Some of my portraits

Here are some of my digital portraits - all painted using MyPaint and/or GIMP. Feedback welcome. I would like to do 3d portraits, but organic modelling/sculpting is really intimidating to learn.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3904/15194924151_02a2cd97e5_z.jpgSri Aurobindo (2nd Attempt) by harishankar, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3908/14747316418_b885fb3bcd_z.jpgVeteran Actor V.S.Raghavan by harishankar, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5567/14833477971_ed3238f981_z.jpgTamil actor Venniraadai Moorthy by harishankar, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7366/13374628524_87e2e5505d_z.jpgJackie Chan by harishankar, on Flickr

Wow, you are very good! They are really nice. :slight_smile:

Thanks. :slight_smile:

Some recent ones:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7513/15616619210_43365fe7c1_z.jpgMr. Justice Chandru (retd) by harishankar, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7546/16305260166_58a3266c7f_z.jpgVeteran Actor R.Neelakantan a.k.a. Neelu by harishankar, on Flickr

Here is my latest one:
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8657/16184382548_4f815a809f_z.jpgVeteran Actress Revathi by harishankar, on Flickr

I am guessing you are painting these from photos. Here is a suggestion for post number 5 or any of your other portrait. Take the original photo and convert it to black and white using GIMP. Do the same for the portrait that you painted and compare the two I think you will find that values are off and that the areas that you allow the white of your background layer to show through is destroying your value patterns.

when choosing colour it pays to keep you values between 10%-90% and saturation between 0% - 80%. Only with reflections of light do I mess around with values above 90%.

Good work so far keep it up and post more.

Hi tyrant monkey, I think in the source photo, the white portions were blown out. Unfortunately, in a lot of source photos, the lighting tends to be harsh and renders the subject too brightly. I struggle to find photos with good proper, artistic lighting. I tried to keep it as accurate as I could because I am still not 100% comfortable with colour.

Also I have to work with some real low res photos sometimes, as in the above case.

My latest is a tribute to R.K.Laxman, cartoonist and illustrator who recently passed away:
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/16379218422_99b028c4a7.jpgTribute to R.K.Laxman by harishankar, on Flickr

I actually did google around and find the original image you used for post #5 and desaturated it in gimp before writing my post. The hot spot on her forehead is like half a value step from white even the two light bulbs behind her on the original didn’t reach 1 when I color sampled them.

When doing color work from a photo keep the original photo, a desaturated black and white copy. Then in you painting make the top most layer a completely black layer set to “color”. You can turn this black layer on and off when painting so that you have a quick way if checking your values against the desaturated copy.

Value is generally more important in painting than color.

The last portrait is pretty good

Thanks. Could you help me with your previous point about using a completely black layer to check the values? Would love a few examples. Yes, I think I probably ignored a few points in respect of values. Not yet so technically sound with colours yet.

Also is there any strategy to set up a digital “palette” before beginning the colouring? It would be much easier to handle colour that way with a fixed palette.

Not a portrait, but a landscape for a change. This was based on one of my photographs.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/16212157060_d54a806b60.jpgTrain landscape by harishankar, on Flickr


This is how I set things up in GIMP, Krita or Photoshop. The layer I have called “colour mod” is a layer that I have filled with the “bucket tool” with black. That layer’s blending mode is set to ‘color’, as you can see. I usually lock this layer so that I don’t accidentally paint on it.

My background layer is filled with a mid value grey. When blocking in your painting a white background will just throw off all your colour choices. Every thing looks dull compared to white.

The painting group is where my actual painting is done. I do my painting in colour with the “colour mod” layer turned off. Like I said in my previous post when doing a photo referenced painting I always have a colour and grey scale version of my photo.

When I want to check if my values are correct I turn on my “colour mod” layer and compare my painting with the grey scale photo.

I hope that helps.

Colour is pretty complicated go to the “hue value chroma” site to get a small hang on it or try and get James Gunary "color and ligh"t book, I’ve got that book and would highly recommend it. The book is easier then the “hue value chroma” site but the material covered overlaps.

Also google “colour shading series” and you will get an idea of how artist pick various shades of a colour when it is in half light, shadow, full light etc.

Definitely helps. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I am supposing that the black layer with the colour blending mode will render the entire painting layer in greyscale so that I can check the values against the greyscale image.

Here is a caricature:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7354/16228931140_c9932050ff.jpgCaricature of Mamata Banerjee by harishankar, on Flickr

Another one.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7288/15849534494_469a2ffbd5.jpgSelf with grandfather (digital painting) by harishankar, on Flickr

these are getting much better, I like the last one a lot