For my first digital painting done with using the reference below. This portrait of
a woman in done in grayscale. This post will explain and show the process of how I digitally painted the piece from start to finish.
First I opened the reference up in Adobe photoshop and created and named the reference on its own layer. I turned down the opacity of this layer so I would be able to do a line art sketch. The line art sketch is done on its own layer. The line art is done to have a general sketch of what you are painting.
Second, I took a a large size brush to paint in the some ground on its own layer. I choose a charcoal brush to achieve this textured effect in lightly laying in some on the darker and lighter areas.
Next, I created a values layer to to paint in all the darker values in the portrait. I had the opacity for the brush down low and would adjust it depending on how dark I wanted a certain area to appear.
Then I created the highlights layer to and painted in the textural details of her sweater, hair, hat, and face. Again I adjusted the the opacity of the brush many times. I had to switch between painting in the darks and lights to achieve the look I wanted. Lastly, I removed some of the line art. Removing the outlines that were showing through it allowed the highlights and shadows to shape her face. An example of this would be her lips.
