This is my all new tutorial.
It was high time. Mainly because computers have become quick enough to keep up with me. I used to still sketch on paper and scan the sketch to render it further. But nowadays I just sketch on screen. Much quicker. Even though I often liked the sketch as a separate drawing too. Especially if I spent some more time on it, some became quite nice pencil drawings.
For this tutorial I assume that you have some experience with computers and painting with them already. The program I use is still Adobe's Photoshop. In this case I've used Photoshop CS4. If you have an earlier version, that's not a problem. The basics in Photoshop haven't changed much over the years and the tools are positioned pretty much in the same spots.
Step 1:
Rough Sketch:
I'll just keep it simple for this Tutorial. I'll be painting a single girl. No background whatsoever.
Every background has it's own difficulties and if you come here to check out my work you may be mostly interested in painting the human form.
There are many others that paint landscapes.
I start with a new document of A3/300 dpi image size (kinda big but you can pick whatever size you would like, instead).
The new document comes with a white background if you have the same settings as I have. If your document opens transparent you wouldn't have to add a new layer.
I leave the background in my document alone. It's fixed anyway. You can't make it transparent unless you click on it to make it a layer.
So, instead I add the first new layer by clicking the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers window.
Transparency is what I need in the first stages.
A new layer is always transparent. If you click on the eye next to the background layer in the layers window thus turning it invisible, you will see the transparency represented by a checkered color.
By default it shows light grey and white squares. I've changed that to blue and white.
But in this case I just use the white background. It's easier on the eyes.
To make the rough sketch I pick the 19 pixel standard rounded brush. You can see where it is in the brushes window to the right of the sketch.
If you just have the default brushes loaded it's in practically the same spot.
The brush to the left of this one is a smaller (4px) version of the same, I created myself just in case that I need to work on a smaller picture or want to go to detail.
At this point I have no idea if the picture will turn out okay. But I guess it did, or I wouldn't have posted this in a tutorial.
As you can see, I start with a nude. And I do that most of the time.
That is because clothing often disguises shapes too much and I want it to be anatomically as correct as possible.
Step 2:
Cleaned up Sketch:
The rough sketch needs to be a little neater before I can really start rendering. I need to get rid of the many obsolete lines in Step 1. I could just erase them with the eraser, but as the sketch is usually not quite right anyway, I make the original sketch layer transparent with the opacity slider at the top of the layers window and add a new layer.
On the new layer I'll paint over the rough sketch that you can still see underneath the new layer. Using much less lines than on the first version.
Because I know where I'm going now, I can just trace the sketch lines I do need and forget about the excess lines.
While I do that I also change or adjust the details I would like to change.
Step 3:
Finished Sketch:
By clicking the eye in the original sketch layer (located next to the layer in the layers window) I can turn off the layer and view only the layer I want.
It looks good enough already. However, things will change probably while I render the image further.
Time to add some color.
Step 4:
Color below Sketch:
To add color I usually add a new layer first, and place it below the layer of the final sketch by dragging it to where I would like it to be.
A new layer always pops up over the layer you have selected at the time. If you would add color it would hide the lines of the sketch.
Placing it underneath the sketch layer (by dragging the new layer under the other one in the layers window) preserves the lines and makes it easier to add color more precise.
In this step I only add flat colors with a bigger brush (175 px in this case, but it depends on the size of the document of course.)
Step 5:
Basic Shading:
When the basic colors are in, I already start to add basic shading.
Just to see where everything's supposed to be. At this time I'm already trying to bring the image to life. The round bits should be round and the anatomic details start to show.
For this stage I use a brush somewhere in between the standard 19 px and the huge 175 px one I used to add the flat colors.
With the Master diameter slider (in the bottom of the Brushes window) you can pick whatever size you want of the brush you are currently using.
With the [ and the ] keys you can go up and down specific steps in brush size.
I use the sketch layer for the basic shading. As you can see, the new color hides the lines pretty quick.
As I want this picture to look reasonably realistic I won't need the lines.
If I would make a cartoon instead, I would make the lines harder and crispier and would only color on a layer underneath the line layer.
