Ross Tran – Color Dodge King

Hey guys!

First artist feauture on my blog, Ross Tran! In this post I will tell you more about this amazing digital artist, his artwork and why he inspires me so much. I will also elaborate a bit about color dodging in Photoshop, its importance and how it affected my colouring methods.

Ross Tran, better known as Ross Draws, is a twenty something creative young’un from the U.S.A. I came across his channel on Youtube whilst searching for tutorials on digital drawing and I was pleasently surprised by the videos I found there. Usually, his recordings  are about 5 tot 7 minutes long (excellent for people with a short attention span) and show how he makes his digital artwork. Furthermore, Ross often highlights one aspect of the artprocess; whether it be composing composition, neat  texture tricks or how to coordinate colours. And he always, always uses the color dodge tool.

Here is an example of one of his tutorials:

Color dodge. Ah yes, how this changed my way of working in Photoshop. Let me show you:

First of all, how does one obtain this elusive skill? The figure below should provide some clarity. You can either set your brush mode to color dodge, or apply it to a seperate layer. Use both for maximum power. Congratulations, you can now color dodge!

Here are two examples of my artwork. The one on the left was made in 2013, the one on the right was made this January, both are made in Photoshop.

Aside from the obvious style change and anatomy improvement, the colour composition in the image on the right is far more pleasant than the left drawing. All thanks to color dodge. This technique allows one to create more depth in composition as well as a greater variety in colours. It also gives you the abilty to change warm tones in a drawing to cool tones. Furthermore, it is so easy to use! Just have fun with it, and soon enough you will be a color dodge expert.

Ross explains the use of this tool in several of his videos, and I would highly recommend watching them all! His tutorials are very instructive for the beginning artist as well as being entertaining (I personally have a soft spot for Milo) for the more experienced sketchers. Mr. Trans uplifting spirit will leave your mood as brightened as your artwork will be after color dodging.

And, to end in the words of this digital master: Everyday is a color dodge day!

You can find his sites here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLEVrhumRsK67JkP3G4w5cQ

https://www.instagram.com/rossdraws/

http://rossdraws.tumblr.com/

https://www.patreon.com/Rossdraws

https://www.facebook.com/Rossdraws/

Love, Eve