Step by Step SPOD

[keyth]

OK guys. I thought it may be interesting to see how we approach making an SP. So document a painting/drawing every now and then and drop it in here. Perhaps we can get some feedback on our techniques from some of the pros. :p
Also, we can all learn by checking out each others approaches.
Here are a couple of mine to start it off.

[keyth]

[Nordstrand, T]

I keep in-between shots of nearly all my work. Not sure if this is useful though, 'cause I seem to reinvent & improvise my methods from sp to sp.














And finally, here's a link to the full resolution image (315k)

[keyth]

Hey Nordstrand. So glad to see you back. Thanks for posting in here. I hope many will follow. I find it very interesting to see people process.

awesome job man!!!!! it's cool to see the image literally jumping out at each step....looks so cool.

thanks again. once again, glad to see your return!!!!

[daarken]

great stuff guys! its always fun to see peoples process. here is the one from tonight. its not much, but i hope everyone enjoys it!

[MindCandyMan]

Awesome stuff guys...I love to see the process

Critique my process










This is my "optional" step...I decided against it for the final look. Thought it detracted from the image.

[Blind]

Great idea, Keyth! Just that first step in your first SP alone has a ton of good info. You have quite an interesting selection of colors for the undertones. Very cool...

[keyth]

hey mindcandy: i'm getting red X's. it could just be a busy morning...also i still use 56K. i will try back a little later today.

thanks a lot blind. hopefully more will drop some goodies in here.

daarken: very interesting. so you kinda work from one area to the next while putting in some detail huh? thanks for dropping this in. what are you using PShop? and what settings are your brushes? thanks again.

[daarken]

keyth: actually, i normally do an under drawing first and then do all the big shapes...but that wasnt working last night so i just went for it. yeah this was in photoshop. i just use the paintbrush tool with the opacity set to stylus and the hardness at 74%.

[Hermchen]

I did a Step by Step Portrait today...and...I lost the first step...but it turned out so well, that I wanted to post it anyway...please forgive...I'll try once more....

[littlejohn]

Neat thread. Here's mine. I used the digital airbrush (square profile) and the variable flat and round brushes.















If you want, take a look at a full-sized image .

[jhibbs]

this is from november 11th's, its not the best ive done, actually it was quite a struggle, but that is why i show it. it took me about halfway through to realize (with the help of a mirror) that it was way outta wack. at first i thought it was a bad mirror :p. so i tried to fix it the best i could. still not pleased but then again i never am.



heres november 12;s, i was a bit more pleased with this one, had a slight perspective issue towards the end but i tried to clean it up.

[miasmak]

This is a very informative thread and I thank you all.

I am doing progress/layer images for crit purposes. This is not strictly a time snapshot but rather a layer one, I did do the layers roughly in sequence, canvas first, then marker layer then chalk layer then tint layer then more messing on the canvas.

Hermchen asked me not to use Photoshop filters. I have to admit to something blasphemous here .. erhm .. I don't have/use Photoshop ...(wipes sweat off forehead and palms) However there must have been something in the image that reminded him of a Photoshop filter so here it is with explanations, rip it appart. Please point out where I am cheating and or where I could improve.

Canvas done in blue first using FX-squeegee and palette knife(I think), orange added later using the FX-hairspray brush. I may have used effects-surface control-apply lighting to the canvas as well. I can't remember all the steps exactly. This could be the filter-like step.

layer 1: Proportion and shape drawing on layer 1 using dirty marker

layer 2: rest of image over canvas and layer 1 using square chalk, variable chalk and sharp chalk

layer 3: tint layer as a sort of glaze to make the far side of the face fade a bit

layer 4: this layer is an exact copy of the square chalk layer no changes but at 10% opacity and infront of the tint layer - to bring out some detail in the dark layer

cropped a bit an shrunken for web consumption

[bwiseman]

I was asked by someone to show the way I paint with the Loaded Palette Knife in Painter 7, so, here it is...

First thing I do is start with a dark background, ususally about a 7 or 8 value range, and usually an umberish kind of color. I then lay out the major colors that I can see and do a basic arrangment of the features.



From here on out, I basically just move everything around, defining and redefining different areas. I try not to stay in one place for too long. I like to try and build the whole image at the same time.











And that's it...all done!!

