Technique

After experimenting with the wrinkles, I realized I loved the look the technique gave me.  I wanted to get away from using outlines, and the fx I was using allowed me to do that.

Create Wrinkles??!!

When I think of Photoshop and wrinkles, I think "how to get rid of them," not "how to create them." But when it came to this bulldog, I needed to create them, and not with the pen tool.  Simple lines were not creating the look I wanted.

But when I was playing around with the layer effects in another project, I realized that with a combination of blending options and the smudge tool, I could "paint" the wrinkles in on the bulldog.

I used the pen tool to create a few shapes that followed the shape of the lines and filled them with the color of the dog.

Using the bevel blending option gave me the shadows and creases I needed, but too sharp a curve.  And using the smudge tool only moved the shadows around. 

What I needed was to be able to "flatten" the layer like you can "raster" a type layer, so that the layer effects were flattened.  To get around my inability to do that, I created an empty layer beneath the effected layer and merged the two.  (I copied the un-rastered layer first so I'd have a protected version.)

Then I was able to use the smudge tool to move and soften the edges and the dodge tool to lighten the shadows without worrying about the effects.

All I needed was a little work with the stamp tool.

 

 At this point I realized that I had found a way to create the natural folds that occur in the dog's face. 

Seal

Creating the seal was so far the simplest part of this project.  A few circles, get them just the right thickness, the paw, and text on a path.  They all received some sort of FX treatment.

Portrait #2 & layers trick

The second portrait was much easier and just needed a few things done. 

Here is one thing I like to do that makes life easier when working with layers: learning the shortcut for combining all visible layers into a new layer.  

Let's say I have a layer in which I want to blur the skin.  I make a copy of the main image, blur the skin, then reduce the opacity to 20%. Then I want to darken the eyelashes.  I can't do that on the 20% opacity layer.  And I can't do it on the layer underneath, because I want to be able to control the opacity of the eyelashes layer as well. 

So I make a layer that combines the main image and the 20% blur layer.  That way I have a new 100% opacity layer to work with.  There is no place on the menu to find this, you just have to memorize the shortcut:  Command, Option, Shift, E.
So:

• Command E:  merge down or merge group
• Command, Shift E:  merge visible
• Command, Option, Shift, E:  merge visible into new layer.

When you look at your history panel, you'll see that it actually calls this "Stamp Visible."

Here are the before and after.  Not much of a change, but still enhanced:

before

 

after

Portrait Enhancing

before

 

I took a break from my other project to enhance a portrait.  Below are the before and after, and a screenshot of my layers.

after

layers

 

Realism

A few days ago a student asked me how to make something look more realistic.  I wasn't really able to help, but I realized later, when I was faced with the problem in my own work, that the answer is texture.  Whether it's created with filters, blends or layer effects, texture is what "flat" images lack, and what "realistic" images are rich with.

So, in an attempt to create a more realistic bulldog, while still retaining its artistic beginnings, I went looking for texture.

I found it in two different places:  a fur effect (tutorial), and the motion blur filter.

Sounds simple, right?  Took a bunch of trial, error and experimentation.

OMG, an Inspiration!

At this point I did something terrible.  I had an inspiration!
Never, never, never deviate from what the client wants!
I know this.
I've learned it the hard way over and over, but apparently I haven't learned it well enough.
But it happened again.
While researching the art style, I came across some images showing the animal actually holding and/or drinking from a bottle or glass.  So, I thought, I had this area to the right of the image that was pretty open, I could do the same.
So off I went, spending my own time, (because you can't bill a client for time spent on something she didn't authorize) on what some people like to call deviation heck.  (Feel free to insert a different word.)
And here is what I came up with,
after finding several paws and legs and bottles, etc.,
and penning them, outlining, filling, etc.
and placing, warping, manipulating, liquifying, etc:

And.....

I hate it.

Well, I don't hate it, but I don't particularly like it either.

Poop.

Bulldog poop.

Typography-Yay and Boo

Next comes the part I equally love and hate:  choosing a font.
I love working with text, like making text portraits and playing around with individual letters, but when it comes to choosing a font I'm hopelessly indecisive.  So, here's one tool I sometimes use to help:

Unfortunately in this case it was no help at all.
So I went browsing through DaFont.  I wanted something a little retro, but heavy (it's a bulldog, after all).  I came up with a few possibilities.  Some I knew right away were not going to make the cut, but that's what choosing a font is like, you see a sample, but when you get it into your project you wonder how you ever could have looked twice at it.

Here they are:

Anchor Jack

Captain Swabby

Capture It

Market Deco

Scorched Earth

USSR Army

Walrus Gumbo

Still can't decide.
Captain Swabby and Scorched Earth are definitely out.

At first I almost tossed Walrus Gumbo, but the longer I look at it the better I like it.
Someone else might be tempted at this point to ask the client their opinion.

Let me tell you:  DON'T EVER DO THAT!
Just trust me.

As if I wasn't clueless enough, I went back for more:

Black Hawk

Chippewafalls

Muffaroo

Titulo

Immerman

What do you think? I like Muffaroo because it's dog-worthy, but I'm not sure it goes with the style I'm looking for.  The other two I'm leaning toward are Anchor Jack and Chippewafalls.  ...maybe Immerman...

Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!!!

Bulldog Brewery: Main image

The client's dog is an American Bulldog, and the only full-face photo she had was this one:

 But the quality didn't really matter, because I only need the image for tracing.  And this is what it looked like after I used the pen tool to outline her:

 Then I filled her in with white:

I placed the filled layer on top of the original (which I made black and white) and turned the opacity of the filled layer down just slightly to use the original for shading purposes:

 But it wasn't enough shading, so I added extra with a textured brush, keeping the opacity light and building up so I didn't overdo it:

Colored the eyes and added some lights:

Filled in the collar and stroked the paths with a thin brush:

I'll come back to her later and add some detail, but for now she's finished enough to use for placement.  By the way, I'm up to 15 layers and a little over 2 hours (including the background).

Bulldog Brewery

I was asked to create an image similar to this one, but using the client's dog (an American Bulldog) and her color scheme: 

The first thing I had to do was decide on a background.  I found one I really liked:

It has great texture and the perfect colors I was looking for.  However, it is owned by Maik Schneider, and I want this to be all my own.  So, I went into Photoshop and played around with the new textured brushes using the two colors I needed.  It turned out too rough looking, so I used the smudge tool to smooth it out:

Then I used this great filter called Alien Skin and applied a canvas texture:

It still didn't have the texture I wanted, so I went to this site called Morgue Files and found a photo I could use to add some texture:

I reduced the opacity to 25% and the blending mode to Overlay.  And here is what I ended up with:

Yes, I know it's not close to what I was looking for, but that's the point, right?  I want this to be my own work, so I used the other image for inspiration.  And I like this one better--

it has great texture, but the texture won't overwhelm the rest of the image, 

whereas the first one had those large-ish yellow marks.

Now, for the main image...