Photoshop by Ridha Hajjaji

issue 01/2010

content

Simulation

Miguel Nogueira

In this tutorial, I will cover some useful and tricky techniques I have been using for a few years, especially in Sci Fi artwork. You will learn how to create cyborgs out of simple portraits.

photomanipulation Acanthus

Ian Jamieson

Astral Projection Miguel Nogueira

Remembering my childhood Claudia McKinney

Heaven can wait Jeannette Woitzik

photo restoring 8 16 22 26

creative class Dancer

Dariusz Palarczyk

Birdo

Neil Hanvey

Why so serious Nada Abdul Razak

Fabiano Hikaru Higashi

34 40 44

photo retouch Beauty Retouch Bryce Chapman

Professional Looking Portrait Andreea Alexandra Cernestean

Radosevic Alen

58 66

digital painting Jane Doe

Benoit Ladouceur

Sleepyheads Jeff Treves

76 82

tips&tricks Painting with Photoshop

typography The art of Typography

Old Photo Restoration

Bert Monroy

Stitching Multi Image Panoramic Files Jim Divitale 90

Welcome into the Digital World of Psd Photoshop! Thank you for downloading our magazine!

I should rather say â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Welcome again! As some of you may know Psd Photoshop had been put on hold for the past few months, however, in 2010 we are getting back on track with even more tutorials to follow. In order to reach more readers and make the magazine more available to all Photoshop users we have decided to go digital and create Free Psd Photoshop emagazine. Trying to satisfy all of our readers in each issue we will cover photo retouch, photomanipulation, picture restoring, digital painting and much more. The authors of our tutorials are from all over the world so their English is not perfect, however, who said we need perfect language skills to create an amazing piece of art!? We have also invited Photoshop Gurus such as Bert Monroy and Jim Divitale to be a part of our Editorial Team and give you the best techniques to improve your photoshop skills. I hope you will find Psd Photoshop very useful. If you are an artist yourself and have an amazing artwork you would like to share with our readers, please feel free to contact our Team. We love hearing from you! Thank you for your support! Marta Kobus Editor in Chief

advanced | 6-48 h. adobe photoshop CS

simulation Source Files

Simulation In this tutorial, I will cover some useful and tricky techniques I have been using for a few years, especially in Sci Fi artwork and how to create cyborgs out of simple portraits. It is a pretty simple and quick tutorial and I cannot cover it in a step-by-step tutorial, but I will do it by describing each of my techniques and how they work. This way, you will be learning much more than by following an exhausting and absurdly long tutorial. I find it to be much more helpful this way, going straight to the points. I recommend this tutorial to Photoshop users with relevant advanced skill or at the very least, know the basics of photomanipulation, including cropping and blending. Step 1

Using your stock, import it to Photoshop and start cropping out the background of your model and also a bit of the head we want to open, just like it is shown in picture.

Step 3

To make the cyborg line which is dividing the blue-looking jaw from the rest of the face, trace a line over the area with the pen tool. When this is done, pick a small, hard brush about 2-4 pixels. We can now right click with the convert point tool and select the option Stroke Path, hit OK! Change the Blending mode to Overlay or Multiply. Duplicate it a few times until you are pleased with the result. It depends on the skin tones of the model in some cases.

This is also the method that was used to trace the cyborg line over the subject's hand that holds the flower. It is a bit boring, but patience is necessary! Let's give it a little emphasis. There are several ways to do this. I either use an emboss/shadow effect to our line layer or manually paint some shadows with the burn tool on the bottom of the line. There is not really a right or wrong way to do it, as long as you get to a result that you are pleased with, no matter how it was done.

Step 2

After getting rid of all skin and human parts that we do not want, we should get something like this the following image. The process to remove the eyebrows is pretty simple, using your healing and clone tools and just brush them away. I generally find the healing tool to be the best pick, since it generates skin tones to match the missing eyebrow spot. Almost like magic!

.psd Photoshop

cover artist

Blending the engine onto skin is also pretty easy. We place the engines over the edges of our cuts on the head and desaturate them. The model's face and skin should also be duplicated and placed above the engine plastic parts, one of these skin layers set to hard light to better blend the skin shading onto the plastic and keep both, lights and other small details of the engine and human skin shadings. To finish, and depending on the skin tones of the model you are working with, you may also duplicate your engine stock and place it on top of the model, keeping the original colors (not desaturating them this time) and set it to Luminosity. I advise you to play around a bit with the blending modes to understand them fully, moving and organizing your model and stock layers in different ways to get a grip at what kind of results you can get. The stock you see also belongs to the same Gyro stock, how I did this one is not rocket science, just crop and adjust it as you please.

The support engines of the face were built up with relative simplicity, everything belongs to the same stock. If you look carefully, you can spot where I duplicated the engine and flipped it vertically. The trick is not to use too many different stocks or it may look too messy. It is about time to add our background. I really liked this grungy feel, so I used this texture I molded on my own, using several resources. The gamma-looking thing over the jaw of the cyborg was actually made out of a jelly fish and some painting. Using the smudge tool and vectorizing some shapes within, darkening the lower area with burn tool, while making those small lights with the pen tool and tracing with the 'Stroke Path' option. The hand was taken from the www.sxc.hu stock site. The perspective of the hand is not very hard to find, the flower however, you will have to crop around and blend it on the fingers, cropping it some and painting the shadows over the tips of the fingers with the burn tool. The cyborg arm was made out of the same piece we used for the head of the cyborg. We just now have to duplicate the head, and rotate it to fit. Just like the picture shows you. The final effects and blends can be done by applying the final image and duplicating it, play with the blending modes and curves, (I suggest Screen, Overlay and/or Soft Light) or you can even search around DeviantART for some custom actions. The reason of why we are doing this is to have our lights more focused on the center of our artwork, and right now they may be looking a bit off. And, we are done! This is more of a approach study of each technique used, rather than a step-by-step with every single thing laid out and detailed to the extreme. I simply think that it would have turned out into an absurdly long tutorial that nobody would even bother to look at, and worse, turn out very confusing. So instead, I hope this helped you out more! by Miguel Nogueira

Stock credits • •

.psd Photoshop

www.sxc.hu – engines http://twiggxstock.deviantart.com/ – model

acanthus Source Files

Acanthus Acanthus is a detailed photo illustration of a fantasy forest nymph that combines artistic stock photography with complex illustration and photomanipulation. The rich colours were inspired in part by the namesake 19th century wallpaper design by William Morris. Acanthus has been a popular design that has been featured on Artician.com as well as the Behance Network. Similar creative illustrations have been commissioned for various high profile clients.

Preliminary Considerations

The first step in this tutorial involves a consideration of stock photography and graphic resources. Firstly, because we will be illustrating the modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dress, we ideally want to avoid models that are wearing large amounts of clothing, so as to avoid needing to edit out bits of clothing later on. While some touchups of this sort may be required, it can get rather tricky and therefore it is best to keep the amount of clothing to a minimum. Secondly, you will want to choose a full body shot and a pose that is artistic or that implies motion. The dress will be drawn flowing with motion and your modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pose should ideally compliment this. Thirdly, we will want to choose a model with little or no background, so that we may isolate her with ease.

The other resources for the image include isolated autumn leaves and various woodcut ornaments, which can be sourced from old books and manuscripts, (some great resources include the Internet Archive and the Gutenberg Project), currency, and Google image search (be cautious that you do not infringe on image copyrights). Provided these are sufficiently clear and/or high enough resolution, they can be vectorised at a touch of a button in Adobe Illustrator. Another great resource is Go Media, who sell ready-made vector packs that often contain high quality vectorised ornaments suitable for this tutorial. Lastly, some ornamental brushes will be needed, and while there are brush sets available to download, I would encourage you to create your own, as it is quite easy.

Step 1

In Illustrator, create a template layer and place your model in this layer. Scale the image according to your desired canvass size. Now lock the layer, and create another layer above the template layer. This is where we will be working for the rest of our time in illustrator. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Step 2 Vector woodcuts

Deep-etch your collected woodcut resources in Photoshop and vectorise them using the live trace feature in Illustrator, by placing your etched .psd files within your illustrator document and clicking the Live Trace button that appears when the graphic is selected. Ideal tracing settings depend on the specific image at hand, but the mode must be set to Black and white, and leave ignore white unchecked as we will want a white fill in addition to the black strokes. A threshold setting of approximately 200 and a minimum area of 0px should yield the clearest images in most cases. The higher the threshold, and the lower the minimum area, the more detail you will retain. Delete any unwanted white background and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re set to go. To make tracing of the outlines more effective, it helps to apply a stroke to the outside of your etched woodcuts in photoshop before bringing them into illustrator. This gives them a more defined edge which makes it easier for illustrator to trace the outlines.

Step 3 Brushes

Ornamental brushes can be created by drawing with the pen tool, and dragging your creations into the Brushes palette, to create an art brush. You can also create brushes by dragging your vectorised woodcuts into the brushes palette. Specific brush settings depend on your desired artwork, but ticking the proportional option in the brush creation adds some nice dynamic scaling effects. The brushes must be drawn with a black stroke, and we will need a white fill behind the black line work. This can be in the form of a simple fill, or depending on the artwork, as a separate white shape arranged behind your black strokes. Two tools that you will find useful for this kind of line work is the Blend function under the Object menu, using specified steps under the blend options menu (see Step 3.2), and the Transform function under the Effects menu. The transform effect allows for fully-adjustable stepups and repeats of your pen strokes, allowing you freedom to multiply, rotate, scale and move your strokes. 10

.psd Photoshop

acanthus

04 Step 4

Now that we have created some bushes and vector woodcut elements, we can begin to layer them on top of the model in order to create her dress. How this is done is entirely open to your own creativity, but as you can see from this example (Steps 3.5 and 3.6), I created a rather intricate design using just a handful of woodcut graphics and brush strokes. On the torso, I concentrated using collections of small and short woodcut ornaments from currency and other sources. For the longer parts of the dress, I used long brush strokes and larger woodcut elements. While we will be doing most of the shading later in photoshop, at this point you may like to add drop shadows to your illustration to add a little depth while you are working in illustrator. However, I would suggest removing any effects before you bring everything over to photoshop.

05 Step 5

Once we have finished creating our dress in Illustrator, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to bring everything over to photoshop, within which we will be working for the remainder of this tutorial. Open up Photoshop, and create a new document according to your desired canvass size and resolution. Once you have created a new document, select File>Place ([Cntrl]+[D] on a PC or [Cmd]+[D] on a mac) and place the model stock photograph as a new layer, named model, any other name you prefer. At this point, you will want to isolate the model from the background, which you can do by drawing around her form with the pen tool and applying a layer mask, or by using any other preferred selection method and applying a layer mask in the same way.

Step 6

With both Illustrator and Photoshop open, go to illustrator and select the dress illustration with your selection tool. Copy this by pressing [Cntrl]+[C] or [Cmd]+[C]. Now go back into Photoshop, and press [Cntrl]+[V] or [Cmd]+[V] to paste the copied dress as a vector Smart Object. Name this layer as Dress or otherwise, and finally, scale it to fit over the model correctly. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Step 7

Now that we have successfully imported our vector artwork into photoshop, we can begin to make adjustments to our composition. The first logical step in this direction is to apply any necessary adjustments to the models skin and form. The perspective of my chosen stock photo

was undesirable, giving her the appearance of very large feet, and so I cut her feet into a new layer, and moved, rotated and scaled them into a better form and perspective. I also applied various beauty retouching techniques, especially blemish removal and skin tone smoothing, which fall outside of the scope of this tutorial.

Step 8

Once we are satisfied with our modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s form, we can move on to applying colour and detail to her dress. As it stands, the dress looks a little too clear, so we want to add some texture and imperfection. Select the dress layer, and 12

under the Layer Style menu in the Layers palate, select Pattern. Here you can add any desired texture. I chose to use a grassy pattern as this added a simple, yet effective noise texture. This is open to experimentation and you can add any desired pattern.

