03-08-2023, 02:44 AM
Pubic Enemy: Likewise man, no worries at all. Yeah, just experiencing all the fun to do stuff from moving from one state to another, lol. I love the forums and always try to find time to get around to them for sure.
Leo Ki: Great work and your piece is coming along nicely. I would make the strong suggestion of maybe working in values first before going into color; this is the way I personally like to work and I feel I can work faster and more accurately this way. The process is fairly simple, just stay 5% between black and white and remain in the gray area and only use black or white for the most extreme absence, or addition of light.
The way I like to work is a rough linear sketch that I sometimes do, or do not, clean up (sometimes I will start with volumetric shapes) and then start blocking in my values with large to middle sized soft brush underneath the line work on a separate layer. From here you can push and pull the values without disturbing the line work. Once you get to a point where the forms read some under the line work, just drop the opacity about 20% on your sketch layer and add a new normal layer to start rendering out the forms a little more over your line work. The idea here is not to render this way to final but do just enough that you can get the forms to read well, if you over render the color will not merge naturally with the piece. From here you can add a new color layer on top of it; you can adjust the opacity of the color layer via the layer mode or by adjusting the opacity settings on your brush. You can also take advantage of other layer modes like overlay to add more or a punch with colors like red, etc, while keeping the layer mode transparent.
Always remember to take advantage of multiply layers to quickly, and easily add shadows as well. Once you have your color blocked in (mind you the sooner the better, then you can easily just start rendering everything out with the brushes of your choice and the color should merge with the black and gray under painting with ease. Experiment with your brush settings and always make sure to have a brush that can make hard edges and another to soften things. Honestly, you may of heard this before, but you can technically do everything with the hard round. Putting your brush settings in Photoshop to opacity pressure only or having both opacity and flow pressure on can yield different results, and painting with wet edges can be really wonderful despite it's transparent qualities. If you want the glide and ease of using wet edges but desire a more opaque effect, consider assigning your brush some texture to assist you best.
Working in black and gray first is so much easier to solve the situation with the values than it is working directly into color. I have spend tons of time in my life experimenting working in both ways and the black and gray method takes the win opposed to working directly in color for sure, even when traditional painting in real life. If the drawing and values are right, then it doesn't matter what color you put over the work, the image will read properly regardless. I hope this information helps you and I'm sure it will. It took me 15 years to fully understand and figure a lot of this stuff out. You see a lot of people give advice and info but will never break too much bread with the really technical stuff in fear you might get better than them,lol.
If you're into using masks to control your edges you can implement them at any time of the image. Most artists like to use the masking in the very beginning, while other paint freely and use the mask more towards the end. I like to paint freely and create my edge by hand so things look more homogenous and natural, but masking is a great way to really grab hold of edge control and push the image front and back. Adding a little blur effect to any background you might have in the image can do this as well. Just a little blur goes a long way,lol.
Leo Ki: Great work and your piece is coming along nicely. I would make the strong suggestion of maybe working in values first before going into color; this is the way I personally like to work and I feel I can work faster and more accurately this way. The process is fairly simple, just stay 5% between black and white and remain in the gray area and only use black or white for the most extreme absence, or addition of light.
The way I like to work is a rough linear sketch that I sometimes do, or do not, clean up (sometimes I will start with volumetric shapes) and then start blocking in my values with large to middle sized soft brush underneath the line work on a separate layer. From here you can push and pull the values without disturbing the line work. Once you get to a point where the forms read some under the line work, just drop the opacity about 20% on your sketch layer and add a new normal layer to start rendering out the forms a little more over your line work. The idea here is not to render this way to final but do just enough that you can get the forms to read well, if you over render the color will not merge naturally with the piece. From here you can add a new color layer on top of it; you can adjust the opacity of the color layer via the layer mode or by adjusting the opacity settings on your brush. You can also take advantage of other layer modes like overlay to add more or a punch with colors like red, etc, while keeping the layer mode transparent.
Always remember to take advantage of multiply layers to quickly, and easily add shadows as well. Once you have your color blocked in (mind you the sooner the better, then you can easily just start rendering everything out with the brushes of your choice and the color should merge with the black and gray under painting with ease. Experiment with your brush settings and always make sure to have a brush that can make hard edges and another to soften things. Honestly, you may of heard this before, but you can technically do everything with the hard round. Putting your brush settings in Photoshop to opacity pressure only or having both opacity and flow pressure on can yield different results, and painting with wet edges can be really wonderful despite it's transparent qualities. If you want the glide and ease of using wet edges but desire a more opaque effect, consider assigning your brush some texture to assist you best.
Working in black and gray first is so much easier to solve the situation with the values than it is working directly into color. I have spend tons of time in my life experimenting working in both ways and the black and gray method takes the win opposed to working directly in color for sure, even when traditional painting in real life. If the drawing and values are right, then it doesn't matter what color you put over the work, the image will read properly regardless. I hope this information helps you and I'm sure it will. It took me 15 years to fully understand and figure a lot of this stuff out. You see a lot of people give advice and info but will never break too much bread with the really technical stuff in fear you might get better than them,lol.
If you're into using masks to control your edges you can implement them at any time of the image. Most artists like to use the masking in the very beginning, while other paint freely and use the mask more towards the end. I like to paint freely and create my edge by hand so things look more homogenous and natural, but masking is a great way to really grab hold of edge control and push the image front and back. Adding a little blur effect to any background you might have in the image can do this as well. Just a little blur goes a long way,lol.
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination)
"Everything has been done, but not by you"
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination)
"Everything has been done, but not by you" 
