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Hello everybody, this is Yasmeen from Yarkspiri Fantasy Art .com
This is a really quick preview of what I'll be working on today.
As you can see, I'll be working on a Victorian style portrait painting.
There was a couple of requirements for this drawing but the main one was that it be a Victorian style portrait.
I did want to show more of a modern Victorian style which was part of the transitional period.
I did use photo reference from the time period that suits and when photography was just starting to be introduced to the modern world.
I did approach this drawing with a particular style in mind.
I need to approach this drawing in a different manner than what I normally do.
When I was working on this piece, I started working with color instead of doing everything in grey-scale.
I used a very similar technique to what I normally use while working in grey-scale.
I had a mid light and dark color that I started off with and used these colors to block out the information.
I started off using my default hard brush and transitioned to a more textured brush.
The textured brush is designed in a similar manner to that of my cloud brush.
It does have a lot of similarities even if there are some minute differences which make this brush unique.
I did have the option to start with the soft brush and I've found that it produces roughly the same results.
The main difference with this brush is that I achieve a more textured look.
I do end up removing the majorities of the textures once I realized that it gives this character an aged look.
Since this gentleman is supposed to be younger I had to soften out those details to make him look younger.
I'm really focusing on the face and haven't even begun planning out the body of the character.
There was several reasons why I only started off with the head.
The main reason is that the focus in any portrait is the face and all other aspects are considered secondary.
It's important that I spend a lot of time on just the facial features to ensure they read correctly and have the proper proportions.
If I don't concentrate on these portions of the drawing it simply won't look correct.
I'm really working out the shadows and I'm only using the two basic colors that I started off with.
I'm getting these variations on the colors by simply changing the opacity of the brush as I work.
I'm normally using an opacity of 20 to 30% by using the keyboard shortcuts.
The checkered background that you saw briefly was caused by the liquify tool.
This tool allows me to distort and move different portions of my image in order to fix any problems.
This is a very useful tool but only when used in moderation.
If you use it too much and too often it will begin to muddy up the drawing by causing severe distortions.
I try to avoid using this tool for this reason but I found it necessary to use while working on this portrait because of the level of detail.
I needed to use this a couple of times while working on this drawing to help fix the proportions and structure.
This tool does end up saving me a lot of time because I'm no longer forced to repaint entire areas if I've made a small mistake.
I've just fast forwarded to completion of the basic structure of the face.
I had to do this because I lost a portion of my video footage while recording and I wasn't able to salvage it.
I quickly blocked out the information that I need for the clothing.
I'm still using the exact same colors as when I was working on the face of the character in the drawing.
I have changed to a different brush, I'm using a more textured brush that'll allow me to draw the clothing with a textured look.
It slowly begins to look like material once I've started painting this part of the piece.
This was really important because although it is at the beginning of the industrial age, a lot of clothes were still hand made.
Only a couple of companies would have started making mass produced clothing
I haven't added any of the steampunk aspects to this character drawing as of yet.
This was very important for this illustration.
By waiting until after I had the basic structure correct, I now have more flexibility.
I'm able to turn on an off certain portions of the drawing to see if they work and can remove them at any time.
If I hadn't done it this way, I would of had to painting out those areas instead.
Because I was working for such a long period on this piece, it was something that I wanted to avoid.
I needed to speed up my drawing process and this is the easiest way to do it.
It is generally really easy to add extra layers if you need to in Photoshop so I do use them when I'm on a time crunch.
I just used a specialized brush to add the basic silhouette of the chains.
Although I created the silhouettes with that brush, I still need to go in and add the highlights.
If I don't do this then all that you're able to see is a silhouette and they won't look like a finished product.
It is for this reason that it's so important that I go in afterwards and add the finishing details to the chains in this drawing.
I'm just adding some more details to the character coat.
I'm adding some badges and some groves within the coat material.
All of these elements really help give the character the gritty look that I'm trying to achieve.
It also helps to reinforce the idea that the character fits into the steampunk genre.
I did experiment a bit with the eye wear that he's wearing and I settled on this second design.
I went with this because it follows the human eye more closely and produced a more interesting design.
This design does require some additional elements to help hold it in place.
I believed that it would be an intriguing approach for this drawing
I simply adding some more details and shadows, reinforcing the details of the eye wear.
Because this character is a higher class noble, I wanted to add some additional details to his coat.
I added some basic patterns to the collar so that I could show these details without taking away from the rest of the drawing.
To create the shadows that you're seeing me add right now, I simply modified the shade of my existing color.
It isn't a pure black but it's pretty close to it.
this helps tie in the shadow to the rest of the piece and helps punch up some of the extra details that I wanted to show.
I'm therefore able to give the impression of additional details without having the draw them entirely in.
It simplifies the rest of the painting and I'm speeding less time on portions that will not be seen.
I'm just adding some basic colors right now.
Some basic shadows on the face.
I now adding some highlights to punch up some of the details and edges in the illustration.
I simply chose a bright yellow and increased the tint of the color.
This important step really makes those details pop just enough in a drawing.
In any painting, it's the smaller details which will really help finish off an illustration.
I'm using this to my advantage to help give this piece the amount of detail I'm looking for.
I started this drawing without a mustache but when I was looking at my reference, I noticed that is really helped portray the character.
I decided to add the mustache for this reason.
It also helped reinforce the era that this character is supposed to be from.
This small detail really helped the overall drawing.
Just adding the final highlights.
I'm just adding the final shadows which will help drawing out the textures that I've already painting in.
I'm also adding a backdrop shadow to help show the distance that exists between the character and the wall.
This is the final illustration as you can see. Thank you very much for watching and I hope to see you guys soon.
Thank you and take care.