Lighting and Color for Digital Portraits in Photoshop by Karmen Loh (Bearbrickjia)

Capture mood and atmosphere in your artwork with lighting and color techniques
Color and lighting are an artist’s best ally when it comes to capturing a mood or concept. Artist Karmen Loh, also known as Bearbrickjia, has mastered the art of capturing dream-like hues and halos in her portraits using Photoshop. In this course, she shows you how to tell your story through the use of color and lighting to visually enhance your digital artwork.

This is Karmen Loh’s second course on Domestika. In her first course, she teaches the basics of creating a fantasy portrait on Photoshop by sharing her step-by-step method. This course is the ideal sequel for those who enjoyed her first course, as well as anyone who wants to give their artwork a sense of magic and wonder through lighting and color. Are you ready to delve into Bearbrickjia’s ethereal portrait universe?

Meet Karmen, discover how she got started in digital illustration, and learn about what inspires her work. See what you’ll learn throughout the course to help develop your final project.

Delve into lighting and color by analyzing movie stills, art, and more to see how mood and atmosphere are created. See different types of lighting for portraits and learn the purpose of each one. Start working on Karmen’s first practical exercise to practice basic color and lighting.

Get started with your final project by finding a theme or story you want to tell and collecting references to create a mood board. Sketch out your ideas in Photoshop by experimenting with Karmen’s favorite tools and tricks. Learn how to apply base colors and lighting to the portrait by understanding how to use complementary colors and shadows.

In the final unit, enhance your portrait with unique details and see how Karmen uses tools like Liquify to polish her artwork. Lastly, add some glow and depth to your artwork and learn how to export your finished piece for print and digital media.