Digitally Painting in Leyendecker Style

There’s no one better at celebrating Christmas than Buddy the Elf. We’ll show you how to use photoshop to paint a caricature of your favorite elf in the style of J C Leyendecker. proko.com/12days
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For a chance to win this painting, go to donate to the gofundme page. All proceeds will go to the National YoungArts Foundation.
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ABOUT YOUNGARTS
It’s a really good program for high school students. Basically what they do is find about 100 or so really talented artists in high school and they fly them out to Miami for a week for an amazing artistic experience. It goes beyond just this one week. Once you’re an alumni, you’re part of the group. They try to nurture these artists and help them out as they’re transitioning to become professional artists. They connect the students to mentors who are well known in the field. Many win money to fund their artwork.
www.youngarts.org
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CREDITS:
Artist | Instructor - Court Jones (www.courtjones.com/)
Producer - Stan Prokopenko (www.stanprokopenko.com)
Script - Court Jones
Production Assistance - Sean Ramsey (www.peoplewhodrawstuff.com)
Editing - Sean Ramsey
Music Used with Permission
Intro - The Freak Fandango Orchestra
About Proko:
Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching.
#ChristmasArt #Elf #WillFerrell

[@43painter]

Most of th time J.C. Leyendecker used a green gray color [ Green Earth color ? ] as his base for his portraits. And than builts it all up with fast brush strokes with sometimes leaving the gray green undercoat to show where and whenever it is needed. And one of the most typical caracteristics of a Leyendecker way are the dots and stripes he used in the shadow parts of his fases and clothes. And ever there we can see color gradients, done in a very sofisticated clever way, indeed. Your way of 'filling in' the face is far too smooth. Leyendeckers faces looked smooth from a distance but when one looks closer they're almost abstract and rough in a Frans Hals kind of way, the Old Dutch Master ( Antwerpen, 1582 / 1583 - Haarlem, 26 augustus 1666) . Nevertheless the end result of your painting is also very nice !! And the video was very educational indeed. Thank you for sharing.

[@frankchuckbeckert1334]

One of the best tutorials I have seen. I like how you explain your design decisions rather than just do them.

[@Engelhafen]

I do t see the comparison - Leyendecker painted beautiful people in a highly stylized and elegant fashion.

[@punkandrockgirf]

I really like this style of video. Can you create more of these analysis/ study videos?

[@arachnidsLor]

this was fun to watch. leyendecker may be my favourite artist.

[@annakhudorenko8151]

I really liked your process. Thanks for sharing!

[@Digital_boob_Tube_]

I love the gray eyes looking blue because of the green you used.

[@Ellectrollama]

Great colors! I love how this one came out, especially the hair.

[@MrProfessorElias]

That is AMAZING

[@spookyghost7515]

Amazing work Proko! Keep it up!

[@fernandovelazquez-alvarez4222]

Great and very educational video! It catches the spirit of the season in a nice and funny artistic way.

[@madimorie]

love this!!

[@paul-scanlan]

Can you please do a tutorial on caricaturing children as I think it’s extremely useful in quicksketch

[@davidopdebeeck8953]

Amazing video Court, feel inspired

[@kyletwebster]

Wow - excellent!

[@CourtJones]

Thanks! Oh and thanks for all the brushes!

[@akiljohnson7670]

That hair tho 😳👌

[@madechoo]

Excelente... eres genial!!.

[@orsonwelles4254]

J.C.L is the best. He is the boss

[@once_uponalineshop856]

This was amazing 😱😍💯

[@MarcCifuentes]

Cool!

[@yo_mama_know_me]

very educational

[@RichellyItalo]

Ainda irei conseguir chegar nesse nível.

[@coda4150]

was going to save this to watch later bc i'm busy at the moment but i just had to check if i was right about this being will ferrell. gotta say i am immensely satisfied

[@GeraldusOne]

Very cool

[@inso5era706]

what were the order of the layers throughout the video (and did you only use two layers?). I notice you put the initial color layer under the line work at first but after that I'm not sure since you were able to paint over the line work at some point.

[@Thamizhan_memes]

WoW very Nice

[@singaporememorylane]

Woot!!!

