Step 1

Open Photoshop and start a new document. I am using A4 for the format. After that get a photo of a person you want to use for your
composition. The image I am using is courtesy of Shutterstock. It's titled Portrait of a young beautiful blonde model wearing trendy
glasses and casual shirt and posing over metal background. Hipster style by Augustino
Step 2

Isolate the girl from the background using the select tool. Use the Refine Edges option to help with the hair.
Step 3

Now let's add the second image for the double exposure experiment. The image is titled Silhouette of tree. Black and white by
Namsilat. Again isolate the background, we will just use the branches.
Step 4

Duplicate the photo of the branches to make them mor compact.

Step 5

Now put both images together. Create a marquee selection of the branches by clicking on the thumbnail of the layer holding
Command (MAC) or Control (P).
Step 6

Mask the photo of the girl with the branches selection.

Step 7

Time for some refinements, especially on the edges and to make them look random and not so uniform. Also duplicate the girl's layer
and move it on top of the other layers. Reduce the oapcity to 70%.
Step 8

Duplicate all layers and merge them into one. Then change the Blend Mode to Screen.
Conclusion

Resize the layers to place the girl in the center of the document. You can also add a photo filter, Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo
Filter. You can use deep blue or orange to add a really nice style to the final design.
Applications
Final Image Preview

Step 1: Scene Setup

Ok so to start off, we need to create our background and our new document. Now like almost all of my tutorials the resolution is up to
you, however I still suggest something large (I will be using 3000*2000) and now we need to make the background. To create the
background choose a light grey and make a grey to white gradient, I went with the circular gradient with white in the center expanding
into grey but whatever you like should work just fine for this.
Now we need our stock image! You can use any kind of model you like, I went with a dancer picture which can be seen below. Once
you have your stock you will need to isolate it out using your pen tool and drop it into your scene.
Step 2: Simple Background Aesthetics

Now to start building our scene up with some easy tricks. The first of which will be to help lessen the negative space in the scene by
creating something for the background. So create a new layer under your model and make a large colored circle (I went with pink).
You can do this by using the circular marquee tool and then just filling it. Once you have made your circle turn the layers opacity
down to about 20%.
Now we can create another new layer under the figure for our shadow. To create the shadow grab any old brush and just draw it out.
Once you have loosely (very loose in my case) drawn the shadow just apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of about 15 depending on
how large your shadow area is going to be and how condensed you want it to be.
Once you shadow is done we can make a duplicate of our figure and turn the opacity to 0%. Once you have done this go to the F on
the layer toolbar and select ‘stroke’. Once you have done that set your stroke dialog up as mine is in the below screenshot, then just
decrease the opacity and move it around a tad to the left or right.
Step 3: Figure Aesthetics

Ok now its time to start my favorite part! The sketching! So at this point you will want to grab your 3px hard brush and get started!
So basically what you want to do hear is to just trace, doodle and shade in random sections with different colors. I used black, white,
pink, cyan and green for my colors. Starting with green and white then moving on to the other colors but your color selections can be
whatever you like, just make sure they complement one another. And remember we are going for a traditional doodle/sketch look so
don’t worry if yours looks rough!
You can also play around with other filters/tools while doing this. For example I smudged my green lines in the below screenshot.
Ok so now that you have sketched all over your stock its time to move on to the next step which may not be necessary or viable on
your piece but we will go over it regardless just for the sake of learning!

So what we are going to do is duplicate the cross on my figures necklace. So to do this in a cool way we will, isolate out the cross,
drop it on a new layer and set it as an overlay layer at 100% and then under this layer on a new layer we will just fill in the cross. This
way the solid cross that we just filled will have the shadows and highlights from the overlay cross and it will allow us to manipulate
the colors much easier than with the standard hue adjustments.
You can also see where I drew (poorly) little loops to connect these new crosses to the original necklace, which you can add to yours
if your doing something similar.

