How do you REFINE your paintings?

[PerinGalitte]

I can go from blocking in values to rendering/blending but how do you get to that END stage? I'm very used to linework so I think this is my main problem.

My paintings usually end up looking like a flat blended mess without depth (see below for prime example). Unless of course I scan in some good linework and overlay a flat color; then it tends to look like a flat and blended, without the mess. :D

How do you 'refine' your paintings and get them from rough work to finished/presentable paintings? Or how do you get through the issue of neatness etc.? :S

[ItsChoco]

There's no special trick, you just have to keep pushing detail. In this case, the "flat mess" comes from the very little contrast in the painting. I did a quick paintover to show the differences but once you desaturate them you can really see, you don't have a lot of darks or lights. The highlights should be a lot brighter and the darks should be dark to make things 'pop'. The "blended mess" part just comes from part of your painting having texture but there's a blob in the middle where there is none. I just cloned part of the original to show the difference. Just have to keep working at it, really. :)

320521

[PerinGalitte]

Great. Thanks a lot man.

[jakeayres]

nice. thats really handy

im really new to creating art from scratch in photoshop
and am just kinda getting used to it

how do you achieve that speckled texture on the surface

im tryin an apple and it looks really smooth.

i cant find any way of adding the imperfections in the
surface or coloured speckles.