I LOVE TO DESIGN

Below is a peek at what we’ll be creating in this tutorial.

Let’s begin! First off, I decide on a subject matter, theme, or general idea. After thinking about it a little, I’ve decided I want this piece to include elephants and a very stark black and what color palette. Why elephants and why black and white you might ask? There’s no particular reason other than elephants have a very interesting look, and I love B&W art. There are no rules to this process so you may have a completely different theme in mind for your piece.

Step 1

I want to start with a nice background texture. Maybe some old paper. I think a stained paper would compliment the piece and give it a little age. After some searching I found a nice texture that isn’t too overwhelming in the Subtle Grunge Texture Vol 1 pack here at WeGraphics.
I created a new document in Photoshop 1800×2400 pixels at 300dpi, and applied the texture to the background layer.

Step 2

It’s now time to search for the main elements of my design, which I’ve already determined should be elephants. I found some great elephant photos at stock.xchng. I’ve downloaded the following, elephant 1, elephant 2, and elephant 3.
I start by cutting out elephant 1 from the background. My selection process can be quick since I plan for the overall piece to be a rough painting. The edges don’t have to be perfectly clean. I used the Quick Selection Tool (w), with a little clean up, to obtain the following selection.

I went ahead and cut out the other two elephants using the same process. I plan to keep them on stand by, and use the first elephant as my main focal point for the piece.

Step 3

I add elephant number 1 and size him to fit in the center of the canvas.

I then convert the elephant to B&W by selecting Image | Adjust | Desaturate. I’d like to have a little more contrast so I adjust the levels (Image | Adjust | Levels) to the following: 82, 1.00, 182. I went ahead and desaturated the background, as well, to match.

Step 4

Now I’d like to go ahead and start adding some painted elements. This is were the beauty of Photoshop brushes come into play. Instead of creating these elements by hand, I plan to find the right brush sets and add paint with the click of a mouse. After some searching I decide to go with watercolor elements to add the texture I’m after for the piece. I downloaded the Watercolor Vol 1 set and began by adding a few painted background elements.
I also want my elephant to appear painted as well to blend with the background a little more. I chose the Dry Brush filter to achieve this (Filter | Artistic | Dry Brush) using the following settings:
Brush Size: 6
Brush Detail: 10
Texture: 1

Step 5

Now it’s time to bring in our other elephants. I used the same techniques from step 3 to convert the elephants to black and white and blend them to the scene. For the elephant in the top left I set the layer blending mode to Multiply. I wanted that one to stand out less from the background. At this point I went ahead and applied a few more background watercolor elements, and a bit of color burn to the center of the canvas.
Here’s how mine is beginning to shape up

Step 6

At this point point I’m starting to feel confident about the look. Meaning what I saw in my head is successfully taking shape. I’d like to add a few more painted elements to the piece, but I want the paint to have more of a splattered effect so that it appears the artwork was created in a fit of creative fury (yeah…that sounds cool, huh?). In order to accomplish this, I’ve downloaded two more brush sets. This time I’m using a set called Ink Squirts and a set called Layered Watercolor Splatters.
There is no rhyme or reason to which brushes I choose from each set, and there is no method for where I place them on the canvas or the layer order. It’s simply a matter of what looks right to your eye. Your most likely to choose different brushes and place them where you feel is best for your piece. So beyond this point  our work will probably differ completely.

Step 7

I like the way the paint is coming together but I feel like a bit of contrast is needed. In order to get that contrast I’m going to apply more splatters, but this time using white instead of black. Pull brushes from each set and begin apply them on layers between the existing layers containing black brushes so that the effect is stacked. Basically you are trying to make it look like white and black paint were used at the same time to paint the piece.

Step 8

Okay, I really like how this is turning out. But overall I feel like it’s a little too gray. There’s just not enough contrast, in my opinion.
I set out to create a black and white piece but now that I’m this far into it, I think it needs a touch of color to help add the contrast that I’m looking for. I’m going to add a gradient fill layer above all other layers in the stack. You do this by clicking the small icon with the half black circle at the bottom of the layers palette, then choose Gradient from the popup menu.
For my Gradient I chose an angle of 125 degrees and three colors in order from top left to bottom right: #085c71, #8f5502, #18767c
Again, no set rule here, so choose the colors that work best for your piece.

