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thundercake — Stylized Portrait Painting
Published: 2009-02-27 22:19:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 46233; Favourites: 1576; Downloads: 940
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Description
This is just my current method, not necessarily the best way or the right way.To preempt some questions:
- I am using two layers for most of this painting, except near the end when I flatten them.
- I'm using Photoshop CS3. My brushes are up in my gallery for download, but I'm only using one for this painting, my trusty 46 spatter set on dynamic opacity.
- I know about the eye. I was in a hurry.
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Comments: 103
this is the exact tutorial I've been searching for MONTHS!!! oh, and happy birthay, I know it's early, but all the peaople will tell you in the day, so you won't see my felicitation
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This is super easy to read, and I'm glad that there are a lot of pictures! xD I'm a visual person, and this helped me lots. ;D Thanks so much!
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Very helpful, I'm not too good at drawing from scratch on the computer, but hopefully this method will help me ease into that.
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Do you use the Flow setting in your work? I've been playing with opacity/flow for a while now, but I can never get that painting like softness like here without it being... too blended, and lacking texture.
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No I don't mess with the flow usually, I've tried it but I prefer adjusting my tablet settings on the fly, so I keep my preferences pane open while I work.
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hello! i have featured this tutorial in my profile ^_^ [link]
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Very awesome tutorial. You mean setting dynamic opacity on pen pressure?
This was my attempt [link]
But I can't get it as smooth as yours. Mine's all messy. Did you use the blend tool (and what kind of blend brush did you use) or did you blend it with the spatter paintbrush? And do you ever use spatter brush larger or smaller than 46? What's the resolution you worked at.?
I'm so sorry for so many questions but I just love this kind of style of painting but somehow I just can't get it right.
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Don't apologize! I'm a nerd, I love talking about this stuff 
I blend using just the brush and the eyedropper tool. When you use dynamic opacity you do have some control and can achieve a middle tone between two colors, but to refine the texture, it takes a little practice with picking up some of the middle tones and re-painting them over the area where the two tones meet. This creates a wide variety of tones that gives a smoother texture, while still keeping the look of the paint natural, not airbrushed. I like to set my eyedropper tool to a keybinding (D) right next to my brush tool (B) so it's easy to switch back and forth between the tools.
I love 46 spatter because it's forgiving and soft. It won't be incredibly obvious if you don't blend perfectly, but you can still achieve hard lines with it where needed. As for the size, "46 spatter" is just the name of the brush; I have my brush menu set to open on right-click, so I just resize it as needed. Most of the time I'm working with a larger brush than 46. When you're trying to get a smooth texture, using a larger brush rather than a smaller brush will definitely help. It's like trying to paint a blank wall with a tiny paintbrush or a roller. I only use a small brush for very sharp details, like refining edges.
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This is super helpful. Thanks! 
I will definitly try it out again.
Keep up the great work and thanks again for
taking the time and writing such an elaborate
response.
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This is a great tutorial! I have a question: when you say "blend," what do you mean? Do you just use different opacities?
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SOOO GREEEEAT TUTORIAL!!!! THANK YOU FOREVER!!!!
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Found you through ViceVersa.
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forgive my ignorance but...what's vice versa?
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Haha, ViceVersa is a deviant here. :3 [link] She mentioned you on her deviantArt, and I thought I'd check you out.
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D: Looks SO much like a girl I know. Great tutorial! Simple and nice result
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Did you have a set of colors before you started the painting? All the colors work so well together. I usually have too many colors going on and they don't come together in the end...
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Last fall I went out and took some pictures of trees, then I made a color palette from the colors in the photo.. usually I just make it up as I go though
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You should make up a little tutorial on it
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this has been the most helpful painting tutorial i've seen!
thankk youu ;;
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I'm sure you probably get a lot of these, but I tried out your method and it really taught me a lot c:
Thank you very much for making this.
my attempt if you care to see xD -> [link]
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Wow, excellent painting tutorial! I will definitely use this in the future c:
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Wow! This is beautiful and very helpful! Thanks for sharing! ^^
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This is probably the most helpful "digital painting" type tutorials I've seen so far.
Thanks for sharing.
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Hey I used this as a guide to help me paint this [link] It's not finished yet, but I was wondering if you had any critique about it that you might want to share before I finish it?
This guide was really helpful. (:
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you use very beautiful skin tones, especially in the lips
I really admire how you manage to sort of block out the colours and still make it appear so smooth, blended, and flowing
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I am definitely going to try this technique. I've got the brushes and I'm ready to go!
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I always love seeing how other people work on faces.
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Hey TC, how big is your original? Here it looks to be 5x3"-ish, but that could be wildly different than the original.
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1000x1200px. I paint portraits very small, since there isn't a need to cram in lots of detail.
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[link]
I used this method, with mixed results!
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I tried it and didn't fail as massively as I thought I would. Yayyyy. 8D
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In your brushes menu there's a setting for "other dynamics", set it to pen pressure
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open up your brush settings window and in the "Other attributes" section there's opacity with a slider next to it. Under that slider is a drop-down menu with different choices, and I believe dynamic for her means pen pressure. I know I always set it to that.
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BRILLIANT tutorial, I will be attempting something in a similar style VERY soon. You managed to make that very simple sounding! <3
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