I always create large documents.
I always sketch my artworks first with good old fashioned paper and pencil.

I then use a scanner (an Epson) and scan in the sketch at 150 dpi Grayscale.
I create a new document in Photoshop, 4000 pixels by 4000 pixels.
A good tip I picked up from artists on the net is to create a new layer (Layer One), and
delete the Background layer, that way you can move all the Layers around.

Just fill Layer one with white and it will now become your background layer.
I import my pencil sketch and then create a new layer on top of the pencil sketch.
So I end up with two Layers. I then trace over my pencil sketch with the most powerful
tool in Photoshop – the PEN TOOL! I separate the drawing into different areas,
so I’ve created outlines for the arm, torso, head, legs, and labeled them as such
on the Layers palette. IMPORTANT! – I’ve also NAMED THE PATHS in the Paths palette.
I then stroke the line with black using a brush set at 20 degrees with a 22 point thickness.

I name each body part – right arm, torso, head, right leg, left leg.
I draw each body part as a separate path and name them in the Paths palette.
I ended up with seven different sections for this artwork. I named the seven layers to match the Paths.
I filled each body part with the same skin colour by highlighting the area
in the Paths palette and hitting the Fill button at the bottom of the palette.

I made the stroke a tan colour.

I always start with the eyes. I use the pen tool and fill it with a dark colour (green here)
and then with the Eliptical tool create perfect cicrlces for the
irises by pressing Shift as I drag the ellipse out.
I then use an airbrush set at a lighter green and fill in the
sircles with firstly a light green, the a darker green arounf the edges.
I add pure white, Hard Light highlights with a hard edged brush
just to make the eyes stand out.

I focused on the rght arm and torso first.
Using a large soft airbrush I selected the Path (which ensures I won’t go outside
the edges) and started to paint according to imagined light sources – its is
important to THINK ABOUT THE LIGHT SOURCE BEFORE YOU START PAINTING.
I set the airbrush low, about 20%.

I zoomed in and put in some shadows on the legs
with a soft airbrush (a large one and a small one for the actual
shadows.)

On the torso Layer I used a large soft airbrush set to 45% and filled in
the area in relation to the light source

With a soft airbrush set to 70% Hard Light I added some details and
highlights on the torso to make it pop.

With a smaller sized brush I add in some facial highlights, ensuring to keep
the colours clost to matching I use the Eye Dropper tool quite a lot.

I created the left hand purely with the airbrush tool and darker tones of
of the original skin tone. The fingernails were created with
the pen tool and filled with white.

Finally I add some modesty to the poor girl!
I added some torn clothing with the pen tool and
used a very large soft airbrush to fill it all in.

The rifle was created with a light stroke and the Pen tool, much like the rest of the image.
Various sized airbrushes were used for the details,
the highlights were made with the brush set at Hard Light 90%.

As a final step I added some highlights around the hair – a soft
airbrush 130 size, set to 60%, Hard Light 80%

A quick adjustment of Hue/Saturation and there you have it.

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