Now lets add some more color like effects. To do this just create a new layer above your figure and draw a bit patch on it in a color
that fits with your piece (I went with blue). Then just apply a large Gaussian blur and set the layer up as a screen layer.
My document now looks like the below screen shot.
Now lets add some more to our figure! So grab one of your splat/brush stroke brushes ( see our tut on these here :
http://design.creativefan.com/combining-custom-brushes-for-wild-effects-in-photoshop/ ) and throw down to in two different colors (I
used dark purple and blue) then set them up as an overlay layer.
Now using some of the brushes just throw a few brush strokes on a new layer under your figure and some on top of your figure.
Step 4: Custom shapes

Once your brush strokes are all laid down we can move on to the next section, that being creating the dynamic swirly shapes! To do
this start off by making a new document (you don’t have to but I find it easier) and then just using your pen tool make a quick random
loop like shape. Then once you have your shape fill it with your desired color!
Now unlike our previous tutorials where we tried to create a light setup that related to the background this time we can just go all
random. Just burn/dodge what you think looks good. Because in the end if you think it looks good, what else matters? If your having
trouble at this step, or don’t know what im referring to I suggest you take a look at one of our tutorials that covers this in full, which
can be found at: http://design.creativefan.com/create-colorful-ornamental-text-photoshop-tutorial/
Now we can create a new hue adjustment layer. This can be found in the layer drop down under adjustment layers -> hue and
saturation. Once you have create a new adjustment layer and set it up to your desired color then just edit it like you would any mask!
For example erasing a line would create a line in a different color and painting a line would do vice-versa. I used the pen tool to create
my color swirls but you can just marquee them out or just paint them on, whatever is easier for you!
Now just drop it into your dance picture. The idea here being that part loops behind the figure whilst another part stays on top of the
figure creating a 3D like illusion. As you can see in the below screen shot, I put a ton!
Now we can repeat the process of making our swirly shape but this time just make a sphere which is a thousand times easier. Just lasso
out a sphere, fill, burn, dodge and color! If your sphere looks a tad flat you can spherize it with the spherize filter located in the
deformation drop down in your filter tab. But if you do this be sure that you have it set to 100% on both axis’!
Once the shapes are in lets do some more fine tuning. So head over to your layer tab and choose create new layer > Fill layer > Pattern
layer and then just grab a scan line pattern. Once you have done this just make some random selections or random brush strokes etc…
which will be your scan lines. You can use your polygon lasso here to make various weird shapes or some brushes you have lying
about its up to you. I used a splatter brush as well as the poly lasso.
But don’t be afraid of just using one type of pattern! For example below you can see I used another pattern, a black halftone to be
exact.

Next grab your poly lasso and just make a few rectangles and triangles in various shapes all over your figure. Then just copy and paste
these sections of your figure on to a new layer. Once you have done that just move them around to create some abstract dispersion.
Also if you wanted you could use the displacement filter for this, however keep in mind that doing it that way gives you a thousand
times less control!
To finish off our piece we will need to add in something more, something to help bring everything together. That will be light stocks!
So we will head over to SXC and grab this stock and drop it into our document. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1114780
Once you have dropped the light stock into your document apply it as a screen beneath the figure. Then duplicate it and place it above
the figure. Erase out the parts you don’t like that are on top of the figure and ta-da!
Now we are done! I finished my piece off with a bit more drawing and some graffiti work and my final image looks like the below
screen shot.
I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and maybe learned a thing or two! If you have any questions regarding a technique don’t be
afraid to post a message and ask!
Photo Manipulate a Beautiful Snow Queen Scene

Today you’ll learn how to create an atmospheric snow queen scene. This tutorial will teach you all kinds of practical techniques
including:

 Combining multiple photos to create a custom backdrop

 Adding custom lighting effects
 Using adjustment layers correctly
 Blending images seamlessly
 Creating a snow blizzard effect using brushes

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Resources Used In This Tutorial

 Model
 Background
 Background 1
 Snow brush
 Lens Flare

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new file, go to menu bar and click File > New > and then put the following values on their fields:

Width: 1370
Height: 1680
Background Color: Transparent
Step 2

In this step, we will be creating the base background. To start, open the stock ‘Manipulated-Background’ by Intano-Stock in
photoshop. Once open, activate the Rectangular Marquee tool by pressing M on your keyboard and create a selection area around the
sky. See the image below:
Now that you’ve made a selection area around the sky, activate the Move tool (V) then left click on the image and drag it all the way
to our canvas. Position it as shown:
Step 3

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) or simply click ‘New Layer’ on Layers palette then go to Layer> Create clipping mask (Alt +
Ctrl +G) to create a mask. Activate your brush tool (B) with these settings:

Brush Size: 500px

Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 20%
Flow: 100%
The result:
Next, adjust Hue and Saturation of the image, Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation. Follow these settings:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -38
Lightness: 0
The result should be similar to this:
Step 4

