The quick and dirty way to paint lace in Photoshop

 

Beginning Notes:

-This tutorial is aimed at beginners. It will probably do little good for people experienced with digital painting.

- Most of the techniques in this can probably be applied to other programs, like Painter. But... since Photoshop is the only program I know, that's what I'll be using for all examples

-It helps to keep your files *large* when painting in photoshop. By painting at 700 x 500 pixels, you make it nearly impossible to add much detail (like lace) or get decent printouts. All of my pictures are at least 2000 x 2000 pixels, and I just resize them before posting them online.

Step 1:

I'm starting out with a skirt on which I want to apply a lace bottom trim

Step 2:

Create a new layer below the skirt layer, and select a highly visible color.

Choose a relatively small, hard brush, and set the brush pressure to 100 %.

Using this brush, outline the general shape of the lace, including the folds. It should generally fall like normal fabric, but with a greater stiffness and tendency to poof outward

Step 3:

**Create a new layer** This is extremely important, since you eventually want to delete the bright colored outline layer. Place the new layer above the outline layer, but below the skirt layer.

Select whatever color you want to make the lace, and, using a hard brush at 100% pressure, outline the bottom fringe of the lace.

Step 4:

On the same layer as the fringe from step 3, choose a larger brush, and start drawing in large, blobby shapes. I tend to use a vaguely floral pattern, but the pattern you use really doesn't matter, as long as they aren't perfectly evenly distributed. Draw whatever blobby shapes you feel inclined to draw

 

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