CASE STUDIO: PORTRAITS - Part II

Article by Irene Laschi
portrait, editorial, girl, flat, magazine

 PART II: THE WORK IN PROGRESS

The features I love most in Metlicovitz and Duncan artworks are for sure the limited color palette and the contrast between realistic and flat areas.
I started from that to plan my illustrations.


The color palette
I know that softwares like Illustrator or Procreate could show you suggested color palettes, but I wanted something more personal (and I'm too old school to use them).
I started defining the values, to have the right contrast between light and dark:

values, colors, contrast, portrait, greyscale, irene laschi

Then I chose specific colors for each girl, according to values above.
I wanted a nice balance between warm and cool colors:

Palette, colors, illustration, portrait, irene laschi


The drawing and the coloring process
I started with outlines (1), then added flat colors (2), main shades (3), shadows (4), reflected lights (5) and lights (6) - as I always do when working in Photoshop (and not only in Photoshop, see following paragraphs).
I paid attention to having different colors on different layers - like in old chromolitography, each color should stay separate from each other.
Extra details, like piercings, were added in a second time.

irene laschi, wip, work in progress, step, color
Even I follow these steps, they're not that strict: while working on lights for example I could see that some shadows are missing and I'd add them, or maybe sometimes I start from reflected lights rather than from shadows, etc.

Photoshop offers a lot of brushes, but actually I never use more than 5 /10 of them (and I eventually create new ones when needed).
In this specific case I just used the custom pencil brush to add shadows and a soft erase.
I worked as I would have done on paper with colored pencils, like I did in these old sketches of mine:

Sketch, color, toned paper, paper, pencil

Sketch, color, toned paper, paper, pencil

Just few notes about my approach to digital drawing and coloring.
Photoshop, like any other drawing software, is just a media - not something that draw illustrations in your place or solve your problems if you don't know how to solve them.
It helps a lot, and it makes things easier and quicker, but you should know how to do those things.

Steps I made in Photoshop are the same I'd have made with traditional media when drawing portraits:
1 = outlines with pencil
2 = flat colors with airbrush, using transparent or opaque colors (depending on background color)
3 = main shades with airbrush
4, 5, 6 = detailed shadows and lights, added with colored pencils and/or gouache


The final results

portrait, realistic, editorial, magazine, graphic, flat, vintage, poster

portrait, realistic, editorial, magazine, graphic, flat, vintage, poster

portrait, realistic, editorial, magazine, graphic, flat, vintage, poster

portrait, realistic, editorial, magazine, graphic, flat, vintage, poster



If you missed the previous post, about my sources of inspiration, you can find it here:
PART I: THE INSPIRATION

Thanks for your attention, I do hope it was an useful reading!
If you want, leave a comment or a feedback, ask if you have any question or let me know what you would like to read in the next posts!



Comments

  1. AzzurraDecember 30, 2019 at 2:17 AM

    Sono davvero interessanti le palette che hai usato per queste illustrazioni. Avrei una domanda sullo sfondo... Come hai fatto a riprodurre la grana della carta? Grazie in anticipo ❤️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Rebel CaterpillarDecember 30, 2019 at 3:52 PM

      Ciao Azzurra, ho utilizzato delle scansioni di fogli di carta colorata, nello specifico Daler-Rowney Murano e Canson Mi Teintes: hanno una texture piuttosto visibile e simile alla carta da acquerello.
      Mi piaceva il contrasto di questa grana con le tinte piatte usate per volti e capelli!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW TO DRAW A REALISTIC IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP - Part I

Image
Article by Irene Laschi  Last week I talked about digital coloring in Photoshop, this week I'll explain how to draw and color a realistic illustration using Photoshop only. I wrote this tutorial few years ago for the magazine Advanced Photoshop Germany; to draw both the tutorial illustration and the other illustrations of the article I used Photoshop CS3 and a Wacom Bamboo tablet. You can see all the illustrations I made here . For tutorial, I chose a cherry, because I like the way the light reflects on the surface and the simple structure of its leaf, but you could follow this tutorial to draw anything you want. STEP 0: Preparing the canvas Open a new document in Photoshop; insert the right dimensions at 300dpi (if you want to print the illustration in a second moment, otherwise choose the most suitable resolution depending on the final usage). For the cherry I decided to work on a 9x13cm canvas at 300dpi, so that the final illustration of the cherry would be big
Read more

DIGITAL COLORING IN PHOTOSHOP

Image
Article by Irene Laschi How could a chiaroscuro drawing made on paper be colored in Photoshop? I asked myself this question when I started drawing illustrations as a professional illustrator, more than 10 years ago. I was used to draw both colored and black and white drawings with traditional media on paper, but I wanted to learn different solutions, using digital media too. Rather than starting with digital paintings I tested a mixed media: handmade drawing on paper + digital coloring. I drew these illustrations for Citizen K magazine some years ago, and they are a good example of this mixed media. The following tutorial is the method I used in this specific case, and I consider it my standard one.  It's really easy, but of course it's not the only possible one. If you want to try, you just need a good monochromatic drawing, a scanner, Adobe Photoshop (even old versions are ok, I used CS3 for ages and now I'm using CS6) and a graphic tablet (a Wacom Bamb
Read more

HOW TO DRAW A REALISTIC IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP - Part II

Image
Article by Irene Laschi  This week I'll explain how to draw the leaf and finish the Cherry illustration. STEP 7: Adding shadows on the leaf Create a layer, Multiply mode, above the others. Selecting the paths I made for the leaf veins, create a selection (right click: anti-alias on, 0 px feather) and start working on this new layer with a very soft brush (low opacity and flow as always). I created more than one layer (one layer = one color) within a group to find the perfect balance between generic shadows and specific shadows on the leaf, using dark green and a blue-green. Deselecting and adding a layer mask to the group, erase with a soft erase tool the areas that seem too intense. STEP 8: Adding texture To enhance the realistic effect, I used a custom Photoshop effect to create little veins between the main ones. In this specific case I chose the Bevel and Emboss effect, changing its default settings to obtain the wanted result (it had to seem very natural).
Read more