[@kingzlo]

Cool Caracature

[@antonioblanco3086]

Aaaaaaamazing video! your best caricature of this series! and Thanks for sharing this great artist! his style is awesome! please continue to share more artists :)

[@CourtJones]

Thanks Antonio. You should enjoy the next lesson then. Coming in early January.

[@EntonPokemon]

AMAZING!! :D

[@johncollado1151]

Hi ... I think it would help if you could show your Photoshop pallets so that we could follow your tool use and specifically your layer techniques. I find this helps other artists understand better what you are doing with the software and how you achieve your desired outcome in the art. I realize there are many different ways to achieve the same effect in Photoshop, but every artist works differently and sometimes it is nice to combine different techniques from different artists in the same project.

[@CourtJones]

Thanks for the suggestion. On this painting though, there was almost no interaction with any palettes. I just used a couple different Kyle Webster Brushes. The only palette I really interacted with during most of the recording was the color picker (until the very end when I drew the circle selection). And at the speed of the timelapse the color picker comes and goes so fast that you can't see what I'm doing and the result ends up being very distracting from the painting process.

[@johncollado1151]

I understand... I watch many artists on youtube and even though they also use various time lapse videos I am able to understand to some degree what tools and techniques they employ to create their art, depending on what software they are using. Mainly I watch how they structure their layers and the various layer effects they use to reach their goals. So you did not use many layers in this process, just one for the character and one for the background? Thanks for your response, much appreciated.

[@vidhiawasthi6755]

what brushes do you use?

[@alanrolle6078]

Pathological level of Christmas Spirit! XD

[@TheEverElizalde]

What software and brush do you use for the sketching? Really like and appreciate your videos!

[@soytuenergia]

Photoshop, and dont care about brushes.... because its all about thecnhnique. Proko has another tut talking about painting sketches in PS

[@TheEverElizalde]

@@soytuenergia Thanks! He mentioned he was using a couple of Kyle Webster brushes for the painting, I'd be interested to know which ones and would appreciate the info if you know! Best, Ever

[@gmcubed]

That's not a half grey, its lighter than that. I only point this out because I had been using 50% grey for a while but now I'm realizing that might be too dark for many pieces.

[@CourtJones]

I use the term "middle grey" as a general concept, as most painters do.

[@jamessantiagovsky1882]

great video!

[@peepsqueek923]

Sorry if I missed it but did you mention what brushes you're using? I can't seem to find one that blends as nicely as the one you use here

[@ProkoTV]

Court uses his own Photoshop brushes and Kyle Webster's that come free with Photoshop

[@marcoslv7390]

en que programa lo dibujo?

[@laurastui3228]

Teacher Court, I saw you use a software app to draw and color this caricature. Would you please let me know what software it is? Thanks.

[@CourtJones]

I used Photoshop for this.

[@amrbasem988]

Hey court i was wondering about this technique i got confused a little about the opacity flow and edges and i am not sure about whether you blend in digital painting or you just simply apply pressure sensitivity and just let the brush work weather painting or erasing colour and you did not seem to use blending modes or layers it looks like you worked it all on 1 layer am i wrong or is it entirely painterly

[@CourtJones]

Sorry for the delayed reply. Just saw this. I definitely take advantage of pressure sensitivity for opacity on my brushes. I also use streaky and textured brushes a lot that allow previous applications of paint to show through (not as much in this one though as I was going for a cleaner look). I generally don't use multiple layers and blending modes on a single subject in a painting, unless there is some tricky area like the trim on the jacket that I created in a different layer and then duplicated it to save some time. Also, the real key to my workflow is the Alt key. I use it constantly to toggle my brush into an eyedropper tool to select colors from various areas of the face. For example, I'll lay down two different colors and values next to each other and overlap them a bit to create an intermediate color/value. Then, I will eyedrop select that new color and continue painting with that. My non-drawing hand basically hovers over the keyboard the entire duration and every few seconds, I toggle the eyedropper tool. I almost never use soft edged airbrush style brushes in a painting. Sometimes for just a moment to get a certain effect, then I switch back to hard-edged brushes. Hard edged brushes are the key to making a solid looking and appealing painting.

