Opening note: A fairly similar process can be followed in Painter, which I also use frequently. Why not here? I’ve developed the habit of switching back and forth between Painter and PS for every other project. My last one happened to be in Painter, so this is in PS. Yes, I’m crazy in many spots. . .

theSTOCK
One: Found a thing and vectored the lineart in PS

Two: Lay down some flats! I also threw in some brush lines to remind me where my light was coming from/hitting. I chose my flat colours randomly, which you probably shouldn’t do. I also threw down my main bg colour.

Three: I start giving said thing some shape with blotchalism. Big brush, normal opacity blah blah blah. I use straight colours for my modeling, not the Burn and Dodge tool. I really suggest you avoid these unless you know how and when to use them, just because it can end up making your work look kind of bleh.

Something to note: You really should try and paint this as a whole (i.e. shadows together, highlights together, better flats, etc). It’s a little easier to keep everything cohesive. Unfortunately, I suck, and like to do it this way.

Four: I decided to drop my base for the face in exchange for the bg colour. Experimental purposes.

Continuing smoothing out the work in the face. All done with a brush, no smudge tool. I happen to have a tablet, so it automatically deals with varying opacities via the pen pressure, but you can get the same effect with a mouse, it just takes a little more work and precision. And some more stopping to play with the opacity and flow of your current brush.

I moved onto the lips, which presented minor tech issues (#5) that will thusly be ignored from this point on.

The Teeth: I cheated and vectored out the shape of the teeth, ’cause I can.

Five: The face is finished! Now, onto the hair!

To start, I sketched up some hair following my white blob guidlines, as well as choose my basic hair colour, with some extra for later. I’ll also be adding the eyebrows. I’m going to go through the same basic steps as I did with the face: laying down the flats, working out the shadows and highlights, and then fine tuning the modeling.

On clean-up: To clean up the excess “paint” outside the lineart, I slapped on a mask, pulled out a hard brush, and brushed it away. Erasing is discouraged ’cause it’s not as forgiving. Once I was happy with it, I just applied the mask.

Six: Clothes. Folds and I don’t agree much, so you’re just getting an after pic for it. And possibly magical non-foldmaking clothes. I also touched up some random areas, and redrew his necklace. After that, I moved onto the eyes, and finished the rest of him off.

Some final eye additions, and I’m DONE!