How to Create a Dark Surreal Illustration in Photoshop
Mar 2nd in Illustration, Photo Effects by Constantin Potorac
First of all, I would like to thank Toma Alin Gabriel for collaborating with me in creating this wonderful piece. In this tutorial we are going to create a dark surreal illustration using a few techniques and a handful of images. In the end, we will apply stylish color settings and give the illustration that extra polish it needs to give it that finished look.
Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the photographers for giving me permission to use their images. Without them I could never create this art. Please visit their amazing galleries: blacksockstock, Wayne Benedet, Drew Hopper, Nikola M., and Nicolas Raymond. Now, let's jump into this tutorial!
I am a freelance designer living in Romania. I discovered the beauty of design a few years ago. Since then I have dedicated my time to becoming a great designer (work in progress)!
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.
Video Tutorial
Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.
Step 1
First, open up the desert image created by Nikola M. This is the image you will be working over. Next, duplicate the image by simply pressing Command + J or go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and name it "Sand."
Step 2
Next, we need an image with really nice grass. The image Drew Hopper created is amazing and perfect for this piece.
After you import the image into the document you will see that the width of the image is smaller then the width of the sand image so you will need to duplicate the grass image a few times and then blend each piece together. To do this you first need to erase a few parts of the duplicated grass images using the Eraser Tool (E), merge all of them. Next, retouch the grass and make the images blend in nicely using the Clone Stamp Tool (S).
Step 3
Next, erase the upper part of the grass image. Do this using the Pen Tool (P). After you cut out the trees and sky you will need to make the transition between sand and grass look more interesting. Use some brushes that are already installed in Photoshop and create an effect similar with the one below.
Step 4
Now you need to import another image. I chose the one photographed by Wayne Benedet. Before you import the image you will have to first cut the wind turbines using the Pen Tool (P). Here is a really great tutorial to show you how to use the Pen Tool.
After you finish cutting the turbines, position them into place. Next, burn the lower part of the turbines, sand and grass. The image indicates the places you need to use the Burn Tool (O).
Now duplicate the turbines using the Transform Tool (Command + T) and place the turbines on the sand, make them look like a shadow. Next, make a selection of the turbines and fill them with black. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give some blur to the layer. This makes it more like a shadow. The final step is to use the Warp setting under the Transform Tool and change the shape of the shadow as you want to make it more real.
Step 5
Next, place a balloon in the upper left side of the image. I used the image photographed by Nicolas Raymond. Before you are done, you will need to create a new layer over the balloon and you need to draw 2 spots over the balloon using a soft brush, like in the image below. Color codes are: #c101a4 and #0984bf. Set the layer to Multiply and Opacity to 50%.
Step 6
Now it is time to add in the woman image. The image I used was photographed by ~blacksockstock. Cut her out from the picture using the Pen Tool (P) and place her on the document you are working on.
Copy a piece of the wooden legs and place it below her hand. This will give the impression that the girl is supporting her body on that wood.
Step 7
Duplicate the girl layer and place it behind the original one. Desaturate it, set it to Hard Light and Opacity to 75%. In the end, use the Transform Tool (T) with Warp and Distort to make her look like in the image below. The original woman layer is invisible.
Activate the original woman's layer again so we can see her over the duplicate. Now using the Lasso Tool (L) make small selections of the woman's body and drag them around to give a break-apart effect. And one last thing is to make her hair wild. For this I have used a brush provided by gorjuss-stock. Same as you did with the girl, duplicate the hair, desaturate it, set it to Hard Light and Opacity of 75%.
Step 8
Create a new layer and spray some color over the image. As you can see, I have used the same blue I used for the balloon in the top right, the same pink over the girl and a few greens. After you finish applying the spray you need to set the layer to Multiply and Opacity to 60%. To choose these colors I used the Eye Picker Tool (I) and picked some colors from my document.
Step 9
In this step we will use the Brush Tool (B) and using a bubble brush I have provided in this tutorial folder available for the Psd Plus Members. You will need to spray a few bubbles like in the image below and set the layer to Soft Light.
