Highlights/details
Now, I went over the painting to find areas that needed the brightest highlights, and the final small details. This is the only time you should use your full-on white for highlights. Or, better yet, use a very light version of the compliment of the color you are highlighting, for maximum impact. For this color scheme, I used a very light purple/blue, which really stands out against the yellow/orange.
This is the time to clean up any stray lines or unwanted brush marks, too.
Light and dark touch ups, some final “punch”
Almost complete! At this stage of the process, I usually break for a little while, and come back to the picture. After a bit of a break, I can look for any areas that will pump up the contrast – darker shadows, lighter lights. Use the Dodge and Burn tools LIGHTLY to bring out contrasts. Taking a break first is important, though; after working at the picture for a while, you might not notice things that you would after taking your eyes off of it for a while.
I look for shapes that can be defined better by having the areas next to them become darker or lighter. A dark shape looks best against light, a light will look brighter surrounded by dark. Keep this in mind when you’re looking for maximum impact in an area.
Notice how now the background near the face is darker, while the background behind the head is lighter. Also, the background against sword is lighter while the midsection of the victim is a bit darker. You’ll note subtle changes like that throughout, when compared to the previous version.
Finished!
Now I make a copy of the finished picture. I only sign this final copy, but that’s just an idiosyncrasy of mine. You should save the layered work-file in case the client needs you to make changes later. Flatten this copy, and delete any extra things like alpha-channels and Paths. This is just a courtesy to the client, to make the file smaller.
Use Image>mode to CMYK color. If you were careful about staying in a CMYK-friendly range, it should look almost exactly the same. Be sure to change to CMYK only AFTER you’ve flattened – you may get very different results otherwise! If you worked larger than the final delivery size, you might want to shrink it now. You may want to leave it larger – some clients don’t mind if you send in a larger file, but check first!
Congratulations – it’s now a finished piece! Here is the final version (shrunk down a bit for Web display):
The entire project took about 5 hours from beginning to end, including the idea/planning stage. I’m sure some of you work faster, some slower. For me, this is a process that gets proven results in a predictable amount of time, with minimal surprises. The trick though, is to try to find a process that works for YOU, and stick with it whenever you can. The less surprises the better, and the more you’ll be to meet deadlines, get consistent quality results, and get more work in the future!
Article written by Patrick McEvoy
