In Focus Vol. 1 No. 8

Portraits in Painting

Fay Sirkis reveals digital painting techniques that magnify profits and perception.

Fay Sirkis models her art on the Masters. For portraits she favors Rembrandt and the photorealism of Norman Rockwell. Monet ranks among her favorite landscape painters, particularly his method of capturing the same scene at different times of day to illuminate the transforming effect of light on a subject.

The vision and thought process of a Master painter – whatever their stylistic bent – is fundamental in Fay Sirkis’ approach to painting digital photography. Sirkis paints the photograph in pre-press through a potent combination of Photoshop and Corel Painter.

The effect Sirkis is able to create has, in many cases, elevated the photography she’s painted above and beyond traditional painting. As an example, one of her digitally-painted pieces was chosen over a number of outstanding traditional paintings to be commissioned as official artwork for a memorial museum in New York City.

“I’m not making it look like a painting. It is a painting,” she says. “It’s a painting because we digitally paint the canvas brush stroke by brush stroke.”

Sirkis divides her time between working as a portrait, gallery, and commissioned digital photography painter and as one of the most popular speakers on the workshop and seminar circuit. Sirkis is currently speaking at Photoshop World in Las Vegas. She held a half-day, pre-conference workshop on Sept. 6, and is speaking about the importance of eyes on Sept. 7.

Sirkis emphasizes eyes because she says they can make or break a commissioned portrait. “The most important thing when doing portraits is come in close and get the subject’s eyes popping. If you don’t get the eyes right, you lose the entire portrait,” she says.

Additionally, Sirkis says that in order to ultimately create a piece that can be sold as a painted portrait, the photo should be devoid of add-ons, like filters and soft-focus effects. If you want to paint a photo, it needs to be as sharp and focused as possible.

Prime the Market

But before you bring the image into Photoshop to prepare it for Painter, you need to go back before the beginning. Envision the final image before it’s even captured, says Sirkis. This approach serves two important purposes. First, it sets the tone and focuses your workflow in the software. Second, it helps you sell.

Sirkis uses the example of a young couple that approaches you to shoot their wedding. There’s a good chance the bride will want something similar to the digitally-painted portraits hanging in your studio. (Note: An important part of the selling process is to have samples front and center, particularly since the digital painting effect is so stunning in person.) If the bride is interested, Sirkis says you need to get a commitment then and there. If you don’t, there won’t be any money left over for this high-ticket item.

Sirkis says that her commissioned, digitally-painted photorealistic portraits can command anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. Obviously, the value of each piece can add significant profit to bread-and-butter work. Plus, it can be pitched as part of any type of photography package.

“In my seminars I emphasize the importance of projecting yourself as a commissioned portrait artist and not just a photo manipulator. If you want to make sure that you get that painting commission, which of course is a high-end product that’s expensive, you have to introduce them to it at the beginning of their thought process,” explains Sirkis.

Prepare the Painting

Once you’ve established the mood and direction of the painting (photorealistic, impressionistic, cubist, and so forth) and captured a clean, sharp image, the first step is to bring it into Photoshop. Sirkis prepares the canvas by sizing, cropping, and re-touching the image in Photoshop.

In Painter, Sirkis uses the photograph as the main layer. Then, she floats an empty layer on top of that so that it’s essentially a hybrid of two layers. Sirkis explains that by painting on a separate layer over the image and setting up the specifics of the program you can pull out the color of the bottom canvas layer. Using the hundreds of brushes available in Painter, Sirkis uses the brushes to blend the pixels of the image.

“I’m getting rid of those little boxes and turning them into brush strokes. It transforms in front of your eyes,” she says. “After I blend, I come in with brand new brush strokes on top of that to bring it all together. When you’re just beginning with Painter, start by blending what you have. Then, take off the training wheels and experiment with adding brushstrokes after you blend. You always have a safety net to fall back on in case you lose information, if you save the sequential versions as you work.”

Sirkis is careful to work with the image at the size it will print. However, she does not work with a file size larger than 17 in. x 22 in. “If the output is going to be 17 x 22 it remains there, and we output at that size. If my final output is going to be 24 x 30, I paint at 17 x 22 maximum size, because I don’t want to watch the clock spin on me. If it’s an 8 x 10 you want, work with it at 8 x 10,” she adds.

Sirkis then brings the image back into Photoshop for output. If she needs to bring it up to 24 x 30 for final output, she’ll bump it up in 10 percent increments, tweaking along the way, until she gets to the desired output size. Sirkis will typically print two or three proofs before the final image is ready.

“No matter how good that image looks on the computer, and it will, when you print out the first proof it will look like you blended the dickens out of it. It tends to have a slight out-of-focus feel, so I bring it into Photoshop and do an Unsharp Mask,” Sirkis explains. “I sharpen it very lightly, just to focus it. Then I run a levels adjustment on it, even if the histogram tells me I don’t need it. I bring it in a little darker – just a drop – and a little sharper, and that focuses my image.”

Of course, this is an extreme Cliff’s Notes version of an intensive process, but it provides insight into the theory behind digital painting. Much of the detail comes through her photo painting workshops, such as her upcoming Paint Like A Master four-day workshop at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Oct. 23-26.

Sirkis will be working with New York-based fashion and portrait photographer Vered Koshlano (www.byvk.com) and LexJet technical support director Tom Hauenstein. Koshlano will provide insight into capturing the best image through a live in-studio portrait shoot.

In addition to working with images in Photoshop and Painter, and transforming them into styles that replicate the Old Masters, there will be an on-location photo shoot in Las Vegas to study how landscapes and photojournalistic images can also be turned into painted masterpieces. Hauenstein will cover the output process, from color management and calibration to materials and optimum printing

For more information about Sirkis, her work, and her workshops, go to www.faysartstudio.com. To learn more about the materials and printing methods Sirkis uses, contact a LexJet account specialist, Tom Hauenstein, or go to www.lexjet.com.