: Why do graphic designers / illustrators start with a large painted area? When I watch time lapses of Photoshop (and the like) artwork, I always ask myself why they paint a huge area over the

@Turnbaugh909

The artist in your link is painting from dark to light. By laying down a dark layer first, he can then paint highlights on top of it. This is often easier than trying to paint in every crease which creates a shadow.

In general, you can paint from dark to light, light to dark, or middle to light and dark. If the overall piece is intended to be of a darker nature it's often easier to start with a dark base and build brighter color on top of that base.

Note, he doesn't paint in a "black" layer. He paints in a dark layer but he can still see his black edges on top of it.

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@Cofer715

Every artist works differently, but the basic concept is called "painting on a colored ground."

The idea is that you do not start with white, and the most (western) traditional method is to start with a 40-70% grey (or brown) tone.

This allows you to work "up" to white and "down" to black.

In my experience anything darker than 50% grey tends to give an oppressive overall feel to a picture, but seems to be popular in fantasy illustration, VElvis, Rainbow Unicorns etc.

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