Professional Documents
Culture Documents
86 June 2007
In depth Paint creepy portraits
Photoshop
Mike Mitchell
COUNTRY: US
CLIENTS: Threadless, PAINT CREEPY
PORTRAITS
Skyline Design,
Image Comics
American
artist Mike
Mitchell
recently
graduated
from The American Mike Mitchell shows you how to create a portrait that will
catch anyone's eye – not to mention their imagination
Academy of Art with a
BFA in Illustration and
is now working as a
concept artist for
hile the ability to paint a humour, creepiness, and a bit of design For this workshop, you will only need
W
RavenSoft in Madison
in Wisconsin. realistic portrait is admirable, in an attempt to keep my portraits a few a pencil, some paper, a Wacom tablet,
SirMikeofMitchell.com painting portraits that are steps away from reality. I find it and Photoshop with its default Round
DVD Assets limited only by our intriguing when a portrait enables brush. A basic understanding of the
The files you need imagination is much more fun. It people to decide for themselves what's anatomy and proportions of the human
are on the DVD enables you to fully flex your creativity going on in the image, rather than telling head, as well as some knowledge of light,
FOLDERS: PSDs,
Screenshots
and use a fair bit of artistic licence. them explicitly what they should think and colour, will also help you greatly.
FILES: Final.tif While I don't personally go crazy about it. I always try to keep that in mind I’ve included working PSD files on your
SOFTWARE: Photoshop with my artistic licence, I do like to take while working on a portrait, or any piece free DVD to help you understand my
CS2 (demo)
advantage of it. I do this by combining for that matter. creative process further.
The sketch
1 After gathering some reference I
painted on. If you haven't tried this
before, do it! After I've coloured the
grab a pencil, some paper, and begin. lines, I click Unlock Transparent Pixels
When I do portraits, I prefer to keep again to unlock, and begin cleaning
my sketch simple and loose, with an these lines up a bit. How clean you make
emphasis on proportion. If my sketch your lines is up to you, but I prefer to
isn't working out, no matter how much keep mine somewhat messy, because it
time I've spent on it, I toss it in the trash gives my portrait a sketch-like quality.
and start over again. In my experience,
Block in that colour
the best portraits always flow nicely right
from the beginning. Making sure you 3 Now I'm ready to start colouring
really like your sketch, and seeing that under the lines. I like to block in each
it's evenly proportioned, will save you major item (hair, skin, shirt and so on)
heartache later on.
Scan it!
2 I scan my illustration into
PRO Photoshop, and double check to make
SECRETS sure everything looks good. Then I put
the lines on to their own layer in order to
Lock paint under them. I prefer to use Load
Transparent
Pixels Channel as Selection>Select
Make good use of this Inverse>Copy/Paste, as it seems to get
tool. It enables you to
have controlled chaos
the smoothest lines. Once this is done, I
on the layer you’re will usually colour the lines with a dark
working on, by locking red or brown using Lock Transparent
all parts of the layer that
Pixels. This enables me to only colour
haven't been painted on.
the parts of the layer that are drawn or
June 2007 87
Workshops
88 June 2007
In depth Paint creepy portraits
Glow time
9 For this step, I concentrate on the 13 Adjustments
Adjustments are great for bringing
halo and wings. I love a flat, graphic, and everything in your portrait together.
intensely illuminated element, so I begin However, they are extremely powerful
by brightening them up. I then duplicate eye catching as I intended it to be, so I PRO tools, and if used incorrectly, can
its layer twice, and add a tiny Gaussian start thinking about what I can do to fix SECRETS cheapen your portrait. Normally, I use
blur to one copy, and slightly more of a this problem. only a few adjustments in the last stage.
Gaussian blur to the other. This creates Shortcuts In this case, I boost the brightness/
Memorise shortcuts –
Getting creepy
a nice glowing effect. At this point I'm
feeling satisfied with the state of my 11 As if an indie, battle hardened
knowing the shortcuts
for the tools you use
contrast a little, and use Colour Balance
to really bring it all together. This is
portrait, but as with all illustrations it's angel wasn't a weird enough most is extremely easily my favourite of the adjustment
beneficial. It saves time
good to take a break, and come look at combination, I go on to add a damaged and keeps you focused
tools, and it works well when trying to
it again later with fresh eyes. cyborg element. I also remove the black on your piece. unify your palette. For midtones, I slide
eye and bloody lip, in an attempt to keep it slightly towards red, and in highlights
10 More refinement
After coming back, I realise quite
my portrait from looking too
complicated. It's not really my style to be
I add some green.
June 2007 89