First painting

[Nerddage]

I started my first PS painting last night,this took me about an hour. Its a pic of a sasquatch i drew last year, i didnt want to paint my complicated pics until i get better. I need some help with blending colors for a smooth transition... other than smudging, ive smudged the hell out of it already. I also need help with painting on the details, like the face, claws and such. Diagrams and pics would be appreciated, but methods are a necesity!

[AwesomeSaurus]

Very well done for your first piece, you have a great sense of lighting already! All i can see that you need to work on are details and higher contrast. Try adding some darker shadows on the places where the light is furthest away; under the chin, armpits, left side of the arms etc. Great job, just put some more time into it! Make sure you use a separate layer for shadows and highlights, that way you can alter them without demolishing your original color scheme, you can always flatten the image and then re-smudge it how you wish!

[Eredar]

yeah.. what he said!
goob job matey!

[Nerddage]

can you give me methods of doing the details and makig it look like fur?

[the-dunce]

At 3/25/07 09:19 PM, Nerddage wrote: can you give me methods of doing the details and makig it look like fur?

Draw it all and add fur...?

[Nerddage]

duh, but is there a technique to make it look like hair without having to draw all of them

[Orchidaceae]

At 3/25/07 11:47 PM, Nerddage wrote: duh, but is there a technique to make it look like hair without having to draw all of them

You can try to mess around with the smudge tool on the edges and other areas with relative contrast.
Painting hair in does look better, and you don't have to draw each hair. Just a few here and there, and you'll get the general idea of fuzzyness.