This is awfully nice of you to do
I have always been curious about how artists to what they do;
Hopefully this will give me an idea and I can take some of it and try it out for myself

THANK YOU! :D

Thank you very much for this!

Thank you so much!

NOW I CAN STEAL ALL YOUR SECRETS. I mean..Thank you so much for your kindness... ;D

ohm, i was thinking about asking you abat just that the whole day today D: thank you thank you thank you ❤

That is so awesome! Thank you so much :)

You are truly among the best!

Wow, thank you for this Eski! It actually helps a lot to see how other artists do things.

Thanks so much for posting this up. I really like looking at the layer information and seeing how other artists put the image together. And thanks for trusting the community enough to post up a PSD (something it would be nice if more artists did, even at reduced resolution).

very interesting, thanks for sharing!

I am wondering if you could detail a little more in the future how you do the "paint" layer, since I am very interesting in figuring out how you redefine edges and colos and add detail and suck the way you do!

Well, working on the paint layer is just color-picking colors (using the eyedropper tool) from the combination of the layers below (what I'd say is the roughed in painting), and using various brushes to refine things. Painting is sort of a "back and forth till you get it right" process. Use various brushes and brush settings until you get what you want, experiment a lot, etc. I find it useful to use brushes at 100% opacity most of the time, with opacity set to pen pressure. It's easiest to control without getting into pattern where you glaze low opacity colors on forever and ever and ever and ever...

I'm not too sure how much that helps, it's mostly something you have to play with yourself to find what works for you!

Got it, I'll definitely have to give it a try!

The most fascinating fact I already noticed while your streams is, that your lines and the coloration is pretty "rough" somehow and still in the end it looks very clear. It's witchcraft!

Aw thank you! =D One of he things that CAN help is using the "smart sharpen" filter at the end when everything is flat! I forget to use it most of the time, but it does occasionally work well to crisp things up a bit. It looks great one fur textures, but not so great on other textures. >_>

Definitely interesting, I will keep that in mind. I will soon change from SAI to Photoshop because of severeal reasons and will have a closer look at all the options there.

Thank you very much! this helped me a lot to understand how to work with shadows and lights!

So cool. Will DL when I get home.

Even though I use gimp. This could be very useful in the future!

Wow this is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this with us all to learn from :)

Awesome. Maybe I will learn something. :)

Thank you for this! Fur (and feather, and scale) detail is one of those things that I eternally struggle with over-doing, so it's super interesting and helpful to be granted a peek into your working process.

No many artists does things like this, thanks so much, it will be really interesting to take a look and hopefully learn about!

thank you so much :)

This is really cool, and turning off and turning on all the layers is a lot of fun!!! I hope I can actually watch you stream sometime and watch you make a painting come to life!

HAHA, AT LAST, I CAN SNOOP YOUR PSD FILES! (cue some kind of awful, spooky laughing in the backdrop-- or a belch, whatever's scary)

But seriously, thanks a ton as always for sharing your rad, wonderful process with us, Eski! I always adore seeing how others artists use the badass wizardry that is Photoshop, and I'll be forever baffled at how damn clean your workflow is. Also, your shadows will never stop being breathtaking.

Those belches CAN be truly scary, they make Loaf jump haha! XD

And you're welcome, I hope it is useful!

Its awesome of you to do this for everyone! Quick question that you might be able to answer.. I've had to use sai exclusively for my artwork anymore as Photoshop refuses to work with windows 8. Do you have any idea how to get Photoshop to work in win 8? The strobing effect makes using PS impossible.

I have no clue I'm sorry! I don't know anything about the technical side of things, just how to use Photoshop as an artist. But anything techie I'm pretty useless at. ^^; Good luck!

lol thanks anyway.. I can still apply what I can learn to Sai ^^

It's strange though. I'm on Win8.1 and Photoshop still works perfectly over here. o_o

Mine works in windows 8. I have CS6 and I use a Huion and a wacom Intuos 3 tablet interchangeably.

Thank you!

I hope we won't see copy artists now. I think the point of this is to learn, and then adapt, and realize one's own techniques, yes?

People are free to emulate my process all the like! How an artist does things (layer settings, layer order, different Photoshop tricks) are not something to protect and prevent others from using I don't think. Tracing or referencing from an artists work is another matter, but the how-to of things? Not so much! They are something to share to help others make good art, and to help them learn! I want people to take the process I've provided and use it to make their own art better, perhaps build on it. =)

Hehe =D What?

