Hey People!

This was taken from “icanbecreative.com”

enjoy!!
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This is a very detailed and step by step tutorial for creating an Vector based design composition in Photoshop, with great aesthetics and almost flawless cohesion of elements.

In this tutorial we’ll be walking through the process of creating a Girl with a Raven Composition using some awesome techniques, you’ll learn loads of great tricks in this tutorial. If you want to take your creative composition skills to the next level, this Photoshop tutorial is perfect for you. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Details

• Estimated Completion Time: 6 hours
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Program: Photoshop, Illustrator

What we’ll need:

• Female Model
• Crow
• Silhouette of Crows
• Butterfly 1
• Butterflies
• Rose 1
• Rose 2
• Rose 3
• Leaves
• Poinsettia Leaf
• Paper Texture 1
• Paper Texture 2
• Dirt Texture
• Splatter and Drips Brushes
• Splatter Brushes
• Ink Scribbles Brushes
• Feather Brushes
• Watercolors Brushes
• Brush Strokes

Step 1

We need to make outlines from our main subjects, a girl and a crow. I’m using Illustrator here, you also can use the Pen Tool in Photoshop. Start with new blank document in Illustrator, A4 or higher. Place the girl image to the blank document.

Step 2

Go to menu Window > Transparency. Set the Opacity to 40% to make the image less visible.

Step 3

Then go to Menu > Brushes to open the Brushes window. Open brush library and select the Artistic Ink.

Step 4

We’ll use the Tapered Stroke brush to make outlines later. You can use your own alternative sharp brushes collection if you want.

Step 5

Make a new layer, set Fill to None and Stroke to Black. Select Pen Tool and start to make line around her head. Don’t forget to activate the Tapered Stroke with 0.25pt weight.

Step 6

We don’t make a continuous path from the first point until the closing point. Just make the outline one by one for each path and let it open without closing it. This will make the curve have a sharp point in each start and end point.

Step 7

Let’s continue to make outline around the girl until we got the basic shape of her head, a slight of her neck and shoulder.

Step 8

Make the outline of her eyes, nose and lips too. We need to fill her eyes and nose shape with solid black color. See the picture for this explanation.

Step 9

Then we need to make some details for her hair. Use Tapered Stroke with 0.15pt weight for thinner line.

Step 10

Create more lines for her hair details. Try to have more various curves to show the flow of her hair.

Step 11

Now, we’ll make the outline for the crow like in our previous steps. Actually what we want to have is the basic shape of the crow, you can go more with line details if you want.

Step 12

Hide the source image layer and you can see your outlines right now. Don’t worry about the size dimension of the girl and the crow. We can transform them when composing later. Try to group the girl and the crow individually and don’t forget to save. Just let this document open and now we’re moving to Photoshop.

Step 13

Open Photoshop and load the girl image. Isolate it using Channels Masking. Duplicate the one with highest contrast among all, we’re duplicating the Blue channel here. Use Dodge and Burn to isolate the positive and negative area. After that, load the selection of Blue copy channel and inverse it and you’ll get a selection of the girl without background. You also can use manual masking with Pen Tool or Hard Brush.

Step 14

Create a new blank document, A4 or higher. Working with a bigger dimension will help you to add more details. Fill the document background with soft cream color and place the selection of the girl into this new document. Try to erase some part of her body using masking. We’ll focus working on her head and shoulder area.

Step 15

Then open and isolate the crow image using masking. Resize and place it behind the girl.

Step 16

Back to Illustrator, copy the girl outline first then paste it into Photoshop as a rasterized object, make sure the outlines fit the girl image. Do the same steps for the crow outline.

Step 17

We’ll add more details on the girl’s face. Pick Hard Round or Pencil tool with 2-3pt weight and let’s start drawing some sketchy lines. The red circles are the example guides of the area that we want to draw. But you can explore more to give details in other area outside the red circles.

Step 18

From this step and next we’ll be playing a lot with brushes, blending modes and textures. You can download them from any sites, such asDeviant Art or other sites.