We’ve made the first part of the sky, now we will make it more dramatic. To do that, we will add another background from the stock
‘Dark Background’ by Xan-04. Open the said stock image and once it is open, copy the image and paste it to our canvas. Make sure to
put it above the ‘Base’ layer. To do that, just left-click and drag this new layer on top of the base. Once it is on our main canvas, drag
the image until you have the same result:
The result of drag:
Next, add a vector mask from the bottom of layer’s patte. Now, activate your Eraser tool (E) with a soft round brush. Erase
highlighgted area as shown below:
The result should be similar to this:
Step 5

Now, in this step, we will be adding our subject-the model. First, let’s open the stock image by Faestock. We will be cutting out
subject from its original background. To do this, activate Pen tool (P) for an accurate result.
Import it to our working canvas. Activate the transform tool (V) and resize model same as the image below:
Rename the layer to ‘Model’

Step 6

Let’s brighten up the model by adding an empty layer (Shift + Ctrl + N). Rename the layer to ‘bright’. Drag the layer down after the
model’s layer. Select a soft white brush (B) with an opacity of 20% and a 100% flow. Gently brush over the body.
The result:
Step 7

Add another empty layer (Shift + Ctrl + N), the layer should be placed on the top of the model’s layer. Enhance the light more by
highlighting the edge of the model to bright out the light from the background. Activate the brush tool by pressing B and when it is
activated, use the following values:

Size: 6-12%
Opacity: 20%
Flow: 100%
Hardness: 0%

Zoom in and now gently brush the face, shoulder and some part of the skirt as seen below:
The result should be similar to this:
Step 8

Now, we will make the ‘highlighted edges’ to look more natural and so activate your smudge tool and smudge the edges. Look what I
did below:
Continue smudging on different parts until you get the desired result.
Step 9

Next, We’ll adjust the Hue and Saturation. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer> Hue and Saturation and create a clipping mask.

Hue: 0
Saturation: -10
Lightness: 0
Now group the layers we have created and name it ‘Model’.

Step 10

Add another empty layer and then activate your brush tool (B) and open ‘Snow White’ by tahliadenae. Choose brush #197 and follow
these settings:

Size: 700px-1200px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%
Apply randomly on the layer and make sure it isn’t aligned or fall into sections or else it will look fake. Delete snow pecks which
distracts the image by using the Eraser tool.
Step 11

Now, still the snow layer activated, go to Filter> Blur > Motion Blur. Input the following settings:

Angle: -30
Distance: 5 pixels
The motion blur result:
Group the layers to ‘Snow’

Step 12

Open ‘Amazing lens flare’ by sapphiredesign. Choose lens flare #4 and copy to our canvas. Once copied, resize it and place it like I
did below:
Step 13

Next step is changing the blending mode into ‘Screen’. The result:

This will enhance the lighting into our scene. You can always do this where there is a strong lighting on the background to create a
dramatic effect.
Group the layers and rename the group to len’s flare.

Step 14

The next step is enhancing the color of our image. We’re giving it a dark artwork finish. Let’s start by adding ‘Solid Color’. To do
that, Click on New Fill layer/Adjustment layer button from the layer window when the menu opens, pick solid color. In the ‘Color
Picker’ window, enter in #424142.
Step 15

When you have it on the layer window, change the Blending Mode to Soft Light and the opacity should be change at 20%. The result
should be smiliar to this:
Step 16

Now let’s create the second ‘solid color’. Set the color to #6d7378 then change the blending mode to Soft Light and the Opacity
should be retained at the 100%.

The result should be similar to this:

Step 17

Let’s create the last solid color and set the color to #5b7aa4.

and the result is:

Step 18

It’s time to create color balance adjustment layer from the Create New Fill/Adjustment layer button. Click on color balance from
contextual menu and when the color balance boy opens, apply the following:

Shadows: +5,0,-5
Midtones: 0,0,0
Color Balance: -8, +15, +27
The result:
Step 19

Finally let’s enhance the color by creating Photo Filter adjustment layer. Go to Layer> New Adjustment layer> Photo Filter.
Step 20

The last step would be adjusting the curves. Go to Menu> Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Input the following:

Output: 36
Input: 31
and the final result is:
And We’re Done!

Here is how your final result should look.

Design a Futuristic Abstract Portrait

This tutorial will walk you through the steps of how to create your very own futuristic artistic portrait. The great thing is that these
techniques can be applied to virtually any portrait, meaning you can give yourself a creative self portrait, or even Photoshop the faces
of your friends and family to surprise them!

