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Photorealistic portrait painting step 1 In this tutorial i am going to show you how you can paint a portrait using photoshop. I am going to use a photo and create it into a photorealistic painting. You can use your own sketch but if this is your first try at this i sugest using a photo this will make it easier sinds you dont have to make up all the details and shadows. For this tutorial i am going to use this photo that i made myself.

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step 2 Start with creating the main shapes of your painting and fill in the shapes with the right colour. You can pick the colours by hand or use the eyedropper tool to pick a colour from the original photo. Make each shape a diffrent colour so you can adjust them all seperatly. Make the face and the neck a diffrent layer aswell. Make each shape a diffrent layer. The shirt on top - undernearth that the face - Underneath that the neck - Underneath that the background. TIP: For picking the colours: We're going to do alot of dodging and burning so pick a colour that is inbetween the darkest and the lightest colour. This will make it alot more easier to get your final painting the right colour tones.

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step 3 Now get your burn tool and use a big soft brush to create the shadows of your face and neck. Look closely at your photo to see where the shadows are. If you're not using a photo make sure that: - one side of the face is always darker then the other (depending on where your light source is). - The eyes are exually a whole in your face so the skin around your eyes is always darker. When your done you should see a hint of a face like my picture shows.

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step 4 Now use the Dodge tool to do the same. Now you have to get in some highlights. Again use a big brush, dont get to detailed yet. Look at your photo again to see where the lighter bits are. Use the blur tool to make the darker and lighter parts blend in more if nessesairy.

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step 5 Now we are going to create the main features of the face and we're going to start with the mouth. A: Make a new layer and call it "mouth" (always name layers!!) Create the shape of the mouth and fill it with a colour. Do not make them to red unless that is what your aiming at. The best way to pick a colour for the lips is to select the skin colour and make it a little bit more red/orange. Or you can pick the colour from the photo. TIP: Dont give the mouth shape a sharp outline. Mouths tent to blend in with the skin. TIP: Make the two lips into 2 diffrent layers so you can adjust them seperatly. B: If you have tooth on your picture, (i tent to pick a picture without teeth normally, couse i hate painting teeth!) draw the shape of the teeth and fill them in with a very light grey. (create a new layer for this and name them "teeth") I am using a lighter grey instaid of white because we're going to use dodge and burn on the teeth and with white there is nothing to dodge or burn. C: We are going to dodge and burn to give the lips more folume. The upper lip is darker on the lower side and lighter on the upper side. The lower lip is lighter on the lower side and darker on the upper side. Again look carefully at the shades and highlights on your original. TIP: use a small dodge brush with a low Opacity to create the little wrinkle lines on the lips. Then use the blur tool to blend them in with the rest of the lips. Do the same with the teeth. Make sure there is shadow: - In between the teeth - under the upper lip - on the lower side of the teeth. D: My teeth where to white and to sharp so i used the airbrush on a very low opacity to give them a more yellow (and less fake) colour. After that i used the blur tool to make them less sharp.

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step 6 Next up, My favourite part: The Eyes. A: Create a new layer called "eyes" Start with two white shapes. And fill them with again a very light grey instaid of white. If you are drawing your own photo make sure you dont make the eyes too round. Their almost like rounded diamand shapes. Getting the right size can be tricky but there is a rule for that: Your can fit 4 eyes in the with of a face. inbetween the two eyes there is accectly enough space for one eye. And on both sides of the eyes there is anough space to fit half an eye. B: Create a new layer called "Iris" Draw in the Iris of the eye and fill it with the colour of your choice. Be aware that you never see the full iris, unless your person on the picture is pulling a funny face. Normally you dont see the bottom part and the top part. Becouse my photo is taken from above we do see the bottom part of the iris on my photo. C: Now draw in the pupil (you can add them to the iris layer or create a new layer). Take a look at your photo to see the size couse it faries alot. D: Now we need the iris and pupil to look more realistic. There is always a light source in the eye. This is either the flash of a camera or the light of the sun. If your photo doesnt have it i suggest you make it in the painting anyway because not having the light in the eyes makes the eyes look "dead". The shape depends on the source of light. Use the dodge tool to make the light, on my picture it is 3 dots in the iris. The iris is also always darker on the outside, use the burn tool to create this effect dont worry too much about getting the darker edge equal everywhere couse it never is in real life. Look closely at your picture and look at what else there is to see in the eye. There is normally alot to see in there, if you look really close you can see little vains going from the pupil to the edge of the iris. And sometimes you can even see the photographer in the iris. You deside how much details you want to get in there. I didnt put too much detail in because my eyes are not that big in the final version.