Merge the girl outline with the girl image, and then change the blending mode into Darken or Darker Color with 90% opacity. Load some splatter and watercolor brushes, make a new masking and try to erase some parts using these brushes.

Step 19

We’ll make the girl more like an illustration by rebrushing her face. Make a new layer, pick Soft Round brush with 20% opacity and 30% flow, use Eyedropper tool to select similar color from her skin then start to rebrushing it slowly around.

Step 20

Next, we’ll make the image more like an illustration by adding more contrast and changing it into a soft and “pale” tone. Make New Curve Adjustment layer, in RGB channel make 2 points (see image below), the first point set below around Output: 44 – Input: 51 and the second one above around Output: 208 – Input: 185, then in Blue channel make 2 points again, first below Output: 67 – Input:72 and second above Output:218 – Input: 214. Don’t forget to make a clipping mask of the Curve Adjustment layer. Next make a New Selective Color Adjustment, in Colors option choose Reds and reduce Black point to -20%, then choose Whites and add Yellow to +12%, Black -3%, then choose Neutrals, reduce the Yellow to -13%, Black -3% and last choose Blacks, reduce Yellow to -15%, add Black +10%. Make sure the Method: Absolute is selected. Make sure the Selective Color adjustment layer is in clipping mask above the Curve.

Those variables are just examples of my Curve and Selective Color adjustment tones, you can explore and try by your own adjustments. In the next steps, you can experiment the tone by yourself without any worry about the variables.

Step 21

We’ll change the color of the girl’s hair to maroon, make New Solid Color adjustment, pick dark red color and change the blending mode to Multiply. You can see the arrangement of the adjustment layers in image below.

Step 22

Next we’ll add blood around the girl face. Load and select the splatter brushes, make a new layer and add some splatters around her face and hair. Set the layer’s blending mode to Multiply. While using the brushes you can erase some parts that you don’t like, just playing with them and be creative to achieve what you want.

Step 23

Choose the splatter brush with some long thin splashes to add more depth and bold blood effects in some parts.

Step 24

Now, we’ll work with the crow image, repeat the same steps as you performed with the girl. Try to experiment with a combination of adjustment layers and variables, each images won’t have same treatments to get same color tones.

Step 25

Add some sketchy and rough lines in some parts to give more illustrative effects.

Step 26

Select some watercolor and splatter brushes, erase some parts with masking.

Step 27

Next, we need some objects for decorations, we’ll use rose to give “sweet and strong” feel. Isolate the rose image and flip it place behind the girl’s head.

Step 28

Use the splatter brush to make it like a rusty rose, darken it a bit and add some more contrast.

Step 29

Duplicate the rose twice and transform each of them with different dimensions. Arrange them behind the girl.

Step 30

Then we’ll add leaves as decoration, remove the white background, rotate it 180 degree and place below the girl’s neck.

Step 31

Keep playing with the colors, layer adjustments and blending modes. Use some variations blending mode, such as Multiply, Darken, Soft Light and Overlay. You also can increase and the decrease the transparency of the objects by changing the Opacity value.

Step 32

Open a different leaf stock, duplicate it, change the color tones to blue and place them around the previous existing ones.

Step 33

Open the black rose image, duplicate and set it like what we did in our previous steps. But in this step, we’ll use Exclusion as the blending mode to make them less visible.

Step 34

Next, also add some black roses, around the red rose; behind the crow and around the beak, you can play with transparency here. See the image below.

Step 35

We’ll add more sharp objects, open the thorn image. Isolate and place it, you can erase the unused parts, we don’t need to use all of the thorns. Duplicate with different dimension and direction. Place the thorns duplication near the roses and leaves.

Step 36

Add the complexity with more complex object. We’ll use the silhouette of crows and branches image from Stockxchng.

Step 37

Then, we’ll add different kind of roses, darker and sharper than the previous ones.

