Workshops

94 November 2006

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 In depth Painting expressive portraits

Painter
PAINTING EXPRESSIVE
PIRATE PORTRAITS
Steve James shows you that you don’t need to render every pixel in order
to create an interesting and expressive portrait
ne night after completing a the same solutions for every character, without it and painted whatever came

Steve James
O painting my wife stood over
my shoulder looking at the
screen. Her lips tightened and
usually one of a few angles and
predictable lighting.
Too many times I think we’re led to
out of my head.
I started to observe people more and
what made each one of us look different.
COUNTRY: US I could tell she wasn’t that satisfied with paint the ideal – the most perfect man It’s amazing to see how similar we are,
CLIENTS: SCEA, GlyphX
Games, Vivendi, Saffire
the result. “All of your girls look the or the most beautiful woman that we yet subtle changes in features can give
LLC, Universal Games, same,” she said and then she proceeded can possibly imagine. I set myself some characters individuality and personality.
Majesco Entertainment to list off every bad attribute of my ‘from personal goals to try to get more life and My goal for this workshop is to create a
memory’ characters. I scanned through character into my portraits, which pirate character you wouldn’t typically
Steve James
has been my previous images and yes, she was included returning to the use of photo see in your summer blockbuster film.
working in the right – over the past few years my colour reference. I was instructed in school on I wanted a portrait that might lead the
video game
g
and rendering had improved but I’d the importance of good reference but viewer to wonder about emotions, or
industry since
1999 as a texture and fallen into a character rut. I’d been using over the years thought I could do even to tell a story all by itself.
concept artist. He
received a BFA from
Brigham Young
University where he
Ideas and reference Block in major forms gradient to help block out the major
studied traditional
painting techniques. He 1 After I get an initial subject, I start 2 I start by creating a quick sketch values. I don’t, however, get the colour
works primarily on the
computer and is enjoying
my research. I try to find more about the based on the photo reference. I get from the photo reference because photo
his journey to become a topic both in images and text. If time enough information to establish where colour tends to be dull. The colour I use
better painter. allows it’s nice to read a little history major landmarks are, including the at this stage doesn’t have to be perfect,
www.fridayeve.com
about your subject. I try to find many shadow core, and create a skin tone because I’m just trying to establish values.
DVD Assets images on the web that may spark ideas
The files you need on costumes and personality. To get a
are on the DVD realistic and unique portrait you need
FOLDERS: Painter files,
good photo reference. Digital cameras
full screenshots
SOFTWARE: enable the freedom to try many different
Painter IX.5 (Demo) lighting conditions and poses, and one
thing I’ve found particularly effective is to
use a camera’s Burst mode. This takes a
series of photos one after another and
gives you a better chance of getting an
expression that looks natural. Set up
good lighting and, for best results, avoid
using the flash. Have your model go
through a series of expressions and
continually take pictures, filling up that
memory card. I would suggest avoiding
toothy smiles – they tend to look
unnatural when painted and get the
model to wear similar clothing to your
character in the illustration; it doesn’t
need to be exact but it will help to
establish lighting and wrinkle patterns.

