To begin this picture I needed a basic outline with the primary features in their correct place. Owing to my difficulties with proportion, the first thing I did was draw a grid over the reference photograph (an A4 sized picture in a glossy magazine) using a pencil and ruler. The grid consisted of 12 squares across and 9 down, each one measuring 1.5cm squared.
I then created a transparent layer on Photoshop and (after enabling the ruler view) created a relative sized grid – 12 squares across and 9 down. I renamed this to GRID. But as I wanted the resolution of this image to be 640x480, I cropped the full grid down to size.
Having done this, I opened another page with a white background. I added a layer over this and named it SKETCH, before pasting the GRID layer over the top, like so:
Still working on the background layer (with the SKETCH and GRID layers in the foreground), I started to shade the image in grey, using the airbrush and smudge tool with various soft brushes varying between 60-80% pressure.
Using the same tools, I then started to shade the male face, touch up a few areas and add basic definition to the woman’s arm, until I finished with the following stage:
With the light and dark areas in place, I then started to consider the colour. This was done very simply by painting over the current image with the airbrush in color mode.
Since I'm trying to make this a comprehensive guide, I may as well document some of my mistakes too.
I made my first error here, having mistakenly painted over the SKETCH layer rather than the background, so I decided to merge the layers and paint directly over the outline. Then it was time to lose my flow (and my sanity) completely:
Disaster 1: I cut the image with the Magic Wand and pasted it onto a red backdrop, messing up the anti-aliasing around the woman’s face. I also noticed that I had been a bit reckless with the airbrush and had lost some of the definition on the man’s nose and cheek. I had run out of undos so I loaded a previous stage and tried to cut the man and paste him over the messed up image (not so well I must add) and a bit later on I rubbed through certain areas with the eraser.
Disaster 2: I brushed in the woman's hair very loosely and decided to run a filter over it before going to work with the smudge tool. I selected the hair I wanted to filter with the Lasoo tool and chose Paint Daubs from the Filter/Artistic pull down.
Sometimes I use this on hair to sharpen the details and disperse the colour which can be worked into the hair to give it more tones and variation, and less of a monochrome look.
After trying to work with this (and once again running out of undos in the process) I did the unthinkable. I saved this image OVER the last, after painting in the heads of the characters and a lot more work. This left me with 2 choices: to load the previous step (shown as step 4) or to try to repaint the messed up areas. I decided to scribble out the messed up areas and rework them.
Lesson 1: Save regularly under different file names.
Lesson 2: Don't touch those filters! (ok, I admit I did use the Paint Daubs occasionally afterwards, but not before saving).
Anyway, at some point while reworking the image with the airbrush and smudge tool I reached the following stage.
At this point, I decided to smooth out some of the irregular brush strokes. This was done first with the blur tool and then by blending the shades together with the smudge tool, as shown in the following example.
1. Uneven gradient with steps between each shade.
2. Blur tool used to soften these steps.
3. Smudge tool and soft brushes used to blend each step into the next.
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).
