Photoshop Lessons

Lesson #11: How to draw a Zombie

2010-02-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Preparation.
Open the black and white photograph of a person and duplicate the layer. Call it "face". Make the layer with white backgrounds. Create a new layer and name it "jaw". It should look as follows:

Bring the image into a RGB format [Image> Mode> RGB Color]. Photography was still black and white, but we have an opportunity to change that. Go to [Image> Adjust> Color Balance] and set the value as indicated below:
Highlights: color levels +20 0 -15
Midtones: color levels +25 0 -25
Shadows: color levels 0 +15 -20

Shadows
Now, when she became a greenish color, we impose the shadows with burn tool: to set the exposure at 15% and burn the shadows around the eyes like this, as indicated below (right eye).

Select the airbrush and use the "color mode" on the gray shadows beyond the eyes. When you are finished it should look like (right eye):

Do the same on the chin and near the mouth to make it more gaunt appearance.

Larger image of the processed mouth...

Eyes
Well ... Now do the zombie look. First, fill the shell of the eye with white color, then make a little dot in the middle. Now, using the dodge tool make the eyes flame out. You can experiment with airbrush in "color mode". I used the red color in the left and right corner of the eye.

Clotted blood and flesh!
Well - we finished only the simplest part of the work. Now it is the time for the flesh. First make a large hole in the rotten jaws. Make a hole in the layer of "face". Dark-red small brush would be the best to create the effect of rotting meat. Use eraser to create a transparent hole. It is time to search a picture of a skull and cut him from the jaws of the image. If the newly cut layer is in color - translate it into black and white. That's about it should look like:

Go to [Image> Adjust> Color Balance] and to set the values as indicated below:
Highlights: color levels +10 0 -10
Midtones: color levels +10 0 -15
Shadows: color levels 0 0 -10

Now all this looks a little bit flat - we will try to fix it.

To create shadows, use the burn tool around the edges of the cutout.

It is time to do really terrible things. To do this you will need an airbrush with the size of 1 pixel. Use a dark red color and dark yellow/brown, but first you need to switch to a layer "face". Experimenting with fibers and pieces of flesh give the hole as septic appearance as possible. Try to zoom the picture to work best with the details, then try copying technique. Now use the burn tool and make some shadows on the right / bottom side of the hole in his cheek - so you can give it greater depth and expressiveness.
Finally, take the airbrush in the "color mode" and gives the gums dark red hue:

Scars
Let's make a small scar above her eye. First, make a small shadow:

Then make a scar deeper, adding a blood-red

Now make a shadow on the sides so that the scar seemed to be contracted.

Rotting Skin
This is the final step - to make your skin look putrid. First, add a little color, using a large diameter airbrush in "color mode". I used a greenish-red and violet.

Take the burn tool and create a set of uneven lines on his face as given below:

That's all! It would not hurt to work on small details to complete the masterpiece, but I think you can do it yourself ;)

Lesson #10. How to draw a Metal Tubes And Wires

2009-02-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

Create a new image, 250x250 pixels. As the main background color choose a dark gray. Now create a new layer and with the Pen tool or Paintbrush draw a line form the desired width 15 pixels.
Such a curve, I think, not difficult to draw. Should look as shown.
Call the layer "Wire"

Make a copy layer Wire by dragging its icon on the New Layer button (New Layer). Rename the new layer in the "Cut Wire".

Now hide the layer Wire, clicking on the icon in the Layers panel on the eyes (Layers). This layer is useful to us later.

Now select the Eraser tool (Eraser), define the size of the brush within 5 pixels, and with it will give the type of curve shown in the figure.

Hold Ctrl, click on the invisible layer of Wire in the Layers panel.

Thus to create a selection, not taking into account the transparency of the layer "Wire".

We move then to the panel channels and a Save selection as channel - button.

Our next step is to rename the new Channel in the "Wire Bevel". Done!

Apply to the Channel "Wire Bevel" filter Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) with the option Radius first 9 pixels, and then 6, then 3 pixels, and finally 1 pixel.

Apply now to release AutoLevels, Ctrl + Shift + L, and look what happened. ... We are almost done.

Let's get back to the panel layers, and while holding Ctrl click on the layer "Cut Wire", to select its transparency. Then again, turn to the panel Channels, click on the channel "Wire Bevel", press D, to reset the color, inverse the selection using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + I, and in the end, Clear selection, press Del.

Remove the selection - Ctrl + D.

Let's go back to the panel "layers" and will make the active layer "Cut Wire".

Then open the dialog box Lightning Effects (Filter > Render > Lighting Effects).

