leather look

sevastra

Needle-chuck Ninja
I'm doing a piece where the subject is wearing long leather boots, how can i get the boot to look leathery? I don't want to just paint it a flat black.
 
an image of your boot would be nice,, but just match the colors,, if the boots are black then they are black......it all about the wrinkles in the leather . check for the high light or the peak of the wrinkle in the boot.... paint the darkest color in the depth of the valley of the wrinkle.. it will fade as it get towards the top of the wrinkle... dont put too much thought inTO IT,, just paint what you see and match the colors.. leather is going to have a soft hightlight..sorry my cat wont stop chewning on my fingers.. lo,

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I just drew the boot, i don't have a reference for it, i should probably just google a leather boot huh? Ha, thanks
 
its would be really nice,, but it is hard to do a thing if your shooting for a likeness ,, without a reference.. that is like the artist dream.. paint things without a reference. out to the minds eye..
 
try to find a reference that's a close to what you have in mind as possible. Usually, black leather will have grey, blue, or purplish highlights, but it depends on the type of leather, the lighting, if you want to stylize it, etc. Also, the "black" is almost never actually black.

For achieving the texture, be creative. You could use a piece of Scotchbite pad to spray through (probably pull it apart a bit to loosen it up first), try some erasing techniques, or scratching. Try using different grades of sandpaper to "cut" the highlights in. Try stippling. It's all fair game. Just look carefully at the texture and grain of the leather, and try to figure out how you can best match it.
 
If you want to make it look like an old boot, you could add some subtle cracks/wrinkles and give a weathered look by using a tumble dryer sheet (or similar) to give texture. Depending on size, add any stitching, vary the tones, and add good highlights to any polished areas.
 
For the texture, I've had some good results with spraying through three or more layers of cheese cloth. Two layers or less and it gives sort of an alligator skin look to it. Three or more and it add some good texture like my leather coat.

With boots though, a lot of them are smooth leather. So depending on what look you're after, you might not want to add to much texture to them, and just find a good reference to guide you.
 
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