Photorealistic portrait painting - part 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.