Photoshop Digital Painting tutorial 2
Photoshop Painting Tutorial
(or how to screw up a painting in 5 easy steps!)
1. The first step is to start a sketch. For this I prefer to use a hard brush set to a size that is comfortable to work with. I also prefer to start with a flesh color background. I have my background on a loc ked layer and then start the drawing on a new layer so that I can erase out what isnt working. I didnt use photo reference here, rather I used the rule of thirds. The proportions of the face are roughly thirds from the hair to the eyebrows eyebrow to base of nose and base of nose to chin. Also the corners of the mouth ususally align to the middle of the eye and the edge of the nose base to the inner corners of the eyes.
2. Now I start block in color using a spatter brush, set to a low opacity 20-30%, flow 20-30%. If you need to you can add the initial color at opacity of 80% to get you started faster. Make sure you start painting on a new layer. I also keep my sketch layer on top of my painting layer. I am developing a color palette off to the side that I can use the eyedropper to dip into as I need each color, this saves me mixing every time and keeps my color consistent. Look for pinks, yellows, blues, greens etc to the skin. It isnt all just neutral. Go brighter than you think or otherwise the color looks too neutral.
3. Here I am starting to define more color and I would encourage you to use brighter, more intense color here as we will be covering it up later with neutral color. But if you dont have these bright colors undernearth, it wont look right. I have turned off my sketch here to see how I am progressing. I have started to add some purples and greens that I have mixed from the color mixer. This is the OOgly stage! I have blocked in the hair using a spatter brush as well. This rougher brush adds some texture to the skin and hair.
4. Now I have my base color worked out and I am trying to refine and blend color. So I switch to a soft airbrush and as I blend more I keep lowering the opacity setting as needed to get a softer blend. If I need to paint in details such as the eyelids, or shadows under the eyes I switch to a hard edge brush and a higher opacity setting. I have also moved several areas of my sketch. I redrew my chin with a hard edge brush because I had lost it. I also redrew and moved the eyes. A trick that is useful is to use the marquee tool to grab an area of the painting that you need to adjust and to copy it to a new layer (Command J). Then use the move tool to position it and when you get it where you want you can erase the
area you dont need and merge it with the layer below (Command E).
5. Here I have decided on a background color. I am continuing to refine features. I have started to add color into the hair with a spatter brush. I then switch to a hard edge brush at a small size for the strands of hair. Play with color here and make sure to incorporate the background color into your flesh and hair. I usually use a soft airbrush at a low opacity to glaze some of the background color into my flesh. You can see areas here
at the outer corner of the eye, side of nose and chin where I have used some of the background color. I have also blocked in the shoulders.
6. Now to get serious! I am using mostly a soft airbrush here at a low opacity to blend color in the face. I am using lighter variations of my skin colors over the more intense color we used earlier. I am still working the background color into my skin too. To get the details in the eyes I use a small hard brush and paint many different shades of green and amber into the eye. Make sure to add the black pupil and a shadow under the top
eyelid. The dodge and burn tool works well here to lighten and darken the eye as needed. Also add the highlights into the eye. For eyelashes I use a new layer and a small hard brush to paint them in. I use a new layer in case I get sucky eyelashes and need to redo them. Also you can use the smudge tool to soften the ends. For the background I used a custom leaf brush I made. I realized that while I did this demo for my photoshop class I somehow made her look pissed off!
Have fun!
interesting!