Sketch of the Week ~ Jan 24, 2017

Sketch of the Week

Samuel L Jackson

Digital Painting in Photoshop

Reference Photo

Sketch out and set up on its own layer, lowering the opacity to get it a level that doesn't impact the painting levels.

I set up the layer above the sketch as the details layer, above that I set up a layer just for the glasses as I'm feeling at this point I may have made them too exaggerated. Below the Sketch layer I set up the layer for the main skin tone. Just below that I set up a layer for the background colour for which I use a light blue.

Layers

Top layer - Glasses

2nd layer - facial details

3rd layer - initial sketch (will be discarded)

4th layer - skin tone (to allow sketch to show through above)

5th layer - background colour 

The majority of the work is done on the details layer, building up skin tones. I hardly ever use swatches once a painting has been started. I may use the swatches initially to lay down colour but after that I primarily use the colour window and use the eyedropper tool grabbing colour that I have already laid down in the painting. I zoom in often to work on details and usually have the navigator window open to allow me to have a thumbnail view of the painting in progress. I also like the navigator tool for quickly zooming in on the working and reference images.

Though mot shown here, I decide the glasses are too big to allow an acceptable likeness so I adjust them smaller. Takes a bit of wrangling but I'm happy with the change.

One thing I am learning is that don't be afraid of mistakes and don't be afraid to change something. If you're not quite sure, save your file and "save as" a different file. Then you can compare which is a great tool when you are just learning... and I'm always learning.

After I'm happy with the look of the painting, I add another layer on top and fill that with a grey colour, add noise from the filter menu and adjust the opacity down to add a grainy feel to the painting. Add another layer above that for my signature (I don't want the grainy layer to affect the signature)

Again for your perusal, the finished painting. I hope you liked it. Feel free to comment with a critique or question.