Thanks for everyone’s comments and support on asksabre.com, as some of you know we were hacked recently and but everything seems to be back to normal now.

A new theme is in the works and we have lots of great new photoshop content coming your way. We currently are looking for new writers and we have several new tutorials ready to post.

Our current goal for asksabre.com is to bring you more tutorials, more resources, more of everything so come back oftern.

Asksabre

TAKE NOTE THIS TUTORIAL IS BEING REWRITTEN. SOME IMAGES HAVE BEEN LOST SO WE NEED TO REDO IT. Thanks

Step 1

The first step, of course is to find stock pictures. Please respect authors and never rip pictures that are not free from copyright… And credit authors once a picture used, they’re always pleased to see what you’ve done with their pictures.

When searching for pictures, always think about the picture resolution which should never be less than 1024×768. The Picture Quality. Zoom in on the pic and watch for grain, burr, noise… the less the better. Composition, think about what you going to do, even a good photo shopper is not a wizard!

You have to find the pictures that mostly fit what you want to achieve.

Let’s start with the tutorial! Here are the 2 pictures I’ll be working on:

Step 2

Put your texture file on top of the face, and put it in 50% opacity, so you can adjust scale and see how it fits.

By placing the texture like this, you will avoid troubles that will could come later if you didnt. Here you’ll see an example that you’ll need to duplicate the texture to make the body after. Once adjusted, you apply a layer mask on the texture (keep it in low opacity to see the face), and hide everything that is not on the face by painting it out with a black brush.

Step 3

On top of the face, add an empty layer, fill it with black and use the “color” blending option in the layer window. Making this, the face will appear in black and white but you’ll preserve the colors under it, so you’ll be able to get some colors from the original picture after, if needed.

Now, come back on the texture layer, and put it in multiply mode, put the opacity to 100%.

Step 4

Duplicate the texture layer, change blending mode to Color Dodge, and put opacity about ~80%. Use a lower opacity if you want a feeling less bright to the end.

Step 5

Create a copy of your picture, by pressing the button as shown, in the history window.

On the duplicated picture, suppress all the layers except the face, then go to Image/Mode/Grey scale. The picture will be flattened. Then, save this picture as a PSD file (I usually save it on the desktop, and call it “displace.psd”). Then close it, and go back on your main file.

Step 6

Be sure you’re on the texture layer, unlock the layer mask, and go to Filter/Distort/Displace…, let values to X-10% Y-10%, press OK. You’ll have a “browse window”, find the file you saved just before and select it. It will distort the texture. See if it looks cool it will mainly depend of what kind of texture it is. If it works, it will give a little volume to the texture, don’t be afraid if it’s still flat, it’s still a work in progress!

Texture distorted using the displace filter on the left, original texture on the right … Try it on your manipulations and see if it fits…

Step 7

Now a more “artistic” part on the photo manipulation. On every texture work, the hardest part is to preserve volume. As you blend a flat texture, you lose it… So it’s time to get it back! Photoshop has a wonderful toy for that even 2 to be precise, as shown here:

The most useful ones are the 2 first. Use the one looking like a hand to reproduce shadows (with a 40% opacity maximum), use the first one to reproduce the enlighten part due to the light (with a 40% opacity maximum too). I can’t really guide you for this step, it’s really feeling! try to see on the original picture how comes the lights and shadows, and try to imitate it. Follow the nose, the mouth… try to be realistic. Here what I came up with:

Step 8

If you succeeded until here, the rest will be easy for you. To give more impact to your texture, especially with rocks/stones/sand texture, sharpen it. Put opacity of the sharpen tool to 20% (not more), with a big brush and brush all your picture once. You’ll see it coming clearer. Then you can take a smaller brush (never put more than 20% in opacity) and try to enhance more some parts. Be careful, it can pixellized your picture quickly. Try and cancel if it becomes noisy.

Here’s the sharpen tool. You can also use the water drop to blur some parts. It’s very useful to recreate perspective and deepness.

Step 9

Now it should look cool. You can adjust the levels, brightness, saturation by the following option :

As always it will depend on your artistic feelings!

Step 10

This step is up in the air, it depends on the kind of result you want. But I think it’s important to write it as it saves lots of my photo manipulation!

