In this tutorial I will show the work in progress of a digital painting I did for a contest. It is a Chrismas card competition for the Iron Maiden Fan Club. I will try to explain the best I can how I create a digital painting through all steps of creation.
First of all, the concept was to pastiche an Iron Maiden album artwork cover; Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (fig.1) and to transform it into a Christmas theme oriented image.
I used the original artwork by Derek Riggs as a starting point. I didn't want to copy it, but I used it as a reference for the pose and proportions of the character (Eddie) as I wanted it to be obvious that it was a pastiche of that particular artwork. Everything was made using Photoshop CS4 with a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.
First, I create a new layer over the original artwork that I paint all white with a 50% opacity. Then I create another layer on which I trace the outline of the character (fig.2).
After that, I dispose of the reference image as I won't be needing it anymore. As the reference image was found on the internet, it was of relatively low resolution. When working on a digital painting, you need to work on a bigger file if you want to be able to put a lot of details into it and eventually make high quality prints out of it. I made it 71,7M. This will give me a working space big enough to have plenty of details. You can see on fig.3 the drawing that will work as a guide for the painting to come. The white background and the outiline sketch remain on seperate layers.
Now is time to add color. I use a "multiply" effect on the layer with the outlines as I want it to be visible over the colored layer. It's always good to start with the background as it will give an overall idea of the picture and how colors respond to each other (fig.4).
After doing the background, I create a new layer on which I apply the colors of the main subject (fig.5). I start with plain colors without any shading, just trying to find the median color of each part (middle value of skin, of hat, of branches...). Normally, I would always keep background and main subject on seperate layers as it makes it much easier to work and correct eventual mistakes, but in this case, at some point I merged layers and saved without noticing it, but as the background isn't very detailed, it isn't too dramatic.
Now you have to know that I always work with photo references for my paintings. For this one, I used myself as a subject; I put Christmas lights all around my body and I wrapped a box in Christmas wrapping paper that I held in my hand for as much accuracy as possible (I didn't have a hat though). BUT, I will not display online the reference pictures of myself as I look way too silly! So, for this next step, I start putting the lights and shadows (fig6). I always have my reference pic displayed on my screen and I use the eyedropper tool directly on the reference image to pick the right colors then apply roughly on the painting without any blending. A little tip here: I use a Posterize effect (approximately on level 14) on the reference picture for that step (image/ Adjustments/ Posterize); the colors will be simplified and it will be easier to pick the right color with the eyedropper. After that step, you already have a good idea of what the finished image will look like.
When colors are well defined and sufficiently detailed, I can get rid of the top layer with outlines as they won't be needed anymore (fig.7).
Now the real work begins. It's time to blend colors and add details. Here I will show how I do the blending on a simple 4-color scale. I usually only use a really basic round brush with smooth contour. Most of the time, I use an opacity between 24% and 36%, depending on how smooth I want the shading to be. At this point, I use a brush size between 5 and 13.
The idea is to take a color (1) and cross-hatch it over the second (2) color (fig.A).
Take the median color and continue cross-hatching over colors (1 & 2) to blend (fig.B).
Do the same for colors 2 and 3 (fig.C).
