How Lois van Baarle created “Red”

Lois finds it more intuitive to paint on just one layer. With no need to keep track of different colors on multiple layers, she’s able to maintain an easy flow of drawing. 

Lois applies the key colors without focusing on blending just yet. She fills the hair and clothing with orange, then fills the areas of skin with a pale peach using a soft round brush. She uses Replace Color to modify the Fuzziness, Hue, and Saturation of the peach to define the highlights on the face. Then, she highlights the hair with blue and locks the transparent pixels on the top layer to change the color of the faded edges of the hair without “spilling” the color onto the rest of the canvas. 

Throughout this phase, she alternates brush sizes for refinement and uses the Eraser tool for cleanup as needed.