exploring color in vector: Portrait

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Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait

Now we're going to work on the base colors of the portrait When I work

on portraits, there are two different parts of the person- the underlying

color, and the refining The underlying color is where your creativity

comes in the, refining is where your drawing skills come in

Ifyou haven’ read Part I & Part II, I strongly suggest donwloading and

reading those first, as this carries on where that tutorial left off

Celeb Series VI, Gail Southworth, 2011

Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait

Step #1

We turn on our sketch on, and lock all layers but the one we're working

on (should be the only blank layer you have left.)

TIP: Try to have the photo your working from close by, either next to

you on the screen or have a printoff taped up close to the monitor We

will not be going exactly from the photo, but especially for later on it’s

important to have the reference for shadow and highlights

First | apply what I learned about the human face through practice- there

are certain areas of the human face that are more red The ‘T’ zone (nose,

chin and forehead) plus the cheeks and mouth I'll first put a transparent

layer of red in those areas (#F22534, at 50%)

Step #2

Next I start looking at the photo and see what colors I can find I want to

exaggerate the colors that are already there, The first thing I see is an

orange Looking at my palette, I don’t see an orange This doesn’t mean I

can't use one, it just means I want to mimic the vibrancy instead of the

color I ended up picking one of the reds from my palette (F22534) and

moved the color picker to orange to get my new color (EF8626) I start

applying these in the areas that are orange in the photo, being liberal

with my application

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Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait

Step #3

Took at what I have, and decide the orange is too overpowering over

the red, but just right in the other areas An easy solution is to bring the

red parts forward so the red overlaps the orange instead of vice versa

NOTE: You'll notice I put orange over the eyes- the eyes are rarely

white, or even just a black to white gradient, they reflect color Because

of this, I puta lot of color in the eyes and just lighten them with addi-

tional layers later

Step #4

Next look at my photo and see a blue-purple under the eyes Purple is

too close to the red I already have in my piece, so I choose a blue for

under the eyes

Now that I've added the blue under the eyes, Ihave to add it in different

areas- otherwise the eyes become too much of a focal point Because the

blue is in contrast with the red and orange, I decide to make it my

preliminary ‘shadow’ color and add it to places that are in shadow

Itake a look at it, and decide there are a few places where the blues are

that I want darker Rather than picking a darker color, I select those

shapes and set them to ‘Multiply’ in the Transparency toolbox, then

bring down the transparency 50 it’s not so close to black

Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait

Step #5

I turn off my sketch layer to take a look at what I have so far- the face is

starting to peek through From here I want to fill in space, so I pick some

‘medium’ hues and fill in the extra spaces ( used AFEA24 from my color

palette)

Step #6

Next I want to work on some highlights- but instead of using white, I

decide to use a lighter version of the green from my palette (BEF158)

Step #7

Now that I got the base for my highlights, I want to hop back on the

shadows This time I'll be using a darker of the blue from my palette

(075F5F.)

From here is just refining the base color- I won't introduce any more

colors at this point, and am just making my shapes smaller and smaller

as I do more detail

After a bit more work, I’'m ready to do my refining layer where I'll start

pushing my highlights and shadows

Step #8

The first thing I do is pick a light beige to do a couple shapes of the

overall highlights- this mutes the color just a little bit, not so much that

we lose our underlying color but enough to take the edge off of it Ihave

my transparency as about 25%, but feel free to experiment until you're

satisfied with how it looks

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Exploring Color in Vector: Part III, Portrait

_ Step #9

After I'm done with the overall highlights, it’s time to get nit picky I

zoom in to the eyes first so I can focus on the highlights and shadows

there,

Step #10

From here on out is what my professors in college liked to call ‘pushing

and pulling,’ Work on adding shadows for a bit, then adding high-

lights Then shadows, then highlights again, so on and so forth

The trick is to balance the light you add with an equal amount of

shadow

Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait |

_ Step #11

I start refining the ‘key’ areas, the eyes, nose and mouth I zoom into my

photo to see more details and start adding colors to represent shadows

and highlights, using my light beige (not at 100%) for the highlights

Step #12

Tadd my final highlights with the beige at approximately 75% opacity,

and voila! I’m done with the face

And that concludes the tutorial The next few pages will just be the steps

involved with the hair, as it's based on the same principles I've dis-

cussed here,

Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait

Exploring Color in Vector: Part II, Portrait