[Sedone]

Okay, not really. More like a "how-I-work" kind of thing. Even then I don't always go about it this way. You won't learn how to draw noses, or render hair, or anything like that. Some of the artists here, who I've learned a lot from, have fairly general tutorials, and I'm taking that road with this one. I guess this tutorial should motivate you to try out your own techniques. Okay, on with show.

I used Photoshop 6 for this picture, as well as the standard brushes. It's of a female beggan, a race from the Devil Whiskey game. They're like hobbits. I decided to go with a cool color palette, since I�d just done several portraits with warm colors. Of course, it�s easy to change your mind later with Photoshop.
The important thing at this stage, for me, is proportion and shape. Also, think about where the light�s coming from, and adjust your values accordingly. Remember that a lot of detail gets lost in shadow, and shapes tend to merge. I used a hard brush with high opacity.


At this point I went ahead and defined the eyes a bit, just to give the picture some focus. Don�t spend too much time on any particular thing, though. I begin to give the shapes some form, like in the neck area. Keep an eye out for �happy accidents� (I sound like Bob Ross now), such as the strands of hair. Even early on those kinds of things can be kept till the final painting, and I think it gives the picture some freshness.


Here I introduced some cool green to the shadows, to give it more depth.


Here�s a pretty major change. I played with the levels, increasing the contrast, and hiked up the saturation. With enough practice I guess I wouldn�t need to mess with this part, but I haven�t reached that point yet. I also tweaked her eyes some.


Hooha! (That�s my Al Pacino impression). A lot of refining was done here. Everyone has a different way of finishing off a painting, and it would take several other tutorials to cover that subject. To blend, I mostly turned down the opacity, using either a hard or soft edged brush. Again, experiment and find a method that you�re happy with. For the highlights I kept my colors very opaque and applied them with Photoshop�s natural brushes. Since the forms were established in the early stages, it�s just a matter of defining them even more at this point.


To finish off the picture, I added some warmer tones over the face to push it forward.


Hopefully someone found this tutorial helpful. Feel free to leave any comments or critiques.

[yoda]

Very well done and enjoyable tutorial! I will try some of these techniques out should I ever get a wacom.

-Chuck

[Sedone]

Thanks, Yoda. Now that I look at it, in the final step it doesn't really seem to get "pushed forward" all that much. I guess change that statement to "I added some warmer tones because I felt like it." Shows what I know

[Novacaptain]

that is one heck of a nose...it reminds me of that movie with the brady bunch...oh c'mon I know you've seen it too...no? oh well..

Thanks for sharing your method sedone

[nickname88]

this is great.
know where any more good painting tutorials are

[pixelsoldier]

Awesome!

You're lacking links to full-res shots of the process, though. It helps a lot to check out the strokes. When it is this tiny, it gets very difficult to understand how you got some of those little details to work so well. Just a thought, though. You really are quite talented.

Thanks a bunch for doing this.

[Ian Jones]

Nice! tis good to have this sort of stuff on the forum. Very helpful.

Her ears are a bit too low though? I seem to remember that they should line up with the bottom of the nose and the brow. She is angling her head slightly upwards, but still it looks like the ears are a little low. Being a beggan though... maybe thats why the nose is a noggin'?!

Hope that helps.

[jasonN]

Thanks for that Sedone, I love all your character work

[V Shane]

Cool. thanks for sharing your process.

I just keep staring at the nose, good thing i don't go out in public much

Hey, is there a race in the game with a big butt? That would be an interesting tutorial as well.

[zak]

nose = BIG
he he, other than that its cool

[Binke]

fantastic painting! This is very inspiring.

zak: dude, she's a Hobbit-like creature. They have big noses (usually)

[Sedone]

Novacaptain, yeah, I've seen that Brady Bunch episode.

nickname88, I'm glad you liked the tut. A lot of guys who post here have tutorials on their sites. Try going to their homepages.

pixelsoldier, good point about the paint strokes. I'll link to 'em at the bottom.

Ian, maybe she has big earlobes? I'm glad you found this useful, though.

JasonN, thanks dude!

V Shane, all the races have big ghetto booties. You just have to get the uncensored version.

zak, thanks.

Binke, hey, if it inspires you in whatever small way to work on your own stuff, then I'm stoked. And you're right, she's a hobbit-like creature, so all you others who don't like her nose can just pick it.

Here are some closeups:
beggan hires 1
beggan hires 2

While I'm at it, here's a closeup of the female dwarf. On the left is the rough block-in. The right is the finished version. What I like about this picture is that it changes very little from the initial stages to the final. Less work/less tweaking = good.
dwarf hires

[pixelsoldier]

Hey thanks Sedone! Man, you work very cleanly. Awesome stuff - very inspiring. Keep it up, please.

[The Magic Pen]

Veyr good tutorial sedone I wish more people on here did them . Thanks man !

[Zorglub]

This is great man. It's really helpful