Adding skin marks

[kannetth]

Hi there here's my strange request for you.
I would like to add marks on the skin (I hope it's the right word). More exactly I have a photo of the shouldrs of a man, and I need to add marks as it was scratched by a passionate woman.

When I thought of this I figured it much easier. I can get close with a normal brush on different layers with different blending modes, but I want it to be very ralistic since these scratches will form some words (so if the effect isn't good the whole image will look cheap).

I'm thinking about custom brushes, but I rally can't figure out what kind of brush should I create or download.
Also: could layer styles help? I admit to know almost nothing about this matter, but maybe they'll make my marks look more 3D-ish..

The image is kind of NSFW (well, not much if you're not shocked by furry butts ), so no attachment. If you need it, though, I can upload it on dropbox and post a link with a NSFW warning.

Thank you in advance!

[Repairman]

Re: Adding skin marks

Go to Google Images and search 'back scratches'. Loads of pix for reference which you can drag to your desktop if necessary. A photographic solution will work better than a painted scar/scratch.

[kannetth]

Re: Adding skin marks

Thank you for the suggestion.
I'm not sure if you're telling me to take the scratches from an online picture and blend it in my photo. If so, I don't know how good it will look, since I'm starting with a very hi-res image (plus with a fairly hard light).

If you're suggesting me to take those as references to paint the scratches I already did it, but my problem is how to actually achieve the right effect.

At the moment I'm thinking about two options: either a custom brush with skin texture or I could try to take a picture of my back with similar lighting and some makeup on it, then blend it to my actual image.

[Repairman]

Re: Adding skin marks

I will do anything to avoid a paint approach when retouching details that are 'easy' to simulate in real life. I am sure many people would take an internet image as a start point! I think you can even buy scar/scratch transfers from a joke shop that will get you started. Make one good scratch and then use that as a start point for the others.

[kannetth]

Re: Adding skin marks

Makes sense.
Anyway, during the weekend I've tried to paint the scratches for learning purpose, and I think I did pretty good.

If anyone is interested I used a normal brush modified by some shape dynamics to make the borders, opacity and thickness slightly random. Then I've used bevel&emboss to add a subtle 3D look and a skin-like texture. With a soft round brush with a flow of 5% I've painted on a mask to fade some parts of the scratches.
I have then selected the layer content, contracted the selection by several pixels and filled with a slightly more saturated red.
Adjusted the opacity of each layer, corrected the overall hue/sat to look right, and finally added a little blood drop on one scratch.

There's still some work to do, but I'm quite satisfied.
Here's a link to a crop of the image (low-res, sorry).
Please note that it is slightly NSFW.

LINK

[Repairman]

Re: Adding skin marks

Ah, I didn't realise the scratches were going to cover such a large area. Looking good so far; you're getting the message across which is the main thing. Perhaps adding a bit of depth to some of the outer edges (more like weals) would help 'sit' the marks on the skin.

[kannetth]

Re: Adding skin marks

Yep, I should try tweaking the layer styles a little bit also to add more texture.
I'm also thinking about D/B.
Also, after a night of sleep, I see I have to bend that blood drop a little because it's going too straight down.

Some other "random" scratches near the hands and maybe some minor ones (just skin redness) should complete the image.

Thankyou for all your support, Repairman.
If you'd like, I'll link the final result once it's complete.