Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

download Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

of 4

Transcript of Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

  • 8/7/2019 Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

    1/4

    Workshops

    June 200786

  • 8/7/2019 Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

    2/4

    W

    Mike MitchellCOUNTRY: US

    CLIENTS:Threadless,

    Skyline Design,

    Image Comics

    American

    artist Mike

    Mitchell

    recently

    graduated

    from The American

    Academy of Art with aBFA in Illustration and

    is now working as a

    concept artist for

    RavenSoft in Madison

    in Wisconsin.

    SirMikeofMitchell.com

    DVD AssetsThe files you need

    are on the DVD

    FOLDERS: PSDs,

    Screenshots

    FILES: Final.tif

    SOFTWARE: Photoshop

    CS2 (demo)

    LockTransparentPixelsMake good use of this

    tool. It enables you to

    have controlled chaos

    on the layer youre

    working on, by locking

    all parts of the layer that

    haven't been painted on.

    PROSECRETS

    Photoshop

    1 The sketchAfter gathering some reference Igrab a pencil, some paper, and begin.When I do portraits, I prefer to keepmy sketch simple and loose, with an

    emphasis on proportion. If my sketchisn't working out, no matter how muchtime I've spent on it, I toss it in the trashand start over again. In my experience,the best portraits always flow nicely rightfrom the beginning. Making sure youreally like your sketch, and seeing thatit's evenly proportioned, will save youheartache later on.

    hile the ability to paint arealistic portrait is admirable,painting portraits that are

    limited only by ourimagination is much more fun. Itenables you to fully flex your creativityand use a fair bit of artistic licence.

    While I don't personally go crazy

    with my artistic licence, I do like to takeadvantage of it. I do this by combining

    Mike Mitchell shows you how to create a portrait that willcatch anyone's eye not to mention their imagination

    PAINT CREEPYPORTRAITS

    humour, creepiness, and a bit of designin an attempt to keep my portraits a fewsteps away from reality. I find itintriguing when a portrait enablespeople to decide for themselves what'sgoing on in the image, rather than tellingthem explicitly what they should thinkabout it. I always try to keep that in mind

    while working on a portrait, or any piecefor that matter.

    For this workshop, you will only needa pencil, some paper, a Wacom tablet,and Photoshop with its default Roundbrush. A basic understanding of theanatomy and proportions of the humanhead, as well as some knowledge of light,and colour, will also help you greatly.Ive included working PSD files on your

    free DVD to help you understand mycreative process further.

    2 Scan it!I scan my illustration intoPhotoshop, and double check to makesure everything looks good. Then I putthe lines on to their own layer in order topaint under them. I prefer to use LoadChannel as Selection>SelectInverse>Copy/Paste, as it seems to get

    the smoothest lines. Once this is done, Iwill usually colour the lines with a darkred or brown using Lock TransparentPixels. This enables me to only colourthe parts of the layer that are drawn or

    painted on. If you haven't tried thisbefore, do it! After I've coloured thelines, I click Unlock Transparent Pixelsagain to unlock, and begin cleaningthese lines up a bit. How clean you make

    your lines is up to you, but I prefer tokeep mine somewhat messy, because itgives my portrait a sketch-like quality.

    3 Block in that colourNow I'm ready to start colouringunder the lines. I like to block in eachmajor item (hair, skin, shirt and so on)

    June 2007

    87

    In depth Paint creepy portraits

  • 8/7/2019 Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

    3/4

    on to its own layer. Once each item isblocked in, I hit Lock Transparent Pixelson each of these layers. I then name thelayers in an attempt to keep things more

    organised, which will save me time lateron. This is a good point to start creatinga colour scheme for your portrait, andsince everything is already organised onto its own layer, I will be able to changethe colours later on if those that Iinitially choose aren't working

    4 Face the truthFirst, I concentrate on the face, sothat I can be sure the portrait is going to

    work. I then get it to a place where I feelit's solid, and begin tossing on someshadows to get the form going. Whenchoosing shadow colours, keep in mindthat shadows are transparent, and shouldrepresent the colour that they arecovering. It's best to stay away from darkgreys, since they tend to give off a muddyappearance. When dealing with skin, Iusually select a colour that is darker, andalso a bit more saturated than skin that

    has been exposed to light. I proceed toadd some colour into the warmer areasof the face, in an attempt to bring somelife to my portrait.

