Anatomy of a picture

Welcome to what I'd like to call "anatomy of a Photoshop picture".

Not that I'm a genius at this, but maybe this will give you some idea as to how I ended up with part of one of my pictures, and help you in your own efforts. I haven't seen anyone else's picture blown apart like this, so I figured I'd give it a shot. If it helps you out, let me know. I love mail as much as anyone else.

Note: What you are going to read below will not necessarily be a tutorial on how to paint clothes or retouch Poser figures (I'll do those in separate tutorials). I might hint toward that, but this is more on layers, and how they're set up: modes, opacities, etc.

In each step will be another layer in the order they were set up, from bottom to top. That's not the order that I did them, but just a way to present it. Sometimes it looks strange... remember that to paint some layers, I viewed the layers above them, painting underneath.

Also, I use a Wacom tablet for most of what I do. If you don't have one, sell something and go get one. You'll never know how you managed digital art before it.

First, here's the final version of "Liberty 2100". You can click on the picture to go to a larger version, and see it now, or wait until we're finished to check it out.

The final version is large. With all the layers, around 60mb. That's why, when I worked on the body and clothes (below) I cropped a duplicate of the picture. When I was done with everything you'll read below, I flattened the layers and pasted it back in the large one with the full background.

Here's the cropped version of just the body. I'm skipping all the steps in how I retouched her face and the rest of her body. Suffice it to say, I used the pen tool, airbrushes, burn and dodge, and plain paint tools with homemade brushes to achieve a look that will work with the rest of the picture. If there are unfinished edges on her now, they are in places I'm not worried about, since I'm going to paint clothes over her. I didn't worry too much about her legs, for instance. Right now there are two layers. Background and body.

The next layer up is the shadow for her jeans. I painted this layer after the actual jeans were done (following picture). Some of this is airbrushed. The other part was the appropriate part of the jeans copied, then darkened and blurred somewhat. The opacity level here was lowered also and the layer was offset from the jeans above.

Here's the first layer of the jeans with the shadow underneath. It's hard to see at this scale, but the threads and holes on them are quite detailed. It was fun doing this part.

A quick synopsis on the painting: Block in the main color of the jeans... use lighter and darker colors (remembering carefully where the light is coming from)... a bit of the smudge tool and very small brushes for hanging threads (on another layer above the jeans; I merged the two layers after they were both done)..... then a very light use of noise to help with texture. Then more use of burn and dodge with large airbrushes to get the shadows and hilights right. However there's a problem... they're too...

....clean. So here's the next layer up, for the dirty look. I used the airbrush and dark green and brown clouds. Then a mask to airbrush away the dirt I didn't want. The layer was then set to 'multiply' at 72%.

Here's the finished boot layer, again a composition of around four layers merged together when I was done with them. Again, basic color, burn and dodge and more color until I feel I have it right. I used a brush I usually use for hair on the hilights to give them more texture. And another layer, like the jeans, of 'dirt' set to 'overlay'.

Note: Experiment with the burn and dodge tools. It makes a great deal of difference if you set the burn tool to darken hilights, midtones, or shadows. Don't settle for the default here. I use all sizes brushes, usually set to vary transparency with pressure, but not size.

Ok.. another shadow layer, this one for the shirt. This was done after most of the shirt was completed (next layer below). Same as the jean shadows, but for one big difference. The shadows for the strings across her chest. That was freehand airbrush. You can't just drop-shadow the shirt... shadows don't move in straight lines when you're talking cleavage. It took a couple tries (ctl-z!!!... eraser!), but I got to the point where I thought it looked realistic.

Now the main shirt layer. This is some work. A couple layers, much experimentation until it looks right. I try to pay attention to how clothes form around a person. Look around, look at yourself.. see how the fabric stretches.

I never worry too much about getting color just right. I can always colorize, adjust, and tweak a few things later to get exactly what I'm looking for.

Another shirt layer. I know you don't see much difference, but this is a duplicate set to 'multiply' at 16% to darken it a bit. I know I could have just adjusted the brightness and contrast of the original layer, but here's the thing: with this layer, I can go back and adjust the opacity of this layer at any time, changing the darkness of the shirt. Set to 'hard light' or 'overlay', I could have adjusted the contrast.

Here's the layer of 'dirt' for the shirt. Same as the jeans, but more brown. Again, the layer was set to 'multiply', this time at 63%.

Moving up the layers, we've come to the hair shadow. I've erased the part I don't need to see. Again, I have to be careful, because it can't be just a 'drop-shadow'. The way the hair throws shadows across the curves of her face can be much different. I added a bit more with the airbrush on her neck, for example.

Here's the hair layer. If you'd like to know more about how I do this, you can go to my hair tutorial.

So, finally we've come to the end of part of the total 'Liberty 2100' picture. This is a small version of the completed body.

I merged the layers I could. Sometimes when you merge a 'multiply' and an 'overlay' you get weird effects. I got it down to three or four layers and copied them all back into the larger picture with the big background. Then I got into painting the flag... and believe me, that's a whole 'nother story.

Comments? Questions? If they're not answered here or in my FAQ, please don't hesitate to write.

Hope this helps you in your artwork! Good Luck!

Fetching comments...

Post a comment