.psd Photoshop

acanthus

Step 9

Now we have a little more texture in our dress and it’s time to bring it to life with colour. I chose a delightful blue-green colour scheme consisting of camouflage green, forest green, grass green, olive, teal, aquamarine and stone, but you can let your creativity run free here. In the Adjustment Layer menu, select Photo Filter. There are of course different ways of applying colour through adjustment layers, but the photo filter feature allows for easy access to a comprehensive HSV colour space, while also offering the option to preserve luminosity and to apply alpha control. It is an often neglected, yet powerful tool. Choose your desired colour and name the photo filter accordingly. Now fill the layer mask on the photo filter with black to hide the effect. You may also like to apply the photo filter as part of a clipping group

(hold the alt key and place and click the cursor between the layers in the layer panel) so that it prevents your colouring from spilling over the edges of the dress. With the layer mask selected, take a white brush, with 100% opacity and flow, and a slightly soft/feathered brush tip, and paint over those elements of the dress that you want to apply the particular colour to. Create another photo filter with a different colour and repeat this action until you have coloured in the dress fully with your chosen variety of colours. My model’s bright red hair clashed terribly with the greens, so I also recoloured her hair, this time by creating a new layer above the model layer, filling this with my desired colour, setting the blending mode to color, and clipping this layer with a layer mask.

Step 10

Now our creation is really starting to take shape, but it’s looking a little flat since we have no background, depth and variation in lighting and shadow. Create a new layer at the very bottom of the layer palette, call it Background and fill it with black. We’ll come back to the background a little later, but for now this will give us a clearer view of the edges of our composition. Now we can add some shading to the dress. Create a new layer at the very top of the layers panel, call this Shading and set the blending mode to multiply. Now in the layers panel, hold down [Cntrl] (PC) or [Cmd] (mac) and click on the model layer to draw a selection. Now hold [Shift]+[Cntrl] (or CMD) and click on the dress layer. This will add both the woman and the dress to your selection. Now select

the Shading layer and click on the layer mask feature to add a clipping mask. This will restrict your shading to the girl and her dress. With a soft black brush with a low opacity of 5-10%, begin to add gradations of shading to the dress. Increase the opacity to add deeper shadows, and use a very low opacity and wide brush to add subtle global shading. Adding realistic shading requires a consideration of the direction of light sources, as referenced from the model, the path of the light and possible obstructions that cast shadow, and the basic rule that surfaces perpendicular to the light source will be brighter regions with less shadow.

.psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Step 11

Now that we have added shading, our model is really coming to life. This step involves adding a subtle green glow to the model, so as to soften the edges and reduce the contrast between the background and our model. Create a new layer above the background layer and call this green glow. Using a large soft

brush with a low opacity, paint around the model to create a subtle radiance. Once complete, right click on the layer and convert it to a smart object. Now got to the Filter menu>Noise>Add noise. Add 2% noise, with monochromatic and Gaussian selected. This will break any gradient banding that may occur.

Step 12

The final steps involve adding falling autumn leaves to both the foreground and background, and adding depth of field and motion to the latter. Starting with the background, Create a new layer group above the green glow layer and call this Background leaves. Inside this group, place a stock image of isolated forest litter, and name this layer as depth_of_field. Double click this layer to open up the .psd. Now right click this in the layers palette and select layer from background. Select the white background with the magic wand tool or Colour range feature under the Select menu and delete this selection, leaving only the leaves and on a transparent background. Save and close the .psd. Going back to the main photoshop file, select your depth_of_field layer and go to Filter>Blur>Motion blur. Choose your angle of motion and distance, in this 14

case 90 degrees vertical and 9px of distance. This blur feature will give your leaves depth of field and motion, lending great depth and movement to our composition. Now add a scatter of a few more single isolated leaves, increasing their size proportionately as they come closer to the foreground. In each instance, add a little Gaussian Blur to give them a certain depth within our depth of field, decreasing this as they come closer to the foreground, coming into focus with our model. Now it is unlikely that the lighting will be perfect on our leaves, so you may want to shade them a little in the same way we shaded the dress. Create a new layer above the leaves, call this leaves_ shading and set the blending mode to multiply. Use a soft back brush and a low opacity to paint in some shadows on to your background leaves.

.psd Photoshop

acanthus

Step 13

Now for the final step, the foreground leaves. Create a new layer group at the top of the layers panel. Now add some more isolated leaves, again increasing the size as they come closer to the foreground, and even making those at the very front quite large. Pay particular attention to the detail in colour and light-

ing with these leaves, again adding a shading layer and adjusting the colours and lighting of the specific leaves using the appropriate adjustment layers, such as Hue and Saturation and Levels. These you can apply to the specific leaves by turning them into clipping groups (hold the alt key and place and click the cursor between the layers in the layer panel).

Step 14

Now your composition is complete. You have a stunning forest nymph animated with great motion and detail complete with depth of field. Possibly your lighting may be a touch incorrect and as a final step you may want to do some overall light and colour adjustments, which you can do with the addition

of a Levels and Vibrance and Hue and Saturation adjustment layer at the very top of your layers panel.

.psd Photoshop

by Ian Jamieson

Astral Projection

This is a simple tutorial that will show you techniques to improve your work. It may help you with the details of your digital artwork, such as lighting, cropping and blending of textures and colors, and shapes. It is a simple and quick tutorial. If you already have basic knowledge of Photoshop and its main tools, you should not face any problems going through it. beginer | 1-6 h. adobe photoshop CS

astral projection

Source Files

Picking your stock pictures

I generally find this step is not fun at all. For your manipulation to turn into a great ones, instead of just good, you will have to be patient and be picky about the stock you choose. But, fear not! In this tutorial, I will provide you with all the stock resources you need.

The first steps is to organize the document

Open Photoshop and follow the steps: The easiest way is to just open the stock picture in Photoshop. Go to the navigation menu in Photoshop, select the menu File>Open and open the image of our model. Or, you can just drag the stock image Closeportrait_katlovestockdeviantart into Photoshop and start working on the same document. Duplicate the layer we have and set the original to invisible. You do this by clicking once over the little eye icon you see at the left side of the layer. (It is always good to have a backup of the original picture so you can always go back and get another duplicate of the original in case you need, or in case you just mess things up!) Select the image we are working with by pressing the [Ctrl]+[T] shortcut, then lower its position just a little bit. (We are doing this in order to let our tree have some more space to be noticed on the top of the head.) Let's make a new layer group by hitting [Ctrl-G] and putting our model picture inside. (I renamed the group to Model contrast, because we will do just that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; boost the contrast of the details with the Photoshop default blending modes. You may rename this folder to whatever you please.)

Reworking our stock, boosting contrast and lightning.

Model... model... model! Head over to the group of layers we just made and duplicate the layer of our model. Now select the newly duplicated layer on the top, and set its blending mode to Screen. (This will bring a whole new life to the lightning and contrast levels of our model, but we are not done yet!' .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Cropping with the Pen tool and masking.

(If you already know cropping using the pen tool and masks, this step may be skipped, otherwise I will be explaining it next.) It is about time that we get rid of the white background from the stock picture. The one way I have found to remove backgrounds in an image is to use the Photoshop Masks and Pen tool. Don't worry, I will guide you through it! Select our Model group (Make sure the group is selected, not the layer, but the whole group) and apply a Photoshop Mask to it. You do this by clicking on the icon shown in the picture. Now make sure you click the white rectangle that has appeared after the name of the layers group (Also known as Photoshop Mask). We have to make sure we have it selected so we apply the crop to the mask and not the picture. Using the Pen tool ([P] key on your keyboard), start laying out dots over the white background that you want to remove and around the model. (I recommend you to zoom in a bit to get a more accurate sight of what you are selecting.) Tip for more accurate cropping with the Pen tool:

Notice in the picture that I am laying out the dots on the end of each curve of the shape of the model. That is all we need, really. Let's see why in this next step: Now that we have our selection, we are going to convert all those plain lines into curves. Hold the mouse over the Pen tool icon for a second and pick the Convert tool point tool. Then start converting, as shown in picture. Once everything is done, you may right click over your image with the same tool still selected and pick the option called Make Selection Select the Mask you have after your group folder and take out your Brush tool to proceed to paint the background with pure black. (This works as sort of like an Eraser tool, the problem is, that if you mess things up with Eraser and remove something you did not want to, you cannot go back to have that piece you deleted, unless you perform an Undo. This is not always available. With masks, you can just paint the mask with a pure white color and watch your background you just removed, coming back to life!)

Applying textures and keeping shapes!

Our next step is going to be importing the textures that come with the Stock folder of this tutorial. Import them to the Photoshop document, create a group for them and send the model group to the back of our texture collection. Drag the texture Vintage3-03 to the bottom of our texture group and set the blending mode to Hue, followed by Fill of about 40%. (This will darken the shape of our model a bit, so the textures which we are going to apply will not make her look too bright.) What happens now is that our texture is not large enough to cover all the image! Stretching it is out of question, since you would lose minor details. This is important to make a great looking manipulation from an okay looking manipulation! But, enough of all that, select our current texture layer and duplicate it. Then proceed to Edit> Transform and flip the texture on the vertical. After all that, merge the two layers and re-position the texture to cover the whole image area. Now that we begin to have that funky look, let's repeat the previous 5.3 step, to enlarge our other texture Vintage3-02. Duplicate the new texture three times. Set the layer next to the Vintage3-02 texture to Hard 18

Light and the others on the top of it to Soft Light. Set the texture layer on the top to a Fill value of 46%. And if you did everything as mentioned, it should look like what is shown in the snapshot! Notice now that the textures are not correctly blending to the model's skin. So, we need to find a way to keep the color and texture details, but also bring out the shading of the skin more. Don't worry, it is actually pretty simple. Duplicate our Model contrast group and bring it to the top of the Layers palette. Open the group and delete the layer that is in Screen mode. You now have your model in normal blending mode, but now set it now to Luminosity. Looking better already, but still not quite what we want. The original shading of the model's skin is now stronger than the textures. This can be easily fixed by Saturating the image. ([Ctrl]+[Shift]+[U]) The look is still too dark, so we will fix this by heading to the top navigation menu of Photoshop: Image>Adjustments>Brightness and Contrast, as shown in the picture. You may also play with the Curves and Exposure options within the same menu, until you get the look you are after.

.psd Photoshop

astral projection

Boosting details

With the Luminosity layer of your model still selected, select your Dodge Tool, (Press [O] on your keyboard) and start painting some of the light areas over the skin as shown. (Works very well with a soft brush along with a soft opacity level over the already brighter parts of the skin.) It is time to remove that background from the texture, to do this, simply press [Ctrl] key on your keyboard and click once over the mask of the model. This will give you the same selection you made with the Pen tool in a previous step, now it is much easier to remove the

backgrounds. Make sure you invert the selection ([Ctrl]+[Shift]+[I]) before going to the textures group and removing that background. Looking pretty good so far, huh? But, we are not finished yet. Notice the lack of shading between the belly and the chest? We can fix that by painting the surroundings with a soft black brush. If you have some custom painting brushes, it will make the task much easier and you can easily find many of them for free on DeviantART. When you are finished, set your painted shadows to Multiply.

The Background

Finally, we will add a real background for our work, personally, since I do not feel like spending a whole lot of time manipulating my very own spacescape, I opted to use one that you may find in the Stock folder. Simply import it to Photoshop and drag it all way down in your layers palette. Bringing it

down behind your subject. We are almost there! It is starting to get the mood we want and we now have to do the same with the textures, since before they where too small to fit the whole image size. Duplicate the layer and flip it vertically.

.psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

The Tree

The tree is actually pretty simple to blend. Import the tree and resize it to fit the area above the head as you see fit. After doing this, simply set the blending mode of the tree layer to Darken. (This works perfectly to remove

any white background. You may also try to duplicate the tree layer and play around with the blending modes for different effects.)

