Picture one
A step by step demonstration of my digital painting method.
All done in Painter, with the exception of some "Levels editing" and "special effects" in Photoshop towards the end of the process.
Here's the starting sketch. The better the drawing the easier will be paintining it.
This portrait was particularly "sketchy", but I was satisfied with it, so I decided to move on.
Picture two
I created a second layer below the sketch layer (set as Multiply) and started painting flat colours at first, to have an idea of what colour tones I would use.
There's no need to be precise at this stage, but it's important to keep changing colours untill you find a certain balance.
You can use any brush you like here, but to avoid confusion I use inks or oils.
Although after this step I will keep using only oils in Painter. Mostly Opaque Round brush, Fine Camel and detail brushes.
Picture three
Ok, now comes the exciting part.
Blending colours.
I flattened the line layer on the colour layer first.
Then I picked one of the Blenders in Painter.
I mostly used "Simply Add Water" and Oil Blenders, but depends on your taste really. Remember, this is part of the painting process, don't go wild, you don't have to blur the image, just mix the colours.
Think and let volumes decide the direction of your strokes. If you need it feel free to add more colour and fix colours tones.
Picture four
At a certain point I felt I couldn't get a feel of the portrait keeping the background flat, so I added colour, pretty quickly.
In the same time I went on with my blending.
I noticed a couple of anatomical imperfections: eye, nose and mouth.
I went to Photoshop, I copy-pasted these parts and moved/resized them before merging them back to the original colour layer.
Picture five
Time to add details: strong highlights and fine strokes.
I started with eyes and lips, then cleaning imperfections here and there.
I cropped the picture in Photoshop and used the Levels Editing function for a very minor tweak on contrast and saturation.
As this is the "details stage" of the painting process there is no real end to it.
You can add more elements or refine others, but I decided to stop as I didn't have more time to keep working on it.
Picture six (Last one)
Special effects time! I made a couple of layers in Photoshop: a Color layer to add those pink light tones (like the one on the hand) and the blue make up on her eyes, and another layer for the "magic heart effect", which consists in simple brush lines with Glow effects. Finished.
The whole process took me around 9 or 10 hours, which is more or less the time I wanted to spend on it.
It really depends on the circumstances.
The important thing is how you start.
A good beginning (sketch and colours layout) leads to a more satisfying and quick result.