Resources Used In This Tutorial

 Nebula Photo
 Face Photo
 Fine Wisps Brush Set
 Surreal Swirls Brush Set
 Paint Tossing Image Set

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document (800X800px). Paste in your nebula photo and position it to fit nicely within your canvas.
Step 2

The nebula image is looking a little blurry, so go to filter>sharpen>unsharp mask. Apply the mask using the settings below:

Unsharp Mask Settings:

Amount: 70%
Radius: 1.5 pixels
Threshold: 0 levels
Step 3

Now we want to add some light effects to our background.

Create a new layer called ‘center highlight’. Drag out a white to transparent radial gradient from the center of your canvas.
Now change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’:
Now create a new layer called ‘white highlights’. Repeat the last step, creating a series of smaller white to transparent radial gradients:
Now create a new layer called ‘rainbow highlights’. Drag out a series of smaller white to transparent radial gradients. Then go to
blending options for this layer and apply a gradient overlay, selecting the rainbow default gradient.

Ensure that your layer is set to ‘overlay’ blend mode:

Finally, reduce this layer’s opacity to 5%, giving a subtle light effect:
Step 4

Now create a new layer called ‘vignette’. Use a large soft black paintbrush, set to 60% opacity. Now brush around the corners and
edges of your canvas:
Step 5

Roughly cut out your model face photo and paste it into your document:
Now apply a levels and color balance adjustment layer (apply a clipping mask for each, so that they only effect your underlying face
layer, not your entire image):

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

17 / 1.00 / 233

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlights: -9 / -11 / -19

Midtones: -29 / +1 / +6
Shadows: -18 / -4 / -8
Now using your pen tool cut around the edges of your models face, to get a smoother more curver selection. Once you’ve got your
path in place, right click on the path in your paths palette and click ‘convert to selection’. Then return to your layer’s palette and hit
the ‘create layer mask’ icon. This will automatically mask off the areas of your model’s face that are outside of your path selection.

Now with your layer mask in place, download the brush sets from the resources section for this tutorial. Using the brushes (ensuring
that you use a black paintbrush) paint over various parts of your model’s face. This will create a cool vector style effect, whereby
shards of your model’s face become masked off. With this step it’s important just to experiment with what you feel looks good.
Remember, if you do something wrong you’re working non-destructively using a mask, so you can simply undo your mistake!
Step 6

Now download your paint tossing images from the resources section for this tutorial.

Download the red image from the set and open it up in a new document:
Now we want to isolate our paint splatter from the black background. To do this, duplicate your paint splatter layer. Hide the duplicate
layer and select the original. Go to image>adjustments>levels and use levels to really up the contrast of your image. The idea is to get
the splatter looking as separate from it’s background as possible, so make the darks/midtones darker and make the highlights lighter:

Now go to select>color range. Use the color range eye dropper to click on the black background of your image. You can see in the
image below that this creates a good selection of your background:
Hit ok and your background will be selected. Then go to select>inverse to invert your selection and select your paint splatter. Go to
select>modify>contract and contract your selection by 2px (this gets rid of any messy edges).
Finally, unhide your duplicate paint splatter layer and select it in your layers palette (we want to use this layer after all, not our high
contrast original splatter layer – this was just for getting a good selection). With your color range selection still in place, copy and
paste your paint splatter into your original document:
Step 7

Now go to edit>transform>warp and warp your splatter into a more fitting shape for your composition, making sure that the bottom of
the splatter overlaps your woman’s face:
Now apply a layer mask to this layer, and use a medium sized, soft black paintbrush at around 20% opacity to smoothly blend your
splatter into the woman’s face:
Now apply a hue/saturation, levels and color balance adjustment layer to this layer, ensuring that you create a clipping mask for each.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer Settings:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Lightness: +25

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

20 / 0.96 / 218

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlight: +13 / -12 / -60

Midtones: +21 / -9 / -11
Shadows: -13 / +1 / +8
Step 8

Now repeat step 7, applying several more paint splatters:

Step 9

Now repeat steps 7 and 8, but leave a large splatter filling the right side of your canvas:
Now go to filter>blur>gaussian blur. Apply a 2.8px strength gaussian blur to your large paint splatter layer. This should help create
the illusion of depth:
Step 10

Repeat step 9, adding a larger paint splatter to the bottom left of your canvas. This time apply a gaussian blur of 7px strength, to add a
further layer of depth to your composition:
Step 11

Now create a new layer called ‘shadow detail’. Grab a 2px soft black paintbrush and carefully paint in shadows on all the cut out areas
of your model’s face. You want to give the impression of depth here, so try to establish a light source when you’re painting.