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step 7 A: This step isnt nessesairy, and not all photo's have it. But it does make the eyes look really glossy. Create a new layer call it something like "eye gloss" Make two shapes on the left side of the eye, the shapes are a bit like rounded squares. Fill them with white and set the layers opacity to about 30%. B: Now we're going to make the eye lashes. Again create a new layer and call it eye lashes. For my painting i wanted to exadurate the dark around the eyes so i got a not so small brush and painted the shapes around the eyes a very dark brown. Dont use black couse it will look fake. If you just have eyeliner draw the lines with a small soft brush a dark brown. If you dont have a picture with make-up you can use the burn tool on the skin layer, there is always a darker line around the eyes. C: The lashes: This is the easiest if you have a pen tablet with pen presure. Use a small soft brush and draw the lashes. Again its up to you if on how detailed you want this to look. D: Last step on the eyes. Use the burn tool on the Layer that contains the white of the eye and now burn the left and right side of the eye. The upper and lower part of the eye should have a small darker part wich is the shadow of the eye lids. Eyes always have a little pink on the inside corners. Create a new layer fill in the corner with a little pink and dodge and burn it to make a more 3d look. Sometimes you see a little pink above the eyeliner that is the edge of your eye lid. Create that the same way as you created the pink corners. If thinks stand out too much you can use the blur tool to make it all blend in more.

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step 8 Now we're going to make the nose. This is quite hard becouse you cant draw the nose like you can draw the mouth and eyes. The nose is only a bunch of shadows and highlights. A: The way i did it is i made a selection of the main shape od the nose the tip and the two "wings" draw that with the pen tool and make it into a selection. B: Now you have the selection: - Select the skin layer -Burn the bottom part a little bit, the right half a bit more then the left half. - Dodge with a low opacity a line above the burned line. Dont make it stand out just make it look a little lighter there. - Burn the left "wing", not to strong - Dodge the right "wing" Inverse the selection and now: - Dodge a little line under the nose. - Dodge around the left wing - Burn around the right wing. Play around with the opacity dont make the shadows and highlights to strong it has to look well blend in to look real. Keep pressing "ctrl + Z" untill you got it looking right. C: My model has a tiny hint of freckles. I made them using the burn tool and using diffrent brush sizes and diffrent opacity's.

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step 9 The Ears: Again sellect your skin layer and basicly you dodge and burn the shapes into the ear. Make selections like i did for the nose to make it easier. My photo has an light coming from the back so my ear on the photo is see threw. Here's how i made that look: A: I started with showing the main shapes with burn and dodge, just so i know where everything is going to be. B: In a new layer i painted some orange/yellow colour. And i used burn and dodge to give it more of a shape. C: I then erased the parts of the orange that i didnt need. On the ear lope i wanted a orange glow but not too much so i set the eraser to a low opacity and erased till i got the right look. I merged the two layers and then i used the blur tool to blend it all in, and i used some more dodge and burn to make it look good.

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step 10 This is what we have got so far, its starting to look like a person already.

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step 11 Now lets do some more dodging and burning. Leave the neck as it is, we'll come back to that later. Just concentrate on the face. With the dodge and burn tool on diffrent brush sizes and diffrent opacity's start working on the details. Make it: - Dark around the eyes. - Round on the cheeks by burning around it and highlight it on top. - Two lines always run from the nose to the mouth, dont make them too straight follow the shape of the cheeks. - there's a small line under the middle of the nose. a little dimple. Once again look at your photo. And try again and again untill it looks good. It can be quite hard to find all the right shadows and highlights but practise makes perfect. Sometimes it is the best to just keep on going, a shadow may look weird on a flat face, but if all the other shadows are created it may look right in its place.

