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1. The first thing to do is to draw a rough sketch with a B1 pencil. The thicker the lines and shadows the darker the colors should be once you start the painting process. The most important thing is to always have a photo nearby, or as a separate layer so that you can always check your reference.

2. Then we scan the sketch and make it a separate layer in Corel Painter. Then throw on some basic skin colors, the lights and darks using the Pastel Brushes for the skin and Acrylic Brushes for the hat and coat. If you’re wondering why pastel brushes for the face, it is because they have a softer, smoother effect, but that is no reason not to try other brushes and experiment.

3. Now I started to dislike the way the painting was going - looking like a portrait rather then a caricature which I was going for in the firts place, so I decided to make some changes. I made the hat smaller, the nose bigger, deformed the cheekbones a bit, especially on Jeremy Brett’s left side. For the clothes I used the Pallet Knives now, PastelBrushes for the face again.

4. As you can see, the facial features are much smoother now, that’s because I’ve used the Blender brushes (Just add water) You can use those brushes to achieve delicate color blending and at the same time get a proper sense of the facial landscape, the balance of light and shadow and so on.

5. Now we come to the most time consuming part - painting the facial details. I started adding details such as wrinkles, bags under the eyes, the nostrils, a more developed nose shape, eyebrows, I still haven’t started working on the eyeballs, I’ll do that after I’m done with the facial features. I added them using Oil brushes.

6. The important thing to remember is to use the blender brushes for easy and smooth color blending. You can also use Oil brushes with a very low opacity (10-30%). The face is finally starting reach it’s proper form, though there are still many details to be added. I need to draw hair on the eyebrows (I’ve used the acrylic brushes for that), soften the nose, more wrinkles underneath the eyes. I’ve finished adding the eyes. Never forget to add highlights in the eyes.

7. I’ve finished adding the hair behind the ears using Acrylic Brushes. The hat I fixed using Oil Brushes while combining the opacity from 10% to 80%. The jacket I texturized using Pastels. The shirt- done by Oil brushes 10-20% opacity.

8. Now let’s move on to the background for which I’ve made a separate layer . I chose a misty London landscape, thep perfect scene for detective Sherlock Holmes. I painted all of the details with Acrylic Brushes, using various shades of gray. For the top of the building I use the Just add water blender brush with a 100% opacity which created a sort of aquarel effect, that I liked. I used that effect on the lower par of the image, for the light on the lamp and the concrete. You can try ti achieve this same effect with the Air Brush brushes, give it a shot.

There, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walktrough and that you found it useful.