Step 38

Open the butterflies images, select some of them. Isolate and readjust contrast and color. Place and arrange them in the flying state as if they’re flying away from the roses and the crow except the one below, we’ll place a text later there.

Step 39

This step is the fun part of the tutorial, you can use traditional way to make sketch and doodle using pencil or pen and then scan them back to the computer and we’ll process them digitally. This part is optional, if you don’t like traditional way, you can just directly make some doodles in Photoshop.

Step 40

After scanning your doodle, process them digitally, add more black and white contrast level, then make a selection using Channels masking. You can use different blending mode and colors for your doodles.

Step 41

Use some bright and soft colors for your doodles and make some of them a little bit transparent.

Step 42

Load ink scribbles brushes, we’ll use the brushes to add “scratch” effects to the image, combine these brushes with colors and blending mode. You also can make a temporary color palette in new blank canvas and use Eyedropper tool to pick them when you need it. This palette will really helps while working with similar color tones.

Step 43

Add more rough and grungy details, use some various splatter brushes with Overlay and Darken blending mode.

Step 44

Add more drips below the girl’s neck, some big strokes and tea stains effect also can be added. Use some various shape of brushes to make the image has more texture.

Step 45

Next, we’ll add more details, use Hard Round brush around 3pt weight and make some random lines across the image with different colors.

Step 46

We’ll add bigger sharp lines, make new layer, set the Hard Brush around 15pt weight. Select Pen Tool and make a straight line across the girl and the rose. Right click and select Stroke Path, activate Simulate Pressure. You can make other lines with different brush size and colors.

Step 47

Now, let’s playing with shape and outlines again, you can use Illustrator to make these shapes or straightly using Photoshop. Add them to the image with soft colors.

Step 48

Next, we’ll make new triangle brush using Pen Tool. Firstly, make a new layer, choose Pen Tool, make random triangle paths then right click choose Make Selection… Fill the Feather Radius with 0 pixels. Then fill the selection with black color, after that go to Edit menu and select Define Brush Preset. Enter your brush name and now it will appear automatically in your current brush library.

Step 49

Select the triangles brush, then go to Window menu and choose Brushes. Activate Scattering mode and you can control some options there. Then make a new layer, and start to brushing around to make scattering effects.

Step 50

Next, we want to add some flying feathers, you can use feather stock images or brushes. Place some different feathers with various angle and size.

Step 51

We need to make movement and blurry effects to the feathers. Make a selection around the feathers, right click and choose Feather. Input the value around 20-30 pixels. Then go to Filter > Blur. You can use Gaussian blur to make an out of focus blur effect and Motion blur to make a blur with movement direction. If you want to make certain area blurry you can use Blur tool manually.

Step 52

Next, make a new layer behind all the objects, pick Soft Round brush with black color and set the blending mode to Multiply. Start to make some shadows behind.

Step 53

Add some soft transparent circles in the background.

Step 54

We’ll add more dirty looks on the image. Add more transparent splatter above the objects.

Step 55

Now let’s focus with the background, combine some dirt and grunge paper textures. Combine and play with the blending mode. Erase some unused area using masking.

Step 56

Add the butterflies tracks using Soft Round brush and Scattering effect.

Step 57

Select the butterfly tracks layer, right click and choose Blending Options. Activate the Outer Glow option and choose Hard Light as the blend mode. This will make shiny effects.

Step 58

We’ll add more touch by giving more shadow and highlight area. Create new layer above all and activate option “Fill with Overlay-neutral color” with 50% opacity. Use white color to make highlight and use black to make shadow. This step is a Dodge and Burn method without damaging the image.

Step 59

Make new layer, use Soft Round brush and set the layer’s blending mode to Hard Light with 80% opacity. Choose soft and bright color, such as baby pink or soft violet for giving soft light effects.

Step 60

Above all of the layers make new color adjustment layers, such as Color Balance, Curve or Selective Color. Combine them and make the image a little bit reddish to make a “sweet” atmosphere.