Now - the main thing. Create a white Directional light from top to bottom - from the upper right corner - as shown in the picture. Then, create a blue light directed towards the bottom up - from the bottom left.

Define the following parameters:
Gloss: 100 Shiny
Material: -100 Plastic
Exposure: 39
Ambience: -21

Setup Texture Channel to the position of "Wire Bevel" and determine its height of 15.

Now set the direction of illumination in such a way as to achieve the most desired effect.
Finally, make visible the layer "Wire". Once again, click on it, hold Ctrl, to make the selection.

To make a line of 1 pixel is thinner, inverse the selection - Ctrl + Shift + I, then go to Select> Modify> Expand, enter a value of 1 pixel, Clear Selection - Del and remove it using Ctrl + D.
And the last step: Filter> Render> Lighting Effects.

Setup Texture Channel on the Wire Transparency.

Click OK, added at the discretion of Shadow (Drop Shadow), and all - ready!

Lesson 9. How to draw a Metal Surface

2009-02-04T06:27:00.000-08:00

Here we explain the method of creating textures is very suitable for creating all kinds of interfaces. The effect looks good in the use of metallic colors and, most importantly, easy to use.

Highlight the desired contour, fill the blue color (Shift + F5). Increase the radius of the allocation of [Select> Modify> Expand] to six pixels.

Create a new layer and fill the existing allocation of its white color (Shift + F5). Add noise [Filter> Noise> Add Noise] with values:
Amount: 280
Distribution: uniform
Monochromatic: checked

Not removing the provision blur that layer [Filter> Blur> Motion Blur] with values:
Angle: 0
Distance: 60

Apply the following filter [Filter> Stylize> Emboss] with the following values:
Angle: -120
Height: 2
Amount: 60

Change the layer mode from normal to softlight in the layers palette.

Photoshop Lesson #8: Detalisation

2009-01-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

With the help of selection you need to create a region for work. Fill the selected area with any color that you want. I choose a light brown color.

In order to give your selection some depth, use a dark airbrush and gently shadow the one side of selected area. Use a light airbrush and enlight the other side.

Now choose any texture that you want from your own collection, and apply it on top. Set the transparency to 50-60%.

I'm usually create a new layer and then draw a set of thin lines and blur them, so they add a vintage-look to image. Then I start to shadow their edges with the help of dark airbrush tool.

That's how it looks like after using dark airbrush tool.

Now, simply combine layers and duplicate the resulting layer. You'll probably need to do a little bit more work on the image, but it should look something like this.

Photoshop Lesson #7: How to draw a silver ring

2009-01-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

Create a new image (width and height must be multiples of two in fact you'll see why. Also you should change the image mode to RGB). Fill the background in black. Now take the ruler markers at the top and left and place them in the center of the image. You should get a cross in the picture. Create a new layer.

Select "Elliptical Marquee tool", and then move your mouse above the place where the lines cross. Press and hold ALT + SHIFT keys, and then create a circle. Fill it with gray color. Repeat this, but make a second circle a slightly smaller diameter. Now, press DEL to cut the smaller diameter. Cancel the selection by pressing CTRL-D. You result should be a gray ring.

Press CTRL key and click on the layer where the ring is located. This step will mark up filled region of the ring. Go to [Select> Save selection]. Leave it settings default and click "ok". With the selected ring, go to the "Channels" and create a new channel. Leave the channel name default too. Fill the selected area in white, and deselect the choice(CTRL-D). Now you'll need to apply a blur filter [Filter> Blur> Guassian blur]. At the first pass use the filter 4, then 3 and then then 2.

Now go back to layer with a ring. Go to [Select> Load selection] to load the previously selected area. Go to [Filter> Render> Lighting effects]. In the "Texture channel", select your blur channel (it usually has a name "Alfa 2"). Other settigs are:
Intensity: 35
Focus: 69
Gloss: 69
Material: 69
Exposure: 0
Ambience: 8
Height: 80

In order to smooth the edges of your ring, press the CTRL-key and click on this layer in Layers list. Go to [Select> modify> Contract]. Select 1, and then click OK. Now invert the selection and press the DEL-key. You can also remove the "cross" because you don't need it anymore. Go to [Image> Adjust> Curves]. In order to get a realistic "silver effect" set the curves as shown on the picture below:

Now we need to add some color to our ring. Go to [Image> Adjust> Hue / Saturation]. For example a light yellow tint will create the effect of golden ring. This how-to can be used to create not only rings.

Photoshop Lesson #6: How to draw a realistic hair

2008-06-07T08:09:00.001-07:00

Step 1. Start from choosing the hair color. I take a slightly cold color. Then I start adding warm colors as lights and shadows and mix them to get natural-looking curl. In this tutorial I show you only the basics so I will draw only a few curls.