Double-click the layer and in the Blending Options choose Drop Shadow, set it to Multiply with a 53 Opacity, 90 for the Angle, 299 Distance, 0 Spread and Size 13. This effect ads shadow on the grass and makes the bubbles look like they are floating.
Next duplicate the layer and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use a 0 angle and 15% Distance. In the end, set the layer blend mode to Normal and 60% Opacity.
Step 10
Now it's time to create the rain effect. For this you need to make a new layer on top of all the other layers and fill it with black. Then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use 86 for the Amount.
Next go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, chose a 50 degree angle, and 25 pixels distance. Then press Command + L to activate the Level Adjustment and set the Adjustment Shadow Input Level to 100. Then in the end Scale the "rain" layer and set it to Screen Mode.
Step 11
These are the final steps, where I will use some splat brushes behind the girl and also work some more on details.
Now you will have to save your work as a JPG, as from now on you will work only with the JPG image. Then as you open up the JPG you need to add the Adjustment settings represented in the image below. The project has been done with Photoshop CS4 and the tabs you see there might be new to you but they can be found in the Adjustments tab.
Step 12
Next up you will have to add in some more effects. For this you can use a plug-in called Topaz Labs. So with your JPG open, go to Filter > Topaz Labs, use the Vibrance Effect and Portrait Drama, these will make the image more interesting.
Step 13
At this point, your image should look like the one below. Now it is time to start taking this illustration in a dark direction.
Step 14
First of all you need to duplicate your current layer by pressing Command + J.
Step 15
Next go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and add 244 to the highlight input level.
Step 16
Next you need to create a new layer and name it "Color Fill 1." Next, go to Create a new fill or adjustment layer and choose Solid Color with this code #0f6465.
Step 17
Set the current layer style to Color Dodge, Opacity 65 and Fill to 37. After this flatten the image.
Step 18
Now you will need to set the Color Balance. Change only the Midtones levels 0, -33, 0.
Step 19
Go to Adjustments > Selective Color and use cyan +45% for Red, cyan -14% magenta -18% and yellow +21% for Neutrals, yellow +12% and black +14% for Blacks, yellow +74% for Whites, and then duplicate the layer.
Step 20
Next go to Filter > Render > Lightning Effect, and use the settings below, then flatten the layer and duplicate it again.
Step 21
Use the selective color settings again, but this time change only the Blacks to yellow -20% and black -11%.
Step 22
Make another Fill Layer as you did in Step 16 but use a different color #0b1a39.
Step 23
Set the layer style to Lighten. Flatten the layer, duplicate the background layer and set the duplicated layer's Fill to 47%.
Step 24
Again go to Filter > Render > Lightning Effect and use the settings shown below. Merge the layers and duplicate the layer again.
Step 25
Now it is time to apply another selective color to the layer. Chose Blacks and set yellow to -14% and black +17%.
Step 26
I must say that the result looks pretty amazing as it is now but I am looking for a darker look. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and use the settings below, then duplicate the layer.
Step 27
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and change the Master Saturation to -100.
Step 28
Go to Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels. Then set the Background layer Opacity to 96%, flatten the image, then duplicate the background, and set the Fill to 46%. Flatten the image and duplicate it again.
Step 29
Again you need to go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and for Neutrals use magenta +1%, yellow -6%, black +6% and for Blacks use yellow -9% and black +5%.
Step 30
Make another Fill Layer, this time use this code #39340c. Then set the layer to Lighten and Fill to 8%.
Conclusion
The final step is to flatten the image and use a final Selective Color set to Neutrals as magenta -7%, yellow -12%, and black +24%. Hope you learned something new and had fun. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )g_alex_stef March 2nd
simple but great tutorial
( )Jarrydlm March 2nd
Very very well thought out! Great tut!
( )kwer March 2nd
Nice tutorial – except of the rain part. It looks too obviously “photoshopped”, imho
( )PJB21 March 13th
if you create several layers of it, quite thinly spread rain and modify them, changing the direction, the blur, or possibly addingsome curve using the warp tool =)
( )lum0 March 2nd
ha…… now you know how to do it and how it works – so it is simple
( )_
i love this tutorial! very nice!