It helps to zoom in whilst you’re doing this step as otherwise it can get very fiddly!

The images below show your shadows up close and then at 100%:
I reduced the opacity of this shadows layer to 70% just to make the effect somewhat more subtle:
Step 12

Now create a new layer called ‘lens flare’. Fill your canvas with black and then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘screen’ to hide the
black. This will allow you to work with a lens flare effect in a non-destructive way.

Go to filter>render>lens and apply a lens flare in the top right of your canvas. Then change this layer’s blend mode to 80%. The
images below show the lens flare layer at normal blend mode and then screen blend mode:
Now apply another lens flare in the left area of your canvas (on a new layer of course):
Step 13

Now create a new layer called ‘colored highlights’. Drag out a series of bright radial gradients, ranging from a neon color to
transparent. Try to pick neon colors that compliment your overall composition:
Now change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’ and reduce it’s opacity to 10%:
Step 14

Now create a new layer called ‘dodge/burn’. Fill your canvas with 50% gray and then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’.
This will let you non-destructively dodge/burn your image.

Use a soft black paintbrush for your shadows and a soft white paintbrush for your highlights. Use this stage not only to build up your
shadows and highlights but to better blend together your various visual elements.

The images below show your dodge/burn layer at ‘normal’ blend mode and then ‘overlay’ blend mode:
Step 15

Finally, add a final gradient overlay adjustment layer (do not apply a clipping mask to this layer). Select a gradient overlay ranging
from 9400e1 to 00601b. Reduce this layer’s opacity to 7%, for a subtle final tint:
And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques
and outcome.
Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Resources Used In This Tutorial

 Forest
 Model
 Hair brushes
 Vines
 Fire 1
 Fire 2
 Abstract lighting

Step 1

Open forest stock. We only use one part from this picture . Use Crop Tool ( C) to make a selection of right edge as shown below:
Right click it, choose Crop to complete this action.

Duplicate this background layer and choose Edit-Transform-Flip Horizontal:

Step 2

On duplicated background, go to Filter-Blur-Gassian Blur:

If you use another picture you may change the radius to get the desired blurred effect.
Lower opacity to 70%:

Duplicate this layer then choose Filter-Distort-Lens Correction:

Step 3

To remove orange hint on background, I use a new layer. Take soft brush and use Eyedropper Tool ( I ) to pick a color of background
and I have #82827c:
Paint on this part and change the mode to Color 100%:
Step 4

I want to brighten the right side of background so I make a new layer and use soft white brush to paint on this side. Put the mode to
Soft light 100%:
Step 5

Open model stock. As you see, model has a transparent sleeve so we need to remove background from this part. I will show you how I
do it and it’s a pretty easy technique.
First, I use Pen Tool to isolate model from background ( but you can use the method you like ) and copy extracted model on a new
layer. I place forest background between background and this layer so you can easily see result after removing background from the
sleeve.
Hide all layers except model one. On model layer, press Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+2 to load bright parts of her. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy this
selection into a new layer. Lower opacity of it to 50%. Turn on all layers. Add layer mask for model one. Hold Cmd/Ctrl while
clicking on copied layer to load it selection.
Take soft brush with opacity and flow about 60-70% to paint within the sleeve. Do it gently and subtly avoiding the contour until you
feel ok. Here is my result:
Step 6

To add some hair for model to create a natural look, I use hair brush. Set foreground color to #080301 ( this color is picked from dark
part of model hair). Choose brush with number 928. Click twice on the left part of model hair:

Choose Edit-Transform-Warp to transform this hair to be fit:

Add layer mask to remove unecessary parts:
With same technique, add some more hair with color changed to # 723b24 and #3c190d:
On one hair layer, I use Dodge and Burn tool with Midtones Range and Exposure about 20-30% to add realistic look for it:
Turn off forest, background layer. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge all visible layers ( model ones, hairs).

