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3D Digital Lighting and Shading

with Lera Kiryakova
5 (25)
Learn how to create stunning 3D art that will bring your digital drawings to life!
English English, French [Auto], 4 more Spanish [Auto], Italian [Auto], German [Auto], Portuguese [Auto]
1+
hours
11
lessons
Intermediate
level
Lera Kiryakova

Your Instructor

Lera Kiryakova is a talented digital artist and Instagram star. She is known for her vibrant illustrations and celebrity portraits in a cute, cartoony style.

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1+
hours
11
lessons
Intermediate
level
English
English, French [Auto] , 4 more
Subtitles
  • Spanish [Auto]
  • Italian [Auto]
  • German [Auto]
  • Portuguese [Auto]

What you’ll learn

  • How to steer clear of common beginner mistakes
  • Understand how shadows, reflections and highlights behave and how to paint them
  • Create 3D depth and form, avoiding flat-looking illustrations
  • Use values/tones skillfully to make your artwork vibrant and eye-catching
  • Create realism with your rendering technique
  • Speed up the painting process by starting with grayscale tones
  • Merge foreground and background elements seamlessly for a cohesive illustration
  • Discover methods to lead the viewer’s eye and create focal points
  • Master the soft blending technique to prevent the notorious ‘copy-paste’ effect
  • Add accents and contrast expertly for a natural look
  • Create visual interest with warm and cool tones plus fun extras, like glitters, glows and glam!
  • Improve your digital coloring with ambient occlusion, color variation, blurriness and more
  • Incorporate photo texture into your artwork for an authentic feel
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Description

Do you want to learn how to draw more dynamically and realistically, like your favorite artists on Instagram? It’s much EASIER than you think!

In this course, you will learn essential art concepts and key skills that will help you level up your drawing game and progress faster than you thought possible!

Experienced illustrator, Lera Kiryakova, will show you the exact steps to transforming your artwork beyond basic colors and shadows to absolute masterpieces that command instant attention.

She’ll share her wealth of knowledge and tips gleaned from years of working in the gaming and illustration industry, such as what to focus on, what to avoid, and easy ways to improve.

This course offers a wonderful balance of fascinating art theory and fun practical exercises!

Lera guides you step by step through her illustration process, explaining how to ensure your artwork looks cohesive, make specific elements stand out, and add fun extras like detailed textures and glossy shine for that WOW effect!

Join the course today and become the proficient digital artist you’ve always dreamed of!

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Who is this course for

  • Anyone wanting to understand how to make 2D art look 3D
  • Those curious to learn how to paint an illustration digitally
  • Artists looking to deepen their knowledge and learn new skills
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This course includes

  • 1+ Hours of on-demand videos
  • 4 Assignments
  • Layered Photoshop files
  • 2 Reference images
  • 1 Line art images
  • Certificate of Completion
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Used in course

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What you'll need

  • Digital drawing software such as Photoshop or similar (see examplesAffinity Photo, ArtRage, Artweaver, Astropad, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter, Krita, Inkscape, IbisPaint, GIMP, Rebelle 4, Photoshop, Paintstorm Studio, Procreate, MediBang Paint, SketchPad, SketchBook, TwistedBrush, Vectr...)
  • You'll learn more if you have a drawing tablet
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Lesson Plan

with Lera Kiryakova
Expand all sections
01

Introduction

02:12

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Welcome to Lera’s course!

Under her guidance, you’ll discover easy ways to draw more dynamically and realistically!

She’ll share a wealth of tips, teach key artistic concepts, and demonstrate each one using lots of beautiful, vivid artwork!


1.1
Introduction
02:12
02

Tone

08:56

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Tone/value is how light or dark a hue is. This key concept plays a pivotal role in creating eye-popping artwork.

A common beginner mistake is to dive headfirst into colors without thinking about tones.

If your artwork looks flat and dull, but you don’t know why, this could be it!

Lera will help you to leap this hurdle, demonstrating how to use tones correctly and easily check yours in Photoshop!


2.1
Tone
08:56
03

Soft-Blended Effect

10:22

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Want to paint a cohesive illustration, with all the parts coming together beautifully?

In this lesson, Lera teaches how to avoid the ‘sticker effect’, when an element appears to be sitting on top of the artwork.

She shows you several methods to seamlessly merge foreground objects into the background, so it looks like one harmonious scene.


3.1
Soft-Blended Effect
10:22
04

Beginner Mistakes

17:49

Learn pro tips to improve your art

Discover pro hacks to avoid common mistakes (they happen to everyone)!

After this lesson, you’ll be an expert at the art of using reflected light, painting shadows & highlights, and managing contrast perfectly.

With Lera’s help, you won’t struggle anymore with using highlights inappropriately or falling into the oversaturation trap. She’s got you covered!


