Tool Settings and Notes:

The brush settings I used for this stage are just about the same as the ones I employed for the blocking phase, but with slightly increased spacing and opacity, varying from 50% to 100%. In addition, I continuously adjusted the brush size, depending on the amount of detail that each area required. The Brush tool settings can be seen in Fig.06.

Working on the foundation set in the previous step, I now used a technique borrowed from traditional oil painting. All the rough dabs of colour that I had set before, especially for the highlights, are now blended using the Smudge tool. This simulates the way I paint in oils, where I would build the highlights by putting a small amount of white (or another colour lighter than the base one) on the area I want to lighten, and then blend it and shape it accordingly using a soft bristle brush.

Applying the same method to digital painting is a breeze - especially using the Smudge tool. Here I spent the largest amount of time refining, in detail, every part of the image. The hardest sections to blend convincingly were the large muscle groups, such as legs and abdominal area. Here I relied on my knowledge of anatomy, and that is a must-have requirement if you set out to paint bodies, especially muscular ones.

Whilst blending, I switched to the Paintbrush tool once in a while, whenever I needed an additional touch of white or black. I also zoomed in, up to 300%, to work closely on the small details - especially on the faces. Overall, I still wanted to maintain a somewhat painterly feel with some visible brush strokes, so I avoided blending too heavily. After the blending was complete, I used the Dodge tool, set to Highlights, in order to punch up some of the highlights which I felt needed to be stronger. I used this tool sparingly however, as too much of it can make the image look over-exposed. (Fig.07)

At this point, I added colour to the black and white painting. Using one of the most powerful features of Photoshop - Adjustment layers - I was able to experiment with different colour schemes until I found the one I was looking for. An advantage of using this method is that I can change the colours at any time, without having to repaint any parts of the illustration.

First, I added an Adjustment Layer: Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, to colourise the figures. I put this above the painting layer, checked the Colorize button, set the Hue to 11, the Saturation to 50, and the Lightness to 0. The black and white figure is now coloured. The colours need further manipulation though, because the flesh tones are still too uniform. (Fig.09)

Secondly, above this I added a Color balance Adjustment Layer Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. In the Shadows tone balance settings, I moved the Color level to -9 on the Cyan slider. I left the Mid-tones sliders untouched. In the Highlights tone balance settings, I set the Yellow slider to -17. This introduced a variation between the darker and lighter colours. It was still not enough, though. (Fig.10)

A third modifier was added: Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. I used this to add a hint of green to the darker tones, to vary the way the red tones played with the highlights and also to make the picture a bit lighter, overall. (Fig.11)

Additionally, in order to add more realism to the figure, I used the Paintbrush tool to add further red tones to the girl’s cheek, bleeding heart, chest wound, legs and hands. Flesh tones are hard to obtain, but this method usually allows for a quick shortcut toward achieving them.