comitofobe's WIP's

It's the Hue-Saturation-Value adjustment that lets you select which colours (or rather hues) to act on (well it is on mine.) You can also select a custom colour range by dragging some little arrows around.

Edit:
There used to be a tattoo related tutorial by Hoang Nguyen in the depths of the old IFX site but like my recent failed attempt to find a Marta Dahlig tut, it seems like the IFX beta site has gone and been subsumed into that Creative Bloq. Can't find anything there anymore.

I suddenly went from comfortably unemployed to working outside of town this week and the transition stopped me from wanting to paint for a while. But i have been playing around a little with the tips i've been getting and wanted to show the little change i've managed so far.

Colour Balanced, Normal setting, 100% opacity.





Layer set to Multiply, 82% opacity.

The Lucky You phrase looks good and sits well on the skin on that shaded area. The others have the right colour but still look a bit too light. When I use multiply layers they go way darker than that.

Edit: Just been playing around with this and I think that the problem is that the skin is too light and too flat. The back is effectively a few shadows on a light midtone and there isn't enough texture and form to show through the tattoos. If you add another multiply layer and paint a more graduated transition on the skin from the light to the dark, with a bit of texture too, then the tattoos do look more integrated with the figure.

Remember to paint the contours of the skin back on top of the tattoo. You want to keep the impression that they are following the form of her body.

I have done a paintover. Like you, I set the blend mode to multiply, turned the opacity down to around 80%, but then put a layer over the top of that, applied the highlight and shadow (colour picked from the rest of the image) and then painted them over the tattoo. Then I applied a gaussian blur to that layer.

I also used the burn tool under her prodigious bottom. The effect is some subsurface scattering, which I think makes the lighting and form more believable.

Hope that helped!

Valence and Domtopia
I feel you are both on to the same issue about my image.
It really does lack shape-giving shadows and textures for the tattoos to interact with. I must admit to maybe jumping the gun a bit by raising the question about the tattoos before i was completely done with that aspect of the image.
In fact, as you might have noticed, i had not even placed any actual highlights on her body at all.
I also see now that almost none of the tattoos interact with any creese or fold of the skin. Adding to their flat appearance.
You both suggested another multliply layer over the tattoo-layer for rectifying the shadow/highlight aspect and i will definetly try that out.
I also see what you mean about darkening and maybe reddening the underside of her buttocks for effect, Domtopia.
That paintover blew my mind I did not think anybody would care enough to do that.
Thank you to both of you for your continued help and interest.

I have not been painting too much lately. Mostly because i find my dayjob very uninspiring but also due to a short stint in the hospital due to a bad back. But since i'm now on sick-leave, i've put down a little effort and this is the results so far.



Starting to feel sort of satisfied with the body and considering moving on to detailing the face now.

This is looking much better com I've been checking out the progress, what helps me a lot is making a light source and using that as a base for where you should put shadows and highlights, Adding darker and lighter areas that separate the flat base color, can add more realism, same with the hair.

Try playing with the dodge and burn tool, (if you're using photoshop) it's a quick guide to get the lighting down roughly, it can really help you see things, that you might not of noticed before. You have to be careful though, if you use it too much your stuff can look oversaturated or muddy,

It's useful for adding subsurface scattering on the skin too.