In this tutorial we are going to color a dragon portrait. Like I always say, it’s impossible to make a good painting without a good sketch, that’s why if your drawing is not as strong as you’d like, you should go ahead and buy a sketchbook before taking up photoshop or tablet or any other stuff like that.

Here, I create the background with my flame brush, the drawing is in the multiply layer. First I form a dark background and then lighten the parts around the portrait with the same brush, this will help us see the figure clearer in the future.

Using my texture brushes, I apply texture to the background I created, though I am careful not to apply at the same intensity around the figure. The best way is to open a new layer and go crazy with the texture apply it as much as you want) then erase the parts that are too much.

I start filling inside the figure very roughly, first I apply base colors and give the lightening effects with lighter volumes of those colors.

After painting the figure completely, I apply texture on it and erase the parts I don’t like by using the borders of the figure’s layers which I select by clicking Load Selection.

I apply dodge on the picture of which the texturing stage is over with after merging the layers. Dodge is tool that should be used wisely, I advice you to work it by making light touches.

Now we can use highlights, first I paint the big parts that should get light with a small soft round airbrush. You don’t have to choose a very light color, you can always go back and use dodge tool for increase the light volumes.

Now I paint the sharper parts with a thin hard round brush anda lighter volume. You don’t have to apply highlight to the whole figure, the important thing is to illuminate the parts you want to emphasize..

After the highlighting stage, I apply fog to the front and behind of the figure, this will fix the attention only on the face and will help you not waste time with lower parts of the painting.

Lastly, I use dodge to shine up the highlight brightness values, I play with brightness contrast and color correction values as well, lighten the background a bit more with my fire brush and since the creature’s neck seems too bulky, I finish the illustration by making it more curled.

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