In the first half of this demonstration I painted the major masses of the missile platform. Working in this manner, from simple to complex, is a common story on Ctrl+Paint. There's no point in adding the detailed missiles if the underlying form isn't correct first. But at this point in the demonstration, I'm comfortable with the foundation and it's time to add the detailed missiles.
The technique central to painting these missiles is called "smart objects", and is a bit unexpected for those with traditional art roots.
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