Head painting and PROCESS

 "Warm-up painting"

2012 Digital

Hopefully this is more evidence that I have been working on head structure. Last week I completed 100 head sketches (all front facing). This week I am halfway through another 100 (all side profile facing).  These are all from my imagination.  Hopefully you can see how knowing the structure underneath is so important! It is helpful to manipulate and anticipate the face for different character types, facial expressions, races, etc. I will post a few of my sketches up here in the next week or so.

PROCESS:
I've always been a 'process-post' junkie. I love making them, and I love finding other peoples and trying theirs out.  I can't count on all the hands and toes of all the different ways to do illustrations I have explored, abandoned, re-explored, combined, abandoned...etc till I am where I am.  So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

For this process post I am going to keep it short and simple.

Part 1: Sketch
1.  Make Sketch (as seen below).

Part 2:Value
1.  Start painting over the top of the sketch with light washes (so you wont lose your lines too quick)
2.  Fully Render value (as perfect and complete as you want the picture to look in the end)
3.  Adjust face with Warp function in photoshop. Value complete (As seen below).

Part 3: Color
1.  On a new layer above the value...set it on 'soft light' blend-mode. Manually Paint in the underpainting.  Keep colors light and simple, but make sure to get rid of the GREY.
2.  On a new layer above 'soft light' underpainting set the blend mode on 'multiply' and then liberally add color in. Adjust as needed until happy. Adjust underpainting layer as needed as well.
3.  Copy merge and past illustration. Try out photoshop's auto features (autocontrast, autotone, autocontrast, equalize), which I used autocontrast in the end.  Illustration DONE! (as seen above!)

Sketch.

Value painting.