Step 2. Black lines are used to create a sense of streaming curl. The lines should be soft to look natural.

Step 3. From now I start adding more colors. With the help of warm hues I lighten up the curl. Then I start adding basic shadows.

Step 4. I continue to work with the colors of the hair. There are a lot of different reflections, a myriad of different hues of the same color.

Step 5. To that moment I used only an airbrush tool and a hard brush. Now it is time to use tools with soft edges. So I choose the smudge tool and the soft brush of large size and start to blur the lines. As you can see on the picture, sometimes I mix up the hair in one heavy curl. Finally I remove the layer with the sketch that was made in the step #2.
Step 6. I blur the edges slowly making them soft. Then I begin to create "streaming flow" of hair with the help of transition colors.

Step 7. I am working with the structure of hair. To get rid of feeling of heavy and unnatural hair, I take a soft brush and airbrush tool and start drawing soft, but quite large lines passing through the curls. Before drawing the line I take an eyedropper tool and take the color from the curl.

Step 8. Using the smudge tool I stretch the lines that were drawn in the step #7. Then I use the airbrush tool to make more accurate change in colors.

Step 9. Finally, I check whether separate curls are visible. Using smudge brush with the small size, I work with the almost every separate hair to create a feeling of realistic hair.

Photoshop Lesson #5: How To Remove Red Eye Effect

2008-05-11T10:45:00.002-07:00

Introduction. Sometimes you take the photo and there are a lot of people on it that have a red eyes . Disgusting! And it is necessary to do something, because you don't want (or even cannot) take the photo second time. Generally speaking, this effect can vary. It can be a small red point in the pupil, but it can also cover the entire iris. In any case, information about the original photo is lost and we need to recover it ourselves.

Let's Start! In this case we have just a red pupil. Therefore, take the Sponge Tool and choose Desaturate Mode. Choose a small brush (size of the brush should be equal to the size of the pupil) and slightly blurred. If we slightly decrease the saturation at the pupil edges it will not be a great misfortune. In opposite - it will be better if there is no sharp boundaries between the pupil and the iris. After this step it shouldn't be any red color on the eye. This is very important.

After that we should shadow discolored pupil. Pupils are always black. So take the Burn Tool, brush that a little smaller than pupil and start obscuring. In the options of this tool we should select what we want to obscure: midtones or shadows. If the pupil is light (as in this case) you should choose a midtones. If it is dark enough, then choose shadows. And one more important thing: if even a small amount of red color remains after the previous step, Sponge Tool will left disgusting dark brown broad pattern.

It is possible not to do those operations and just take a round black brush and apply it on the pupil. It is much faster but it is never gives a perfect results. You can use that method only if you want to increase the size of the pupil.

Black pupil looks not realistic. Let's try to revive it. On the light pupil gives a glare. Let's try to paint it. To do this, take a small brush (3-4 times smaller than pupil) and just put a white point on the pupil. Perhaps, in order to achieve maximum effect, you should put some points in several places (for example, if you want to show the glare from two light sources). The most important thing is that the glare should be the same in both eyes and equally located. If glares look too dark, you can use the Dodge Tool. In the options you should select Highlights . A couple of clicks on the glare will make it shine.And here we go! :)

Note: if you have a Photoshop version CS2 or above, you can simply select a Red Eye Tool on the toolbar and click on the red eye. It will remove that effect, but sometimes I don't like the results, so the method that described above is more universal. Good luck and have fun! ;)

P.S. Why red-eye effect appears on the photos?
The problem of the red-eye effect appeared relatively recently with the discovery of color photography. When it have been black-and-white photos any red eye could not be seen because of they was gray on the paper.

Why red eye effect appears? It's all easy. If it is not enough light, the pupil extends to pass through the maximum amount of light. But suddenly appears a bright light from the camera flash. The light passes through the pupil, then reflects from the back of the eye and returns to the camera. The eye are full of blood vessels, so the light that was returned has a red color. So the red-eye effect appears on the photos.

How to avoid red-eye effect?
You can use the special flash for your camera, which is designed specifically to solve that problem. It is flashing for a couple of seconds, so the pupil decreases in size. And the smaller the pupil - the smaller red dot on the photo will appear.

Another way to avoid red eye effect is to avoid front light. Red eyes appear only when the flash is located near the camera lens. A side light source will be the great solution.

Please feel free to comment and ask questions.