The Petals.

I could not find where I got the petals from, but I believe it was from the www.sxc.hu site. This is actually a pretty simple step. Just crop them around, one by one, by duplicating the petals layer and playing around with the blending modes, until they fit the lightning. Use the friendly dodge and burn tool to emphasis this effect. Adding movement to the petals is also easy. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur menu and play with the settings until you are pleased with the preview and click OK! Congratulations. We made it! Picture of the final work attached to here by Miguel Nogueira

Stock credits: • • • •

.psd Photoshop

www.sxc.hu – Additional stocks, such as tree and petals http://cloaks.deviantart.com/ – The textures http://katlovestock.deviantart.com/ – The model http://resurgere.deviantart.com/ – The background

medium | 3 h. adobe photoshop CS4 | cintiq wacom tablet

childhood Source Files

Remembering My Childhood I wanted to create a textured piece filled with emotion and light trying to convey a time in my life that was carefree and joyous. This piece is all about using color and textures and I urge you, if you feel daring, to try your own colors and textures and create something really unique to you. Create something that makes you reminisce about your own childhood. Expect this to be a little time consuming – not too bad – but enough to practice getting tones and light just so. Try to pay attention to texture detail – placing it in the right places, so as to add to your picture. Sometimes this is what can make or break a picture. If you put too much, it will take away from what you are trying to achieve. Just the right amount can make it perfect for the emotion you are trying to convey in the picture. Have fun!

Step 1

Start by choosing a simple background. Play with the settings by duplicating the layer and hiding it (in case you mess up), then duplicate your shown background and play with the blending modes. I usually try Soft Light or Multiply at lower opacities (soft light gives more depth and multiply adds drama).

Step 2

Get your model ready, then apply a mask to her layer. I usually leave a little shadow around the base (as you will notice here), so that when blending the final image, I can add more or take away the excess. This also helps with the natural shadows around her feet. Being that this is a more texturized piece, I did not have to be as rigid in the masking process as in some of my other pieces. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Step 3

Begin adding textures via various blend modes. Here, I added a texture of sky and grass at full opacity with the soft light mode. I did not mask anything in this particular piece because it all blended together perfectly for me. You will note that below this layer, I have a ray of light that is set to screen at 7% opacity just to give a slight sense of light to the left of my model.

Step 4

This is where you can really begin to see the image come together. Play with all kinds of textures. Sometimes pictures you would never think could work will work the best for you! In this picture, I used several cloud textures and one water texture. Remember to mask the parts you do not want and keep balance in the image. I also painted my modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hair to add more of the windswept feel to the scene. Remember to keep the hair on its own layer. Finally, make a Curves adjustment to add depth and clarity to your image. Lower the opacity if it's too strong.

Step 5

After you merge all the layers together, duplicate them, then go to Image>Adjustments>Shadows/ Highlights and experiment with the sliders to see what kind of depth or highlights can be brought to your image. That's all. Remember â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is all in the textures and blend modes. by Claudia McKinney 24

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Heaven Can Wait medium | 2 h. adobe photoshop CS4

heaven can wait Source Files

Let's start+ Create a Landscape

To begin, create a new document (file>new) with an image size of 1600 x 1600 px and 300dpi. Name it heaven can wait and click OK. To create the landscape open the file sky.jpg and dragand-drop it with the Move Tool [v] in to your new document. Do the same with ground.jpg. To keep everything straight, it is useful to rename the layers by double clicking on the name in the layers panel and changing it to something useful.

Dynamic

To get a more dynamic sky you have to distort the clouds (edit>transform>distort). You will see a frame with eight markers around the layer. To distort the image you can drag the corner markers and stretch them. To apply the transformation, hit Enter.

Perspective

In the same way you add perspective to the ground (edit>transform>perspective), activate the ground-layer and drag the corner markers to correct the perspective (see figure). This will momentarily render the image very muddy, but after applying the transformation it will become clear. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

More depth

The next step is to create a layer for the haze. Click on the new layer button in the layers palette and rename it. Take a white brush with 0% hardness and an opacity <10% and paint along the horizon.

Let the sun shine

Create a new layer for the sun, using a white brush with 200px and 100% opacity. Your first click will be the center of the sun. Now, hold the position of your brush and change the brush's diameter and opacity by pressing the number keys and [#]. You will always need one click, then followed by one of the settings: • • • •

600px – 80% 1000px – 60% 1500px – 40% 2500px – 10%

Add the easel+Prepare the Canvas

Open the file easel.png and add it to your image using the Move Tool [v]. For the next step, you have to hide this layer temporarily by clicking on the eye-icon. Make sure that your sun-layer is activated and first go to Select>All, then Edit>Copy Merged and finally Edit>Paste. You can also use the shortcut [Strg]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[e] to copy the visible layers. Name this new layer canvas and set it on the top of the layer's palette. 28

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heaven can wait

Build the Canvas

Now it is time to unhide the easel and transform the canvas with Edit>Free transform. You also can use [Strg]+[t] and drop down the menu by clicking the right mouse button to add perspective to the canvas.

Frame

To build the canvasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s frame duplicate the easellayer and move [v] the duplicated layer to the right edge of the canvas (see figure). Create a black layer mask by holding down the [Alt]-key while clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon. All pixels in this layer are hidden now. Using a white brush, you can paint the parts you want to keep in your image. Make sure that the layer mask is activated. In the same way you can build the frame on the top of the canvas.

09 Canvas-look+Connection

To get a typical canvas-look, go to Filter>Texture >Texturizer and choose Canvas, Scaling 91 and Relief 1. Create a Clipping Mask above the canvas (layer>new, activiate clipping mask) and use the Brush Tool to paint a shadow around it. Use a dark gray brush with a 40% opacity. In this step you will build a connection between the two images and let the clouds fly off the canvas. Duplicate the canvas-layer, and put it on the top of the layers palette. Then, move the clouds towards their correct position (reduce opacity for a better view). As in step 10, you create a black layer mask and use a brush to paint the clouds into your image. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

Extract the birds

Now, open the file birds.jpg and add it to your image. You can get a transparent background by choosing blending options (double click in the layer). Slide the white triangle to the left until the sky in the image is completely gone. Split the sliders by holding the [Alt]-key to make a more accurate attempt and then click OK. To use this layer for the next step you have to create a new layer below the birds and choose Merge down.

Let them fly

With [Strg]+[t] you can transform the birds like you see it in the figure. To get the white birds, you have to duplicate and invert [Strg]+[i] this layer. Create white layer masks for both bird-layers by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon. By using a black brush you can hide the parts you do not need.

Shadow

To get a more realistic look, add a shadow on the ground. Create a new layer below the easel-layer and use a dark gray brush with 0% hardness and 60% opacity to paint the shadow. Set the blending mode to Multiply and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur, amount 20px. You can also reduce the layerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opacity to adjust the shadow. 30

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Easelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fine-tuning

Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer by clicking the marked symbol to adjust the contrast of the easel. Use [Strg]+[Alt]+[g] to get a Clipping Mask. The easel also needs shadows. As in step 11, you create a new layer as a Clipping Mask and paint the shadows with a small brush with 15% opacity. Finally set the blending mode to Multiply.

Texture

Now it is time for the texture. Open the file and drag-and-drop it with the Move Tool [v] into your image. Transform it with [Strg]+[t] and set the blending mode to soft light.

More impact

To give the image more contrast add a new Levels Adjustment Layer (as in step 16) and adjust the midtones (see figure). Because of the texture, the edges are too dark now. You can correct it by painting in the layer mask as you see in the figure. Another way to get more contrast is to create a Black and White layer in the Soft Light blending mode, with 50% opacity. .psd Photoshop

photomanipulation

16 The End

The last Adjustment Layer will add the Hue. Choose Solid Color (db8a17), set the blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity. Finally, use [Strg]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[e] to copy the layers once again and go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask with the settings 50 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 20 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 0. Set the opacity to 50% and reduce the sharpness of the ground by painting in the mask. That is it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to send me an e-mail: frauschnette@gmail.com by Jeannette Woitzik

.psd Photoshop

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Future Plans

123RF.com has plans to start accepting and licensing Editorial Images in the beginning of February 2010, and if the PSDMag community would ilke to contribute to 123RF.com and receive a tidy sum for your creative works, 123RF.com’s doors are always open. Wait! There’s more! What’s in it for PSD Mag Readers? A feature you’ll love is 123RF.com’s Monthly blog articles (http://www.123rf.com/blogs) on Photo Retouching, Montaging and Design using the latest Adobe Photoshop tricks and know-how from our Expert Photo Retouchers. 123RF.com – For all your creative needs. .psd Photoshop

beginer | 3 h. adobe photoshop CS3

dancer Source Files

Dancer This tutorial shows how to create dynamic illustration. We will concentrate on masking and adjusting colour parameters mainly. We will learn how to use blending mode of layers and how to use pen tool. We will put parts of stocks to use in order to improvement defects and elaborate details.

Step 1

Lets create a new document with 4000x3163px dimension and fill the first layer with black. Create a folder named BG and open a picture skyscrapers.jpg in a new layer fitting it proportionally to the width of the document. Next move up whole layer like it is depicted in the picture above.

Step 2

Now we take care of making the sky in right and left corner uniform. Thus, using the rectangular marquee tool we select a 1500x750px area in a top left corner we copy [Ctrl]+[C] and paste it [Ctrl]+[V] into a new layer, flipping it horizontally (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal). Next we move this layer to the top right corner, change the blending mode (Darken) and mask out the redundant parts. .psd Photoshop

creative class

Step 3

Using (Selective Color) and (Curves) we choose the appropriate colors for the city.

Step 4

Create new layer by choosing (Image>Apply image) and click OK. Use filter (Filter>Blur>Radial blur) with the following settings: Amount: 100, Blur method: Zoom, Quality: Best. Change the layer blending mode to (Color Dodge) and set the opacity to 75%. Mask edges of the layer in a way, that the light is focused in the central part of the city.

Step 5

Create another new layer choosing (Image>Apply image). Blend a whole (Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur) Radius: 8px, masking this time a central part of the layer. This way, we obtain a depth of field. 36

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dancer

Step 6

Add new folder named Dancer. Open a picture and cut everything except the floor and a dancer. Below the layer with dancer we place a floor floor.png, which I have prepared by copying parts of the original picture with (Clone stamp) tool. Now we mask the layer with a dancer (Layer>Layer mask>Reveal all) with a soft brush: Master diameter 300px, Hardness 12px, Opacity 55% in a way to make the layers match each other. Next we select both layers and merge them together [Ctrl]+[E]. Then we duplicate the layer [Ctrl]+[J], change its mode to (Overlay) and opacity to 45%.

Step 7

Now load a texture.png file and scale it to 42% of a whole picture size. Then we push [Ctrl]+[T] and adjust the height of the texture to the height of the floor. Having the transformation active [Ctrl]+[T], we choose (Edit>Transform>Perspective) and having a (Shift) key pushed, we move one of the top corners of the picture to the center.

Step 8

Mask the texture edges with a soft brush and remove it parts in a place where the dancersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hands and a head appear. Set the blending mode to (Soft light) and change a texture color with (Image>Adjustment>Hue/Saturation). .psd Photoshop

creative class

Step 9

Create a new folder Stones in a Dancer folder. We cut the part with a broken floor out of the layer and move it into a Stones folder. We duplicate it, and set the blending mode of the stone in the underlying layer to (Multiply). Now we return to the stone in the above layer and rotate it about -15% and move it to achieve the look that it is falling off. Repeat this step for all the stones, remembering about setting the appropriate degrees of tilt for stones placed in the upper layers.