Step 6:
Basic Shading 2:
All during the creation of any picture I zoom in and out constantly. Even the biggest screen is smaller than a 300 dpi image and it's easy to lose overview.
By zooming in and out all the time you can check if something you do is okay or maybe out of proportion.
You can zoom in by using the zoom tool (last tool looking like a magnifying glass in the toolbar to the left) or by clicking cmd + or - (for Mac) or Ctrl + or - (for PC).
To keep overview of a whole different nature, it's also wise to just mirror the image (Flipping it horizontally) now and again.
You can do that by selecting Image -> Image Rotation -> Flip Canvas Horizontally. Old masters looked at their work in progress through a mirror regularly but Photoshop has that covered in a different way.
By flipping the image like that you can look at the image fresh. As if someone else has made it.
Because of a, completely natural, eye-brain quirk you could be painting strangely distorted images while they look very normal to you.
The flip will help noticing if there's anything wrong with the image.
Have you ever looked at a painting of someone else and thought that an eye was weirdly drooping or everything looked tilted?
That may not have been the creation of some abstract painter but just of someone that didn't check his or her painting in a mirror.
Step 7:
More Shading:
After the shading of the body, I'll add more structure and shading to the rest. The shirt is highlighted and the wrinkles are placed better.
Still working with that soft rounded brush I started with. I like that type of brush because it doesn't immediately hide everything I did before and you can add subtle structure to any surface that way.
Actually, from here on in the picture will not change as drastic as in the first couple of steps.
I'll increasingly go into detail now.
Step 8:
More Detail:
As I think that a beautiful body with a blank face above it is not so beautiful, first thing I always do when I go into the details is work on the face.
I'll add more depth to eyes and mouth to get more character. So, no...I don't really think breasts or loins are that important.
I do like the look of things, of course, but rather as part of a complete picture.
Step 9:
The First Highlight:
Her face is starting to get a softer more natural look but without a highlight it's still too flat. What is most important with highlights is that it should be placed right. But as light changes all the time around us, there's no way to pinpoint the spot where it's supposed to be. It's just a matter of trial and error and trying a lot to get the spot where to place any highlight right.
When, like in this picture so far, it's not clear where the light is coming from, the highlight on her cheek bone should be where I put it. With her face in this position the cheek bone is probably the point in her face closest to us and, if the light comes from the direction of the viewer, will reflect the light something like this.
Step 10:
More Highlights:
Her nose will catch light from the same source. Everything else will be less lit.
Now you can also see how much difference a pupil makes. The eyes were weird when only the iris was colored. They look sexy already when the pupil is added as a flat black dot..
Step 11:
More breast:
Yes, time to do something about the rest. With only a little effort the breasts start to look more alive already.
They're getting too big, really, but I will correct it later. Maybe...
Step 12:
More Details:
I'm adding even more structure in neck, shirt collar, face, mouth and nose. It's obvious that some details are still very rough around the edges. The underside of the nose is only a color. Not really a shape yet.
But the collar of the shirt is now actually wrapping around the back of the neck. There's better and more detailed shadow in the left part (from subjects point of view) of the collar.
And her mouth is highlighted as if she's using lipgloss or has moist lips all by herself.
Step 13:
Nipples:
And not only nipples. I've added a highlight in her pupil. Which makes her glance much more natural and vivid.
Actually that highlight behaves in a similar way as the highlights on her face because they are caused by the same source of (imaginary) light.
Step 14:
Body Rendering:
To add more depth and plasticity I've picked a much brighter skin tone than the original one. And with that and a big soft rounded brush I only paint on the parts that are closest to the viewer. Which means that the round forms are getting rounder just by accentuating the roundest part. If you look at her left upper thigh the only thing that actually happened there is a broad bright spot added. Softened by a softer brush with low opacity.
That same thing happened on her ribcage just below her breasts, the side of her face and her knees.
I don't like her hair yet. As I don't have a real plan when I start out with pin-ups like this, things like that happen more often.
Step 15:
Haircut:
That's why I remove the hair from her face first and see if I can do better. And while I'm at it I change other things too. Hopefully improving the image as a whole