Photoshop Lesson #4: How to draw a nose

2008-05-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

Step 1. Preparation. At first we should sketch the contours of the nose wings and nostrils. Use a clear line - we will smooth them later.
Do not place these elements on different layers, because it will be difficult to connect them to the rest of the skin on the face.

Step 2. Let's start. Illuminate mid-nose from the top to the place where it will be the nose tip. Shade the skin around the wings and under them as well as on the sides of the nose. Depending on the direction of the light obscure one side of the nose more than the other. Area under the nose tip (between the nostrils, but above them) must blur also. Illuminate the edges of the nostrils (this is not logical, but gives a more accurate form of nose). Also you can start to obscure the skin under the nose. All the operations above should be performed by using burn and dodge tools.

Step 3. Final. Increase the shadows level over processed areas, especially around the nose wings. Illuminate the tip of the nose. According to its type you can make even a bright reflection. If there is a flat nose, then you should not illuminate a lot. If it is large nose then you should do a flare bigger. Make a shadows on the rest of the skin around the nose. Imagine the approximate location of the eyes and mouth.

Note: It is not a complete tutorial with the tools list and step-by-step instructions. But I can say that you can get such a results using just burn tool and dodge tool. And remember: practice makes perfect :) Fell free to ask questions and leave comments.

Photoshop Lesson #3: How to draw an eye

2008-05-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Step 1. I start from the outline of the eye. Please note that the bottom line is dropped and appears above, to show tear channel. I noticed that a lot of people forget to paint tear channel. Keep in mind that the eyes are different. This eye is my own. I think that my eyes a little bit rounder than usual:

And below is an example of how you should not draw the eye. ;) I saw a lot of people drawing such an eye. Sometimes they like to paint narrow eye slit with iris placed exactly in the center not touching the upper or lower eyelid. In reality you usually look at the relaxed eye where the part of the iris is hidden. Another problem with the picture below is that the lines of the eyelid are drown too clearly. There is no sense of form, because there is no change of width of the lines. Moreover, this figure does not show tear channel.

Step 2. And here I began to develop the shadows. I have allocated specific areas which I think is very important. Area #2 is usually ignored. It should be the light along the inner part of the lower eyelid. Look in the mirror at your own eyes: your eyelids aren't flat!

Step 3. Now it is the time for imposing shadows. There should be a good balance between light and shadow. Area #1 is rather important... A lot of people forget to impose shadows directly to eyeball and leave it entirely white.

Step 4. Using a thin brush, add the light in specific areas. You'll notice that the objects are becoming more clear now. Note that in area #2 illuminated iris is opposite to the bright white light stain. I heard that it is the way the eye is usually highlighted, but did not stick me on this. ;) Highlight the eyeball (area #3) some like in the previous step.

Step 5. We should deepen the shadows along the contour lines. I always obscure the pupil of the eye as well as the edges of the eyeball. I have noticed that pupils are obscured in the edges and in the center, then they fade to the center, where the backlight is becoming partly bold, eye color - more clear:

Step 6. The last step! I added beams in the center of the eye to make it more realistic. I also added a bright light to the tear channel. Don't forget that it is the wet surface so the part of your eye can shine:

Step 7. Done!

Photoshop Lesson #2: How to draw a candle

2008-05-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

1. Basic photo. I place it on the bottom layer to create the initial sketch. Doing so we can save the time and a proper perspective. The image size is 4000 pixels height. Width is installed automatically:

2. Marking Up. The first step - the creation of "husk" - add white layer and set opacity in the way that the image could be seen through the white layer. Then I create a layer over an empty white ("husk") and draw the contour of the candle (all that is important to do at different layers). That doesn't mean that we should detail figure. We should mark up only the lines showing where the main color fields and important elements are situated:

3. Once the rough sketch is completed, I set back layer opacity to 100%. By this time, I also print a picture for further work. Now I no longer use the lower layer, but only a printout. You can ask - "Can I use the lower layer to accurately color selection?" Yes, you can, but then the picture will affect your image too much... It is a much more interesting to use your own skills. The main goal is not to reproduce a photo but to use it as the basis for imagination and fantasy.

4. OK... Let's start. Create another four layers for candle - for a dark-red background (1), a bright red candle (2), flame (3) and wick (4). Yes, we should create a separate layer for the wick too.
The lasso tool. For the contours colorization I use lasso tool to identify and fill key areas of color on each layer. In fact, lasso is the most important tool of those that I use to edit and modify. Lasso is the best! I paint with lasso ... I foreshadow with lasso ... I am doing everything with the help of lasso tool... I hope everything is clear ... I love lasso tool ... :)

5. Of course, lasso tool without the rest of instruments is nothing... It should be used together with the adjustment and fill tools (levels, color balance, contrast, and hue / saturation). To do this I have created some of actions. For example, after I chose the area to work with (with the help of lasso) I click F2. This key opens the levels dialog box. After I perform levels change, I click OK and a color balance dialog box appears, so you can adjust the color, if necessary. It saves a lot of time.

