I decided It was time for me to do another practice piece...
I have been tampering a lot with traditional mediums (which I will eventually post up here) and I wanted to freehand paint a photo-realistic pic again in photoshop primarily as a self-discipline study of color on skin in portraits. The main purpose is to attempt to "see" the various colors that exist in a face from all of the different light sources and reflections in the environment around. For the purpose of exercise, the reference photo is set off to the side where I can look at it and try to re-create (from scratch) ---not only the exact mapping and proportions, but also the colors from just straight default photoshop swatches.
(No eye-drop sampler off of the photo! That would defeat the purpose of this disciplinary exercise!)
I am trying to train my eyes to see the ever so subtle colors that appear in a portrait in even the smoothness of a baby's face. Ironically, this is a lot harder than any other photo real portrait I have done digitally so-far, because there is no heavy detail to help set any heavy contrasts... But instead, extremely subtle shifts in not only fine skin detail, but microscopic doses of color.
Once again--- completely freehand drawn in photoshop CS, using a Wacom Tablet. The computer does not aid in way what-so-ever regarding the freehand re-creation such as drawing and selection of color. It is exactly as a paint artist has to choose and mix from tubes of paint, and freehand draw on a real canvas.
This painting is about 97% done. I got bored and stopped short of tightening the background to photo-real completion. I realized that there was a danger of yet another piece of art sitting on my box for several months due to current circumstances that are causing me to fall behind. (see my blog for more explanations to what makes me tick, or lack thereof;
I have posted a high res version of this on my site so if anyone wants to analyze this pic a little closer, it is be available to do so.
