My Road To Mastery

#1

Hey everyone! Recently I decided to take all my free time and use it to paint and draw instead of waste it pressing refresh on a web browser, waiting for mail. I’ve been drawing on and off for a long time now, but I’ve always been terrified of painting. I’ve never had any classes or lessons for anything, so I’m basically self taught by observation and trial and error.
I saw a thread at another forum last night that really inspired me. It was a novice artist who vowed to post a new sketch or photoshop painting every day, just to motivate himself to develop as an artist. The transformation of his work over the next 60-odd pages was staggering and very motivating. I figured it was time I did the same.
So here I’ll finally be diving into photoshop (and traditional media pages when I can) and seeing what I can learn. Lurking around here and the rest of the internet has given me all the evidence that I need of the reality that master painters are not extinct - they merely paint digitally now.

I have been painting every day for almost a week now, so I’ll use this first post to catch you all up.

Here was my first attempt and trying to understand textures and layers in PS. I really had no idea what I was doing:

And my second. I can’t say I like how the textures are inconsistent, but I managed to get the proportions right in relation to the reference without a grid:

(reference photo: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/staticpen/2007/MeandKatie.jpg)

Then I moved to try my hand at watercolors. I messed up the masking tape, but I feel it was a pretty good result for my first watercolor:

The next day I found some brush techniques that helped me find some painterly textures in PS, and for the first time I liked one of my own digital paintings:

Later that night I tried another PS painting, experimenting with what sort of textures I could find. I’m not too happy with the composition or how the people turned out, but I enjoy the sky:

Now up to last night, I did another watercolor. I meant for her skin to be lighter and the lines to be more subtle, but I think the skirt turned out well:

And finally tonight’s painting, this marks the first time I felt I’ve achieved a real emotion in someone’s eyes. It’s simple and it took forever, but I’m proud of it:

C&C not only welcome, but requested! The reason for this thread is two-fold, first to keep myself motivated to progress as an artist, but second to get as much advice from such incredible artists as yourselves.

Hope to be updating tomorrow!

#2

It looks like you have a good foundation to start with. You certainly show skills with proportions and spatial definitions. Most of your images here show the same light values across the image though. Push your darks and lights a bit more for contrast. Good luck with your progress.

FYI - You can embed your images into the post with a photobucket account by using the BBCode selection. Or tag around your images with IMG (i.e. [IMG.]image url[/IMG.] -removing the periods).

Here’s how the first image would show:

#3

Aaah, I was wondering why my html tags weren’t working. I forgot most forums use brackets. Thanks!
But thanks more so for your criticism. Last night I spoke with a friend who graduated from design school and he said the exact same thing - more contrast. So I went back into PS and worked up a cast painting of sorts. Or at least that’s what I think they call them in art school.

Here it is:

I never really understood what people were talking about when the tutorials said to paint in grayscale and then color it. I always thought they were basically implying to paint the image twice. But it seems if you’ve painted grayscale first, you can make an overlay layer and then just run a color over the painting. But I’m uncertain as to how that would work for a multiple-color painting… wouldn’t the colors bleed through due to the nature of overlays? Or do you just paint in sections on the same overlay layer?

#4

As my understanding goes, the general idea is that by doing black and white is that by isolating value from hue and saturation, it makes it easier to focus on the form and lets you save the color composition for a later step.

Same idea goes for working at the macro scale and getting progressively more detailed – isolate steps to reduce their complexity and obtain better control.

#5

They’re called layers for a reason. You don’t paint over what you’ve painted. You create a NEW layer, and paint on that.

Then, if for any reason, you don’t like what you’ve added, you can easily revert to the layer beneath it, and try again, rather than trying to erase what you painted, and remember how you painted it before you messed something up.

Some images can have literally HUNDREDS of layers. Personally, I merge layers as I go, but ONLY those layers that have elements not touching or overlaying other parts. Just to keep processing time down with PS. You can then work on an element in the corner, and erase it, without affecting anything else. You can also always lasso an element and put it back on its own, separate layer, if you need to.

You are creating some WONDERFUL images. I’m glad you’ve excaped the 'Net addiction enough to get back to creating. You’ll have MUCH more of value to show for it at the end of the day…

#6

I tried the grayscale method a few times and had difficulties with it as well. I tried different layer properties from Overlay, Color and Multiply but wasn’t happy with the way the color tone changed with these options. I like it when the color I have selected is the color that paints on the layer. One of my dislikes about Photoshop.

Another drawback is that grayscale seems to muddy up the image. I prefer using color rather than B&W to paint. However … this is an area that I need improvement on as well. I really respect those people who can do a daily thread like these. I wish I had more free time, I’d be doing one as well.

#7

CybrGfx - Thanks very much for the kind words! I really do feel much more productive in my day now. And I’ve also started merging layers as I go. It keeps navigation much simpler, too, because I don’t name my layers.

Kirt - I agree with how you feel about grayscale making images a bit muddy. I also feel your frustration in coloring over grays, because using different layer types (other than ‘normal’, which seems pointless to me if you’re going to go the grayscale route) causes you to paint in a color other than the one you actually have selected. It’s always a little more… mm, fluorescent?

I’m going to experiment tonight by taking a portrait painted with soft sunlight and converting it to grayscale, then trying to use layer modes to color it again, achieving the same colors the original artist had. I think it will give me some clarity on whether or not bright, sunlit colors are possible when using grayscale+overlays.

I also noticed that my wannabe cast painting type thing up there has some pretty glaring lighting and anatomical flaws. I’m going to use more references from now on. Last night I watched a video on youtube of an interview with a bald guy in harsh overhead light… several little details became very clear, haha.

As for the update, I did this image last night, again using grayscale painting and then overlay and multiply layers to color. It took me about 6 hours, and whenever someone is in front of a painting for that long in one sitting, faults begin to hide themselves (even despite horizontal flipping, which I’ve learned is an invaluable trick). Seeing it this morning showed me how incredibly small her eyes are. I’m going to have a go at fixing them tonight.

#8

That’s pretty good. I like the lighting on the lower half of the face. But I think you are going with too much shadows around the eyes (especially at the bridge of the nose). A strong uplighting will illuminate the bottom eyelids and to some extent the sides of the nose. And the hair will pick up highlights as well.

Flipping horizontally and vertically does help, but don’t fall into the trap of making everything symetrical. Contrary to popular belief, the human face isn’t. :smiley:

Keep up the good work.

#9

EDIT: I’ve replaced my revision from this post with the newest version. I’ve revised the image 9 times now, actually, so I’m just going to post the latest here so it can be compared to the first attempt without all the clutter of multiple posts.

Ah! Thanks for the criticism, Kirt. I think it’s definitely better now that I’ve fixed the eyes and taken the shadows down/added highlights for the lower lids and hair. The eyelid idea was especially helpful. I knew something about the painting didn’t look quite right, and I searched every way I knew how on google images, but I couldn’t find a decent lit-from-below portrait to reference. Thanks very much for your help.

#10

Well, it does have a bit of “dead stare” to it. Probably because the eyes seem to be focused to the viewer’s right shoulder. There is no connection there between the viewer and the subject. Either adjust the eyes to stare at the viewer or go more extreme and focus the eyes at something further away from the viewer’s center point (if that makes sense). Basically, looking at the viewer or not. Right now she’s sort of looking … but not. I think that is what is giving you the “Uncanny Valley” vibe.

I went looking for an uplit photo reference for you and could only find a male. But I think the principles of how the light highlight the face will still apply to your image. Take a look. Note the light on the brow, underside of nose, cheeks and around the lips. Note shadows on upper lip, chin and upper brow (above eyebrows).

BTW: Flickr has some great images for photo refs. My first fav image search second only to Google.

If she’s staring at a fire, then you need more orange and red tones in this. Use purples and blues for shadows. I never was under the impression that there was a fire. It just looks like normal incandescent lighting.

#11

I discovered that her expression issues came from her feature tilt vs the tilt of her jaw and skull. I didn’t really use structure lines when I first started sketching, so I messed up there. Guess I gotta pay more attention to the basics.
But I’ve fixed the tilt issues the best way I know how, and I discovered why the colors were so off. #1) It’s true, I didn’t use enough red tones. #2) I was working in 16-bit, which wasn’t letting me just save as JPEG. I had to use Save For Web, in which the JPEGs were altering my color balance. Strange.

By the way, I took a typical studio-lit portrait and desaturated it in photoshop, then created an overlay layer and sucked up her skin color from the photo, hoping to apply it on my grayscale and recreate the skin color… but it looked horrible. I took colors from everywhere, but each attempt looked dirty and not at all vibrant and accurate. I think I’m going to try to paint with color from the start from now on and see how that works out… at least until I find out exactly what I’m not doing that all the experts out there ARE doing to make it look so good.

After all those difficulties with the last painting, and reading more general tutorials (what i should be working on first: shapes. last: people) I decided to do something quick tonight. Just a study of facial planes. I meant to do cylinders and cones and cubes, but I couldn’t find any good pictures for references. I couldn’t find any images of shapes on a table with a harsh light. I’m starting to think I’m going to have to start taking more pictures for myself.

Anyway, here it is. What I learned from this was how light travels on the jaw line. It’s not a straight line of light-then-dark, but the curve of the jaw is suggested through the middle tone.

#12

I couldn’t help myself. There are so many beautiful paintings here, I had to try another one instead of practicing simple stuff.

I’ve generally blocked in most of it, and started some detailing just to keep me interested. Some of the features on her face are a little off, and I plan to refine them as I go.

