Process - The Better Man

Here's some process shots of my latest painting - not really a tutorial (which I keep getting asked for but I am really bad at writing those), so maybe this will be helpful/interesting to some people.

I always do my digital paintings and drawings in Adobe Photoshop, with a Wacom tablet. For this piece I used a modified hexagonal brush with opacity/size jitter turned on, and a chisel brush with opacity/tilt jitter. The photo reference (of Michael Fassbender) is here: [link] Total painting time 2-3 hours.

Some random tips and thoughts:
- Try painting on a colored background instead of a white one.
- Always "block out" big shapes and colors first, using big brushes and bold strokes, never work on details before blocking out your piece.
- If you're doing a portrait, choose a good clean reference photo. If you're doing a commission and your client gives you shit references, ask for new ones. Working from shitty, blurry, overexposed reference photos will only hurt your piece, you'll waste time trying to emulate detail that isn't there and you might as well not reference at all.
- Experiment with color; keep in mind complimentary/contrasting colors can be really interesting. For example, I added blue throughout the piece to compliment the blue of the character's eyes and to balance out the intense reds. This of course is a matter of personal taste but I find it's always more interesting to paint what's not there than what is (in terms of color.)
- If you're just looking to practice, drawing characters that you like makes it more fun.

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Finished piece here: