Post by nax on Sept 23, 2013 22:42:14 GMT -5
I love contrast. I decided immediately that I was going to do a high-contrast, deep shadow portrait, and while I was confident I could get the proportions right so that it would actually resemble Joe, I needed that one element that really sets it off, the one feature you can't help noticing when you look at him - his blue eyes. My one concession to an accent color would be his blue eyes.
I started with the pencil tool, working it until the proportions were right. I left that as the bottom layer, built a new layer on top of that and started painting in highlights in red, and halfway through I knew the way to give that deep shadow effect is to reverse the highlights and shadows on the right hand side. Once I knew that the highlights were conforming to the pencil sketch on Layer One, I filled that layer with nothing but black and left it as the background while I touched up the highlights and shadows with a combination of the basic brush tool and eraser tool.
The finishing touch was the bright blue eyes, but I needed to give them depth. At first I was going to put a bright spot of reflected light, but I quickly realized that that wasn't going to work for a deep shadow image, so I went with the opposite - splashed a spot of black where the reflection would otherwise go.
Joe doesn't talk much. Although that baby face is hard to be mad at, there is a deep, cold gamer's heart in there, and I have no doubt he'd cut your throat as soon as look at you. This is to show that off, the deep black and blood red, but the inviting blue of his eyes, which is how he captures his prey.