Step 9

Part of this “Freestyle” process of mine is deciding when to quit. When is the piece actually done? Well… That’s a hard question to answer. It’s done when ever you feel like you’ve achieved the vision you saw in the beginning, or it’s done when you’ve decided your happy with the outcome. In both instances it’s completely up to you.
For this piece… It’s not quite done, in my opinion. :-)
I don’t like the texture in the background. I still think it looks a little too muddy. To fix this, I’m going to add a new layer above all others in the stack. I’m going to fill that layer with white, and then apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style. For the settings I’m going to use:
Blend Mode: Overlay
Opacity: 100%
Two color gradient – Left: #565454 Right: #ffffff
Style: Radial
Then I’m going to set this layers blend mode to Multiply.
Okay, that’s it… done!

Ok Let’s get started!
To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:
Model (Not free, registration required. You can use an alternative model image instead.)
Volcano Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 1063px with black background. Load the model image into Photoshop and cut the model out, paste it onto our document. Resize it and position to the centre of the canvas:

Make sure you tidy up the edges with a soft eraser tool:

Use the Sharpen Tool (20% strength) to sharp the facial area a bit:

and use the Sharpen Tool (20% strength) to sharp the jeans area a bit as well:


Add the following adjustment layer to the model layer as clipping mask:
Black and White (set opacity to around 80%)


Layer mask for this black and white adjustment layer: (use a soft eraser with a 50% flow and opacity setting for this mask)

Levels

Curves


and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Now we can add a glow effect for the model. Instead of using layer blending option, I prefer to using this method here: (it gives more freedom than layer blending option)
Create a new layer on top of the model layer, load the selection of the model layer, choose the Rectangular Marquee tool then right-click on the selection, choose “Stroke”:

Using the following setting for the stroke:

and you will see a thin white line appearing on the canvas:

Apply the following Gaussian Blur setting to this white line layer:



Reduce this layer opacity of this layer to around 40%, and you will have a nice, soft glowing effect around the body:

Step 3

Now let’s grab the Pen Tool and create some basic curvy lines. Firstly hold down the Shift key, click and drag your mouse to create a new anchor point:

Move your mouse cursor to the left, hold down Shift key again and click and drag, you will see we have a curvy path as shown below:

Choose a 5px hard brush with a colour of your choice, then go back to Pen Tool, right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path”:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” option, and click on “OK”:


and now you will have a curvy line as shown below:

Now you have a nice curvy line, duplicate it a few times and hit Ctrl + U to change the Hue value for each duplicated layer, so that they have different colours.
Group those lines and duplicate the layer group, move the group around the model as shown below:





Optionally, you can add some desaturated abstract line groups to the arm area – if you do this, you can use a soft eraser to remove the joining part from the arm to the lines. This way the lines look like they are growing from the arm.

Step 4

Now we get to the fun part of the tutorial, which is the light effect for the model. Firstly let’s create a new layer and use a soft white brush to paint a single dot on the canvas:

Use the volcano brush we downloaded as an eraser, gently remove the edges of the white dot:

Once you’re done erasing, use the Warp Tool to warp it as shown below:

and you will have the following effect:


Now we can make a few duplications of this light effect layer, resize and rotate them, then scatter them around the model’s body as shown below:


I personally think this is a very quick and effective way for highlighting certain areas on the image – you can apply this to a wide range of objects, not only human body.

Step 5

We can now add a simple planetary shape on the bottom of the canvas. Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw a selection as shown below:

Fill the selection with white colour and reduce the layer opacity to around 15%, add a “Gradient Overlay” blending option to it:

Use a soft eraser + volcano brush as eraser, remove to the following area as shown below: (Make sure you set the flow and opacity of the eraser tool to be around 50%)


Finally we can paint some abstract patterns around the canvas with the brushes you downloaded from the net, go wild :)
I used crack, particle and grunge brush sets:


That’s about it for this tutorial :) I further added some colours to the image to spice it up a bit – with the help of several image adjustment layers.
Here is my final effect for this tut: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!