Hipster Grandad Character.

Using only black and white to create the ambient light, I then added tones of colour to each section of the design and adjusted the overall look using a combination of hue/saturation and curves. The clothing is made up of large square patterns I've then warped in clipping masks to follow the body shape.

Below is the original wireframe, created in illustrator.

When designing a new character I usually mock up the design in illustrator with coloured shapes, as I work faster in illustrator, it's easier to adapt any changes at this point before taking into photoshop to create the detailed shading.

Below is one of the first stages of this design process.

Each body part created in Illustrator is in a folder underneath my ambient light layer, this makes it easy for me to select the individual aspects to shade in stage by stage, also if I hide the ambient light layer I can refer to the original design and tweak the smart layers for any necessary changes.

Below is the plaid pattern waistcoat being warped to fit round the body in a clipping mask.

Below is a selection shot of the skin tone being picked, each colour layer is set to multiply to show the light and shading on the lighting layers below.

Final headshot for Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sunderlandholly/