A tutorial with Cris Ortega

This is a tutorial from Cris Ortega, also know as dark-spider of deviantArt. Here she describes her process to create one of her digital pieces, Deep in the Underworld. This is an advanced tutorial, so a strong base knowledge of anatomy, lighting and colour are crucial. However there is a lot to be learned from anyone who takes the time out to explain how they approach an art piece.

Some of the basic ideas that can be taken away from this tutorial are to start a picture with a neutral base colour. Then move on to filling in values, new layers are always helpful if you would like to place aspects of your drawing to a different location. Work from large to small. Try to not to get too caught up in the details of a piece before you have the main values, light and shading in the piece. If you work on details right away, you will more than likely be disappointed when the piece does not look uniform.

This tutorial has a lot packed in it, so take what you can from it. It's definitely worth reading again!




Click on the pictures for full size view.

This tutorial is posted with permission from the artist. All artwork on this post is © Cris Ortega.