Step 10

Create another folder named Dust. In this step we will focus on masking and appropriate placement of elements. Lets open dust1.jpg, reduce its size and change the blending mode to (Screen). We move the layer into a suitable place and mask it this way to make the dust appear above the dancer. Next, using (Image>Adjustments >Hue/ Saturation) we give it a color matching the rest of illustration. Repeat this work using also the second picture dust2.jpg. To obtain a better result it is worth to differentiate a dust masking in a such way, so it would appear in front of a dancer.

Step 11

Create a new layer in a folder. Using a (Pen tool) set to (Path) we draw a path on which the lace will stretch. We change the brush parameters: Master diameter 15px, Hardness 100%, Opacity: 100%, Flow: 100% and go to the (Path) tab. Click the layer containing a path with right button and select (Stroke path). In a new window select (Simulate pressure) and click OK. 38

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dancer

Step 12

Now we go to the layer properties and set (Bevel and Emboss) and (Gradient overlay). In the same way we create another shoelace. We add layersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; masks and using a brush we hide the shoelaces in parts where they should appear behind buildings and dancer.

Step 13

Restore default color settings [D] and choose (Layer>New fill layer>Gradient). Pick the following settings: Style: Radial, Scale: 150% and set the (Reverse) option. Now flatter the layer (Layer>Rasterize>Layer) and change its blending mode to (Soft light). In case, when the illustration became too dark, you should mask a its central part with a soft brush or just change the opacity.

Step 14

At the end, the only thing we are left to do, is to create a folder SET containing the setting for a whole illustration. We do this using (Curves) and (Selective color). Additively, on a new layer having blending mode set to (Screen), we create a light effect using brush with #d73015 color and following settings: Master diameter: 1600px, Hardness: 0px, Opacity: 100%, Flow: 100%. by Dariusz Palarczyk .psd Photoshop

medium | 2 h. adobe photoshop

birdo Source Files

Birdo This tutorial will show you how to color a sketch using masks and blending modes. There are a few tricks along the way and some useful shortcuts for completing illustrations quickly. This tutorial will take approximately two hours,but it depends on how quick you are at sketching and coloring. Hopefully, at the end of this tutorial I will have made you a lot faster

Accompanying image

I start with a basic pen and paper sketch scanned into Photoshop. This is my basic sketch, inked using fine writer pens. You should try a sketch with a lot of detail to get the most out of this technique.

Accompanying image

Use the Magic Wand tool to make an outline selection of the bird. Select Layer via Copy ([Ctrl]+[J]) to have an isolated copy of the bird on a new layer. Now erase the content of the background layer and fill it with a rich red color. I used #972608, but any red color will do just fine. Finally set the bird sketch layer to Multiply. If you look at the completed.psd file, you will have seen that I have my bird and lettering in different layers. I created this file like this so that you can try adding your own text. To get the nice autumn green's, brown's and red's in the finished image you are going to have to use some magic later on. For the moment, the colors we want to use are the most luminous and day-glow 80's as possible. Think pink, turquoise, electric blue and so on. You might want to create your own swatch at this point of bright colors. Use the magic wand to create another outline selection of the sketch layer and click on the red background layer. Press [Ctrl]+[J] to make a new layer from this selection. You should now have a red silhouette on a layer between the background and the sketch. This layer will act as the mask for our colors, highlights and shadows. Pick a suitable hard round brush and create a new layer above the red silhouette. Right click the layer in the layers palette and choose Create clipping mask. Now we can begin to add some color to our bird. .psd Photoshop

creative class

03 Accompanying image

Apply a block color to each section of the bird. Do not worry about shadows or highlights at this point. Color every feather and if everything is going according to plan, you should have a vividly, bright picture of the bird. If the colors seem dull make sure to liven them up a bit more. Try to use white sparingly, maybe the whites of its eyes, the odd feather and any teeth. Once you have the block colors finished you can start thinking about shadows. Create a new layer above the block color and set it as a clipping mask. For shadows I like to select a medium light gray and simply paint over the places they are needed. If you set the blend mode of the shadow layer to Multiply, it should start to give definition to all of the feathers.

04 Accompanying image

After the shadows are finished, create a new layer above to add highlights. The highlights allow us to make certain parts of the image pop out a little more. Use a small, solid white brush set to about 40% opacity. We just want to give the larger areas some shine, so do not go overboard with this step. For the next step we want a good grainy texture. Something like a card without too many creases in it. For textures I like to raid my recycling bin, since it is usually full of empty packaging, cereal boxes and brown paper bags. Scan in a texture to a new canvas and do a quick select all and copy. Switch back to the bird canvas and make a selection of the sketch layer with the magic wand. Now press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[V] to paste the texture into this selection. If your drawing has any areas that you do not want to texture (like teeth or the whites of eyes), use the eraser to get rid of those parts. Once you have your texture in place, change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply. Repeat this process again, but this time set your blend mode to Overlay and drop the opacity to about 50%.

Accompanying image

Now that we have the bird near completion we are going to take a look at the background. Paste the full texture we created before above the red background layer that we created at the start of the tutorial. Set the blend mode of the layer to Multiply. Now the next step is something that I use quite a lot when creating single character illustrations and is a quick method for creating detailed backgrounds. Make a duplicate of the sketch layer and place it between the texture and background layers. If you have duplicated the sketch layer remember, to change its blend mode from Multiply back to normal. Using the arrow tool (V) hold down Alt key and drag the sketch around to create duplicates around the screen. Try to make sure that you make this duplication placement as random as possible. Once you have a nice back repetition merge, all of these sketch layers into one layer. Invert this layer using ]Ctrl]+[I] and set the blend mode of this layer to Overlay. Add a vector mask to this layer. If you have not done this before, with the inverted layer selected look for a small icon at the bottom of the layers palette with a white circle inside a grey square. Click this icon and a linked mask should appear above. The mask is white at first showing the entire inverted sketch. We want to get rid of the outer edge of this layer, so select a soft edged brush and simply paint black onto the canvas. If you still have the mask selected, the inverted sketch should start to be erased. Duplicate the texture layer above the inverted sketch. Select the bottom most of the two texture layers and erase the center using a large soft brush. Aim for a shape similar in dimensions to the inverted sketch layer. 42

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birdo

Accompanying image

Create a new layer and open the splats.abr brush file. These brushes were created by my wife a few years back using Indian ink, a pipette and a thin card. Choose one of the larger splats and open the brush options. Change the angle jitter to full and paint a rough white 'bleed' around the bird. Create a new layer above this and, using the same brush, paint a slightly smaller bleed in yellow. Now set both of the blend modes on these layers to Overlay. Once you have done this move back to the bird to add some outlines.

Accompanying image

Duplicate the base color layer of the bird twice by selecting the layer and pressing [Ctrl]+[J]. On the lower copy open the layer styles by double clicking on the layer in the layers palette. Click stroke and add a thick black stroke about 25 pixels thick. On the copy above repeat this stroke, but make it slightly thinner and dark green.

Accompanying image

The last thing to do is add the magic layer that ties all the colors together. Create a new layer above all the other layers and fill it with a beige skin tone color. Finally, set the blend mode to Hue and the opacity to 75% and we are done. The Hue mode is perfect for giving an unexpected touch to these kinds of drawings since it gives fantastic results and is easily editable. by Neil Hanvey .psd Photoshop

Why So Serious

In this tutorial you will learn how to play with gradient colors textures. medium | 2-3 h. adobe photoshop CS2

why so serious Source Files

Step 1

Draw any object & you can use references if you want, using (Polygonal Lasso Tool) because we want some sharp ending. Here I draw a woman so I start to draw her body first, and note that you don't have to draw details.

Step 2

Color your art, for me I used ([#fad5a6] for skin, [#efc590] for the shadow on the skin, & [#fbdbb3] for the light). Always in my work I use three colors to color the object, the main color, a darker color for shadows & a lighter color for lights.

Step 3

Add a new layer and draw the hair and color it with [#ffffff] , then go to layer>layer style>Gradient Overlay, & choose these sittings: • • • • .psd Photoshop

Blend mode: Normal Opacity: 100% Gradient: #ffffff & #fff8be uncheck Reverse Style: Liner check Align with layer Angle:90 Scale:100% 45

creative class

Step 4

Merge all the layers together by [ctrl] and select all the layers then click [ctrl]+[E] then Go to layer>layer style>stroke, and choose • • • • •

Size: 2Position: Outside Blend mode: Normal Opacity:100% Fill type: Color Color: #826c46 Then click OK

Step 5

Draw the lips in another layer using the same tool & color it with [#ff998e], then draw the eyebrows coloring them with [#826c46] the same color we used for stroke before.

Step 6

Draw the sun glasses shape and after coloring it with white color change the opacity for the layer to 50%. 46

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why so serious

Step 7

Draw the glasses and fill it with black strips pattern and change the opacity to 25%.

Step 8

Color the background with (Gradient tool) using these tow colors [#ed53ff] and [#6ef9e4].

Step 9

Use (BDBrick) font to write (Why So Serious), using these sizes (why=163pt, so=163pt, serious=72pt) note that we are trying to cover most of the body area not the whole body, then changed the fill to 0%, then go to layer>layer style>Gradient Overlay and coose the tow colors [#eed115] & [#fd1e55], then add white stroke size [9px] At the end go to Edit>transform>rotate: -20.5. .psd Photoshop

creative class

Step 10

Select all the layers and click [Ctrl]+[E] to merge them.

Step 11

Add an old yellow paper in another layer and change its mode to Multiply.

Step 12

Add a big splatters brush in a new layer using dark gray color I used [#3f412d] and change its mode to Soft light. 48

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why so serious

Step 13

Add some dots and circles around the object & stroke them with size [3 px] using [#4f3e15] color.

Step 14

For the frame, draw a light yellow frame using (Rectangular Marquee tool).

Step 15

On another layer use splatter brush on the edges of the frame & merge these layer with the frame layer. .psd Photoshop

creative class

Step 16

Go to layer>layer style>Pattern Overlay and choose any dots patterns you have, then add a new layer then select the new layer and the pattern layer then click [Ctrl]+[E] to merge them.

Step 17

17th: Go to layer>layer style>Gradient Overlay use these three colors ([#ff331e], [#ffb57a], [#fff8cc]).

Step 18

After you finish add some artistic touch, I added a TATU stars & some texture to the frame. by Nada Abdul Razak 50

.psd Photoshop

advanced | 180 min. adobe photoshop CS3

the art of typography

The art of Typography How to use text to create a great piece Not so long ago, typography was an art confined to a restricted group of scholars who worked on the old type foundries, demanding specific knowledge to understand its complex design procedures and a high artistic sensibility to capture the subtle way of how the letter and its spaces interact. In addition, it required from the typographer not only special skills in the handling of different fonts, sizes and text boxes, but also great patience and dedication, once the arduous process of making a piece took days, even weeks. Only with the evolution of new technologies the work became more democratic. The computer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly the advent of software â&#x20AC;&#x201C; enhanced all the working instruments developed by men, making them more dinamic, pratical and accessible. Mankind contemplated a huge turn of events in the modus operandi of every single profession, giving to the technical-scientific knowlegde the hard task of managing an almost endless array of tools to develop a wide variety of projects. Some radical specialists like to classify this technological effervescence as the Third Industrial Revolution. Other, less enthusiastic, afirm that these events are nothing but a natural consequence of the wave of innovation that characterized the 20th century. Whatever the verdict is, both sides agree on one point: revolution is a term that fits perfectly to the field of graphic design.

We are a lucky generation. Nowadays, any amateur is able to create a good piece. The flexibility of computer has helped graphic design to become multipurpose, fast and highly effective. Within this new avantgarde, typography protested with all of its strength, renewed by a voracious generation of young designers who are creating a new paradigm of artistic expression. Playing with type has now become the fashion. The goal of this tutorial is to help you creating a consistent piece entirely based on typography. Learn some basic techniques to get harmonious layouts and improve your composition skills.