Step 61

Okay, for final step we need to flatten the layers into a new layer on top. Use Command/Ctrl + Option + Shift +E then select the layer go to Filter >| Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Fill Amount with 75%, Radius 1.0 and Threshold 0. You can increase and decrease the value depends on how much you want to make the image sharpen.

Final Image

Conclusion

This tutorial went over many techniques for creating a visually appealing composition. Don’t forget to download the free full premium .psd file. Remember, the only limit is your imagination, so don’t hold back!

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About the Author: Alex Roman

My name is Roman Alexandru, I’m a graphic/web designer from Bucharest, Romania and I’m the owner of icanbeCreative Media. I hope we can share a lot of informations, tips&tricks and ideas through this website. Follow me on Twitter.

Print in Motion 2011 from Print on Vimeo.

After a year hiatus, Print in Motion—Print magazine’s only competition devoted entirely to motion graphics—is back and better than ever. And to announce this year’s glorious return, we invited L.A.-based filmmaker (and one of our very own Imprint stars) Trevor Tuttle, to create this year’s promo spot. And don’t forget to enter the competition.

Tutorial by Wojciech Pijecki

Taken from psd.tutsplus.com
Today I’ll take you through the creative process of making intriguing light effects and applying them in your work. This is more a process description of making this illustration, than a detailed step by step how to. I’ll give you some good guidance on how to deal with an illustration like this and cover the overall workflow. Let’s get started!

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.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 45 minutes

Preparation

This is an advanced piece, I mean there are no hard to do techniques, but this kind of work requires a lot of good taste, some color experience and casting shadows knowledge. So I do not recommend this tutorial for beginners. I’ll skip basic pointers and go straight to the main point. Basically, I want you to get the idea of how to create an illustration like this and follow your own way with these effects.

Before we start, I wanted to show you how the concept changed during the whole session:

1. This first image below is the main concept, that I planned. It’s the first idea that came to my head: an energy ball with lots of shine lines around it.
2. While searching images I accidentally found an image of a man in a very cool position, which came from 123rf.com, so I thought this must be used here. So I put him there and wanted to make an illusion that this man is creating all the energy.
3. The first plans were done and I started to work on this project. During the process this concept somehow lacked dynamics, so I decided to rotate the whole piece.
4. Finally, when I had no idea how this energy ball could look like, and this took me some time before I came up with the final idea, I rejected the ball and went into energy touch only for this man.

So you see each project changes when you work on it, so before you get into this tutorial remember to work flexible, not everything needs to look the same way as you planned. Take your time and use your imagination.

Step 1

Before we start, you need to know that the shining effects work best on a black background. The darker the background is, the more visible and contrasted shine you will achieve. So I started with a black background of the canvas around 900px by 1100px (this should work for you fine).

Step 2

Now is the first hard part, searching for the right image. I know many people are unhappy with buying pictures, but well, the truth is: if you want good quality, you need to pay for it. I’ve nothing against free stock photos, if you have the time to search for a good image among mixed quality free pictures it’s OK.

Anyway, if you have the right image, then extract the person (or object) from the image of your choice. The biggest problem of all cut-outs is always the hair. But, as you can see in the image below, I had a short haired man. In this case I simply used the Pen Tool to deal with short hair. And because we have a black background in our main project document, we can easily blend this black hair with the background. To do this I used the Burn Tool with Range set to Midtones and burned the hair edges a little.

Step 3

Now, in the Layers Palette I added two adjustment layers: Levels and Gradient Map to make a better blending between this person and the black background. I used a gradient from black to white and set the Gradient Map layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light, then lowered the Opacity just a touch.

Step 4

OK, next we’ll create ground. I used a Gradient Tool and on a new layer created a radial gradient from white to transparent (as you see in the first picture below). Then this big white dot needed some perspective, so here I hit Command + T to Distort (second image below).

The dot was blurred using Gaussian Blur at around 40 pixel Radius. Then I duplicated this blurred dot, stretched it a little bit (Command + T) and made two more copies to enhance the ground effect. If necessary, the opacities of these ground layers can be lowered just a touch. It means that this surface shouldn’t be too bright, as this will kinda destroy the concept of having the whole background black.

