This book provides all the advice artists need to transform their digital painting–from brush, lighting and color basics to special effects, working with layers, and speed and matte painting. The 100+ expert tricks provide quick and easy solutions to all aspects of digital painting through clear instructions, step-by-step demonstrations and breathtaking annotated art.
The book is divided into core elements of digital painting providing beginner, improver and advanced techniques to ensure progression and relevance to all skill levels, making it ideal for beginners and essential for more experienced digital painters. This is the ultimate tool to help emerging CG artists get started with digital painting, and help advanced CG artists improve their digital painting techniques.
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45 reviews for Digital Painting Tricks & Techniques: 100 Ways to Improve Your CG Art
4.0out of 5
★★★★★
★★★★★
7
★★★★★
1
★★★★★
2
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★★★★★
Marcus –
Unlike 90% of the people that review this book, I feel like this book was a steal at the price. It provides a very useful overview of many of the things that go into creating very successful digital paintings. I think the reason that it receives so much negative feedback is that it doesn’t teach you the exact techniques he uses to paint (those are something you can’t learn from a book, anyway), but it does teach you exactly what to think about while painting, and outlines a smooth workflow that allows you to quickly practice and work up to paintings like his. It touches on many important principles that can make or break a painting. This is not a book for people who have never touched photoshop or a drawing tablet before, but it gives intermediate artists invaluable insights into taking their paintings to the next level. It’s not perfect, but I highly recommend it!
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★★★★★
Roger Mitchell –
I purchased the first book by this author and was shocked at the quality of the art and instructional information provided. His second is much much better. Mr. Tonge gets write to the heart of what to look for when creating art. Very informative and light on waffle. I now have this book at work for reference. It will also be part of the reading list at the school that I work at. A great buy at the price.
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★★★★★
Mr. E. Haskayne –
Arrived as promised, thanks.
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★★★★★
Marie-Michelle –
Most of it isn’t specific to digital art, it’s a lot of half notions about art in general. The specifics digital tricks are basics and don’t go in depth. I guess it’s a good start for someone who never did any art of never touched photoshop.
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★★★★★
JackN –
I have seen the work done by this artist on the Deviant Art web site for many years. Thought it would be good to have his book on techniques.
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★★★★★
B. Davis –
I saw the reviews this book received, but I thought that those people were just inexperienced as far as digital art creation was concerned. LISTEN TO THE REVIEWERS!!! I do digital painting at an intermediate level but I wanted to improve on my skills even more. I really thought this book would highlight things I already know and give clear step by step direction when creating at least one image that was laid out in the book, instead it jumped from topic to topic like a rugged glossary of terms and showed you the end result. It was as if it was saying “make these complex gridlines and paint all of this other stuff like a pro inside of these lines”. I feel like I was just robbed of my money because I found absolutely nothing of use in it and I know I won’t flip through this again. I’m so mad that I even wrote a freaking review to drive the nail into this coffin so nobody will even consider this as more than just a book of pretty pictures and general terms. If you expect this book to guide you through the process of adding more detail don’t buy this book. If you think it will teach you something don’t buy it. Put your money towards a different book and look up some tutorials cuz this won’t help.
If I could choose 0 stars I would.
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★★★★★
Parka –
The media could not be loaded.
I don’t find this book very useful.
While there are tutorials, the instructions are often vague. The subject matter are often too brief and not comprehensive enough.
They do tell you the tips and techniques involved in achieving certain effects, but they either don’t show you the process of getting there or several steps are missing and you have to guess how it was achieved.
There’s a beginner example on using photos as reference. It’s about putting a car onto a background with mountains behind basked in beautiful sunset. Step 1 involves finding a beautiful photo of the background. Step 2 involves finding a photo of the car. Step 3 is the final result of the car basked in the same beautiful sunset as the mountains. The example do mention that lighting and reflections were wrong in the car to begin with, but it never actually showed how they were corrected. And just like magic, the final result painted itself. That happens often in the book.
If you’re absolutely new to digital painting with no knowledge at all, yes, you can learn from some of the tips. But even then, I won’t really recommend this book because for the same amount of money, you can get better books.
(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
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★★★★★
Bree –
Despite the low rating of this book I bought it anyways because I enjoy Gary Tonge’s artistry and techniques. Being a digital artist myself I found Tonge’s techniques/tricks to be useful. However, I do not recommend this book for a beginner. As stated in the title this book is meant to improve your all ready existing cg art/skill. If you are looking for a digital painting book to learn the basics of drawing, shading, color, or even perspective this book will not be much help. Instead, I would recommend on buying a book dedicated to the area you are desiring to improve on. However, this book is a good resource to have in your collection for when you are at a more advanced level.
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★★★★★
brad s pinyon –
I have enjoyed this book greatly.
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★★★★★
BlahMan –
Love it, something to help learn digital painting, and it’s a good resource!
