Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1-2 hours

Step 1

For this tutorial I will be rendering the side of a vehicle. This is just a random sketch of mine that I chose. Notice the wheels are vastly exaggerated perhaps a little too much, but for the purpose of this tutorial it works fine.

There are countless different ways to render a vehicle and the purpose of the rendering should determine the style of the rendering. If you are in the initial stages of a project, you can be very loose with your rendering and only spend about ten minutes on it. If you are further along in the project the rendering will be tighter to demonstrate a truer illustration of what the real vehicle might look like. This tutorial demonstrates how I would tackle the latter. The style is my style and should be used as a guide and catalyst to developing your own style.

Scan your image and open it up in Photoshop. The quality of the sketch is not important in this case because the whole thing will be redrawn in Photoshop and any mistakes will be corrected (for example, one of the wheels might be smaller than the other).

Select Alt + Command + I and change the document size width to 210mm and the DPI to 300. This means that if the resulting image is printed at full size on an A4 sheet of paper the quality will be good, even if it were to be printed at A3 it would still look good.

By default the sketch will be on a layer called “Background” and the layer will be locked. To unlock it, right-click on it and select Layer from Background … a New Layer dialog box will appear, click OK and the layer will change to “Layer 0.” Now click “Layer 0″ once so that it is selected, then double-click it and change its name to "sketch." Next click the little padlock above it to lock the layer.

Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer, then rename it "bg." You can now drag and drop layers to reorder them. Place the "bg" layer below the "sketch" layer. These two layers will remain at the bottom of the layers tab.

Step 2

This is the most laborious of the process. Using the Pen Tool (P) trace over your sketched lines. Use as few points as possible to keep the sketch flowing, light and clean. As an example, the top curve uses only two points, the first one and the end.

Step 3

Go to the Brush Tool, select a Hard Round 1px brush and make sure the color is set to black. The Opacity and Flow should be set to 100%, which is the default.

Create a new layer (Shift + Command + N) and call it "outline." Click on the Pen Tool, right-click anywhere on the image and select Stroke Path, the dialog box should come up with the brush tool selected (this should be the brush that was defined earlier). Make sure simulated pressure is not selected and click OK.

In the path panel (Windows > Paths) the "work path" will be highlighted in blue. Click outside of the blue area to deselect it. The paths will now be invisible. To make them visible again click on the work path (notice that the background is a light blue color, this is just a personal preference of mine and is not necessary).

Step 4

Select a medium color, (I have chosen a light blue, but it can be anything in the midrange), make sure that this is the foreground color.

Make sure that the "outline" layer is selected, then use the Magic Want Tool (W) to select all the areas of the car that will be made into metal. Between each piece selected there will be a gap where the line is, so you need to expand the selection by 1 pixel. To do this go to Select > Modify > Expand, and enter 1 in the box, then apply.

Make sure that the selection is still active. Now create a new layer and Edit > Fill the foreground color. Rename this layer "base" and make sure that it’s below the "outline" layer.

Step 5

Reduce the opacity of the "outline" layer.

Step 6

Using the Magic Wand Tool (W) select the wheels and ground area and any area which will be black. Now fill it with black. Put this layer underneath the "base" layer.

Step 7

For this next stage I have modeled some wheels using Alias (I am in the process of writing a tutorial on how to do this, visit Designer Mart for more news on this in the future), though you can find a stock image of wheels to use.

Step 8

Create a new layer and name it "outer lines." Go to the Brush Tool (B) and select a slightly thicker brush that is Hard and Round with 3 Pixels for size. Turn the paths on. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and click on an outer path to select it, then right-click and select Stroke Path. Turn the paths off to get a clearer view of the new stroke.

Step 9

Create a new layer and name it “glue.” Using the same method as Step 7, create the strokes to highlight the glasshouse and lights.

Step 10

Create a new layer and name it "shutlines." Use the same method as in step 7 to create some shutlines. Select the Eraser Tool (E), right-click anywhere on the image and select a large, soft, round shape. Use this eraser to rub out bits of the ends of the shutlines to make them look lighter towards the ends.

Step 11

It’s important to decide which parts of the vehicle face upwards and which face downwards. Any part that faces up will reflect light and any part facing down will be darker.

Create a new layer and name it "ground darkness." Command + Right-click the base layer to select the area. Make sure that the "ground darkness" layer is selected.

Select the Gradient Tool (G) and make sure that the black to transparent setting is active and apply it from the bottom of the selection upwards.

Step 12

Make the "outline" layer active and use the Wand Tool (W) to select the shapes above the wheel arches. Create a new layer and name it highlights. Fill this layer with white, then use the Eraser (E) tool to soften the top edges of the arches. Using the techniques described above work your way down the car.

Step 13

The area underneath the glass is facing upwards so it will reflect light.

Step 14

The area at the top of the side of the car, known as the waistline, is a large area facing upwards so it will be lighter. I’ve added a little darker bit to the bottom right of it. Sometimes when something large reflects the sky it’s nice to add a little break in it. Some houses or trees might create such a shadow.

Step 15

The sill area will reflect light.

Step 16

Add a little light coming in from the front to give it more depth.

Step 17

Select the area just below the waistline and add a slight gradient to that area, this will give the impression that the area below it is reflecting the atmosphere.

Step 18

Add a little shade to the front grille area.

Step 19

Add a little shadow just below the shoulder-line near the front to make it look like its slightly pinched.

Step 20

Then add a solid block to that to accentuate it further.

Step 21

Select the “base” and add a large gradient from the right. Play with the Opacity of it to make it subtle. This it to make it look like there is light coming from the right.

Step 22

Select the glasshouse area and fill it with a light blue color.

Step 23

Select the bottom half of the glasshouse and fill it with black and turn down the opacity until you get a nice gray color. Then select the upper section of the glasshouse and add a light gradient and again adjust the opacity until you get a realistic look.

Step 24

Often cars reflect road markings or the environment and creates nice flowing shapes on the side.

Step 25

Then add an outline to the reflection.

Step 26

Add a large shape to the left of the car and add a gradient to it. This will make the vehicle stand out.

Step 27

This step is to make the vehicle stand out. If there was a theme to the design, then the image might be more relevant. In this case, I just painted some random shapes using stock Photoshop brushes. Put this image in the bottom of the layer tab just in front of the "bg" layer and name it "atm."

Step 28

Make a copy of the "atm" layer and name it "atm reflect." Go to Edit > Transform > Scale to scale the "atm reflect" layer down a little bit. Command + Right-click the “base” layer to select the area. Command + Shift + I to select the inverse of what is selected. Make sure the "atm reflect" layer is selected then delete it.

Step 29

Now turn all your layers on apart from the "outline" layer.

Step 30

For the back light draw a random squiggle.

Step 31

Then apply an "outer glow" layer style to that layer to give it a glow.

Step 32

The front lights were created using a scatter brush painted in a straight line and erased towards the front. Then I added a glow on the back lights.

Step 33

It’s nice to flip the outcome to see how it looks from the other side. Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal

Step 34

Using this method you can easily change the color of the car without having to worry about the highlights, lowlights, etc… simply change the "base" color.

Step 35

Experiment with different wheels. (this is another of the designs) …

Conclusion

Experiment with different background colors. The final design is below. There are lots of different styles of rendering, this is just one, have fun making your own!

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In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to get that smooth shiny Anime look. We’ll start with a simple character outline and build the correct hierarchy for the base colors, tones and highlights. Also, we’ll learn how to work with this “method” for later projects in case the client or director will ask for changes, it will be easy to replace colors for a specific part of the character without redrawing all the tones and highlights again! You are about to learn one of the many techniques from the Anime industry. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details



• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Beginners




• Estimated Completion Time: less then 30 minutes




Before We Start

Psd Plus members will find 2 files provided in this tutorial. “Creature_Start.psd,” contains only the outlines of the creature we will start to work with. “Creature_Final.psd,” contains all the final organized layers in the correct hierarchy, effects and background for you to explore.

Step 1

Load the provided “Creature_Start.psd.” You should see a cute rounded creature over a white background. Notice you will have two groups: “Outlines” and “Background.”


Step 2

We want to keep everything organized and easy to follow for our workflow. That’s why we start building the correct hierarchy for the project by making all the groups with the right names. Create those groups, and make sure to put them in the correct order, which is very important: “Highlight-2,” “Outlines,” “Highlights-1,” “Tones,” “Colors,” “Background.”

Step 3

Now it’s time to create the basic colors for our character. Select the “Colors” group, then create all the layers we are about to use as the base colors for the character: “Mouth,” “Eyes,” “Backpack,” and “Skin.”

Step 4

Select the color for the Skin, you can select ANY color that you want, but it’s recommended to choose something not too dark or too light, something in the middle so we’ll be able to see the Tones and Highlights later on.

Step 5

Before we start painting, select the Paint Bucket Tool and make sure that these three options are checked: Anti-alias, Contiguous, and All Layers. It will let us paint the area we want without painting in the same layer as the outlines, which is a very important part on any Anime production, separating outlines from the base colors and other layers. Open the “Outlines” group, Hide the “Mouth” and “Eyes” layers. Now all you can see is the character with the backpack.

Step 6

Painting the Skin is very easy. Make sure that you choose the “Skin” layer inside the “Colors” group Now use the Paint Bucket Tool and paint inside the character’s body.

Step 7

Painting the Backpack is a bit more advanced then just one color like the skin. Make sure that you choose the “Backpack” layer inside the Colors group. We will use a color split into three, light, medium, and dark. You can choose any color that you wish, in this case I chose purple.

We won’t focus on light theories in this tutorial because we want to learn the main technique of compositing a character, so let’s keep it simple and easy to understand. The light color will come from above, the medium from the side, and the dark on the front. The following image shows you the way you should do that, split into sections.

Step 8

Painting the mouth is simple. First check the “Mouth” layer inside the “Outlines” group. Now that you can see the mouth, make sure that you choose the “Mouth” layer inside the “Colors” group. We will use two colors, I chose something between red and pink for the tongue and black for the inside mouth.

Step 9

Painting the eyes is also simple, but we will have to draw a guide for the main eyeball. First check the “Eyes” layer inside the “Outlines” group to make it visible. Make sure that you choose the “Skin” layer inside the “Colors” group. Select the Paint Brush tool with 3 pixels size.

Step 10

We will use three different colors: White (not pure white, but a bit darker), Yellow, and Darker Yellow. Feel free to choose any colors that you want, but for the white part of the eye I highly recommended to never go with pure white for eyes or teeth because the pure white will take it’s part on the Highlights, we will focus on that later on.

Start with a rounded line for the white part of the eye. Do the same for both eyes. Remember, you can draw a bit under the outlines, it’s just like a safety net to make sure your line doesn’t shave too closed gaps. If you feel comfortable, then zoom in a bit to do it.

Step 11

After we have a guide for the white part of the eye, lets continue painting the rest of the eyes. Select the Paint Bucket Tool, and paint the White, then the (not pure white, but a bit darker), Yellow, and Darker Yellow.

Step 12

Finishing the basic colors of the eye, we don’t have to but we can add one more rounded darker sphere at the center of the darker yellow color, this will be the smallest part of the eye. Select an even darker color than the dark yellow you used, something more close to black, but give it some color so it will be more interesting with the rest of the eye. Select the Paint Brush Tool again and draw the sphere and paint it. Again, feel free to zoom in bit as that may be more comfortable.

Step 13

Now we have a completed colored character, but it looks like it’s flat and simple. So have a good look on the current colors, because we are about to give it the look of professional Anime style.

Step 14

Tones are very important part for the Anime look, there is a very complicated explanation behind it because in Anime, just like in other styles, tones won’t represent only the light expressions over a material, but it will also represent the type of the material. In this tutorial we won’t get deeper into tones, we’ll focus on how to work with tones and how easy it is to draw it thanks to our organized layers and groups hierarchy.