    5 Let there be light!Now that I've finished myshadows, I can start adding in lights tofurther bring out the face. For the skin Iuse a super bright, warm yellow on a lowopacity. I then concentrate on bringing

    out the lights in the eyes, but make surenot to overdo it. It's important to keepin mind that the whites of the eyes aren'tpurely white and tend to have a tint ofskin colour in them.

    6 Adding characterAt this point I have a foundationgoing, and can bust out a new layer.

    Once I've done this, I am able to addsome of the more fun elements. I decidethat I would like the girl in my portraitto have a bit of an edge, so I add someheavy liner to her eyes. I also includesome scrapes and bruises in an attemptto create a back story. As I said before,it's always interesting to make a portraitfrom which people can draw their own

    conclusions about the character.

    The other stuffNow that the face is solid, I can

    begin working on other parts of the

    portrait that have been neglected. I beginby adding some light and shadows intothe hair, so that I can bring it closer towhere the face is. I also add a temporarygradient to the background in order toadd some depth.

    8 RefinementThis is the stage I tend to spend themost time on. I begin by erasing some ofthe original linework, replacing them

    with hard edged paint, and adding somereflective light into the shadows. I alsoboost the contrast between light andshadow in the face. This is a good time toconcentrate on cleaning up the messieraspects of the portrait, and to carefullyexamine and refine the details.

    June 2007

    88

    Workshops

  • 8/7/2019 Paint Creepy Portraits Tutorial

    4/4

    ShortcutsMemorise shortcuts

    knowing the shortcuts

    for the tools you usemost is extremely

    beneficial. It saves time

    and keeps you focused

    on your piece.

    PROSECRETS

    9 Glow timeFor this step, I concentrate on thehalo and wings. I love a flat, graphic, andintensely illuminated element, so I beginby brightening them up. I then duplicateits layer twice, and add a tiny Gaussianblur to one copy, and slightly more of aGaussian blur to the other. This createsa nice glowing effect. At this point I'm

    feeling satisfied with the state of myportrait, but as with all illustrations it'sgood to take a break, and come look atit again later with fresh eyes.

    10 More refinementAfter coming back, I realise quitea few problems. First, the skin needs aboost of contrast, so I work on bringingthat up a bit (Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast). I also notice that the face

    looks too wide, and the compositionappears to be somewhat off. I fix thisby selecting every layer except thebackground, and begin resizing. Icontinue fixing any minor problems Icome across, such as the hair above theeyebrow, and a few patches of skin. Atthis point, I begin to feel that there issomething lacking in my illustration.I like where it's at, and I feel that it's aquality portrait, but it's not as creepy or

    eye catching as I intended it to be, so Istart thinking about what I can do to fixthis problem.

    11 Getting creepyAs if an indie, battle hardenedangel wasn't a weird enough

    combination, I go on to add a damagedcyborg element. I also remove the blackeye and bloody lip, in an attempt to keepmy portrait from looking toocomplicated. It's not really my style to begrotesque, so I try to give the skin a moreplastic quality, while keeping the damagesimple. Again, I go back and do someslight refinements. I soften the shadows

    on the nose and face, and also add somestripes to make the shirt interesting.

    12 AtmosphereI'm not a huge fan of giving myportraits elaborate backgrounds. In somecases, an elaborate background fitsperfectly, but I feel this portrait will workbetter if the emphasis is kept on the girl.I decide to just keep it simple, addingsome dark gradients behind and in front

    to help focus attention towards the face.

    13 AdjustmentsAdjustments are great for bringingeverything in your portrait together.However, they are extremely powerfultools, and if used incorrectly, cancheapen your portrait. Normally, I useonly a few adjustments in the last stage.In this case, I boost the brightness/contrast a little, and use Colour Balance

    to really bring it all together. This iseasily my favourite of the adjustmenttools, and it works well when trying tounify your palette. For midtones, I slideit slightly towards red, and in highlightsI add some green.

    14 Finished!That's it, I'm finished, and I amthoroughly creeped out by what I havemade, and I like it!

    June 2007 89

    In depth Paint creepy portraits