Adding color - help needed

[James Heard]

You probably won't see all that much differnece between the results.

I did find that as far as ease-of-use goes, I was a lot happier doing the highlights and shadows in the flattened image, because I didn't have to keep remembering which layer I was in.

A lot of PS work is like that, having multiple ways to come up with the same image is pretty convenient.

As far as highlights and shadows go, since I work with single colors and palettes the remembering what I'm on bit doesn't bother me much.The topmost layer is almost always the diffuse highlight layer or the black 'inkwork' layer, and a layer or two down is always the shadows which is almost always some sort of adjustment layer. If I was having a really hard time of it because of weird color issues I'd probably copy both of the of the problem layers, make the old ones invisible, merge the two after linking them, and go from there. That way I could still go back if I messed something up, but I'm anal retentive that way. I've painted my current acrylic and oils commission three times already. I'd give slices of my tender parts to be able to just flip through my old layers and such with non-digital work.

 

[Sialia]

I'd give slices of my tender parts to be able to just flip through my old layers and such with non-digital work.

I so hear you on that.

Actually, what I've given to doing lately is getting as far as I can go in a paint and paper piece, and then when it starts to cause trouble, I scan it in and finish it electronically. For example, in the portrait "She Waits" in my gallery, I realized way too late in the game that I had the proportions of the forehead all off. So I gave up on the oil and canvas, scanned it, and fixed the proportions in PhotoShop. The result has the nice texture of oil, but corrections I could not have made in the "real" world without starting over from the begining.

Of course, now I don't have a nice oil painting to hang on the wall. So it doesn't fulfil the original intended function, but it was a learning experience. Hopefully next time I get my hands on oils, I'll know better what I'm doing in the first place.