple enough for beginners but has a great result!
Painting Realistic Skin Tones
by Michael Yazijian
Beautiful work using Photoshop and Painter with a tablet. The painting style is reminiscent of traditional paints and markers using Layers and Transparent Brushes.
Matte Painting a Haunted House
by Sébastien Gaucher
Half Photo Manipulation half painting. Great practice for working out details in your work.
Painting Xing Tain
by Yu Cheng Hong
A more Advanced Work combining 3D work in Maya and Photoshop. Not for the beginner! But I couldn’t resist adding this one the my list.
Making of Little Panda Girl
by Rodney Mella
Video tutorial of painting in Photoshop. Not really detailed oriented but includes some good tips, and you have to admit the painting is cute!
Creating Broken Link”
by David Cousens
Nice detailed tutorial, not for the beginner! A lot of work went into this painting, but the guide is well written and easy to follow.
Painting Stone and Rock”
by SimplyPSD
Good reference tutorial for painting those pesky stones and rocks!
Making Fire Energy”
by Shailesh Pahuja
Good tutorial for beginners incorporating brushes, layers, and filters.
Painting a Landscape”
by Alain Descamps
Nice basic painting without getting too technical or difficult, covers the basics of painting nicely.
Broken
by Dhabih Eng
From sketch to completion, provides a good view of the workflow used for the painting. Can be done using just basic tools.
Teryn’s Tresses
by Dhabih Eng
Trying to paint hair has been a problem for me, but this tutorial helps clear up some of the technical details. A little bit more Advanced, but with an incredible result!
Painting Clouds
by Steven Stahlberg
Two tutorials in one! Shows how to paint clouds two different ways, knowing how to paint clouds is essential to any inspiring artist.
Halloween Pinup
by Joe Pekar
Nice photo breakdown of his workflow in Painter, non-specific so its useful for other projects.
Do You Want To Play With Me?
by Mélanie
Incredible detailed tutorial, includes some very useful tips and techniques. It is a long guide, but worth reading until the end.
Making of Yuka
by Lukasz Szeflinski
No painting list would be complete without including this artist. So well written you could reproduce the painting (if your artistic skill is up to it). Just read the tutorial and take lots of notes!
Making of Bronze Dragon
by Kerem Beyit
What can I say, I like dragons. And I love this style. Basic tools used with the art focusing on details instead of using filters and plugins.
Making of Seheiah
by Melanie Delon
Nice combination of writing about the artistic details and choices as well as what brushes and filters they used. And of course the painting is beautiful too!
The Taming of Naas
by Christophe Vacher
I know I am repeating myself here with another dragon, but this tutorial is worth mentioning because the style is very similiar to being painted in a more traditional media such as oil or acrylic.
Making of Equalibrium
by Henning Ludvigsen
Aside from being beautiful work, I included this tutorial because the artist works from a greyscale base of the image, a technique I thought worth mentioning and listing.
Lush Landscape in Gimp
by GT Manager
Great tutorial for the beginner, utilizing basic tools and brushes. While it is not easy, the guide is well written and detailed.
Digital Painting of a Rose
by George55
I love tutorials like this, focusing on using brushes and layers and not filters and plugins. Styles like this I believe are the closest correlations between digital and traditional media.
Realistic Space Scene
by Tyler Denis
Some great tips and techniques that could be used in a wide variety of space scenes, more on the Intermediate difficulty level.
Landscape with Tablet
by pxleyes.com
Skill level is said to be Medium, but I believe a beginner could use the same techniques to create a decent landscape of their own.
3D Space Explosion
by Paul
As soon as I read this one, I began to think of my own applications for it. This tutorial uses Vue and Photoshop, but the same result could be obtained using Blender and Gimp (with a little work).
Using Lineart and Textures
by SimplyPSD
Great detailed tutorial, even includes the source files so you can work along with the tutorial.