We will start with building the layer names in the right order just like we did earlier with the colors: Select the “Tones” group, then create all the layers we are about to use as the different tones for the character: “Tone-Mouth,” “Tone-Eyes” “Tone-Skin,” and “Tone-Backpack.”

Step 15

Now you’ll learn a new method and start to understand the reason behind our groups and layer hierarchy. Our first tone will be for the skin. Select the “Tone-Skin” layer under the “Tones” group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Skin” layer under the “Colors” group.

Step 16

You will notice that the character’s skin area is now selected. That means we are able to draw only inside this specific area. Select the Brush Tool with the size of 3 pixels, and select black for the color. Start to draw around the shape guide for the rounded creature’s body. Then one line under each foot.

Step 17

Select the Eraser Tool and erase the line that crossed over the creature’s hand.

Step 18

Add tones for the hands in a shape of water drops. Also, add three small triangle-like shapes: two above the eyebrows, and one under the mouth.

Step 19

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the guides we just created.

Step 20

Use Gaussian Blur to make the tone softer (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), and select a low radius – something between 1.2 to 2.5 and see what you like most.

Step 21

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Tone-Mouth” layer under the “Tones” group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Mouth” layer under the “Colors” group. Draw a line at the top part of the tongue.

Step 22

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the guide for the tongue. Then make the tone softer by using the Gaussian Blur again (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), and select the same radius that you used for the skin.

Step 23

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Tone-Eyes” layer under the “Tones” group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Eyes” layer under the “Colors” group. Draw the shape of the original eyes inside of each circle and a line on the top near the eyebrow.

Step 24

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the guide for the eyes. Then make the tone softer by using the Gaussian Blur again (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), and select the same radius that you used for the skin.

Step 25

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Tone-Backpack” layer under the “Tones” group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Backpack” layer under the “Colors” group. Follow the guides shown below to create the backpack tone. Try to draw it as you see, it’s very simple.

Step 26

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the guide for the Backpack. This time, don’t soften the tone for the Backpack, we want it to look a bit sharper than the creature’s tone. Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Tones” group and reduce the Opacity from 100% to 30%

Step 27

Just like the tones, The highlights are a very important part for the Anime look. There is a complicated explanation behind it because in the Anime just like in other styles highlights won’t represent only the light expressions over a material, but it will also represent the type of the material, in this tutorial we won’t get deeper into highlights, we’ll try to focus on how to work with highlights and how easy it is to draw it thanks to our organized layers and groups hierarchy.

Start with building the layer names in the right order, just like we did earlier with the colors. Select the “Highlights-1″ group, then create all the layers we are about to use as the different highlights for the character” “Mouth,” “Skin,” and “Backpack.”

Step 28

Select the “Mouth”" layer under the “Highlights-1″ group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Skin” layer under the “Colors” group. You will notice that the character’s skin area is now selected. Select the Brush Tool with the size of 3 pixels, and select white for the color. Start three wave lines at the top of the character’s head.

Step 29

Now add the little circle shapes on the hands, legs, and one under the mouth (lips area) to complete the highlights for the skin. Fill everything with the a white color. Then to make the highlight smoother, use Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), and use a lower radius, something between 0.7 to 1.2 will be enough.

Step 30

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Mouth” layer under the “Highlights-1″ group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Mouth” layer under the “Colors” group. Draw two circles at the bottom-left of the tongue.

Step 31

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Backpack” layer under the “Highlights-1″ group. Hold the Control button and click on the thumbnail of the “Backpack” layer under the “Colors” group. Follow the guides shown below to create the backpack highlights. try to draw it as you see, it’s very simple.

Step 32

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the guide for the Backpack. Don’t soften the highlights for the Backpack, we want it to look a bit sharper than the creature’s highlights. Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Select the “Highlights-1″ group and reduce the Opacity from 100% to 33%

Step 33

Shiny eyes are important as much as any other part we’ve done so far, it will attract most attention. Select the “Highlights-2″ group and create a new layer, and name it “EYES.” The reason for this group to be the highest over all the groups is because it should be also over the outlines. Draw 2 circles and one triangle-like shape for each eye as shown.

Step 34

Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill inside the eye guide. Now click on the layer with your right mouse button and select Layer Properties.

Step 35

To make the eyes more shiny, we will add a nice glow effect to it. In the Layer Style window that just opened, check the Outer Glow on the left. Change the Opacity to 100% and click on the yellow cubic to select a light blue color. Click OK when you’re done.

Step 36

Great! Now we’re done with the creature, cute right? It’s time to add a nice background to make our final look come together. Collapse all the layers, then select the “Background” layer. Create the next layers: “BG-Lights-2,” “BG-Lights-1,” “BG-1,” and “Background” (already there by default).

Step 37

Hide all the groups by clicking on the eye icons of each group, leave only the “Background” group visible. Select the layer “BG-1.” Hold your left mouse button on the Bucket Tool and select the Gradient Tool.

Step 38

Select a dark green color, and a light blue. Then pass a line from the bottom-left corner of the canvas to the top-right corner of the canvas.

Step 39

Select the layer “BG-Lights.” Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and use it to draw a wide box starting from the top of the canvas, we are creating thick horizontal lines. When you’re done with the first box, hold the Shift button, and draw 4 or 5 more indifferent sizes of boxes.

Step 40

Hide the “BG-1″ layer so we will be able to paint the lines with no issues. Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the inside of the boxes with a white color. Now clicking anywhere on the canvas will do the job, as it will color all the boxes. Unhide the “BG-1″ layer again, and you should see white boxes over the green-blue background.

Step 41

Press Command + D to deselect the current selection. Zoom out twice, by selecting the Magnify Tool, then point your mouse on the canvas. Hold the alt key until you see a minus sign and click twice.

Step 42

Press the V button for the Pan Tool. Press Command + T for the Free Transform Tool. Enter the numbers to resize and rotate the lines into beam-like shapes using these settings: X at 300, Y at 310, W at 200, H at 140, and Angle at -35. Then press Enter to apply the changes.

Step 43

To make the tone softer we will use the Gaussian Blur again. Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, then select a radius between 7.5 and 9. Change the Fill from 100% to 22%.

Step 44

We need to add another light. Select all by Pressing “Command + A” and then copy by pressing Command + C. Select the layer “BG-Lights-2″ and press Command + V to paste.

Now we need to tweak it just a bit so it will look different. Press Command + T for the Free Transform Tool and make it a bit bigger and also rotate it a bit. Just play with it by changing the numbers on top, or click on one of the tiny white squares and move them around. When you’re done click Enter to apply, then change the Fill from 100% to 35%.

Step 45

Unhide all the groups and have a look at the final result. To show you how dynamic this technique you just learn is, lets do few tweaks. Let’s quickly change the color of our character.

Select the “Skin” layer under the “Colors” group. On the top menus select: Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, or press Command + U and try to scroll the default Master Hue and the Saturation sliders to the left and right to see what color you like. You can also change the RGB to get even more specific color that you want. When you’re happy with the new skin color, click OK.

Step 46

Feel free to change in the same way the rest of the parts, that’s why we separated them from each other. The more dynamic it gets the easier it is for us to tweak for our clients or directors we work with. Below is what I came out with after a few color changes.

Conclusion

Using these techniques you are able to change colors, add or replace parts on the drawing with few clicks. You don’t need to change any of the Tones or Highlights, unless you want to make something a bit darker or more shiny, and then you will only need to play with the Fill and Opacity of the layers.

Try to create your own character, start with the outlines, try to separate it into parts like we did, and follow these techniques to get the best results.

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Introduction

When creating a twitter background, there are various things to take into consideration. The biggest problem is the fact that you can’t center align an image in your twitter profile. So give up any ideas you may have about wrapping graphics around the body. You can either create a tile-able design, or left align the image. Since the body size doesn’t change according to the resolution it’s being viewed at, you also have to worry about keeping your main content visible over multiple screen sizes, and fading out your illustration seamlessly.

If your text goes too far to the right, many people may not be able to read it. If your illustration is highly detailed and ends after only 250 pixels, it will look odd on large screens, because it does not fade out to the right and bottom. And lastly, you’re working in web format so think about your file size when designing it.

To cope with all these requirements, we’ll create a relatively small background that will align to the left side and fade out toward the bottom and right. And by fading out, I don’t mean erasing half of the image, but gradually using fewer and fewer elements. It’s a common practice for twitter backgrounds to include a short bio and links to where the person can be found online.

My own background does not have these, because I feel that the profile bio is visible anyway on the right and you also get to chose one link that people can use. I link to my portfolio, where there are multiple links of my online presence, in case anyone is interested. Anyway, for the sake of making this more practical, there’s a short bio (in this case total bogus due to lack of inspiration) and a couple of links.

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or the full-size image here.

Step 1

The first thing to do here, is to draw the mascot, a twitter bird. There are lots of cute, bright and shiny twitter birds out there so I wanted one that was not only different, but that represented my style. After all, a twitter profile is all about the owner.

The process seen below is very stretched out, but can be shortened. I don’t want you to think that this is only way you should do it, but in case you don’t have a lot of experience with line art, it’s good to take your time, and get every stage right. In time, after becoming more experienced, a simple doodle can be enough to get you started in Photoshop.

For now though, start by getting a regular piece of paper and drawing out a few basic sketches of the bird. Focus on getting the posture right, and don’t worry about the details. those will be covered later.

Step 2

As you may notice, the position of the legs in the screenshot below is not identical to the final result. As a matter of fact, I changed them at every stage because it’s a bit difficult to make them look natural and aesthetic at the same time. Just trace a rough image of your bird in this first stage.

Step 3

Now you’ll need some tracing paper. It’s basically a semi-transparent paper that allows you to draw something on top of a reference image, in this case our rough sketch. I used two pencils: a 2B, and an 8B. The higher the number, the softer the tip. I used the 2B to trace the outlines and 8B to draw shadows. The eraser is cut in half, so that you can use the sharp edge to erase small areas. That’s helpful for adding highlights.

I also slipped an extra sheet of tracing paper in between to make the rough sketch less visible. If your image has too much contrast, it’s a good idea to fade it out more so you don’t get confused.

Step 4

Use the pencil to trace the outline of the bird. You can now start to worry about the details.

Step 5

You should now have completed the general outline of every part of the bird.

Step 6

Begin to add shading, so that the bird looks 3D. Notice that the shadows are very basic, and don’t need to look very realistic. This is only a part of the whole process, and not a final image so don’t worry about making it look great. All you need to do is clearly define shapes and lighting.

This part is important because all the shadows will become continuous lines in the future steps. Blank spaces are highlights and parallel lines are shadows. Make the lines more distant and shorter, and the human eye will perceive it as a gradient. This is basically a hand drawn halftone screen.

Step 7

Grab another piece of tracing paper and place it over the pencil sketch you made. This time we’ll use this one as a reference for the final, line art bird.

Step 8

Now all you have to do is draw parallel lines across the shadows. In order to fade them out, just draw the lines shorter and shorter.

Step 9

Remember that you can fade out the outline too, not just the shadow lines.

Step 10

This time, be very careful about all the details. Make those shapes look like real feathers, not simple curves.

Step 11

Continue this process across the head and body. Make sure to leave out enough highlights.

Step 12

Like I said, the feet went under one final modification. I wanted something in between an attack position and low level flying.

Step 13

I made the second wing generally darker than the first. That makes the drawing look more dynamic and realistic. Casting an equal light over the entire bird can make it look less interesting. Even if the posture is too symmetric, you can always rely on lighting to spice it up a bit.

