Glistening imperfections

Even Mr Beef has skin imperfections, so I use a mottled brush to add some subtle randomised noise over the flatter areas and lower face, then a hard-edged brush to add small creases and spots, particularly around the neck. For a glistening look, I paint smaller localised specular areas – but, as the primary light source is behind, just a few and as little patterns rather than flat whites.

Riveting water rivulets

Now that I’ve added the glistening highlights, the next step in creating that wet (rather than just oiled-up) look is adding rivulets of water. On a new layer I draw some black stream lines down the body with a flat brush. Then I set the layer to Soft Light mode and 15 per cent Opacity. I add a few specular dots at the end of some trails on a new layer to simulate droplets, and voilà, Mr Beefcake is starting to look like he needs a towel!

Layer selection