Autumn Step by Step

This is my first tut/step by step. It isnt fancy and the directions are in the description below instead on the actual thing cause i tend to talk to much
I am selling this peice of art. SO PLEASE do not do this exact tutorial. Its meant for tips and tricks, not to do the same picture. Thank you

1. I start out by making a new layer i call 'sketch' this is where i just do the normal sketch for the horse. Remember that sketching is made by a loose wrist and lots of movement and strokes. Most people thing good drawing comes from a slow steady hand but i find that usually stiffens and hardens the drawing and keeps it from becoming 2-D

2. I showed here how i usually use a reference to sketch off of. I divide it into parts, or shapes, and draw them one by one making sure to get everything to match up and it usually turns out pretty good, Hope you can see the red okay!

3. For the third step zoom in on your reference photo, find the middle tone then smear it (im using PSP) then use the color picker to pick out the color. Make a new layer under sketch called "base" After doing that with your brush on 100% opacity with soft edges, fill out the sketch.

4. Filling in the BG color i picked one that would go good with the warm autumn colors but was extremely pale. Sketch out the basic shapes of whatever you want in the BG. I always go with really simple backgrounds because i dont want the bg to take any focus off what i worked hardest on.

5. Smear the lines of the sketch layer and erase the unecessary lines, and even lighten the opacity to make sure you can still see where to paint and the main shape of the horse and muscles, Muscles and shape is what makes most of the shading and highlighting. The rest is shadow and lighting.

6. take a pale darker color then your base color, low opacity and brush in the shaded areas, then a lighter low opacity color to brush in the highlighted areas, more will be added later. Dont start out to much darker. (When im highlighting i like to keep it on a lower opacity then when im shading)

7. Smooth and smear out all the other shades and start adding a darker more vibrant color, less pale, to the shaded areas.

8. Go in for the details. I start with the face, and i zoom in on it to get good detail. The eye is the most important thing it can make or break the painting so use alotof detail for it. Another tip i use is, the darker the color you get while shadowing, the smaller brush size you use. When shading and highlighting i usually go down the scale three or four times, sometimes ending up in near black. Always smooth and smear before applying the next shade. I do this to add more demension. The more colors and tones you use in a painting, the more 2-D or even sometimes 3-D it'll become. Pose is another good factor in that, but im using a profile pose.

9. After your done with the horse body, the mane is next.
Its alot easier then it looks, and this is where smear becomes my best friend. I brush in the base color with a high but not full opacity brush, then (again as the color gets darker the brush gets smaller) start brushing in darker and darker streaks in the direction the flow goes, doesnt have to be neat, go wild on it just stay inside the mane so you dont have to clean up. (same goes for tail in this step)

10. Now smear the mane and tail, and all the colors together and it automatically looks like strands, terdeerrr, highten the strength on the smear and use a small brush to get the ends to look like strands. Now your horse is done!

11. Now for the BG. Again i just wanted something simple so i brushed in different fall colors where i wanted, and smeared them down nice and smooth and thats it for the BG. Put on a border if you like, sign your name and your done.

Remember when using the reference. Use it for the basic shape of the horse and sketch, where the shadows and highlights are located, the mane and tail and the colors if you like. The reference is there to help you, even if yo have to copy paint every little detail! its well worth it in the end. Dont forget to credit your reference dealer :B

Finished Peice [link]