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Description
~*Read Description for Information*~

So, after the "Thoughts on Posture" turned out to be so popular I thought I might as well do this. It's pretty much a step-by-step from ink to finish, using Photoshop. And for those of you that are just curious.

This is a VERY rough description of what's going on. If you need clarity please feel free to ask. ^_^

1. I start out with lineart. It's no a rule, just a preference. You can use a sketch, but generally the neater the starting image the easier it is to colour things in.

2. Underneath the lineart, all on one layer, I add the basic colours. Note that at this stage the black hair isn't black. This is just so I can see the lineart over the top to remind me of the direction I've given it.
-2.a. Yes, he's a man. Male lips, despite what many people seem to think, are NOT the same colour as the skin around them unless they happen to be wearing nude lip gloss. Uh-huh, now which colour seems more girly? Yeah.

3. Once again I paint under the sketch layer. Here I turn the basic hair colour to black and add rough highlights on in the direction the lines originally were. At this stage I'm mostly figuring out tone, colour and form, so everything is splodged on everywhere. I'm not a neat worker. Even finished products are painted roughly. I find if I try to be too precise all the fun goes out of it and things just look crap.

4. Here I start painting over the lines. Note that the nose, mouth and eyebrows have moved and changed shape. It's alright to change things. Even this late on. The way I paint I rarely use the eraser. The great thing about PS is you can just paint over mistakes. 8D

5-6. This is mostly just refining the skin and facial features. At this point the hair hasn't been touched, but this is where I do things like making shure the eyes are looking in the same direction and check my lightsouce is fairly constant.

7. I painted over the highlights using a smaller brush, until they're almost gone. It sounds crazy but it add different tones to the hair, rather than light. Hair is NEVER all one colour.
I also added extra hairs outside the lineart to make it look more free and floaty and generally more like hair.
Here I also fixed the hairline, making it look like it was growing out of his head rather than sitting on his skin like a really bad toupé. ._.

8. Then I add the highlights back in. For this I use quite a large brush, concentrating on the natural locks hair separates itself into. I don't draw individual hairs. Ever. If I try to do that it just looks like straw. I do add the odd one in though.
To make hair look like hair you actually don't need to put all that much detail in. If you concentrate on the "focal" part of the hair and make that super detailed your brain seems to fill the blanks in for the rest of it.

9. I added the detail to the glasses by painting highlights over the original linework for the glasses. Here I didn't need to recolour the frames, highlights were enough. I also added a "white" lense, which was just a block of white, set at opacity 9% on the layer options, just to make it look as if something were sitting in the frames.
Don't make life more difficult than it has to be by overcomplicating things. If you can adapt something that already exists then do it!

10. Stubble. You know what? I set the brush scattering as far as it would go and splodged it on. Unlike the hair on his head this didn't need to be directional. You should be aware that ALL hair is directional though. In this case scattering was appropriate though as the hair is too short to have a noticeable direction yet.

I'm so lazy. 8D

It's also worth noting that the skin, glasses and hair lines were on three separate layers.

And if this is helpful to anyone, it was worth typing it.

Comments are SO encouraged. 8D

Description
~*Read Description for Information*~

So, after the "Thoughts on Posture" turned out to be so popular I thought I might as well do this. It's pretty much a step-by-step from ink to finish, using Photoshop. And for those of you that are just curious.

This is a VERY rough description of what's going on. If you need clarity please feel free to ask. ^_^

1. I start out with lineart. It's no a rule, just a preference. You can use a sketch, but generally the neater the starting image the easier it is to colour things in.

2. Underneath the lineart, all on one layer, I add the basic colours. Note that at this stage the black hair isn't black. This is just so I can see the lineart over the top to remind me of the direction I've given it.
-2.a. Yes, he's a man. Male lips, despite what many people seem to think, are NOT the same colour as the skin around them unless they happen to be wearing nude lip gloss. Uh-huh, now which colour seems more girly? Yeah.

3. Once again I paint under the sketch layer. Here I turn the basic hair colour to black and add rough highlights on in the direction the lines originally were. At this stage I'm mostly figuring out tone, colour and form, so everything is splodged on everywhere. I'm not a neat worker. Even finished products are painted roughly. I find if I try to be too precise all the fun goes out of it and things just look crap.

4. Here I start painting over the lines. Note that the nose, mouth and eyebrows have moved and changed shape. It's alright to change things. Even this late on. The way I paint I rarely use the eraser. The great thing about PS is you can just paint over mistakes. 8D

5-6. This is mostly just refining the skin and facial features. At this point the hair hasn't been touched, but this is where I do things like making shure the eyes are looking in the same direction and check my lightsouce is fairly constant.

7. I painted over the highlights using a smaller brush, until they're almost gone. It sounds crazy but it add different tones to the hair, rather than light. Hair is NEVER all one colour.
I also added extra hairs outside the lineart to make it look more free and floaty and generally more like hair.
Here I also fixed the hairline, making it look like it was growing out of his head rather than sitting on his skin like a really bad toupé. ._.

8. Then I add the highlights back in. For this I use quite a large brush, concentrating on the natural locks hair separates itself into. I don't draw individual hairs. Ever. If I try to do that it just looks like straw. I do add the odd one in though.
To make hair look like hair you actually don't need to put all that much detail in. If you concentrate on the "focal" part of the hair and make that super detailed your brain seems to fill the blanks in for the rest of it.

9. I added the detail to the glasses by painting highlights over the original linework for the glasses. Here I didn't need to recolour the frames, highlights were enough. I also added a "white" lense, which was just a block of white, set at opacity 9% on the layer options, just to make it look as if something were sitting in the frames.
Don't make life more difficult than it has to be by overcomplicating things. If you can adapt something that already exists then do it!

10. Stubble. You know what? I set the brush scattering as far as it would go and splodged it on. Unlike the hair on his head this didn't need to be directional. You should be aware that ALL hair is directional though. In this case scattering was appropriate though as the hair is too short to have a noticeable direction yet.

I'm so lazy. 8D

It's also worth noting that the skin, glasses and hair lines were on three separate layers.

And if this is helpful to anyone, it was worth typing it.

Comments are SO encouraged. 8D