A Work in Progress: Wild Dreams

This guide was made for entry:
Wild Dreams
In Contest:
sleepy chick

Original image

step 1 of 22

As I said in the description...because of some not so good resolution feather areas I had to select only one piece (the clearest one, in my opinion).
I used only this piece to recreate the hair.

step 2 of 22

This is the image of a lion statue that I used.
I duplicated the layer, desaturated it and changed the blending mode to hard light, in order to get some shadows and highlights as reference.

sources used for this step:

: source

step 3 of 22

I colorized my lion for reference. Changed blending mode to soft light.

sources used for this step:

1: source 1

step 4 of 22

This is how the lion looked like after I colorized it.

sources used for this step:

2: source 2

step 5 of 22

Using the selection I started playing with warping, resizing, flipping and came up with different hair shapes.
As I created more shape I blended them into each other using layers masks.
I really wanted details so you can imagine it did take quite a lot layers to reproduce hair texture as good as possible.
I also sharpened some pieces of hair.

In this step you can see how I started with the face.

sources used for this step:

3: source 3

step 6 of 22

Based on same methods described in step 5, I continued with the mouth.

sources used for this step:

4: source 4

step 7 of 22

I got more thinner hair pieces and warped them more curved for some areas which I intented to only slightly reveal later on.
In this particular step you can see how I started with the left side. (Same methods as described in step 5)

sources used for this step:

5: source 5

step 8 of 22

Top part of the hair.

sources used for this step:

6: source 6

step 9 of 22

Main part of the hair. This part wasn't going to be permanent in the final result as I found some areas too alike....so I decided to add more fur....later on...!

sources used for this step:

7: source 7

step 10 of 22

Added ear, some fur areas to make smoother transitions into the rest of the fur and the beard.

sources used for this step:

8: source 8

step 11 of 22

Added more moustaches and eyebrows.

sources used for this step:

9: source 9

step 12 of 22

Added extra fur on some areas that I wasn't satisfied with and blended them better.
Also selected eyes using the eliptical marquee tool, duplicated layer, changed blending mode to screen, added gaussian blur to get a vibrant look.

sources used for this step:

10: source 10

step 13 of 22

I removed the backround by using a soft black brush on top of the unwanted parts and I shaped the eyebrows better using....of course....my favourite tool: the warp tool.

sources used for this step:

11: source 11

step 14 of 22

Here you can see the rough look of my primary shadows and highlights using a soft brush with different grey tones.

sources used for this step:

12: source 12

step 15 of 22

This is how it looked after I changed the blending mode of the grey layer to overlay.
I also added some very fine red veins on the eyes using a free lightning brush colorized in red.

sources used for this step:

13: source 13

step 16 of 22

Added backround and a gradient adjustment layer to it (from orange to blue). Changed blending mode for the gradient layer to color and lowered opacity for more realistic tones.
I also darkened some areas around the eyes using the burn tool.

sources used for this step:

14: source 14
15: source 15

step 17 of 22

Here I decided to add a smoother effect.
I used a strange combination of filters: sponge and watercolor. Changed blending modes to soft light and lowered opacities slightly.

sources used for this step:

16: source 16
17: source 17

step 18 of 22

Here I added the light coming from the right side using a soft yellow gradient and a free light beams brush. I also added gaussian blur, duplicated layer and changed blending mode to screen usually used to pop up lights.

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step 19 of 22

Added a black vignette and a black to transparent linear gradient from left to right to get darker areas where the light hasn't reached.

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step 20 of 22

Added a gradient layer (from black to yellow) from left to right for more contrast.

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step 21 of 22

Changed blending mode for the gradient layer to soft light and lowered opacity for softer result.

sources used for this step:

step 22 of 22

As I analyzed my image I wasn't happy with the way the fur blended somewhere near the eye and mouth, so I selected again a part that looked better, copied and blended it with the rest of the fur.