Adobe Photoshop - Painting

Photoshop is a brilliant piece of software. Anything from editing images, creating posters and drawing deisgns - it will do the job.

Some say that one cannot truly learn something without putting the skill into practise and experimenting individually. It takes up to 10,000 hours to master just one thing, and when it comes to technology it is definetly true! Softwares are forever being upgraded and technology is always advancing.

In essence, Adobe Photoshop is relatively simple to use, but when one has a desired look in mind it is often due to experimentation and practise that the job is done.

In my spare time I have practised with the software and tried out different ideas, and , of course, not all of them have worked. However, one particular work I enjoyed was sketching and painting something from scratch. It is not easy with a mouse, and even less so with a touchpad.

It starts with a basic outline using a pen/pencil with the opacity set to 50 or less. When this is done the skin layer is added, and the different shades are blended together using the blur tool. After this the detail can be added such as the facial features and clothes/accessories. More than often I found myself having to reposition certain aspects such as the eyes.

This was the first attempt:

(Lady Mary Crawley - Downton Abbey)

And this was the second attempt, which, having had a little more practise, is much more detailed compared to the first:

(Black Widow - The Avengers Assemble)

Comments

The Hobbit - Defining the Look

A look into the use of lighting and colour to create emotion. Originally published in 1937, The Hobbit was written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It has since been made into a Trilogy by the film director Peter Jackson consisting of: The Unexpected Journey The Desolation of Smaug The Battle of the Five Armies What is most notable about these films is that they are very different to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Although set in the same universe of Middle Earth, there is a tangible contrast between them. The Hobbit, some might say, is lighter, funnier and more suitable for children when compared with The Lord of the Rings. This being said, J. R. R. Tolkien did write the book for children and it was aimed at young readers around the ages of 9 and 10. One difference, for example, is the use of lighting and colour - which is used as a n extension of a particular character - to provoke an emotional response from the audience. In general, the film is brightly lit,...

Gasman - the Importance of Trust between Characters

Gasman is a short film made in 1998 by Lynne Ramsay about a man who lives two lives. The film is shown mainly through the eyes of his daughter, in an innocent but hard-hitting way. It's the Christmas season. With her mom's help, Lynne, a girl of perhaps eight, dresses up; her younger brother Steven plays with a toy car. The children leave with their dad, who's affectionate with them. They walk down a railroad track where an unkempt woman waits with two children, about the same age as Lynne and Steven. The children go with them. They're all headed to a holiday party at a pub. Lynne notices that the girl acts all too familiar with her dad. What's going on? Plot Summary - IMDB The film has an observant feel to it, like the camera itself is a 'third person' watching the plot unfold - sometimes from a distance and other times up close. The camera is mostly hand-held, free in a documentary style. It seems that the camera was left rollin...

What are UFO's - working with children

How to interview children and young adults Introduction: There is much taboo about working with children in film. As W.C. Fields once said: “Never work with children or animals.” Sometimes they are too lively or energetic for a director to cope with; they may have short attention spans; they are unpredictable. "The audience always looks for the adorable young child or animal - they steal every scene. "many stars will never appear with animals or children in the belief that no adult can compete" has been cited in print since 1931, in a newspaer article indicating that this film tradition carried over from the stage." - Barry Popik (2012), "Never work with children or animals" (Show Business Adage) But something special happens when you place a child in front of the camera, when you let them take centre stage and unleash their imagination. In taking away the pressure and the script, a filmmaker can use that unpredictability to cre...

The Reluctant Blogger

Search This Blog