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	The Last Remainder (Walkthrough) Tutorial Author - Daniel Alekow (http://daniel.dp-world.net/)

This is a walkthrough for my last painting 'The Last Remainder'. You can find the painting here. I want to show you the general process of my work and maybe give you some guidance for how to work on a painting.

Step 1: This is the first step. Most times I sketch down my idea on paper first - it's a quick way to work, and you can try out different ideas. I gave the tree a somehow weird shape, to underline that it is a special one, the last. I scanned the sketch and increased the contrast a little. This is going to be the basis for my painting.

Step 2: I created a simple colour gradient to give myself an idea of how the background colours will work out later. I also started to block in the general colours of my rocks and of the tree. It is important that you ensure that the background (the gradient) does NOT show through your block colours. They are the bases for your later painting, so you won't have to cover every spot with strokes. I made this mistake myself and had to perform a lot of corrections later.

Step 3: I started to paint the tree, choosing a hard brush with sizes between 1 and 4 pixels. The small size allowed me to give the tree some structure. It's good to have a tablet so that you can use the pen pressure options in the brush rollout. I mostly used similar colours for the tree, because I wanted it to look rather bare, scoured by wind and dust.

Step 4: The first step of painting the tree complete, I started to shade it a bit. The burn tool and dodge tool work great here. The shading is a very important part of the process because it gives the shapes a little volume and defines proper light flow in the piece. That said, I shaded only a little here, because I prefer to do the main shading at the end.

Step 5: The shading with burn/dodge didn't satisfy me totally, so I overworked it by taking a low-opaque brush with very bright or dark colours and painting over the tree. As you can see, I also started painting the rocks. In this case you can choose a bigger-sized brush, as they don't need so much detail. I also decided to remove the very small rocks I had in the basic sketch because they didn't fit the overall look of image. I wanted big and smooth rocks.

It's always nice to have some small details like cracks. Cracks are easy to paint. Be sure to have a small brush size (I use 1 or 2 pixels). Choose a very dark colour and paint your crack. Then change the colour to a very bright one and paint next to the dark line, following it. On cracks you can always see the light on one side of the crack, otherwise it has no depth.

Step 6: Using the methods described above, I painted some more rocks and shaded them.

Step 7: I felt that the image lacked depth, so I added a big rock in front of the others. I also started some work on the background by taking a very big brush at low opacity and making a few strokes to illustrate the sun. I never had any intention to make a really bright sun, but rather wanted to keep it diffuse, like it was hidden behind dust.

Step 8: I finished the rocks. You may notice that the rocks to the right don't have as much detail as the ones to the left. That's because I knew I would darken that part later to match my lighting conditions.

Step 9: Until this stage all my colours were very pale and low-saturated, so I duplicated the layer with the painting and set it to soft light. You can try out overlay to see if you like it more. I also intensified my shading greatly, mostly by using dark or bright colours which I painted over the image at low opacity. The light comes out of the background, so the rocks had to be rather dark since they aren't directly hit by the light. Watch out for the tree's branches and roots, as they have a bright and a dark side too. I added a small shadow of one of the roots on the rocks to give the illusion that it is hanging free. I'm not quite sure if that is correct in terms of the lighting but, hey, I am the artist! ;)

In the background I added some colour where I wanted to add landscape later. The image needs a background for perspective.

Step 10: I created some rocky structures in the background. You can go much further if you like - I suck at backgrounds and have to practice them a lot myself. I also brightened up the sun a little, but only slightly to keep the overall effect mellow.

Step 11: I added some details like two birds flying, some grass growing under the roots, and a little branch with leaves sprouting out of the tree. It symbolizes some hope, and makes the image less lifeless. I also performed a few colour corrections and... that's it really! :)

I hope this walkthrough gave you some idea of how I work, and think it could help you a little with your paintings too. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask me over at memod@dp-world.net. If you like this painting be sure to check out my website www.dp-world.net to find more artworks created by me too!

	Step 1: This is the first step. Most times I sketch down my idea on paper first - it's a quick way to work, and you can try out different ideas. I gave the tree a somehow weird shape, to underline that it is a special one, the last. I scanned the sketch and increased the contrast a little. This is going to be the basis for my painting.
	Step 2: I created a simple colour gradient to give myself an idea of how the background colours will work out later. I also started to block in the general colours of my rocks and of the tree. It is important that you ensure that the background (the gradient) does NOT show through your block colours. They are the bases for your later painting, so you won't have to cover every spot with strokes. I made this mistake myself and had to perform a lot of corrections later.
	Step 3: I started to paint the tree, choosing a hard brush with sizes between 1 and 4 pixels. The small size allowed me to give the tree some structure. It's good to have a tablet so that you can use the pen pressure options in the brush rollout. I mostly used similar colours for the tree, because I wanted it to look rather bare, scoured by wind and dust.
	Step 4: The first step of painting the tree complete, I started to shade it a bit. The burn tool and dodge tool work great here. The shading is a very important part of the process because it gives the shapes a little volume and defines proper light flow in the piece. That said, I shaded only a little here, because I prefer to do the main shading at the end.
	Step 5: The shading with burn/dodge didn't satisfy me totally, so I overworked it by taking a low-opaque brush with very bright or dark colours and painting over the tree. As you can see, I also started painting the rocks. In this case you can choose a bigger-sized brush, as they don't need so much detail. I also decided to remove the very small rocks I had in the basic sketch because they didn't fit the overall look of image. I wanted big and smooth rocks. It's always nice to have some small details like cracks. Cracks are easy to paint. Be sure to have a small brush size (I use 1 or 2 pixels). Choose a very dark colour and paint your crack. Then change the colour to a very bright one and paint next to the dark line, following it. On cracks you can always see the light on one side of the crack, otherwise it has no depth.
	Step 6: Using the methods described above, I painted some more rocks and shaded them.

	Step 7: I felt that the image lacked depth, so I added a big rock in front of the others. I also started some work on the background by taking a very big brush at low opacity and making a few strokes to illustrate the sun. I never had any intention to make a really bright sun, but rather wanted to keep it diffuse, like it was hidden behind dust.
	Step 8: I finished the rocks. You may notice that the rocks to the right don't have as much detail as the ones to the left. That's because I knew I would darken that part later to match my lighting conditions.
	Step 9: Until this stage all my colours were very pale and low-saturated, so I duplicated the layer with the painting and set it to soft light. You can try out overlay to see if you like it more. I also intensified my shading greatly, mostly by using dark or bright colours which I painted over the image at low opacity. The light comes out of the background, so the rocks had to be rather dark since they aren't directly hit by the light. Watch out for the tree's branches and roots, as they have a bright and a dark side too. I added a small shadow of one of the roots on the rocks to give the illusion that it is hanging free. I'm not quite sure if that is correct in terms of the lighting but, hey, I am the artist! ;) In the background I added some colour where I wanted to add landscape later. The image needs a background for perspective.
	Step 10: I created some rocky structures in the background. You can go much further if you like - I suck at backgrounds and have to practice them a lot myself. I also brightened up the sun a little, but only slightly to keep the overall effect mellow.
	Step 11: I added some details like two birds flying, some grass growing under the roots, and a little branch with leaves sprouting out of the tree. It symbolizes some hope, and makes the image less lifeless. I also performed a few colour corrections and... that's it really! :) I hope this walkthrough gave you some idea of how I work, and think it could help you a little with your paintings too. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask me over at memod@dp-world.net. If you like this painting be sure to check out my website www.dp-world.net to find more artworks created by me too!