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ISSUE 112 CONTENTS

ISSUE 112
WELCOME
Welcome to the latest
issue of Advanced
Photoshop. Being able to
work across different
platforms is a key attribute
for any designer. Working
with CGI in particular can
boost your popularity.
ANNALISA SAYWELL So that’s why this month we are bringing you a CGI
Editor and Photoshop special. With over 20 pages of top
techniques based on how to work with CG
IN THIS ISSUE: elements, including expert CG landscapes, sci-fi
PHOTOMANIPULATION
PHOTO EDITING
GRAPHICS
concept art and 3D abstract graphics, we are sure
you won’t be disappointed! 66 BUILD A FANTASY
PHOTOMANIPULATION:
DIGITAL PAINTING
TYPOGRAPHY
NEW MEDIA
Elsewhere in the issue, take a look at creative
filters in Photoshop and whether they should have a LANDSCAPE
place in the industry, or peek at our top 15 tips for Master photo textures, Photoshop brushes and CG
elements to create a post-apocalyptic scene
professional designers, including using gradients
and shapes effectively. In the reviews section, we
take a look at Alien Skin Software’s Exposure 5 as
an alternative choice for photo editing, and explore
COVER ART Wacom’s Bamboo Lamp app to see if it offers
MIKE CAMPAU
www.mikecampau.com anything new.
Creative director Mike Last, but by no means least, we have compiled a
Campau has been a selection of exclusive content on this month’s disc,
long-standing contributor
to Advanced Photoshop. including a video tutorial and Photoshop brushes
His work is always of not yet on sale. Enjoy!
impeccable standard, so
why not show it off to all of
our readers? See more
from him on page 27.

FIND US ONLINE:
@advancedpshop /AdvancedPhotoshop
18 STUDIO INTERVIEW:
MOONBOT STUDIOS
.co.uk Invention comes first at this studio. Explore how
they use Photoshop tools to make this happen

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 CONTENTS ISSUEWorldMags.net
112

ISSUE 112
CONTENTS
EYE ON DESIGN
What’s hot, who’s in and the
latest art & design happenings

06 PRO PANEL
Our contributors share Photoshop secrets

08 INDUSTRY NEWS
The latest information from the creative world

10 PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
3D and CGI illustration

16 PROJECT FOCUS
Delicious advertising

10 3D & CGI ILLUSTRATION

FOR BACK ISSUES, BOOKS

AND MERCHANDISE VISIT:

34 CREATIVE FILTERS

15 TIPS FOR PRO DESIGNERS 26 72 PAINT A STEAMPUNK

INSPIRED PORTRAIT

004
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TECHNIQUES REVIEWS
Professional artists reveal their high-end skills in our easy-to- We put the latest creative kit,
follow workshops books and apps to the test

18 STUDIO INTERVIEW
Moonbot Studios 60 WORKSHOP
3D abstract graphics 82 FEATURE:
Alien Skin Software’s
Exposure 5
26 INDUSTRY FEATURE
15 tips for professional designers 66 WORKSHOP
Build a fantasy landscape
86 REVIEW:
Bamboo Loop
34 INDUSTRY FEATURE
Creative filters in Photoshop 72 WORKSHOP
Paint a steampunk-inspired portrait

42 FEATURE WORKSHOP
Work with filters 76 WORKSHOP
Sci-fi concept art

48 WORKSHOP
Mixed media collaboration 88 READER INTERVIEW
From traditional to digital art

56 HOW I MADE
Ministry of Sound Running Trax 92 RESOURCE PROJECT
Create graffiti stencils

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
SEE PAGE 24 FOR THE LATEST OFFER

96 ON YOUR DISC
Free with issue 112 of
Advanced Photoshop
TAILORMADE
CREATIVE CONTENT
Exclusive video tutorial covering how to
work with filters

48 MIXED MEDIA 88 TRADITIONAL

TO DIGITAL

76 RENDER SCIFI
CONCEPT ART RESOURCE COLLECTION
Featuring 40 high-res images, exclusive
Photoshop brushes and premium Actions

PLUS:
• Tutorial project files
• Exclusive wallpapers for mobile and desktop
WorldMags.net • Custom fonts worth $60
 WorldMags.net
eye on design pro panel

eye on design

pro panel
Our cOntributOrs share their PhOtOshOP secrets, exPlaining hOw
they create an array Of stunning effects using tOOls and OPtiOns
AndY POtts christiAn hecKer
http://andy-potts.com/ www.tigaer-design.com
Edit>Paste Special>Paste Into is a useful technique for building layers of Creating concept art can be a tricky thing. If you’re
texture in a figure or object. It’s also especially useful when working on a project with tight deadlines, it’s best to
experimenting with unusual shapes. Pasting paint textures into specific use every tool your arsenal has to offer. Anything
areas of light or shadow can enhance colour and vibrancy. You also have the versatility to goes, from using custom brushes to photos, blending modes and filters.
move your texture or shape within the attached Layer Mask, resulting in some interesting The goal is to work fast and to create an image that mirrors the
and usable accidents. requested idea. This not only works for commercial projects, but can
■ Find more of Potts’ mixed media work from page 48 also help when you’re stuck working on a personal project.
■ hecker shows you how to work with cGi in his sci-fi scene
tutorial on page 76

