the Hands, arms, legs and feet
page 1

 

To start with, this photo has only the hands showing.  When working with the body parts, you would start with the back part
and break the little body parts up into sections, like the shoulder, then the elbow to shoulder area, then the wrist to elbow area, then the hand and fingers.  The steps for each part are the same.  One thing to remember is to cut the selections for filling in a way that extends the part that will be covered up with something else - in this case, the wrists - I extended the cut up into the sleeve area.
 

Each part of the body will take several layers.  You will have the body part layer, filled with the medium skin tone, new layer for the dark skin lines, new layer for skin highlights using a light skin tone and another layer for the body part shadow.  If along the line you feel you need more layers - well, that's where creating your own comes in.  I don't add anything to a layer after the blurring - sometimes I add another layer - sometimes I undo and edit the layer I'm working on.

Step 1
Hide all previous layers except for the image you are using as your model.
Add a new layer over the work photo you are using and using the freehand selection tool set to point-to-point, cut a selection around the body part you are going to work on.

 

Step 2
Flood fill it with a skin tone from your color swatch.  And to save some confusion, save the selection to alpha channel so you can recall it for the next few steps.  Deselect.

 

Step 3
Add a new layer and reduce the layer opacity of the flood filled area so you can see the natural skin lines and shadings.  Using your favored tool, draw in the lines and shadings.  I used the Bezier curve tool for the finger shadow lines and the paintbrush for the dark shadowing.

 

Step 4
Recall the selection shape and the use the Gaussian Blur set at your preference (I used 3 here).  Deselect

 

Step 5
Add a new layer and use a light skin color to draw lines and highlighted areas.  Recall selection shape and apply Gaussian Blur to highlighted areas.  Deselect.

 

Step 6
When you are happy with your lines, increase layer opacity of the flood filled layer.

 

Step 7
Recall selection shape.  Add a new layer;  expand the selection using Selection/Modify/Expand = 1.  Check your color swatch for the darker skin tone, I used (#A47F79) for mine.  You will need to copy/paste or enter the number for the color.
From the Effects3D menu, select cutout.   Set the color to your color choice, set the other settings the way you want them - I used these but each subject and body part will deviate from these settings and only your eye can tell you which way to go.  Click OK
       
 

Step 8
For each body part you do, hide all layers except for the layers that hold your body part, shading, highlight and line markings.  Adjust the lines and shading layer to suit your own taste.  I am showing both hands here but I only did one at a time.  With all parts of one hand, foot or whatever, merge visible and rename the merged layer so you will know what it is without looking.

 

Step 9
Hide all layers but the ones you've finished to see how it's coming together.

 
Photo Transformation
 
 
 

Tutorial by CSGreen
06-07-2003