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Digital Portraiture: Page 2

Author: Roger Elliot, Associate Editor

Now I have finished the scarf using all but the darkest value of my blue-violets. The drapery here is teeming with subtleties! Pay particular attention to the areas marked. At "A" try to make the folds look correct. They are lighter at the top where they catch some light and darker at the bottom of the roll. At "B" where material is "tucked" into the roll, the material folds down into the tuck. "C" is an example of material folds. Be ever mindful of these subtleties. Notice that the section at "E" is darkened to create a roll out. There are other subtle things in this drapery. Think them out carefully. I achieve this by first painting the color value I desire with the paintbrush tool then blending this out with the smudge tool. Take some time and make your drapery look as real as possible. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your painting. :-)

I have added a background to my painting. I chose a very simple green as I want to keep this simple. You will have enough on your plate with finishing the rest of this portrait without getting fancy with the background! A couple of things however; you will notice that the corners are a bit darker than the rest of the background! Well, remember, I am a very traditional painter! I subscribe to the "Old Masters" techniques of "four wet corners". In other words, all four corners being somewhat darker than the rest of the painting. This tends to highlight the subject of the painting. Also, the area immediately surrounding the subject is a WEE BIT lighter. This is called "spotlighting". Be careful here! Too much spotlighting will result in a subject that seems to be floating and not "set into" the painting.

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