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As always, the work starts with a sketch. For a digital painting, the sketch needs to be pretty
developed. I skipped showing you the development of this sketch, but if you look into my tutorial of the male head, you'll get the idea.
This fellow is slouching against a wall (that isn't there yet). The goal was to have captured the body posture of the slouch, and all that it communicates...a little bit of laid back and a little bit of "tude".
On a painting like this, I start with a deep color layer behind the linework layer.
And I work on the linework layer to further refine the sketch.
The original image was pretty big. About 20 inches tall and 300dpi.
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The original background color was too saturated, my poor eyes were falling out of my skull. So I lightened it some.
And the line work needed to be less busy.
I finally got it to a starting point. Now lets have some fun...
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This work is painted right onto the background color layer.
For the entire painting, I will only have the two layers...
Lineart and background.
I lay down solid and semi-solid blocks of color
and then use the blending wand with a really frazzly looking brush...about 60pts.
At this point I am experimenting with
what I want skin tone to be like...where I want the light source and how I want the blending to look. But mostly, this is about
color and getting comfy with the person in my head I am painting....
I know how whack that sounds...it's okay. *wink*
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Now this actually looks promising. I have a body color to act as my midrange shadow and I can build
from there.
I have a final idea of light source too. So I am building the extreme of the highlights as I go--beginning to hint at the 3D
shapes of solid form and muscle.
Also, the face is seeing some subtle but important deepening of color and enriching of highlight. Not sure how
I feel about where that is at yet, though.
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At this point, everything looks like mud. But this is an important stage.
I am building color and scooting it around. With the smudge wand, this is like finger painting...you don't want
that color where it is...drag it to where it looks better. This means I have the smudge strength set high...about 70%.
I tend to work from the top down, so the face is more smoothed, more finished in appearance. But that is only because I am
using smaller brushes with it. I add some shadow and highlight to his face this stage. I am trying to mate the highlights up to
create a realistic glow off the forehead, jaw and chin planes.
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Now he looks a bit better. And no, he won't have man-bits painted in. This will be a clothed final product. (I know...take a moment to collect yourself and recover from the disappointment.)
The shapes are begining to take form. His muscles are appearing in the right places as
a result of playing with light and darks. In painting, you are thinking the reverse of drawing. You are using highlight and shadow to replace the neat but unnatural barriers created by linework.
And BTW, that chin highlight just HAD to go. I also did something about his poor, poor nose. LOL!
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Okay, more refinement of shape and highlight/shadow. Yummy, yes? (Can we say "nipple" boys and girls...I knew you could)
His nose got an underside highlight, his left shoulder got some more fine tuning. A lot of little changes at this stage and they
all lead up to his "body" coming up ready to paint clothing onto soon.
Still a little tweaking to do though. It's time for a soda break so I can come back with a fresh look on things.
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Ewwwwww..... Mysterious, glowy Prussian Blue eyes. I am not sure I like them. I'll wait and see how they strike me towards the end of things.
The changes to nose and lip though, I like. I am one of those folks who refuses to not add a little warmth to nostrils when I can. The blood is so close to the surface there...all those tiny capillaries. This nose isn't quite "tap-room" red, but the weather where he is might be a bit chilly.
And really, I felt is was about time to start addressing that mop of brown hair he has too. LOL! |
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He's pretty much done now, to the point where he is ready to paint clothing on.
I spent some time back on the lineart layer...fine-tuning again.
Evening line quality, suring up lost or thin spots and making sure the lines of the face were clean of
strays and errors.
I also put in one more really attentive look at the realism of shadow, highlight and shape. And I am satisfied now. (Though I am having doubts about the highlight on the underside of the right pectoral.)
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Now I am back at his hair. I hate what I have done. But since I am not yet sure where I am going with his hair, I am leaving it til later.
GGgggrrrrrrr......
I redid some of the areas on his nose and added a bit more salmon to highlight his lips. |
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Aha! Pants! (there is a joke in there, somewhere...)
I am loving the linework of the belt. Booyah!
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Pants and belt have tone, shadow and shape! You can see folds and wrinkles... They look like clothing now. And there is the framework of a sword.
This is achieved in several ways...laying down new color, smearing it around with the old color and generally abusing the heck out of having a "smudge" tool
I worked with the shadows around his neck and adam's apple too. |
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This is a great trick of photoshop. I selected his pants using the polygonal lasso tool.
And then I adjusted the hue, saturation, lightness, contrast, and intensity until I had something
that looks the way I have it looking in my head.
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And now I have drawn the rest of his costume. This too is drawn right onto the background color layer I have been painting on...not the line art layer.
This costume is a lot more "fantasy" than I think I like. But I am gonna play with it to see if I can make it sing. My instincts are telling me this project has gone awry on several levels....
Still, all he has on is a shirt, bracers, and a jacket. How wrong can this go?
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The rest of the costume gets the same treatment as the pants did....
A little painting, a little smudging, a little Burn tool, and a little Dodge tool. And then more smudging...LOL!
Hey, this doesn't look as bad as I worried it might. |
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Again, the same treatment as the pants. I change around the hue, saturation,
lightness, contrast, and intensity until the costume stands on its own.
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Okay, here I am fine-tuning again. I smooth the costume all over, paying extra attention to fixing probs with highlight and shadow.
Some
time ago that pectoral highlight got fixed and now I am glad as it is obvious what a silly idea
that was.
I add some subtle clothing seams too. I also adjust some textural issues. The line work gets a major overhaul. The change there is subtle but important.
Anyone notice that there is the beginings of a wall ledge for him to lean on now?
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Ah...the sweet end. The costume gets detailed with a few temporary brushes for leaf borders and such.
I also added the illusion of braid trim and
embroidery. I painted jacket buttons, and created the look of leather stamping on the bracers. I also detailed
the rivets and buckle of the belt.
His hair, his sword and the "wall" all get finishing work done.
And the background gets finished.
This is done with a REALLy large brush, something like 600pts. I set the color to "cream", select the background
and set the brush opacity to 5%.
With the
brush opacity so low, the color goes down like layers of thin mist.
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He's done now. I really am not satisfied with him. But it's costume issues and to continue to fiddle would be to overwork the piece.
I think eventually I will go in, lighten the last of the linework and take the whole costume down to a sage palette. I may like that better.
But
not today. *exhausted sigh*
Thanks for joining me! I hope this was helpful.
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