Making Of 'Sirens'
Sketch
My approach is not as scholarly as most. Sometimes while practising/doodling, I will like the doodle enough that I will want to see it realized into a full painting. The Sirens image was originally three individual sketches from my figure drawing practice sessions. I had originally been trying to go for an art nouveau style, which at the end, you will see is completely lost.
After the basic framework is laid down, I excitedly moved on to the painting phase. In hindsight, if I had spent more time in the sketching stage, it would have most likely produced a much better final image, and might have even maintained its original art nouveau style, but NO! So HARK! I think my next piece will reclaim that endeavour!
Initial Stage & Methods
I created a new layer filled with mid tone gray set to multiply mode and merged it down. The gray tone becomes the predominant background colour. This is important since if you were to have a stark white or black in the background, since they are extreme in contrast, its difficult to discern tonal value. Throughout the painting stages, my normal process includes copying the main layer, and leaving the original for backup. The short-cut Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V (select all, copy, paste then followed by Ctrl-S for save) is something I do all the time. I work on the copied layer in small stages/sections, and once satisfied with the appearance, I will merge down (Ctrl-E) to the original backup layer. Many online viewers have told me that my style has a very 'smooth' airbrush appearance. I think the result is from the many times I merge the duplicated layer to the main layer with varying degrees of opacity. Over several iterations of merging varying opacity layers, the combination results in a wider gamut of tone. While painting the working layer, I will sometimes over paint, or paint too dark or light, where ever it is needed, then reduce the opacity of the layer to compensate (Quite a bit sometimes, even down to 7-15% opacity). This is very helpful for sections that have a very subtle shadow/highlight. This is similar to glazing oil painting techniques where the painter builds up form with multiple layers of thin glazes. Let's get to colouring!
Adding Colour
Using a flesh tone, I used a multiply brush at 100% to lay down a base. Seeing that it wasn't dark enough, I cover the area with the same brush at 70% opacity. I'll go back and erase the over paint later. Using a blank layer, I use the same flesh tone swatch with normal brush at 40% and buildup the lighter areas. This stage is a little discouraging because you will start to lose the line art and it will look like bullocks, but forge onward brave ones!
Adding Darks
Using the dark swatch shown (2.), I reclaim some of the lost line art details by adding the shadows using a multiply brush at 10-30%. Cleanup and further modeling of the form is done with the original light flesh tone at a low opacity. Now comes the fun part. Using the red swatch shown using overlay brush mode at 7-20%, I've started to accentuate the flesh tones with subtle colour. Experiment with this part. Try using dark purples, blues, pinks, and dark oranges, but make sure to keep the opacity low as the overlay mode is quite aggressive. The example is what the layer looks like before I reduce the opacity and repeat the process until I end up with a satisfactory tone. I also popped in some preliminary highlights on the nose and shoulder with the dodge tool at 20%. After finishing one girl, I moved on to the others. After I had finished all three girls, I used the Hue/Saturation Adjustments to tweak the skin tones to the desired appearance.
Basic Background Layout
For the background, I experimented with Painter. It's very handy for quick painterly looking mock ups since the brushes blend so beautifully. Using a basic blender brush, I threw down some experimental background elements and painted over the excess paint from the skin colouring process. I also started to block in the hair colour.
Definition and design elements
Download sarsa_splatter.abr
(I will be using the Sarsa hair brushes and splatter brush, found on internet long ago, I do not know the author)
In this stage, I defined the design elements and pushed the details further. The skulls were done in a separate document and brought in separately, and I added a stroke around the girls to separate them from the background.
Black hair seemed to be more dramatic so I used the Desaturate sponge to take the colour out, and also used a multiply brush with a black to get the desired effect. I use the Sarsa Brushes , to blend and add hair strands. Try using the Sarsa hair brush with varying opacities as well as using them as a dodge/burn tool on top of the hair layer. Although not evident in this piece, using a small airbrush and adding single strands of hair is the most effective way of getting realistic hair. For the splatter beneath the girls and on the skulls, I used splatter brush. Using red, and colour burn mode.
Defining the Background
Easy as pie hot glows! Once again, I took the image into Painter and added some interesting circular halos.
I also used a off white blender brush and literally scribbled around to get the cloud formations. The colour variations in the clouds were done with overlay mode in Photoshop. Before bringing back into Photoshop, the halos mainly consisted of low contrasting pink as seen in the outer rings. Once brought into Photoshop, I used an orange flesh tone colour airbrush set as colour dodge to create the pretty glows in the halos. Let's see how the colour dodge mode works. Oh snap, how easy is that? Colour dodge is a wonderful way to make some really impressive glows!
Final compositing
Satisfied with the background and overall appearance, I decided that I wanted the image to have a darker theme as well as make the girls pop out, so I took the reddish background and desaturated it with the Sponge tool. I also used the burn tool to darken certain areas. It is important to notice the options when using the Dodge/Burn tool. You can choose to affect three levels of an image - the highlight, mid tones, and shadows. Make sure to choose the appropriate option before burning or dodging. And that's it.
Some key tips I want to stress in creating images are: Always seek critiques from artists and non artists. I frequently post my images while they are in the progress stages to get advice from other viewers. Sometimes working with an image, you can become blind to mistakes that might keep the image from being better. Check out 3DTotal's Forum http://forums.3dtotal.com/. There are many others, and most of them have professionals that hang out that have real world experience, and can offer sage advice. Don't be afraid to experiment. Some of the coolest things I've learned were accidents. Serendipity is sweet! Practice, practice, and practice some more. This image was actually created when I was in an artistic slump. Although I was in a slump, I was making myself practice figure drawing on autopilot when the idea came to me. So out of practice, one of current top ten images was created. Always strive to become better. You are your fiercest enemy. Thanks for looking!
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