Step 14

And there it is, all done. Perhaps a bit too tall and stretched, but it doesn’t matter since you can’t see it all in the twitter background anyway.

Step 15

Scan it or take a photo of it and put it in Photoshop. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and boost up the contrast considerably. Darken out the lines, but bring up some of the highlights too.

Step 16

Go to Select > Color Range. Inside the window, click on a black area of the photo so that you have a selection of the black lines. Press OK and copy the selection (Command + C).

Step 17

Create a new Photoshop document that is 750 px in width and 700 px in height, and at 72 dpi. Paste the bird (Command + V), double-click its layer and add a Color Overlay effect. Chose a dark blue (#387ebc) and press OK. Create a new blank layer (Command + Shift + N), click on both layers in the layer menu and merge them (Command + E). That will flatten the Layer Style.

Step 18

Now in a new blank layer underneath the line art, use the Pen Tool (P) to give the bird a background color (#33ccff).

Step 19

For this part it would be best to have a pen tablet, but it’s not completely necessary. You can either use a regular brush, or the pen tool to create the highlights and shadows. I did it with a tablet. In this step, trace the first few highlights with white and make it a clipping mask so it only appears inside the bird.

Step 20

Now draw larger strokes of a bright cyan (#7ff4fe). Make a separate layer for each of these.

Step 21

Underneath the previous one, paint even larger highlights with a slightly darker cyan (#4de2ff).

Step 22

A final highlight color will be a few gray accents (#ddded9).

Step 23

Now use a bright yellow (#f5e456) to color the beak and add some shadows as well, with a darker yellow (#bcb833).

Step 24

To finish the bird, fill in the beak with the same dark blue, and draw the eye. Use white, and the same dark yellow.

Step 25

You’ll have to go back to the drawing board now to paint a few clouds. I used several types of comment boxes for this. This being a social network, comic style shout-outs are right on cue. Trace the outline with a shade of gray (#d0cdbe).

Step 26

Give its background a lighter shade (#edeedb).

Step 27

Now just draw a few thin lines for shadows (#dfe0d0) and highlights (#ffffff).

Step 28

Repeat this process to create a few other types of comment boxes. Combined, these express simple statements, thoughts and exclamations. I try not to shout too much on my profile, so don’t worry, these are purely decorative. I don’t yell at my followers

Step 29

It’s time to add a bio and links. The simple small text is Calibri Regular and the headlines are in Rockwell Std Bold. The ampersand is Mrs. Eaves Medium Italic. Use the same colors as the bird.

Quick Tips

Always remember to try out different antialiasing methods when working with type, especially at low resolutions. In the first example, the word is in Sharp mode. Notice that the middle letters seem to buckle and drop below the bottom line. It may be subtle, but it is a mistake.

Not only that, but the letters are not even parallel. Each one seems to have it’s own orientation. To fix this, try an alternative method of antialiasing, in this case Strong. Now the letters have a common orientation and leveled baseline.

While the previous may be a subtle fix, the next is a very common mistake. Uneven tracking can lead to some letters overlapping and others being too far from each other. While you can’t usually notice these bugs at regular small lines of text, large display text will reveal these inconsistencies.

To fix this, you have to manually change the space between each letter. Choose the Type Tool (T), click inside a line of text and drag a selection of the first two letters. Input an appropriate number in the tracking field. When you’ve found just the right space, select the second and third letter and do the same. Go through each space of two-by-two letters until all the tracking is correct. You can see the difference of custom and standard tracking in the above and below instance of the word.

Step 30

Find the vector shape layer where you traced the bird. Click on the Vector Mask thumbnail of the layer to bring up the path. Use the Path Selection Tool (Black arrow) to select the path and copy it (Command + C). Open illustrator, paste the path (Command + V) and press enter in the window that opens up in Illustrator (Compound Shape). Select the stroke color and chose white (it’s black here just so you can see it). Set the Stroke weight to 2 pt.

Step 31

Bring up the Stroke Panel (Window > Stroke) and use the following settings. Don’t mind the gray background.

Step 32

Copy it (Command + C) and paste it (Command + V) in the Photoshop file as a smart object. Repeat the process with the comment boxes too.

Step 33

Using the same headline font, create a few typographic accents around the comment. We’ll also use a variety of birds from the Birds 2 Vector Pack of Go Media’s Arsenal. Just paste them as Smart Objects and give them a Color Overlay with whatever color you’d like.

Step 34

Use different birds with different colors. Try not to overdo it, or overlap them.

Step 35

I also wanted to give the idea of birds carrying messages, so I placed letters around, nearby or held by the actual birds. They are all with one of the three fonts we used earlier.

Step 36

Repeat the motif in the top corner as well. Don’t make it scientific. Keep the orientation random, and not necessarily all in one direction.

Step 37

And then just spread the birds all over the canvas. Remember to fade them out though on the right and bottom by placing fewer and fewer.

Final Image

That’s it! Our twitter background is complete. You can view the final image preview below or the full-size image here.

This is the version I have on my twitter profile.

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Step 1

Thumbnails! This is where I try to find the pose that I’ll get a kick out of doing. Open a new file (8 inches by 10 inches 400 dpi) and just start sketching with a standard Brush (B) set at 50% Opacity and with black as the default color. Even though I am doing this all digitally, there are still times when I like to sketch on paper using anything from a ballpoint pen, to pencils or markers. They are after all just thumbnails and don’t require any sort of care.

The most important thing you’re looking for in a thumbnail is composition and in this case, a great pose. In other words, just keep it loose and don’t worry about details. A good tip is when doing thumbnails think of the silhouette. If you color in the thumbnail solid black, does it still have a strong visual? Can you tell what’s going on? These are important questions and if the answer is yes. Then you’ve found your thumbnail to proceed on to the next step.

Step 2

So now, I’ve found a thumbnail I want to work with. I then start a new Layer set and call it "Sketch." I also move the thumbnails into their own Layer set called "Thumbs."

For each new version of the image, I always start a new Layer so that I can always make changes. This Layer is called "Ver_01." I then enlarge the thumbnail to the size I think will work. From here, I start to flesh out the character more and get the general pose and proportions down. This is still done quite loose, I know you’re chomping at the bit to get doing detail, but this is the time where you will see if this pose will work. I’m happy with this one and so I’ll keep going.

Step 3

My next step is to start tightening up the proportions. For each new version of the image, I always start a new layer so that I can always make changes. This layer is called "Ver_02."

So I figured out what I want to do with the hair, I then start tackling the hands and gun. I thought at first two guns with silencers might be cool, but decided against it. I also wanted to try and draw the hands in a different position than what I normally would do.

Remember, always have fun with your drawing, but try and push yourself to try different things. In the long run, you’ll better yourself and become a stronger artist. I’ve decided at this point, that there won’t be any sort of detailed background…going strictly pin-up on this one.

So now I’ve got the preliminary drawing done. The next step is to get the details in, so it’s ready for inking.

Step 4

OK, now I focus on getting everything where I want it so I can start inking. I again make a new layer called "Ver_03." I made some final adjustments to the proportions and details like the belt, gun and her eyes. I’ve also changed things here and there like the hands and the hair.

Even though this is the final sketch before inking, you don’t have to tighten it up too much since your doing it yourself. Whereas, if you were giving this to another person to ink, you would need to make clean crisp lines and indicate what you’re thinking for inks.

Step 5

Now make a new layer called "Linework." The way I ink my drawings is by using the Pen Tool (P). Up until a few years ago, I refused to use the Pen Tool. That’s because I didn’t know how to use it correctly. Now that I know how, I can’t even imagine how I survived with out it.

Select the Pen Tool and make sure the Paths box is selected and not Shape Layers. One thing to make sure is that you have a layer selected. It can be a source of frustration if you have a layer set selected and not the actual layer as it will not stroke. I’ve created an action to stroke the path and delete it afterwards, it just makes things easier. You can control the size and pressure of the stroke using your brush options.

Below is the final inked version of the image. I’ve made some changes in the inking stage. As all artists know, you’re never quite happy with an image and are always looking to improve it. I removed some details in the hands and added some in the hair and gun. I’ve also cropped her legs off and made some proportional changes. Once you get the hang of the Pen Tool (P), you’ll find it easy to make changes in the inking stage. Now we’re ready to move on to color, finally!

Step 6

OK, so this is probably the easiest step of them all. In this step, all I do is figure out the colors I want to use and fill them in. I name this layer "Base" for organization purposes. This layer will be the bottom layer when it comes to the character. The only other layers that will appear beneath this one are the background layers. I also at this point make my background layer a middle gray. This just helps see the colors better against a neutral background.

Step 7

It’s always best when painting, whether it’s digitally or traditional, to work from dark to light. So in this step, I start laying down the darks on a separate layer named "Darks." Separate layers allow for changes to be made if needed. Generally, I never nail the intensity of the shadows on the first try. Later on, after I’ve painted in the lights, I often find I need to adjust the darks using the Hue/Saturation tool (Command + U).

When painting, I use a combination of Gradient (G) and Brush (B) tools (as shown above) to achieve the desired outcome. I will lay down a gradient to get a nice shadow base and then tweak it with the brush. I also will play with the opacity and hardness of the brush to get a soft look if needed.

Shown below is the final darks, for now. As I said before, I most likely will be adjusting them with the Hue/Saturation tool (Command + U) at a later stage.

Step 8

I’m happy with the darks and now have moved on to the lights. Again, I create a new Layer and name it "Lights" and place it above the "Darks" layer in the layer tab. I then begin to lay down the lights over the character. I use the same technique as I did for the darks. I like the highlights to pop, so I generally will make them brighter than they should be, especially with the hair.

Step 9

Now that I’m happy with the darks and lights, I like to create a reflective light layer. This is for some bounce light that might be reflecting on your subject from the background or light source. So like before, I create another new layer and name it "Reflect." I’ve already decided that I want to use a hot pink color, since it will work well with the colors of her clothes. So I use a standard Brush (B) with a slight softness to it and hit the spots where I want the light to show.

Step 10

I’m almost finished, the only thing left to do are some minor details and add a background. When I finish an image, I like to get rid of the harsh black outline and do a colored line version.

So what I do is Command-click on the “Line” layer to select the line work. I create a new Layer and name it "colored line." I then hide the original line work and start hand painting the new colored line work in. I like to do it manually as it still makes me feel like I’m traditionally painting. I like the look the colored line gives, it’s soft and it doesn’t flatten your image as much as a solid black line does.

Step 11

Alright, I’m at the final step. I now add a background element to my image to finish her off. I get rid of the gray background and replace it with a solid color.

I’ve also decided that a nice circular shape around her will work nice and make her pop. In the circle, I use a nice soft gradient to accentuate certain areas a bit more. This is the time where I will resize the image and also adjust the lights and darks if needed.

The final touch is a nice outline around the entire character to really make her stand out. I don’t always do this, but it seems to suit this image nicely. In order to do this, I create a duplicate of my file and flatten the base and line work layers (Command + E.) I then select the shape (Command-click) and go to Select > Modify > Expand. The number of pixels you enter is a judgement call, I use 2 pixels. On a new temp Layer, I fill it in (Alt + Enter). Once I’m happy with the thickness and color, I then (Shift-click) and drag the outline back to the original file and voila – nice solid outline!

Conclusion

Well, that’s it! I try to keep my workflow simple and not to rely on a lot of fancy tricks. The tools I used in this tutorial were the Pen Tool, standard brush and a lot of undos!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have learned somethings you might not have thought about to designing a pin-up!

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

First open the reference image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Now create a new layer on top of the image. Select the color #23262a, then using the brush simply fill the body of the car with the selected color.

Step 3

Use the Dodge Tool (O) set to Midtones with Exposure set to 11% – 20% and add some light over the coachwork.

