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Kent Young
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Punch
Member
Registered: June 2004
Posts: 46
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I believe this project has taught me more about Photoshop and the airbrush than any I have done to date. I originally came to this forum from the airbrush forum on Wetpaint.com. My life as an artist [amateur] has been mostly black & white... pen & ink etc. Until recently I have been timorous with color.
I started this project like I would have for a straight airbrush project. First I made my masks. This was a learning experience and you can see where I missed a few lines where I outlined the figure and filled in the mask. The fill tool would leave a slight line at the formerly shaded areas and in some of the places I failed to notice and correct them. I’m still experimenting on how to remedy this. [Suggestions?] Also to avoid lines between masks such as between skin and blouse it is necessary to make a mask of the entire figure and cut masks from that and not fiddle with it after or there might be some surprises. The basic masks were- figure, skin, blouse, hair, eyes and mouth. Many smaller masks were used to shape some areas such as the nose.
After the masks were made I started with the skin layer building up slowly with a low opacity airbrush [I have an Intuos2 tablet and love it]. The curves and shadows were built up from light to dark sampling the color from the original. small quick masks were used for the nose and shadow under the chin. The mouth and eyes were done on separate layers.
On the hair layer I underpainted the basic colors. Then with a “hairy stick” [airbrusher’s term for traditional brush] set at 2 px I started laying in strands from the farthest away to the nearest building up texture and volume. This was a technique I learned at wetpaint and was a lot of fun.
The blouse was mostly freehand with a few quick masks thrown in. An airbrusher would use a small portable mask similar to a french curve. The small piercings on the blouse I put on a separate layer and did a little embossing which simulated another airbrush template technique.
I cheated on the background as this is not brushed. I did tone it down a bit with a purple layer at about 30% opacity.
One thing about digital airbrush that should be stressed is the use of highlighting. With airbrush pigments it is difficult to get good highlights as each white reacts with the base colors mostly adding a blue tint. Careful planning is a must in order to leave the highlights [paper color] and work from there. With the digital airbrush this was not a problem. Unless the medium is very difficult to remove many airbrushers erase or scrape out highlights. Another color airbrushers use sparingly if at all is black as the image can become muddy quickly.
I feel pretty good about the outcome of this image but notice all sorts of things I will do differently on the next one. I quite enjoy using the digital airbrush and decided on the Intuos2 because one of the options that can be added is an airbrush stylus. At this time I am wondering why it would be needed with the versatility that can be achieved with the regular stylus and brush settings. Any advice you can give... let me know. I want to lean.
...Kent
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| · Date: 8/27/2004 · Views: 7573 · Filesize: 43.7kb, 198.1kb · Dimensions: 800 x 1067 ·
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Additional Info
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Keywords: airbrush, #22, masks
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Author
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PixiePirate
Junior Member
Registered: March 2004
Location: Philadelphia suburbs
Posts: 22
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I absolutly LOVE this! I love your color choices, the detail in the hair, the subtle highlights on her face, everything! Your pen and ink background really shows in the amount of detail you put into the hair. That woud be probably impossible with a real airbrush, but that's OK-I don't think it detracts from the reast of the image at all. Besides, you hit the airbrush look right on with her face! Good work! A+++
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Keep Creating!
-Mindy
"To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage. "Georgia O'Keeffe
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Punch
Member
Registered: June 2004
Posts: 46
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Thank you for your comment PixiePirate... It truly encourages me.
Doing the hair would not be impossible with an airbrush, just incredibly tedious. That is why most airbrushers will pick up a "hairy stick". There are expensive airbrushes used in illustration, Paasche for one that can do incredibly fine lines. The main problem with this would be all the color changes required in the hair as only one color can be used at a time. Most airbrush pros have a dozen or more airbrushes just for this reason. Most airbrushers do not consider using any tool which will accomplish the task at hand as cheating, it's just mixed media.
BTW... There are quite a few airbrushers who paint only with transparent CMY inks with a very little use of black and white. They build up their colors by combining the primary colors on the medium.
Glad you liked it  ... Kent
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Punkydoodlebug
Junior Member
Registered: May 2005
Posts: 4
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Angie B
Junior Member
Registered: October 2004
Location: NC
Posts: 13
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Gorgeous! You really have an eye for painting.
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solitear
Senior Member
Registered: February 2004
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 264
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This is great !!!!! I, too, love the hair and you've put her with the "must have" sunset........ you've done a wonderful job!
Beth
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