01 Choose a theme

Before developing any piece, you got to have a theme in your mind. What do you want to communicate? What ideas you want to expose? Which sensations you want to transmit? Having these goals defined, creativity occurs more easily, speeding up the entire workflow. A picture is worth a thousand words. A good idea is worth a thousand awful pieces. The goal of Typography was to show a composition study without telling anything by words. That's why the whole piece is messy and purposely meaningless.

Define a structure to your composition

Every good piece is planned before made. Some of the solutions appear during the implementation, but most of them must be drafted even before you open a window in the program. Use the paper and the pencil rather than the screen and the mouse. Sketch the biggest amount of ideas, shapes and elements that comes to your mind. Try patterns that make your layout harmonious, always imagining its possible results. As a guide, draw from two to three lines that will sustain the whole composition. Arrange them in various ways: crossing, interlacing, putting in parallel etc. Imagine yourself alocating the elements, filling gaps and valuing spaces. Since we are working with typography, these spaces will be filled with types and text boxes. Draw at least ten possible variations of these guide lines on a piece of paper, and then put them side by side. Trust in your artistic intuition and choose the one that best suits you.

.psd Photoshop

typography

Color palette

This step deserves a special attention. A good first impression only happens when you choose your palette carefully. The way you spread it though the artwork is what will define its beauty (or its ugliness). There are certainly hundreds of beautiful acromathic artworks, but for our study, we are assuming the use of color as a tool to make your piece more attractive. To get a nice palette, try to use a color wheel. There are many ways of extracting good combinations from it. Paralell colors express a certain mood, inverse colors are complementary and so forth.

04 Fill your artwork

Only now the true work begins. The dashed lines are now useful for guiding the whole composition (fig. 004). In the example, they divide the canvas in at least three assimetric spaces that can be placed between empty and full. Enjoy the variety of colors you selected previously and keep yourself limited to those colors in order to create some consistency. Try to always use colors that matches and avoid visual redundancies. Be creative when filling the empty spaces. Resize the types in different ways, overlay it, make new shapes and text boxes. Use your imagination and don't be afraid of failing! The computer gave us all the incredible hability of going back on earlier steps if you eventually did something wrong ([ctrl]+[z]/[cmd]+[z]).

Text column

In the example, I wrote random words and stacked them in column. And then I grouped them in a folder (by selecting them all and pressing [ctrl]+[g]/ [cmd]+[g]), merged it ([ctrl]+[e]/[cmd]+[e]) and inverted the whole set in order to purposely disturb readability.

.psd Photoshop

the art of typography

Retro type

The stylized [P] was made from strokes with equal thickness and disposed in parallel, each using a color from the palette selected previously. To make it in Photoshop, open a new window ([ctrl]+[n]/[cmd]+[n]) and activate the grid by pressing [ctrl]+[']/[cmd]+[']. Press ctrl+r/cmd+r to activate the ruler. If you wish to make more accurate guide lines, click on the ruler, hold the button and drag the line to where you want. Repeat the process until you get a custom grid. Select the shape tool, hold the shift button and make a simetric circle. Duplicate the layer for that circle, change its color and reduce its size to two modules of the grid. Make this step once again, again changing its color. The overlapping layers give the impression of symmetrical strokes. Repeat the task until you have five different of those (the last circle should be white). Now go to the layer window, select them all and group ([ctrl]+[g]/[cmd]+[g]). Duplicate the group (right-click on it>duplicate group) and merge it ([ctrl]+[e]/[cmd]+[e]). Hide the preview of the assembly folder by clicking in the eye icon. Keep it hidden. If you make a mistake, you can go back to it. From now on, we will work with the merged layer only. Select the marquee tool and draw a horizontal rectangle in a very narrow section of the circle. Press [ctrl]+[j]/[cmd]+[j] to create a new layer from this selection. Press [ctrl]+[t]/[cmd]+[t] to resize this new shape and increase it's lenght. After that, go to the layer window and select the layer below (the one from the circle). Select the marquee tool and dash rectangle in the lower left quadrant. Activate the grid ([ctrl]+[']/[cmd]+[']) to use it as guide. Delete the part you selected. Once again, select a small section of the strokes, duplicate it, and increase its lenght until it touches the other side.

Sources

The art was largely made by cutting and pasting. Gather the biggest amount of journals, articles, newspapers as possible. Scan them, cut out parts of their sections and fill in the gaps in ways you find interesting. .psd Photoshop

typography

Texture

For the texture, I scanned an old piece of paper em 600 dpi. With some curves and level adjustments, I improved the contrast and saturation. Then, I created a radial lightening spot though the lightening effects filter (filter>render>lightening effects) to make it more elegant. Finally, I applied it over the whole artwork and set the blending mode to multiply.

Reminder!

Professional typography is very different from typography as an artistic expression. The empty spaces must be valued, the writing process is strictly based on grids and the choice of typefaces are carefully made. And that's how it should be. Because the goal of typography is not to create artworks, but to make information clear, concise and beautiful.

Final considerations

Now you are ready to launch your artwork. Ask friends their opinion, post it in your blog. The goal now is showing the world your talent. Good luck! by Fabiano Hikaru Higashi 56

.psd Photoshop

contributing writers Miguel Nogueira

cover artist

Alen Radošević

Miguel Nogueira is young and self taught digital artist and beginner photographer. Having taken a degree in arts and multimedia in general during the years of 2004 to 2008 where he learned to improve his skill set on another whole range of different art mediums, from traditional graphics, photography, videoclips and soundtrack producing. http://ignition-chemistry.deviantart.com/

Alen Radosevic is a self-taught digital and traditional artist from Serbia. After years of scribbling comics, he discovered digital painting in 2001 and began a journey to discover this beautiful new digital world. At the same time, he enjoys the freedom of traditional painting and continues exploring his inner-self through art. www.malidm.deviantart.com

Claudia McKinney

Bryce Chapman is a 19 year old upcoming digital artist. He is currently attending college studying graphic design and does freelance work. He resides in Washington, North Carolina. You can see his work in his online gallery at www.te ardropps.deviantart.com, www.behance.net/brycechapman, and www.modelmayhem.com/bchapman13.

She says her work is like her own version of keeping a journal. Each piece represents a time in Claudia’s life so she can instantly recall what was happening. Her first book – Light Beneath Ferns by Anne Spollen cover out in February .

Ian Jamieson

Jeff Treves He is an illustration, animation and design artist in both digital and traditional fields. He graduated in 2004 from Savannah College of Art and Design. He is into non-mainstream character art and stories. Currently, he is living in NYC and pushing himself to become an independent filmmaker. www.jefftreves.com

Ian Jamieson is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has lectured design and designed for a wide range of industries both in South Africa and abroad, and is currently involved in design work for the multinational publishing house, Global Africa Network. info@ijdesign.co.za, www.ijdesign.co.za

Jeannette Woitzik

Andreea Alexandra Cernestean I am Romanian and I go by the artist alias of FrozenStar. I have been creating digital art ever since 2006 and I specialise in photomanipulation, though I have been trying to add more and more painted details to my creations. http://frozenstarro.deviantart.com/

Jeannette Woitzik lives in Berlin, Germany. Most of her work contains a surrealistic atmosphere and sometimes this served to express her feelings. http://schnettepics.de/ http://schnettepics.blogspot.com/

Neil Hanvey

Benoit Ladouceur Benoit Ladouceur is a Canadian artist based in Montreal. He has been working in the field of film and television as a digital matte painter, concept artist and illustrator for the last 15 years. He presently works as a senior matte painter and concept artist with Montreal’s Ubisoft Digital Art studio. www.bladfx.com

Bert Monroy Bert Monroy was born and raised in New York City where he spent 20 years in the advertising industry as an art director and creative director for various agencies as well as his own. He embraced the computer as an artistic medium and is considered one of the pioneers of digital. http://www.bertmonroy.com

Jim DiVitale Jim DiVitale has been an Atlanta based commercial advertising photographer and photography instructor for over 28 years, specializing in digital photography and computer photo illustrations.. He is a PPA Master Photographer, Master of Electronic Imaging, Photographic Craftsman, Fellow of the American Society of Photographers, and a Canon “Explorer of Light.” www.DiVitalePhotography.com

Editor in Chief: Marta Kobus marta.kobus@psdmag.org Executive Editor: Ewa Samulska ewa.samulska@psdmag.org Copy Editors: Ed Werzyn, Bonnie Lynn Wagner Art Director: Agnieszka Marchocka DTP: Ireneusz Pogroszewski, Przemysław Banasiewicz Art Executive Manager: Ireneusz Pogroszewski Senior Consultant/Publisher/President: Paweł Marciniak Software Press CEO:02/2009 Ewa Łozowicka 57 Marketing Director: Marta Kobus marta.kobus@psdmag.org

Bryce Chapman

Neil is a 30 year old programmer / illustrator born and raised in Manchester (UK). He currently lives in Herefordshire and spend his days developing websites and creating art by night. He’s a part of the slash Three art group.

Nada Abdul Razak Nada is 24 years old artist from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She has been developing her skills on graphic design since 2005. Her passion is also fashion design as well as photography. http://ana-anand.deviantart.com white.birds@ymail.com

Dariusz Palarczyk Student of the final year of the computer science in Katowice. From over 2.5 of years webdesigner in an advertising agency in Rybnik. He is interested in both a graphics and an animation. www.dariuszpalarczyk.pl

Fabiano Hikaru Hagasi Lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Currently studying Advertising at Mackenzie University.

Executive Ad Consultant: Ewa Samulska ewa.samulska@psdmag.org Production Director: Andrzej Kuca andrzej.kuca@psdmag.org Postal addres: Publisher: Software Press Sp.z.o.o SK 02-682 Warszawa, ul. Bokserska 1 worldwide publishing www.psdmag.org All trade marks presented in the magazine were used only for informative purposes. All rights to trade marks presented in 02/2008 the magazine are reserved by the companies which own them. Mathematical formulas created by Design Science MathType™.

The editors use automatic DTP system Editorial contributions should be sent to: editors@psdmag.org Customer Service +1 917 338 3631 The Software Press Sp.z.o.o SK works individually from Adobe. The psd Photoshop team reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided by contributors. 57

medium | 1-2h. adobe photoshop CS3

beauty retouch Source Files

Beauty Retouch In this tutorial we explore different ways to add a nice colorful touch to your photos, whether they are yours or stock images. Also we learn a basic way to add some lighting effects on images. This tut also teaches how to use layer masks and using adjustment layers. Adding textures, working with channels and dodging and burning is learned in this tutorial. Hope you enjoy this, once learned mix what you have learned to your own images and your upcoming projects.

Source files

fashion_portrait_03_by_cybaBABEfashion_ portrait_03_by_cybaBABEThe stock image used here was from cybabe from DeviantArt, check her gallery at www.cybababe.deviantart.com. The other images in the tutorial is from ISOstock on DeviantArt. There is a ton of resources in the gallery at www.isostock.deviantart.com.

Step 1

Open the image fashion_portrait_03_by_cybaBABE.jpg. Then press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[J] to duplicate the layer. Now change the blending mode to screen, and adjust the opacity to 50%. Name this layer Screen.

Step 2

Now go to your channels panel (Window>Channels) and click on the red channel. Drag it to the bottom of the panel into the new channel icon. .psd Photoshop

photo retouch

Step 3

Press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[L] to bring up the leveld dialog box. Drag the black triangle (under the histogram) to the right until it says 35 and click ok. Press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[A] to select all, then press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[C].

Step 4

Click back on the RGB channel, and go back to your layers panel (Window>Layers). Press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[V] to paste the red channel. Name the layer Red Channel. Drag it beneath the Screen layer.

