Stone Elemental Texturing by Ruslan Shabelsky

Want a rock that doesn’t look flat and muddy? This course walks you through creating a handpainted rock elemental from scratch, with zero reliance on smart materials.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How to plan shapes and cracks for a stylized stone elemental
• Handpainting rock color, value shifts, and edge highlights from scratch
• Working with gradients, AO, and painted details to sell volume
• Final polish and presentation for portfolio renders

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic understanding of 3D viewport navigation and UVs
• Tools: Substance Painter, Photoshop for tweaks
• Hardware: PC capable of running Substance Painter, 3-button mouse

📝 Description

This is a straight process video. No slides, no theory dump. You watch a handpainted rock get built up layer by layer until it actually looks like stone.

We start rough. Big forms first, then break up the surface with color variation, darker crevices, and lighter top planes. You’ll see how to keep values readable so the rock doesn’t turn to noise from far away.

The toolset is simple on purpose – mostly Substance Painter brushes and hand strokes, with a bit of Photoshop if needed. That way you learn to actually paint light, cracks, and wear instead of letting generators do it for you. Super useful if you want to work on stylized games.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Beginners who want their first solid handpainted prop for portfolio
• Stylized artists tired of procedural-looking rocks and wanting more control

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Ruslan Shabelsky is a 3D artist focused on stylized assets and handpainted workflows. He shares practical, production-style texturing processes on ArtStation, breaking down rock, stone, and elemental surfaces into simple, repeatable steps.

🏁 Final Result

• A finished handpainted stone elemental rock, textured from scratch and ready for portfolio presentation.