Step 7

Move merged model into our document, resize to fit the size of background:
You may notice that the skin of model need to be smoothed. On model layer, make selection for skin then press Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy
it:
Create a new layer above model layer with Clipping Mask:
Hit Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste copied part into this new layer:
On this new layer, go to Filter-Blur-Surface Blur:
Add layer mask for this layer and use soft black brush to remove blurred effect on eye parts, nose, lips:
Step 8

To make some parts of skin look better, I use a new layer ( Clipping Mask). Take Blur Tool with Normal mode and Strength about 15-
20% and paint over the parts you want to soften.
Step 9

To brighten skin, make a new layer ( Clipping Mask). Take soft brush with color #b5b0ac and paint over model skin. Change the
mode to Soft light 100%:
Step 10

The model looks so saturated against the background so I use an adjustment layer ( Clipping Mask) to fix it. Go to Layer-New
adjustment layer-Hue/Saturation:
Step 11

As you see I set the main light source come from the right side of picture. So to add more light for model contour, I use Inner Shadow
effect. Right lick model layer, choose Blending options:
You can see result below:
Step 12

Open vine stock pack. I choose this image to work with. As it has transparent background so you just need to use Lasso Tool to grab a
selection around the one you like and drag into our canvas. Resize it and place it beside the right arm of model:
Duplicate this layer and move to the left arm. Try to transform it to get a bit different look from the right. You can use layer mask to
remove any unecessary parts:
Step 13

Come back to vine image. Use Lasso Tool to take a part of this vine and move it into our document again. As usual we downsize and
place it horizontally:
Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T to active transform tool and click to choose Warp modes:
Warp and transform it to get the look it covers the left wrist. My result:
Do the same for the right one. You can use layer mask to hide any unwanted parts:
Step 14

We’re going to add shadow for the vines on model wrists. Make two new layers under vine ones. Use soft black brush with very small
size ( I use 5-6 px) and paint under these parts. Lower opacity to 20%. Call them “shadow 1″ and “shadow 2″:
Step 15

To be easier to edit the vines parts together, I move them all into a group. First on vine 4 layer. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+G to make group for it.
Then choose all vine layers and their shadow one, use Move Tool to move them into this group:

Change the mode from Pass Through ( default group mode) to Normal:
On vine 4 layer, go to Layer-New adjustment layer-Hue/Saturation:
Because the mode is changed to Normal so Hue/Saturation layer only effects the layers inside this group ( vines). We have result:
Step 16

Open fire 1 stock. Move it into our canvas, resize and place it onto the right side of model:
Change the mode to Screen 100%. As you see the black part of this image disappeared.
Duplicate this fire three times and move them up as shown below:
Open fire stock again. Copy the top part of fire and move it into our main document, place it above fire layers. Change the mode to
Screen and duplicate it also.
Add layer mask for all fire layers. Use a black brush to remove rough edges and leave a natural look:
Step 17

Open abstract lighting stock. Move it onto the right side of model chest.
Add layer mask and remove black part:
Change the mode to Soft light 100%:
Copy a part from this stock again and move it onto model chest. Transform and resize it as shown below:
Change the mode to Soft light 100% and add layer mask to remove any unecessary parts:
I call two these layers as “burning effect 1″ and “burning effect 2″.

Step 18

To make the burning effect more visible and dramatic, I use two new layers and brush with color #705106 and #ebb739. One under
and one above burning effect ones. Paint around this effect and put the under one as Color Burn 100% and upper one as Overlay 50%:
Step 19

Open fire 2 stock. Copy the part of the fire and move above model shoulder, downsize and transform it as usual:
Change the move to Screen 100%. Add layer mask to remove rough edge of it:
Duplicate this layer and put the mode as Soft light 100%:
To remove dark part of this firing heart, I use Blend If Tool. Right click duplicated layer ( one with Soft light mode 100%), choose
Blending options. Hold the Alt key and drag black button until the dark part disappears:
Add layer mask and use brush to remove its bottom:
Step 20

Open fire 1 stock. Move it into our document again and transform it as shown below:
Change the mode to Screen 100% and use layer mask to remove unecessary parts. Then duplicate it and we have result:
Step 21

To brighten the part of model and background which catch the light from the fire, I use two new layers and brush with color #ffdaa5.
First I put one as Color 100% to add light yellow for model and another as Overlay 100% to brighten color created and the rest
around:
Step 22

To add some fire sparks, make a new layer on the top and take brush with color #de8608. Press F5 to make settings for it:
Paint randomly around model, firing heart until you feel it looks good:
Right click this layer, choose Blending options to add Outer Glow effect;
Name this layer as “sparks 1″.
Step 23