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 Workshops
Tint and blend
3 At this point, I create an overlay to
put the colour variation in the face. The
forehead is usually yellower, the nose and
eyes redder, and the chin is bluer on men.
I set this layer to Overlay and drop the
opacity low enough to where the
character no longer looks like a clown.
The Oil Palette Knife works well to
blend the colours together. I try not to
over- blend, to avoid losing the structure
of the face. I use the fat stroke Airbrush to
tint the cheeks and nose. Be careful not to
overdo it or your character will end up
looking drunk.
Refine darks
4 After blending, I like to paint the
darker areas next, to help re-establish the
form. I darken the eyes, nostrils, corners
of the nose and mouth. I don’t add detail
at this point; just refine the major forms.
The method I use from this stage onwards
is layer based. I place a few stokes of paint
on a layer and adjust the opacity until it
looks right. When I like what I see, I drop
that layer to the canvas. Once the layer
has been dropped I blend it slightly to
match the surrounding colours. I don’t
like to use a huge set of layers because I
prefer to interact with just the canvas; I’ve
found this to be a good way to control
colour and value.
96 November 2006
UNI10.tut_pirate 96
scene and decide how much reflection the
eye needs – not every painting needs a
bright highlight on the eye. For this
painting the sun is overhead and the light
reflected in the eye would not be very
strong. I add more darks to define the
corners of the nose and the shadow areas
under it. Then, darken the corners of the
mouth and add a little red to the lips to
set them apart from the rest of the skin
tone. I also darken the beard area to help
give him a rough look.
Block in the hair
5 and background
To get a good idea how the values are
going to work in the painting I block in
the basic shape of the hair and the
background. Again no details, just the
major shapes with a couple of colours and
brush values. I blend the background with the
Resize the
trl+Alt (Mac & PC) Oil Palette Knife and Palette Knife. The
C e brush. I Palette Knife is good for larger areas and
resize th
Use this to
constantly creates some hard edges while the Oil
find myself
ng th e size of the
chan gi
d on the
Palette gives a softer, more blended look.
brus h ba se
effect I wan
t.
Add light values Block in clothing
6 I go back to the face and bring out 8 Roughly sketch out the major
the lighter values on the forehead, cheeks shapes in the clothing. Start with darker
and nose. values and build up to lighter values. To
make the vest a dusty navy colour, I just
Refine features did a quick colour overlay and tinted it
7 At this point, refine the forms of blue. I don’t get carried away with the
the facial features. I define the dark areas values; just a couple will do.
where the eyelashes go and darken the iris
and pupil. I use a neutral grey overlay to Add lights to hair
cool the colour of the eyes. The white part 9 I like to keep hair simple and don’t
of the eye is usually a cooler version of the render each strand. The most important
flesh tone. Be careful not to make it too thing to remember is that hair has volume
white or bright. Analyse the light in your just like the face. Establish the major dark
PRO
SECRETS
Brush law
Painter IX has so many
different brushes and
features you can feel like
that it’s imperative to
use all of them. Spend
some time just playing
with the tools and find
ones you like. For a
consistent look, pick the
ones that live in similar
families. I like to think
about my brushes in
three ways: to put colour
down, to mix the colour
and to add texture. You
don’t need many brushes
to get good results.
13/9/06 08:46:20
 In depth Painting expressive portraits

areas and build up the light tones. I like to scratches on the character’s face, the
give hair texture with the Palette Knife. If earring, seams on the shirt, the hair and
you hold the stylus like a real palette knife surface details on the belt. When I was
and push in the direction of the hair it happy with the character I added the
creates a nice hair texture. Hair will tend rigging in the background. I didn’t want
to become more saturated next to the to paint it in earlier because the linework
highlighted area. could be too easily disturbed while

Texture 11 Background
I wanted a few subtle clouds behind
creating the character.
10 Use the Variable Splatter Airbrush Drop a laye
to create the texture of the skin. I like to
Ctrl+E (Mac r
This is the & PC)
the character, but didn’t want too much
detail because they would distract from 13 Photoshop
It’s time to take a step back from
sh ortcut key
start with an overlay of red splatter at a drop a laye
r in Photos
to the main feature. I just put the colour the painting and look at it. Having
Set the sam hop.
very low opacity over the whole face to e hotkey up down with the Cover brush and blended spent so long in the thick of painting, you
Painter, as in
give the skin a blotchy look. Yellow there’s no it with the Oil Palette knife. can sometimes make occasional colour
default shor
and oranges can be added for more tcut. and value misjudgments. I like to take the
variation. Break up the highlight areas
with white Splatter layer and break up 12 Detail
To finish things off I add some
completed painting into Photoshop or
other image editing software, and check
the core edge with a dark colour layer. detail, selectively choosing where to add the levels and the colour. Overuse of
This effect can easily become it. Detail will catch the viewer’s eye and levels can add too much black and blow
overwhelming, so a few light passes
PRO you don’t want to take their focus to out the light areas in a painting, but a
over the Splatter layers with the eraser
SECRETS something that’s not very important. Not slight adjustment to the values can bring
will keep them under control. It’s better Customise everything needs to be fully rendered out a more pleasing level of contrast. I
Make Painter your own.
to do less of this effect but it works Why are you keeping all
either; sometimes just a slight texture will also found this painting to have a little
really well, giving depth to the skin. The of those pattern pens, give the appearance that something is too much yellow in the skin tones, so I
same technique can be used for stains nozzles and gradients detailed. Some of the areas that I added desaturated the image slightly for a more
that come installed with
on the clothing. Just cluster the spray Painter? I don’t think I’ve
details to at this stage included the natural look.
into clumps like a stain and use the ever had a need for
eraser to soften the edges. I keep the them. Just delete them
(make a backup if you
stains in the brown and yellow colour
want). Start from afresh
range but adding other colours helps to and generate your own
add variation. Use either the multiply or nozzles, patterns and
gradients with things
overlay composite methods to create
that you’ll use.
different effects.

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