Name: =azurylipfe aka Heidi Darras
Tools of the Trade: psp9, wacom tablet& pen, photoshopCS2, a cheap camera, brushes, and my muse
Likes to use: I like to use dA stock, stock from xchng (sxc.hu), my own photos and my own brushes.
Examples of her work:



=azurylipfe’s tips and tricks:

1.- Let your feeling guide you.
I never think a lot about what i want to make, i see a photo and i want to use it. Sometimes I "see' the end image before i start on it, and sometime i just blindly follow the clues i get, and while i work on it the story comes by itself. It gives you room to experiment, to try out, to get frustrated, to get happy, in one single piece. Even when you have a vision of what you want to make, listen to what the image wants and not what you want, because sometimes they tell you something else. Follow your heart, and not your mind. Don't think too much about the message you want to bring, the mood you want to get into it, "listen" to the photo, feel it, and the message and the mood will come by itself.

2.- Stock
I save my stock in several folders, like one for DA, then that folder is seperated in other folders like female stock, male stock, 3D stock, nature stock, background/places stock etc, and those folders have again folders with the name of the stock provider where i save the stock in. That way i never have to search for the stock, and i can give proper credit when i used them. The same i do for stock xchng and other stocks (morguefile stock etc).
When i save stock, i mostly let my feeling guide me, the stock has to have a certain atmosphere in it, sometimes i save the stock and it takes awhile before i use it and sometimes the inspiration hits so hard, I instantly start to make something with it. 3D stock i love because they provide detail stock, that can give that little something extra to a piece. High resolution photos are the best to use, they have less noise in them, but sometimes you find a photo that screems "use me" and that has a lot of noise in it, or is too small, but with some smudging and a lot of patiences you still can use that photo and make something beautiful.

3.- Cutting out the photo
When i cut out the photo i zoom the photo in till 300% of the orignal pic. I use the freehand selection tool - point to point, cut out the photo. When I have selected the whole photo I invert the selection, change the background into a raster and hit the delete button, that way the background is removed with one single click, then I save the whole thing, in a seperate folder, called DA cut out stock and close the photo, that way I still have the original photo and the cutout one when i want to use that one again.

4.- Hair
I always repaint the hair, using the colors of the original hairtone of the model (at least most of the time), because while cutting out, I don't have the patience to cut out each single hair that is floating in the wind... and i do that in photoshop because the 1 pixel brushes in photoshop are much smoother then psp. I only use the 1 pixel, I think hard brush, and the color picker to repaint the hair. Sometimes I need a lot of painting to get the hair I want (turning short hair into long hair etc). When I have the hair I want I'll go back to psp to work further on the image. When the personage of the image is done, I finally can start on adding the background and with that the story in it

5.- Layers
Every single detail, I put in different layers, that way when something doesn't fit anymore its easier to remove or to adjust. Play with the opacity/settings of the layers, duplicate them, put them on overlay, dodge, burn to see if that adds a bit more to it, if it doesn’t just delete that layer and nothing bad happend. You can merge the layers of the same details like hair, grass or candles. But at the end, I only merge when i'm actually sure that the image is finished. Also I like for example clouds, don't be afraid to use more then one cloudphoto, put the one you really like at the bottom, the second one on top and that layer on soft light, multipy, lower opacity and look what it gives.

6.- Resolution
The standard saving resolution for psp is 72 pixels/ inch, when you change that into the max of 32767,000/ inch (you can find that in " image resize"), you end up with a less pixelated jpg when you are finished. Make sure when you change the resolution, that you also make sure you put the right size of your image back into it, or else you will end up with a very huge resized piece. so first change the resolution then the size and then hit the ok button, do this before you add any photo, that way when you add a photo, they automaticly get the same high resolution.

7.- Eraser Tool
Use your eraser tool at a very low opacity and density when you want to blend something in, that way it looks more real, and you don't end up with a difference of colors with the 2 images. You can do the same with the selection tool and with a high feathering but that doesn't give the same good result, it gives some kind of fake blend glow something on it, and you don't need that. Use the eraser tool with a high opacity when you want to delete parts that you didn't cut out right

8.- Composition
I mostly try to keep the traditional basics of this in mind, and the most important one is the “Golden Ratio” (see [link] ). The old masters used that a lot in their paintings to create more depth, orde and movement in a piece.

9.- Study your environment
Study the pieces of artists (old masters and young masters) you admire, try to figure out how they did a certain effect. In the beginning i did that a lot (especially for painting hair ). I mostly end up looking at pieces from artists who use photoshop, look at their tuts, even if you don't have the tools they have, there are still other tools in psp that can get you almost the same result or even other results you never thought looking for it. Read their tuts, and remember the things/techniques that are interesting for you, don't try to copy their style, just learn from them and stay faithfull to your own 'style'... you can always ask them how they did a certain effect, but i learn more when i have to figure it out myself, its more challenging in a way, frustrating but fun
Also read books, books about how to sketch, draw, paint.
And at last.. look at nature, the world greatest artist, look at just everything around you, learn to see how the colors work there, how shadows play hide and seek, how the perspective works, the details and memorize it

10.- Brushes
I make my own mostly from my own photos because i use psp and for some reason there are less good and original brushes than there are for photoshop. And by making them myself I know exactly what I want to have. I love using brushes, they can give that little extra to a detail, expecially light, grass, moons, nebula things, lace stuff for dresses, veils.

11.- Remember to save often
You never know when the electricity falls out, your pc decides to shut down, or your program gets an error, and all your previous work was for nothing. The second time, you just can't get the same back as you had before.

=azurylipfe’s 3 favourite tutorials:

i don't have a favorite tutorial but i do have collected a bunch of them that helped me in all different ways
[link]


<sub>Please keep in mind that these tips and tricks are never meant as the only way to do something – they are the way the artist does things. They are meant to guide you or give you ideas what can be done and should be taken as such.

If you have any suggestions for deviants you’d like to see sharing their tips and tricks, feel free to write me a note. Just keep in mind that this article is mainly focused on photomanipulators.

Lastly, I would like to thank =azurylipfe for sharing her tips and tricks
and you for reading them
^kuschelirmel


Previous Issues:
~ #1 Aegis-Strife
~ #2 Tsheva
~ #3 YagaK
~ #4 MelGama
~ #5 Chix0r
~ #6 miskis
~ #7 nebu</sub>