Another Photoshop paint job for this week — I give you a green gremlin. No, not that Green Gremlin.

This sketch was created entirely in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet. Initial sketches were roughed in, then refined. I copied the refined sketch layer and flipped the copy horizontally. Another rough sketch layer was added to refine one half of the face sketch. I did this to find the symmetry and to choose which parts from each side of the face worked best.

Once the half-face rough sketch was complete, I duplicated and again horizontally flipped the layer, then merged the two. From there I flat-filled the base colors and added a shadow layer (set to multiply and also set to clip from the flat color layer). A highlights layer was added (set to Screen mode).

Shading and highlights worked up in their respective layers, then the linework layer was duplicated and cleaned up. The original linework layer was hidden. I did this to be able to go back to it if necessary.

I have found through experimenting that when creating a highlight layer and setting the Layer Blending Mode to “Screen”, I can use the original flat color from the base layer color, and it will highlight nicely. The shadows I am still picking colors manually.

A flat background was added, then a quick gradient to add a slight bit of depth.