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This first one is an older work, and I don't use quite this same technique anymore, but I thought I would post this just to get some tutorials going. In general I now use brushes that are not as soft and not quite as transparent to avoid the plastic look. Otherwise most info is the same.
This can be done with photoshop, Gimp, or most programs with brushes that can adjust opacity. I use Corel Photopaint.
First I started with a reference pic.I want to get all of the details. So photos are a good way to start. Live models are even better if you can get someone to stand still!
I took that photo and put it in a window within photopaint. Or I suppose you could print it and tape it to the side of your monitor. This way I can look at it and my work side by side.
Start with a big image...I use 2000x2000 just to be sure I have enough room. Most programs you open a new image by going to the "File" menu and selecting "NEW."Then take the regular brush and trace the basic outline of the face. Some suggest starting with the eyes, or some other element, but for me, this is the most important. It sets the bounds of all other elements. And the slight nuances of the chin, forhead, neck etc. really give the different looks to faces. I try to do the whole head with one stroke to make it smoother. (that was my old technique, now I just skip the lines and paint one big shape). Put your brush on about 50 softness (this was done with more, but I don't like the softer brushes too much anymore. They give a strange look.) . This part is fairly quick, but remember to LOOK AT THE REFERENCE MORE THAN YOUR WORK! You are recreating the original, you must look at it often.
Once you have the basic outline fill in the area with the same color. Once this is done it is time to refine your quickly drawn outline.
Now that you have a solid color image of the basic shape of the face take your eraser tool, with high softness and begin to refine. The great part about it is you don't have to work in lines, but shapes. Just keep crafting it until the shape matches. As you go ask yourself questions that help you to reproduce the lines better, such as: Is the original's chin more rounded or sharper than mine? (In this case, the original is more rounded and has less slope at the bottom end) "Is the jaw line longer or shorter?" (I had to increase the length of the jawline.) "Is the sweep of the side of the face sharp and angular or rounded and soft? Is mine like the original?"
As you answer these questions make adjustments with your eraser. If you go too far simply undo or paint it back with your brush. Once you have the face shape just perfect you can go on.
The next step is to find the area where each of the facial elements will go. Open a new layer and start drawing with a black pen a ROUGH outline of what you want. For those new to layers they are a transparent area above your canvas that allow you to paint on details without messing up your work that is already done. You can have many layers on top of each other with most programs.
As always refer to the original more than prescribing to set formulas. Don't THINK you know the face, just put what you see. In my example below you would think this is going to be a portrait of the elephant man. But it eventually starts looking more human! It doesn't have to LOOK good at all, just show you the placement. I eventually erased most of these marks and just left lines at the top, bottom etc to tell me where they went. In addition to the eyes, etc. be sure to draw any noticeable areas of shading or light variance. Draw in the rough placement of the lines by the mouth, the place where the highlights are on the brow, nose, etc.
Now turn down your line drawing to very low opacity and go back to your original layer. It is here that you must decide whether to use dodge and burn or manual color selection for your skin tones. Dodge and burn are tools that make a color darker or lighter. In this case I chose manual color selection (just paint with the color I wanted). In fact, when looking at the tones on the face I would often use the color picker tool (eyedropper) and pick up color right from the reference pic. (This is good for starting out, but not a good idea over time. Skin is made up of more than one tone, and it is good to get in the habit of being able to figure these out by sight).
Then begin applying broad amounts of color to the areas to get your value pattern. At this point you will be convinced that this whole project IS NOT GOING TO WORK. Don't stress it, that is normal. Just smooth them in with the smudge tool. And it will start looking more human. (An alternative to the smudge tool is to use a soft brush with low opacity--more see through--and work out the rough lines. I don't use a smudge tool at all anymore, but many find it helpful). Be sure not to turn the smudge so high that it breaks things into rough looking patches....keep it fairly small, even though it takes more time, and work it along the lines of color change and then slowly over into the various color patches. If you were not using a reference photo you would have to pick a light source to do this part as you would have to construct the shadows.
