Tutorial Details
- Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4+
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Estimated Completion Time: 7 - 10 Hours
Download Source Files
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
Sometimes, all it takes to create a stunning piece of art is a stock photo, a bit of creativity, a great idea, and some time. Today, I will demonstrate how to create a piece of art that I created titled, "Beauty of Gold." Let’s get started!
Step 1
Let’s start by creating a new document in Photoshop, I used A3 format but it doesn’t really matter what size you use. I always find it easier working in high resolution because it’s easier to add the details. After that, search for a nice piece of stock art. I bought mine on Dreamstime.com but you could also try DeviantArt or any other site. Place the stock on your canvas as shown below.
Step 2
Now, have a good look at your stock, this technique is always easier when you have a stock with a lot of highlights and shadows. I have circled these areas in red and green below. It’s not necessary to draw the lines yourself. I just wanted you to understand what I meant.
Step 3
Take out your ‘Ellipse Tool’ and begin to create circles that will form the shading.
Step 4
Set the opacity of the ‘Ellipse Tool’ to about 20%. Now start filling in the dark and light areas with white and black. Don’t worry about the details yet, just create the basic shading like I did. (I set my stock to 50% opacity so that the circles are visible).
Step 5
Work from large size to small size! This might seem a bit boring but in the end you will get the best results! As you can see below I’ve already added some very small details on the face just to show what it will look like on a later stage. (The stock is on 10% so that the shading is more visible).
Step 6
Repeat this same step again, but this time add some circles around you stock to create some flow, this will be used for effects later in this tutorial. If some parts don’t look great, don’t worry, it can be fixed later on. Create a new layer and add more circles. I changed the opacity of the stock to 0% this time so its easy to see what I did and how much detail I added.
Step 7
Now, we’re going to add some color. I decided to go for a golden/brown color which is about the same as what my stock had. Using the ‘Ellipse Tool’ start adding light colors on the light parts and dark colors on the darker parts.
Step 8
Reduce the opacity of the color layer to 35% to bring down the colors a bit, after add more black and white shading on a new layer.
Step 9
Our composition is finally starting to take shape, but its still a bit hard to recognize some parts of the stock. Take out your brush tool and apply these settings.
Step 10
Now start brushing on the darker and lighter areas that we showed in Step 2. Make sure you don’t go outside the lines of the stock. Set the opacity of your brush to 30%, only use a black or white brush.
Step 11
Here is what your layer stack should look like.
Step 12
Duplicate all the layers above the stock, after that, merge them. Now duplicate the layer of your stock and place it at the very top. Now, create a clipping mask on the layer below it (this should be the merge of all the circles).
Step 14
After this I merged the top 2 layers and set the result to overlay (20% opacity), then I duplicated that layer and set it to soft light (80% opacity).
Step 15
As you can see there are still some areas that need more details. See the image below to understand which parts I’m referring to.
Step 16
For this step we have to take out our ‘Ellipse Tool’ again, we’re now going to zoom in on each part we just highlighted and work on the detailing, add black and white where its needed! Keep repeating this step on the same layer until you are satisfied. (Our Ellipse Tool is still on 20% opacity).
Step 17
After this we want to start working a bit more on the flow. As you can see when looking at my artwork, the main highlights are on the top left of the stock, so we’re going to add a gradient (black to white) where the bottom right is black and the top left is white. After that, set it to soft light and keep the opacity on 100%.
Step 18
Things are starting to come together now but the background is still really boring. Since we want to keep the focus on the foreground we’re going to add a really soft background. I usually do this by taking a big stock photo and blurring it, then setting it to soft light. This time I used the stock of a desert which I bought on dreamstime.com (you should also be able to find good stocks on sxc.hu). Place it as shown below.
Step 19
Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 65. Set this layer to soft light (100% opacity), now duplicate that layer and set it to 15% opacity.
Step 20
Now, we’re going to add more effects, at the moment all we have are flat circles which are a bit boring. I created some special circles with gradients etc. which I’m going to randomly place in the artwork. Its best to experiment with creating circles because it depends on what fits the artwork best.
Note: I put a gray background behind the effects in this screenshot so they are all visible. These are not on the same layer because then I wouldn’t be able to move them around and duplicate them.
Step 21
Some parts still look a bit flat. We’re now going to add highlights but also darken the dark areas a bit more. A very simple way to do this is by soft brushing on a new layer and setting it to soft light. I did this with a 550px soft brush (black and white), which I set to soft light 50% opacity.
Step 22
After that, we’re going to add very small details. I did this with a soft brush and hard brush with a small diameter. Set the scatter and spacing to high and brush in random areas. Do this with different colors but also with varied blending modes such as screen, overlay and soft light.
Step 23
We’re coming to an end here, I took out my pen tool and a very large soft brush to create lines around some places of my main model. Also, I added some subtle effects to it. Check out the screenshot below what I mean. (Make sure you set it on simulate pressure).
Step 24
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Erase all the areas you don’t want blurred to improve the focal point.