Step 4

Same as you did in Step 3, select the Burn Tool (O) with Exposure set to 9% – 10%, and add some shadows over the body. As you can see, the car image is not visible anymore, as we will just look at it from time to time to know where each part goes.

Step 5

Next you need to make the car image visible again. Using the Pen Tool (P) set to Path, create a path surrounding the car and then erase the excess brush area. Now create more paths around the windshields, lights, tires, grid and press Delete to create the shape of these parts.

Step 6

Next, use the Burn and Dodge Tools to add some more shadows and lights on the coachwork.

Step 7

Next you need to create a new layer and move it below the “coachwork” layer. Now make selections of the windshields and grid and fill them with black.

Step 8

Create a new layer and use the Pen Tool (P) to create a path like below, then stroke it using a 2 px black brush. Repeat the step, but this time make a white stroke. In the end, lower the Opacity of both strokes.

Step 9

You need to learn how to create smooth and skinny strokes that you will use very often for creating this car. First, create a new layer above all the layers. Use the Pen Tool (P) to make simple paths that will simulate the shape and curve of your glossy lights. Then you simply need to stroke these paths with black or white, decrease the Opacity and maybe erase the edges a little and you are done.

Note: you will notice that in this tutorial, you will have to use this technique fairly often so rather than explain this repeatedly, you will be shown where this technique has been used.

Step 10

Create a new layer above all layers and make a selection like below using the Pen Tool (P). Then use the Brush Tool (B) to draw in the selection like below. Use a white brush for lights and #070e18 to define the shape of the object.

Step 11

Create a new layer and place it below the “coachwork” layer, but above the “black” layer that you created in Step 7. Fill the layer with #343a46.

Step 12

In this step, create the reflection on the windows. Use the Pen Tool (P) and create a path similar to the one below. Transform the path into a selection (set feather to 0.3). Now using Dodge Tool (O) set to Midtones and Exposure 14% – 20%, draw some clouds over the shape.

Step 13

Set the Dodge Tool (O) to Highlights and add some more reflection.

Step 14

Press Command + Shift + I to invert the selection. Use the Burn Tool (B) with the Midtones and Exposure set to 13% to darken the bottom part of the window.

Step 15

Select the Dodge Tool (O) set to Midtones and Exposure 13% again and add some lights on the lower part of the window.

Step 16

Create a new layer over the “coachwork” layer and make a selection like below using the Pen Tool (P). Then draw on the selection with this color #13161b.

Step 17

Use the Dodge Tool (O) set to Midtones and Exposure 23% to add some light.

Step 18

Make another layer and a selection inside it, as shown below. Now fill the layer with the same color as before #13161b, then use the Dodge Tool (O) to add some light.

Step 19

Create a new layer and use the Pen Tool (P) to create a selection like below. Fill the layer with #2f3438. Next, use the Burn and Dodge Tools to add shadows and lights.

Step 20

Continue adding some more shadow using the Burn Tool.

Step 21

In this step, create the headlights using the same technique used for the side window.

Step 22

Repeat Step 21 for the other headlight.

Step 23

In this step, we’ll create the two sprinkler heads. Creating these two objects is pretty simple. What you need to do is create two different layers for each. Also, use the brush to create 2 spots, as shown below. With the Dodge Tool (O) add some lights over them, as shown below as well.

Step 24

Create two shapes on the roof of the car for detail. First create a new layer above the “coachwork.” Make a selection like below and fill them with #4d545c.

To finalize these shapes use the Dodge Tool (O) to add some lights and gloss on them, then use the stroke technique for more depth. The stroke effect does not only help the eye to make a difference between the car parts, but it also gives a really nice glossy look.

Step 25

It is time to create the windshield. Create a new layer above the “coachwork” layer. Make a selection like below and fill the layer with #4f5561.

Step 26

Adding lights, gloss and shadow on the windshield is done using the same tools used so far – the Dodge Tool and Burn Tool.

Using the Pen Tool (P), you need to create a path like below, then transform the path into a selection. Invert the selection and Use the Burn Tool (O) to darken the selection area. Now invert the selection again and this time use the Dodge Tool (O) to add some lights and gloss over the windshield.

Step 27

The final result for the windshield, after applying some more reflections, lights, and gloss, is shown below.

Step 28

It’s time to create the mirrors. First of all, create a new layer above the “coachwork” layer. You can create the same shape for the mirror, but if you look below you’ll see a more interesting shape that you can give to your mirror. Use the Pen Tool (P) to create this selection and fill it with #171a1f.

Step 29

Creating the depth and 3D shape of this mirror is done only with shadows and lights. The tools used are the Burn Tool and Dodge Tool.

Step 30

Use the same technique as shown in Step 29 to create the other mirror.

Step 31

Now go back to the side windows, as you need to create a separator over them. Create a new layer and make a selection like below. Fill this selection with #c5ced7, then make another selection like below and fill it with black.

Step 32

Add some more details: strokes, lights, gloss and shadows.

Step 33

You need to create the two grid parts of the car. Create a new layer, make the below shape, and fill it with black. These two are just the space where the grid will be placed.

Step 34

Time to create the Grid. Make a new layer, and in this layer create a black shape. Then use the Pen Tool (P) to make a straight line like below, and stroke the line with 2 px and #2b2b2b. In the end, multiply that stroke as many times as it is necessary until you cover all the black shape with these lines. Finally, place the grid behind the “coachwork.”

Step 35

Creating the tires is quite simple because again you will use only the Brush Tool (B).

Create a new layer and place it below the “coachwork” layer. Make a selection like below and fill it with black.

Step 36

Use only three colors to create the details of the tire.

Step 37

You can create the other tire using the same technique or we can make things simpler. To do this, duplicate the other “tire” layer, move in place, and also change the perspective of the tire a little.

Step 38

It is time to create two more headlights. First, create a new layer on top of all the other layers and make a selection like below. Fill the selection with #404348.

Step 39

Now use two colors (#ffb14f and #feffed) to construct the headlight. Use the Dodge Tool and Burn Tool for more depth.

Step 40

Create the other headlight the same way you created the first one.

Conclusion

In the end, you can create a simple background and work on the Curves to add more detail. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating in this tutorial targeted at intermediate Photoshop users. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or a larger version here.

Introduction

The images I’ve used are: The helmet , the cloud , the red star cloud , other star cloud image. Feel free to use your own images, however you may need to tweak the settings of any of the steps to get the right effect with different assets.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

Create a new document 154.5mm by 216mm in size at 300dpi. Then open the Helmet image, cut it out using the Pen Tool (set to Paths not Shape Layers), and paste it into your blank document. Resize to about 83%.

Step 2

Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate to strip out the color. Then select the Burn Tool, set it to Highlights with an Exposure of around 10%. Use a big soft-edged brush to burn in a little shadow on the left of the “HELMET” layer.

Step 3

Use the Ellipse Tool to draw a circular Shape Layer, it has to be set to Shape Layers and not Paths, as indicated below. Hold the Shift key when drawing to make a perfect circle. Rename this layer “EYEBALL” and go to Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow and set it up as in the screen grab. Finally go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay and set up as shown (the color is #8aabb3).

Step 4

Draw another smaller circle above the Eyeball layer and call it “IRIS.” Double-click on the “IRIS” layers color icon to change it. I’ve gone for a green but it doesn’t matter. Add an Inner Shadow, Inner Glow and Bevel, and Emboss Layer Style as shown.

Step 5

Draw a “PUPIL” in and give it an Outer Glow as shown below. When used creatively, Layer Style effects, or blending options, (however you want to refer to them) are a great way of adding depth to flat shapes.

Step 6

Finally add a small “REFLECTION” (small white circle) to the eye and move it to the right-hand-side of the “PUPIL.” Select all of the eye layers and press Command + G to group them. Rename the group “EYE_RIGHT” and then duplicate by going to Layer > Duplicate Group (the group has to be selected in layer palette when you do this). Now name the duplicate “EYE_LEFT” and position them both to look like eyes.

Step 7

As drawing with the Pen Tool isn’t the focus of this tutorial (and I’ve covered it before in the Splattered Vector and Photography Mash Up tutorial) I’m going to gloss over that quickly. Select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers. Draw a rough drippy, beard-like shape over the base of the “HELMET.” You can be a little rough with this. Use the Direct Selection Tool to clean up any curves you’re not happy with by manipulating the Anchor Points and Bezier Curve Handles.

Step 8

Draw in some more goo as if it were coming from underneath the Helmet visor. Position it above the two “EYE” Layer Groups. Then draw in some smaller drips below the “EYE” Layer Groups.

Step 9

Duplicate the “HELMET” layer and drag it to the top of the Layers Palette. Select the Pen Tool and set it to Paths, then draw around the bottom of the visor and up to the top of the helmet. Then go to the Paths Palette and Command-click on your new path’s thumbnail to make a selection from it. Then select the “HELMET copy” layer and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Step 10

Now we want to change the color of all our Shape Layers to black. Double-click on the Shape Layer thumbnail to bring up the color window. Then sample a black from the Helmet and OK it. Repeat this for all the Shape Layers.

Step 11

Select one of your shape layers. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow and input the settings shown below. Do the same for Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and Satin. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style and then select another shape layer and go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style. Repeat this process until all of your shape layers are styled.

Step 12

Place a new blank layer under each shape layer. Now select one shape layer and it’s blank counterpart. Then go to Layer > Merge Layers. This will rasterize the shape layer and it’s effects. If anyone knows a better way of doing this in CS3 please post in the comments. I should really know this by now, but old habits die hard?

Step 13

Select the “VISOR” layer (it should be the top layer in your palette) and open the Actions Palette. Call it “AGED PRINT” and assign it a function key. Then press the record icon at the bottom of the Actions palette and apply three filters in this order; Noise, Gaussian Blur, and Smart Sharpen. Refer to the images below for settings. Once done, press the stop button at the bottom of the actions palette. You can now use your assigned key to apply these filters to the other layers.

Step 14

Run the “AGED PRINT” action on all of your layers. Before doing the “EYE” group layers, merge them and desaturate them. At this stage your layers palette should look something like mine.

Step 15

Add a Layer Style (Drop Shadow) to each of your layers except the “VISOR,” the “HELMET” and the “BEARD” layers. Rasterize all these layers as in Step 12.

Step 16

Select the “BEARD_GOO” layer and go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All. Then select the Eraser Tool and set the background color to black. Take a soft edged-brush and set the brush Opacity to around 30%. Select the layer mask instead of the layer and chip away at the hard edges with the eraser until it blends in smoothly with the helmet. Change the brush size to suit and reduce the brushes Flow for a smoother transition.

Step 17

As the “BEARD_GOO” layer doesn’t blend with the helmet fully, we need to adjust the Levels. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and tweak as shown.

Step 18

Open the cloud image or any cloud image that you want to use. Paste it into your working document, resize it, desaturate it and then run the “AGED PRINT” action.

Step 19

Open the red star cloud image (or another suitable image) and paste it into your working document. Rotate it 90 degrees, resize it to fit, desaturate and then run the “AGED PRINT” action. Finally, set the Layer Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 20

Open the other star cloud image and treat it in the same way. But rotate it -90 degrees instead of 90. Parts of this layer were too light for my tastes so I adjusted the Levels. Enter 62, 1.00 and 255 into the input values. If your layers palette is a bit of a mess like mine, you might want to group all the layers that make up the face and call the group “FACE.”

Step 21

Create a new layer at the top of the layers palette and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and select 105mm prime. You can adjust the setting but I left mine as is, though I did move it down and right a little. Then run the “AGED PRINT” action twice and change the Layer Blending mode to Screen. Finally, adjust the Levels (29, 1.00, 255).

