224
1
Our original figure is gazing
moodily into the camera, with
just the hint of a bow tie suggesting his
status as a club bouncer. But he doesn’t
look tough enough yet; a bit of designer
stubble will help.
D
ESIGNER STUBBLE
has always been a
matter of some consternation
for me. How do rugged actors
like Bruce Willis and George
Clooney always manage to
be interviewed sporting just
a couple of days’ worth of
growth? Do they only use
blunt razors? Or do they shave
with hair clippers?
Fortunately, we don’t
need to concern ourselves
too much with the vanities
of Hollywood’s finest. We
can draw exactly the level
of stubble we want, from a
simple five o’clock shadow
to a neatly trimmed goatee,
using a few simple steps.
We’ll add some facial fuzz
to our own tough guy, and
see how to achieve a more
carefully coiffured appearance
as well.
6
We now need to make that
stubble more transparent – and
we do this by changing the layer mode
to Hard Light, which causes all the
midtone gray to disappear.
2
On a new layer, paint the beard
area using a midtone gray and a
soft-edged brush. Accuracy isn’t that
important at this stage, as we can
always mask out any stray areas later,
but try to avoid the nose and mouth.
7
Turning the layer to Hard Light
mode allows us to see through to
the skin beneath. This level of stubble
is OK for a day’s growth, but let’s see if
we can beef it up. Make a new Curves
Adjustment Layer, grouping it with the
beard layer, and lower the brightness of
the beard to bring some more strength
back into it.
Beards and stubble
8
Heads and bodies
SHORTCUTS
MAC WIN BOTH
225
3
Add some Gaussian Noise to the
gray you’ve just painted. I’ve used
about 30% Noise here, but the precise
amount you use will depend on the size
of the image you’re working on.
8
The result so far is a beard that
looks far too neat. So create a
Layer Mask for the beard layer, and paint
out some of the harder edges. Painting
inside the beard with a low opacity
brush also helps the stubble to look
more varied in depth, which adds to its
realism.
4
Next, we’re going to use Radial
Blur to make the stubble; but first,
we need to set the midpoint for the blur
to act on. Hold O A as you draw an
elliptical marquee from the center out,
starting from the bridge of the nose and
enclosing the whole beard area.
9
As well as creating convincing
stubble, we can also modify what
we’ve drawn to make a stronger beard.
The effect here is achieved by changing
the Curve in the Adjustment Layer to
darken the beard further; more sections
are painted out on the beard’s Layer
Mask to give it a more tailored shape.
5
Now use the Zoom setting in the
Radial Blur filter at a low setting:
around 5% will be appropriate for this
length of stubble. (Higher settings
will result in facial fur that looks like it
belongs on a dog.) Radiating from the
bridge of the nose makes the stubble lie
in the right direction.
10
If all you want is to draw a
mustache, there’s a simple
solution: use an eyebrow. QuickMask
was used here to make a soft-edged
selection of one of the eyebrows, which
was then duplicated and distorted to
sit on the upper lip. Using the eyebrow
ensured that it matched the original.
HOT TIP
When painting
the layer mask
on a ‘real’ beard
(as opposed to
stubble) as in step
9, remember that
you can use any of
the painting tools
on the mask – not
just the brush.
Added realism can
be achieved by
using the Smudge
tool set to a scatter
brush to push hairs
into the skin.
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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