These sparks don’t look very good so I will apply a small trick to make them look better. On sparks 1 layer, hit Cmd/Ctrl+G to make
group for it. Change the mode of this group from Pass Through to Color Dodge. It creates a much better effect than without grouping
this layer. You can see results below to compare:
Create a new layer above sparks 1 layer ( within this group). Increase brush size to 20 px. Paint some sparks more around model and
apply Outer Glow effect for them as we did with sparks 1:
Step 24

Now it’s time to color and blend this picture. Create three Selective Color layers on the top ( Layer-New adjustment layer-Selective
Color):
Selective Color 1:
Selective Color 2:
Selective Color 3:
Step 25

Create some another adjustment layers:

Curves:

Color Balance:
On Curves and Color Balance layer masks, use soft black brush with opacity and flow about 40% to remove contrast on model skin
and hair:
To increase the contrast of picture, I use a Levels layer:

Use soft black brush with opacity and flow 100% to remove unwanted contrast on model eyes and hair:
Step 26

To add some depth for background, I use a new layer on the top. Take soft brush with color #554f55 and paint on the edges of
background.
Put the mode as Multipy 100%:
New layer and I use soft brush with color #c9bda3. Paint on the bright part of forest and change the mode to Overlay 100%:
Step 27

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge all layers. Use Lasso Tool to make selection for bottom parts of picture and set feather as 50:

Click Filter-Blur-Gassian Blur:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques
and outcome.
 Photo Effects Week: Turn a Portrait
Photo Into a Painting
by Martin Perhiniak25 Oct 201125 Comments

14

11

23

Share
This week we are celebrating the launch of PhotoDune, Envato's new stock photography website with a series of photo
effect and photo manipulation tutorials that showcase the images from our new marketplace. In this tutorial we will turn a
photo into a digital painting using several techniques to achieve a mixed media look. For this workflow you don't
necessarily need to be good at freehand drawing as we won't start from scratch but use the photo as the base of our
artwork. The photo used in this tutorial is available for free for Psd Premium Members. Let's get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial. We have granted a complimentary personal license
to Psd Premium Members for the PhotoDune images used in this tutorial. They can be accessed in the source files of
your premium download. If you are not a premium member, you can download the images used in this tutorial below.

 Tribal beauty woman with makeup

 Canvas texture
 Watercolor splatters brush set

Step 1

Open the Tribal beauty photo. First of all we need to extract the woman from the original background of the photograph.
We don't need to include the sticks in her hair, which makes the selection a bit easier. As the background and the
foreground are too close to each other in colors we will you use the Pen tool for the selection. You can see the end result
of the masking on this image:

Step 2

On images like this using the Pen tool is very useful as we have lots of clean curves on the edges. With the Pen tool you
can create curves easily to track the outlines of the portrait. Once we draw the whole path, we will turn it into a selection
and save it as a pixel mask. You should select the Pen tool and make sure you use the Path mode.

Step 3

You can choose to include the hand and the body in the selection and use it in the final composition but if you want to
make the masking faster you can leave it out and only focus on the head as we will only use the head in this tutorial. Try
to use the least amount of anchor points for your path but try to follow the edges preciously with your curves. If you are
not familiar with the Pen tool check this tutorial out from my Photoshop for Beginners series:
Step 4

Once you go around the head with the Pen tool and you finish the path by closing it up you are ready to turn it into a
selection. While still having the Pen tool selected use right click and choose Make Selection from the context menu. You
can add 1 pixel feather.
Step 5

After you made your selection you will need to turn the Background layer into a normal layer by double clicking on it in the
Layers panel and call the layer Portrait. After this turn your selection into a Pixel Mask by clicking on the this icon in the
Mask panel or at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Step 6

The mask will hide the original background, where you should see transparent pixels now. Next thing we need to do is to
brighten up the portrait. We are going to use a Curves Adjustment layer with the following curve:
Step 7

Select the Adjustment layer and make a clipping mask between the adjustment and the portrait layers by pressing Ctrl +
Alt + G / Cmd + Option + G to make sure the adjustment won't affect other layers below. After this use the Free Transform
tool from the Edit menu (Ctrl/Cmd + T) to make the whole portrait slightly bigger to fill the original frame more tightly.
Step 8

We need to create a new layer at the bottom of the layer structure. Fill in this new and empty layer with white (press D and
then Ctrl/Cmd + Backspace) and then apply the following layer style on it:
Step 9

