I need help! with digital painting

[Joshua.Crawford]

I'm just learning to use Photoshop for digital painting and I'm not producing the effect I want.I want a photorealistic look and I really don't know what brush settings I should use.
What should my flow and opacity settings be initially and what should day be later?
I read that I should have a layer for base color ,shadows, and highlights but when there's multiple objects how do i approach this.
I also had trouble capturing the fabric.
I never set my opacity and flow to 100% and didn't use any kind of masking.
I was tempted to use a blur effect but witch one?my layers don't blend together.
Please help.I attached the reference and my attempt at replicating it.

[Reedux]

First of all.

DO NOT POST PICTURES LARGER THAN 1000x1000!

I cannot stress the importance of this step!

Secondly, It is VERY personal the way someone paints.
We all arrive there differently but usually through testing out every technique we can find.

Personally, I use layers for capturing STEPS that I can later post and show people my process. And/or when I want to try out something(ie, a color, an effect, whatever)
So basically, I do almost everything on one layer.
I change the opacity and flow accordingly to what I want to draw.
Something with a hard edge or soft edge? Hard or soft fabric? Erect or flaci... Ehem!
You don't even seem to have your brush set to pressure sensitivity.

Hit f5 and click on 'Other Dynamics' In both sliders, click the drop down and select 'Pressure'

I would suggest you learn the program before worrying about painting..
In the mean time, painting with oils really helps develop technique.
Its how I started and after many years of testing, I finally went back to a more refined but still basic Oil painting approach when drawing with any software.

[Joshua.Crawford]

First of all.
[B]

Hit f5 and click on 'Other Dynamics' In both sliders, click the drop down and select 'Pressure'

I would suggest you learn the program before worrying about painting..


I actually know the software fairly well.I figured out a major mistake though.I went to other dynamics and had it set to pen pressure.but I had the jitter settings up.instead of 0 i had it on 100%.:s

What brushes do you favor?
and is there a way to pull swatches from a picture and save them?I know there is but i can't recall. Thanks

[bizarre]

you can use groups of layers for multiple objects, that way you can retain the layers of each object without having a cluttered layer palette.

although setting up a custom swatch palette may sound like a good idea, try this approach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWXByR6afQ

and check out my thread:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163890

there's a bunch of shortcut keys in the details of the youtube videos- info or whatever.

[Joshua.Crawford]

Here's an update,now I'm having trouble capturing the background

[StreetBehemoth]

Just as a warning, if you work from a reference, and it is noticeable that you used that reference(if you were taken to court and they could hold the two up and say "yah (s)he copied it"), you are breaching the copyright of the original artist/photographer if you try and copyright your piece and/or use it to make money.

[Joshua.Crawford]

The client just wanted to know if I could duplicate the detailed look of the image.I already have my own made up stuff ready to go.I wanted to see if I could use Photoshop in that manner too.Thanks for the warning though.

[MarcSampson]

it seems u need help with anatomy and proportion, and i would never use a 3d image as ref