Painting a Portrait in Photoshop, Step by Step
This tutorial walks through a full portrait painting in Adobe Photoshop using only the default brushes and a graphics tablet. The emphasis is on process rather than tools: sketch, base colours, decide the light, then build depth, detail, shadows and highlights on separate layers so every stage can be corrected. The video opens with a sponsor message for the Huion HS64 pen tablet.
What you will use
- Default Photoshop brushes with pen pressure on (a flat hard brush and a soft brush)
- Layers and groups, clipping masks (Alt-click between layers)
- Blending modes: Overlay, Screen, Soft Light, Multiply, Darken
- Lasso and Transform for corrections, Smart Objects, Gaussian Blur
- Adjustment layers: Curves, Vibrance, Levels
Step 1: Sketch
On a layer named Sketch, draw with a default brush in dark grey. Get the basic head shape first, then features. The sketch does not need to be clean. If the proportions are off (here the neck and shoulders were too small), cut that part to a new layer with the Lasso and fix it with Transform.
Step 2: Base colours
On a Base layer, pick the mid-tone of the skin and paint inside the sketch with the flat brush at 80 to 90 percent opacity. Give the background a blue-grey. Put the T-shirt in its own group and fill it with a near-white with a slight blue tint.
Step 3: Decide the light
Before any detail, choose where the light comes from. Here it is front-left. Mark for yourself which areas get highlights and which fall into shadow, including the shadows the face casts on the shoulders and the nose and ears cast on the face. Everything after this follows that decision.
Step 4: Depth layer
Add a layer clipped to the base (Alt-click between them) named Depth. With a lighter skin tone on Overlay, paint the highlight areas, then paint the darker areas with a darker tone. For reflected light use a very light colour on Screen. Blend transitions by Alt-clicking to sample colours and painting between them. Use light lines to place the eyes, nose and mouth from the sketch.
Step 5: Eyes, mouth and features
On a new clipped layer, draw the eyebrows with a dark grey on Multiply. Fill the eyes with a light grey using a solid brush at 100 percent, then shade inside according to the light. Paint the iris as a low-opacity dark blue circle built up in passes, erase the overflow, and add highlights and a reflection with a soft brush at 80 to 90 percent. When the iris came out too large, it was cut to its own layer and scaled down, and the eyelid was repainted over it. Lips start with the highlight shapes, then a purple fill, then shadows and highlights. Merge the detail layers when done.
Step 6: Shadows and highlights layers
Create a Shadows layer for the environment shadows: under the chin, the neck, the far side of the face and the ears. Then a Highlights layer with a soft brush on Soft Light (or Screen) at 12 to 20 percent, pen pressure on, to lift the lit areas and make the features pop. Go back and forth between the two until the face reads well. Adjust the nose angle the same way as the eyes if needed.
Step 7: Hair and colour variation
Paint the hair on its own layer with a dark brush, darker towards the back, and a few strands over the forehead in a slightly different colour. Group everything and add a clipped layer above it. With a soft brush on Overlay, paint dark purple into the shadows, blue into the mid-tones, and yellow and red into the highlights. Add the shiniest spots with a light colour on Screen. Paint the T-shirt shadows the same way, quickly.
Step 8: Finishing
Convert the character to a Smart Object so it can still be edited. Make the background lighter on the lit side and darker on the other. Add a light layer above (yellow at 20 percent, blurred, on Overlay), a blurred copy of the character underneath, a darkening layer on Darken for the shadow side, and a blurred purple shape on Multiply as the drop shadow. Finish with Curves, Vibrance and Levels adjustment layers.
Conclusion
The painting is built from decisions rather than tricks: choose the light, keep shadows and highlights on separate layers, and correct mistakes by cutting and transforming instead of repainting. The same method works for any subject once the base and the light direction are set.
The Huion HS64 tablet mentioned at the start of the video was the sponsor of this episode.
