Tip: References and Lighting

I have deliberated over updates for Colourisma. I decided I should go back to the roots of why I started this blog and move back to providing "tips, tricks and tools of the trade," providing information that's helpful in your artistic journey. I frequently think of little tricks that make my art process a little bit easier and I thought this blog would be the perfect vehicle to get this information out to fellow artists.

Today, I thought about lighting and how to work with reference that may be different that what you need. For instance, what if you needed a hand reference picture, but the lighting doesn't match your illustration?

Step 1: Collect Reference

By Aurelijus Valeiša

Step 2: Desaturate the photo. In Photoshop, go to Image-> Adjustments-> Hue/Saturation

Step 3: Move the Saturation slider to -100

Step 4: Go to Image-> Adjustments-> Invert

Final: Now you have an idea as to how the lighting works in reverse. So if you have a great photo reference, but you are frustrated by the lighting in the piece, then this can really help you reference lighting that works with your illustration.