I'd absolutely love to know how you guys get your art to have a "soft" look overall.

For example:

compared to crisp art, like this:

Oh please give me your secret! :)

Thanks!!!

So disclaimer here, I don't use PS.

However, the same concept applies to any art program. The process is pretty simple. Just duplicate your horse stock layer and smudge the top one with a low opacity brush. That will give you the smooth plastic looking appearance. :)

In photoshop, I duplicate the layer and create a clipping mask with the second layer (keeps the edges neat). I then use the mixing brush tool on the moist setting and no brush load to soften the top layer. After that, I reduce the opacity of the top layer to somewhere between 50 and 70% and merge the layers

I also do a step of making a blank layer with clipping mask and painting over the highlights with white. I put that layer on the soft light setting and fiddle with the opacity until it looks right.

Another tool in PS that you can play around with is under the filters and is the remove noise filter. It may help give you a more smooth appearance.

I first reduce the noise on the horse layer, then use the smudge tool in PS with the intensity of 10% to get an even smoother look. But this has to be done carefully not to smudge out the details with muscle lines.

Thank you so much! I never knew about the noise filter! Hugs!!!

Once I complete the image I merge together all the layers, duplicate the one layer. Then on that top layer do a "Gaussian blur" and then set that layer to soft light and then reduce the opacity to where it looks good