No just kidding, I'm taking that as a yes.

No, I mean I am totally ok with people using the exact way I do layers, and not modifying it, if it works for them this way! Want to use a multiply layers the way I do? Go for it. Want to lay in complex patterns like the insignias in this piece the way I do? Go for it. If we didn't pass on our artistic process for other artists to learn, there would be very little artistic development in the world! I won't get on anyone case for "copying" how I do things in Photoshop, it's just one method out of so many for using Photoshop. Hope that makes sense! =)

Heh no no by copy artists I meant people who end up making identical art. I don't think that's very cool, personally... One ought to take these opportunities and go their own ways with it.

Its pretty similar to what I do :) I treat my drawing layer like charcoal in that I lay down the shadows there. Sometimes I'll do a multiply layer to help. Then I incorporate a texture in an overlay or color burn layer mode for extra real-media feel. :D

So this is really the size you work at? if so, it's way smaller than i thought you did. o_O at least for a simple painting like this.

Nope, this is 1/2 work size!

okay, that's what i thought! xD

Wahaha! i'm figuring out some of your tricks with some of the filters and will for sure try to remember to use them sometime. >8D thanks for this!

Thank you! I'll have to take a look at this.

Not any kind of traditional artist, nor will I likely be, but I wanted to thank you for offering this image up specifically. I really liked the pose, the style, and the way the character was seated. (downloaded and saved to an image slideshow program on my computer) To get a glimpse behind the process behind the creation, is an extra treat. Thank you again.

-Kalt

I remember back at RMFC that I asked you on how you do your work so wonderfully. Now I'm learning! :D lol. I'm gonna keep this to help me learn the shading, paint style, texture work, and lighting. Cause those are the hard parts for me when I do anything digital wise. Thanks Nymph!

Thank you SO MUCH!

I have been desperately trying to make sense of digital coloring techniques *HUG*

Neat, thanks for making this available, I love to see how others work!

I love seeing these, thanks a ton for uploading it :D

Tuts and eamplework are always appreciated. <3

so cool! thanks for this... more techniques to learn!!

This will be put to good use...

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! This helps so much for my layer organization problems.

Unfortunately my CS2 had to check with me at least three times on disabling future-Photoshop features within the painting that it didn't understand, lol.

That was very informative, thank you very much.

You are truly ONE of the Millions !

Your generosity greatly outmatch Your skill, thank You for sharing, from the bottom of My heart

This really makes me want to do more art. Thank you!

many thanks for sharing this with us love most insightful to see and its so well organized to boot. Thank you ever so kindly for sharing!

You're awesome.
This helps me alot.
Thank you so much.

I would like you to see what this file helped me to produce today: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd......46605224_o.png

It's not exactly your level but it's a massive improvement on my own quality and I have you to thank for it. I hope to use your techniques more in the future. I have been wanting to move into more painterly work for a long while now and I believe you've given me the avenue to do so.

This is so sweet, thank you so much for doing this!!

This is kind of a weird question, and I am sorry if this impolite or inconsiderate to ask, but may we... play with it? I would never upload the file or the image ANYWHERE in ANY version or percentage, but I would feel guilty playing with the artwork if I didn't ask. I was thinking about copying over the sketch layer to a new document and trying to emulate how you went about your process in order to better understand it. Would that be, wrong/weird/make-you-uncomfortable/inconsiderate? I could understand if you had this creeping sensation of someone, somewhere, 'messing up' your art, even if you had the originals.

I feel kind of vulnerable asking this question, so I hope you take into consideration why I'm asking and realize I'm asking in the most polite and respectful way possible. C:

/has horrible anxiety

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for sharing! I like how you added the "red" layer and it changed everything o_o
Is this a method used to simpy re-adjust the colours?
I need more colour theory practice. it boggles the mind 9__9

It kinda serves two purposes! The first is to get that reddish tint to the edge of every shadow, just before the shadow core itself. When light hits the very edge of something, just before it drops into shadow and light no longer passes over a surface, red light becomes the most visible. So it's a nice little trick to get a little more believability and depth!

The other reason is that is tends to warm up and deepend the shadows, and I tend to put my shadows in light and cool as a medium to start with. The red multiply layer kind of enrichens those colors already there.

that is very interesting, thanks!
I bet this is in gurney's book that I didn't completely get through yet! XD

This is lovely thank you so much
I love to see how other artists work and to deconstruct and build them back up