Saturday, June 21, 2008

Illustration Friday: Hoarding Cats and Frizz

I started this painting last week and I thought I would show it for this week’s illustration Friday along with a new tutorial. It is for a new book I am working on (more on that later)

On to the tutorial…

This Heat is Killing My Hair
This week’s tutorial is all about frizz control. When I originally painted this medieval witch she was much more androgynous looking because she lacked any hair. The very talented Karen Lee and Deborah Freedman suggested that I give her a wiry do peaking out from under her cap. Here is what she looked like bald. (right) I think the hair makes her look MUCH prettier.

It just so happens that frizzy hair is painter’s specialty. Here is a close up of the witch’s hair.

How to create your own frizzy mane.

Select the realBristle Brushes – Real Round as a base brush.
Select Window/Show Brush Creator. (The brush creator allows you to adjust all the controls of your brush in one place and gives you a pad to try out your brush as you tinker.)




Frizzy brush settings:

Size: 19.8
Min Size: 28%

Feature: 7.0 – this setting is important because it will change the thickness of your hair. A higher setting will spread the hairs out more and a lower setting will clump the hairs together and give you smoother hair.

Random: Something higher then 1.5. – This will control the amount of frizz. The higher the setting – the more frizz.

Once you have the brush giving you just the right amount of kinky wildness then save it for a later use. You can do this by selecting “Save Variant” where your brush is located. Name it something useful like “horse tail” so you will remember what it looks like.

You can use frizzy brushes for not just hair, but also to give your paintings an erratic, full of energy, texture. For example, I increased both the Feature and the Random setting and painted the night sky with this brush to give some crazy looking fog to the sky. (right) I think this brush has some tension to it. It’s not the kind of brush you would want to use when painting a sweet meadow scene of hopping bunnies, but it works for a graveyard.

You can pretty much make any kind of hair brush you want with a little experimentation. A frizzy brush is great for animals with wiry fur too. I used a frizzy brush to make the stray pieces of hair and thicker parts of the bearded lady's beard (in header image above).

Hope everyone is keeping their frizz in control this summer. Comment or email me if you have questions.

13 comments:

Karen Lee said...

Carlyn - I love her hair! And the texture in the moon is incredible. Thanks for the tutorial.

Karen

Edrian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Edrian said...

I love the mood in this illustration. The witch, the moon, and the hair are great! Wonderful job.
Thanks for sharing the tutorial.

Ursula Shaw said...

Thank you, thank you! Love your tutorial. I tried it as soon as I saw your post. Your illustration is wonderful.

Roberta said...

Incredible!!!
I'm going to try this!

Robert Squier said...

Great illustration! Hoarding cats is creepy. I attended your SCBWI workshop a few years back - it was great, very informative. I look forward to your upcoming book on digital painting - thanks for the tutorials!

Laura Marsh said...

Really fantastic.

Unknown said...

groovy tip -- thanks so much for the info. If only I could wrap my head around painter - oh, a someday project! You are such a painter guru, and painter is so great. I'm a dabbler, but it's so cool to see the tutorials. It's neat to see all that is posible with it through your tutorials and illustrations!

Anonymous said...

She's perfect now! And I love seeing how you get all of these fantastic effects.

Ginger*:) said...

Thanks for always providing such amazing illustrations and all the wonderful tips and words to the wise for Painter .

I will prove how much I like your work... I have given you an award. Just visit my blog to pick it up and pass it on if you wish. *:)

J. E. Morris said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I really love the textures in the moon - perfect.

I see Ginger already nominated you for an award but I did too.

Anonymous said...

I have really thick naturally wavy hair that I straighten and blow dry almost every day. The Shielo Antioxidant Leave in Protectant makes my hair feel really soft if I use it when i'm straightening my hair. This product also helps seal in my straight hair for the rest of the day and makes it manageable.

It also helps tame my frizz and seal the ends of my hair when i'm blow drying my hair to make it look shiny and healthy.

The price is usually around 15-20$ for this product but I got the 3-pack online which makes its so worth it. I've had this product for around a year and a half and am now just staring to run out so it's a good buy for a fair price! i would highly recommend!

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