In
this illustration, I wanted to convey
a sense of power and elegance. The
body, muscular yet very feminine,
creates a seamless curve with the
hair.
For
this digital painting, I used
Photoshop 7, a Wacom 9x12 tablet
on a Pentium 4 2.2 Ghz with
512 MB of memory, displayed
at 1600x1200 resolution on a
22" monitor.
Step
1 - The Sketch
The
human body is the most difficult subject
to portray. Even the most inattentive
observer can easily tell if proportions
or anatomy are off. For this reason,
and especially if the goal is to achieve
a realistic look, it is best to use
some form of reference (models, photographs,
etc.) when drawing the body. Reference
is most useful especially during the
initial phase of the process.
For
this image, I chose to use POSER (3d
character posing software) to render
a pose of the main figure to use as
a reference. Poser also helped me
in finding the best composition and
angle for the subject. As you can
see in the screenshot, the poser character
model I used does not carry many details
when it comes to muscles and tendons
or even bone structure, but it was
enough for me to use as a base upon
which to build my painting.
The
8x10, 300 DPI resolution poser render
was then imported in Photoshop, cut
in a separate layer and desaturated.
Step
2 - Painting the Figure
At
this stage, I relied heavily on
my knowledge of human anatomy.
The
key requirement to draw a realistic
body is a solid knowledge of its
many muscles, bones and they way
the work together.
You
can acquire this knowledge by
drawing from live models and even
from copying photographs, but
the latter method does not produce
results as fast as the first.
On
a separate layer, I started painting
the main figure using the Paintbrush
tool set on normal mode with a
30% opacity smooth brush varying
in size from 10 to 50 pixels wide.
I referred to the poser render
for the main shapes and their
position.
I
used only shades of gray because
they allow me to concentrate on
volume, chiaroscuro and shapes
without the distraction of color.
After
I was satisfied with the sketch,
I zoomed in the image at 200%
and using the smudge tool (50%
opacity, 0% hardness, round
brush) I blended together all
the brush strokes to obtain
a smooth and realistic look.
Then,
using a small brush, I zoomed
in even more to add many smaller
details, like the folds of the
skin in the hands and feet,
also the eyes and nails.
Step
3 - Colors
At
this point, having the figure mostly
finished, I added color.
Flesh tones are hard to obtain because
of the translucent quality of skin
and because of the different degree
of tones that various body parts
have.
First,
I used the Image-->Adjustment-->Hue/Saturation
tool to colorize the figure. I selected
the figure layer then launched the
hue/saturation tool, checked the
colorize button, set the HUE to
10, the saturation to 35 and lightness
to 0. The black and white figure
is now colored. The colors need
further manipulation though, because
the flash tone is still too uniform.
The
Image-->Adjustment-->Curves
tool was then used to add color
variation. I shifted the darker
range toward red and added a bit
more blue to the lighter range.
Additionally,
in order to add more realism to
the figure, I used the paintbrush
tool to add even more red tones
to the figure’s cheek, nose,
feet and hands. Some blue makeup
above the eye was also added.
I also slightly shifted the colors
in the bent leg and rear arm to
blend them better with the background.
Finally,
I used the dodge tool to add some
highlights and to enhance the
contours in some specific areas,
such as the legs, back and torso.
Before
using the paintbrush to colorize
the figure, remember to lock the
layer transparent pixels to avoid
having brush strokes going over
the edge of the figure and partially
covering the background layer.
Step
4 - Hair
Painting
the hair is very labor intensive
and it requires light pressure and
long curved brush strokes.
The
key to painting hair in this step
is to use a brush that varies in
size and opacity depending on the
pressure applied on the stylus.
First,
I concentrated on drawing the main
hair shapes with electric blue color
using the following brush settings:
brush tip size 15 pixels wide, 80%
hardness. Under shape dynamics,
set the minimum diameter to 1% and
assign size control to the pen pressure.
Under other dynamics, assign the
opacity control to pen pressure.
Once
the main shape is set, I switched
to the smudge tool, mode set on
Lighten, 90% opacity with a small
0% hardness brush.
This
method allowed me to add more
hair strands by picking up existing
pixels from the base hair shapes
without affecting or smudging
hair I had previously drawn.
Next,
I used the dodge tool to add highlights
where needed. I also used the
eraser tool to make some portions
of the hair more transparent.
The hair was drawn on a separate
layer, placed above the main subject
layer.
Step
5 - Effects
Lightning
bolt and electric sparks were drawn
on separate layers, and then a glow
effect was added to give them a
realistic look.
The
glow was achieved as follows: in
the layer blending option I enabled
the Outer Glow effect and set its
blend mode to Linear Dodge, opacity
to 85% and size to 30 pixels, the
color used was the same as the lightning
bolts.
I
then set the layer blending mode
to Lighten and opacity to 85%.
Additional
glow to the hair was added by duplicating
this last layer and setting its
blending mode to Linear Dodge and
opacity to 50%.
The
edges of the arm holding the lightning
bolt were also enhanced to give
the impression of a stream of energy
emanating from the lightning bolt.
Step
6 - Background
The
background was done mostly with
a large brush set to vary in size
and opacity based on the stylus
pressure.
In
the shape dynamics brush settings,
the minimum size was set to 30%.
I
used the same colors used in the
foreground, but arranged them so
that they would compliment and enhance
the contrast of the main subject
in the foreground.
On
the upper portion of the background,
I used warmer magenta tones to balance
this area with the blue hair.
The
same principle applied to the lower
part of the background where blue
tones were employed to bring up
the figure’s legs (colored
in warm tones).
I
made sure not to add any sharp
details to the background (besides
a few stars), as that would have
been detrimental to the main figure
by shifting focus away from it.
Some
color balancing was applied to
the background layer.
