This image by Robyn Drayson, entitled Personal Umbrella, looks sweet and spontaneous at first glance. However, a more detailed look reveals the strength of the composition and of Robyn’s painting skills.

The two dragons create a fantastic chiaroscuro effect in blue-black and pale grey and pink. Their spiralled bodies form a yin-yang shape, while the lighter dragon’s wing sweeping over the top of the image pulls the viewer back down into this spiral and straight to these characters’ faces. The warm pink of the wing is complemented by the rainy green background.

Robyn’s rendering of sparkling scales and of raindrops is superb. The iridescent shimmer on the lighter dragon is particularly strong and demonstrates Robyn’s skill with painting light. The colours are delicate and watery, echoing the transparent raindrops above. This image is full of sweeping, repeating rhythms – the pink of the upper dragon’s wing is echoed in the cherry blossoms beside the darker dragon character, the green of the background is picked up in the opalescent scales. Check out Robyn’s Gallery for more of her beautiful fantasy wildlife characters!

Meanwhile, here are the other images that stood out for me this week.

Kristina Gehrmann’s painting The Song of Lorelei is reminiscent of the work of 19th Century painter William-Adolphe Bouguerou and brings character and humour to this German mermaid character.

Sticking with sirens, Alexandra Knickel’s Mermaid is an imaginative concept piece with a clever and believable approach to a mermaid’s biology.

These comedy Vikings by Duncan Beedie are all at sea and full of character.

Nanako S created this fantastic manga scene just for Practice.

Rakan-ji by Alexander Tooth is an oriental-inspired fantasy scene.

Want to see your image featured here? Just Register, upload your artwork and you never know – I might choose it next week!

If you missed out on some of the early issues of Digital Artist,  don’t despair! You can get the first 20 issues of the magazine – that’s over 1500 pages of digital art goodness – for just £19.99 with our eMag disc. You’ll get a complete copy of each issue, in high-res PDF format, so you can view it on your computer screen or print an article out for reference.

The disc has a built-in search function too, which enables you to find the articles you want quickly and easily, whether you’re searching for techniques or software. Plus it includes free bonus resources to help you create your best-ever digital art.

If you prefer digital editions, and you don’t want to miss an issue of Digital Artist in future, visit our greatdigitalmags.com site to purchase a subscription via your iPad or iPhone, Kindle, Blackberry or Android device. You’ll receive the magazine on the day it comes out, no matter where you are in the world – no more waiting for it to reach your local stores! – and you’ll pay just £3.33 per issue.

Would you like to learn how to manage a complete digital art workflow, all the way from concept sketches on your iPad to matte painting, environment design, 3D modelling and post-production? Now you can get a great introduction to all of these disciplines with our newest collected editions.

In the Digital Artist Collection you’ll discover the essential styles and genres in digital art and learn how to create a wide range of imagery using the most popular industry-standard software such as Photoshop, Painter, Illustrator, ArtRage and the latest creative apps. You’ll explore a wide range of digital techniques and skills that will enable you to create your best-ever 2D artwork.

In the 3D Art and Design Book you’ll get a complete introduction to creating 3D artwork and build on this foundation by learning some of the most important techniques in the CG industry – character design, architectural modelling and vehicle design. Masterclass articles will help you inject reality into your 3D models. You’ll learn how to work with ZBrush, Arch vis, Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya and more, plus Photoshop techniques for post-production.If you’ve never taken a look at our sister magazine 3D Artist, this is the perfect introduction.

Combine the two and you’ve got a fantastic overview of 2D and 3D art and design and the top tricks and techniques that industry professionals are using to create the hottest movies and animations. You’ll hone your skills in painting and modelling characters, scenes, creatures and concept designs, enabling you to create fantastic 2D and 3D artwork.

The Digital Artist Collection is priced at £12.99 while the 3D Art and Design Book is £14.99. You can find them in all good newsagents or purchase them from our online store.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m super-excited about The Avengers (Assemble), so this week my free resources are focused on creating great comics characters.

The truth is, these metal textures will help you paint Iron Man.

Juggertha on deviantART has a Hulk.

Whosoever holds these lightning brushes shall possess the power of Thor.

