Painting a portrait of Denis WIP along

[ona]

Hi everyone

Several of you pm'd me after the last portrait I did of Alexander with our dog Harry asking me to do a WIP next time I did a portrait. It was actually James who gave me the idea for this painting and it's his photo from the mini meet last Sunday that I am using. Thank you Denis for saying it was ok to paint you

This is only one way of painting a portrait. It's just the way I have chosen after experimentation and much trial and error. Please feel free to follow along with the steps too if you would like either with this photo or one of your own (the steps will be the same).

Please post your portrait paintings in this Your Experiments in Painting a Portrait thread so we can see each other's works as we benefit from Ona's tutalege. Thanks, Sylvia.

For those of you that have not seen James's photo in the Meet thread here it is



So to stage 1... The outline.


This is most crucial stage of ANY portrait especially if you are trying to get a real likeness to the person you are painting. It is worth really spending time and effort here to get it right. You can trace but I don't like to do this. I prefer to use a grid and draw free hand but I DO USE TECHNOLOGY TO HELP ME and I'm not ashamed of doing so at all. I will show you below what I do once I have completed my first outline attempt free hand.

I take a photo of my outline and make a psd using photoshop



Then I make sure my original psd ref is still open and then click on window, arrange and tile vertically... see image below



I then have both my images side by side on the screen. For any major errors this is often enough for you to be able to spot them and then correct. I can see two areas I need to work on. For more help you can click on the outline layer on the side of the screen and drag it onto your ref photo as I have done below






Now you need to reduce the opacity of this top layer. The opacity button is on the right hand side of the screen above the layers. I tend to reduce it to about 60%-70%. You should now be able to see through your outline to the photo below



Then select the resize tab (its the first one on the left of the screen down the side under ps. make sure you hold the shift key down so you don't alter the dimensions and make it larger or smaller until it fits



I have had to reduce the images here to comply with WC uploading conditions but I work with full size images because now I can do this... I zoom in and I can see glaringly all the mistakes I have made. I am fairly pleased with my outline of Denis's face but I can see here that I need to add a couple of important pencil strokes around his eyes which will help me when painting and move his chin line a little in one area.




I have to raise his sweater line a bit too on the right hand side and his hand and brush are a bit out.



I also need to do some work on the bottom of his hand where in the photo it is masked by the pot of water.

I hope this helps. Now I need to work out what, in my painting Denis is going to paint. I am hoping to turn this into a Christmas card so maybe a winter scene?

Ona

[olliewood0702]

ONA....so much work and you are a photoshop genius! I don't know how to do this but wish I did....I have a small version of it but it does allow me to use layers. I guess I should just open it and play with it and maybe I'd be able to figure it out.

Wonderful tips and tutorial. I"m going to rate this thread.

Pulling up my chair.

[laudesan]

Pulling up a chair....

[happypaddler]

I am here too.

[WovenGlass]

I will certainly watch this!

What a great little tutorial on PS, Ona. I am doing something very similar using GIMP, but had to spend a lot of time "inventing" how to do this. I wish I've seen your method earlier, it is easily translated for GIMP.

[happypaddler]

It maybe should be mentioned here for those that don't have Photoshop and can't justify the expense that Gimp does almost everything that Photoshop does and it is free from here I have Photoshop on my desktop and Gimp on my laptop and more often than not I use the Gimp.

[Borum]

Also would add, if you can, get a pen and tablet too! They are well worth the expense...

[ona]

Thanks for the company and the thread rating Darla. Yes definitely have a go. Its not that hard.

Good to have you here as well JJ and John Thanks for the info on Gimp John

Hi Alex Wet Canvas has given me so much, it's good to give back. Glad its of some use.

Hi Borum, yes the tablet is very useful. Rebecca has one and uses it a lot. I still like my pencil though. I use photoshop to show me where my errors are but correct on my original drawing with my good old pencil.

Ona

[Europa]

Oooh am deffo watching this - I have a pen and tablet - maybe now the time to use it......lol.

Pat

[raxu]

amazing! Great I found this... just started one of my first portraits, using pen and paper only. Thanks for the wonderful, interesting and informative start in this thread. I will follow it, that's for sure!

Thanks John for the reference to Gimp. I have no idea yet what that is but if it's free and if others leant how to use it ...
It's good to know about these modern helpers... it will be hard enough to do the painting

[Yorky]

Great start Ona - your initial sketch was wonderful.

Good to see the photoshop technique.

Doug

[LynnM]

Wow, amazingly accurate drawing! This is really helpful, Ona, what I like the best about this method is that you keep your character of line when you draw rather than trace, and the end result will have more life, and more of you in it.

[painterbear]

Ona,
I'm dazzled by your expertise with PhotoShop. I just signed up today for a class in Photoshop Elements, maybe I'll be able to use the program I have on my computer one day.

Your drawing of Denis is already terrific. I'm looking forward to watching as you begin painting him.

Raxu and Alex,
Check out the tutorial Mike McAloon wrote called The GIMP Primer for an easy to follow explanation of the program basics.

Sylvia

Ona, I've already given your thread a 5* rating! because I know it is going to be terrific.

[gecko99]

I am SOOOO here - brilliant start, Ona!

Nicole

[rickyhpierre]

Oh wow! This is a wonderful tutorial, I can't wait to see more

Ricky