Introduction

Well this is the making of my painting “Weird Friendship” and actually I wasn’t planning on doing this “making of” so this isn’t going to be so detailed. But I still hope that you can learn and get some inspiration about this project. I used Photoshop CS5 and a WACOM Classic A6 the original size of the painting is 4581 * 7000 px - 300 dpi

Sketches & References

Well most of my paintings are realistic; I mix my imagination and reality such as this painting. The idea of this one came from “Bremer Stadtmusikanten” and I translated to my idea, so I started by looking for inspiration and references to help me develop my concept. Here is the concept and sketch of the composition.

Step 1 - First of all I set the background at 50% grey, create a new layer above the background and its gona be the layer of sketching. After that I brought the opacity down to 50% and created another layer and start sketching again using a small pressure-sensitive paintbrush for that, then when I finished, I merged the two layers together, this is how I work and I add new layers and merge theme as I go, because u can control your work in easy way. The form and the background I keep them in separate layers.


Step 2 - Now I am going to add another layer and this one will be for the light and shadows. I don’t start with colors because I want to feel the value of my painting first, then I can add colors. For the colors I add another layer but this time it’s going to be under my sketch, the reason why it’s because without losing my sketch lines, well this is how I work but you can also add a layer above your sketch but you have to set up the layer to multiply mode, and also the background must be in white because if you worked the background with other colors you won’t be able to see the colors in their real Frequency. Anyways now I have to start working with colors but first I need to create a color palette for every character that I have (the kid, Dog, Cat and the mouse).

To create this palette, I make a new layer that will remain on top of all my layers from this point on this layer will be used as my “palette layer” and for the brush I start with is a round one, hardness set at 100% and spacing 10%. Now I start my coloring with basic colors while I’m looking at my reference and then choosing colors according to the values, at this point I’m not going to get into details or even zooming in I’m just trying to show the values and working with the lighting and shading just with basic colors.

Now I have my basic colors done and I got the lighting and shading too, now I’m zooming in a little bit and make my brush smaller, it’s a good method of work, you start with a big brush size and as you go in your painting you zoom in, while you make your brush smaller. My next move is I created a new layer. This layer was placed above the line drawing, I hold down the layer of my sketch line to 50%, I have now started in my new layer refining detail in areas and I’m going to begin with the baby, so I continue my painting, mixing the colors while I’m looking into my reference to make sure I’m not losing the values. I’m still using the same brush and I continue this technique of painting until I feel the piece is finished.

Moving on to detail the dog then the cat and then the mouse, each one on a separate layer, that way it’s going to be easy, and You should always merge layers together when you finished your work on every layer, that way you can save a huge amount of capacity. However, for me in order to have some kind of backup, I saved jpegs for this piece every couple steps, and I think it’s a good idea. Anyways for the animals the brush will be different, I am using hair brush but I am making some changes because I am going to use it for fur, now comes the hard job, I had to pay special attention to my reference and I continue to develop the different shapes, also It is important to often step back from the painting, even if you still got the well to paint, because when you get back to your painting sometime later you might see something going on in your painting maybe something to change, erase or add . After spending a long time on detailing, zoom in and out and as I go and saw my painting come to life. For the animals, I do change my brush from the round one to the fur brush, after finishing the model i’ll start the background, The background is important to work it early on in the painting and It should complement the model, because it will affect the colors and values in your model ... but in this painting I already have the background in my mind how it’s going to look like, i’ll just have to make sure the values are Consistent of the model and the backgound.

lmost done now! and as I said before, when I go in my painting I merge the layers together, now I have my model and the backgound in separated layers .. Then I created one last layer and it’s going to be for Consistency between the model and the background “lights and shadows”.

Well, that’s it... Sorry for making this tutorial too quick because I didn’t plan to make it in the first place and also the project was too big, a lot of details and work, the total time spent on this project was about two weeks and I hope you guys have learned something from my style and got some inspiration.

Keep the hard work and never give up ... “No Room for Imagination”

Making of Weird Friendship by Shady "Brahim Azizi" Almost done now! and as I said before, when I go in my painting I merge the layers together, now I have my model and the backgound in separated layers .. Then I created one last layer and it’s going to be for Consistency between the model and the background “lights and shadows”. Well, that’s it... Sorry for making this tutorial too quick because I didn’t plan to make it in the first place and also the project was too big, a lot of details and work, the total time spent on this project was about two weeks and I hope you guys have learned something from my style and got some inspiration. Keep the hard work and never give up ... “No Room for Imagination”