Assemble an Avengers-style text effect with this free tutorial by Mohammed Jeprie.

Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated some of the world’s best children’s books, most famously Where the Wild Things Are. His death on 8th May 2012 was a great loss for the millions of people around the world who have enjoyed his work.

If you’d like to create a cute, vivid and appealing monster character in a similar vein to Maurice Sendak’s iconic Wild Things, here are some top tips from children’s author and illustrator Huguette Pizzic.

This tutorial originally appeared in full in issue 31 of Digital Artist.

Step 1: Pencil sketches

One of the keys to success is composition; it should be sharp, readable and clearly highlight the characters so that the viewer is immediately absorbed. Jot down your ideas and test out several sketches. When you are set on one composition, expand it by making a more thorough sketch that is closer to the final version.

Step 2: Use patterns and textures

Children like patterns and decorated elements. By integrating textures using wallpaper or fabric you can add a little extra that will catch the eye of the young viewer. Play with blending modes to better integrate textures, so that they do not complicate or take over the whole illustration, and slightly mask the textures using layer masks.

Step 3: Define a colour chart

A common mistake made during colouring is to try rendering elements according to their natural hue. In other words, a leaf will be green and a tomato will be red. This isn’t always the best way to go, as too many colours will make your illustration unreadable. Use a relatively restricted palette and reflect a mood. You can look for some or create one free of charge at kuler.adobe.com.

Step 4: Customise your brushes

The world of childhood suggests softness, so do not hesitate to transcribe this characteristic. Create a downy atmosphere, like a cuddly toy, using your own brushes to give texture to your painting. In a new document, create a pattern, then choose Edit>Define Brush Preset to save it as a brush shape, and customise it in the Brushes palette.

Top tip

Pay particular attention to your characters, as they are often the visual focus for children. Things like shadows, highlights and small details make all the difference.

Get fantastic tutorials like this every month with Digital Artist. Subscribe to the paper edition here or to the tablet, smartphone and digital edition here.

Seascape images can often fall down when it comes to painting realistic water. Here Joe Cummings shares his tips for making waves in this image, entitled The Storm Below. This tutorial appears in full in issue 31 of Digital Artist and as well as teaching you how to paint seas, also teaches you how to light an image using Photoshop’s layer masks.

Step 1: Simple beginnings

Create a dark-to-light-blue gradient and, on a new layer, paint sharp-edged diamonds. Only one or two should dominate.

Step 2: Blue or green

Between the background and the waves, airbrush a brighter green-blue towards the foreground then paint a lattice of smaller wave outlines.

Step 3: Light tweaks

Adjust the hue and contrast according to the light then look at reference images to see how foam on the top of water disperses.

Step 4: Reflections

Go back to the airbrushed layer and paint in some of the sky colour at the horizon. Add in bright sunlight reflections across the water.

More like this:

How to draw in perspective

How to make a custom pattern design in Corel Painter

How to prepare comic line art for inking

My Image of the Week this week is Moment of Peace by Brandon Hopkins. This is a gorgeous piece of classic fantasy art and makes great use of colour and tone to create atmosphere.

Purple and blue are usually uneasy bedfellows in a palette, but Brandon has managed to make them look rich and opulent by combining red-purple, purple and blue-violet with touches of azure and magenta. Gold detailing lifts the cool tones with a complementary pop. I’ve always loved those descriptions in classical myths of characters like Dido, Nausicaa and Camilla clad in ‘Tyrian purple’ and the clothing colours in this image evoke the same sense of luxury and nobility that Homer, Virgil and Ovid do when they use this term as a signifier.

The pose and facial expression tie in well with the title. The heroine’s face has just relaxed from its usual battle-ready wariness, her shoulders and sword arm have just dropped down to rest. Nonetheless she’s still an Amazonian warrior and ready for action: her eyes are watchful even in repose. The armour’s slightly more practical than most; the anatomy reminiscent of the insanely buffed heroines of Boris Vallejo, making this a believable but still fantastical character.

The dreamy forest glade is the perfect setting for this character. The soft pinks, yellows and deep mossy greens are evocative of an enchanted forest or a humid, misty jungle. The scene begs the question – what’s going to happen next?

