Interpretation Week 3 UPDATE!

I experimented around a bit more with color (more to satisfy my own curiosity than anything), and came up with this. I think it turned out pretty nice. Once I got the colors down, I flattened the color and used an adjustment layer to get it to look right (like Babcock suggested). I also added laid a canvas texture over the color to give it a bit more life, although you can't really tell in this smaller version. What do you guys think? I need to look at more reference photos to really nail the lighting on the face.

Interpretation Week 3

For my interpretation this week, I decided to work with a drawing I did in last semester's figure drawing night class. Here's the original:

To start out, I placed it in Illustrator and traced it with a custom art brush that I made.

Next, I imported the vector image into Photoshop and threw down some basic colors behind the lines.

I more or less added and subtracted things until I got something I was happy with.

I'm no expert when it comes to skin tones, so any tips in that departement would be very much welcome. Overall though, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I tried a version where the colors were within the lines, but I liked this looser version better. Even though I'm not the best at it, I really do enjoy painting, and this seems like pretty much the same, only a lot quicker and easier as far as mixing different colors is concerned. If I do any real paintings in the future, I could see myself using a technique like this to, at the very least, try some things out before laying anything down on real canvas.

Master Study 3: Step-by-Step

This study ended up being quite a bit of fun. I tried a few things with the brushes that I'm sure a lot of you illustration majors have done before, but were pretty new to me. I'm always curious about how people go about trying different things, so here's a basic step-by-step of what I did:

To start out with, I painted some basic brushstrokes and scanned them in. Then, one by one, I created a brush from each stroke. I saved them into a brush file called "paintbrushes," so whenever I needed them I just loaded the paintbrushes file within the brushes window. Pretty handy.

Next, I used the brushes to created the basic background. The custom brushes worked really well in creating a painted feel.

Next, I used some of the same brush but with different presets to create the graffiti writing. I ended up creating an additional brush that was a drip. Being able to change brush sizes easily meant I could do different drip sizes easily as well. Pretty cool. After I got what I wanted, I used Hue/Saturation to colorize the layer.

I traced the black outlines in Illustrator, but without having a tablet, it was tough to get the line quality I wanted. So rather than mess with the Illustrator brushes, I set the stroke to 0 (leaving just the path), and pasted it into Photoshop as a path, which I then traced with a brush for a consistent stroke.

Lastly, I went back and painted behind the lines of the traced outline, each color on a different layer. The final study isn't quite as detailed as the original, but I wanted to explore the different brushes more than the outline detail. I think it turned out pretty well; I'd never really used custom brushes before, and the more I use them, the more I'm starting to realize how cool they can really be.

Master Study 3

This is an illustration done by Faile, an artist collective based out of Brooklyn. This style isn't really what they're known for, but I found the drawing charming regardless. I really need to make myself experiment with different kinds of brushes in Photoshop, so I though this would be a good exercise.

Interpretation Week 2 Update

I decided to try out a few textures on this; the top is a texture taken from the postcard and the bottom is a hair texture taken from cgtextures.com, which I've found to be quite helpful.

Master Study 2 Update

I went ahead and added a bit of a paper texture to the study. It's not too prominant, but I didn't want it to overpower the image. I think it warms it up quite nicely.

Interpretation: Week 2

Here's the start of my interpretation for week 2:



I used the same brushes I made for the master study and built the beard one hair-chunk at a time, then laid a second layer of color behind it on a seperate layer. Then I imported the vector art into Photoshop and masked the hand area to make it look correct. It took a while to draw the beard, but it was a relatively easy process. I scanned in the photo from a pile of postcard portraits I have; hopefully I can try this on at least one or two more of the postcards before the weekend is over.

I'm also going to try to continue working on the study, adding textures to the flat colors, which if successful might be something I can try out on these interpretations.