As we did in the Displace Section create a copy of your picture. Then just flatten it, by going to Layers/Flatten…. Once done go to Filters/filter gallery…

That will be more “feeling” … with time you’ll know which filters may work. I often try with Neon Glow which gives really “surreal” effect, or Plastic Wrap or Ink Outlines when you got troubles to get some volume… For the moment, you can try with a Neon Glow, I adjusted it like that :

Step 11

Once done, drag and drop that layer on top of your picture, and play with opacity and blending option to see if something good comes. I don’t guide you more than that, because it’s really subjective, and “feeling” once again just be sure to keep opacity under 30% because you’ll lose the benefits of all the work on texture you did before. You can also keep this layer only on one part by adding a layer mask on it.

For example, if the Neon Glow looks cool on the eye, just keep it there!

In my opinion, I wouldn’t keep these filters here, as the texture was exactly the goal in first place but I thought this tip could be useful to you one day! Hope you enjoyed it!

Step 1

The first stage, as always, was to make a quick copy of the drawing on a new layer using a small standard airbrush set to about 8 pixels wide and set to Multiply. This will act as our guide for the painting, which you can see in Fig.1.

Step 2

Quite often I place the predominant color down across the entire canvas, which in this case is a light brown (R157, G103, B76), but here I wanted to keep a white backdrop, so I made a mask around the drawing and then filled in the body only (Fig.2)

Step 3

This will form the base color, over which I shall now start to paint in some general highlights and shadow areas. I usually paint these on two separate layers, but in this instance I am putting them on the same layer and leaving it at the standard Normal blending mode in order to make quicker changes (Fig.3) At this stage, we are just trying to establish the basic forms and where the light source is situated. You can see the type of brush used in the top right, along with the flow setting (50%). Try to keep the light and dark areas as derivatives of the base color. You can see the two shades I have used in the top left of the image.

Step 4

Now that the body has begun to take form, and I know roughly where the light is falling, it is time to create a new Shadow layer which will be set to Multiply. This will define the key shadows and will be done using a soft airbrush and will help to further define the forms. The colour used can be seen in the top left (Fig. 4).

Step 5

You will notice that, so far, the detail has been defined tonally, with various sizes of the soft airbrush. Certain areas, such as the lips and around the deltoids muscle at the top of the left arm, have used a hard round brush which creates a more clearly defined edge, as demonstrated by the two brush strokes in Fig 4.

Step 6

Now that a shadow layer has been established, it is time to create one for the highlights, which will be set to Soft light as a blending mode. In Fig. 5, you can see the color used in the top left. I have also gone back to the original lighting layer and also added in some highlights across the face and neck to improve the head area.

Step 7

There are essentially two further layers that I will use before flattening the image and making colour adjustments. One shall be reserved for detail only, namely the nipples and veins, and the other will be called ‘refinements’ which shall be another highlights layer in essence. In Fig. 6, you can see this layer isolated over the base layer. It is set to Normal blending mode and uses the same color as the highlights layer. The purpose of the layer is to enhance what is already there by using finer strokes, as well as paint in the brightest areas. Keeping this as a separate layer just means more control when making final adjustments to the tonal ranges.

Step 8

With this layer complete, and the small details painted in, it is just a question of making some minor color changes, which in this case means a color balance adjustment layer which I tweaked towards a more yellow hue. One last layer, which is set to Soft Light, is used to add some color to the ears and lips, as well as some of the random areas, to add a little color variation.

Step 9

One could now add some blemishes and marks, along with some subtle colour variation, to help reduce the consistency of the skin tones.

Step 1

The first step is to get rid of the white background and put in a gradient that blends from a pale to a mid grey with the lightest area being the sky (Fig01).

Step 2

I decided to place the fire at the base of the image so as to provide plenty of room for the smoke. I chose a near white to represent the centre of the fire and blended this with a pale orange to show the flames (fig02). What also helps the intensity is duplicating the white section and setting to an Overlay mode on a separate layer which is what I did here. To create the sensation of movement apply a Gaussian Blur in order that the lines are not too sharp or alternatively you could use the smudge tool.

Step 3

With the fire blocked in it is time to make a start on the smoke. To begin with I have decided on a rather nondescript grey colour. It is then a case of using a soft airbrush with a light and dark tone to create roughly spherical shaped volumes (Fig03). Whilst doing this remember where the light source is (in this case the top right), as this will have an effect on the apparent volume of the smoke plume.

Step 4

We now have both the fire and smoke in the picture but they somehow feel a little unrelated. The way to connect the two is by using a pale orange colour in some of the smoke which will serve to echo the warmth of the fire and unify the image. In Fig04 you can see the effect of this on a new layer set to overlay.

