- Joined
- Oct 1, 1999
- Messages
- 6,490
I do a lot of work in Photoshop, I’ve done a bunch of tutorials about what I do and how I do it. Every once in a while I have the urge to do a painting in Photoshop, usually my subjects are women. I hadn’t done one since 2005, but a photo that reminded me of someone I knew motivated me start one. Paintings are a lot of work, and it’s hard to figure out when to stop, there’s always something that can be improved or done better.
I start with a photo open in Photoshop, that’s close to what I’m looking for.
On a new layer I sketch some of the detail of the photo..
On another layer I add a flat background.
On a third layer I block in some flesh color as a base layer.
I continue with layer upon layer, I start by adding shadows and highlights on separate layers. I’m working very rough at this point just adding blocks of color to set the planes of the face. Once I add a color I’ll usually diffuse it by adding a Gaussian Blur, and usually reducing the Opacity of that layer. Shadows first, slowly getting darker and more refined. Then the Highlights, once again building slowly on separate layers.
Eyes and teeth are painted on layers and put behind the flesh layer.
I also added some hair that will be behind the face.
Adding more and more detail, eye makeup, eyebrows, lipstick, etc. all on their own layers.
More sections of hair are added, each with their own shadow and highlights.
It’s good to have the reference photo open while you work, but I’m not trying to do an exact copy. You may notice in that I’ve raised the contrast with the painting. In the photo there is almost no difference in tone between the nose and the far cheek. Funny thing is when I made the nose more defined it appeared too big to me. I changed it in the final image, as well as enlarging the eyes.
There are parts of this painting that I like very much. There are many things I could spend many days working on to improve. I worked on this over three days, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for an hour. I can’t say when I’ll consider it finished.
WARNING PARTIAL NUDITY... Please don’t click on the thumbnails and complain later.
I start with a photo open in Photoshop, that’s close to what I’m looking for.
On a new layer I sketch some of the detail of the photo..
On another layer I add a flat background.
On a third layer I block in some flesh color as a base layer.
I continue with layer upon layer, I start by adding shadows and highlights on separate layers. I’m working very rough at this point just adding blocks of color to set the planes of the face. Once I add a color I’ll usually diffuse it by adding a Gaussian Blur, and usually reducing the Opacity of that layer. Shadows first, slowly getting darker and more refined. Then the Highlights, once again building slowly on separate layers.
Eyes and teeth are painted on layers and put behind the flesh layer.
I also added some hair that will be behind the face.
Adding more and more detail, eye makeup, eyebrows, lipstick, etc. all on their own layers.
More sections of hair are added, each with their own shadow and highlights.
It’s good to have the reference photo open while you work, but I’m not trying to do an exact copy. You may notice in that I’ve raised the contrast with the painting. In the photo there is almost no difference in tone between the nose and the far cheek. Funny thing is when I made the nose more defined it appeared too big to me. I changed it in the final image, as well as enlarging the eyes.
There are parts of this painting that I like very much. There are many things I could spend many days working on to improve. I worked on this over three days, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for an hour. I can’t say when I’ll consider it finished.
WARNING PARTIAL NUDITY... Please don’t click on the thumbnails and complain later.
Attachments
Last edited: