Just Draw

[rich4rt]

Vimes - I understand what you mean. It's partly knowing the forms, and partly just searching for what 'looks right.' The form will of course depend on the lighting direction, the value will be based on light intensity. My process is very organic, my advice would be to just experiment and don't be afraid to make mistakes, in fact make as many mistakes as you can. Through the process you'll see how far to take the plane. The beauty of photoshop is that you can create so many layers, and try so many different things, in theory nothing can go wrong ;)