Step 5

Now go to the bottom of the layers panel and click on the black and white button (Adjustment Layer) and select solid color, and color dialog box will pop up. Type in the # box: 2658ea, and click ok. Set the blending mode to soft light at 50%. You will keep this layer above ALL layers at ALL times. 60

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Step 6

Now click back on the Screen layer, and create another color adjustment layer, this time choose black. Change the blending mode to Soft light and 70% opacity. Now go to Layer>New>Layer, name the layer Top Gradient and click ok.

Step 7

Select your gradient tool [G], if you don't see it, click and hold the paint bucket tool. Make sure it is set to foreground to transparent, and Linear, also make sure that reversed is not checked. Now select your eyedropper tool. Many people could not find it directly and click on some blue somewhere on the image, then select the gradient tool again.

Step 8

With the Top Gradient layer and the gradient tool selected, click and drag (while holding shift) from the top to the near middle . If you are not happy with it, try it again, or take the move tool [V] and move the gradient upward. .psd Photoshop

photo retouch

Step 9

Now with the top gradient layer selected, turn off the blue color fill layer. Then press [Shift]+ [Opt.]+[Cmnd.]+[E]. This merges all the layers into one, on a seperate layer, name this layer High Pass,now turn your color fill layer back on.

Step 10

Now with the High Pass layer selected go to Filter>Other>High Pass, and set the radius to 8.0. Change the blending mode to Soft Light, at 70% opacity.

Step 11

Go to Layer>New>Layer, and name it Dodge and Burn. For the Mode, select soft light and check the box at the bottom. Press D to reset your colors to black and white. Select a soft nice sized brush and change the opacity to about 30%. Paint with black to darken different areas of the face( i.e. cheeks, neck, forehead,eyebrows). Paint with white to lighten other areas (i.e. Eyes). 62

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beauty retouch

Step 12

Ok create a new layer and name it cheek light. Press [D] to reset your colors .Take your eyedropper tool and sample some blue, now you have blue and white as foreground and background colors. Take a large, soft brush (about 500px) and click in the center with blue. Now press [X] to switch to white and click in the same spot.

Step 13

Now press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[T] to get in Free Transform mode, drag it to the left cheek, now go to Edit>Transform>Warp and try to wrap it around her cheek. When you are satisfied, press enter. Now press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[J] to duplicate the layer. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal, press enter, and have it on her right cheek.

Step 14

Ok, now go to the bottom of the layers panel and click the new adjustment layer icon, and select Exposure. Bring the exposure to 2.00, Press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[I], it inverts the mask to hide the exposure. Now take a white, soft brush(set the brush opacity to 100%), about the size of her eyes, and click on them, see what happens? You can turn down the opacity if you want to. .psd Photoshop

photo retouch

Step 15

Create a new layer and name it Full Gradient. Now take your gradient tool, set to foreground to transparent, and choose radial gradient option, and have reversed checked. Click and drag from the center to the top left corner. Now you can play with the opacity if you want to.

Step 16

Create a new layer, name it The light Above, and select the polygonal lasso tool. Click at the top and create a triangle shape.

Step 17

Take your gradient tool, set it to foreground to trasparent, linear option, and make sure reverse is unchecked, and white is the foreground color. Now click and drag from the top to the bottom of of the triangle. You should now have a nice light source, press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[D] to deselect. You may have to move it up a bit with the move tool. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, and set it to 65 or to your liking. 64

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beauty retouch

18 Step 18

Ok now for some bokeh texture... I used some I found on DeviantArt, they have some real good textures. I used the bokeh texture found here at this link: http://isostock.deviantart.com/gallery/#Bokeh. I used Bokeh 007. Now when you have some bokeh, open it and drag it into the document you are working on. Drag the layer to the very top, but keep it below the blue color fill layer. Change the blending mode to Soft light (or whatever blending mode suits you) at 80%. You may want to make the texture bigger, so go to Edit>Free Transform, grab the edges to enlarge, and press enter when satisfied.

Step 19

MORE BOKEH!!! Now the other bokeh effect I did was created using custom brushes.I used a technique I learned a while back. The tutorial can be found at Abduzeedo.com, the link to the tutorial is: http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-digital-bokeheffect-photoshop. The effect is very simple. When you create the bokeh and paint it, make sure to use white as the color. I paint each bokeh on a seperate layer, and grouped them, then dragged them beneath the blue color fill layer, and beneath the bokeh texture. Also add some slight blur to some of the bokeh, to give the image some depth.

20 Step 20

FINAL COLORING: Now for the different colors I used a really simple method. Remember how we did the solid color adjustment layer, same method I used for the final coloring. To better explain: Go to the new adjustment layer icon and select solid color, select your color and click ok. Play with the blending modes until you're happy. Now press [Cmnd/Cntrl]+[I] to invert the mask (just like how we did for the exposure in step 14). Now paint with white on the mask, use different brush opacity settings too. I used different colors and blend modes to get a different look. Also to brighten different areas I used the exposure adjustment layer and did the same thing in step 14. by Bryce Chapman .psd Photoshop

Professional looking portrait

This is a basic retouching tutorial that can turn a somewhat bland image into a professional-looking portrait. You do not need a fancy camera to achieve this. All you need are the right tools to modify the image. This tutorial will show you how to fix skin imperfections, apply digital make-up, enhance colors and contrasts and make the image look clean and crisp. beginer | 30 min. adobe photoshop CS3

portrait Source Files

Step 1

For this tutorial I used a stock portrait from: http://devil-stock.deviantart.com. When looking for a portrait shot, it should have well defined focus on the face and good lighting.

Step 2

The first step in retouching is to fix any large, visible blemishes on the skin. As you can see, there is one on the cheek and a few more on the chin. For this step I will use the clone stamp tool with a 45px soft round brush. The size of the brush depends on your file's resolution and size of the area that needs fixing. I will simply clone from a clean area of the cheek and put it above the blemish area.

Step 3

The next step is editing a few of the wrinkles. Good clean portraits never show wrinkles, so I will use the same method as above, clone stamp, to remove them. I will remove the wrinkles around the eye and corner of the mouth. You can already see that the image looks more professional and clean. .psd Photoshop

photo retouch

Step 4

Next I am gonna duplicate the layer and adjust it to darker tones. I adjust the Levels to add more shadow. Simply use [CTRL]+[L] to do this and choose the tones suitable for your image.

Step 5

Now I am going to add a layer mask to it. Clear your active swatch, set it to default and make black the front color. Use a round soft brush. I set it at 50% opacity and 30% flow. Brush over the areas that should be more highlighted. Nose, checks, eyebrows arches, eyes, etc. The result is that your image has better defined lights and shadows and this works better than to simply adjust the contrast.

Step 6

Next, I will use the eyedropper tool and select a lighter tone from the skin. I will softly airbrush the face with a low opacity brush. I chose a soft round brush with 30% opacity and 25% flow. Repeat this with a darker tone where you will brush over the darker areas. The result is the skin which looks cleaner and smooth. 68

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portrait

Step 7

The next step is going back to the base layer and using dodge and burn to define the light and shadow even more. The settings I used for the burn tool are, Midtones 45% exposure and for the dodge tool highlights 10% exposure. I used the burn tool around the eyes and to define the shape of the pupil and the eyebrows. The dodge tool I used for the iris and cheeks, nose, chin and lips.

Step 8

The image looks pretty good so far, but I would like to enhance the make-up. I switched back to the brush tool and changed the opacity and flow to 100%. Pick a tone from your swatches and start brushing around the eyes. Brush away then set your layer to soft light. Do the same for the lips. I chose an earthy, pastel tones for a more natural look.

Step 9

Almost done. Save the .psd file just in case, then merge your layers together. Adjust the brightness and contrast (Image>Adjustments>Brig htness/contrast) or colors with color balance (Image>Adjustments>Color balance). Now you are done. by Andreea Alexandra Cernestean .psd Photoshop

medium | 60 min. adobe photoshop

old photo restoration Source Files

Old Photo Restoration This is a short tutorial about restoring heavily damaged or very old photos. This tutorial will show you how to do simple things such as removing scratch marks, cloning, and blending missing parts of the damaged photo, and will also cover the entire process of the restoration of old photography. Some time ago, I was approached by my family to restore an old photograph of my deceased grandfather. It was small picture from an old passport and was extremely damaged: Parts of the face and head were missing. I scanned the image using the highest possible resolution I could on my desktop scanner and proceeded to fix the image and restore it to its former glory.

Original image

After you open your image in Photoshop, duplicate the background layer and name it something like Working Layer This ensures that the original image is always there as a reference and will remain intact. This is one of the most basic things to learn in Photoshop when working with photos. Always work on a separate layer and keep the original image intact.

Desaturate

Okay, the next step is to desaturate this new layer. Hit [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[U] on your keyboard to remove the color from your photo. There are several ways to do this, but I found that for this photo, the desaturate option produced the best results. .psd Photoshop

photo restoring Tip Use the Healing Brush with long strokes when you have a lot of similar surrounding texture, but use dotted strokes when approaching edges or trying to blend texture seamlessly.

Crop

The next thing I did was crop the parts of the photo I didn’t need. Depending on the photo you are trying to restore, you may need even more steps than the ones I’ve detailed or you won’t need some of them at all, so it will require some understanding of the given subject on your part.

04 Before af er healing brush

Now that I have the image cropped to the size I need it, I proceed to remove all the small marks that appeared on the image over the time. I used the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush in this process. The Healing Brush is an amazing tool, absolutely priceless when it comes to photo restoration. This tool works by simulating the surrounding pixels of the image in the spot you’re trying to heal. It’s a great tool, though not a perfect one. While it works great on parts of the photo where you have a lot of similar surrounding texture and color data, as soon as you approach the edges with higher contrast, you’ll notice it will start blending with the midtones, so only use the Healing Brush away from the edges.

After clone stamp

As you can see, the photo already looks much better, but I still have a large chunk missing from the forehead and hair. First, I’ll use the Clone Stamp on the forehead. I start by sampling large patches of existing skin and work toward smaller strokes by reducing the brush size and sampling different parts of the forehead. This is the most complicated and creative part of the photo restoration because we have no idea what this part of the head looked like before, so we have to recreate something that doesn’t exist. Some basic knowledge of human anatomy can help with this, especially if you are restoring a face. I did my homework when it comes to anatomy, so I understand the basic shape of the face bones and muscles and had no trouble with restoring this part of the photo, though it does take some time and patience. Remember one thing: When it comes to restoring photos of people, and especially when it comes to restoring the face, no one is perfectly symmetrical, so don’t create symmetry because it will look strange. Try to take a photo of yourself and use Photoshop to copy half of your face to the opposite side and see how weird it will look. This lack of symmetry is one thing that makes us all unique and interesting. .psd Photoshop

old photo restoration

Copy hair

The next step is to restore the missing hair part, and the easiest way to do it (at least in this example) is to copy the hair from the part of the photo where it already exists. I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select the hair, then I hit [Ctrl]+[C] to copy and [Ctrl]+[V] to paste the copied hair to a new layer.

Copy hair 1

Next, I hit [Ctrl]+[T] to enter Free Transform Mode and moved the Hair Layer to an adequate position, then transform it until it fits.

Copy hair 2

Since I also copied some skin in the process, I used the Eraser Tool to erase the unecessary parts. I used a standard round soft brush in order to blend the hair to look seamless. Now that I have the entire head finished, I can move on to restoring the background. .psd Photoshop

photo restoring

Background fix

You can either use the original background like I did, or change the background entirely. It all depends on what the personal preference or request is. I decided to keep the original background since I feel it fits nicely with the rest of the photo.

Fix leftovers

Next, I took a short break to look over the entire photo. I usually zoom out and flip the photo horizontally and vertically. This is a trick people use to get a fresh look at their work since our eyes get adjusted to what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re look at and flipping the canvas can give us a fresh perspective of the image. I noticed that Grandpa has a different eye color and there was a spot on his cheek thatwas strangely lighter than the rest of hisskin so I decided to fix these small details.