[@amrbasem988]

@@CourtJoneswow thanks man appreciate it

[@potatosalad5355]

😍👍

[@tanjw1222]

Ive always wanted to paint like those artist from the golden age of illustrations. Is thr any way or art school dat conduct dis sort of teaching? Im currently studying dg animation in my own country n struggling to find a school who teaches dis sort of art :(

[@CourtJones]

Sorry that I never saw this question until now. But I always recommend the art school that Stan and I both went to: The Watts Atelier. Here in San Diego. They teach traditional techniques in drawing and painting that are similar to how they learned in the Golden Age of Illustration.

[@paranoiarpincess]

What is Buddy's spirit animal?

[@CourtJones]

Good question! I'd love to hear some peoples' suggestions!

[@paranoiarpincess]

Court Jones personally, I felt like he drew his caricature based on a shoe spirit animal. I feel he looks like a lemur, myself.

[@DestinyFineArt]

Hey 👋 was I been watching you for a long time, I am an artist and you inspired me to make art tutorials too! I hope the art community can benefit and learn from my videos like how you inspired others! Love Destiny ❤️❤️

[@marcosribeiro1246]

proko adiciona legenda em português, eu não sou muito bom em inglês

[@tadeogalvan565]

Te ayudarían subtítulos en español? Yo podría agregarlos si supiera cómo.

[@rateater1857]

"straights becoming straighter" not on leyendecker's paintings, if you know what i mean..... :)))))

[@CourtJones]

LOL, yes. Ask Mr. Beach.

[@benrobutka7140]

It looks like professer umbrige

[@user-yr8em3tz3p]

емае, этоже тот гульмэн, который снимался в рекламе цепи арго

[@bonyalta]

Стас, а ты русский язык еще помнишь? Давно в Одессе был последний раз?

[@vergilfan6818]

Court can u caricature stan next time xD

[@fortnitetv4535]

Leo min .

[@CourtJones]

Here you go! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIGVd4WIYqimfac

[@Engelhafen]

First of all Leyendecker would never have painted farrelll

[@33Donner77]

Leyendecker would not have drawn a charicature of him.

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

I don’t know why, and I hope to be constructive rather than inflammatory, but I feel there’s something off about your noses. Whenever I look at one of your caricatures, it never feels like I’m seeing a caricature of that person’s nose, but a caricature of noses as a concept. The bulb of the nose is always pulled down below the nostrils even for people who’s noses lay more flat, and for me it really hurts the likeness. Will Farrell’s nose in this shot is more exaggerated at the (very rounded) nostrils than at the bulb, but that’s not what’s drawn, which leads to the caricature’s face more closely resembling Tommy Lee Jones during the lineart stage. For me, the nose is the most important part of the face. It tends to be the one attribute that most helps distinguish between five similar-looking people. It feels like, in the attempt to exaggerate, the nose is the one area where you wind up distorting. Granted, this is a criticism that can’t really go anywhere beyond pointing it out, but I do feel it’s something important to mention.

[@DoctorZisIN]

I was thinking the same thing. Without the costume I would think this was a caricature of a younger Chevy Chase or Brian Regan, or a mixture of both, but not Will Farrell.

[@vermis8344]

I'm glad you guys brought it up first, because I've never been entirely convinced by these caricatures... For me the shapes of the heads look a little off too, and I'm not sure that it's just because of the exaggeration.

[@DoctorZisIN]

I used to draw caricatures, and it's a difficult thing to do. You can't rely on a formula because if you exaggerate the wrong thing, the likeness is lost. The mouth is too big, the distance between the nose and the mouth way too small... These things make you quickly think of other people, because Farrell, in a neutral pose is a handsome guy, lacking easily distinguishable features.

[@yo_mama_know_me]

amazing exagerration

[@miblert3717]

666 likes wut

[@gravelpoot8402]

... nothing to say

[@NilSunna]

thats not an elf :B #triggered

[@vidhiawasthi6755]

what brushes do you use?

[@CourtJones]

Kyle Webster's brushes, Peleng's brushes and my own brushes. They get mixed together in my brush list.