Step 5

Now, as you can see in the first image below, I started adding shadows under the shoes. It’s not suppose to be great and totally pimped shadow. I just needed to make an accent that this man is standing on something. This always works pretty well, as you start to see how your illustration is shaping up, even thought the shade will change, it’s good to have it sketched.

To do the shadow I used a black brush with Flow set to 2% and Hardness to 0%, then I slowly started creating it click by click (don’t hold the left mouse button while doing this, as you may make a very ugly kind of shadow that way). Individual brush clicks did the job just fine.

Now let’s focus on the second image below. Something didn’t work for me in this piece, so I decided to add the first dynamic touch to this illustration, so I selected all the layers and used Command + T to rotate them at a small angle (for now it looked kinda like a slip).

Step 6

I zoomed out and positioned this man and ground to the right. I kinda wanted to avoid the center focus of illustration. Sometimes it’s good to move the main object/person to the side, looks more dynamic and original to me.

OK, then I decided that this position works perfectly for this piece and started touching up shadows. Looking at this man it’s visible that few sources of light hit him (for example his left hand shows that light reaches it from left and right). So in this case I decided to give this man a soft shadow, only underneath him by using the same technique as previously.

I only want you to pay attention to his shoes which are the closest objects to the ground. Shoes stick to the surface, this means they need more shadow around them. The farther the objects are from the ground, the more they start to disappear (and the shadow starts to soften, then slowly vanish).

Step 7

As I was watching my illustration now, I felt like there are some spots that are too bright, so I used the Burn Tool to enhance the shade effect of the shoes. I also did some blending with the hand, as It seemed too bright on the left side.

Step 8

Finally this man is ready. Now this illustration needs to look more like one piece. So I did some overall color adjusting. I added a Curves adjustment layer and then a Gradient Map with a Violet to Orange gradient (picked from standard presets). Then I lowered the Opacity of the Gradient Map to around 25-30% and changed its Blending Mode to Soft Light. Both adjustment layers were set up to give this illustration a yellowish touch (as I experimented and liked it).

Step 9

Now it looks like this man really belongs to this place, and that’s the thing we want. Next, I started all the light tricks.

Here is something abstract that I prepared for this piece. So I opened these lights and dragged them into the project while changing its Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. It was put above all layers just not to get colorized by two previous adjustment layers.

Now look at the process. As I already had these abstract lights, I took the Burn Tool (Midtones) and burned parts of this piece that I wanted to get rid of (2nd image below). Then many less of these lines lasted, so I used a hard Eraser Tool to erase the rest of the disturbing lines, which I didn’t want to see here (3rd image below). Finally I added Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and adjusted this color exactly for these three main lines (blue, green and yellow). I worked to achieve cool, bright coloring for these lines.

This can be done for each line separately, but before that they need to be cut out into new layers.

Step 10

As I said, if you don’t have some color experience, this tutorial will be difficult for you to follow. Now is the further part when I repeated the same process as in the previous step. I created, erased, separated new lines and added various colors.

Step 11

I was still into adding color light lines, and I want to show you another example of flexible work. During this process I had many ideas of how to connect and set these lines.

First I thought maybe a good idea would be to cross them and make them in different positions (1st image below). This didn’t work out and I decided to make all the lines almost parallel (2nd image below). So I made it, and for some variation I added one green line that kinda crossed the space, but it gave some depth to the illustration so I left it be.

Step 12

Now I added some more brightness in places indicated below using soft white brush. The new layer was created below the lines layers, as these lines are half transparent (cause of the linear dodge mode), so everything put below these lines is visible.

Step 13

I played around with these lines and achieved some cool results (first image below). All done the same way as I showed previously.

Next I felt like this piece needs some more details going all around it and filling in some blanks. You can find some similar brushes to the ones I used for this. Experiment with various brushes in this step.