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step 12 This is how i made the necklace: First i made all the cicles for the stones. In each stone i made triangler selections and filled them with colour. The top parts are mostly blue couse thats the reflection of the sky. When they where all done i once again used dodge and burn to make them 3d. The smaller stones had the shape in the middle in a blue coloured tone and some colour underneath there the rest all grey. And again i used the burn and dodge to make it 3D. In a layer underneath the stones i made the shapes of the top of the golden beads underneath the stones. In a layer underneath there i made the shape of the sides of the beads. I filled them with a golden colour and i airbrushed a blue over the tops on a very low opacity to reflect the sky again. After that i did alot of dodging and burning. The drawings on the ones with the smaller stones on them i made with burning and dodging with a smaller brush. Then i drew the lace and filled it with a grey colour. After that, you've quessed it already i burned and dodged. For this i also made some selections to make the dodging and burning easier.

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step 13 Now we're going to start on the neck. First we start with the shadows that the shirt makes. Get a big soft brush and paint the shadows in a new layer above the skin. It is important that you get the shapes right otherwise it might look weird.

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step 14 Now we need to make the shadows and highlights on the neck. Use diffrent sizes and opacity brushes and dodge and burn. Look at your photo to get the bone structure right.

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step 15 The Eyebrow. Ok the way i did it was: I made a selection in the shape of the eye brow and i filled it by making loads of lines with a tiny brush. When they where filled enough i used a low opacity eraser and erased the hard edges, and i burned some of the hair.

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step 16 The Shirt: A: Use a big brush and burn the shirt. The breasts are the lightest so burn around them. And under the armpit it is darker aswell. B: Now on to the details: make selections in the shape of the wrinkles in the shirt and burn again. C: To add some final detail i made the stitch work. I made a selection that followed the edge of the shirt and made the selection a couple of millimeters wide. On that selection i burned the opper half and dodged the bottom half. Make it stronger on some parts and less strong on others. After that i deselected and i used to burn tool and draw each stitch, it is a quite anoying job but it looks cool on the final result (i think). If some of the shirt wrinkles stand out to much use the burn tool again.

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step 17 The Background: A: In a new layer on top of the background layer colour in some green. The background is very blurry so dont worry to much about the shape and use a soft brush. B: Now use dodge and burn to create some deapth in the green and make it look as if there is alot of detail. Again the background is blurry so dont worry to much. C: Get the Dodge tool and now with the background layer selected draw the shapes of the stones. Keep the bottom parts of the stones the original colour and make the upper parts lighter. Add some hints of yellow on the tops of the biggest stones.

step 18 The hair. This is not my favourite part! I was very happy that you didnt see too much hair on my photo!. Make a new layer and with a TINY brush draw the hairs. Use diffrent colours to make it more real. When your done dodge and burn ones more. Sinds my photo has a light coming from the background my hair is lightest at the back. Normally it would be darkest at the back. TIP: draw tiny little lines coming from the hair. Hair is hardly ever perfectly trimmed, there's always a couple of tiny hairs standing out.

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step 19 I added an earing just for the fun of it. A: I made a "?" shape and i dodged and burned to make it 3D. B: I copied a stone from the necklace C: Copied the bead aswell and created a shadow on the ear lope.

step 20 There you are, you've got your photorealistic portrait made from scratch. Hope my tutorial was usefull to everyone if you have questions just let me know and ill try and help. Basicly you need to dodge and burne alot. Play around with diffrent brush sizes and opacity's Dont expect to get it right first time, try again and again. Dont expect to be done in half an hour, if you wanna get it right you might spend hours on it.

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Duplicate layers, if you mess up you always have the old layer. Ans safe it as many times as you can! Goodluck!! and have fun :D.