Barry Sanders - Yes Another Football Pic

An old friend of mine, Greg, has been after me for years -- "Tom, do a picture of Barry Sanders.  He was the greatest running back of all time" -- and so on, and on.  Well, Greg's been a Detroit Lions fan forever, and God knows, they don't usually have a lot to cheer about, so finally I got around to working on it.

All joking aside, I've been wanting to work on this one for a while.  I figured I'd do a combination technique using a pencil illustration and Photoshop to finish it out.  After a little searching around, I found some reference material and decided on the layout.  Next - I got out a big handful of pencils, a pad of bristol board, and got to work.  I like working out a nice pencil rendering using a variety of pencils from the hard 4H pencil all the way to the very soft 4B (and all the others in between).

Pencil Portrait of Barry Sanders - base illustration

I scanned the portrait in to my iMac and worked on adding a little more detail in and darkening some of the tonal values.  I did this in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.  Using the brush tool in photoshop and the pen stylus and digitizing tablet - it has a similar feel to painting or airbrushing (and it's much more forgiving if you make a mistake).

A great feature in Photoshop is the ability to work on various layers.  It's just like it sounds - like transparent overlays that stack up from bottom to top.  So as I go, I create layers and worked in some color on the uniform and his face.  I keep it kind of soft, allowing the pencil to show thru.  Then I added some additional texture and color on a couple of layers using the powder blue color and some really large irregularly shaped brushes.  Afterward I adjusted the layer opacity, giving it just the right amount of color and texture.  For me, there's quite a bit of adding and subtracting in these processes too - it's a process.

Finishing touches were applied with a nice border; a rugged almost rock like texture which is opposite of the soft translucent colors over the image.  I selected the border area and painted in some light and dark colors.  Next, I started experimenting with various filter effects until I was pleased with the colors and textures.  I finished it with a Layer Style, using the Bevel and Emboss effect.  I selected the Inner Bevel style and Chisel Soft technique, and adjusted the depth, size, and softness until I was happy with it.

Barry Sanders portrait...finished artwork

Finishing touch...a nice white stroke around the image and my signature.  And there you have Barry Sanders - who, in the opinion of my buddy Greg - "is the best running back  in football history."  Glad you aprove Greg.

Have a great week everyone.