helpful information?

i have found through the handful of portraits ive done that to obtain a realistic appearance, you must first always make sure to keep checking your progress with the original. i find it helpful to print a high quality photo copy for reference.

also i tend to concentrate quite a bit of effort in building up details. the most important ones for me is around the eye as thats where most of the life is wrought. the circled areas, although very small, really do help to give dimensionality and realism to the eye.

when coloring the sclera, do not use 100% white. use it with a hint of blue gray, and make sure to use a pinkish white near the inner corner of the eye.

the nose is another area where there are interesting shadows and highlights in juxaposition with each other. make sure to zoom in, or look carefully on the original to discern them. depending on the light, there is a hard contrast at the edge of the nostril.

other areas of highlights to take note are the fleshy part above the eye, above the eyebrows, a small line above the top lip, and on areas of the forehead depending on the lighting.

the hairline/eyebrow is made realistic by using small brush strokes of the skin color (10-35% opacity) in the directions shown on the image.

unless you scrutinize a photograph or two, these small details usually go un-noticed.

theres really no secret to rendering hair. hundreds of brush strokes is all it takes.

hair is done on a separate layer to ensure that, if necessary, the skin or hair layer can be altered later without hassle.

first lay down a base layer with the darkest color of the hair. i like using SarsaHairBrushes.abr these are custom photoshop brushes i picked off the internet, unfortunately i do not know the author.

using the Sarsa brush as an eraser at 10-20%, lightly erase the edges.

then using the a lighter tone at 10-20% with a 3px brush (not eraser) add highlight hairs.

using varying brushes 1-5px with higher opacity 20%-50% of highlight tones continue to add more strands until satisfied.

since the hair is on its own layer, we can adjust it if need be. i find it useful to use the Sharpen filter to make the hair a bit more crispy. before using the filter, i will duplicate the layer because the filter will usually sharpen the hairs too much. once sharpened i will reduce the layer opacity or use the eraser with varying opacity to adjust to sharpness, leaving the layer only where i feel it is necessary.

the more layers, the more brush strokes you use, the more realistic it will appear.

viola...magnum pi micket.