This week's digital scribble - Elf Girl

 This week's digital scribble. Three days in Photoshop! The person I used as a reference is TarynTragedyy. She can be found on facebook and Deviant Art. This was done all in Photoshop. Thanks for looking!

How I scribble in Photoshop

 Find a good image to reference off the internet to give you an idea of the pose, shape and lighting. This will be my go to image for the pose and to see how the shadows fall on the face.

 This is what I call the turd stage. I call it that because it always looks like a turd when I start scribbling. All I am trying to accomplish here is working out the basic structure of the head. I try to place the eyes nose and mouth with a rough hairline. I know it looks bad but this is a start. The basic structure of a face is the most important part of making my scribble look right.

 Next I add a layer and rough out a quick sketch of the head and face. It looks bad sure but now I'm getting an idea of where everything goes. In this stage I scribble away. It does not have to be that neat

 Here is the quick scratch scribble layer by itself. I need this layer to figure out where my final lines will be. Sketch, scribble, erase, do what needs to be done to get the basic face and features in place. This is why I call what I do scribbling. Whether I'm painting in Photoshop or drawing with a pencil, I'm scribbling away to start my drawing.

 Now using the scratch scribble layer as my guide I can work out the final lines in the next layer.

Here are the final lines. These have to look nice and clean. I will spend hours just getting these where I want them. My hands are shaky and as you have seen on the last two layers I make a messy line with the mouse. I can get nice straight lines in Photoshop using the (Hold Shift/ Left Click method with the brush tool). I call this polishing the turd. It was OK for the last couple of layers to look turd like but, these lines need to be as clean as I can get them. These lines are the main guide for the final piece.
 

 Now it is time for basic colors. I always do everything in different layers in case I screw up something I can go back and fix it with ease. I usually end up with over 30 layers on an individual scribble.

 Another color layer for the hair.

 Layers for the basic eyes and lips color.

 Now I can start adding layers to shadow and highlight the eyes giving them depth.

 Here I'm using the smudge tool, dodge and burn tools to create depth in the lips and better brow shapes. I'm also using the smudge tool to get a better look at the bottom of the hair.

 Here I'm hiding my guide lines and trying to add shading to the nose face and mouth by adding black and white layers and changing there opacity till they look right. I will still turn the guide lines on and off as I need them. For the most part I want to be able to hide them when the final version is done.

 I'm adding more black layers with low opacity to add more shading. It gives the face more depth

I've added lashes by cheating and using a brush. Brushes can add great effects so I use them when I need them.

 More shading, Highlights and tweaking. Trying to get the depth in the face right.

 More shading, Highlights and tweaking. Trying to get the depth in the face right.

 Some tweaks to the eyes. I added some shadows around the eyes for more of a 3d look. I also added a layer that creates a spectacular lighting effect that really makes the eyes pop.

 Now lets add some layers to the hair giving it more color and flow.

 Another color layer is added to the hair to create a flow effect I can use later.

 Now I merge all the hair layers and go to town with the smudge tool.

 Still messing with the hair! I hate doing the hair.

 Adding some depth to the hair with the burn tool. I'm still adding little tweaks to the face as I go to give the face more depth. I also used skin and freckle brushes to add effects to the skin.

 Now I'm adding a new layer to her to give her a basic shirt color. I'm still tweaking the eyes too. Making the lids and lashes darker.

 I'm tweaking the shirt layer with the dodge and burn tools. I get great effects when I use different brushes for this. I like using brush 17 to add these effects to the hair and clothing.

 Added a color to the background.

 Added more shadows and highlights for depth. Again I'm using the burn and dodge tools to create shadow and highlights. I also used some hair brushes I have to tweak the hair a bit.

 I added some more layers to the background so, it is not as boring. I added some more shadows and highlights. I think this is just about done for now. See, you can polish a turd!

This is my finished work next to the reference image. I know it is not exactly the same but, it is not supposed to be. It was the guide for my scribble.


Thanks for checking this out!
  -Mark 

-edit-

This is the finished piece. I spent a couple more hours touching it up. I darkened the eyes and shadows, darkened around the iris, added some white to the lips to create more depth, gave her a couple small beauty marks, and I found some cool hair strand brushes to fix up the hair. I could tweak this for days but, I'm calling this done before I get carried away.