PsdPhtoshop tutorial

Commercial leasing in tough economic times

The picture you are about to see in the making is an editorial illustration commissioned

by Canadian Lawyer magazine about the business of commercial space renting in tough economic times. I wanted to give some kind of ‘gloomy’ mood to the image (deliberately setting it at night) keeping although a colorful side to it, suggesting overall hope and collaboration. This is pretty much a demonstration of my usual working process. I always start with an idea more or less clear at the beginning and all along the creative process refine my concept and experiment as much as possible.

medium | 3 days Photoshop 7

commercial leasing

01

The background

I started by painting, with acrylic paint, a black shape with no sharp sides, so we feel that the picture continues outside of what we see. If you do not have black paint just paint the shape with any color you have and changed it in Photoshop (Layer>Layer style>Color overlay). I always create my illustrations larger that they need to be in case it is necessary to reproduce them on a larger scale later on. In this case I made the picture 10 inches wide by 11 inches high.

02

The cityscape

I have selected a few buildings from the many cutouts that I have and scanned them.

03

The composition

I placed the buildings into a nice composition on top of the background, each building being a layer.

To create a nice perspective I have put a building in the forefront, on the right, the other buildings behind being smaller. A nice space has been allowed to the sky.

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editorial illustration

04

The B/W contrast

I have applied to the layer of the building on the right a Threshold (Image>Adjustment>Threshold) of 128 to give it a nice contrast of B/W. This has been repeated to the other buildings with each their own level of Threshold, and is usually done to every element imported in Photoshop.

05

Storefront

To enhance the dynamic of the picture, I have chosen a nice row of shop windows and add it to the bottom left of the picture giving it the right perspective (Edit>Transform>Perspective). I have applied to this layer the necessary Threshold (Step 4). These shop windows will be used later to complete the meaning of the picture.

06 Colors

This is a very important aspect of the illustration.

Colors bring everything to life, emphasize on certain aspects of the picture, give contrast, participate actively to the dynamic of the image.

Here you have a lot to experiment, it is a process of trials and errors until you are satisfied with the whole balance of your creation. I selected the building on the right (rectangular marquee tool>magic wand) and created a new layer that I placed underneath (To see the color through the layer on top I gave it the blend mode Multiply). To this new layer I applied a gradient starting at the bottom with a warm dark orange to a lighter one on top. I have also added some light blue to all the windows except the lower ones. I then delete all the excess of the image sticking out of the background by selecting the white space around the background and deleting it on each layer that is sticking out.

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commercial leasing

07

More depth

I repeated step 6 for all the buildings choosing a different color for each, keeping an harmony of colors. I, then, gave more depth to all the colored layers by applying an inner glow (Layer>Layer style>Inner glow). For each colored layer you pick a darker color than its overall color; the blend mode is Multiple, and you can be generous with the Noise (up to 36 % is good). You can play with size, choke and opacity to set all these to your own taste. The idea is to have some more depth to the surface, so it isn’t only flat colored.

08

Space for rent

As I want to show a city with commercial spaces vacant I added a sign (Space for rent) in each window telling the passerby about it. There is also a smaller and different sign in the shop window on the right (New lease).

09

The billboards

I have added some billboards (scan one from a magazine) on top of two smaller buildings. Of course, for each new element that I add to the picture I have to repeat steps 4, 6 and 7. It this case, for the billboard it is circular gradient, from yellow to light blue that I have applied.

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editorial illustration

10

Significant meaning

The words compromises and negotiations are put on the billboards so we understand that more negotiations and compromises are necessary to be able to go on during a low phase of the economy.

11

Life on the street

I have added some people on the street (kids, couple, old man with dog, etc...) and a truck with a sign on its side saying: Night moves, to picture the fact that some renters leave their spaces at night without paying; again negotiations and compromises are made to diminish these fraudulent behaviors.

12 Starry night

The final touch is to put some nice yellow stars (imported in Photoshop) and also to leave some black around the picture by pushing every part on the side more in the inside so all around the picture we can see some of the black from the background (sky). At the end, before flattening it all, I look closely at the picture zooming in and scanning every part to see if anything as been forgotten, if everything is exactly where it should be (details are important also), then you can flattened and it’s done. Bravo!

by Pierre-Paul Pariseau 34

01/2009