Mike March 2nd
Simply Brilliant
( )Josh March 2nd
Looks Great! I’ll be sure to check this out
( )insic March 2nd
wow! nice composition. i like it
( )sedreddin March 2nd
second to comment, yey!!!
but i think the colored version would be even better with a bit of contrast
a good tutorial though
( )Eric Shafer March 2nd
Great tutorial, but I almost like the color version a bit more than the black and white version.
( )sedreddin March 3rd
exactly man, that’s why what I said as well, somehow the latest version seems a bit unlively, isn’t it??
( )Michael Gilbert March 2nd
Not usually the person that leaves comments but i had to for this as this is probably one of the best tutorials i’ve ever seen! Amazing and a real big help! Even the presentation of the tutorial is spot on and a stunning end result! Great stuff. Congrats.
( )brent March 2nd
Very cool look you got going here! Like some others have said, I really like the color version as well. Out of curiosity, why is it that so many people put hot air balloons in their photo manipulations nowadays? They are a bit overused in my opinion.
( )saustomat March 2nd
makyus ! / wonderful !
( )Saro March 2nd
Great tutorial. But better use a rain stock. Making it by a filter looks lame (in colour).
Greets
( )robj March 2nd
Amazing! I love it.
( )John Zimbob March 2nd
my guess is that ppl are putting lots of air balloons in pictures because they are more colorful than airplanes and not seen nearly as often, and they feel that the space would be too empty without something hanging around up there. That and everyone else is doing it XD. Great tutorial, i’m also on the color version bandwagon but people can make that judgement themselves, thanks for going all the way through with it
( )bodhi March 2nd
Thanks PSDTUTS!!!
( )Humphrey March 2nd
What’s up with the vectortuts and aetuts website?! Don’t tell me people got greedy and only paying to access them now… I said DON’T!!!
( )Tim March 2nd
I can’t access vectortuts… doesn’t matter the link or the article… Do people get banned from that site? If that’s the case, I swear I didn’t misbehave and it’s got to be a mistake.
( )Can someone help me?
giackop March 2nd
well done const!! an amazing tut!!
( )Eric Shafer March 2nd
Featured here: http://www.presidiacreative.com/web-picks-14/
( )Joop March 2nd
So after stitching some photos together, you perform an insanely weird method of adjusting the lighting and colors, then buy a $50 plugin only to apply an adjustment preset, then adjust and re-adjust the colors in a way that makes no sense again, only to completely desaturate the photo and add a blue hue? What? While I’ve never posted negative critique here before, I have to say that aside from an interesting looking composition, these steps won’t teach anyone anything, and the color correction that happens here is bizzarely random, and should not be followed by anyone wanting to learn compositing.
( )Henk March 6th
You are absolutely right! The colors in the final result are looking screwed up. The process doesn’t make sense at all. Looks more like a cheap solution because you couldn’t find a decent colorscheme.
Anyways, the rest of the tutorial is pretty good.
( )Ken April 25th
agree with the comments that his is better in color, and clearly, the tutorial is not very tight, and tends to meander . Even with that, this is an excellent tutorial. And I say a deep thank you to the author.
( )Collin July 28th
This is a great tutorial, but I will have to agree with the above.
( )Constantin Potorac March 2nd
wow…
thank you for the feature… much appreciated
( )Mark March 2nd
nice effect
( )sdrakulich March 2nd
simply wonderful!
( )Patrick March 2nd
Gotta say it looks better in colour but amazing job
( )Tom H March 2nd
I LOVE this!!
I love the noise + motion blur effect you used to simulate rain – it is very effective.
Not many tutorials for a while, but this one was worth waiting for.
( )Thanks so much!
IPOX studios March 2nd
I like the look of the image on Step 24, but this is a very inspiring tutorial. Makes me wanna dig into my images and create something cool. Thanks for sharing!