[MindCandyMan]

Thanks bwiseman looks awesome! Hey what opacity and other settings do you use with the loaded palette knife...cause when I try to use it it gets all streaky and creates just a bunch of lines. Also mine is really slow on my computer sometimes. I work at 6 x 8 at 300 dpi. What is the general size that you work at? Thanks...this one turned out awesome! I have no idea how to work with colors at all but this will help me dive in. Thanks again.

Thanks to everyone for that matter. This thread is AWESOME. So extremely helpful.

[bwiseman]

I usually set the Opacity to anywhere between 40 and 70 percent...it depends. For my self portraits I usually keep the size to around 8x10 at 200dpi. When I do illustrations, I do them much bigger...more than twice that size, for more detail.

[MindCandyMan]

Hey bwise,
How can you work tht big without it totally bogging down your computer. Like for instance if you wanted to fill in the background quickly with a large brush and you were working at 300 dpi at 16 x 20. I think my computer would have a heart attack. I have a 1.4 gig too with 512 megs of ram. Do you experience that slowness as well?...especially with brushes like impasto...watercolor...etc...?

[bwiseman]

I have P3 1Gig with 640mb of ram. I have no problems with this tool or most other tools. With the watercolor brush it is a little slow, but I don't care because I never use that one. The only thing that really slows me down is when I have a lot of Layers. The "slowness" factor is one of the reasons I keep my images at 200dpi.

[geckonia]

Thanks for the inspiring thread.... gonna try my first SP today.

Have any of you animated gifs of your wip's? That would be cool to see too.

[Duracel]

From Oct.16th

90Minutes - DinA4sizePaper

And i scanned in some steps:








The last step in fullsize

(Some litte things aren't right and some of these some mistakes are edited but not scanned.)

[Hexal]

Duracel Im going to try something like what you just did for my next portrait. I always just roufgh you the shape of the face and measure and place the parts, I like how you defined the dark and light areas,

[daarken]

thought i would do another step by step. this is the one from last night. a higher res step by step can be found on my webpage.

finished version

[MindCandyMan]

This one is totally awesome daarken. I wish I had your brain so I could do it just as good hehe. I went to your website...I put the high rez version into a word document. I think I am gonna try color out tonight and see how it turns out. I have no idea what I am doing but I am just going to dive in. See what happens hehe. Awesome step by step. I love the blue behind your head...pops the image out like "BAM!". Should I buy a color wheel? I have seen my brother using one of those.

[Nordstrand, T]

Thanks all for contributing here! For sanity's sake, it's good to see the Magic revealed. Here's one I did using Painter's Scratchboard Rake. Should be quite self-explanatory, no?







Click below if you want to see the original resolution!
Full Resolution (280 KB)

[ZippZopp]

holy crap Torstein, thats amazing!!! i almost fell out of my damn seat. good lord, i need a few minutes to collect myself. is that the same as the Impasto Depth Rake? i would never even think about tryin a portrait with that thing. this is a great one!

[MindCandyMan]

:dance: :balloon: :clapping2 :clapping1 :wazzup: :nod: :bash:

Oh...my...goodness. I am going to go to the orthodontist later today because I think my jaw is dislocated. It fell right off onto the floor. Nordstrand that is absolutely amazing. That has to be one of my favorite self portraits ever posted on here. It absolutely is in the top 5. Wow...gotta go to draw more and practice.

Hey Torstein...you said on your website that you are still an amateur...etc... How long have you been drawing/painting? Thanks

[miasmak]

thanks nordstrand, T
an inspiring step by step, cool to see your portrait appearing out of the murky darkness

[Nordstrand, T]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!
ZipZopp: No Impasto, it's a tool in Painter called Scratchboard Rake. You can find it under "Pens". It's one of my favourite b/w tools.
MindCandy: I've always been doodling, but I started getting serious about this thing about a year and a half ago.

[MindCandyMan]

Hey guys,


Here is a step by step of a wizard self portrait that I did. This was the first time I ever used color to give me all the criticism you can muster. I know this has major mistakes...Oh well...on to another drawing.

[Blackhawk]

I figured this thread needed a good bumping

This is the first step-by-step I've done. Sorry for the fractured nature of it, sometimes I get into what I'm doing and I forget to save a step. If anyone here has any critiques for my process, please don't be afraid to let me know.

Steps















Final Result