Honourable mentions

Overcomer by Clement Ng is a well-drawn, sweet little illustration that tells a sad story.

Blackbirds and the Estate Overspill by Paul Attard is contemporary, Expressionistic and energetic.

Missing You – October 1940 by Kristina Gehrmann is a poignant piece of hyperrealism.

Island Paradise by Gareth Barnes is a fresh, quirky, oriental-inspired illustration.

Bromance by Duncan Beedie is just OMG LOL.

Want to see your image featured here? Just Register, upload your artwork and you never know – I might  choose it next week!

The release of the iPad and similar tablets was exciting because it finally enabled digital artists to get outside to sketch and paint.

Painting en plein air is an idea that was popularised by the Impressionists. Previously, only watercolourists were able to take their kit outside, but with the invention of oil paint in tubes during the 19^th Century, oil painters could pack up a palette and join the party.

Now digital painters can get outside and paint from life too thanks to the iPad and other tablets. However, plein air painting isn’t without its own challenges. Here’s how to tackle them with your tablet.

Stay in the shade

Find yourself a place in the shade – you’ll get less glare and better colour-read from your screen if you’re not under full sunlight (and you’ll avoid overheating both your tablet and yourself).

Take a stand

Invest in a portable iPad stand that you can take out and about so you don’t have to sit or stand holding your iPad. This one by Twelve South is like an easel. Remember a folding chair too!

Use a stylus

Summer days mean sweaty fingers. Avoid gunking up your screen by using a stylus. The PenGo BrushPen has interchangeable pen and brush tips to suit whatever style you create in.

Turn off the camera

Observational drawing is about exactly that. Don’t use your tablet’s camera to snap a sneaky start photo to clone over. Paint what you see – try warming up with a blind contour sketch before you get started.

Take Digital Artist with you

You don’t need to pack a bag with A4 magazines – you can grab digital editions of Digital Artist for most tablets and smartphones via GreatDigitalMags.com, so you have creative advice and inspiration on the go (even in the middle of a field!).

More like this:

Secrets of effective iPad paintings – #1

Secrets of effective iPad paintings – #2

Get mobile art tips wherever you go

Digital art comes in all shapes and sizes and on all digital devices. So why should the premier magazine dedicated to it be any different? We’re not stuck in the print and paper world – just like digital art itself, Digital Artist is available on a wide variety of platforms and in a wide range of formats.

Mobile artists taking digital art out of the studio on the iPhone and iPad inspired us to make the magazine available via the iTunes store and its Newsstand app. And as other tablets and smartphones have got in on the mobile art revolution, so we’ve brought Digital Artist to Android and Blackberry via Zinio. Now you can take Digital Artist’s tuition, techniques and trends with you and create the best digital art wherever you are.

To make it easy for you to find individual issues, or subscribe via your tablet or smartphone, we’ve developed an easy-to-use website to help you purchase magazines and manage your subscriptions. Check out www.greatdigitalmags.com and bring Digital Artist – and the mobile art revolution – to your device today.

The Digital Artist Collection is out now and you can find it in all good UK newsagents or at our online shop.

For those who have missed out on any issues of Digital Artist (and haven’t picked up our eMag of the first 20 issues yet), this is the first best-of collection from our magazine’s tutorials. It’s packed with tutorials on Photoshop, Corel Painter, ArtRage, Illustrator and on mobile art and creative apps. It collects some of our favourite content from the magazine so far into one gorgeous glossy bookazine.

It’s also ideal for newcomers to digital art. It starts off with a guide to the most popular styles. The bookazine is then split into sections covering the major creative software programs and how to use them. You’ll find everything from basic to advanced techniques that will help you create digital paintings, photomanipulations, vector illustrations and much more. A dedicated section for mobile artists concentrates on the creative power of the iPad and its apps, too, so whether you’re a beginner yourself or you know someone who is, this is the ideal introduction to digital art.

The bookazine also comes with a free CD which contains source files, sketches and tools to help you follow the tutorials, plus bonus resources including over 160 Photoshop brushes, 100 stock photos and a pack of high-res textures.

The Digital Artist Collection is priced at £12.99 and is available from all good newsagents or at imagineshop.co.uk.