You’ll see how to create this cool, grainy work with a low-poly (a polygon mesh of a small number of polygons) twist. First we’ll create some vector portraits, then get texturing in Photoshop with self-made brushes.
We’ve used Adobe Photoshop to complete this process, which is available separately or as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Some students are eligible for an extended free trial of Creative Cloud, and there are also ways to get Photoshop for free.
I selected a colour scheme, picking the orange flesh colours from an old US military poster and using warm shades of yellow and brown to match.
I ended up converting some stock images of clouds to greyscale and increasing the contrast. I then applied them using a Screen blending mode, so only their highlights appear.
I used the clouds and paint splashes subtly across the whole composition. To create the circular elements, I drew some circles and turned them into clipping masks, then painted inside them using the cloud brushes.