Step 5

We began this tutorial with a gradient so as to very vaguely suggest a land mass and sky as a background but now we have the fire in place it looks as if it is floating in a void somewhat. To rectify this we are going to increase the contrast of the gradient and add some rough brush work at the base to help “root” the flames (Fig05). The background can remain hazy as it will contribute towards the sensation of a smoke screen. On the smoke layer I also added some definition to the shapes using a smaller brush and emphasized the orange glow. You will also notice that the fire is now more intense due to an additional layer set to overlay which you can see in Fig06. The flames can be seen in normal mode in the upper half of the picture.

Step 6

Fig07 shows a further enhancement to the smoke and in this image I have given the plume some more volume by darkening the left side more and creating some more defined shadows on the right. The idea here is to paint in a small scale level of detail across much of the smoke which shows the tiny cloud patterns it adopts but at the same time define some larger shapes and forms where the main shadows and highlights fall.

Step 7

The smoke started off as grey colour but now it is time to add some warmth to it, not because grey is wrong but rather just as a personal preference. This is done by simply adjusting the colour balance of the layer more towards yellow and red. To suggest that some of the flames are leaping upward inside the smoke I have enhanced the orange glow on the left and also painted in some more distant smoke in the upper right drifting across the sky (Fig08).

Step 8

The main components are already in place and from now on it is a process of refinement and adding more detail. I am reasonably happy with the glow on the underside of the smoke but it does at present lack a little definition unlike the right side and so I have added more detail here. I also wished to exaggerate the thickness of the smoke and so have added a new layer which is set to multiply and uses a mid grey brown to increase the darkness of the shadows (Fig09).

In response to this I have also added another layer which I have named “Highlights” and set to normal mode. Here I have painted in lighter accents across the right side to reflect the sunlight filtering in from the right corner, also adding some more drama and contrast.

That about concludes this tutorial and hopefully it will help you paint your own versions of the subject. There are a few changes that could further improve the picture such as integrating the flames better with the smoke and painting in some finer details in the plume but most of the crucial stages have been covered I think. You can see the final version below.

The first stage which forms the starting point for most of my digital work is a sketch done on paper. This is where I assemble any unformed ideas and decide on how the composition will be structured and try and give myself a template to begin working from.

In Fig01 you can see a pencil sketch that I scanned in which would form the basis of my final painting.

For this tutorial I wanted to combine a natural looking rock face that incorporated some element of architecture that had been carved into the stone.

Step 2:

The next stage was to get rid of the glaring white of the image and so I traced around the drawing and on a separate layer which I named “Background”, I used the Gradient tool fading from a pale to a darker green. On another new layer set to Hard Light I used a dark grey and filled in the area that makes up the rock itself and then to establish the light source I simply erased parts of this layer to reveal the white underneath (Fig02).

It is important to define the light source as this is paramount in how the viewer reads the image and interprets the forms. Rock can be a difficult subject to paint as it varies tremendously, not only in its coloration but more importantly in its structure and the types of formations it adopts. Because its surface is so uneven with so many undulations and crevices it is easy to loose sight of the overall form and get too involved with details.

In order to keep control of the painting process I find it is best to work on a larger scale to begin with and gradually work your way down to the finer detail. In other words, decide on a light source and block in the main highlights and shadows and carve out the general structure and form of your image before concentrating on the numerous incidental passages that will help add interest and detail to the final piece.

Step 3:

In Fig03 you will notice that I have added a new layer which I called “Main” and begun to rough in some of the areas that fall into shadow and started to shape some of the crevices. I used warm tones ranging between those seen on the left using a standard soft round airbrush with a varied diameter.

I set the opacity to between 65 and 100% and the flow to around 50% using pen pressure to control it as shown below the brush pre-sets. It does not matter too much how rough your marks are at this stage as the painting will go through a process of refinement until it is finished.

Quick and seemingly random marks are perfectly suitable and may even inadvertently suggest part of the final outcome so be bold and carefree!

Step 4:

At the moment the light areas on the rock face appear far too light. I want to create quite a smooth and reflective surface but white should only be reserved for the extreme highlights and not used across the entire picture. In order to tone it down I’ve added a new layer set to multiply at 71% which I called “Overlay”, and with a very pale brown filled in some warm tones to soften the contrast and reduce the white to certain areas (Fig04).

Step 5:

Because there will be a strong light source in the upper left of the picture with some very bright highlights it is only fitting that there will be some strong shadows to match. So on another layer which I named “Dark areas”, I used a dark brown as seen in Fig05 to accentuate the forms and add volume to the rock face.

Step 6:

The image is now starting to take shape and we can see how the eventual rock face will look. The two vertical uprights on the left and right are meant to almost form a right angle but at the moment the rock in between appears to be on a similar plane and so in order to remedy this I am going to add a “Shadows” layer set to Hard Light at about 50% opacity and using a dark grey, block in a large area that signifies shadows cast by the sun (Fig06).

