While I was watching the show some months ago, I screencaptured a poignant moment for later use as a painting reference. Before I talk about the process, here’s a look at my final product:

(Click the image to view a full size version on my Flickr.)

Being the most technical artwork I’ve completed to date, I ensured I documented each step of the process. What follows is a start-to-finish walkthrough.

My Reference Image

It always starts with an inspiring image. Here’s my original screencap.

Before I used it, I lightened it up and adjusted the colors. I used the “Variations” tool in Photoshop to give it a blue cast.

After enlarging the image to 2000 pixels wide, I created a new layer and selected the Brush tool. I selected the brush preset “Chalk” at a size of 60px, no dynamics. Holding down the CTRL key on PC to switch to the eyedropper tool, I very roughly eyedropped patches of color and painted them in blocks using 45 degree angle strokes. This gave me an idea of where my colors would go and a “base” to refine.

As an aside, this was an experimental step for me. I usually create an ‘outline’ layer that is basically a sketch of my subject that I proceed to fill in. Part of working with technology to create art is taking advantage of efficiency, and this actually ended up being faster.

I created a layer below my painting layer and filled it with a dark gray-blue color so I would no longer be working on top of my reference image. At this point, I opened a new document with my reference image and placed it on my secondary monitor so I could reference it from there.

Note: I’m occasionally asked if one can “cheat” at digital painting by just laying in color over an existing image. I think this sounds like way more trouble than it’s worth between confusing colors, opacity issues, and texture inconsistency—if you have an artistic hand, you’re better off eyeballing your reference in a separate document. In the end, however, it’s about developing your technique. A good painting technique is hard to fake!

After the rearrangement, I turned on the dynamic control for opacity for my brush. Using the digital painting technique described here, I did some general blending to even out my starter surface.

Time to Paint!

Despite the blending, these were still big imprecise blocks of color. I decreased the size of my brush to 30px and began painting in more precise colors, starting in the eye area.

I find it helpful to occasionally pull color from your original reference image using the eyedropper tool to keep on track. What’s nice about this is you don’t have to select the other document—just hold down CTRL on PC, click with the eyedropper on your reference document, and keep on painting. At this point the eyedrop-paint motion is very quick for me—it becomes second nature with practice.

Refining the cheek area…

Refining the jawline…

Chin and mouth…

This was my first time working with aged skin, so a lot of care went into the subtleties of shading the jawline. I laid down some color and shading for the ear and hair. Boy, I really hate painting ears.

Despite that, I finished this one. That’s a pretty fine ear if I do say so myself.

I got cozy with a 15px brush and did the eye details here.

Painting in the thinkin’ wrinkles…

Refining the nose…

I decided to throw a timestamp on this shot. The whole painting took 5 hours, so this is the progress about halfway through.

Subtle eye wrinkles, highlights.

New Layers of Detail

Here I painted away most of the hair and created a new layer on top of my painting layer exclusively for hair. I almost always do hair on a separate layer since it’s so reliant on precise strokes for a realistic look. The collar was also filled in.

There’s the hair. I switched my brush to 4px, turned off the opacity control, and turned on the size control. After painting the hairs, I went back in with a larger brush with opacity control on and softened the dark, highly contrasted strands for a more natural look.

It’s difficult to see in a picture this size, but I added in some light stubble here. You can see it in the full size version pretty easily.

Finally, the water droplets! I created a new layer and selected a light gray color from the original image. With a 15px chalk brush and opacity control on, I painted in the general locations of the water droplets I wanted.

Using a hard-edged eraser with opacity control on, I gently erased the droplets to refine their shape and transparency.

To finish the water droplets, I created another layer set at only 40% opacity and painted shadows for the water. I also painted in the droplets on the nose and chin.

For the background, I used an old painted texture I had. I desaturated and duplicated it, changing the topmost layer to the Multiply blending mode. I then added another layer on top of that in a gray-blue color and set the blending mode to Color.

For the rain, I used generic rain brushes I grabbed a long time ago on a Photoshop brush resource website. While unrealistic out of the box, I used the Motion Blur and Lens Blur filters to generate the illusion of movement and closeness.

Five layers of rain were added to the background, each with varied opacity and use of Motion Blur.

That’s All, Folks

Finally, I merged everything and added a vignette with the Lens Correction tool. Here’s the dramatic final image again.

I hope you found these insights into the digital painting process helpful—or interesting, at the very least! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop them in the comments below.

I decided to try my hand at making something similar. This was a quick one, but I hope it’ll give an idea of what steps one can take to achieve this type of effect.

Final Image Preview

Preparation

1. Still Time by Larabie Fonts
2. A straight-on photo of a face

I recommend working large. We’ll be doing some rasterized text warping that won’t be noticeable when sized down.

Process

I start by cropping down a photo of my face just above the eyes and right below the mouth. (I decided to skip clean-up because the reference image has a lot of detail in the skin—but due to the light differences, I would smooth the skin if I were to do this again.) Duplicate this original layer for future use.

Insert your text. I used the font Still Time by Larabie Fonts. Transform so that it expands across the face.

Set the fill of your text layer to 0%, then open Blending Options.

Check Color Overlay and go to its options. Select Blend Mode: Darken and a bright color.

Check Drop Shadow and go to its options. Select Blend Mode: Darken, Opacity: 100%, Distance: 0, Spread: 0, Size: 5px. Choose the same color as you did in Color Overlay, then make it 40% darker (check the percentage under “B” in the color selection dialog.)

