[Hippie]

I have posted a few pieces up here, (never get many responses), what I have noticed is a tendancy for me to smudge/smooth out my shading. Where most of the work that I really like here is much more painterly and is sadi to be done in PS. So what I am asking is how do you use PS to make those painterly images.
Here is a piece I am working on, this is just at the sketch stage and beginning to try and figure out my pallette, but even here you can see on her legs where I started smudging to acheive blending.
thanks for any help given.

[Hippie]

thanks Joachim, I do think of the contrast and values before I start a digital version, I guess my problem is once I get in Photoshop I want to hurry things along. I see what your saying now, I should get the tones and mood before i start worrying about the detail, thanks for the help.

[Joachim]

I guess I'm the the "want to help" type of mood today

nr.1 stay away from smudge. ALso, you shouldn't think that things will get right when you you start cleaning things up. Actually, when you ask how people get such a painterly look in phshop, that isn't really the point.... Because, what you should focus on is light, color, contrast and values. I'm no teacher, but I just try to help.
Before you even start to shade, you should try to have a clear picture in your of what setting you are picturing. Is it dark, bright, the contrasts between things. Thing's can look more finished a lot earlier in the process if you think more carefully about these things before you start. maybe try painting the real way, then it might be easier to consider these things for you instead of thinking about what techniques it should look like digitally.

I did a 5 min brushover just to explain my thoughts...