I picked one my grungy splatter brushes. Then found a nice dark color (coming from the color that I used in light lines – in my case it happened to be blue) and made a brush mark (second image below). Then I brought up the selection of this brush mark and contracted it by 2 pixels by going to Select > Modify > Contract (third image below). Next I hit Delete to get rid of the center brush part (forth image below). Then I positioned it near a light blue line.

Step 14

Now as I had this brush mark placed correctly, I used a soft eraser and erased disturbing parts. Then switching between the Burn Tool (Midtones) and Dodge Tool (Highlights) I pimped out selected dark spots of this brush mark.

When using the Burn Tool you actually darken the spot. When using the Dodge Tool, you brighten it up. So I was very careful in this step, a small overdo can destroy the idea.

So this process is just to show you how it works, the brush mark in the first three images below are just an example. In the forth image below you can see the brushes that I used originally.

Step 15

By the way we’re still with these brushes, pay attention to the little pieces above the man’s head (first image below) and the ones near his leg (second image below). Yes, they were made the same way as previously. To do this you can even use some splatter brushes and follow the same process.

Also pay attention to the second image below. I indicated a spot that points to shadow. This shadow made an illusion that these little pieces are in the air. So if you get more small pieces around the ground, you can cast some shadows underneath them (but on the ground) and this will give your effects more depth.

Step 16

Next to to add some sparkle to this illustration I decided to use a picture of sky and cut the sun out of it. Then I desaturated this piece (second image below) and set its Blending Mode to Linear Dodge and I erased all the unnecessary parts around this sun (with the Eraser Tool). I also brought up the Levels (Command + L) and enhanced the contrast. Then I used Burn Tool (Midtones) to enhance the light effect and darken the rays (fourth image below). Finally, I colored this sun using Hue/Saturation and Color Balance, I made it green and then gave it a touch of yellow.

Step 17

The sun was resized down to a very small size, and at this size it completely stops being recognizable as a shining sun. Now it’s just a shining spot. I duplicated it many times and placed it in various spots. By the way, I changed the color when it was necessary to make these lights fit. To change colors I followed similar steps as before (basically Hue/Saturation and when the tone was not fully satisfying I pimped it with Color Balance).

Step 18

Moving forward I thought I’d use these nice clouds of this sky to make some dust. So I opened the image and desaturated it. Then (as previously) I used Levels (Command + L) to make the clouds stand out. Next, I used a soft Eraser and got rid of unwanted parts (fifth image below). Finally, I grabbed Burn Tool (Midtones) and made some touch-ups to these clouds. I kinda separated them and brought them up more.

Step 19

I named these clouds “Dust” and changed the layer’s Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. Then rotated them and placed them towards the lines direction (as you can see in the image below).

I made a small comparison below, the whole illustration got a little bit smoother when I added this dust.

Step 20

So the illustration was almost finished, but the light lines were still not blended enough with the model. I hit Command + A to select the whole canvas, and then Command + Shift + C (copy merged) and Command + V (paste). This way I made a duplicate of the whole image and put it on top of all the layers.

Then while having this image selected, I went to Filter > Liquify and as you can see in the first image below, I did some stretching using the Forward Warp Tool (in Liquify filter). In the second image below you can see how smooth and nice these lines were blended.

Step 21

As the final touch I wanted to give this piece a little more realism, so I casted light reflections on this man’s clothes and skin. Each arrow below has the color of the nearest line. For example, the first orange arrow point of the shirt spot which should be affected by the orange light line. So I gave an orange color to this spot, and so on with the others.

To do that I made a new layer with the Blending Mode set to Color (Soft Light in some cases works fine also), then I used a very soft brush with proper color, and Voilà!

Conclusion

In the end you can give it a nice overall sharpen using highpass filter, this will bring even more quality to your work. So I hope you liked this piece, thanks for reading. The main purpose of this tutorial was to show you a good direction in how to use these effects. So be creative and try to discover your way of using them.

You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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Hope you enjoyed this post!!

I’ll try to put up some more!

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