( )Simon Vansintjan March 2nd
This is a great tutorial, but like some of the other commenters have added, I like the high contrast color version better.
Thanks though!
( )Duluoz March 2nd
The end result is fine – but there are SOOOOO many unnecessary steps here to achieve the end result. You could have skipped all the steps in regards to lighting effects and color effects and gone straight to b/w adjustment filter with a tint and adjust the curves to desired tonality.
( )SaphireRed March 2nd
Duluoz is right. Doesn’t look like much thought went into the color adjustments, more like playing around, then he decided to desaturate it. There’s no real meaning behind what’s going on. The step with the retail plugin is quite unnecessary too. You don’t need to pay to reproduce that result, especially when it gets turned to monotone. But nice comp.
( )Qiming March 2nd
Wow, the end result is great, fabulous
( )Timothy March 2nd
That’s pretty cool
( )Johnson Koh March 2nd
It’s kinda eerie but still.. Great Effect!
( )Same as sedreddin above, I like the colored version more
Corey Marshall March 3rd
yay, this is the type of tutorial I started coming to PSDTuts for. Maybe the change to tutsplus has made things better again.
( )Constantin Potorac March 3rd
( )ariyo March 3rd
iLuv it…
( )freshcut March 3rd
wow! amazing tut! thx
( )Jeka March 3rd
really good work, the rain bothers me a little. it’s a little flat. at times i liked this work without it. It’s a nice element but i think it would be better if it was worked in to it a little different. Maybe a cloud that rains only on the girls area. That would ad some deep meaning to it also.
tell me what you think.
( )ThunderHeart March 3rd
30 steps to make a darker surrealistic illustration … !?.Great … just great.Whats next … 75 steps convert it to color again.
( )Constantin Potorac March 3rd
Well I could have made it smaller but I did the best I could to make it detailed so that anyone can understand
( )Bruno March 3rd
amazing tut!
( )tobias March 3rd
Greta Tutorials .. short question .. why do you flatten the images at all instead of jusing Adjustment Layers .. so maybe you can go back ??
cheers Tobias
( )TopFlySecurity March 3rd
this is amazing picture.. great tut
( )Toma Alin Gabriel March 3rd
Glad you like it, will come more tutorials soon
( )Tom Ross March 3rd
Yeah I agree with some of the previous comments about unnecessary steps. The color adjustments seemed a little obsolete after he grayscaled the image. Also the cloning of the grass image is a little pointless when all the trees etc… aren’t in the final image. I appreciate that I myself play around with this stuff and don’t know exactly how it will always turn out, but leaving these steps out of the tutorial would make it more concise and easier to follow.
( )hati March 3rd
i think there are a lot of unnecessary steps. Looks like you’ve started to put images together without a concrete goal!
( )anonymous March 3rd
Really nice picture i’m wondering how to make those menu’s transparent…..
Grtzz
( )Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides March 3rd
this is so cool!
( )Seabass March 3rd
I like the finished picture alot (but maybe even more a couple of steps before it went B/W). But being a designer, no matter how good or bad at it I am, I feel this tutorial does nothing to help interested people how to actually get a good foundation for working with images. Your steps are well described but over worked. It kind of feels like you made the tutorial while creating the image in the first place. I could scrap a bunch of steps and not buy the plugin and just work with the tools in photoshop, which is always the better way to go if you actually want to live off of your creativity or knowledge of photoshop and the techniques involved. Also, there is another way to go if anybody wants their images to look like this (the dark effect) – buy Adobe Lightroom and click ONE button.
Nice work though, keep at it!
( )servant March 3rd
I also agree that there were some unnecessary steps.
( )Those clouds are way too bright for a rainy day/night effect. ?
Whats with the bubbles? Ruining the whole picture imo.
I like the girl but with a different background it would be a much better image.
tibô March 4th
Jeezuz dude.
( )You’re complaining about the colour of clouds during rain in a surreal composition.
wth ? Make it yourself. Great rsult with fun experimentation.
