A Work in Progress: Realm of the Mermaid



This guide was made for entry:
Realm of the Mermaid
In Contest:
rings


Original image


step 1 of 39

Preliminary sketch in PS

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 1

step 2 of 39

Preliminary face sketch in PS

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 2

step 3 of 39

Cutting out pieces of sketch and fitting them to my sketch. Used: Rotate, transform etc

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 3

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Used hue/saturation image adjust to get the color scheme I wanted.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 4

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I painted in the base for the skin tones using a default spatter PS brush. Then I took my sketch layer and inverted the color under image/adjust to make it show up on my tone.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 5

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used a gradient for the background (my opacity layer for the source layer was turned down here, just so I could see the background better)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 6

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Painting in tones for face,

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 7

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Used circle selections to make pupils/irises, and then painted inside them. A little more tone painting.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 8

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Painting and blending (smudge) for face

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 9

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painting in nose contours.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 10

step 11 of 39

Turned off mermaid layer group to focus on source. Turned source group back to 100% and added more source to create the right most peak on a layer behind. I used tranform tools to get The right shape as in the first source steps.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 11

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I used a selection of the source and placed it on top of the gradient layer. I transformed it to make the flow/shape of the water.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 12

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I blurred the source to death, tweaked it a bunch w/ liquify and smudge and changed the layer setting and opacity. Then I painted more on top of that.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 13

step 14 of 39

frankly, I am not sure what I did in this step, but I'm sure it was something. I'm uploading it only to keep my order, and not screw up which step I am on. SORRY!

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 14

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Hair sketch, using default spatter brush, I use this brush a lot.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 15

step 16 of 39

More face painting.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 16

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more painting for the face, painting in rough tones for the hair as well.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 17

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More face/hair. In the last few steps I was always switching back and forth to the source layers, to tweak them (make the holes etc)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 18

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I started to paint in shadows, and highlights, (also in the iris)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 19

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More painting of tones, rough in of "makeup"

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 20

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More painting, I also painted in some light rays, which I was going to tweak later, but I ended up taking out all together.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 21

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I redid the bottom lip here. Also in many of the steps, I am going to source image, and burning/shading etc.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 22

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Lip detailing

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 23

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Some really rough painting in of tones and colors (that will be toned down later)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 24

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highlighting, which will be tones down as well

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 25

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adding in secondary color tones. Brought in source selection to make coral.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 26

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More color tones and liquify on source to make coral. I a color layer over that for more colors after changing color of main source.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 27

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doing the same thing for the smaller other colored corals (only small)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 28

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I added more source in here around the right upper side of the opening, I was adding bits all along to fit how I wanted it to look. Here is a close up of painting on the inside of opening curve, to create a stone looking inner. some of this was done w/ brush, and some w/ smudge, going back and forth.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 29

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painted with brush es to make beginning of bubbles, and water woosh.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 30

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painted in some water plants and more details.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 31

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painting to refine her face.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 32

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roughly painting in more hair.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 33

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eyelashes and other random painting/smudging etc

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 34

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more of the same. (detailing)

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 35

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adding color to the new hair part.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 36

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more hair stuff, you may not be able to see it at the size of the sbs. My image is even bigger than the hi-res, but I shrank the final down, so it would be sure to fit on the screen.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 37

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more painting, I painted a lot of bubbles and the duplicated some and copied and pasted to make a bit more.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 38

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I took everything and condensed to one layer and then did final blending. and then painting on a layer on top of that to finish of hair. highlights etc.

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Step 39

Final result

Creation of Realm of the Mermaid: Final Result

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Comments

avatar pearlie
pearlie says:

the only thing missing is how you made that large piece of orangey coral...this is fabulous - the chop and the sbs!

(5 years and 3362 days ago)
author [banned] says:

Pearlie: sorry! The coral... I took the orange jewelry and then liquefied it beyond recognition . I then just kept messing with it, w/ smudge and I also put a color layer over it to get the different colors. It's SORT of shows it in steps 26-28, if that helps at all.

(5 years and 3362 days ago)