Step 22

Duplicate the “LENS FLARE” layer and call it “LENS FLARE STREAKS.” Go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur and run a 999 distance blur at 48 degrees. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and run a 25 pixel sharpen at 500%.

Step 23

Create a new layer below the “FACE” layer group and call it “WHITE GLOW.” Select the Paintbrush Tool and set it to 820 pixels, 0 Hardness with an Opacity of 15%. Add patches of glow behind the Lens Flares.

Step 24

Create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer at the top of the layers palette. Select the top layer (should be a “LENS FLARE” layer) and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. In the window prompt rename it “GREEN/BLUE” and set the mode to Color.

Click the colored bar to activate the color selection window and set the colors as follows: Left slider color #18374b, right slider #bedec4. Duplicate the Gradient Map Adjustment Layer and position the dupe below the original. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 70%.

Step 25

Now it’s time to get creative with your scanner (if you don’t have one open SCANNER.jpg here). Scan your scanner without putting anything on the bed, so it scans it’s own lid. Open it up and boost the levels as shown below. Paste it into the working document and resize to fit. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Multiply, then duplicate this layer and set it to Color, with an Opacity of 40%.

Step 26

Add some shading to the background by creating a new layer and filling it with white. The layer should be positioned under the “FACE” group but above the clouds and star clouds, etc. Select the Burn Tool and use a 900 pixel, soft-edged brush. Set the exposure to 25% then begin burning around the top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right corners. Feather it in the middle so the edges are darker.

Step 27

Now I resized the “FACE” group to improve the composition. Also, I added some text inside. While the text construction isn’t covered in the tutorial, feel free to add your own creative text solution here.

Step 28

Finally, go to Mode > Grayscale and click Flatten when prompted. Then go to Mode > Bitmap and you”ll be prompted with another window. Follow the screen grabs below and OK it. Select the whole canvas and copy it. Open the History palette and return to before you went to Mode > Grayscale. Paste the Bitmapped image at the top of the layers palette.

Step 29

Finally, change the “BITMAPPED IMAGE” Layer Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 20%.

Conclusion

You don’t have to stop there though, I went on to add another “LENS FLARE” over the original “LENS FLARE” and some very slight colored glow over the “LENS FLARE” layers. The important thing is to follow the tutorial and understand what each step does, then tweak the settings to best suit your source imagery. You can view the final image below or a larger version here.

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Final Image Preview

Let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Preparation

First let’s grab the photos we’ll be using in this tutorial: girl and teddy, which are taken from one of my favorite stock sites 123rf.com. And one balloon photo from sxc.hu.

Step 1

Start by opening the girl image, then grab the Pen Tool (P) and start extracting. When you’re done making the path, right-click and select Make Selection. Then use Command + C to copy the selected area.

While extracting, take a look at the arrows, they indicate shadows. Make sure you don’t include them with the girl. We’re gonna cast shadows on our own depending on the color of the background.

Step 2

Create a new document that is 1200 pixels by 950 pixels, with a of 300 px/inch. Make a new layer and name it "Background." change your Foreground Color to #f0ce46 and Background Color to #f78414. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), then in the upper bar set the gradient option to Radial. Now drag the gradient from the top left corner. Use Command + V to paste our extracted girl. Name this layer "Girl" and go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and experiment with the Red and Yellow values. I tried to give the girl some color correction to make her a better fit to this orange environment.

Tip: Your background colors are up to personal taste. I’ll show you the way I did this illustration, but if you choose some other colors (for example blue tones), then you should correct the girl’s color into colder rather than warmer tones.

Step 3

Now grab the Burn Tool (O), then set the Range to Midtones and Exposure to around 30%. Make sure the "Girl" layer is selected, and give some contrast to her hair by painting. And if other spots of her silhouette seem to be little dull, you can apply this process again.

Step 4

OK, we did some nice color and contrast corrections. But it’s still not enough. Now it’s something important because we need to make her look more vivid, and also cast some shadows under her body. I made a fast three-step guide below. Let’s take a look at what we’re going to do with this girl image and how.

First thing we wanna do is cast shadows. So take a look at point 1 below. This is the original image we are using. Zoom into the shadows under the girl, and as you see we have quite easy task. This picture already guided us on how the shadows were originally placed. So what you need to do now is reproduce the same shadow effect (as point 3 illustrates). Use point 1 as the guide for this process.

However, before you do anything, let’s move to the next step.

If you’re using some other picture than mine, and there is no standard shadow in yours, then I recommend seeing one of my plus tutorials with moving mannequins. There are tons of tips in that tutorial on how to place shadows when you have no base.

Step 5

Before we move forward, make new layer above the "Background" layer. Name it "Ground." Change your Foreground Color to #ffe07c, grab the Gradient Tool (G), then in the upper bar set the option to Radial. Drag the gradient to the middle of that screen. Now you should have a big yellow dot. Then go to Edit > Transform > Distort and give this big dot some perspective to make it look like there is ground there (second image below).

Create a new layer below the "Girl" layer. Name it "Shadow." Change the color to something around #8f4121 (brown). Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0%, Flow to around 10%, and keep your Master Diameter quite small. Then start painting under the girl – where the shadows should be. Make the diameter size very dynamic, and change it all the time for various results. Help yourself with the Eraser Tool (E), and set Hardness to 0% and Flow to 50%.

As I pointed in previous step, use the original image to see how the shadows look, and cast them the same way. It doesn’t have to be perfect, give this girl at least a touch of shadow to make it look more realistic. Also, if it’s necessary, change your color to darker and lighter brown. Casting shadows is always a tough part of art, but it pays off well. You need to work with patience.

Remember, every single color depends on the environment. I’m making everything in warm tones, so I mostly mix yellow and orange. As for the shadows, I darkened the yellow tone (which is our ground color) and I turned out with brown. The reason I did this is because every object’s shadow has a touch of color from the ground that it occupies.

Step 6

Now select the "Girl" layer. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels, and add a little more contrast. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and lower the value of Saturation. We don’t want to make this girl too bright though. Next, go to balance the picture and give some nice color depth, duplicate (Command +J) the "Girl" layer, and name it "Color depth." Change this layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light and then use Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map. Set the gradient from #1b130c to #969696.

Depending on what you want to achieve, your colors in the gradient mapping will be different. I recommend you experiment with these colors. There are many nice results that can be discovered. However, if you have no idea how to take care of gradient map settings, just set it to Black, White and lower the layers opacity just a touch. This always looks good.

The last image below is just a view of how this girl should look (with the background turned off).

Tip: Before you run the gradient map, make sure you changed the layer’s blending mode do Soft Light. Next you will get the final image preview while using the particular gradient.

Step 7

I turned the orange "Background" layer back on, though it needs to be brightened. So, let’s work on that now. We’ll also start working on adding our paths, which will become our malleable colored lines.

Make a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Back colors." Change the color to #efd8a5 (a nice bright yellow). Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0%, Flow around 20-40% and make one or several big dots behind this girl. Switch to the Pen Tool (P). Then start creating some nice paths surrounding this girl.

If you’re having some problems with the Pen Tool, you may check out this Comprehensive Guide to Photoshop’s Pen Tool to learn how to properly set the path curves properly.

Step 8

Create a new group above the "Girl" layer. Name it "Blue line" and create there a new layer called "b_line" as well. Then go back to the Brush Tool (B), change the settings to Hardness 100%, Flow 100% and the Master Diameter to 7-10px (depending on how big your image is). Next, go to the brush settings and set the Minimum Roundness to 25%. Then switch to the Pen Tool (P). Right-click and select Stroke Path.

Remember to make sure that the Simulate Pressure option is checked. We will be using this throughout this tutorial with every path stroke (be sure to keep this checked), so I will stop reminding from here forward.

It doesn’t matter what kind of color you stroke this path because we’re going to color it through blending options. So, if you don’t want to get confused, you can use white as the color to stroke this path.

Now press Command + right-click on the "Girl" layer’s thumbnail to load selection. Next, add a Layer Mask to the "b_line" layer, and select this mask. Grab the Brush Tool (B) with the color black selected, set all brush settings up to 100%, to make it hard. Then paint in spots indicated in the second image below. We need to create an effect that the line is surrounding this girl.

Issue: I don’t know what’s the cause of the Brush Options – Minimum Roundness option failure, but sometimes it’s not possible to turn it on. If you receive this problem just simply restart your Photoshop. The next thing to do is to open the brush options and make sure this is set to 25%.

Step 9

Now let’s play around with this line’s Blending Options. The standard blending options settings make everything very flat with an absolute lack of depth. Even though I’ve seen people applying custom settings, they still had problems with avoiding the flat look. So you need to be very accurate with this.

Depending on what color you want to make your line, the layer styles will be different. If you decide to colorize it with blue, you need play around with many various tones of blue.

Also, very important thing is the Gloss Contour in Bevel and Emboss setting (second image below). I customized the Mapping to fit my own needs. If you play around with these anchors you will get the idea how it works. Make sure you have the option Preview checked, then you can apply effects in real time.

Another important thing is the Angle and Altitude of Shading (the option above Gloss Contour – second image below). Spend some time while adjusting this little target. It’s the option that allows you to cast lights properly.

Step 10

Now grab Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0% change Master Diameter dynamically between 1px and 2px by making more paths and stroke them the same way. We will make some touch ups to make this blue line complete.

So create new layer above "b_line" name it "b_line fills", and create paths. Make many paths by starting and ending in different points. Looks images below. At 3rd and 4th image, those arrows indicate some spots, where I placed anchors. I did it dynamically setting various points and various brush size from 1px to 2px.

If you are bothered with some unwanted lines, just simply erase them using Eraser Tool (E) of 0% Hardness and 50% Flow.

Step 11

I assume you got the idea of making these fills. So make more lines, apply them to spots of your own choice.

Now let’s take care of coloring these small lines. Basically, I copied layer styles from the "b_line" layer and pasted it to the "b_line fills" layer. Then I entered the "b_line fills" layer Blending Options and just changed the color of Inner Glow to lighter blue #c1dbff. You may also change the Satin color to some other blue tone. I set the #54abbb color for Satin. It didn’t change a lot. The changes are barely visible, but now these fills aren’t just one color.

I didn’t play around with the "b_line fills" layer styles because these lines are very small and all effects would be hard to notice. It’s enough if you just change the color of inner glow (and if you want, for satin also) as said before.

Step 12

Let’s follow the same process as in Step 9. This new line will cross the blue line and we’ll fill it with green tones. So create a new group above the "Blue lines" group, name it "Green line." Create a new layer in it, and name it "g_line." Grab the Brush Tool (B) and change the Master Diameter size to 6-8px, set Hardness and Flow to 100%. Next grab the Pen Tool (P), draw a nice path crossing the blue line, then right-click and select Stroke Path. After this apply the same effects as previously, and play around with Shading in Bevel and Emboss. And this time use green colors for all options.

When your done, grab the Eraser Tool (E) and make sure the "g_line" layer is selected. Then erase some parts where both these lines cross to give some depth. You’re free to make this using a Layer Mask also. Either way is fine.

Step 13

Now, we’re just repeating Steps 10 and 11, but on the green line now. So make a new layer in this "Green line" group, name it "g_line fills." Now grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness and Flow to 0%, change Master Diameter dynamically between 1px and 2px and make many paths. Then stroke them. After this, copy the layer styles from "g_line" and paste it to "g_line fills", same way as you did previously.

And you don’t need to brighten the colors of "g_line fills" layer, they already look good. But if you want, make sure you brighten Inner Glow’s color. If you are bothered with some unwanted lines, just simply erase them using the Eraser Tool (E) with Hardness set to 0% and 50% Flow.

