We bought them while in Vegas for $150 a piece… about half the cost. However until now I hadn’t really had a chance to play around with it. I’ve had the desire to get back into drawing but also wanted to take a stab at matte paintings which I thought would complement my photography.

But first, I wanted to get some practice. Thus I decided to do a photo-realistic portrait based on an image I took. It’s taken me around 15 hours to complete. So without further ado, I present… The Chuck.

Here’s a comparison with the original photo.

And here are some snapshots of the WIP. However, I didn’t save versions and didn’t plan on showing the workflow till it was already near completion. But you get the idea…

Please feel free to comment on Dr. Chuckles’ face. I’m sure he’ll like that. And if you have any cool Photoshop brush presets you’d like to share, I’d love to find some new ones.