Hello Welcome to my first official process blog post. In this post I will briefly walk through how I created Sweet Opulence.
We have to start somewhere, the hardest part - finding that Inspiration: I often go hunting for images that strike my fancy so to speak,
For this piece I wanted something striking, and I wanted it to be super detailed. This piece chose it's own colors, Red and Gold there was just no other way.
In the image above I have dessert set ups from Made For Desserts, Fashion from Ellie Saab and Dolce&Gabbana (I do not recall which seasons) and this non-credited clip of a painting. This is a small sampling of my reference images. I usually make one for every painting now, it keeps me on track with my goals for the piece.
A note on References while we are here - use them. You have to learn the rules to break them.
Moving on to the set up :
I begin with a loose digital sketch for this piece, I focus on where I want general placement working loosely. It was hard for me to work like this until recently, and it has helped my process so much. Once I have something down to build on I begin with the under painting. A tedious, yet important process. I used a neutral gray for this - I find it easier to modify if needed. For brushes I used a round shader with hard and soft edges, as well as a hard round tapered brush for the smaller portions. I do not have an image here but I started with blocks of value and eventually got more and more detailed as I went.
Time for my favorite part! Color! - The image above is a prime example of why I do an under painting. All that value control and non of the coloring stress. It's worth the tediousness. Certainly for a piece like this. The Under painting also lets me play with color, opacity and intensity on different layers to achieve a variety of effects.
I do not have an expert handle on what I like to use the most. I find clicking things and experimenting makes for the best results, there are so many ways to achieve similar effects in Photoshop.
Lets, talk layers shall we? This baby was just under 100 layers - but that included deleted and unused portions, pretty sure this is an average count. I can not stress enough how thankful I am that I force myself to use groups and type out what my main layers are. I did not paint on the wrong layer a single time in this one.
To give an idea of the break down - there is the background and the foreground. each have sub groups that have their own groups. For example the lollipop trees are 4 layers each. Try to keep track of that without labels. I can't.
After some minor adjusting and the addition of a few details I have to know when to call it done. Sure there is more I can do and add - but I can also make several other pieces incorporating all of those ideas.
This was one of the more fun pieces I have done in awhile. I was pretty happy with the progression all the way through. She looks great in print.
I have more from this land of candied jewels and opulent themes coming soon. Thanks for tuning in. Your time and support are greatly appreciated. <3
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