Here it is further along in the process, with the simplified line overlay layer accentuated
by this point the lines are quickly becoming unnecessary as you can tell from the reference where things will go. Remember to have your reference open at all times. Once you get the basic shading of the skin done, start a new layer. Then start to do the individual elements such as the lips, eybrows, eyes etc. Once you have the lips done for instance then you can merge the layers and blend it in with the smudge tool. Watch the shadows on the lips. The top lip is almost always smaller and darker. The bottom lip is more glossy and has more highlights and bright spots because the rounded shape picks up the light...which often comes from the top at some angle. Give several shades to the bottom lip, darkest around the edges and the highlights in the middle. Then blend it in.
When drawing your lips, etc. you might want to work by lines...or simply shapes again....you can draw the outline, fill it in, then re-work the shape as we did with the face. Again ask yourself if the curves, etc. match up.
In the next pic the lips are done and I am in the middle of the nose...notice how I outline it ,but then you blend in the outline. The only points where you should see anything like an outline in the final is in those areas with VERY hard shadows...for instance, around the nostrils of the nose, especially on the right side away from the light. Even then it should be blended in. The rest of the nose is not an outline but again various shadows to give depth. Recreate them from the reference. Again BE SURE to work in a separate layer. If you don't you will kick yourself when you mess up and realize you don't have enough undo levels to go back! SAVE NEW VERSIONS OFTEN. That is why I could do this tutorial. I compulsively save versions, alternate versions, etc. to try things new. That way I can always go back.
Next I added a neck using the same process as on the face....then started with the whites of the eyes. Here I used dodge and burn, starting with a light grey. I used the dodge highlights to make lighter areas and used the burn shadows for the edges, but not much in this case. Generally it is easier to burn than dodge...at least for me...but if you start with white it doesn't really burn in photopaint...not sure about photoshop. Blend it in to give a round look.
Now for the pupil, iris, etc....just put in a plain circle, grey, or brown, or whatever color you want. Then use dodge and burn around the edges until you get the look you want. Then smudge.
I did this part some time ago, and looking at it again today I realized I had a lot of things wrong. So I redid the neck, cut the eyes and lips out and replaced/reworked them, made the whole head a bit shorter, etc. to make it more like the original. Then added the hair, border, etc.
Here is the final image, I still plan to work on the hair strands etc. a bit. I should go in and add more detail, and rough it up a bit. Right now it is too smooth, partly due to the overly transparent brushes. Now I do things a bit differently. Good luck on yours!
Here is a more recent one with harder brushes. Done in Painter
This is a brief walkthrough of painting a flower. I used Painter 9, but you could use nearly any program that has brushes and transparency etc.
Step 1:
I always start in a layer above the canvas in case I want to put a background later. Block out the shapes. Use an opaque brush with fairly hard edges. I used the default acrylic brush in Painter just to make it simple. Part of this first step is to realize which parts overlap others. Some elements you may want to wait to block in for later. I decided to paint the inner parts of the flower after I did the rest to make sure that it overlapped correctly. (the bumpy areas are just jpeg artifacts since I saved at low quality...ignore them
)
Step 2:
Start a new layer. Define the shadows and shape. Try to ignore the color of the flower for now and just look for shadows and light. use a more transparent brush. I went down to about 10% opacity for this step. That enables you to make smoother transitions as you work the tone in.
Step 3:
Start a new layer. Now you can begin adding the actual color pattern of the flower.
Step 4:
Start a new layer (yes, I start a new layer for everything!) Next comes the detail work. Don't rush this part. I found it easiest to use a detail acrylic brush here, about 6-7 pixels wide. I started with the darker lines. Next to the darker ones are often lighter ones as the lines are acutally ridges in the flower.
You may also notice the stem placement has changed. This is the advantage to doing everything in its own layer. It is easy to change one element.
