Summer

---WARNING: The following A/N is horrendously long. The most important stuff is at the bottom, though, so if you're the kind of person who doesn't like to waste time, kindly scroll down there and you'll save a bunch! (of time, I mean---

Oooh boy. Where do I even start with this? There is WAY too much to say. Or not say.

Well, I did document the whole process on my blog somewhere. Maybe I’ll copy and paste the stuff into my dA journal sometime, if people are interested in figuring out how a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad artist like me managed to pull off something halfway decent (I’ll tell you a secret: I used a lot of tutorials. A WHOLE LOT of tutorials )

‘Nyway. Summer is not my character, in case you’re wondering. I saw a screenshot of her once, and for some odd reason, I picked up a sharpie and started scratching. Then, for some even odder reason, I decided to paint her. In Photoshop. Now, how in the world I came up with that strange and unreasonable idea, I don’t know. This finished painting actually looks NOTHING like the original Summer. I guess I just kinda took the photo as a springboard and totally went berserk. Who knows? But I’m glad—at least I don’t have to think up a name for my questionable creation. They already gave me one And it’s not a bad one, either.

Moving on. Let's see...I took three days on the little bugger: Tues, Wed, and Thurs, about 5 hours per day. 15 hours of work on one picture. I’ve seen this picture so many times, I can even see Summer’s face imprinted on the backs of my eyelids when I blink!

It was great practice, though. Really great I learned so much about Photoshop you wouldn’t believe. (OK, maybe you would. Mostly, it was about layers, and using “multiply” and such. I still need to figure out history brush and undo, though. You wouldn’t believe how much clicking I had to do to undo some undesirable effects)

Anyway, about the picture:
The reason some elements (*coughcough* the lips) look pasted on, is because they are. Pasted on, I mean. No, I didn’t copy anything from anybody. Promise. I drew the whole darned thing from scratch. I started out with a super messy, super bad sketch: [link] and, after using many layers and wasting many hours (and losing much sleep), I came up with this.

The skin, nose, and hair I did directly on top of the sketch. But the eyes and lips I did separately, then copied and pasted them onto her face, which explains my previous comment. The hair, unfortunately, will never look as well as I would like, partially because I am a pretty terrible artist, and partly because I only have a touchpad, and there is only so much you can do with a touchpad (individual hair strands not being one of them). I refer to it (with all due affection) as “the rat’s nest.” I had to draw each horrible strand in by hand. Or by finger, rather. My pointer finger is quite dead. >.<

I really need to look into finding/borrowing/stealing (just kidding!) a tablet. Or at least a mouse.

But at least this version is a better than Redheaded Summer ([link]) which, as I mentioned in the A/N, looks as if a kid went after the scratchboard with a dull toothpick.

Okayokay. ‘Nuff said. On to the REAL business:

All the kudos and deep, heartfelt thank-yous go to the people who made tutorials, etc, and posted ‘em online for me to…eh…borrow. Thankyouthankyouthankyou a million bajillion kajillion times!

(Oh, just one thing: I don’t exactly know these people’s names, so I’m putting up links to their tutorials instead ) I didn’t always follow the instructions exactly on all of these. Some, (like the ear and nose) I just looked at to get an idea of what that particular element looks like. Anyway, here they are, in the order I used them:

Skin: [link] by

Lips: [link] by

Eyes: [link] also by

Nose: [link] by (Yes, I know this is a lip tutorial, but believe it or not, I used it more for the nose. Like I said, I didn’t follow things exactly all the time)

Ear: [link] by

Hair: [link] (I’m not sure by who…it’s not a dA person)

Aaaaaaaand *drumroll please* the biggest, fuzziest thank-you goes to IZZY ( ) who has been a great friend and constant inspiration ever since, like, middle school was it? Yeah, I think so. Anyway. You’re the best! (friend, artist, etc.)

P.S.--in case it wasn't clear enough (sorry, my bad. I'm a muddlehead) Summer is dedicated to Izzy. Yesh

P.S.S.-- just for kicks: [link] It's Summer's Transformation!