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Masterpiece in Photoshop

by gigsmella4/19/08


The idea is basically a steam punk robot named P-N01 on emergency repair by a cute techy girl named Lucy. The naughtiness came when he went back online after being fixed.

Feathers with Sasquatch

For this painting I just use ordinary brush. Below is my basic brush set-up. It's located just below the Shape Dynamic Brushes. Use 50% opacity and 50% flow for initial painting. This will control the tones when you paint over the colors.

I normally start my painting with very quick sketch then refine it along the way. This one I started with gray background just so I can have good contrast against my subject. By the way, I use Wacom tablet for most of my digital painting.

For the sole purpose of easy editing and repainting I always paint on Layers in Photoshop. I flattened some layers if necessary so it does not eat much memory.

I don’t normally work on details unless I see overall image even in rough, so what I do is I fill the drawings with base colors.

Always consider the lighting after color filling the drawings.
Below you can already see which direction is the light coming from.
Believable lighting is always important to add realism to the picture and correct casting of shadows as well because it will give volume and define shape of any given object.

I normally work on the face if it's a character because for me it will dictate whether the picture will work or not.

Close-up of the basic face I work on in less than an hour.

After few hours into detailing, below is the figure of the painted girl.
Here you’ll see already how I work with the lightings. The picture has a feel of steam and rusted metal so I de-saturate (lighten the brightness of color) I am using. Small details like the blue lights and headlight on the robot will add elements in the painting.

I did some tweaking, repositioning and resizing, especially of the robot. I move the robot’s body up to emphasize its height and volume over the girl, tilt its head to give it an animated movement. Finally decided to change the face to a little more impish or mischievous look. I have fleshed out the robot’s figure at the background by doodling something that resembles mechanical thing. I laid the flat-form for Lucy and added cast shadows.

The girl’s face has to act surprise so I open here mouth and fix here eyes.

More work on the details, small props helps elevate the pictures closest to what I imagine. I added LCD screen and fix the smoke to give it more forceful blow. I fix the girl’s jaw also so it follows correct facial anatomy.

Notice that the robot has a texture? That’s because I added a rust image layer on top of the robot’s painting. I change the rust image layer opacity to Overlay, what it does is it laid the rust image on top of the robot's painted surface. After this I paint a layer mask over the rust so it will get the correct shape of the robot and also to prevent overlapping from other part of the painting.

I added the robot’s hand and juxtapose it to the head so it looks as if in “sushhhhh!!” action.

…More fun details on the girl, like tattoo, blue make-up and earphones and the cliché pose.

I also quickly sketch the left hand, just a placeholder for my next painting. I added some volumetric lights on the robot chest to give it a little atmosphere around the mecha.

I stretch the left hand of the robot so it’s proportion to the tight arm.

Here’s the defined painting of the left arm.

Here the last touch up of the painting with the rust image overlaid and the light reflection painted over the surface. Finally it’s done!

If you would like to view the final piece, it can be viewed here.

The tutorial is also provided in PDF format; to save it on your hard drive “right click” and save as.

Masterpiece in Photoshop

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