Elf nude PSD

As some of you asked here is the PSD of the Elf nude picture :)

What is particularly interesting in this one is the lighting I think. Since there are light coming both from above and behind the elf, it creates a variety of lighting : direct one with sharp highlights, but also a more subtle one coming from behind and lighting-up slightly the colors on her arms and head for example. Hence the several light layers ( I usually mostly use 2 ^^ )

Of special interest is the overlay layer. This one is a very interesting tool that allow you to paint light but without masking anything below the layer. This means I can have a lineart layer, paint with that layer on top of it and the lineart will still remains visible. Moreover it also remember the values of the colors below it. What that means is let’s say I have an object with several colors. well if I paint with an overlay layer on top of it, it will light that object up but in accordance to each colors. It’s very handy :)

Besides that, note how I divided the picture in 4 parts : Background, Nearby background, Elf, Vegetation foreground. The idea is to be able to quickly changes the values of one element without having to paint on top of it. Some artists manage to do everything on a monolayer but I find that just incredibly hard to do o.o Having those separated elements is really good when you come toward the end of the picture and you want to make some lighting / hue /color adjustments :)

Note also that are very few filters on this one. In general I feel filters are not very useful when you paint ( on opposite of flat coloring ) as the colors you paint are mostly the one you wish to end up with anyway ^^

Well that's it. I hope it helps ! and as always don't hesitate to ask ifyou have some questions ;)