I’m new to Krita, now looking for the most efficient workflows (my first impression is great: Krita is really made to make a digital painter’s life easy unlike the software I’m coming from!)
I paint backgrounds in a realistic style and use textures a lot. I see Krita has a nice choice of patterns built in that I could use for a start, then adjust and paint over to make them look more artistic. I’m looking for the most efficient way to fill a particular layer with pattern, adjust the pattern (scale, distort, blending mode, opacity) and have it on a separate layer so I can then blend it into the hand painted layer in an artistic way. Basically what I’m trying to achieve is to end up with realistic textures (micro detail) that perfectly blend with the hand painted environment but are procedural and therefore quick to create.
I’ve tried layer effects: pattern overlay but got stuck because scaling doesn’t seem to work there…
I’m looking forward to find out what experienced users think would be the most efficient way.
If you want a layer filled with a pattern, you can create a new layer, get the bucket tool from toolbar, check “use pattern” in its options, and click on a canvas to fill. You can also make a selection to fill it instead of the whole canvas. Alternatively you can go to Settings > Configure Krita > Keyboard shortcuts > (search) fill with pattern, and assign a shortcut to do it in one click.
Once you have a pattern on a layer you can transform it with transform tool, change layers blending mode and opacity.
If you paint realistic background you can try assigning a pattern to your brush for a more natural output. If you go to the brush editor (F5), check pattern, you can pick a pattern to be mixed with your brush. Then there are a lot of options that say how exactly it should be mixed. Works the best if your brush have some semi-transparent elements, as those pick pattern the most.
I’ve tried fill with pattern. If I understand correctly there’s no way to scale the pattern before/during/after filling, only to scale the whole layer with the pattern, right? So if I need the pattern to be much smaller and cover a larger area on the canvas, I could scale the layer down, then would have to manually copy and tile it to cover the canvas again.
I’ve also tried editing brushes. With a pattern brush I could control the size/rotation and distribution of the pattern while painting and could already perform some blending too - that’s probably what you meant by a more natural output?
I understand the theory and can do it with a lot of trial and error but I’m looking for ways to be much more efficient, putting texture on a realistic digital painting with ease and artistry. I come from a pencil art and 3D visualization background and need to learn to think the painters’ way. I guess I need to learn painting techniques and more how to use brushes for textures. Are there any great resources to help with this?
I didn’t even mention the fill layers, as I couldn’t find a way to apply scale to them without converting them to a usual layer.
As I said, if you want to use them in post-processing on a finished image, the easiest way is to “fill with pattern”, but personally I find it better to use them in brushes, where you have much more control over it during the whole process.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific tutorial, I would just analyze artworks I like, understand how those artists use patterns to merge shapes, and try to mimic those elements with different settings and brushstrokes.
Edit: about scaling up. I would create a new layer, make a rectangular selection for a part of the canvas, fill it with pattern, and then scale it.
What you can do is add a fill layer and then add a transform mask to it but this has a caveat, it is not suitable to scale down the pattern as it doesn’t get filed to whole canvas after you scale it down with the transform mask
Right, so the conclusion I can draw is: I can not avoid spending the time to learn, understand, create, practice and use texture/pattern brushes. Also to learn when to use the fill with pattern-transform-blend approach (which I’m familiar with because this is very similar to how you do it in other graphics software) and when to use texture brushes (which I’m just beginning to discover).
but this has a caveat, it is not suitable to scale down the pattern as it doesn’t get filed to whole canvas after you scale it down with the transform mask