At this stage we have the main elements firmly established and we can now begin the final phase which is that of refining what we already have and painting in some details across the rock face. You can either do this on separate layers, work on the existing ones or even flatten the PSD file and then continue – it is up to you. It is wise not to continually create new layers as the file will become very large and navigating through it will become a chore – just preserve the key layers if need be.

Also do not be afraid to change anything if you feel it is wrong no matter how advanced the painting is; it is never too late to re-work problem areas!

Step 7:

To the details then! You will have noticed from Fig06 that I had painted in some cracks, most notably the one running up the flat face on the left. However the overall surface still looks flat and uninteresting and so needs far more fractures and undulations. I started by erasing parts of the original grey layer (part2) to create highlights exactly as before.

Knowing that the light is being cast from the top left I then traced a darker line to the left of these lines on the “Dark areas” layer where the shadows would reside. With the large shadow layer above all other layers it means that when erasing the grey it does not reveal a white anymore (Fig07).

Step 8:

In Fig08 you will see that I’ve added a lot more detail in the form of cracks and crevices as well as darkening the shadows around the top and bottom of the picture. The best approach is to be quite loose and free about the way you apply marks to begin with – if they are wrong you can simply erase them (if you are erasing from a layer such as the grey one, just add in more grey to undo it).

There is no logical pattern or set of rules to follow here, just use your intuition and add detail where you see fit. This is when I use some of the initial marks made in stage 3 to suggest how and where to place the details. You can see when you compare this image with Fig06 that there is now more clarity and definition and the whole image looks less sketchy.

Step 9:

The final phase of the tutorial involves improving the detail further and using a customised brush to add a subtle pattern across certain areas to break up the surface somewhat.

tarting with a default Dry brush I then opened up the brush presets and chose a suitable Dual brush and altered the Scattering settings until I ended up with a result similar to that shown in Fig09.

You could do this on separate layers if you wish and set the blending mode either to Soft light or Multiply depending on the area and desired effect – it is up to you. You can see in the picture where I have applied the marks, numbered 1- 4. With a bit more work and a few tweaks I arrived at the final result as shown in Fig10.

]]> http://www.asksabre.com/digital-painting/painting-rock-and-stone-in-photoshop/feed http://www.asksabre.com/photo-manipulation/complete-photo-manipulation http://www.asksabre.com/photo-manipulation/complete-photo-manipulation#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:17:14 +0000 admin http://www.asksabre.com/?p=9 We are going to do a Manipulation together. I did this one a few months ago and is still one of my favorites. We will work on a 600 x 800 pixels canvas. You can simply redo this photo manipulation with me, but I advice you to make another photo manipulation in the same time.

Doing this, you’ll learn more, believe me when I say this.

Download this file to follow along :

[download#2#size]

Step 1

I chose to make an abstract background. To fit the theme, I had to make something industrial / mechanic. For the moment, don’t think hard ! Just find picture about “industry” and put them all together on your canvas. I found these one on Image After and Stock Exchange.

Once dropped on the canvas, you should have something like this :

The selected layer is not an “industry” stock picture, it’s only a texture. You’ll need this later.

Step 2

As shown, make a layer mask on every picture. To do this, left click + CTRL on the picture thumb in the layer window, you’ll see the selection appear. Then click on the layer mask button on bottom (red cross).

Step 3

Now this is the blending part You have to make all these picture looking like only one. Take a large brush (~100px smooth) with a low opacity (change it from 20% to 50%), and brush in black on the different masks to smoother edges and make different areas blend together.

Here’s my layer window once finished :

See the masks, and compared to the start … There are no rules about it, watch your pictures and try by yourself… you can change your mind at any time: take a white brush instead of a black one and you can get the picture back, that’s why you have to work on mask, and not only with an eraser on the picture.

And here’s the actual picture :

Step 4

To finish the background, add a “Hue / Saturation” layer with these settings :

This is what your background should look like!

The Focus Piece

Step 5

Start by masking all except the baby, like this :

See I’ve already rotated the baby, but that doesn’t matter, you can rotate it during the integration section.

Step 6

Duplicate the baby layer and go to Filter Gallery / Plastic Wrap, and use these settings :

Step 7

Once done, change the blending properties of this layer to Multiply with 55% opacity. You should have this now :

Integration

Step 8

You can now put your baby on your background. You should put the 2 layers of the baby in a folder, so they won’t move any more, and then drag it on the background, like this :

Step 9

Now I want to make the baby as if he was coming out from some spider webs. So … let’s first find some spider webs pictures. I’ve found them once again on Image After and Stock Exchange.