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★★★★★
Björn Schmitz –
Dieses Buch ist ein weiteres außerordentliches Werk von GARY TONGE. Dieses Buch ist einfach ein MUSS wenn man mit Digital Painting beginnen möchte. Zum Buch selber kann man nur sagen, das alles in absoluter Bravur beschrieben und gezeigt wird. Es ist natürlich auf English, aber alle Inhalte lassen sich auch ohne englische Kenntnisse umsetzen und leicht Verstehen. Im großen und ganzen einfach TOP. Ich bin selber 3D-Artist und Entwickler. Dieses Buch ist einfach sehr cool. Auch wenn man es einfach nur sammelt um seine Bibliothek an hochwertigen und besonderen Büchern zu vergrößern.
Marcus –
Unlike 90% of the people that review this book, I feel like this book was a steal at the price. It provides a very useful overview of many of the things that go into creating very successful digital paintings. I think the reason that it receives so much negative feedback is that it doesn’t teach you the exact techniques he uses to paint (those are something you can’t learn from a book, anyway), but it does teach you exactly what to think about while painting, and outlines a smooth workflow that allows you to quickly practice and work up to paintings like his. It touches on many important principles that can make or break a painting. This is not a book for people who have never touched photoshop or a drawing tablet before, but it gives intermediate artists invaluable insights into taking their paintings to the next level. It’s not perfect, but I highly recommend it!
Roger Mitchell –
I purchased the first book by this author and was shocked at the quality of the art and instructional information provided. His second is much much better. Mr. Tonge gets write to the heart of what to look for when creating art.
Very informative and light on waffle. I now have this book at work for reference. It will also be part of the reading list at the school that I work at. A great buy at the price.
Mr. E. Haskayne –
Arrived as promised, thanks.
Marie-Michelle –
Most of it isn’t specific to digital art, it’s a lot of half notions about art in general. The specifics digital tricks are basics and don’t go in depth. I guess it’s a good start for someone who never did any art of never touched photoshop.
JackN –
I have seen the work done by this artist on the Deviant Art web site for many years. Thought it would be good to have his book on techniques.
B. Davis –
I saw the reviews this book received, but I thought that those people were just inexperienced as far as digital art creation was concerned. LISTEN TO THE REVIEWERS!!! I do digital painting at an intermediate level but I wanted to improve on my skills even more. I really thought this book would highlight things I already know and give clear step by step direction when creating at least one image that was laid out in the book, instead it jumped from topic to topic like a rugged glossary of terms and showed you the end result. It was as if it was saying “make these complex gridlines and paint all of this other stuff like a pro inside of these lines”. I feel like I was just robbed of my money because I found absolutely nothing of use in it and I know I won’t flip through this again. I’m so mad that I even wrote a freaking review to drive the nail into this coffin so nobody will even consider this as more than just a book of pretty pictures and general terms. If you expect this book to guide you through the process of adding more detail don’t buy this book. If you think it will teach you something don’t buy it. Put your money towards a different book and look up some tutorials cuz this won’t help.
If I could choose 0 stars I would.
Parka –
The media could not be loaded.
I don’t find this book very useful.
While there are tutorials, the instructions are often vague. The subject matter are often too brief and not comprehensive enough.
They do tell you the tips and techniques involved in achieving certain effects, but they either don’t show you the process of getting there or several steps are missing and you have to guess how it was achieved.
There’s a beginner example on using photos as reference. It’s about putting a car onto a background with mountains behind basked in beautiful sunset. Step 1 involves finding a beautiful photo of the background. Step 2 involves finding a photo of the car. Step 3 is the final result of the car basked in the same beautiful sunset as the mountains. The example do mention that lighting and reflections were wrong in the car to begin with, but it never actually showed how they were corrected. And just like magic, the final result painted itself. That happens often in the book.
If you’re absolutely new to digital painting with no knowledge at all, yes, you can learn from some of the tips. But even then, I won’t really recommend this book because for the same amount of money, you can get better books.
(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
Bree –
Despite the low rating of this book I bought it anyways because I enjoy Gary Tonge’s artistry and techniques. Being a digital artist myself I found Tonge’s techniques/tricks to be useful. However, I do not recommend this book for a beginner. As stated in the title this book is meant to improve your all ready existing cg art/skill. If you are looking for a digital painting book to learn the basics of drawing, shading, color, or even perspective this book will not be much help. Instead, I would recommend on buying a book dedicated to the area you are desiring to improve on. However, this book is a good resource to have in your collection for when you are at a more advanced level.
brad s pinyon –
I have enjoyed this book greatly.
BlahMan –
Love it, something to help learn digital painting, and it’s a good resource!
Björn Schmitz –
Dieses Buch ist ein weiteres außerordentliches Werk von GARY TONGE. Dieses Buch ist einfach ein MUSS wenn man mit Digital Painting beginnen möchte.
Zum Buch selber kann man nur sagen, das alles in absoluter Bravur beschrieben und gezeigt wird. Es ist natürlich auf English, aber alle Inhalte lassen sich auch ohne englische Kenntnisse umsetzen und leicht Verstehen.
Im großen und ganzen einfach TOP.
Ich bin selber 3D-Artist und Entwickler. Dieses Buch ist einfach sehr cool. Auch wenn man es einfach nur sammelt um seine Bibliothek an hochwertigen und besonderen Büchern zu vergrößern.
Eric Marco –
Great book with several excellent tips.