- Setting Up the Still Life
- Choosing Photoshop Brushes
- Setting Up and Sketching
- Building Up Tone with Charcoal
- Refining the Forms and Adding Details
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Choosing Photoshop Brushes
When your still life is set up as you like it, launch Photoshop and choose the Painting workspace (Window > Workspace > Painting). The Painting workspace gives you easy access to the Brush Presets, Color, and Layers panels. Choose a dark gray in the Color panel.
The erodible tip brushes are exciting drawing tools that debuted with Photoshop 6. With the erodible tip brushes, you can sketch realistic-looking marks. The brush tips wear down naturally as you draw, just like traditional pencils and charcoal sticks do, and they can be sharpened. For a preview of the brush tip in action, choose the Square Charcoal in the Brush Presets panel (Window > Brush Presets). The tip orientation (tilt and direction) and amount of wear can be seen in the Live Brush Tip Preview at upper left in your image, as shown in Figure 3. If the Brush Preview is not visible, choose View > Show > Brush Preview, or click the Toggle Brush Preview button at the bottom of the Brush Presets panel, as shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 3 The Brush Preview shows the wear on the brush tip as you work.
Figure 4 Square Charcoal is chosen in the Brush Presets panel and the Toggle Brush Preview button is active.