Rasterize your text (right click » Rasterize Type).

The next step is to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select parts of the letters, then warp them (Edit » Transform » Warp). I wish I had taken a few more process shots of how this is done, but the idea is just to grab parts of the letters and make them less rigid—more fluid with the shape of the face. Here’s how mine came out:

Next, add some flair to the text. I actually used a drawing tablet to paint in the splashes and tapering, but this can be done with a patient mouse too. I didn’t spend too much time on this, but it’s probably the trickiest part… just do your best, mess around, and see what shakes out!

Let’s add some depth to the text. Duplicate your original face layer and bring it to the top. Go to Image » Adjustments » Channel Mixer. In the dialog box, check Monochrome and adjust the sliders (for skin, adding red is usually the easiest) so that you have an amount of shading similar to below.

Set the layer to Multiply. This darkens up those areas we didn’t blow out until they were white. (This is where I started wishing I’d cleaned up the skin!)

This is an optional step—its usefulness depends on your original photo. That last step made my eyes really dark, so this is how I brought the color back up. Duplicate the original face again and bring it to the top. Go to Window » Masks » Add Layer Mask. Select the Layer Mask and fill with black, then take a white brush and paint over the irises of the eyes so that the original color shows through.

The text still looked flat to me, so I decided to try another approach with highlighting instead of shading. This tutorial was a bit of an experimental procedure, so you should feel free to mess around on your own as well!

Select all and go to Edit » Copy Merged. Paste.

Duplicate your original face layer again and bring it on top. In Tools, make your background color white. Go to Filter » Distort » Diffuse Glow. (You may need to go to Show All Menu Items under Distort first.) Graininess: 0, Glow: 1, Clear: 10-12.

Set the layer opacity to 25% and the Blending Mode to Vivid Light.

The last thing is “detail” steps. These were photo-specific for me, so try to spot any last touches you can add to yours and work accordingly. I noticed that my eyes were a little blue from my contacts, so after flattening I went to Image » Adjustments » Selective Color and pulled down the Blues. I also used the Burn tool to refine some of the shading.

Final Image

Before I called it quits, I dusted some pink lighting around my cheeks and in my eyes with a soft brush and set the Blend Mode to Vivid Light and 25% opacity.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a rush job—if I were to do it again, I’d work on enhancing the lighting on the lips, clean up that bothersome skin, or maybe just select a better photo altogether. Despite that, I think this tutorial shows a lot about layering and hope you find it useful!

For two days of work, I wasn’t particularly displeased. I was impressed with the ease with which one can build a Wordpress theme, proud of myself for having done so with swiftness, and satisfied with the visual component of the design.

Queue the Querulousness

As time wore on, however, the flaws became increasingly apparent—I’d taken too many shortcuts, hadn’t done enough planning, left out details. I eventually became so unhappy with the site I didn’t want to update for fear new visitors would recognize these doofy indiscretions. Keetee just didn’t meet my standards for design, and my desire to use it gave way to evanescence.

With a steady few hundred hits a day, I kept it running so people could benefit from old articles. One of my readers, Yopladas, sent me an e-mail in May asking for updates. “Nah,” I responded, “Keetee is dead.” Indeed.

Rekindling Keetee

When summer began, I resolved to reform my disappointing brainchild. I cooked up a new design that retained some of the same visual elements in the spirit of realignment.

There are a number of things that are very dull about this version, but it was a starting point. I let it simmer for a few weeks, then kicked off a week-long sprint of planning, designing, and coding to bring the design up to par.

Here are a few things I think I did right:

1. Improved Spacing

It’s important to have a big-picture view when you’re styling dynamic content. The first time around I didn’t do enough planning, created a lot of delicately interdependent styling, and ended up using ghetto spacing workarounds because of it.

2. Details, Details, Details

I spent a lot of time on the little things. There are the literal little things like accents, icons, and decorative images, but I’ve also very carefully positioned the layout. Everything is on a grid, the main containers follow the rule of thirds, and a couple special areas pull proportions from the golden ratio. By mocking up all the details first, there was little experimentation to do when it came down to the code.

3. No Half-Assing

Having been new to Wordpress the first time around, there were naturally things I wasn’t sure how to do. There were several cases where I settled for the default look or setting rather than going the extra mile. This time I spared no expense, ensuring everything looks and works precisely as planned.

I Hope You Like It

I spent a full workweek on this new design, so believe me when I say it’s a labor of love! I hope you like my final product. Drop a comment and let me know what you think.

Preview

Here are the two paintings for which I’ll be showing you progress shots, Underworld and Self-Portrait (Red):

Underworld

I laid down the base color, then begin refining details:

More detail:

Began adding finishing touches, like lighting and flecks of stubble:

The final work:

Self-Portrait (Red)

Laid down base colors, then began refining (I had the lips on another layer; I’m afraid they were misplaced in this shot!):

More detail in the upper half of the face:

Making my way down:

Finished off detail in the face:

Added hair (use of the Size Jitter is very obvious here):

Detail in the hair:

After clean up and processing, my final image:

Next Time

I hope these works inspire you and show how one can go from a blank canvas to a finished work! In my next post, I’ll revisit technique by taking a special focus on precise brush movement and pressure.

This post is part of a series on digital painting:

1. Introduction and Settings
2. Developing Technique
3. Showcase: How Paintings Progress