Tablet Portrait Test

[Daniel Thomas]

One question; what exactly is the "adding some punch" layer? I see the effect, but is it based on some concept, or just a gut-feeling addition?

Just adding some punch so it's not so flat and even, to be honest it is very flat(especially cheeks and hair) because I didn't spend so much time working up the forms, just a mater of time. Gut-feeling sounds like a good way of explaining it.

[Andail]

Hehe, and here I was worrying I had skipped a step too many in the paint-over...

Beautiful portrait, Daniel, as always

[Daniel Thomas]

Hehe, and here I was worrying I had skipped a step too many in the paint-over...

Beautiful portrait, Daniel, as always

It's all in the PSD, step by step.
Thanks!

[EchosofNezhyt]

Daniel do you always do your layer setup like that?

I pretty much just keep all objects on one layer each object and paint on that. (Not really utilizing blending modes and stuff like that normally.)

[Daniel Thomas]

No, I don't. It's just a good way to keep control over what you're doing.

[Anian]

Frito, using few layers is convenient and smart, especially when you're not working on big images.
It's kind of a matter of personal preference and skill I think. More layers gives you more control and over individual effects and is a nice way of having a backup/history image available for each bigger step you made. (there's also snapshot option in history panel, but that is purely for backup and not really convenient for slight modifications and changes).

Again, this is a rather small image, when you're working on 4000x4000px at 300dpi images and such, then the extra layers will reduce the speed of things, almost no matter what machine you have.

Guys like FZD work with very few layers usually, but they're industrial level professionals.

[EchosofNezhyt]

I use layers but normally for each part. Like... Head Arms Torso ect and the odd detail over it.

I was more or less referring to his use of blending modes. (I use one for highlights and use overlay sometimes.)

But yeah I've had documents with 90ish layers before. I have only noticed lag when I use that coupled with photoshops animation.

[Blaze]

The sketch is nice and the colouring you did had a nice comic style feel to it. But I agree with Andail as well. Also, the PSD from Daniel looks like it could be very helpful (thanks for posting that by the way).

Great drawing and good luck with future pieces

[loominous]

Some excellent advice here already, so I'll just throw in a few cents about a somewhat overlooked point:

One common occurrence when people start using larger brushes is that they go for the big smooth ones, as they tend give a pretty decent result quite easily, perhaps not realistic, but something in the ballpark.

The problem with large smooth blobs, or at least one problem, is that they're not very good at conveying forms/mass, and one of the purposes of lighting/shading is to explain to the viewer exactly what kind of object they're looking at.

With outlines, this isn't a bit issue, we know how to read them (usually), and the lighting/shading mostly acts as a filler, but once you move to an outline free painterly style, things get rather messy.

So the trick is knowing when to go for the smooth brush (or paint it smooth(ish) with a sharp brush), and when to go for the sharp (or just a smaller version of the smooth brush).

The following is a simplified take on lighting, but it's a pretty good place to start:



So here's a simple cylinder, and what you have are two different kind of occurrences: a large smooth light transition on the cylinder body, and a sharp cast shadow.

The smooth transition is due to the cylinder gradually turning away from the light source, reflecting less and less of it into our eyes.

The shadow on the other hand is sharp, since what you see is the light on the table obscured by the cylinder, which is a sharp solid object. (Note: this is a simplified take on it)

----

If we apply the same rules to your outlines (skipping out on details, and going for the larger shapes), it becomes something like this:


(animated)



So what we end up with when we remove the outlines is something akin to a painting of some clay sculpture, where you can read the main shapes and light without outline assistance, which is kinda what you hope for when you're working on lighting.

(Should note that this is very simplistic lighting)

Here are the different transitions marked out:



----

So, that's pretty much it, making things sharp when they're supposed to be, and making them smooth when they ought to. Hope it helps!

[cat]

Wow, thanks for this explanation that even I was able to understand. Just one question: How would you go from the clay statue to a colored version for example with the colors Andail used?

[Tabata]

WOW
Loominous, this is really impressive!
Thank you for this great explanation!
       

[Ghost]

That is both impressive and really, really useful. I assume it'd mostly be used as a reference, similar to "lightmaps"? I see I have a long, long road before me, but just looking at all your paintovers makes me eager to walk that road. Thanks to all of you! And keep it coming, of course!

[loominous]

Oh, you can use it as a lighting foundation if you want, where you just push it further, but it was mostly just to demonstrate smooth/sharp value transitions.

Taking this route can actually be helpful, since you clearly see how much light all areas are receiving, whereas if you started by making areas darker/lighter (like making the hair darker, and the eye whites brighter), it would be more difficult to determine how much light they're picking up relative to the other areas.

So if you'd want to take it further, you just need to start adding colours/values to the different areas, as you have the basic lighting done (this "clay" basis lacks any highlights as well, so you'd have to add those, if you want any that is, as not all styles include them).

Here's an animated gif where I've taken it towards something comic book like (as you didn't want it too realistic), a style I'm not at all used to, so it's not very good, but it could be of some assistance I suppose:


(animated)

The psd file (1.5ish mb)