Digital Painting in Photoshop: Create a Stylized Portrait

If you want to stretch your creativity and paint a portrait that’s stylized, rather than realistic, then this class was made for you.

Over the years, I’ve spent countless hours teaching myself to paint portraits digitally. I’ve made some horrifically ugly pieces and others which were my absolute pride and joy. In this class, my goal is to take those years of experience and set you up with the closest thing I’ve come to calling a ‘portrait painting formula.’

You’ll be using a digital medium, like Photoshop, to create your artwork. You’ll walk away having learned to:

• Source good reference imagery
• Sketch a foundation for your painting
• Create a value-scale for reference
• Block in big shapes and paint smaller details
• Exaggerate features
• Make finishing touches to your artwork

For your class project, you’ll work on your own black and white stylized portrait using the formula covered in class.

This class is recommended for intermediate artists. Although beginners are more than welcome, it’s important that you at least have some working knowledge of the software you’ll be using to paint, as I won’t spend too much time explaining tools in detail.

• Introduction
• Finding Reference
• Setting Up Your Workspace
• Create a Valuescale
• What is Stylization?
• Sketching a Foundation
• Blocking In
• Painting Shadows
• Painting Highlights
• Exaggeration and Clean-Up
• Finishing Touches
• Conclusion