Step 1 - Brainstorm

I love the concept behind surrealism. Surrealism is a style of art that uses visual imagery from
the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility.-
Surrealism.com. Let's not limit our creativity to logic and let's design a portrait that will be a
fusion of spunk, futuristic and Victorian!

Gather some inspiration to get your creative juices started. For this type of design I find it best to
put my idea to paper before going into Photoshop to create the artwork. Right now it's just a
rough sketch to help you visualize your concept. It doesn't matter if the end result is far from
your original sketch. I drew a head overflowing with flowers and butterflies.

Step 2 - Set up

Create an A4 size canvas with a decent print quality of 200dpi (optimal is 300dpi). Let's start off
by working on the woman to give her a fashionable look. Open the woman image and place it at
the center, bottom of the page.
Step 3

Duplicate the woman image and apply a Black & White adjustment ( Image > Adjustments >
Black & White) on it. Adjust the values for the different colors until you get a sharp black &
white image with high contrasts. In a fashion portrait, the focus is usually on the woman's eyes
and hair. Additionally I want her face contours to be more defined as I'm planning to extract her
face from the image later.
Step 4

Make a second copy of the woman's image and apply a Poster Edges Filter (Filter > Artistic >
Poster Edges) with a maximum edge thickness of 10 and the bring the rest of the settings to 0.
This gives us a highly stylized image and a beautiful glowing skin.
Step 5

The “poster edge” layer should be on top of the “black & white” and it's Opacity should be set to
90%.

Step 6

We will use the Pen Tool (P) to extract the background and hair and keep her face and torso.
There are a few reasons for using this method. One is for clean edges, two we can modify the
shape at any point in time and three we can reuse the path for other purposes. Use the Pen Tool
(P) set to Paths.

Step 7

Carefully plot around the face and shoulders contours ignoring the hair. Make a dome shape for
her head where it is cropped and continue the shape of her shoulders as well. With the Pen Tool
(P) selected, press Cmd/Ctrl key and drag individual points to adjust the shape of your path.
Step 8

Next we will apply this path to a folder that will contain all our layers for textures, colors, effects
pertaining to the woman's face and body. Create a New Folder(1). Load the woman's path as a
Selection (2). Add a Layer Mask to the New Folder (3).
Step 9

Move both the “poster edge” and the “black & white” layers into the folder to view the result.
You may need to refine the mask to include the nice black outline of her face. To do so use a
small soft round brush and paint over the folder's mask. All New Layers that we'll be creating in
the next few steps should be created inside this folder.
Step 10

Let's add some funky clothes on her. Load the Victorian Brushes and use the brush (1) at it's
actual size. In black, using the Brush Tool (B) paint one flower on her left shoulder and another
on her right shoulder.
Step 11

A quick way to color in her missing shoulders is through the Clone Stamp Tool (S). Use a soft
round brush of about 180 – 280 px. Alt pick an area of her body (layer “poster edge”) and apply
it to her shoulders. Continue to pick and patch her shoulders very roughly. It doesn't have to be
smooth and perfect since they are hidden beneath her clothes. Moreover the rough patches will
look stylish and blend with the overall look in the end.
Step 12

Next we'll highlight her eyes by adding some eyelashes. Load eyelashes brushes. Create a New
Layer and using the Brush Tool (B) paint in black along the top & bottom eyelashes of both
eyes.
Step 13

Now it's time to give her a hairstyle masterpiece! Start off by making her hair base using these
splatter brushes. Create a New Layer, use the Brush Tool (B) and paint in Black with the brush
shown below at its original size.
Step 14

So far our layers are organized as below. Check to make sure you're on the right track. Then
create a New Folder above the stack and call it “Hair”.
Step 15

Duplicate the “hair” layer and place it in the “hair” folder above.
Step 16

Next load the Japanese flowers brushes and Beautiful flowers brushes. Use a combination of
both to create a canvas of flowers. Be wild and bold!
Step 17

At this point, take a step back to view the overall artwork. I decided to unify the harsh contrast of
smooth glowing skin gainst rough edged shadows on her jaws, neck and eyes area. Instead of
getting rid of the edges, I decided to enhance them by going for a watercolor look. I chose this
beautiful paper to work with.

Step 18

Open the paper texture and make a copy of it. Place one of it at the top of all layers and the other
one at the bottom. Change the top paper texture's blending mode to Overlay. Change the bottom
paper texture's Opacity to 10%. Here we have a harmonious skin tone and texture.
Step 18

The next thing to do is create a little surreal world inside her head. An enchanted world of fairies.
Begin by adding a Layer Mask to all 3 hair layers.

Step 20

Use these Watercolor Splatters and paint over the layer masks to erase off part of the black hair
while retaining soft cloudy edges for a dreamy watercolor effect. Begin with layer “hair3”, use
the Brush Tool and experiment with different brush shapes and sizes.
Step 21

Then continue painting on “hair2” and “hair3” layer masks.