Naya Rivera Portrait

My first Portrait that I created on Photoshop was of Naya Rivera.
How I started off this portrait was to get an image to keep referring back to....

Once I found the image I drew a simple, light outline of the basic shape of Naya...

From here I began to add colour. What I would do to begin with is apply a base colour.

I began with the face, took the basic colour of her skin tone and applied that on a bottom layer. Once the bottom basic layer is applied I then started to look at the shading of the face, applying darker or lighter tones where they needed to be applied. I done the lighter and darker tones on a second layer then once I was happy I would merge the layers together and using the blur tool blend it all together. It is very much like applying make-up, you start of with your basic foundation layer and then build it up with blusher for example.

I then took the exact same approach with the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. Eyes and eyebrows for me were the hardest thing to do, what I found helped a lot was to always have that reference image to hand or open in another window to keep going back and forth to for guidance. Also when it comes to the eyelashes and eyebrows explore the brushes on Photoshop, Id advise to use the soft round pressure size brush for things like eyebrows and lashes, makes it a lot easier and I found to get a better result. 

                    

I then added the highlights to the hair, again using the blur tool a lot to blend the tones in and also used the exact same process for the dress...

There are many new things I have learnt when it comes to creating portraits since I started with this one. My skills have improved when it comes to portraits now, I know more tips, do's and dont's and things that will help which I will keep posting about along with the portraits I have done so far :)