Now here’s a question… I’m working at 72dpi, and I plan to upsize to 250 or 300 when I start adding small details. But when I increase the size, the image obviously gets a little muddier because the pixels are expanding. I forget the photographic term for this. But anyway, is it common practice to redo all the fine details even finer at this stage, or do people just add in really small details at the new resolution and then shrink it back down after they’re through?

#13

Staticpen, I think your version of the woman is BETTER than she looks in real life, although it is not a complimentary rendering of her for a portrait, it would be an excellent book or game illustrative portrait. Something for you to consider, as you work to develop an individual and identifyable style.

The pixellation you refer to is generally worked around. When you are creating a work, tweaking compositional elements and establishing color palettes, you work at 72 ppi for processing speed.
Once you have your composition and colors established, and your general design roughed in, you enlarge the image to 300 ppi, and then create your printable image on a new layer above the original, so yes, you have the basic idea of what you need to do.

Please keep sharing your wonderful creations with us!

#14

I was out almost all day today, much of which was spent reading ImagineFX magazine. Wow! What a great piece of reading material, dude… I learned so much this afternoon, without ever picking up a pen. Actually, I did pick up a pen, cause I took my sketchbook with me and drew out a study of a man’s face lit from below.

But anyway, I got some more time in with the painting. Refined the face a bit more, pretty much finished one arm and drew in the lines for the other.

#15

I didn’t want to get burnt out on the realism painting, so i decided to try something loose and fun tonight. I tried the dry brushes for lines and the wet brushes for colors to make it look like a watercolor, but… I still haven’t got this whole opacity thing. All my favorite photoshop paintings use opacity so well in their strokes and layers and textures. I suppose it’s practice and a couple tricks up their sleeves.

Anyway, here it is. I tried to focus on how a child might compose the drawing, because truth is, most children have pretty natural compositional instincts. A house here, a tree here, a sun here… voila. And yet we forget it as we age.

#16

I haven’t abandoned my realism painting, but I just really had to figure out how to get some texture into a painting. I like realism, but this is much closer to the sort of thing that I would say I’m most comfortable doing, or have the most fun with, rather.

I hope to either finish or get close with the realism later tonight.

#17

Nice thread! And I love how you are so enthusiastic!!! :applause: I have tried grayscale as well and it never really worked for me either. Though it does have its advantages when you are trying to achieve a particular look. I think you are doing a great job and your drawings are very nice. i really like the ‘watercolor’ sketch a lot! its so cute and fun! :smiley:

now about skin the way i do it is different…i usually do everything on one layer OR i do it all on one layer and if i want to tweak something ill do it in another layer and if i like that then i merge it and start blending the two together. It doesnt help to suck up the color from another picture (i tried and it sucked) but just go through your colors and adjust them with the color sliders until you match the color to as close as you want. Or go through the color libraries because sometimes they have some pretty nice colors. Now resolution wise i generally start working at 300dpi. If you have a slower computer though then its best to do it the other way. I hope this helps! Great work! Keep at it you are doing great! :thumbsup:

#18

Thanks nerdyninja! I really appreciate the feedback. I’m definitely working at large resolutions from now on (the fat man was my first 300dpi image and I instantly loved the freedom of brush movement due to the size of the image).

Too bad this one is actual size. Hard to put in details, and of course, no printing.

I decided to leave the face different from the original photo because everyone I’ve been showing it to both online and in person has said they like it the way it is more than the photo. I’m also unhappy with her front hand, but I just can’t work on this anymore. I’ve always finished my drawings in one or two sittings throughout a single day, so four days or so for this was a big stretch for me. On a whole, though, especially considering those first couple PS paintings I posted on page one… I’m pretty happy with my progress so far. Definitely gonna keep it up as long as I can!

#19

Hey there, I really like the realist painting. The lowkey lighting has been rendered really well.

The texture piece is great too.

Press on.

#20

Thanks very much JeanShade. :slight_smile:

I didn’t post yesterday because I was extremely busy getting everything ready for a thanksgiving trip. I’m headed over to Alabama for… steaks? It’s true, some of my relatives are cooking steaks for thanksgiving. I, for one, will be eating turkey one way or another.
Anyway, I’m heading out tomorrow, so I won’t be posting then, either. I’m not even sure if I’ll have access to the internet while I’m there (for a week I believe) but I will be taking my laptop, and I will continue to paint.

This is what I started last night. It’s gone through a lot of changes since then, and I never felt right posting the sketch until now. I’m settled on this idea. Zeus is demanding this angel’s son to train for war against Hades, but he is reluctant to give him up. I’ve put some light composition lines in to show you how I’ve balanced the image. I figure classical style, use classical composition methods!

And a 100% crop of the face at this point.

I might end up moving his front shin a little further to the right… I dunno. I also feel that I’m showing too much of his back. Right now he looks a little short and squat. It’s just a sketch at this point, but as always, any suggestions or ideas that you have are very welcome.