You can call this layer Background. Next step is to make a new layer on top of the other layers and call it Mixer Brush. On
this layer we are going to start creating the foundation of the painting effect. You will need to download the Watercolor
Splatter brush set for this step. You can find the link at the beginning of the tutorial. Once you have the brush file, just
double click on it to install it. After that the brush set should be available in Photoshop. First of all you will have to select
the Mixer Brush tool (CS5 only) and set up the following options for it:

 Choose Splatter 24px (from the Watercolor Splatter brush set)

 Set the brush size to 121 px
 Turn off the 'Load brush after each stroke' option
 Choose Very Wet, heavy Mix option
 Turn Sample All Layers option on
 In the Brushes panel you will have to turn on Texture, Load the Artistic Surfaces and choose Dark Coarse Weave texture
(turn Invert option on)
 Under Texture set Mode to Height, Scale to 79% and Depth to 11%
 If you have a tablet use Shape Dynamics too and set the Size Control to Pen Pressure (if you work with a mouse you don't
need this)
 Under Brush Tip Shape set the Spacing to 5%
Step 10

After all these settings it is worth saving this brush setup for later use. Let's save it as a Mixer Brush Tool preset. Click on
the far left icon on the control bar and click on the new icon and name the brush Painting over photos.
Step 11

Make sure you have the new empty layer selected before you start painting over the photo. With this setup on the Mixer
Brush you will be able to paint over the portrait blend details together. The Mixer Brush will not only use the portrait layer
but it will also sample from the background, which will help us to break up the original edges of the face to make it a bit
more artistic, painterly. Try to keep the details on the eyes, nose and mouth but you can be much more loose on the other
parts of the face. Use your creativity in this step.
Step 13

After this point you can turn off the Portrait layer, which will also turn off the clipped Curves Adjustment layer. We don't
need them anymore, but it is good to keep them in case we want to add some more detail to the Mixer Brush layer (like
the hand for instance).
Step 14

It is time now to add more canvas feel to our painting with the image you can download from the link I included at the
start. Open up this image and drag it on top of our composition and name the layer Canvas Texture. Set the blend mode
to Overlay and then create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the following options (this adjustment layer has to be
clipped to the texture layer):
Step 15

To increase the contrast lets add a Levels Adjustment Layer on the top with these values:

Step 16

It is time now to make the whole painting more dynamic and interesting by using the Splatter brushes with Brush tool.
Create a new layer under the Canvas Texture and call it Colors. There is no correct way to set the options for this step as
you will get interesting effects no matter what options you use. It is useful to work with more than one brush tip shape from
the brush set and also to use Jitter on the size and angle to get more variation. I was changing my color a lot and I tried to
introduce interesting and vivid tints like purple, yellow and blue. On the left you can see the Colors layer separated and on
the right the way it looks together with the other layers. This step took roughly 20 minutes, but it is the fun part of the
process.
Step 17

Now we need to show the neck somehow. An interesting way to do it is to brighten the background instead of outlining the
curve of the neck. This technique is very similar of using a sponge or a cloth to smudge and brighten up parts of your
painting. The way we can easily do it in Photoshop is to make a new layer above the Colors and below the Canvas
Texture, then fill this layer with 50% gray (Edit/Fill option with 50% gray option), set the blend mode to Overlay and the
opacity to 60%. Once you are ready with this you will need to use the Brush tool with a soft edge brush set to white color
and 20% opacity on this layer. Simply brush over the neck and maybe other areas as well a couple of times where you
feel a bit of brightening would help the overall look. Optionally you can also darken with this layer if you change your brush
color to black.
Step 18

Next step is to add more detail onto the face. I wanted to emphasise the eyes so I decided to create two new layers. I
used a layer to paint some dark details (marked with red arrows) and another layer set to Overlay blend mode for adding
bright paint spots on the face. These spots are actually following the design of the original makeup from the photograph.
Step 19

The last layer we need to create is for adding more detail to the whole portrait. On this layer I will use a simple default
circular brush with hard edges and draw over parts of the image. You can place this layer below the Canvas texture and
you call it Ink as it is similar to using ink over paint. Here are two close ups to see the details of this new layer:
Advertisement
Step 20

After this point it is up to your imagination how to finish the whole piece. Hopefully it was inspiring to go through these
steps together. On the image below you can see the final layer structure:
Final Image