Spit and Polish
This is the final stage of the whole process, where you add the finishing touches. I will also show you how to scan and print your illustration.
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Spit and Polish 1
The final painted stage is to add spit ‘n polish in the form of enhanced highlights, tidied edges, anything we can see that will give the image some final "pop".
Let’s take a look.
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Spit and Polish 2
We wrap up the lesson on spit 'n' polish taking a look at the final details.
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Scan and Enhance Your Illustration
An A3 size flatbed scanner is a very useful tool, but at that size they tend to fall into the professional price bracket. Most standard office printers these days feature a decent quality A4 scanner, however.
In this lesson, you will learn to scan larger artwork in sections and stitch it together in Photoshop.
Tasks
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Compare and Contrast
Study the Spit ‘n Polish Examples attached in the additional resources below. Cross-reference the finishing touches in these paintings with your own nearly-completed painting, and your reference photos. See what details you can enhance to add extra "pop" to your own illustration.
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Share Your Work Practice exercise 5.1
Now that you’ve completed your project, I’d love to see it on the forum. How do you feel about it? What did you find unexpectedly difficult, and which part of the process did you enjoy most? What will you do differently with your next project?
Additional resources
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Alternatives to Photoshop
Here’s a list of free – or more economical – alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. I haven’t tried any of these personally, but this post gives a simple description, feature list, and pros and cons for each application.
Additional resources
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PDF
Compare and Contrast
Attached you will find the Spit ‘n Polish examples to cross-reference.