Step 10

Drag and drop them in the baby folder, and place them (approximately) like me :

Step 11

Then, once again, add a layer mask to each picture, and brush in black all that is not needed. To proceed, hide one web picture, to exactly see what you do, brush it, move it, brush again … again, brushing on layer mask to hide some part is more about “feeling”, with practice, you’ll go faster and it will be easier. With some patience, you’ll have this :

Step 12

Now, to give a real impact to the baby, he must have a dropped shadow on the background, to make the whole picture coming together. Like we already did, keep CTRL pressed and left click on the layer mask of the baby to get the selection back. Then create a new layer under the 2 baby layers and fill it with black (ALT + DEL when black is the foreground colour). You’ll have this :

Step 13

Be sure to be on the shadow layer and go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur then put 16px as values and click OK. Reduce opacity about ~60%. Now you can move the layer where you pleased with it, here’s mine :

Post Work

Step 14

Take a concrete texture (did you ask me where ? on Image After and Stock Exchange of course …). Try to find one quite plain, without big cracks like this one :

Step 15

Put it on top of your layers, just under the Hue/Saturation layer. As blending properties, I used Vivid Light with ~60% opacity, but you can browse the blending option to see different renderings. Now I had a Levels layer, with these settings :

Then :

The Final Product :

After I found myself a suitable source pic (1), I first used Hue/Saturation, to decrease the overall saturation and make the colours greener, and did this especially near the lips (2). For the head, I looked for a picture of a skull which was taken from roughly the same angle (3), and used a layer mask to make it seem as if her eye had been taken out (4).

Adding details

In the neck area (1), I used source pictures of a leg with spider veins (2), a mummy and a war victim (3). Source pictures which are usable for such a contest aren’t always pleasant to look at… I experimented a lot with different blend modes, till it looked right. I finally decided the features of her body weren’t clear enough, so I did some masking adjustments to bring them back (4).

Dirty Laundry

The clothes (1) were soiled with a soft brush in red and greenish black colours, while using the overlay layer mode (2).

Finished

Finally it was time for some more detailed work. I took the image from (1) to (2) by, among other things:

- drawing little zits and such
- using hue/saturation very selectively to tone down the saturation and make some skin extremely green
- de saturating the hair completely
- using overlay, soft light and color burn layers and soft red and black brushes to add more shadow and bloody parts

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial !

RESULT:

1. Create a new 300×300px page (File > New…) and fill it with a dark Grey color. I used #101010.

2. Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, make a circle in the middle of the page. To make a perfect circle, hold Shift, and drag the mouse whilst keeping the left button pressed. Fill it with a blue color. I used #00a8ff. After that press CTRL+D to deselect.

This is what you should have so far:

3. Go to Blending Options (Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options…) and follow these settings:

( Click Image To Enlarge )

- Drop Shadow
- Inner Shadow
- Outer Glow
- Inner Glow
- Bevel and Emboss
- Gradient Overlay

This what you should have so far:

4. We are now going to add some shiny lights. Select the background layer and make a square using the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

5. After making the square, press CTRL+C and after that, press CTRL+V. S elect the Lens Flare options (Filter > Render > Lens Flare..) and make sure the settings are set like shown below:

This is what you should have so far.

6. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and by setting the feather to 20px which is found at the top of the software, make a circle around the lens flare. After you will make the circle, right click on it and click on Select Inverse, and press the Delete button.

7. The lens flare layer still selected, click on the drop down menu that says Normal on it, and select Color Dodge. After doing that, click on it and drag it above the other layers. You should have something like this:

8. Select the Move Tool it over the orb. You should have something like this:

9. On this same layer (Layer 4) press CTRL+T and make it similar to this:

10. Right click on Layer 4 and click on Duplicate Layer. Move it at the bottom of the layer and change its opacity to 35% from the top right on the layer palette.

11. Make a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) and make an oval over the orb (make sure the feather is set to 0px) and fill it with a light blue colour (#00a2ff) and change its opacity to 45%. From the drop down menu where it says “Normal”, select Soft Light. Here is what you should have by now.

12. Make another layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) which is going to be the last, and make another oval circle positioned this way:

13. Select the Gradient Tool and make sure that at the top, the gradient is set like this:

14. With the Gradient Tool selected, click above the circle that you made, and drag downwards.

15. Press Ctrl+D to deselect it and change its opacity to 45%. Here is the final result.

You can make all types of colors, just be creative.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial !