airbrushtutor
Love Spreading Overseer
Hello everyone reading!
Thought i'd make a bit of effort to give something decent back to the forum that gives so much to everyone else involved. Some of you may have seen the Red Head lady I completed just under a week ago now - well i took step by step progress pictures specifically to give some little insights as to the process i used to render the artwork :triumphant:
Here it goes you cheeky galahs!
1. The first step after finding the image that inspired you to 12 hours of work, is to come up with a line drawing or guide so that you can transfer it to your canvas. Now while there are several ways of doing this such as printing a copy of the reference at the exact size and cutting it out i find this takes quite a bit of time - it's certainly not any less accurate but i guess i'm just accustomed to the way of the projector.
The first thing i do is a line drawing in a vector program. I use Illustrator CS6. The strongest reason i do a line drawing beforehand is because it allows me to identify where the shapes are in the drawing and how i can go about airbrushing the edges of them. My lines are somewhat indicative as to how i'll create them, generally a broken line means a softer edge and a harder line means a harder/ darker edge. It also allows me to share the file to others!
2. Next step is to mix up your colours. It's up to you if you mix them all to begin with or as you go, I prefer to mix all at once because it's like jumping over a big hurdle. The disadvantage to doing that is that the longer the colors stay stangant, the more white pigment that sits at the bottom of the color cup. This can change the color.
Other than that all materials and tools are there and i'm set and ready to go!
3. After getting the line drawing onto my board (by the way i'm using SchoellersHammer), i begin my masking the background with frisket. i'm going to be applying the green background first and i will keep certain parts masked up for nearly the entire duration of the artwork.
Using frisket isn't something you have to do, you could do it all with the airbrush alone by taking care & going in close, but the use of frisket eliminates the risk overspray. It also eliminates the benefits of organic edges.. so it's up to you? To frisket or not to frisket!
4. After i've sprayed the background and back-masked the appropriate areas, I decide that the teeth are extremely white and so i'm going mask them also using frisket until i'm ready to complete the mouth. The teeth will later prove to be the hardest part of the artwork due to my poor choice of colors.
5. The first color layer is applied. It is a near identical match to the base skin tone on her forehead, which is the lightest skin-tone on the image. The reason I chose one of the lightest skin tones is because i know i can always darker other parts of it using translucence + i will be using mid-tone and shadow-tones, so by the end of the image it will have different color influences anyway.
Once this layer is applied, it's time to work some eraser magic as textures and realism are added with the use of erasers and scalpels.
This was my first time using ShoellersHammer board and coupled with Createx Illustration Colors I don't think the pair get along very well. Some may blame the colors for not being erasable enough, however i blame the board for being too absorbant. I didn't like working with this pair but I think once you've committed to an artwork that you should finish it, because generally you get a good result. Except when it's a paint pal card.
Probably enough reading for you for now, i'll get the rest up over the next few days
Thought i'd make a bit of effort to give something decent back to the forum that gives so much to everyone else involved. Some of you may have seen the Red Head lady I completed just under a week ago now - well i took step by step progress pictures specifically to give some little insights as to the process i used to render the artwork :triumphant:
Here it goes you cheeky galahs!
1. The first step after finding the image that inspired you to 12 hours of work, is to come up with a line drawing or guide so that you can transfer it to your canvas. Now while there are several ways of doing this such as printing a copy of the reference at the exact size and cutting it out i find this takes quite a bit of time - it's certainly not any less accurate but i guess i'm just accustomed to the way of the projector.
The first thing i do is a line drawing in a vector program. I use Illustrator CS6. The strongest reason i do a line drawing beforehand is because it allows me to identify where the shapes are in the drawing and how i can go about airbrushing the edges of them. My lines are somewhat indicative as to how i'll create them, generally a broken line means a softer edge and a harder line means a harder/ darker edge. It also allows me to share the file to others!
2. Next step is to mix up your colours. It's up to you if you mix them all to begin with or as you go, I prefer to mix all at once because it's like jumping over a big hurdle. The disadvantage to doing that is that the longer the colors stay stangant, the more white pigment that sits at the bottom of the color cup. This can change the color.
Other than that all materials and tools are there and i'm set and ready to go!
3. After getting the line drawing onto my board (by the way i'm using SchoellersHammer), i begin my masking the background with frisket. i'm going to be applying the green background first and i will keep certain parts masked up for nearly the entire duration of the artwork.
Using frisket isn't something you have to do, you could do it all with the airbrush alone by taking care & going in close, but the use of frisket eliminates the risk overspray. It also eliminates the benefits of organic edges.. so it's up to you? To frisket or not to frisket!
4. After i've sprayed the background and back-masked the appropriate areas, I decide that the teeth are extremely white and so i'm going mask them also using frisket until i'm ready to complete the mouth. The teeth will later prove to be the hardest part of the artwork due to my poor choice of colors.
5. The first color layer is applied. It is a near identical match to the base skin tone on her forehead, which is the lightest skin-tone on the image. The reason I chose one of the lightest skin tones is because i know i can always darker other parts of it using translucence + i will be using mid-tone and shadow-tones, so by the end of the image it will have different color influences anyway.
Once this layer is applied, it's time to work some eraser magic as textures and realism are added with the use of erasers and scalpels.
This was my first time using ShoellersHammer board and coupled with Createx Illustration Colors I don't think the pair get along very well. Some may blame the colors for not being erasable enough, however i blame the board for being too absorbant. I didn't like working with this pair but I think once you've committed to an artwork that you should finish it, because generally you get a good result. Except when it's a paint pal card.
Probably enough reading for you for now, i'll get the rest up over the next few days