How to Paint a Freedom Fighter in Photoshop

I did this Illustration for the Homefront Contest on Deviant Art. I have not done a full illustration like this in a while so I gave it a go to apply some of the knowledge I've gathered and maybe learn something new in the process.

I started by doing a rough sketch. Working out the perspective and overall composition.

Blocking in some color to find something I like. I went with an overall blue color scheme and added some warm reds and oranges to the character to make him stand out form the cool background

Started to render here, adding in some detail and texture.

Bumped up the blue in the background to create more contrast with the character.

More rendering in the foreground.

I felt like there was something missing and I wanted to add more movement so I decided on adding a tattered flag.

Added some glow effects to the light sources with a color dodge layer.

Added some debris flying around, some explosions in the background and enlarged the spaceship on the left to make it look more threatening. I also added more damage and cracks to the top of the building to avoid the tangent with the top of the page.

And here is the finished illustration. I did some color adjustments and slapped on the logo and then submitted my artwork to the contest and hoped for the best :)

You can check out the contest here: http://nightshadeberry.deviantart.com/art/Homefront-597744746

You can watch the video here:

7 Free resources to improve your art

The art world is a competitive one, we all need to strive to improve every day, but not all of us have the cash to go study at the best art schools or get a mentor.

Below I share with you some of the best Free art teaching tools you can use daily to improve your art.

1. Posemaniacs

This is a great interactive tool if you want to do pose studies, anatomy studies or gesture drawings.
It has a wide variety of different poses in multiple angles and you can rotate each pose 360 degrees.







2. Artists.pixelovely

This is a great place to come and do a gesture drawing class. This website takes free stock images from around the web and creates a type of slideshow. You can choose between standard mode or class mode and also choose between time intervals between images. There are images for figure drawing ( you can choose between male or female and if you want them clothed or nude), faces and expressions, animals as well as hands and feet.





3. Leave me the white

If you want to improve your composition or colour, doing studies from movie screen shots help a great deal. This site has loads of great screen shots from movies and TV series.



4. Unsplash

If you are looking for free high res photographs for doing colour study or just reference images this is the perfect site. It has hundreds of gorgeous photographs of people and scenery.






5. Loomis Books

If you haven't got your hands on the Loomis books yet, What are you waiting for? These books are free to download and chock full of knowledge.








6. PROKO

Probably the most fun you will ever have watching art demonstrations. This guy cracks me up. Watch his figure drawing tutorials on Youtube for an in depth and detailed step by step demonstration of drawing the human body.




7. Onairvideo / Croquis Cafe

Amazing real time HD figure drawing video class. Each session is around 23minutes with multiple poses and time intervals just like a life drawing class. They also have a website with high resolution reference photographs of the poses at Croquis Cafe


Now lets start drawing!

Do you have any more resources to add to the list? Leave it in the comments below and share the love!

How to paint a Chris Rock caricature

 Chris Rock... I laugh just looking at him. I wanted to create a humorous portrait to go with his personality.

So here is the process of how I painted Chris Rock, from sketch to finished illustration in Photoshop.

Hope you enjoy and find this useful when painting your next caricature portrait.

 1. Quick sketch, laying out his features and trying to nail that likeness. I wanted to exaggerate his teeth, I also like the way his nose whips upward.

2. Here I'm doing a quick tonal study under the sketch to get a feel for the shapes. Really trying to push his cheeks as much as possible. Keeping his teeth fairly white to contrast with his skin and create a focal point.

3. I used a 'colour' layer over the tonal sketch to block in the basic colours.

 4. Starting to render. Fleshing out the basic shapes. This is done on a separate layer on top of the other layers. I'm using a textured brush with pen pressure and flow set to 30-50%

 5. I flipped my canvas horizontally and realised a few issues on the features. I fixed the right eye (his left) and exaggerated his nose further by making it shorter and rounder.

6. Adding the background. I usually try to add in the background in the beginning. Originally I wanted to keep the background white, but decided to go with this desaturated blue colour instead. I think it compliments the orange tone in his skin well

7. Adding some more details and finishing touches like the texture in his facial hair.

8. Sign my name and call it done!

Hope you enjoyed this quick step by step process. Watch my video below to see how this portrait evolved from sketch to finished illustration.

Subscribe to my youtube channel for more tutorials on portrait and caricature art.

Simple tips to improve your eye drawings

If you are a portrait artist then you know that the eyes are the most important feature on the face to get right. It is the first place the viewer will look at when seeing your artwork. We are automatically drawn to the eyes first.

So here are a few tips that could help you improve your eye drawing skills and ultimately improve your portrait art.

Sharpen those pencils... and let's begin ;)

I recommend drawing from life and photographs as much as possible. Remember, practise makes perfect!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Subscribe to my Youtube Channel for more drawing demonstrations.

Video Tutorial: How to draw realistic eyes

Caricatures by Nightshadeberry Illustration

I haven't posted in a while so I decided to update my blog. I will be posting more regularly from now on, so follow me if you want to see cool art or want any tips and advice on creating portraits and caricatures of your own.

Here is a collection of some of the caricatures I've painted over the last few years.

Elvis Presley

Ron Burgandy

Jack Elam

Wednesday Addams

Young Leonardo DiCaprio

Maggie Smith

Nosferatu

Thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed this post.

Stay tuned for more information on my painting process, tips, tutorials, inspiration and more.

How to paint Dexter Caricature Part1---Sketching