Ok so it's crap.
But it's my first time painting a portrait in photoshop
considering that I am happy
but not finished obviously the hair has barely been touched
well, there are a lot of things to say about doing digital portraits, or any form of digital art involving brushes and tone for that matter.
I have more black and white experience than colour, so where it comes to colour I cant help you much.
but the list of things to know go as follows. ( I dunno if you know any of this already. ) (( I'm assuming you use PS. ))
Colour: Limit yourself, using very few complimenting colours make your image more subtle but enhance realism. Aim for large hard contrasting edges, this gives the image a more realistic touch as well. Try to define features more, even if it's a pain in the ass, the practice makes it easier with time.
Brushes + Brush use: when colouring/blocking shapes, ( nose, eye's, ears, face.. ) use a hard edge brush, and set your opacity and pressure to pen pressure and make sure smooth is on, this allows you to control the hardness of the image without having to constantly change opacity manually. to get that realistic depth to the edge of something, like the nose connecting to the face, select a colour 5 shades to 10 shades darker than the skin colour and blend that into the 'crease' line. NEVER use airbrush/soft round low opacity, except when you want to do super smooth blending of shades on very low opacity before you texture the face, otherwise you'll end up with a plastic skin tone. Make use of custom brushes, it takes literally 30 seconds to make and use a brush that's specific to what you need. ( skin texture, pores, hair.. )
Hair: Hair is tricky, everyone has a way of dong it.. Start with the basic shape of the hair in the darkest tone you can use in that hair colour range, but not black, nothing is ever black, maybe an off-black dark maroon or even a blood red, then, when the hairs basic shape is established, use thinner and thinner strokes to establish weight to the hair itself, this is hard to explain, try searching deviant art, by typing "hair tutorial" in their search bar. that should gibe you more than what you need to know about hair.
those are just guide lines, sitting behind your PC and struggling with a piece to get just what your looking for and making beautiful art, involves dedication and perseverance. I've learned more from yelling and cussing at my screen for not dancing to my magic than I ever could from either a tutorial or an art class. but it helps to know the basics..
Let me know if you've done any new portraits, digital likenesses or studies, I'd like to see.
I your interested, I'm busy doing a silly fantasy piece called EVIL YAKUZA,
it's just for fun and it shows the basic principles by recording all the work I'm doing on it,
so when recording and editing is done, I'll let you know and give you the YouTube link.
Yeah my style is different then most people I know
I learn a lot from my figure drawing classes but I always do better out side of class.
When you do figure drawing you have like 50 people around 1 model so you have all these people in front of you and you can see what they are doing. Especially when people are way better then you it's hard to concentrate and I start trying to mimic people and I get stressed because I am sucking
then i go home and apply what i learned in my own style with ease
it's strange I love art and creating art but it stresses me out
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/Jeseabell/self2-1.jpg?t=1218862804
update to my post
any better? on the right track? not?
again haven't started on the hair
Are you short, or did you do this looking at the mirrors on your ceiling? :O
The update seams to emphasise that even more!
I like the update, looks like your creating depth and building the form well!
Do you have dreadlocks by chance? ?
no I am not short
I am told I am tall for a girl and average for a guy I am slightly taller then 5'7
I took the reference picture by myself with a big SLR camera so it's held above me a bit to get the distance so I am looking up at the camera and I have terrible posture.
No I don't have dreads
I haven't really worked on the hair I just have hair in my face and I wanted to make a starting point I guess
I was iffy whether to do it or not
Oh and thank you!
I always feel like I am messing things up the more i work on them
I think the nose is looking tons better but I am not sure about the rest
my mouth makes me think
"Why so serious?"
You never know now-a-days, alot of you kids have dreadlocks! :)
I think the eyes are very strong, and I like the spot on the shoulder by the neck where it comes into focus.
Maybe the mouth is better in the older version, not as serious and the angle is...effective.
You do look serious, you don't strike me as someone so serious though.
People with Dreadlocks are definately not serious, do you at least have red hair? 8]
I have no tattoos or weird piercings
I don't even wear earings
I have an odd sense of humor but actually I am a serious person i take everything literally
I am told I don't show emotion on my face but am in fact a sensitive person
It is the curse of a cancer
I can see a little smile on the mouth, if the mouth was smiling even just a little more, the eyes would be smiling to. Try making a smile, it won't hurt much! :)
As for the hair, I don't think there's any specific recipe for that but the work flow is much as Helix described.
I normally start with shading the head very basically, almost as if it was a smooth ball to get the overall lighting right.
Then go one level deeper and define some major shapes (still using only light and dark values of your hair colour) - in your case you'll have 2 major clumps of hair to left and right, and the 'ridges' at the front.
Another level down, and define some smaller clumps of hair within those.
You should decrease brush size with every 'level' you add. Low opacity (20%) and I like to use shape dynamics on hair (if you use a tablet)
To get to this point should be a quick and simple process (about 10 min), don't get caught up in details yet. You should now start to 'see' the shape of the hair and work on that further (if you can't 'see' it - just start again, only a few minutes remember?)
For me details entails using smaller brush strokes of different values and some dodge and burn to define the strands.
I think you should start with the hair since its becoming difficult to judge other details with the large flat area of hair. I think you did a great job in capturing an expression here - very serious with a hint of a frown (oh please say thats what you were going for). The eyes are a nice size, just make the irises a bit bigger.
Rubbin is absolutely correct, also, have a look at the edge where the chin and the dankness of the shirt connect, also, your eye shape isn't defined enough.
otherwise, your blending is much better, I like how you've given the face more depth! =D
Gack!!! I want to finish this but I am defiantly not doing the hair with out a tablet. This was all done with a mouse. I can only get my tablet to work on my laptop for some reason. Anyone know where I might be able to find drivers for vista? I think thats the problem. It's a crappy tablet by Hanvon I can't even find a website for them. = (
jeseabell
DSG Member
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Sketches: 75
Posts: 300
3 years 9 months ago
But it's my first time painting a portrait in photoshop
considering that I am happy
but not finished obviously the hair has barely been touched
I hope i end up finishing this one
Rating: 8.50
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