Tutorial: an illustration from A to Z with Krita

A long 1h22min Krita video tutorial fully commented. A real full length course suited to beginners, but also advanced digital painters. It starts from scratch with default set of brushes, preferences and break-down all the process. The repetitive parts while painting were all accelerated and can be skipped easily (a timer in overlay appears on display) Check the Timeline codes under to navigate in the video.

Subtitle are unfortunately not available, sorry for my (heavy) French accent and poor vocabulary. It was too long to write them this time. I hope the auto generation will work and you'll have not a lot of trouble to understand me mumbling sometime.

I recorded over 6h of material, and at the end I was totally brain washed. Painting and talking while recording really overheat my brain, and I also recorded that under a super hot weather, 39°C , and I had to turn of all the fans to reduce the noise on the microphone. That was a real challenge.

Big props also to the OBS studio team (for the recording software) and Kdenlive team (for the video editing software). Of course, to the Krita team too!

**Timeline, Table of Content:**
- 00:00:00 Intro
- 00:00:40 Chapter 1, Customisation of the Krita Interface (Intro)
- 00:01:31 Reduce size of toolbar icon
- 00:01:57 The Advanced Color Selector
- 00:02:41 Two columns of dockers
- 00:03:37 From Tabs to Subwindows mode
- 00:05:10 Third Flow sliders, and new toolbar buttons
- 00:07:14 Canvas border background color
- 00:07:46 Brush outline and cursor
- 00:08:42 Tool Options, not as a docker but in toolbar
- 00:10:33 The Overview docker
- 00:11:23 Navigation on Krita canvas, with shortcuts
- 00:12:16 The Default brush presets set
- 00:12:37 Chapter 2, Finding the idea (Krita artist contest)
- 00:13:43 Chapter 3, References with BeeRef software
- 00:15:54 Chapter 4, Thumbnails
- 00:16:27 Basics of Krita (Fill, Transform, Selection)
- 00:19:35 About values in painting, the big "scheme" for portraits.
- 00:21:23 Starting to draw the thumbnails
- 00:24:20 Painting colors on the thumbnails
- 00:25:31 The Blending Modes (on brush) Overlay
- 00:29:17 Filters of Krita (Curves, HSV adjustement, Color Balance).
- 00:32:37 The concept of "Dirty" brush preset, and cleaning them.
- 00:35:47 Chapter 5, Drawing. Transform of the thumbnail, resolution and layer setup.
- 00:39:09 Drawing (Timelapse)
- 00:41:47 Chapter 6, Painting under the line-art
- 00:43:37 The Deform Brush Engine
- 00:45:20 "Grain Merge" blending-mode on the line-art
- 00:46:45 Introduction to creating brush presets
- 00:51:21 Brush usage, hard edge, spikes, glazing and replacing colors
- 00:51:50 Paint under, Timelapse
- 00:52:55 Chapter 7, Paint-Over (setup)
- 00:55:04 Paint-Over (timelapse)
- 00:56:11 Adjustements, and self-criticism
- 00:56:46 Values, Reading Histogram docker
- 00:59:21 Values, fixing with Curves filter
- 01:02:19 Color temperature, fixing with Color Balance filter
- 01:03:50 Background painting (timelapse)
- 01:04:22 Silhouetting the character with the Lighten Blending Mode (fog)
- 01:08:10 Paint-Over fix, removing the squirrel's hears (timelapse commented)
- 01:08:52 Lens Blur Effect for the depht of field (Filter Mask).
- 01:11:46 A special thanks for the idea of the video
- 01:12:29 Another pass for thinner details (big timelapse)
- 01:16:27 (pre)Final, and saving/archiving the file.
- 01:17:56 Appendice, fix pushed "One day after" (timelapse)
- 01:19:55 The final artwork
- 01:20:05 Outro
- 01:21:58 Credits, Attributions and License

License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Video and artworks by David Revoy
Kiki is a character design created by Tyson Tan (CC-By)

**Soundtrack:**
- SoundFX: Oriental Harp3 by Soughtaftersounds (CC-By) - Freesound

Edited with Kdenlive 21.04(appimage) on Fedora KDE 36

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[kathywolf]

David, don't apologize for your accent. English is not your indigenous/first language.
You are a very good teacher. You are NOT hard to understand at all. This video is helpful for many, many people and very appreciated.

[RexelBartolome]

1 hour long of narrated step by step process from a fresh install to a fully fledged illustration? David youre insane! truly a gem to our community 😊

[cassascorner]

Also, don't apologize for your accent. You're speaking a language that's not your native one. The people who complain can learn french if they want, but they haven't, have they?

[piupiupiuart]

I just downloaded krita and was struggling to navigate and understand the tools.
I was disappointed when I couldn't find the airbrush tool. At the same time, I am looking for a tutorial on how to use this software and I am grateful to have found your video. It is very helpful. Thank you. More videos to come.

[caveirainvocada]

MAN, i always wanted a video with your full step-by-step process, this is like a dream come true!

[PaulKater]

Goodness. In the first 7 minutes of watching this video, I have learnt more about Krita than trying to figure things out on my own in months. This is going to be a treasure. Merci beaucoup!

[Kris_Toffer]

I'm trying to get back into drawing after having quit as a kid, so im basically starting from scratch, and this is great help for me. It's a lot of information and a lot for me to remember, but its also very convenient to have it all in one video instead of having to watch a 40 video playlist with lots of fill. I'll definitely keep coming back to this from time to time to pick up new things after I've tried the things I do remember. It's so well made, it'll be a great resource. Thank you for making this.

[Matthew.thirtyseven]

I have never thought about doing a thumbnail, the resizing it to draw over. That alone was awesome. Thank you.

[J_Tchang]

Incredible helpful video David !! As always more and more people are adopting Krita thanks to amazing artists like you !

[crumblyguy]

Holy cow, this is awesome. I’ve started drawing again, trying digital and I’ve been horrible at planning out how I’ll draw my compositions. This video helped 👍

[seva]

I'm only 30 minutes in, but you've apologized for your English/accent a few times now. Just wanted to let you know I haven't had any issues understanding anything you have said. I am from the US, but you your English is just fine to me. Thank you for this tutorial, it is excellent!

[masonleblanc]

It is very cool to see an artists full process. Thank you so much for sharing.

[setin]

I always find you a very apt teacher. You've always inspired me with both your artworks, and with how much you choose to give free to others. I thank you as an aspiring artist.

[s-o-o-z]

I'm not even halfway through but I had to stop and say thank you. Wow, you are so generous in the way you share your knowledge. Thank you. (BTW, I'm a big fan of your accent.)

[nothingiseverperfect]

The thumbnail process and the “value comparisons” was such an amazing insight into how to try many variations without making a big mess! Your videos and work is truly so helpful thank you so much.

[marvngardn]

Your demeanor while you teach is both soothing and very wholesome, making the learning process for novices like myself less painful. Also, I enjoy the timelapse song more than I probably should. Thank you for the video!

[hag]

the most comprehensive and capable tutorial ive found so far, the french is just a cherry on top

[sennabullet]

An hour well spent...the French accent made listening a joy! Thank you very much for the immense effort you put into making this fantastic tutorial!

[Dimipim]

oh my God this video is everything that I've been asking for in a tutorial about Krita

Seriously, thank you SO MUCH

[Helgrind]

You're a huge inspiration to me. I love your style and your commitment to open source softwares.
Thanks a lot for this video, I always wanted to see your whole process