Step 14

OK, looking good. Now, we’ll make the next line a little more interesting. So create a new group above all and name it "Pink line." Create a new layer in it and name it "p_ring." Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a curvy path around girl’s leg (instead of drawing a path you can use the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a circle instead). Then right-click and select Stroke Path. Next, apply some nice layer styles the same way as previously. You can use my settings or experiment with your own.

Step 15

If your ring needs some touch ups, select the "p_ring" layer, duplicate this layer (Command + J), go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical and adjust it to make an ellipse. Then grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase some parts to make it look like it was surrounding her leg.

When you’re done, select the "p_ring" layer again, duplicate it (Command + J) 3-4 times, and using Edit > Free Transform make those rings fit the girl’s leg.

Step 16

Create a new layer, name it "p_line," grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a nice curvy path. This will be our third line.

Go to Blending Options and apply same effects as previously. In this case, you need to play around with Bevel and Emboss > Shading. Make sure the Angle and Altitude fit your needs. Depending on what direction your line is going and what kind of shape it has, the shading will be different. You need to adjust it while you start getting something satisfying.

Step 17

This is another process to repeat. Use the same directions as in Steps 10 and 11, but for the pink line. In a shortcut: create a new layer called "p_line fills," draw some paths around the main line using the Pen Tool (P), and stroke them with 1px or 2px soft brush. Next, copy the layer style from the "p_line" layer and paste it to the "p_line fills" layer.

Step 18

Now let’s play around creativity. Select the "p_line fills" layer, then grab the Lasso Tool (L) and draw a selection around some cool looking torn lines (first image below). Then right-click, and select Layer Via Copy. This will copy the piece we selected with its layer styles included. Now right-click on this copied layer and select Convert to Smart Object. After this, make around 4-5 duplicates (Command + J) and spread them around this pink line. Make some rotations using Edit > Free Transform.

The reason we used Convert to Smart Object option, is not to let these pieces pixelize. Since they are smart objects, you are able to resize this piece down and rotate it as many times as you want without losing quality. But don’t resize it up, as it is not a vector object.

Step 19

Go back to the "Blue line" group and apply the same effects as in the previous step. And you can do this to each line that you’ve created. I recommend playing around with colors of these line fills, you may achieve some cool results. Try to make them fit to the lines that they are connected to.

Step 20

Now we’ll create some more great effects. People used to make these kind of shapes with Illustrator, and export them to Photoshop. Well, not everyone knows how to properly use Illustrator, so I’ll show you how to create these shapes in Photoshop. The only disadvantage is that shapes will remain raster objects, but it’s OK, as they’re very easy to recreate.

First create a new group above all, name it "blue drops." Inside this group, create a new layer called "b_drop." Go to the Brushes Palette (Window > Brushes). Select Shape Dynamics and apply the settings shown below. Then make sure your brush is set to 100% Hardness and 100% Flow. In the Brushes Palette select Brush Tip Shape (second image below) and apply the settings again. Make sure that the Spacing is set to 1%. About the Diameter size, it depends how big you want your shapes to look like. But for this tutorial, I recommend following all the settings shown below.

Next, select the Ellipse Tool (U), while holding Shift, draw a circle, around the same size as you see in the third image below. Then select the Pen Tool (P), right-click, and select Stroke Path.

Step 21

Go to "b_drop" layer’s Blending Options and play around with these settings. This is important because standard layer styles give a very flat look. To avoid this make sure your shape has proper colors, highlights and shading.

Step 22

Now that you have created the 3D shape, it’s time to duplicate it (Command + J) a few times and fit to the main blue line. Remember, always have one shape as a backup, so make one of these duplicates invisible (you never know when you may need it). As for the rest of the copies, depending on what you want to do, we’ll leave some shapes as regular objects and turn some of them into smart objects.

In the previous steps, I’ve explained how you can use smart objects. And I used it only in one shape here (layer right-click > Convert to Smart Object) because I searched for a good spot for this shape and I rotated (Edit > Transform > Rotate) it many times. As for the rest rest of the objects, I didn’t convert them into smart objects, because I wanted them to retain their layer styles. And as you resize down these normal objects, the layer styles stay untouched, and they stay connected. You can see in the image below that the small shapes are darker. For example, the Inner Glow has the same value, but the object got smaller.

And the point of all this is that you need to rotate these shapes to make them look like they where in motion, while dropping little pieces. It’s good to make each one look different then the others.

Step 23

As you remember, we named this layer "b_drop" (the b letter stands for blue). And I mentioned that you’re supposed to backup one "b_drop" layer. So make a copy of this untouched layer and rename it "g_drop." Create a new group, name it "green drops" and drag the "g_drop" layer into this group. Then change this layer’s Blending Options. Set all the colors for various green tones. Also, play around with Bevel and Emboss > Shading (second image below).

Then repeat the same process as the previous step. Make a few duplicates (Command + J) of this green drop and make them look dynamic (use Edit > Transform > Rotate).

Step 24

Same thing here. As we made three lines, and each in different colors, we need to make their drops in pretty much the same colors. So repeat the previous steps of creating drops and apply this technique creating now pink drops.

You always need to find the right colors. Start experimenting with them, and you will see which setting in Blending Options is more important then the other. Try to spend as much time as you need to get this right.

Step 25

After you’re done with all the lines and drops it’s time to touch up the background. Simply grab the Brush Tool (B), set the Master Diameter to a fairly large brush, change the Hardness to 0%, and Flow to around 12-15%. Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "background color." Change your colors as shown below, and just paint.

Apply a very light brushing, the Flow option reacts to pressure. If you brush in one place too much, the color will be more intensive, so brush with single light clicks. Don’t hold the mouse button as you brush.

Tip: you can make each color on a new layer and then play around with their opacities.

Step 26

OK, the background looks fantastic, it’s deep and balanced. Now we can move further. Open the balloon image, and extract it using the Magic Wand Tool (W). We can use this tool, as this balloon is easy extractable. It was probably cut out before and saved on the white background. Place it into your main project, resize it down and flip it horizontally (use Edit > Transform to do this). Rename it to "green balloon" and apply some color adjustments. You can find them under:

• Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
• Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast
• Image > Adjustments > Selective Color
• Image > Adjustments > Levels

Step 27

Drag the "red balloon" to our main project again, and make a duplicate of it (Command + J). Name the first "pink balloon" and the second "blue balloon." For the "pink balloon" use only Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation because it’s red, and we want to get something in between purple and pink. For the "blue balloon" use:

• Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
• Image > Adjustments > Selective Color
• Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

Step 28

Now bring back the brush settings from Step 8. Create two new layers, then name them "blue rope" and "green rope." Next, draw some curvy paths on each layer below the balloon. Make sure your brush size is 1px big and it’s 100% Flow. Right-click and select Stroke Path. Use blue and green colors to stroke the paths. You can also copy the layer styles from previous lines/drops and paste them into these rope line layer styles.

Step 29

Now, this is my favorite part of the tutorial. You probably will enjoy this too. Create a new group above the "Background" layer, name it "Effects" and work in this group now. Grab the Custom Shape Tool (U), set its options to Shape Layers, and pick a shape of your own choice (the settings are shown in the first image below).

Find some empty spot on our illustration and work there. Create this path (you can hold Shift to get a perfect shape). It should automatically be filled with your Foreground Color, which can be white. Name this layer "Orange," the go to Blending Options and apply some nice effects to it.

I tried to get some tones of orange color, from brown to yellow. And it doesn’t really matter where the shading is. The only thing you need is to have some nice one-color variety here (using different tones).

Step 30

Now we have a nice vector shape, and it’s editable. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp, then bend and twist this shape to get a satisfying result. I simply love this step, you can be very creative with these shapes. After each transform hit enter and go again with Edit > Transform > Warp.

The whole bending below is done this way, warp / enter / warp / enter, and so on, to achieve better results. The best thing about this is that this shape remains vector, even though it’s getting bent to the max.

Step 31

What we came up with here is an awesome shape (still vector!), and we can now position it everywhere. While repeating thing process, we can cover the whole back of this girl using various shapes. Now, using this technique make more shapes like this, then place them behind this girl and make them fit. Use the Copy/Paste Layer Styles option every time you make a new shape. Do not adjust each one manually because you’re gonna waste time.

Here is something you need to remember: although this is vector, it may get sharpen sometimes. If you twist this shape so much to get a very thin line, some jagged edges may occur. So be aware, if you receive something like this, start again with a new shape. Or you can rasterize the vector object (right-click on the layer, select Rasterize Layer). Next, use the Eraser Tool (E) with the Hardness of 0% and Flow of 80-100% to erase some bad looking spots.

Step 32

That’s all for the small shapes. Now, let’s take care for the bigger lines. I used the same technique to create the line that you see in first image below. Next, I rasterize this layer (right-click and Rasterize Layer), and the using Eraser Tool (E), I erased some spots. There is a small case study in images below:

• In second image below, I made this line fit the back of balloon.
• In third image below, I created a new shape using the same technique.

In the next images, I just duplicated (Command + J) this curvy line. I rasterized the layer when needed (layer right-click > Rasterize Layer), and used the Eraser Tool (E). To place these lines use Edit > Transform > Rotate. The whole process of positioning these lines took me around 30 minutes because I changed this like ten times. So don’t give up, the more effort you put in this, the better it will look.

Step 33

OK, now just simply repeat Steps 29, 30, and 31, but in green. Using the same technique, create several green shapes and place them behind this girl and mix them with orange shapes.

Step 34

At this moment I thought, I would show you something cool. As you have created some thin, green shapes like you see in the first image below, use Edit > Transform > Warp again. Now try to stretch it to create a nice curve (second image below).

Now go to Edit > Transform, and rotate this shape to make it fit some parts of the green line (third image below). Run Edit > Transform > Warp again and perfectly adjust it with the line. After this you can right-click on this layer, select Rasterize Layer, grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase some unwanted parts.

Also, if some edges got jagged, use the Smudge Tool (R) with a Strength of 12%. Now smudge the edges towards the line (you can see it in the 5-6 images below).

Step 35

OK, now let’s do some final touch ups. Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0% and Flow to around 10%. Change your Foreground Color to #481e39, create a new layer above the "pink balloon" layer and name it "p_drop shadow." Then start painting below this drop to create a nice touch of shadow.

Next, select the layer of this drop (that is shown in images below) use Command + J to duplicate it. Work with this copy now. Take a look at the third image below: in Blending Options change the size of Inner Glow for the drop copy. Next lower its Opacity and place it below the "p_drop shadow" layer to create a reflection.

Step 36

To give this illustration some meaning I decided to put here some funny thing like this Teddy. I thought, there’s a little girl, lots of colors, so let’s give it a touch of cuteness.

So, cut the bear out of its original image using the Pen Tool (P). Drag it to our main project document. Name this layer "Teddy" and place it above all the layers. Now let’s do some color adjustments using Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and then Image > Adjustments > Levels.

Duplicate the "Teddy" layer using Command + J and select this copy now. Change its Blending Options to Soft Light. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black and White, and give this teddy some nice deep colors and a touch of contrast.

I still thought this teddy needs some more color. So I held down Command and left-clicked on the "Teddy" layer’s thumbnail to bring the selection. Then I created a new layer above all layers. Changed its Blending Mode to Overlay. Next, I set my Foreground Color to #fbc83a, grabbed a Brush Tool (B) with a very soft brush and painted inside this selection just a little.

Step 37

As you still have this selection on, hit Command + Shift + C (copy merged) and then press two times Command + V (paste). Place these teddies the way you see in the first image below. Next, take one of them and place behind the "Green balloon," and make his arm look like a leg.