Step 25
We’re almost done now. I applied my image on a new layer and sharpened it. After that I played a bit with the colors/brightness and contrast/hue and saturation. This is my final result.
Final Image
I flipped the image horizontally because for me, it looked better. After that I also added my logo.
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By Mart Biemans
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really impressive :)
ps. the face is the best
Yea, the face is nice :)
Great tutorial mate. ;)
Okay,,, SO that was FRIGGIN AMAZING..JEEZ!!
HHOw long have you been doing these….??!!
Cause..(*sigh…*)
BLOWN AWAY!!!!
thanks for the post :D
Very nice! (Mart Biemans… klinkt Nederlands?)
yep he is(best cool eigenlijk :D)
http://psd.tutsplus.com/author/mart-biemans/
cool tut, but a bit tedious for me, with all the circles :p
Incredible result with quite good explanation of process. Nice work! :)
Nice one.
wow very cool effect
Nicely done! Great tutorial and beautiful result!
Awesome looking design, love the use of the circles and highlights, the head section is pretty cool :)
The head part is amazing! I would have just cropped it there, the hand/arm is looking kind of funky. Love this effect though, very useful tips!
I am going to echo off of you, I think that the final image should be cropped around the face. The overall execution was really nice though.
It just feels a bit stiff/long and makes it look a bit off. Still great idea and beautiful piece none the less.
Fantastic tutorial, I’m excited to play with this!
Very refreshing design. I thought the technique seemed a little tedious with all the elipse tool circles in the beginning–I’m sure that’s why it took as long as it did. And you made a good decision to put those cool circles in the mix because without them, it wouldn’t have been nearly as cool.
Great outcome!
wow….
I haven’t seen a tutorial of this quality for a long time…
Besides that it’s also a realy nice artwork!
thumbs up
FANTASTIC! FANTASTIC! FANTASTIC!
What a visualization! This image leaves an IMPRESSION. I could imagine using it for a dozen of possible ads right away.
This is, and i mean it, the best final product i have seen here on tutsplus.
Mart Biemans, i take a deep bow.
By the way i really like your logo as well.
tutsplus is hit or miss lately, but this is definitely a hit! Good job!
Amazing tutorial, i never would have thought of creating an abstract effect like this – you make it look so easy.
Definately considering your tuts+ package to get the PSDs
Absolutely stunning, a really interesting way to build the image.
If you do another tutorial for psdtuts, would love to see the techniques involved in doing your DEFINE NOISE piece!
Wow! I would never think to do something like this. Truly amazing.
one of the BEST tut ever seen here! ;)
Yeah, the tutorial is amazing. And it’s a great effect for advertising.
It takes time to create great art.
Interesting effect :)
This is a great tutorial!
super one
Great idea dude! Very useful tut also!
love this stuff………………………………..
Really cool and unique look here but I liked it better on the left.
That being said, why do some designers do this? A great artist I first notice doing this was Adam Spizak and I always questioned it. He’ll plan out a piece from a certain side, create this gorgeous design and when it’s done, flip the perspective.
A simple answer: It’s refreshing to the artist when flipped. I want to hear some thoughts on this.
I think you’ve got it, Peter. They get bored with or timid about the design after viewing it for so long, and the flipping (which is an old trick gleaned from looking at your non-digital work in a mirror to check for distortions that might not be apparent otherwise) makes it seem fresh or stronger for them.
The better artists tend to nail down their composition at the beginning. This is the problem with working with imagery (such as photos that are bought, downloaded, etc.) that is not your own. The vision is less strong, the artist is less certain.
It is otherwise a great tutorial and a lovely technique.
I tend to think that people who are right handed like to put the main imagery (focus point) on the left hand side (bottom), because it feels natural (open space where the hand is drawing). The reason to mirror it, could indeed be answered to the new “fresh” view from the eye of the designer who works on this, like mentioned before…
ps: nice piece of work…
Very nice one, thanks for sharing
fresh tutorial – something new ;)
GREAT PIECE!!!!!!
Just amazing
Nothing fresh on the business but in PsdTuts is something new. Great outcome. And it didn’t went premium :D
Epic tutorial!
gr8 result.
Wow! This tutorial really piqued my interest, I’ll try this technique, and I’ll see what I can get with it.
WOW O.o
I Love it :)
Nice Work!!!!
Thanks a lot! Such a great tutorial!
How long did you take?
Great! =D
great & great out come! very nice techniques too :)
Beautiful work!
amazing! i am a graphic design teacher and i can’t wait to share this with my students in september!
thank you!
it’s wonderful… tnx
I love it! One of the best tutorials that I have seen!
Awesome tutorial, looks great! :)
good tutorial. I link it
Awesome tutorial !
i love the Colours Simple and Beauty
thanks’s
LOVED this tut, only i’m new to photoshop and some more direction on how you created the circles with effect would have been really helpful. But awesome, i learnt a lot.
this is amazing
thanks for a nice tut ^^
Looks great thanks
nice work……thankfully your acknowledgement .
does this really take 7-10 hours as it says in the description?