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Loopydave — Hand step by step
Published: 2009-11-21 00:04:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 50665; Favourites: 808; Downloads: 2315
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Description
Steps on how I painted the hand in this pic [link] , sketched on paper, painted in photoshop.I did tighter pencils for the face, but the pencils for the hand was rather loose as I was rushing to get this done in time and I'm working on being more confident with my painting.
• I start by just blocking in my colours with a standard hard edge brush in photoshop. On a hand like this you get more pinks and reds on the ends of the fingers and more yellowy on the fleshier bits between each joint.
• I start painting up each finger, using the standard soft brush at a lowish opacity to build up smooth tones and the hard edge brush for sharp contrast bits and lines. Skin tones will pick up colouring from the environment - I've added hints of the shirt grey on the side of the thumb/palm and picked up some darker tones where the iphone touches the finger/thumb.
Click on for a closer view and for a better look at the finished hand [link]
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Comments: 179
Hey, it's nice to know I come in 'handy' now and again!
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People will know you've been hanging around me too long when you start punning like that!! 
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Thanks for the tutorial!
You are awesome-amazing for sharing this with us.
Zo!
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i find it really interesting that the sharp highlights are some of the first things you add after basic colors...
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Its funny, but when I'm painting something like a hand, I like to pretty much finish each finger, including highlights etc before moving onto the next one. I probably do lots of things a bit differently to others, but I'm largely self taught and have developed my own bad habits that seem to work for me!
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as i like to say, whatever does the job! my art teachers used to give me endless crap because i would 'finish' a small area first, before i'd worked out the rest of the subject. They wanted me to work the whole image at once.
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nice Dave! so we work very similar. i too like to draw on paper and then colour in Photoshop. except if the painting has a background, then ill draw the character on paper and the background in Photoshop
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Cheers! I still like to pencil my backgrounds as well, though sometimes I like to draw them up separately.
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thats cool. i try as much as possible to maintain some of my traditional skills
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I awesome tutorial!!! The magicians secrets revealed!!!
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Smoke, mirrors and a carefully hidden trapdoor leading off the stage. Long sleeves help too, oh, and a really pretty assistant to distract people.
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Nice! If you are going to sketch so loosely you should try doing it digitally. Though I will never turn my back on my pencil, I find sketching digitally faster and I love all of the tools for resizing rotating and undoing stuff.
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Thanks! I usually sketch tighter than this, but even this loose I prefer pencil and paper - I'm kind of strange in that I don't use a tablet - actually I paint using the mouse. Tried the tablet early on in piece, but the hardware was always too slow and I couldn't stand the lag time. I can sketch with the mouse, but I really prefer not to.
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Thanks! The whole picture took me around 2 days total and the hand would have been just over a half days work.
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Wouahhh really patient and an hard worker too
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WOW! When are you making a DVD video tutorial on your "start-2-finish" process?
I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
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Hey, thanks for checking this piece out - chuffed you came by! Never really gave any thought to a video tutorial and I'm not sure how to go about it if I did, but I do appreciate the compliment!
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Love the stuff you do Dave! Would like to see MORE! And would love to see that DVD tutorial...perhaps you should look into a screen capture program like this one: [link]
Looking forward to your next work!
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Thanks Dave; always fun to see how a wonderful artist works.
I'm curious, do you save the finished, and steps of your illustrations on external hard drives, or disks?
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Cheers. I have a mac mini I use for playing my music, collecting my emails and I back up my jobs to it when I'm working. Attached to it is an external HD which then backs up the files again. And yes, I save both the finished file and my steps.
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Hmmm. A Mac Mini. After getting a Apple e-mail about their new Mac Mini,
I'm thinking that would be a good idea; especially after getting your response.
Thanks Dave.
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It worked out fairly cheap for me, particularly as I already had a spare 20 inch LCD monitor and keyboard lying around. I also plugged an eyeTV USB stick into it and I use it to watch/record TV shows while I work.
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Oh my God, Dave, please stop torturing me, man. This is amazing.
Hey, Dave, let me ask you, did you use photorreference for this hand, or do you use it regularly for your works? I mean, at least for light and shadow orientation?
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Cheers man! This is from a portrait/characature of someone and so is based on a couple of photos I took of her. On a detailed piece like this, I do like to take some photo reference - there's always some level of detail you miss when working from memory, which is perfectly fine for more cartoony stuff, but not, as I said, when you want this level of detail. On other pieces I like to mix it up - sometimes I paint objects in front of me, take photos etc or just make stuff up. As for working out light and shadow orientation, reference is handy, but the more you play around with stuff like that, the better feel you have for it and the less necessary that reference is.
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Thanks man! I asked specifically about it because it's really well-detailed, so I thought you were using a photorref to help at some details that, like you said, we always let escape when working from memory. Just extended the question to know if you do your everyday stuff without ref or if you're human, after all, hehe. But the point you said is really true- it really depends on the kind of work you're doing. It always great to hear this kind of thing, since we seem to forget it sometimes. Thanks for answering, Dave!
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Holy hell it looks like a photograph! Do you have a Cintiq? I can barely do line art in Photoshop and I have an Intuos3
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I do all my linework on a piece of paper with a pencil, and then paint it in photoshop using, yes, a mouse. Theoretically its kind of like painting with a finely controlled potato, but I've used it for so long I've gotten used to painting this way.
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Ever consider getting a tablet? If anyone deserves it its you!
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Amazing work! How long did it take you Sorry if you've already answered a question like this...!
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Thanks man. Took me about 2 days all up for the finished piece.
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So, since you were pressed on time, you pretty much worked each individual finger, and stretched out a few bits towards the end? How long did the hand take compared to how you first started?
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I worked pretty much the same way I would even if I wasn't rushed - only cut corners with a looser sketch and left some brush marks on the finished piece, rather than painting over them. The whole picture took about the equivalent of 2 really solid days of work, but crammed in around other stuff over a longer period of time.
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really nice...just wondering how long did it take 2 fin the entire pic?
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Thanks. I worked on it between some other jobs, but would have totalled around 2 days for the full illustration.
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hmm...2 days. i better stop taking 2 many breaks...hehe. really like yr style of coloring(very airbrushedlook)...just wondering, ever tried coloring closer to realism...c OmenN2501(from deviantart)...maybe for a different challenge than yr usual
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This is superb by crazy friend! Perfect to see your thought and work process - especially how you worked up from such a loose pencil concept.
Gotta love and fave this
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This looks like it will be very helpful. Thanks for sharing your technique.
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If its helpful, that would make it a helping hand
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Don't worry about it, pun or no pun this tutorial will come in HAND-y.
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A nice step-by-step and something cool for Sketch Magazine!
If you're interested, lmk.
Bill
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Thanks, and I'll get back to you on that one! Cheers man.
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