Digital Painting - Portraits

the source picture

This tutorial is going to cover the techniques I use to paint a digital portrait. There are many ways to paint pictures, so this tutorial is only a guide to how I work. You may find a better way or a way that you find more suitable.

Please note though, that although you can achieve quite realistic results with this method, most people do not regard pictures created this way as having any merit, so watch out…

The program I use is Adobe Photoshop, any version should do, although I use version 6. Most of the techniques should apply to the GIMP as well; I'll verify this at some point.

Setting up
First of all, I work from a source picture, so you will need to find a suitable image to work from. You could try to draw something from memory, or make something up, but in this tutorial, we will be using source images. If you do use a source photograph that isn't your own, it's a good idea to make a note of where it is from and who it is by, and give them credit when your picture is finished.

I usually have three documents open at once; the source photograph, the painting and a small ‘scratch’ file that I use as a palette. You don’t really need a scratch pad, especially if the picture is black and white, but it’s an option.

It helps if the source picture is the same size as the destination picture, so resize the source picture to the target size.

Grid
To help with proportion and layout, I use a grid overlay over the source and destination images (this is why it helps if they are the same size). In Photoshop, you can make the grid visible by selecting View->Show Extras. Make sure you have specified that the grid should be shown in the extras menu (tick View->Show->Grid). I frequently use the shortcut key Ctrl+H to toggle grid visibility. Also, unless you want a very difficult time, do not have ‘Snap To’ activated. You have to decide what size to make the grid spacing, usually around four to six lines across is a good number; experimentation is required. Real artists don’t use a grid, so I’m told, so you may want to use a grid when you are learning, and then graduate to painting unaided…

Tablet
I use a small Wacom graphic tablet, which I find useful but isn’t at all necessary. Many people draw great pictures with the mouse. The pressure sensitivity of the graphic tablet does greatly streamline a lot of the fine brushwork, if you can get used to it.

Tools
The painting tool of choice is the Airbrush. The airbrush tool simulates a real-life airbrush (which uses compressed air to spray paint or ink) in some ways but not all. The main thing to note about the airbrush is that it has a cumulative effect – the colour is continually sprayed out, move the brush fast and it creates a faint line, move it slowly and a much stronger line is drawn.

I typically operate the airbrush at a very low-pressure setting – around 10%.

It’s worth experimenting with the way all of the tools in Photoshop operate, in particular the differences between the Airbrush and the Paintbrush.

Some steps involved in drawing a section of the face.

An intermediate step in the painting.

That's all for now.

Tweaknik