Unsharpen mask

I left one thing for the end: Remember that when it comes to any digital retouching of photos, always leave Sharpening for the end. Here, I used an Unsharpen Mask Filter with the following settings: Amount = 120, Radius = 3, Threshold = 2 Depending on the photo, different settings can be used as well as different sharpening techniques, but I found this one was enough for my photo. 74

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old photo restoration

Curves adjustment layer

OK, everything is fixed now and the photo has been successfully restored. My grandfather looks like he is supposed to, but the image is a little pale. I decided to increase the contrast by adding a Curves Adjustment Layer on top of my layer palette. This is a good trick to know since creating the adjustment layer will have the same effect of just applying the adjustment directly onto the photo, only this way, you can always change or delete the layer settings later.

Color balance adjustment layer

Since the original image had a Sepia tone to it, I decided to add another Adjustment Layer and use a Color Balance Adjustment Layer. I played with sliders for a while and, once I was satisfied with the result, decided the photo restoration had been finished successfully.

Before after finished

The restoration of this photograph took about one hour. I hope you found some of the info here useful. Good luck with your future photo restorations! by RadoĹĄeviÄ&#x2021; Alen .psd Photoshop

medium | 20 h. adobe photoshop | wacom tablet

jane doe

Jane Doe I have to say... I am a huge comic books fan. I started working on this image after watching the latest Batman â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Dark Knight movie once too many times. Like a lot of viewers, I love the Joker, but I did not want to do a simple portrait of the film's character. I decided early on I would try to put my own spin on the subject. Since this image was made just for fun, I gave myself the liberty of blending the Dark Knight's Joker catch phrase: Why so serious? to a character from another of my favorite DC stories (the Jane Doe character from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell). I started wondering what would happen if Jane Doe wanted to mimic the Joker? I am sure that story would end badly, but it gave me a starting point for the image which I felt comfortable with!!

Tip When in a hurry, I often revisit old sketchbooks for reference drawings, ideas and posing. At this point, I was looking for a strong pose that was interesting and a bit unconventional. I wanted the image to be all about the character and the fact that she was an asylum inmate. I found an old blue pencil sketch and scanned it into Photoshop. I then used Photoshop and my favorite drawing brush to quickly clean it up.

Sketch

I started off by rummaging through my sketchbooks, references and image banks looking for inspiration and/or old live drawing sketches. For more realistic proportions, I try to always sketch from photo reference and/or live models. I keep most of the visual research I do in sketchbooks.

Tip I made a simple easy brush using a standard round sharp edge brush and added pressure sensitivity to it for transparency and size. Be sure that the airbrush button is set to off and flow set to 100%. If not, it will dampen the tool and make it difficult to control. I find that when you use it at an opacity level between 75 to 90%, it reacts a lot like pencil on paper. It produces nice dark grayish tones and, because of the transparency, you can build up values with it... just like a pencil. Most of my sketch work on computer is done using this brush.

Composition

Once the sketch was clean and in Photoshop, I removed the blue rough layer, lowered the opacity of my sketch layers a little and started working on creating an interesting composition. I played around with character placement for a while and settled for a lower right corner position, with part of the character off frame. I also angled the drawing to make it more dynamic. Once this was done, I used a heavily textured brush to establish my background wall, graffiti and light setup. The character would be resting against a simple wall lit from the top as if she was in a dark, gloomy asylum basement or cell. I am not looking for clear details at this point, just overall masses. .psd Photoshop

digital painting

Mood

Once I was satisfied with the overall composition, I started introducing mood into the image. After a couple of tries, I settled for a greenish tone to parallel the color scheme of numerous modern day horror flicks.

04 Tip Throughout the whole image painting process, I also used this layer as a quick mask selection / puzzle matte the layer in order to rapidly be able to isolate certain areas of the image. It speeds up the work, since I can just magic wand a color and paint within the selected area.

Flat colors

Once I was happy with the overall mood using the lasso tool, I decided to apply a flat layer of colors to establish how I would approach the character. I picked the color scheme based on some Joker references I got from DC books lying around my office. I tried to stay true to the original DC character using purples, oranges and greens, with the white painted face and red lips.

Tip

Volume

I added a layer over my work area and start painting in more information on the character. For this I use a sharp edge standard round brush with an opacity of around 50%. I have a tendency to pick one of the background or environment color as a base for my shadows and start building the volumes by letting the color add on top of itself. 78

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Once I have a relatively good base, I will pick most of my other colors from the image itself and the color variations the opacity settings have created for me. This way I am sure that the palette will stay pretty consistent throughout the painting process. Another good way to keep the palette consistency throughout a more complex image is to make yourself color swatches on a separate layer in your image to reference the pure colors that populate your work.

jane doe

06 Tightening of the character

Since I wanted the character to be the main focus of this piece, I started adding more details to it right away. Starting with the face and eyes, I worked on the character's expression very early on to make sure I had the impact I wanted. The character needed to feel dangerous, dark and strange. I then moved on to the rest of the figure and cleaned up my more sketchy paint work from before. At this point I felt I would lose the right side of my character into the shadows, so I added another light source to the image visible through the apparition of a bright blue rim light on her leg, elbow and body.

Tip Using a colored ramp is useful as it washes the whole image with different values of a single color... instantly harmonizing the entire color palette.

Color balance

After a few hours on the character, I stopped and took some time to analyze the image and noticed the color palette was kind of neutral and cold. It also lacked uniformity and richness. The lighting was also a bit flat. In order to bring the image back on track, I created a new lighting and color layer with the ramp tool based on a bright orange color and added it over my painting (using the overlay layer setting) and played around with this layer's opacity until I found the intensity of light and color balance I wanted. This brought back warmer tones to the light, as well as emphasized the contrast between the light and dark areas of the image.

08 Smoothing

I then went back to painting the character and upping the quality of my paint strokes. Up until now, the strokes were quite visible and rough. I used a textured smudge tool with a pressure of 4060% to even out and blend the colors on and around the character. At the same time, I also alternate and use a simple brush and continue to add detail to the overall character. .psd Photoshop

Tip Using a fairly high pressure value with the smudge tool is a good way to fake strokes done with traditional paint and brush. It is also a good way to erase leftover line work from the original sketch. Playing around with the smudge pattern and brush can even imitate brush bristles in the paint. 79

digital painting

Background

After spending many hours on the character, it was time to set it aside and get the rest of this image on its way as well. In order to obtain fast results, I decided to use a couple of matte painting tricks. I quickly built a patchwork decrepit wall from photo elements in my image bank. I then distorted it to fit the image's perspective. Since the background was fairly neutral, killing the saturation of that wall layer and applying it as an overlay layer instantly gave richness to the wall. All that was left was for me to add was painted highlights and little drop shadows to make the wall fit with the scene lighting.The ground was another story... I started off with a dirty concrete texture, but found it lacked character. Looking at other reference images of old abandoned factories and laboratories, I noticed a lot of tile work. Based on this idea I decided to give it a try. I created my tile texture using a textured brush with a wide spacing to make sure the pattern would not overlap. Once I had a nice pattern filled layer, I used Photoshop's supplied bevel layer effect to give my tiles thickness. I froze that layer and distorted it into position to obtain the tiled floor. The floor needed some highlight and shadow paint work to fit with the set.

Tip

I try to work in a non-destructive fashion as much as possible. I always use layer masks to control overlaid textures and not the eraser... much easier to correct mistakes this way if you have to make unforeseen changes. I also keep alternate version of textures, so I can quickly refer to them or give the client options of the same image.

Lighting fix

I used a dark ramp layer, applied as Hard light, to emphasize the dark area at the bottom of the image as if the light source was a constrained spot with a very limited cone of influence. This helped focusing the image on the character's face and not her entire body.

Tip If the sandy color pushes the skin tone too much towards orange, changing the saturation helps keeping only the sand's random grain and will not over-correct the skin color. The hair was a little more straight forward to work on. I added more paint using a custom dots brush and a combination of smudge tool to blend the colors and sharpen tool to add sharpness to individual strands.

Enhancing the skin and hair

Tip I sometimes will duplicate a collapsed version of the hair that I am painting, blur it and reapply it as hard light or overlay to give it more color depth.

.psd Photoshop

The background was more or less complete at this point, so I returned my attention to the character. The smudge tool produces great smooth skin surfaces, but they were lacking texture. I discovered a while back, while touching up photography, that using image references of sandy surfaces is a great way to add skin grain to smooth painted flesh. I went to my image bank, found a nice sandy picture and place it over the skin areas that I wanted to detail. Using overlay or soft light, a light opacity (around 30%) and a layer mask, I kept adding skin grain only where the image needed it.

jane doe

12 Final touches

As I got closer to the final image, I did an overall pass to add all the final little details and tweaks that I thought the image needs. First, I started by adding a quick pattern to some fabric elements to simulate different fabric types. For this step I used the same brush I did the floor with. This layer was dimmed in transparency and used as an overlay to make sure it felt as part of the fabric and not a superimposed texture. I then moved on to the hair. The hair was brighten on the top of the head with golden highlights to reflect the yellow light source somewhere on the ceiling. It was done with a simple airbrush painted layer using the color dodge layer setting. I then played with the layer's opacity until I got the highlight intensity I wanted.

13 Final color balance

Just before saving the image in its final format, I added one final color correction. I dropped the saturation a little, because I found it a bit too aggressive, and I then used a color balance layer to add greens back into my mid-tones in order to even the image more. I took a step back, and realized I was not satisfied with the graffiti in the background... it lacked punch and felt way too painted and sketchy. I selected the layer, copied it on itself, inverted the result before putting the find edges filter on it. This gave me a gritty version of my previous layer with very pronounced edges. I overlaid this result on the original text layer and it brought out details in the text just like if it had been painted on the wall with a cheap brush. by Benoit Ladouceur

Tip I find color dodge works really well for highlights. It pops out colors well, while retaining values of the color below and adding values from the highlight colors. I moved from there to finishing the brass buttons, buckles, lips highlights and golden sheen on the purple cloth. All these details where done with the same trick... on a color dodge layer. As you think of it, most of the details I am talking about are in fact light reflection on surfaces, so this technique works very well on all present cases. The last thing I did was to paint in better shadows to help the character integrate with the environment. I used a dark blueishgray on a hard light layer to keep my background information and not burn it to black. .psd Photoshop

sleepyheads Source Files

Sleepyheads Unlike in my previous digital illustrations, I wanted to use heavily textured brush strokes with a loose attitude; while trying to capture the sense of realism as much as I could. This illustration is firmly based on a photograph; however, it is painted from scratch on a white canvas and not on the photograph itself. Feel free to check out more of my illustration and animation work at http://www.trevesstudios.com and http://www.jefftreves.com.

Step 1

Before I start to work on an illustration, I have to ask myself this question and use the answer as a guide till the end. In my introduction I already explained some of it. Our beautiful model in this project is Saduman Kizildere and the great photo was taken by photographer Damla Salor. My goal was to paint a non-mainstream cat woman figure sleeping, since our model is a cat loving sleepyhead.

Step 2

The first thing I do is to pick up contours on a new layer. I could just look at the photograph and draw them myself, but this time Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going for a realistic painting rather than an expressionist one. I also pick about 10 different colors/tones from the photo on another layer because it is very easy to lose track of tones when painting in digital. From then on, I will be looking at the photo from a different monitor during painting. .psd Photoshop

digital painting

Step 3

I delete the layer with the photo and create a green background layer with crude textures. Working very loosely requires great concentration for me because I tend to keep polishing things. Photoshop brushes have great attributes to play with and I initially go with graphical ones such as flowers, leaves, etcâ&#x20AC;Ś. Creating strong textures as a base coat will give me lots of flexibility to play with later on.

Step 4

I start painting the figure, one eye is always on the reference. I want to use the light information in the photograph as much as I can. Because I think the lighting is what gives the spirit to an image like this and there is a great light captured in this photo.