Now create a reflection with the second teddy. So select another copy of teddy and go to Edit > Transform > Distort and make this bear more flat (second image below). Place it below the original "Teddy" layer to make it look like a reflection. If you get some outgoing edges of this reflection – erase them using the Eraser Tool (E). Apply the same technique to make a reflection of his leg (as you can see in fourth image below).

Next, bring the selection of the "Green balloon" layer (hold Command and left-click on the "Green balloon" layer’s thumbnail). Now create a new layer below the "Teddy" layer and change your Foreground Color to #212b04. Grab the Brush Tool (B), make the brush settings very soft with Hardness 0%, Flow 10-15%, and paint under teddy to create some shadow. Hit Command + D to deselect selection.

Step 38

So we are heading to the end. Hit Command + A to select the whole canvas, then press Command + Shift + C (copy merged). Go to the top of the Layers Palette and hit Command + V to paste this whole piece. Name this layer "final colored" and set it’s Blending Mode to "Soft Light." Now go to Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map, and find some nice satisfying colors to balance this illustration. There are my colors written below. I added them and lowered the Opacity of this layer just a touch.

Conclusion

So here it is, the cool colorful illustration covered with lines and shapes. You have to be very careful while creating your own colorful piece. The colors are something that separates good art from weak art. When you understand how it works, all your designs will start to look professional. Always remember to keep the overall balance. Everything needs its own place in a quality illustration. Also, don’t forget about the shading. Objects look good when they are based on reality.

Thanks for reading the tutorial. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

Usually, I would gloss over the cutting out of an image but as we’re expanding on the Pen Tool tutorial here, I’ll focus on a couple of useful tips.

First go to sxc.hu and download this image of a Gun (thanks to neoisam for the awesome pic – there’s a lot of variable quality images available on this site, and this at the top end). Then zoom into about 300% and select the Pen Tool. Make sure it’s set to Paths and Add to path area (+), start drawing around the arm and the gun.

As mentioned in the Pen Tool tutorial it is good practice to begin drawing a curve at the start of the curve and not in the middle. Pull the anchor point so it runs along the angle of the straight edge.

Step 2

Add the next anchor point at the end of the curve where it meets the straight edge. As we can see the curve is too great so select the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow not the black one) and pull the handle back. After a while you’ll be able to judge how to pull the anchor points to satisfy each curve.

Step 3

Finally, we need to drop the outward handle of the second anchor point so it doesn’t prevent us from being able to follow the straight edge. Select the Pen Tool again, hold the Alt key and click the anchor point at the end of the curve. This will drop the outward handle allowing you to then follow the straight edge with your path. I find it’s good practice to drag the anchor point along a straight edge rather than using a single click. This way you can adjust to any waves in the straight edge without leaving hard points.

Step 4

Finish drawing around the image. Below is an example of how to manipulate the anchor points around multiple curves. The idea is to get as few points as possible to create a natural line, but if you need to put a point mid-curve then don’t feel like you can’t.

Step 5

Set up a new document. For the basis of this tutorial I’ve created an A5 landscape at 300dpi. Copy and paste the gun into the document. Select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers instead of Paths. Select a color, at this stage I’ve gone for 100% Magenta, but this can be edited at any stage. Start drawing a dribble coming out of the end of the barrel.

Step 6

You’ll need to employ a certain amount of imagination. Picture the vector as a thick, colored goo and then place it in the real world as if affected by the laws of physics. As such, continue to draw it dribbling from the barrel.

Step 7

Use the Direct Selection Tool to clean up any points that you’re not happy with.

Step 8

Now it’s time to apply some depth to the vector goo. Select the “dribble” layer and go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options and set up as in the three screen shots. Adjust the colors to suit your own needs.

Step 9

Draw in more goo as if fired from the gun. Mix up the width and vary the waves and bulges to get variety. Draw in some smaller waves and think about how they’d move in relation to the bigger waves. Copy the Layer Style from the “dribble” layer by selecting it, then go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style. Select the destination layer in the layers palette and go to Layer > Layer Style > Paste Layer style.

Step 10

The Layer Style settings aren’t quite right for the smaller waves of goo so select the appropriate layer, expand the Layer style icon (looks like an ‘f’ in a black circle) and adjust the settings as in the screen shots.

Step 11

Keep adding goo coming out of the barrel until you’re happy. Then add some smaller splats coming out of the end of the barrel.

Step 12

Draw a few small globules of goo and paste the Layer Styles to match the rest. Using the Move Tool, hold the Alt key and drag copies of the globules. Press Command + T to resize and rotate. Repeat this process until you have a good covering of goo. Experiment with depth by moving the duplicate layers up and down the layers palette so that they fall in front of or behind other “goo” layers.

Step 13

Add drop shadows on the gun barrel, using: the eyedropper for color, a new layer, soft brush, a selection from gun, a layer mask, draw, and multiply.

Step 14

Open the grenade image from sxc.hu, cut-out, import it into the document, then Command + T to resize and rotate it.

Step 15

Draw a path around a section of the grenade, don’t worry about the outer edges, as they’re already cut. Turn path to selection and cut and paste onto a new layer (deleting the sections from the original grenade as you go. Continue cutting out sections of the grenade until it’s broken into several pieces, you can go as detailed as you like. Once you have all the pieces separated, rotate them as if blown apart.

Step 17

Use the Pen Tool, to draw smoke using the same techniques. I’ve changed the color to depict the different areas of smoke, but make them the same color as we’ll be using Layer Styles to create depth.

Step 18

The smoke looks flat so set up some Layer Styles (as you did for the goo) to add depth and lighting. See the screenshots for the settings I used. Copy and paste the Layer Styles to all the “Smoke” layers once set up.

Step 19

Drawing cartoon-like outlines around the smoke will add impact and keep it looking fun. You can either do it manually or select the Smoke Shape layer so the path is visible and copy the path. Go to the Paths Palette, create a new layer and paste the path onto it. Delete the parts you don’t want by selecting the individual anchors. Draw in some extra detail and extend any existing lines you want.

Step 20

Create a new layer, use this layer to apply outlines you’ve just drawn. Select the Paintbrush tool and set the brush up at 7 pixels with 100% hardness. Select the Path from the Paths palette and then select Stroke Path from the contextual menu (small right facing arrow in a circle at the top right of the Paths palette). I then resized all the “grenade” layers (including smoke etc) as it had too much presence.

Step 21

Now the fiddly bit, especially if your layers palette is as messy as mine. Create a new layer and set the Layer Blending Mode to Multiply. Command-click on all the “grenade” layer thumbnails to make selections from them and add a layer mask (light circle in a dark rectangle at the base of the Layers palette.

Now, (working on the new layer and not the layer mask) Command-click the top grenade piece and invert (Command + Shift + I) the selection. Select the Paintbrush tool and take a soft-edged brush and draw on the shadow, I used a dark gray, rather than a Black. Press Command + H to hide the selection if it helps. Continue in this fashion. Switch between a 45 pixel brush and a 20 pixel brush.

Step 22

The Grenade needs more goo coming out of it for impact so draw in some as you did for the gun. Move the “goo” layers in between the “smoke” and “grenade” layers for depth. Adjust the Shadows layer mask accordingly (I Command-clicked all the “grenade goo” layer thumbnails and masked it off directly on the “shadow” layer). You may need to manually edit your selection (using the Polygonal Lasso Tool) in places.

Step 23

Copy all of the “Grenade” layers and flatten them to one layer. Place the new Grenade at the top of the Layer hierarchy and resize to fit the perspective. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and set up as in the screenshot. Then use the Blur Tool to blur the edges of big Grenade.

Step 24

Merge all of the Pink “goo” layers coming out of the gun and apply a 0.6 Pixel Gaussian Blur. This will further fuse the elements together. Do the same for the un-blurry Grenade goo. Once you’ve done that, flatten the image.

Step 25

I think it needs a little more punch so add a Curves adjustment layer to boost the contrast. This will further fuse the elements together and increase saturation as well. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and set up as shown below.

Step 26

Finally, duplicate the “Background” layer and go to Filter > Artistic > Film Grain. Set this up as shown and OK it. Then reduce the layer Opacity to 55%. From this point you can add further Adjustment Layers like Hue/Saturation and fine tune all the Adjustments until you’re happy.

Conclusion

I hope that was as much fun for you as it was for me! You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

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The end result in this tutorial looks more like me, but to tell you the truth this is just a coincidence. Also, I would like to thank Necula Cezar for throwing a helpful hand in this… I am working hard to produce great quality tutorials for you and help is a must.

Final Image Preview

This is the image you will create. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

First of all you need to make a rough sketch, scan the image and import it into Photoshop.

Step 2

Next, create a new transparent layer over the sketch (name it "sketch"). Then using a small brush, draw the sketch again, but this time make it more accurate.

Step 3

Create a new layer and place it below the "sketch" layer and name it "color." Using a soft brush draw the color over the face, using this code: #e9b68b.

Step 4

According to the light source angle (which is in the top-left), draw some shading using a soft Brush (B). This time use the same color but give it a slightly darker touch.

Step 5

Reduce the brush opacity and continue to darken the shadows some more.

Step 6

Mix the color and the shadow with the Smudge Tool (R), which results in a nice transition between the face color and shadow.

Step 7

It’s time to add the hair color. Use the same brush that you did for the face, but this time use color #3c210f.

Step 8

It is time to add some details to the hair. Draw thin lines, each in different directions. Use a darker (#9f815d ) and a lighter color (#1e0d05) for this. With the help of the Smudge Tool (R) and the Opacity set to 20, smudge the thin hair you just created. This will help you make the hair more realistic.

Step 9

You need to draw thin lines along all the head part until you get something similar to the image below.

Step 10

For this step you need to start adding the light on the face. Select a soft brush and also lower the Opacity of the brush. This will help you create the light effect gradually. After you are set with the brush, start adding some light using the color #ffdebb.

Step 11

It is time to work on the eyes now. Color the iris of the eye and the white side with these colors: #edddb9 and #797866.

Step 12

Add some more color and details to the eyes.

Step 13

Make the eyes shiny by placing some light on them. Also, create some shadow over them. You need to create the thickness of the eyelid by drawing some shadow on the lower side of the eyelids.

Step 14

Slowly erase the sketch and add some more light on the eyes.

Step 15

Next, work on the mouth.

Step 16

For the lips I used this color #d58b6a.

Step 17

The upper lip is darker then the lower one because the upper lip is where you need to draw the shadow. The color used is: #8f6048

Step 18

To bring more realism to the lips you need to draw some darker lines over the upper lip using a small brush. Also you need to smudge the lines.

Step 19

Same as you did with the upper lip you need to do with the lower lip, but this time use lighter colors to make the lip shiny. Also, you need to make a selection around the upper lip and use the Burn Tool (O) to add some more details.

Step 20

Repeat the burning process over the lower lip. Also, draw some more lines and make the textured lip detail and gradually erase the sketch.

Step 21

Refine the eye wrinkles and eyebrows with a low opacity Burn Tool (O), then smudge them as we did with the hair.

Step 22

Add a little red to the cheeks (#e6986e), to make it more human and some grey for the beard. Start drawing the beard with a soft brush set to a low opacity and then use the Smudge tool to mix the colors. The color for the grey is #908478. Also, as you can see, I have added some more shadow on the face.

Step 23

These last steps are the finalizing steps. Erase the sketch and Smudge the tips of the hair to create some volume.

Step 24

Smudge the skin and the eyebrows.

Step 25

Smudge the forehead skin color over the hair to create the hair roots.

Step 26

Add some light on the nose and the area under the nose. This will make them shine.

Conclusion

You are finished with the face. Place a nice background or maybe fuse your portrait into one of your illustrations. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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Final Image Preview

First, let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.

Step 1

Lets start by creating a new document 1000 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high, with Resolution set to 300 pixels/inch.

