I believe this a combination of four layers, but they're all near the bottom of the stack. They all have varying opacity on them (thus why they're separate). Also, I have no clue why he has spots on his hoodie. They're also not visible in the final image, so I'm probably going to get rid of them.

^{(See? Already looking more depressed. Or homeless... I'm going with homeless.)}

A little more build-up shading, and rudimentary hoodie shading. His hair already looks done. But... it obscures his eyebrows. This thick mane of hair obscuring facial features was dealt with later on.

That missing spot of gradient at the bottom left bugs me. I considered deleting the layer entirely (it doesn't add much), but sadly his breath is also on the gradient layer. I would've preferred it wasn't, but... Ah well. I'm going to fix it later.. probably with just a selection tool and some matte color eye-dropped from nearby.

Not much to comment about since it's just coloring. Almost flat. In fact, while I was doing it, I was mindlessly thinking of what to make for dinner, and I can't remember what dinner was either.
Priorities.

This is a combination of a couple of layers. It's the texture layer (mostly for his hoodie) and the beginning of the highlighting for the streetlamp light.

Hello city skyline, and streetlight with your silly glow on my character. You two made all the difference in this piece. Before this point, it didn't feel like the picture was working, you know? Thanks, both of you. Job well done. Here's a cookie.

In all seriousness, the streetlight's intensity helped bring his eyes out. It was much-needed, albeit unrealistic.

Now this is where the fun began. I got to play around with incorporating images into my piece. The first (of course) was the skyline, but I wanted it to be raining, too, so I searched around for raindrops on windows. I'll link to them if requested (there's a lot of images here already). Suffice to say, I tried to get high resolution images so that the detail wouldn't be compromised too much if I had to upscale at all.

You know what, though? It still didn't feel like he was looking through a window. Was it not enough rain? Was the window too clean? I gave it some thought, then sourced more images. Dirty windows! Old windows! Rain condensation! I had an arsenal in my hands, and then I filtered them into a semi-transparent submission.

I swear, half my time was spent just messing around with layer order, opacity, and filters. It wasn't all that bad. While I was just applying all the different effects in order, I found a cool "burned" filter set up which makes him look like a demon straight out of an Egyptian tomb.

Anyway, all that was left for this picture now was the text, the last city background (duplicated for a different filter), and the rainwater condensation on the window. That is my favorite part, by the way. I really like how I made his fingers look like he was pressing against wet glass, and the water displaced from that was dripping down the window.

Have a question about this piece? Please let me know in the comments!

I'll try to be as descriptive as I can since I know I didn't explain very much or provide any tips/tricks for anyone to utilize in their own artwork. I honestly don't feel qualified to do a tutorial post on digital painting. Not yet, anyway. I mean... I just started doing this myself. I don't have the caliber yet. The stamina. The fortitude. _{^{Why did writing that make me feel hungry?}}

Anyway, that's it for me. I have to go fall face first into a pillow now.

See you all later!

---

My Introduction Post  •  Digital Art: Lee Can't Sleep | Enity | Young Unfortunate Soul  •  Short Stories: A Disquieting Occupation | God, Gophers, and You  •  Short Poems: The Egg | Grapefruit | Street Artist

^{Facebook  •  Twitter  •  Medium  •  Tumblr  •  Patreon  •  Personal Site}

^{Thanks for all the fish!}