100% Photoshop
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Definition
With the main outlines and features in place, I decided to remove the GRID layer and work on my own, using the original photo only for occasional reference. When adding definition and detail, I always find it too restrictive to work directly from reference. It's better to exercise some creativity at this stage and inject a personal touch.
With the dodge and burn tools, I started to strengthen the highlights and shadows. I also used the airbrush, burn and dodge tools and the smudge tool with hard brushes to add definition to the lips, eyes and nose, very lightly pushing and pulling the colours into place (see previous example of the nose).
With the main outlines and features in place, I decided to remove the GRID layer and work on my own, using the original photo only for occasional reference. When adding definition and detail, I always find it too restrictive to work directly from reference. It's better to exercise some creativity at this stage and inject a personal touch.
With the dodge and burn tools, I started to strengthen the highlights and shadows. I also used the airbrush, burn and dodge tools and the smudge tool with hard brushes to add definition to the lips, eyes and nose, very lightly pushing and pulling the colours into place (see previous example of the nose).
With the burn and dodge tools, I began adding light and dark streaks to the woman’s hair, using the smudge
tool and hard brushes to divide the locks.
tool and hard brushes to divide the locks.
Over some other areas of the hair I applied the Paint Daubs filter (in moderation this time) before smoothing and fining it out (as shown above).
Continuing with the aforementioned methods, I proceeded to smooth out the brush strokes, add stronger highlights and further detail to the hair. I also started adding creases to the eyes and fining out the eye lashes and eye brows using the smudge and burn tools with a single pixel brush on low pressure.
1. Basic undetailed eye.
2. Highlight added to tip of eye lid with dodge tool. Definition of eye lashes made with smudge tool.
3. The brows and eye lashes fined down. Creases added to eye lid. Touch of purple added with airbrush on color mode.
2. Highlight added to tip of eye lid with dodge tool. Definition of eye lashes made with smudge tool.
3. The brows and eye lashes fined down. Creases added to eye lid. Touch of purple added with airbrush on color mode.
Colouring
Turning my attention to the man’s face, I began applying subtle colours, using the airbrush on color mode (between 2-5% pressure).
I decided to apply a faint blush of red to the most prominent areas, such as the nose, cheeks and chin, in order to give the man’s face a little vibrancy and feeling. I then added traces of purple and green to add variation to the monochrome skin, and to help give the overall image a unique appearance. (Note: I often get ideas for colouring by studying fantasy art.)
Turning my attention to the man’s face, I began applying subtle colours, using the airbrush on color mode (between 2-5% pressure).
I decided to apply a faint blush of red to the most prominent areas, such as the nose, cheeks and chin, in order to give the man’s face a little vibrancy and feeling. I then added traces of purple and green to add variation to the monochrome skin, and to help give the overall image a unique appearance. (Note: I often get ideas for colouring by studying fantasy art.)
The subtle touches of purple and red were applied with the airbrush on color mode.
Also using the airbrush in color mode, I applied a touch of make-up to the woman’s eye lids
Once the colours were applied I frequently used the eye dropper tool to select and apply these to other areas of the picture - i.e. the purple on the man's face was also used to colour parts of his hair. This helped to maintain a consistent colour-scheme for the overall picture.
At this stage, I decided that the image as a whole needed to be darker, and so, using the Image/Adjust/Variations pull down, I quickly darkened the shadows.