Step 5

I sketch the cats on a different layer. This cat woman will not be a transformed human being in black leather. Instead, it will be an entity that is one with all cats, just as we all are one with nature while being a part of it. This first sketches are from imagination, later on I will be using some references for the cats as well. 84

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sleepyheads

Step 6

I start painting the cats. I want them to be different kinds of cats, so I play with theirs colors, patterns and physical structures. As I progress, some of them will change their poses and angles. I want to capture what is best for this illustration, thus I am not scared to experiment and redo things.

Step 7

Carving out the details carefully. I started looking at some cat references from a book I have and from stock photo sites. I cannot find exact poses or lighting in references; though, I use what is closest and try to image the rest. I also apply some tonal and color correction to my scene using tools such as levels, curves, hue/saturation, etcâ&#x20AC;Ś.

Step 8

After heavily working on the details and shadows, I get an image fairly close to the end effect. I work on the background as much as I work on the figures because if I do not develop each part of the illustration at the same time, they would look disconnected from each other. .psd Photoshop

digital painting

Step 9

Even though I am loyal to the photograph, I give myself the freedom of expression with my forms. I add a stone to the right and a frog on a branch looking down on sleepyheads. I add some light rays to enhance the mood. The frog represents me in the picture, in love with the beauty below.

Step 10

As much as I wanted to decorate the image further, I decided that some late additions did not make it richer. On the contrary, they took away from the focus. I take out the frog and light rays. I do my final touches and finish the illustration. Next, I will use it to impress the lady I like and promote my illustration. Happy painting! by Jeff Treves

red river paper

Red River Paper 68lb. UltraPro Satin – Photo luster inkjet media

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60lb. Polar Matte – Professional matte finish

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60lb. Arctic Polar Gloss – Ultimate Glossy Photo Inkjet Quality

After seeing an offer for Red River Paper – Arctic Polar Gloss, I decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did...I love this stuff! Great quality and fair price. I am printing with Epson prints using Ultrachrome K3 inkset, and the color rendering is superb. In addition, Red River has the paper sizes that I really need and their customer support is there when you need a question answered. Thanks Red River Paper, I will be switching over to your products exclusively.

64lb. Aurora Fine Art White – 100% Cotton Smooth Texture

First, Red River papers are the BEST out there for greeting cards! I researched numerous companies and none come close for the quality and variety of papers. Second, I LOVE the Aurora line for greeting cards! The weight and texture is supurb and works extremely well for my fine art customers. This paper works beautifully in my Epson 3800 Ultachrome Pigmented Ink printer. Also, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for providing icc profiles! You really understand what us printers go through and I can buy with the confidence that I will also have a printer profile that will work! From Tracy M – Beverly, MA US

62lb. GreenPix Photo Matte – 100% Post-consumer content photo inkjet paper

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tips&tricks

Painting with Photoshop

I am always amazed when people ask me “you paint with Photoshop?” The concept of using Photoshop as a painting tool should be an easy one to grasp. For one thing Photoshop comes equipped with a plethora of paintbrushes. Another hint is the fact that the workspace is called a canvas. The fact is Photoshop is the most powerful tool out there for creating elements of an image or the entire image from scratch.

n this article I will discuss a small part of my current painting in progress. It is a task I have assigned myself that will, when completed, have taken over two and a half years to create. Why spend so much time on a single image? Because of the amount of detail involved, the size of the overall image and because I love the challenge. I have chosen this part of the image because it puts to use many features of Photoshop and a little bit of Illustrator. One very important thing to consider before we start is what I always stress when teaching my techniques – it is not what I do but HOW I do it. Look at the steps as individual techniques. Each step can be used independently to solve problems you might be faced with in your specific workflow. The object we will examine takes up a mere two inches of a canvas that stretches twenty-five feet in width. It is the sign over the door of a storefront (Figure 1). Because of the superior type controls in Illustrator, it was used to create the basic shape of the sign. Illustrator will play a greater role later on in this tutorial. In the Figure 2 we see two copies of the logo. The large one is the original. Working large allows you to get more detail and have better control over the elements. Once the entire logo was completed it was duplicated and scaled down to the size needed for the Photoshop document. The small logo at the bottom is the final size. The guidelines that border the small logo served as a general space constraint. There would be additional sizing and distortion once the logo was imported into Photoshop. Using Copy and Paste, the various parts of the logo (text, symbol and support bar) were pasted into layers of the Photoshop document. They were imported as pixels since color and detail had been assigned in the Illustrator document. All three layers were selected and distorted to match the angled shape of the final sign in perspective (Figure 3). The three dimensional Figure 1.

look was created using a technique too complex to cover in the limited space for this tutorial but if you go to the URL (http://revision3.com/ pixelperfect/3dtext) you can watch me do it in a free video. It was necessary to make the letters appear as if they were lit from behind. To get this effect it would require have a bright center in the letters fading to a darker value along the outer edges. To achieve this effect the letter were given a layer style of Inner Glow. Inner Glow creates a color along the entire edge of an object. In this particular case however, darkness was required along that edge. The color for the Inner Glow was set to a medium gray. This made it invisible because being a glow the layer style is automatically set to a mode of Screen. Changing the mode to Multiply allowed the dark gray to appear along the edges of the letterforms. The letters are inset into a frame. In a separate layer the letters were given a stroke. This stroke was then given a layer style of Inner Shadow to make the letters appear recessed into the frames. The Inner Shadow layer style was separated from the layer by choosing Layer > Layer Style > Create Layer from the menu. With the inner shadow in its own layer it was easy to eliminate the unwanted shadow from the areas along the outside of the frame. The backdrop of the sign was next. The backdrop is a changing set of geometric patterns made up of thousands of tiny bulbs. An image was created and distorted to fit the angle of the sign (Figure 4). The path for the sign shape was exported over to Illustrator. A small circle was created using the Ellipse tool. A duplicate of the circle was made and positioned directly below the original circle. Pressing [Command]-[D] ([Control]-[D]) several times repeated the duplication step many times form a row of multiple circles as seen in Figure 5. The row of circles was grouped to form a single object. The grouped row of circles was reduced in size and placed along the left edge of the sign shape. It was then duplicated and placed Figure 2.

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Figure 9.

Figure 3. Figure 10.

Figure 4. Figure 11.

Figure 5. Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8.

along the right edge of the sign shape. This new duplicate was then reduced in size to match the smaller, far edge of the sign. Both rows of circles were selected and blended together using the Blend feature in Illustrator (Object > Blend > Make). In the Blend Options dialog box (Object > Blend > Blend Options) the number for the specific number of steps needed was set. This generated all the additional circles in-between the gradually reduced in size as they went back in three-dimensional space (Figure 7). This multitude of circles was imported into the Photoshop document as Paths (Figure 8). In a layer behind the layer containing the geometric pattern of the sign, these paths were filled with a color. The layer was then given a layer style of Outer Glow (Figure 9). The layer was then turned into a Clipping Group with the layer of the geometric shapes. This clipping group was created by pressing the Option key [Alt] and clicking between the two layers in the layers panel (Figure 10). The final touch was to add the reflection of the colorful backdrop to the edges of the frames of the logo sitting on top of the backdrop of tiny bulbs. A new layer was created above the layer containing the depths for the frames of the logo. As was done in the previous steps, this new layer was clipped with the layer of the frames. The color of the backdrop area that bordered the log frame edges was selected. Using a softedged paintbrush, strokes were applied along the edges of the frame where it faced the backdrop of tiny lights. In Figure 11 you can see the tones running along the rear of the left side of the frames. Many different techniques went into the creation of this sign. Study each for its own value. Understand Clipping Groups, Layer Styles and all the other wonderful features of these powerful applications and your always be able to create whatever your imagination come up with. by Bert Monroy

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tips&tricks

Stitching Multi image Panoramic Files The panoramic format has always interested Photoshop users of all kinds, and with Photoshopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Photomerge automation, anyone can shoot high-resolution panoramic photos. Figure 1.

Figure 2.

etting it to work smoothly, however, takes practice. With a few simple procedures on the shooting end, the composited images will work seamlessly together. Before Photoshop's Photomerge, photographers only had the option of using specialized software programs designed for creating interactive panoramic VR to stitch images together. Photoshop can make it much easer for basic stitching projects. The first challenge is to

determine the correct exposure and white balance. Don 't use any automatic setting on your camera. If the focus, exposure, or white balance is set on auto, the camera will slightly shift the focal point, exposure, and color to reflect what it's pointing at. As you aim the camera from one area to the next, the changing exposure will make the merged images look splotchy. If you're photographing during the day, set the white balance to daylight

Figure 4.

Figure 3.

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Figure 10.

Figure 11. Figure 12.

or cloudy. For more critical color, do a custom white balance of the area you're shooting. You can hold the camera vertically for horizontal panoramas to capture more top-to-bottom height if needed. Remember, you can always make it as wide as you want by taking more photos from left to right. Each image needs to have about a one-third overlap of the scene with the next image. Overlapping too much or too little makes it harder to get seamless stitching. When shooting, try to keep the camera as level as possible. Aligning the horizon of the scene with the centerline of the camera viewfinder will help keep the scene level. Do a practice run, looking through the camera and viewing the scene, stopping at each area to shoot. This will help you determine what's in the scene that will help as a guide to line up against. Using a tripod will give you cleaner overlapping images. The more level and even the photographs, the better the stitching. The proper exposure should be a balance of the brightest and darkest areas in the full subject area. For example, if the area on the far left of the scene is showing a proper exposure reading of 1/125 at f:8, and the exposure on the right side is reading 1/125 at f:11, set the camera on manual exposure at 1/125 at f:8-1/2.If you're shooting several attempts of the same subject, shoot a blank image at the beginning and end of each run. This will make it easier to determine where to start and stop the process in Photoshop. Photomerge is not as sophisticated as high-end stitching software because it won't bend perspective with changing relationships of close-up and faraway subjects. A little trial and error in shooting will let you know what will work well and what won't. To make the Photomerge process work at its best, you will need to go to the original install disc for Photoshop and find the extra

Figure 9.

tips&tricks

Figure 5.

Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8.

Goodies folder and install the additional Photomerge extension. The instructions will tell you where to copy the extension files to and this will give an extra dialog box that is necessary to fine-tune the images while stitching. Once the scenes are photographed, gather the images in a folder and view them in the Adobe Bridge. Holding the Shift key, click on the first and then the last file in the sequence to select all of them. If they need to be rotated, do it now by clicking the appropriate rotate icon at the top right of the Bridge. This will make the stitching process easier to manage. From the Bridge menu bar, choose Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge. The images will open in the Photomerge dialog. If the images are shot correctly, Photomerge will automatically arrange them for stitching. Sometimes, even though they were shot correctly, Photoshop may not be able to stitch them. When this happens, you can click on each image with the Select Image tool [A] in the Photomerge dialog and adjust them individually. Try to line up the images by looking at the overlapped areas. When the two images get close, they'll automatically snap together (as long as the Snap to Image option at the right-hand side of the dialog is checked on). The Perspective option in the Photomerge dialog bends the panorama into an hourglass shape that can create a much better natural view of the scene. If the images aren't blending smoothly, try clicking on the Advanced Blending option. You can also keep all the images as layers so they can be adjusted if there's a problem after they've been stitched. Once you're happy with your panorama in the Photomerge dialog, click OK, and Photoshop will stitch the images together. In many cases, the tops and bottoms of the images may not line up perfectly so you'll have to crop those transparent areas for the final image. When you're finished cropping the image, you can adjust it just like any other image. But remember that panorama file sizes are much larger because you're using several images together. Many inkjet printers allow you to use a long sheet of paper in the manual tray to create longer prints. Next time you're out taking photos, try a few practice shots to get the feel of creating stitched panoramas, and then you'll be ready when that special scene suddenly appears. by Jim Divitale

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