Fantastic and photorealistic paintings are genres and styles that, in most cases, work well together. The fantasy, also closely linked to literatures of same genre, is probably an "art member" since its very beginning, while the photorealism was a term primarily related to an American movement, which gained strength in the late 60's with artists as Richard Estes, Chuck Close and John De Andrea. During this period, the fantastic art, before that produced only by illustration and painting, also begins to appear gradually in photographic works and acquire more space.
Today, with the possibility of drawing on a computer, we can make realistic digital paintings using basically the same concepts as the painters of the 60s/70s used; since we want a visually polished result, without much apparent brush strokes, using tools that are similar to airbrush – a tool widely used to perform this kind of painting on a canvas or panel – will be very important. As for the fantasy, references are essential: movies, books, other paintings, everyday facts and even dreams can help you when composing a fantastic atmosphere.
This step-by-step aims to clarify a little about, how a work of fantasy genre, and at the same time in photorealistic style can be done digitally. As example, I will use my painting Live Water, which I will try to expound a little more about the technique used, as well as custom brushes, textures and colors. Since not all the details are completely exposed here, watching the video that accompanies this text may be necessary to clarify some questions, if any.
Technical Information
This work was completely done on Photoshop CS3 with a Wacom Tablet in approximately 20 hours. The original file size and resolution is, respectively, 2851 x 4000 pixels and 300dpi.
For painting I used, most of the time, the hard round edge brush with Pen Pressure option checked all the time (Brushes > Other Dynamics > Opacity Control > Pen Pressure), varying its opacity during the process: for sketch – medium to high opacity; for colors blending – low opacity. Few custom brushes were also used to give more texturing in specific parts, like the character's skin and the background – these brushes are available for download and will be better specified and detailed during the tutorial. Furthermore, I also made some use of soft round edge brush, in most cases to give more polishing and workmanship to the picture.
Primary Ideas
Before starting a picture, I use to do some studies on a notebook or separate file to better visualize my idea and to know if the elements and colors I want to introduce are able to "talk to each other" to form a harmonious composition as possible. This is the time when various poses (if a character is a key element of the painting), combination of colors and lighting is tested in many different ways to the idea of what the end result becomes as clear as possible.
In the case of Live Water, my original concept was, from the beginning, portraying a dark and dubious atmosphere, which gives space to the observer to do various interpretations. For this reason I had in mind that it should portray elements that relate to the strange – and the jellyfish, in this case would be the key piece of the picture. As for the color palette, the decision was based on the complementary colors concept – in this case, blue and orange – which would give more contrast to the drawing.
It is always advisable to spend more time in this part. From these choices and previous studies, the chance of your work flow be faster is higher, since the ultimate goal will be better visualized in your mind.
Sketch
Many digital artists diverge when making a sketch. Some doodle a lot with different brushes and colors, gradually defining the shape of the figure they want to portray; others draft and define the figure, lighting and contrasts with black and white colors, introducing only later the colors – the method varies from person to person and from work to work.
In this case, the official sketch I did was done in Photoshop with the standard hard round edge brush in 100% opacity. In a black background file I traced, in a separate layer (Layer > New Layer), the character's silhouette that was going to be portrayed in the work so I could have, especially, more security and control of the anatomy – is very useful in this case to use dolls or nude models as reference to assist you and give more certainty that proportions, muscles and body volumes are correct.
 
Once the sketch is completed, I use it as basis for defining the figure's volume. For this, in a new layer, I start filling the silhouette with the base color of the character's skin, then darkening the lines and reducing their opacity to work better on the picture.
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