Step 5:
Start a new Layer. Add the overlapping parts of the flower. You are finished!
This can be done with photoshop, Gimp, or most programs with brushes that can adjust opacity. I use Corel Photopaint.
First I started with a reference pic.I want to get all of the details. So photos are a good way to start. Live models are even better if you can get someone to stand still!
I took that photo and put it in a window within photopaint. Or I suppose you could print it and tape it to the side of your monitor. This way I can look at it and my work side by side.
Start with a big image...I use 2000x2000 just to be sure I have enough room. Most programs you open a new image by going to the "File" menu and selecting "NEW."Then take the regular brush and trace the basic outline of the face. Some suggest starting with the eyes, or some other element, but for me, this is the most important. It sets the bounds of all other elements. And the slight nuances of the chin, forhead, neck etc. really give the different looks to faces. I try to do the whole head with one stroke to make it smoother. (that was my old technique, now I just skip the lines and paint one big shape). Put your brush on about 50 softness (this was done with more, but I don't like the softer brushes too much anymore. They give a strange look.) . This part is fairly quick, but remember to LOOK AT THE REFERENCE MORE THAN YOUR WORK! You are recreating the original, you must look at it often.
Once you have the basic outline fill in the area with the same color. Once this is done it is time to refine your quickly drawn outline.
Now that you have a solid color image of the basic shape of the face take your eraser tool, with high softness and begin to refine. The great part about it is you don't have to work in lines, but shapes. Just keep crafting it until the shape matches. As you go ask yourself questions that help you to reproduce the lines better, such as: Is the original's chin more rounded or sharper than mine? (In this case, the original is more rounded and has less slope at the bottom end) "Is the jaw line longer or shorter?" (I had to increase the length of the jawline.) "Is the sweep of the side of the face sharp and angular or rounded and soft? Is mine like the original?"
As you answer these questions make adjustments with your eraser. If you go too far simply undo or paint it back with your brush. Once you have the face shape just perfect you can go on.
The next step is to find the area where each of the facial elements will go. Open a new layer and start drawing with a black pen a ROUGH outline of what you want. For those new to layers they are a transparent area above your canvas that allow you to paint on details without messing up your work that is already done. You can have many layers on top of each other with most programs.
As always refer to the original more than prescribing to set formulas. Don't THINK you know the face, just put what you see. In my example below you would think this is going to be a portrait of the elephant man. But it eventually starts looking more human! It doesn't have to LOOK good at all, just show you the placement. I eventually erased most of these marks and just left lines at the top, bottom etc to tell me where they went. In addition to the eyes, etc. be sure to draw any noticeable areas of shading or light variance. Draw in the rough placement of the lines by the mouth, the place where the highlights are on the brow, nose, etc.
Now turn down your line drawing to very low opacity and go back to your original layer. It is here that you must decide whether to use dodge and burn or manual color selection for your skin tones. Dodge and burn are tools that make a color darker or lighter. In this case I chose manual color selection (just paint with the color I wanted). In fact, when looking at the tones on the face I would often use the color picker tool (eyedropper) and pick up color right from the reference pic. (This is good for starting out, but not a good idea over time. Skin is made up of more than one tone, and it is good to get in the habit of being able to figure these out by sight).
Then begin applying broad amounts of color to the areas to get your value pattern. At this point you will be convinced that this whole project IS NOT GOING TO WORK. Don't stress it, that is normal. Just smooth them in with the smudge tool. And it will start looking more human. (An alternative to the smudge tool is to use a soft brush with low opacity--more see through--and work out the rough lines. I don't use a smudge tool at all anymore, but many find it helpful). Be sure not to turn the smudge so high that it breaks things into rough looking patches....keep it fairly small, even though it takes more time, and work it along the lines of color change and then slowly over into the various color patches. If you were not using a reference photo you would have to pick a light source to do this part as you would have to construct the shadows.
