This is not so much a tutorial as much as it is showing you what you can do with the brushes in PS.

Someone asked me how I did the thumb in my last entry.
Well...Kinda like this.
Let's create a working man's hand because they have a lot of character.



Start airbrushing in tones




Look at your thumb for reference.


Start making selections with the pen tool for the wrinkles.
Do all these parts on their own layers.




Make sure to soften the edges with the blur tool.

Now it gets tricky.
I created a brush in PS that scatters, changes opacity, shifts colors and changes size according to pressure using nice flesh tones. I brush them in a new layer.



Then I dropped the opacity
and dropped it beneath the wrinkles layer

With the burn tool set to mid tones @ 20% I started darkening the edges to create shape.


I also used the dodge brush



Using the flesh brush that I created I chose new colors and started brushing in hills and valleys around the wrinkles.





This brush I use to create the dry skin look.




I created a noise gradient in another file.


I applied wind


I applied it over the fingernail set to screen.
I dropped the opacity and erased areas with a soft eraser.



I created a highlight on the nail edge


Now with the dodge and burn tools I created brushes that looked like this.


I started burning in smaller wrinkles. Dodging the hills and burning the valleys.



I did some more D and B around the nail edge and with some more playing around I came up with this.
Total time: 1 hour

Notice the thin dodge lines around the edge to look like fingerprints coming around the edge of the finger. I also added a neutral noise layer set to soft light at a low opacity.
Add a few hairs.

There ya go

You can warm it up or adjust the colors if you are not happy



NEXT WEEK: THE LOTION BRUSH!!

Awesome!!!
thank you Reyrey!!

Amazing! Thanks dude! Gotta try and use this stuff! What resolution are you working in? I find 72 dpi makes it hard to do fine detail!

ReyRey,

I feel the nail needs some subtle highlights and additional gray-red color on the nail to give it a curved look. What do you think?

Rey, you sir are amazing!

I'm going to have to give this a try..

That's what I like. Participation.
That works too. It all depends on your light source.

Nicely done! Very realistic.

This is a great tutorial! It really does need to go into the tutorial section, you have been putting so much work here and it would be a real shame if these do not get added to the rest of the tutorials for future use.

Rey, ya just GOTTA do a book. I'd pay for it.

Great "non" tut, man!

I appreciate it when talented guys like yourself share their trade techniques.

no more words that can desbribe ur awesomeness.

Wow, Rey, you are more than just a pain in the ass on this site.

oldie but a goodie

Maybe with the new owners some of my millions of tutorials will be put in the tutorial section. ....or not.