Photoshop

Gabriel Lee Greene shares his process for creating colourful portraits with unique graphical elements, experimenting with shapes and effects

As I first transitioned into working digitally, I felt overwhelmed with the amount of freedom I had. I’m sure it’s something a lot of us can relate to. With an infinite amount of colour, texture and brush options at our fingertips, it’s hard not to try to throw a bit of everything in the pot.

Over time, I found that with the abundance of tools came an endless amount of ways to experiment! Whether it be creating colour thumbnails, using masks/clipping modes, adding adjustment layers, or applying textural effects – the digital medium has made it simple and quick to experiment with it all.

In this tutorial, I’m going to take you through my process – how I rely on experimentation with colour, shape, various effects and adjustments to nudge me along the way. We’ll touch on making colour thumbnails to create a palette, using gradient overlay to add colour harmony, and which brushes I use to help add that final bit of grain or grit to an illustration.