Keep it up Constantin o/
Constantin Potorac March 4th
FL March 13th
I agree
It’s a surreal think so wth if the clouds are too bright
i like it 
Sean March 3rd
I am an After Effects guy trying to learn PS. This was my first tutorial here….and not only did I learn A TON….but my final product looks GREAT! Thanks for the easy-to-follow tutorial! AMAZING! Thanks!
( )Sean March 3rd
@servant and others….
The entire concept of this picture is abstract. They way the rain looks…the balloon, the way the cloud looks with the rain….the girl with her dress breaking apart and ghostly figure behind. Trying to say it “looks a certain way” and using this to criticize it is simply bizarre. The picture is not supposed to look REAL. Good grief!!!
( )oskar March 3rd
Perfect!
( )Devin Rajaram March 3rd
very nice tutorial
( )OllieJ March 3rd
Hmmm….there are number of comments here that give me the impression that people have forgotten that creativity is stifled by always having a specific goal or destination that you’re trying to reach. Obviously the creator of this tut was EXPERIMENTING and he came up with a lot of things in the process. Yes, the final result may not be as stellar as what he achieved prior to the end, (yes, I’m on the color bandwagon) but he still created a nice piece.
Also, instead of ripping on the guy for “unnecessary steps”, offer constructive criticism in the form of shortcuts that maybe he hasn’t learned yet. Honestly, how many of you used to do really complex selections and cut-outs using the pen tool before becoming aware of the alpha channels and masks? Stop being so pretentious and deriding people for not having learned certain shortcuts yet.
Here’s an even better idea: re-submit a similar tutorial utilising the shortcuts/methods you would have used instead, that way we can all benefit.
( )Constantin Potorac March 4th
thanks
( )Wouter March 4th
Cool tutorial.. tried it and it was extremely fun to do
( )And nice to get inspired!
Here’s my result, I didn’t finish it completely because I liked it this way:
http://i39.tinypic.com/s6hgd3.png
cippo March 4th
too much steps of color correction for a gray scale image
( )Daniel March 4th
Wow, a big thank you for this! This is amazing!
( )Roberto Blake March 4th
That was an amazing composition, and your break down on the steps through this tutorial were excellent, (rather too many steps than you skip over something that “seems” simple enough). This is a great example of composition and photo-manipulation using various techniques.
( )thunder March 4th
nice tutorial, big thanks.
but wind blows from left to right, rain falls from right to left. schoud be the same direction.
( )tym0n March 5th
ye I agree – the rain direction is wrong…. but great tut, thanks
( )Jake March 4th
hey i think Constantin Potorac does some of the best and easy to do tuts for psd tuts thanks!
( )Constantin Potorac March 5th
wow… much appreciated. Thanks!
( )ZaFaR March 4th
thank you for this!
( )EdpeppeRs March 5th
fantastic to me! great job!
( )Constantin Potorac March 5th
Thank you!
( )Bagus Zen March 5th
Nice tutorial…I like it
( )Juan March 5th
this is a really piece of art
( )thanks for the tutorial
yankee March 5th
Thanks so much for your tutorial !This is very nice!
( )Ramon March 6th
And THIS is good
( )Michael March 6th
Almost a shame to lose the colouring .. beautiful effects thou .. thanks for sharing
( )JakeGy March 6th
Way too much color corrections made… There’s no need to do so, so why bother?
( )Constantin Potorac March 7th
Let’s just say the technique shown is what it is important.
( )Www.dev.My March 6th
This tutorial is really good and amazing.
( )SawHtoo March 6th
wow! great tutorial. love it.
( )Fabiano March 9th
The rain direction is wrong! :S It Should be the same direction of the girl hair.
( )animan March 10th
this is absolutely beautiful. what a concept!
( )ignore those people who hated on the rain, it’s suppose to be surreal. awesome work.
Amby March 10th
Jeez, looks like a movie wallpaper!
( )It looks great but I prefer mine with color
Al Mansur March 11th
Thnx for d’tuts, its great and useful for me..keep doing the good job.
( )Michael March 12th
too coplex for me….
