probably been asked before.

[Luke25]

this has been chewing away at my head since i started using photoshop.
I will try and word it well because if i don't i will get the usual answers about textures and stuff.

when i see a photoshop painting on here there never seems to be an area of the painting that it one SOLID colour. THere always seems to be an array of colours (be it grainy or gradiant)

When i paint in photshop I try to use my brushes at 50% opacity but when i am colouring in i just seem to end up with SOLID single colours.

I am trying to word this right. Heres a picture aid to help show what i mean.

Are there any videos that show the brushes and presets(opacity, flow, any other settings) they use rather than a sped up video where you don't see the process.

I hope i have worded this right and not offended anyone.

Thanks for your time.

[FranciscoShreds]

Dude, that's not photoshop as much as it's knowing color theory, light and doing life studies. If you want to paint like that then you've gotta actually learn to paint which means learning color theory, color harmonies, complimentary colors and everything else to do with colors and you've gotta learn how light works, how it affects color etc... and you've got to do life paintings.

As far as tools go, well you could do that with a hard round brush with opacity set to pen pressure and a bit of grain. It's not the tools that make the painting, it's the artist.

[Luke25]

thanks for the info mate. Will try and find some lessons on here that ca teach me some of that stuff.

[George Abraham]

Practice blending.

But also notice that the foot you are referring to is a series of differant strokes not a singe one, one or two short wide strokes for light and a bunch of smaller strokes for the smaller surface shapes and forms. the strokes are rather opaque so that all of them have an accumulated effect but still it looks simple and messy.

The trick is to "waste not" no mark you make should have a lack of purpose. The best material I have found to teach form and light effect is to try and copy a few frank frazetta ink drawings.
It teaches you that to communicate form any way you can is more important than color or tone. Color and tone is great but they mean nothing without those little priceless understandings of form and how to communicate them.

Not every ink drawing get's this across that effectively. Frazetta is just a real master when it comes to this, He has his priorities straight and he sure knows a good looking chubby babe from a troll.