Here it is further along in the process, with the simplified line overlay layer accentuated
by this point the lines are quickly becoming unnecessary as you can tell from the reference where things will go. Remember to have your reference open at all times. Once you get the basic shading of the skin done, start a new layer. Then start to do the individual elements such as the lips, eybrows, eyes etc. Once you have the lips done for instance then you can merge the layers and blend it in with the smudge tool. Watch the shadows on the lips. The top lip is almost always smaller and darker. The bottom lip is more glossy and has more highlights and bright spots because the rounded shape picks up the light...which often comes from the top at some angle. Give several shades to the bottom lip, darkest around the edges and the highlights in the middle. Then blend it in.
When drawing your lips, etc. you might want to work by lines...or simply shapes again....you can draw the outline, fill it in, then re-work the shape as we did with the face. Again ask yourself if the curves, etc. match up.
In the next pic the lips are done and I am in the middle of the nose...notice how I outline it ,but then you blend in the outline. The only points where you should see anything like an outline in the final is in those areas with VERY hard shadows...for instance, around the nostrils of the nose, especially on the right side away from the light. Even then it should be blended in. The rest of the nose is not an outline but again various shadows to give depth. Recreate them from the reference. Again BE SURE to work in a separate layer. If you don't you will kick yourself when you mess up and realize you don't have enough undo levels to go back! SAVE NEW VERSIONS OFTEN. That is why I could do this tutorial. I compulsively save versions, alternate versions, etc. to try things new. That way I can always go back.
Next I added a neck using the same process as on the face....then started with the whites of the eyes. Here I used dodge and burn, starting with a light grey. I used the dodge highlights to make lighter areas and used the burn shadows for the edges, but not much in this case. Generally it is easier to burn than dodge...at least for me...but if you start with white it doesn't really burn in photopaint...not sure about photoshop. Blend it in to give a round look.
Now for the pupil, iris, etc....just put in a plain circle, grey, or brown, or whatever color you want. Then use dodge and burn around the edges until you get the look you want. Then smudge.
I did this part some time ago, and looking at it again today I realized I had a lot of things wrong. So I redid the neck, cut the eyes and lips out and replaced/reworked them, made the whole head a bit shorter, etc. to make it more like the original. Then added the hair, border, etc.
Here is the final image, I still plan to work on the hair strands etc. a bit. I should go in and add more detail, and rough it up a bit. Right now it is too smooth, partly due to the overly transparent brushes. Now I do things a bit differently. Good luck on yours!
Here is a more recent one with harder brushes. Done in Painter
This is a brief walkthrough of painting a flower. I used Painter 9, but you could use nearly any program that has brushes and transparency etc.
Step 1:
I always start in a layer above the canvas in case I want to put a background later. Block out the shapes. Use an opaque brush with fairly hard edges. I used the default acrylic brush in Painter just to make it simple. Part of this first step is to realize which parts overlap others. Some elements you may want to wait to block in for later. I decided to paint the inner parts of the flower after I did the rest to make sure that it overlapped correctly. (the bumpy areas are just jpeg artifacts since I saved at low quality...ignore them
)
Step 2:
Start a new layer. Define the shadows and shape. Try to ignore the color of the flower for now and just look for shadows and light. use a more transparent brush. I went down to about 10% opacity for this step. That enables you to make smoother transitions as you work the tone in.
Step 3:
Start a new layer. Now you can begin adding the actual color pattern of the flower.
Step 4:
Start a new layer (yes, I start a new layer for everything!) Next comes the detail work. Don't rush this part. I found it easiest to use a detail acrylic brush here, about 6-7 pixels wide. I started with the darker lines. Next to the darker ones are often lighter ones as the lines are acutally ridges in the flower.
You may also notice the stem placement has changed. This is the advantage to doing everything in its own layer. It is easy to change one element.
Step 5:
Start a new Layer. Add the overlapping parts of the flower. You are finished!