( )Alan March 12th
I think this is a wonderful artistic expression, and the tutorial gives us the tools to do the same. Although I certainly wouldn’t want to re-create this same image and follow these steps exactly.
( )milivista March 12th
great tutorial! thanks
( )Constantin Potorac March 13th
For those that still have problems with the tutorial you should visit the video tutorial. Gavin has done a great job and made this really easy.
( )Saif March 13th
that’s a live style, it’s brilliant!!
( )Alphadan March 15th
What’s the point of STEP 8 if you’re going to end up with a b/w image?
( )Constantin Potorac March 16th
Actually the point of that is simple… when I am showing you some new steps that dramatically changes the illustration that is not necessary to do, you can stop at that point if you like. Now about the colors that we add and about the Topaz settings, they are still visible and the illustration would not look the same without those settings.
( )Toma Alin Gabriel March 15th
At the end of this tutorial, we have the picture w/b, and as you see looks very good, but we have a color version, I wanted particularly to do so, to see the differences, to compare… this is the poin.
( )professional photo retouching March 21st
really nice result in this tutorial!
( )rengurase March 26th
this site is so cool.. i’m a first-timer with psd, and i admit i need to have full hands on tutorials so that i can improve my outputs..(and my boss will be proud of me).. thanks so much!
( )suqlain March 26th
very nice but i think one missing adjustment which is the rain direction
( )super work
Korand March 26th
thanks a lot for this nice tut
( )Rakesh March 27th
thnks a ton for the wonderful tut!!:)
( )Ranjeet singh March 29th
It’s good effect
( )shakti April 1st
wow…is so cool. . keren pisan uey . . .
( )David B April 3rd
Hi what gave you the inspiration to make this? And how did you think about in playing the image to every bit of detail. I love the design and want to design like this its just I need to have more inspiration I know how though? Any thoughts? Also what grid or type or spacing did you use to determine how far apart each duplicate image was
( )Philip Wallage April 4th
Hey m8, great job on the tutorial. Really nice composition and well writen.
Personally, i would’ve taken the turbines down a bit.
They do stand out a bit in the final image.
But that’s prolly my opinion. Once again, great job and keep up the good work.
Regards,
( )Phil
Dude April 5th
What was the point of giving it all that color work and then just taking all the color away? >_> Jeez. Almost broke my heart.
( )madison April 6th
simply magnificent!
( )underground design April 8th
not bad!
( )do anyone know were i can get topaz serials?
Writersbloc April 8th
What am I missing, you’re not really suggesting we all go download a $40 HDR plug-in are you?
( )underground design April 9th
well, i don’t like paying big companies money for such a shit!
( )Why should i pay 40$ for something that i could get for FREE?
Fer April 9th
Making it short: I like it both ways, B/W and color, they serve different purposes. And right now I really wanna buy Topaz, but I know I won’t, I just dont believe in internet shopping *people gasp*
To conclude, it’s a very nice tutorial, I’ve been wondering how some pics look that way, it’s not exactly B/W and it appears like the picture has been taken in Venus or something, lol that’s silly I know. Thanks for sharing it.
( )huno April 9th
great tuto , realy nice and clear , i appreciate.
( )jessa April 12th
great.tnx
( )Tony April 22nd
Genius!
Thanks.
( )Kovi April 23rd
amazing
( )huwaw69 May 21st
this is a great image combination and the result is really spectacular
( )BLeeDI' June 19th
Its Very Nice , I like It (L)
( )Marcio June 27th
Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( )Shaii June 28th
This is a fantastic tutorial! There were alot of steps, but the outcome was worth it. I’m such a Photoshop noob, so it’s taught me heaps of new things! Thankyou, keep up the awesome work, ^_^
( )Calgary Graphic Design July 10th
Very inspirational. Now to invent the 36hr day so I can get something like this done..!
( )Landscape Photography July 13th
Nice result, informative tut… there does seem like way too many colour adjustments but I guess it gets the point across.
( )Karkabos August 4th
great tut:)
( )