4.1
Beginner Mistakes
17:49
05

Texture

12:49

How to add realistic textures and patterns to your art

In this lesson, Lera demonstrates how to expertly add photo texture to your illustration for a realistic, hand-drawn feel!

She shows you how to avoid that ‘copy-and-paste’ look and explains all the steps to incorporate intricate patterns seamlessly into your artwork!


5.1
Using Photo Texture
12:49
06

Advanced Rendering Techniques

16:26

The importance of values in artwork

Pick up a bunch of awesome skills in this lesson to level up your coloring and shading!

Some of the cool stuff waiting for you: where to add warm and cool tones, how to tell a story with textures, and why ambient occlusion is so important!

You’ll also discover the amazing world of art accents, using color, light, shadows, contrast, sharpness, and blurriness to enhance your illustrations!


6.1
Advanced Rendering Techniques 1
12:41
6.2
Advanced Rendering Techniques 2
03:45
07

Cake Digital Illustration

49:58

Learn to paint digitally online course

Now comes the fun part: You’ll get to practice your newfound skills and paint a mouth-watering cake with Lera! Yay!

Starting with grayscale values, and building up the shadows and colors, Lera guides you step by step through this fun process!

You’ll also enjoy adding lovely finishing touches like highlights, glows, and fun details to your tasty creation!


7.1
Cake Values
07:05
7.2
Cake Base Color
06:34
7.3
Cake Details and Shading
21:03
7.4
Cake Texture and Final Details
15:16

Student Feedback

25 customer reviews & ratings

5

Course rating

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5 star
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Best Suited for
Intermediate
The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

(Based on 25 reviews)

Most Liked
Clarity of Instruction 24
Great step-by-step process 22
Helpful Examples 20
Showing 10 reviews of
25
reviews & ratings
CM
Claire M.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
Lera is such a great teacher and has such a soothing voice. I found it really relaxing to watch as well as learning a whole lot of tips. Thank you Lera!
I recommend it for Intermediate
1 person found this helpful
NN
Natalie N.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
Great course. Easy to understand and follow.
I recommend it for Intermediate
Ekaterina B.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
I’ve been waiting for this course for months! Love the artist and her amazing technique. She talks about nuances of realistic rendering and even though I’ve been learning these techniques for years, I’ve never heard them explained before like it was done in this wonderful course! Thank you 21draw fo
+ Show more
r adding this talented artist to your team!
I recommend it for Intermediate
RT
Roderick T.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
I really appreciated the higher level details focused on in this course. Many tutorials and videos focus on beginner skills while more advanced skills and tricks are like diamonds in the rough. I especially appreciated tips on solving rendering issues such as blurs along the edges of skin, how to m
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anage workflow on complex spaces like hair, and controlling highlights on various materials. Very well done! I would love to see more similar content from artists with different styles.
I recommend it for Intermediate
MB
Maciej B.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
Great course. Short and to the point. I got some great pointers from the demonstration on the end and I'll definitely rewatch that part. The only issue is that the audio isn't very clear but the overall sound quality is acceptable.
I recommend it for Intermediate
ML
Marjolaine L.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
This course was great! Lera explains her process slowly and clearly making it really easy to follow, and understand what she does to achieve great effects in her rendering. There are a lot of really great tips and advice, as well as clear demonstrations regarding the dos and don'ts. Some courses or
+ Show more
tutorials sometimes skip steps but not this one, you'll get all the info on Lera's rendering process and use of light and shadow from beginning to end. Absolutely great!
I recommend it for Intermediate
HM
Humberto M.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
good!
I recommend it for Intermediate
JB
Jaroslaw B.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
This is a very pleasant, well put together course. The teacher is clear in her instructions and easy to listen too. The only 'negative' I would mention is that it is in Photoshop (which of course isn't the teacher's fault, which is why I rate this course 5 stars) and when you follow along on Procrea
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te. Some things will be different and if you don't have some experience in Procreate already, you might feel a bit lost in doing certain actions, like going into Grayscale Mode or creating the 'Stereo' effect at the very end of the course. And certain things that are the same in both softwares can still behave slightly differently. This is why I'd definitely would this course for intermediates who already have decent experience in Procreate. If you have Photoshop however, then I think it's good enough for the beginners as well.
I recommend it for Intermediate
Krisztina A.

3 months ago

Verified Purchase
I absolutely loved this course! I rewatched it 2 times to understand all the steps, because every information were super important. Huge thank you to Lera for this amazing course!
I recommend it for Intermediate
JC
Julia C.

2 months ago

Verified Purchase
I have never started out with the lights and darks in a drawing before and this is a great starter lesson to try this technique. A great lesson, thank you.
I recommend it for Intermediate
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About the Instructor

Lera Kiryakova
Freelance Illustrator 1 course

Lera Kiryakova is a proficient illustrator known for her endearing celebrity portraits crafted in a distinctive, cute cartoon style.


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