6. Then, looking at a picture I continue selecting candle areas (with the help of lasso tool) and make appropriate changes in the level and color (level, color, hue / saturation). For this image I haven't used contrast adjustment.

Sometimes selected areas stacked on the top of already selected with the change of results. I don't worry about this, because I know that in the next phase when i will be working with pencil tool I can correct this.

7. Pencil tool. I start using pencil tool, varying "Master diameter". I use brush and air-brush tool very rarely. Basically, I just use pencil, because image size is pretty large (at least 4000 pixels) and pencil tool works well, despite sharp edges. I set size and pressure in the "stylus", and opacity to 33% or 66%, and never put 100%. I use normal mode, but sometimes I use "multiply" for darkening.
We have to keep ALT-key pressed while using pencil tool to pick a color under the current cursor position. So, smoothing sharp color edges becomes easy when opacity set to approximately 33%.

8. Creating "Negligence and spontaneous". I work with the pencil tool on the new layer just above the main layer. So I can be quite negligent and don't worry about the results. If I like the result I merge layers... If not, I delete it and start all over again.

9. After completing the work with the flame and wick layers, I add another layer under the flame layer. This layer is for the glow of the flame. I set up opacity approximately to 50%. Everything is ready. I hope it was useful tutorial. :)

Photoshop Lesson #1: How to draw a glass of wine

2008-05-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

Wanna know some adobe photoshop tricks? I hope you know the basics of how to use adobe photoshop.

Going through that photoshop tutorials you will be able to draw like a pro!

1. Create a new document in adobe photoshop (size 250 * 550). Start drawing the contour of wine with the help of Pen Tool and Convert Point Tool:

2. Rasterize the layer. Here is the basic adobe photoshop elements. Select the content of the layer holding down "Ctrl" and clicking on the layer on the layers panel. Set up the colors : EE5141> 8E0F04. Select "Gradient Tool", choose type "radial" and fill the selection with gradient filling as shown below:

3. Now let's portray the upper surface of wine. I'm using adobe photoshop cs3. Make a selection using photoshop brushes "Elliptical Marquee Tool". Create a new layer. Fill up with gradient using the same colors, but with type "linear":

4. Now we can start drawing the glass. Here we will use some photoshop effects. To have a better visibility let's create the background, for example, gray gradient (use color 111111> 666666):

5. Select the layer with the upper surface of wine and load the selection. With tool "allocation" selected, press Shift + "Arrow-up" on keyboard six times. Thus, we raising up the selection. To observe the laws of perspective, choose Select> Transform Selection and reduce its height. Then choose Select> Modify> Border> 2px.
Create a new layer and fill up the selection with white color:

6. Let's add a mask to the layer and place the gradient from right to left, as shown on the picture:

7. Create a new layer with transparency=20% and with the help of "Pen Tool" draw the flare:

8. Create a new layer and using "Pen Tool" draw another flare on the right side with transparency=10%. Now change the transparency of the layer with the rim, for example, to 50%:

9. Select "Pen Tool" and draw a figure as shown on the picture (on the new layer!):

10. Then rasterize the layer and create a selection. Fill up with black color and put behind all the layers. Create a selection to remove the part of the black figure that we don't need:

11. Remove unnecessary part. Duplicate the layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer) and flip duplicate horizontally(Image> Rotate Canvas> Flip Canvas Horizontal) combining with the original layer to get the right figure:

12. With the help of "Elliptical Marquee Tool" draw the base of the stalk and fill up with black. Let's combine all the elements of the black figure in the one layer.

13. Using "Pen Tool" outline the area on the base of the stalk, leaving the dark area on the edges:

14. Now choose "Make Selection", "Select> Feather> 2px". Select the layer with the stalk and press Delete. Next, using a "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and Select> Feather> 1 or 2 px (depending on the thickness of the stalk) remove an area within the stalk. Then, using the "Pen Tool" draw the figure at the bottom of the stalk:

15. Create a selection. Cut and paste it on the new layer at the same place where we have been cut. Use the mask on that layer . Draw a gradient from the top to the bottom:

16. Using "Elliptical Marquee Tool" select the area on the base of the stalk. Cut and paste it on the new layer at the same place and change the layer transparency to 65%:

17. Then you can add some flares with the help of the brush. The glass can be placed on the any background.