Step 2

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, set the Style to Fixed Size, set the Width to 530 pixels, and set the Height to 260 pixels. Make a selection as in the below image. Lastly, drag and snap horizontal and vertical Guides around the selection.

Step 3

Create a new layer and name it "Bar." Get the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set it to Shape Layers and set the Radius to 125 pixels in the Tool Options. Set your Foreground Color to #774411 and draw a rectangle as in the image below.

Step 4

Now we need to give this bar a perspective look. Press Command + T to enter Free Transform mode, then set the Angle to -55 degrees, Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees, and apply by hitting Enter twice. Now go to Layer > Rasterize > Layer to rasterize the shape layer. Please note in the image below how the result of transforming a shape layers differs.

Step 5

We’ll add some thickness to the bar now. Before you move on, make sure you’re viewing the canvas at 100% size. If not, go to View > Actual Pixels (Command + Alt + 0). Grab the Move Tool and while holding down the Alt key press the Right Arrow key 89 times, until you reach "Bar copy 89" in the layers palette.

Now select all the layers from "Bar copy 88" to "Bar copy" and merge them by going to Layer > Merge Layers or hitting Command + E. Name the merged layer "Thickness." Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U) and set Lightness to -35. Rename the "Bar copy 89" layer as "Back." Now swap the order of "Back" and "Bar" layers as in the below image.

Step 6

Now we’re going to taste the ice cream. Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set the Style to a Fixed Size, then set Width and Height to 230 pixels, and make a selection as in the below image. Next, go to Select > Transform Selection, then set the Angle to -55 degrees and Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees, and apply to achieve the same perspective with the ice cream bar. Place the selection where the bite should be. Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Bar" layer thumbnail to intersect the selection with the pixels of the layer.

Step 7

Now create a new layer at the top and name it "Bite." Fill the selection with a distinctive color, then Deselect. Before you move on, make sure you’re viewing the canvas at 100% size. If not, go to View > Actual Pixels (Command + Alt + 0). Also, make sure that the Move Tool is selected, then while holding down the Alt key press the Right Arrow key 90 times, until you reach "Bite copy 90" in the layers palette.

Select all bite layers except for the "Bite copy 90" and merge them by pressing Command + E. OK, now let’s take a bite out of it, Command-click the "Bite copy 89" layer to load it’s pixels and clear the selected area from "Bar" and "Thickness" layers.

Now Command-click the "Bite copy 90" layer thumbnail and clear the selection while the "Back" layer is selected in the layers palette. Now make sure a marquee tool is selected in the toolbox and hit the Left Arrow to move the selection 1 pixels left and hit Delete again to clear. Deselect, and then you can hide the "Bite copy 89" and "Bite copy 90" layers.

Step 8

Select the "Back" layer in the layers palette and then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U). Set the Lightness to -25. Command-click the "Bite copy 89" layer to load the selection and Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Back" layer to intersect.

Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy. This will create a new layer from the selection. Name this new layer "Chocolate." Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and name it "White." Hit Command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog and set the Lightness to 75.

Step 9

Command-click the "White" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Inverse. Make sure any Marquee Tool is Selected in the Toolbox and hit the Right Arrow five times to move the selection five pixels right. Hit delete to clear.

Now hit Shift + Left Arrow once to move it 10 pixels left and then hit Delete to clear the right side of the "White" layer. Hit the Down Arrow five times and then hit Delete. Finally, hit the Shift + Up Arrow once and then clear the selection again.

Step 10

Go to the "Bar" layer in the layers palette and apply a Gradient Overlay using these settings: Blend Mode set to Screen, Opacity at 50%, Gradient set at Black to White, Reverse checked, Style set to Radial, and Scale set at 130%. Drag the center of the gradient as in the image below while the Gradient Overlay dialog is still open.

Step 11

Now go to "Thickness" layer and apply a Gradient Overlay layer style and use these settings: Blend Mode set to Color Dodge, Opacity at 55%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, and Scale set at 150%.

Step 12

Go to the "Chocolate" layer in the layers palette and apply a Gradient Overlay to this layer as well with these settings: Blend Mode set to Soft Light, Opacity at 70%, Gradient set at Black to White with a Style of Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale at 150%.

Step 13

Now we’re going to apply another Gradient Overlay, this time to the "White" layer with these settings: Blend Mode set to Hard Light, Opacity set at 50%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale set at 150%.

Step 14

Create a new layer above the "Bar" layer and name it "Highlight." Command-click the "Bar" layer to load it’s pixels, go to Edit > Stroke. Set the width to 2 pixels and Color to white, then set the Location to Center and hit OK. Press Command + D to deselect.

We’ll erase some portions of this and make a highlight out of it. Now make your background a little bit darker in order to see the white outline clearly by going to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation (Command + U). Do this while the "Background" layer is selected, then in the Layers Palette set the Lightness to – 40.

Step 15

Go to "Highlight" layer in the Layers Palette. Grab the Erase Tool, then in the tool options set the Master Diameter to 240 pixels, set Hardness to 0%, and set the Mode to Brush. Erase the left, bottom, and the bitten areas, as in the image below. Set the Layer Opacity at 50%.

Step 16

Create a new layer above the "Bar" layer and name it "Texture." Hit D to set to default colors which are black and white. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Now go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Go to Filter > Distort > Glass. Set the Distortion to 20, Smoothness to 10, set the Texture to Frosted, and Scaling at 100%.

Step 17

Set the Blending Mode of the "Texture" layer to Soft Light. Next, hit Command + T, set the Angle to -55 degrees, set Horizontal Skew to -25, and then apply.

Step 18

Command-click the "Back" layer to load the selection. Command + Shift-click the "Thickness" layer and Command + Shift-click the "Bar" layer to add their pixels to the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Hit Command + D to deselect. Set the Layer Opacity at 20%.

Step 19

Create a new layer above the "White" layer and name it "Red." Command-click the "Chocolate" layer thumbnail to load the selection. Make sure a Marquee Tool is selected in the Toolbox. While holding down the Shift key, press the Right Arrow key three times to move the selection 30 pixels left and fill the selection with red.

Hit Shift + Right Arrow three more times and hit delete. Now grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the top part of the red area and hit Delete to clear. Do the same thing for the bottom part as well and Deselect.

Step 20

Command-click the "Red" layer to load the selection. Go to the Channels Palette and create a new Channel. Fill the selection with white and then Deselect. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 5 pixels. Go to Image + Adjustments > Levels (Command + L) and set the Input Levels to 125, 1 and 150. Command-click the "Alpha 1" channel to make a selection out of the white pixels.

Step 21

Go back to the "Red" layer in the Layers Palette. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear the sharp edges. Set the layer’s Blending Mode to Multiply. Deselect by pressing Command + D.

Step 22

Create a new layer above the "Red" layer and name it "Red Highlight." Command-click the "Red" layer thumbnail to load the selection. Make sure any Marquee Tool is selected and hit the Right Arrow key once to move the selection one pixel right. Fill the selection with white and move the selection two more pixels right and hit Delete.

Now we have a thin line which needs to be blurred. Command-click the "Red" layer thumbnail again, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 2 pixels. Also, be sure to Deselect.

Step 23

Now it’s time to make the stick. But before we move on, lets tidy up the layers. Go to the layers palette and delete "Bite copy 90" and "Bite copy 89" layers. Then select all the layers except for the "Background" layer and go to Layer > New > Group from layers, name the group "Ice cream."

Step 24

Now we need to draw the stick. First, let’s create a new document that is 90 pixels wide and 340 pixels high at a Resolution of 300 pixels/inch.

Step 25

Hit Command + A to select all. Drag guides all around the canvas and one more guide to vertical center of the canvas. Hit Command + D to deselect. Create a new layer named "Stick." Set the Foreground Color to #ffcc77. Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set the Radius to 40 pixels, set to Shape Layers, and draw a rectangle as in the below image.

Step 26

Get the Add Anchor Point Tool and add anchor points as in the below image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool, select and move the left anchor point to add 10 pixels right using the Arrow Keys. Move the right one 5 pixels left. Go to Layer > Rasterize > Layer.

Step 27

Create a new layer and name it "Fibers." Hit D to set to default colors. Hit Alt + Backspace to fill the layer with Black. Go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Set Variance to 10 and Strength to 50. Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and hit OK. Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 180 degrees. Set the layer Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. Hit Command + E to merge the top two layers.

Step 28

Alt-click the line between the "Fibers" and "Stick" layers in the layers palette. This will define the "Stick" layer as a Clipping Mask for "Fibers." Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set the Amount at 60%, Radius to 8 pixels, and Threshold to 4 levels.

Step 29

Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 degrees CW. Set the Blending Mode for the "Fibers" layer to Softlight and layer Opacity at 40%. Hit Command + E to merge the "Fibers" and "Stick" layers. Get the Horizontal Type Tool and type the text as in the below image. I used this free font from dafont.com. Set the text layer’s opacity at 50%. Now hit Command + E again to merge the "Stick" layer and the text.

Step 30

Now we’re going to place the stick in our main "Ice cream" document. Grab the Move Tool, drag and drop the "Stick" layer in to the "Ice cream" document.

Step 31

Hit Command + T and set the Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees and apply. Hit Command + T again and this time set Rotation to -55 degrees. We’re applying these two transformations in two different steps to get a cleaner result.

Step 32

Go to the layers palette and drag the "Stick" layer below the "Ice cream" group.

Step 33

Grab the Move tool, and make sure you’re viewing the canvas 100% size. While holding down the Alt key, press the Left Arrow key five times. Select from the "Stick copy 4" to "Stick" layer in the layers palette and merge them by hitting Command + E. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U) and set the Lightness to -30.

Step 34

Go to the "Stick copy 5" layer in the layers palette and hit Command + E to merge both stick layers and name this layer "Stick." Now we’ll apply a Gradient Overlay to the "Stick" layer to give the shadow effect, using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 100%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, Angle set to -130 degrees, and Scale at 55%.

Step 35

Now we’re going to create the shadow. Make the "Background" layer invisible. Create a new layer on top and name it "Shadow." Go to Image > Apply Image. This will merge all visible layers to the active layer. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Shadow and set the Lightness to -100.

Step 36

Turn the "Background" layer back to visible. Drag the "Shadow" layer above the "Background" layer in the layers palette. Hit Command + T to enter Free Transform mode. Set the Reference Point Location to bottom-left and set the Horizontal Skew to -20 degrees and apply.

Hit Command + T again, set the Reference Point Location to bottom-center and set the Vertical Scale to 35%. Scale the shadow horizontally by dragging the middle-right handle of the bounding box to the right edge of the canvas.

Step 37

Go to View > Clear Guides to clear the existing guides. Drag a vertical guide and place it on the left edge of the "Shadow" layer. Now go to the Channels Palette and create a new channel. Grab the Gradient Tool, open the Gradient Picker and pick black to white, and then fill the channel with the gradient starting from the guide line and dragging till the right end of the canvas. Now Command-click "Alpha 2" in the Channels palette to make a selection out of the white pixels and go back to the "Shadow" layer in the Layers Palette.

Step 38

Now we selected the far end of the shadow and we’re going to apply some blur to this area. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 3 pixels. Hit Command + F nine times to apply the last filter using the same settings multiple times. Now in order to make the shadow vanish hit Delete.

Step 39

In Step 16 we filled the whole "Texture" layer and then rotated it, so some pixels went outside of the canvas. Now we’ll move the ice cream and the shadow, and these pixels will come inside the canvas. In order to get rid of them hit Command + A to select all and go to Image > Crop.

Conclusion

Now you can merge all layers except the "Background" layer and place the ice cream in the center of the canvas, then apply a gradient to the background. Yes that’s it. Hope you learned something new and enjoyed this tutorial.

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