Monday, September 10, 2012

Good Portrait Tutorials from Charlie Bowater

1)  http://vimeo.com/10743423
2)  Digital Painting Techniques, Volume 3, pp. 204-209

Tips from these tutorials:
Draw sketch: tracing is OK. Check alignment and details. Set sketch layer to Multiply (transparent). 
See Colors:  eye dropper is not accurate; train your eye to create a good color while looking at a source.
Pick Colors you Like: very similar, subtly different, and/or very different from source.
     Can put colors on edge of pic at beginning and as you work.
     Put in your Swatches too. (Pick color with eye dropper; hover over blank square in swatches....)
Work from Dark to Light: 
     Paint darker basic flat tones on new layer under sketch layer (and above dark background layer).
     Work from dark to light on layers above sketch: look for shadows and lit areas that create form.
     Then model forms with lights and darks with a gentle touch that feels along surfaces.
Color Picker - Vary Hues:  Change hues when going to color picker -
     not just one color and that color lighter or darker: vary hues of skin subtly.  Skin has many colors!
One Brush:  a Hard Round Standard brush in DPT3, a slightly textured one on Vimeo.
Vary Size by Varying Pressure, always 100% opacity and 100% flow. ( [ & ] to change brush size).
No Blending:  No blurring or blending or airbrush for her, just building up of softly-applied strokes.
Color Balance: duplicate painting and tweak colors.  Can help slight, drastic, or unifying changes.
Overlay Layer: ramp up contrast. Red/orange or much brighter for sun glow. Light green in shadow side;  and she uses it on sunlit hair too.  On Vimeo she gives all skin a colder cast this way near end.
Details at end, but also all along the way.  Do what looks good to you!  Enjoy doing details.
Flip work often to see errors!  Image -> Rotate Canvas -> Flip Canvas Horizontally.

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