Not sure why it turned out like this

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

He looks way more badass then the original.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

x2

Seriously he looks like he's ready to take something big on.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Ok now go back over the whole thing and start blurring the skin tones together, use a large blur brush at 75%, maybe even the smudge tool on a low % in some areas, then add another layer of detail over the top of the blurred skin. Keep refining it!

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Brb, lemme go to school first lol.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Here's a quick paint-over, blended skin tones and subtle texturing.



Blended the skin tones together to make a much more gradient and even tone. When editing your picture, I noticed you use a lot of highly contrasting colors when drafting, especially for shadows (purple?) It makes the refinement process MUCH easier if you try and stick with a color palette that doesn't overly contrast with skin tone, otherwise you might find yourself going back and having to redraw some things with the correct tones later on, and by that point it becomes much harder to make large edits.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Very cool. Digging the spot colour blues, greens, and purples used throughout. DS definitely has a good tip about blurring the skin tones and going over it to achieve a much more smooth looking and realist approach, though as a result you can't really play around with different colour swatches for skin tones.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

@DS I see what you did thar.
I did try to blur it but not exactly with blur tool but pick intermediate colors, it started a bit rougher than that, as for the sketch it started pretty normal, I just added the saturated shadows just to make it seem more interesting, as far as spectrum goes.
I am not sure how that would effect blending but now i see how blurring flat surface works well though.

I am going to try keeping detail (sharp colors) as textures at like lip area or nose crease and try to blend in more with flat surfaces.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Did a paint over too, not a big fan of PS blend tool.


I am always afraid of blending/paint over too much, seems like it would make the picture unnecessarily blurry. It kinda surprised me how good the skin tone on your paintover of mine looked lol.

I can blend okay, but when I do, like this paintover it seems too plastic-ish whereas your blending made it look flesh like. I am sure its not much of a color issue. Did you put any filters?


crap, double post someone shoot me.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Once I blended the tones together, I go back through with the burn tool to add shading, use a very light burn amount, definitely under 20%, and a very large brush to start adding subtle shadows.

If you look at the rear of his jaw on your original, you painted some very sharp shadowing there, I basically painted that area all the same color as his cheek, then went over it with the burn tool. His face is rounded, especially in that area, so you have to understand that there aren't really a whole lot of sharp shadows that will take place out in the open like that. That's also where the realism comes in, subtle, nearly barely noticeable shading techniques seem to make all the difference.

Your overpainting is definitely smoother, almost...creamier? However, his cheek and jaw are really flat, and that's where you're losing a lot of potential. I think you'll find that getting the base color tones down, and then using the burn/dodge tools for shadows and highlights work MUCH better than simply matching midtones.

Don't be afraid to blur too much, you can always go back and refine every aspect of it, and it's encouraged to do so. I probably go through around 4 to 5 full layers of detail, so don't even really worry about the first 2, because those are just about getting color and mood and tone correct.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

I should break out of my single layer habit lol, nice point on the shadow under the chin.
Prime example of not using my head when drawing lol.
Burn tool is like blur tool to me, except scarier since it creates unwanted noise in paints esp in 8bit color when used even a tiny bit too much. I will give that a try tho, sounds interesting.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

Layers are your best friend, sir.

Though mine usually only consist of about 4 on any given picture, it gives you MUCH better control. Also, why are you working in 8bit color rofl? The burn tool is scary as hell if you use it on 100%, but turn it down to really light levels, and it's the best tool in photoshop.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

isnt it normally in 8bit? well at least I usually draw in 8bit, I don't see the need to go 16bit.
16.7mil color is enough for me to mess with.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

You have more talent than I will ever have.

Re: Not sure why it turned out like this

If you have a screen with HDMI support, you can definitely notice the difference between 8 and 16bit.