[Bubonic]

This is my attempt at trying to get better at painting in PS.. I am learning how to blend colors better. I only used Paintbrush at different opacities.. either at 100% to lay flats.. or at 30-38% for everything else..



it was done with a mouse from scracth.. Feel free to crit on what i did and didn't do right...

[jasonN]

Hi Bubonic, I think it looks pretty good especially considering you used a mouse, which would have taken more patience than a tablet. You've managed to blend the colours nicely.
So now all you have to do is use the contrasts from light to dark to define the facial structure a bit better. Cheeks jaw etc.. You're probably not looking for crit on the actual face since this is a blending exercise, but the eyes are a little big. The face is very wide, but I don't think that's the main point of the pic.
Well, keep it up! Next time try using skin tones and experiment with different lighting.

-Jason

[hennifer]

wow, i know this kind of stuff is very difficult with a mouse, so congrats for being brave enough to try it.

two things that i think would help your picture:

1) you need to pay more attention to the minute changes in the surface of the face. the bridge of the nose, for example, has many more surfaces than in your painting. are you using any kind of facial reference? its not necessary to paint directly from a photo, but if you have a few pictures of faces to help you out with the contours, you'll have a better end result.

2) try to use more colors in the face. the skin is very pale here, and the colors are very uniform. if you take a look at some of the other portraits posted on the forum, you'll see that people often use very bright oranges, browns, reds, and even green, blue or purple for shadows.

hope this gets the imagination firing.

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hennifer

[Bubonic]

Thanks a lot Jason, it did take a while with the mouse, but i am pleased with the outcome.. your right about the using the darks and lights to define the face structures.. i have to work on that.. I will use reference for the next face i make so that it will be in propotion and have a better idea and understading of how to use the darks and lights to define the facial structures..

[[Shizo]]

YO.



Desc: i took your image, and worked on it first with an airbrush (fixed your nose, because it looked like it was made from a flat piece of wood hehe)
Then i fixed the whole face shape because it looked more like Travolta type of face.. but not real :)
Anyways, then i used a lot of Smudge, sometimes even Dodge/Burn but not too much. Mostly painted with colors (and used color picker a lot)

Umm what else.. the eyes were too big, and still are. And highlight on eyes was TOO BIG and too opaque. And it still is ;) But at least now it's on the same angle with both eyes.
Nostrils weren't distinct enpough. And mouth needed some detail which i gave it. With airbrush on low opacity and some Dodge.

NOTE: Always use low opacity and work in Zoom in mode!
~200%-300% zoom, and opacities in a low range from 5 to 25. ESPECIALLY with mouse!
I used WACOM on this (yeah it helps dude ehhe) and i wasn't pressing too hard.. So to get control you need to use low opacities.

I hope this image helps you because i spent lot of time on it (im a newbie too)


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Nothing really matters to me

[Bubonic]

Thanks hennifer, you made some real good points, unfortunately i didn't use reference but i will try to from now on. and you did get my art juices flowing, i have an idea to paint another pic but this time i will use reference or actual line art.

thanks for takin the time to reply..

[[Shizo]]

NOTE!!!
The image is hosted at dencity.com because my ftp is down.. To see the image, right-click on the red cross "broken picture" and choose "SHOW PICTURE".
Try a couple times if it still not showing..

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Nothing really matters to me

[Bubonic]

Thank you Shizo, for putting some time into my pic.. Your post has really helped me to see what i need to work on, and what steps i should change.. I did it all in paintbrush and was gonna leave it like that, till i saw the smoother nicer version you did, it looks more finished.. I was told to stay away from the airbush and only use paintbrush, but after seeing your work, i am gonna use airbrush too, but just to finish my art and make it look smooth..

I am trying to do this the traditional way.. With paintbrush and all. I only used 2 layers, one for the face itself and for the bg.. I try to keep things as if i was working with real paints..

Heh, i see what you mean about the face lookin like travolta's face.. I really like what you did with the nose, you gave it a more human shape, and the lips are really good, because you can see the texture in it..

I tried to make every hair with the eyebrows like you did.. but its challenging with a mouse..

I did this all from scratch.. So if you scan some line art in.. all i have to do is just make a new layer with multiply.. and just start painting at a low opacity?

Thanks a lot Shizo,

[This message has been edited by Bubonic (edited December 16, 2000).]

[jasonN]

If anything, Shizo definetely ain't a newbie....
He's one of the oldest here.

[[Shizo]]

Bubonic: ya ya ya, welcomes ;)
First of all i don't understand why WOULDN'T you use an airbrush? If you're looking at Craig Mullins, then ocnsider that he's painting many years and for him it's easy to see where each stroke goes, so he uses paint brush. But newbies lik us (hehe JasoN) need to use airbrush.. low opacity!!
But even if you do use paintbrush (like on this pic) use Smudge tool at ~15-25 opacity and soft brush to make transitions of colors smoother.

Layers - I know some people who use billions of layers (kos.mandis) and others who don't use layers at all (dhabih eng). I personally use many layers only for design stuff.. and even then i'm trying to use the least number, merging many together. For painting i suggest to use 1 layer (draw everything on one layer, and then paint the background). Although one may draw everything on BG layer and then carefully draw in the background. Bah.. that's too much about layers :)

Lips - this wasn't very hard to draw, i just made em smaller by drawing with bordering gray colors into the lips.. then made the lips line much darker. Then drew little vertical "hairs" to get this texture effect. And then some Dodge here and there.

For drawing on scanned sketches - you said everything yourself hehe. That's one way to do.. but i think if you wanted to have a more traditional look to it, you would want to make the sketch layer half transparent (so you can barely see the lines) and then paint on background layer underneath it with Paintbrush or Airbrush.. Then if you think edges go out of line borders above it, then erase the outside.

Damn thats a lot of typing... lol

And hey JasoN! Of course it's nice that someone actially reads to the end of my postings (like ..right now) or - skips to last two lines LOL. But i AM a newbie art-wise. My drawings such whores ass, although lately i got improved.. im still a damn newb :p


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Nothing really matters to me

[Bubonic]

This is the most replys i have ever gotten.. cool..