Rendering

>>2981680
>Is he using a soft brush most of the time
No, he's using it selectively
>and going from low contrast to high contrast in order to create more detail?
No, he's creating detail by using small brushes and hard edges, and has an extremely tight control on lighting and contrast and values. He has a style that uses more soft edges in some places where most people would use hard edges, and has developed that style well.
>Can you elaborate a bit more about this process?
I just did. You can't teach his style, you have to develop it on your own by mastering lighting, value, and brushwork. You can't cheat your way to this style of painting, or download brushes, you have to put the work in.

>>2981954
Thanks... fwiw I wasn't trying to find a shortcut just trying to analyze and apply it to my current workflow fwiw people have told me some of my pieces look like they were made by a chinese/korean artist but I know there is still a lot missing to close that gap

>>2981680
play around with opacity/flow settings. Even using 60% hardness with med to low opactiy/flow setting as the strokes builds up it looks smooth. So you can control which area you want to be smooth/soft by applying more strokes.

>>2981976
Sorry, most people here are usually looking for shortcuts. Take a look at this tutorial. I think it's what you're looking for. It's a pretty complex subject, that would be difficult to explain here, post by post.

http://blackeri.cgsociety.org/art/marta-photoshop-dahlig-blackeri-judith-765115

>>2981680
This looks so blurry to me, is he still in progress by the end of the video or is this the end result? Or do I need glasses?

>>2982405
Looking at his other works this seems to be about the level of detail on head he uses for his full character paintings.

>>2982418
That's kind of disappointing..Even if all he did was clear up the eyes a little I think it'd look nicer, but that's just personal preference.