© tigaer-design.com

AdAm KuczeK
www.ak-art.net
If you want to make a concept feel like a snapshot
from a movie, blur the foreground elements slightly.
You can even make them slightly transparent if you
want. Then de-focus the background elements.
The Motion Blur filter may also come in handy. Make a copy of the
image, apply this effect and then erase the parts you don’t want to be
blurred, revealing the original artwork beneath. Combining both effects
will create a dynamic depth of field.
Dust, tiny scratches, lens distortion, subtle flares, chromatic aberration
and a bit of film grain applied at the end will make your concept feel
even more convincing.
■ check out Kuczek’s post-apocalyptic tutorial starting on page 66

© Andy Potts © Adam Kuczek

006
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The magazine for Adobe® Photoshop® professionals
Imagine Publishing Ltd
Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill,
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The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited
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Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all
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If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post,
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One of the most powerful filters a digital painter has is Liquify. It allows you to gently grant Imagine Publishing an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-
free license to use the images across its entire portfolio,
correct proportion issues without having to start over. But first, use the Marquee tool (M) to in print, online and digital, and to deliver the images to
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select an area you want to edit, then go to Filter>Liquify. Use the Forward Warp tool (W) to international licensees for reproduction in international,
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© Imagine Publishing Ltd 2013
ISSN 1748-7277

007
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eye on design industry nEWs

G-TechnoloGy
industry news

Driven creaTiviTy
compeTiTion 2013
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The perfecT plaTform for professionals and amaTeurs, who sTand a
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examples that were produced in previous years. G-DOCK ev with Thunderbolt – released in April of competition/enter_here. Whether you’re an
The prestige of winning any international this year. A professional winner, an amateur winner established or up-and-coming talent, the contest is
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Dreaming Of Dubai: Winner of

Professional Best Photography in 2012

G-DOCK ev with
thunDerbOlt
the G-dOCK ev with thunderbolt is being billed as
one of the ultimate prizes at this year’s driven
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008
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 WorldMags.net

WIN A COPY OF ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

CC FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Four books up for grabs from publisher Focal Press
Photoshop CC is now available, and there are plenty of resources that give you a head start on how to
use it. The Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers book from Focal Press features all the tools and
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For your chance to win one, please answer the following question:

- In what year was the author of this book, Martin Evening, inducted
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Best Photography in 2012 Please email your answers to [email protected] including your full name and
address. The deadline for all entries is 19 September 2013. Only one entry per person allowed. The
winner will be randomly selected after the closing date and notified in due course. The editor’s decision is
final and no cash alternative will be offered. Employees of Imagine Publishing are not permitted to enter.

A
HISTORICAL FACTS MADE EASY
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FROM THE PUBLISHER OF HOW IT WORKS
ll About History is the bold new launch
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infographics and digital art that will engage and
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Its visual impact and easy-to-understand articles
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demonstrated by our first two launches,” explains
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The first issue is packed with awesome topics,
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The new launch also signals the startup of
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For those of you who love your portable devices,
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All About History magazine hit the stands
worldwide on 27 June 2013, and is now available to
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EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
BLEND
CGI
SPECIAL
PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

3D AND CGI
www.walee.com
ILLUSTRATION
FREELANCER WALDO LEE TAKES US BEHIND THE SCENES OF HIS
w_a_l_e_e INCREDIBLY DIVERSE PORTFOLIO

L
ooking at the work of freelance 3D/CGI company called Kalisto Entertainment, working in based in Paris. It all started for me through the
illustrator and photographer Waldo Lee, it’s the Paris studio. I was responsible for creating the influence of my mother, who is herself an artist –
difficult not to be struck over by just how design of a level in a platformer game. I learnt a lot in namely a painter and a sculptor. I couldn’t really say
diverse it all is. From stunning retouched terms of working as part of a team and the skills that my skills come from my school background, as
images of dancing women, to cars created from required when designing in real-time 3D.” that was pretty much computer science studies.
household objects, his work spans a huge range of Since turning to freelance, Waldo has worked for I was always really passionate about art, though,
ideas and demonstrates ceaseless creativity. an impressive list of clients. “To name a few, I have especially digital art back in the days of the Amiga.
“Many people say that I use digital tools in such a worked for Sony, Amnesty International, Audi, I’m largely self-taught, as I was always curious to
way that you don’t really see that my images are Orange, Jeep, Desperados, LG, Syfy, Yoplait – they’re learn new tools related to CGI. There weren’t any art
made with them,” he tells us. “The blending between really different from one another, and that’s what I schools that would deal with that kind of stuff back in
my photography and the 3D renderings really like about it; being able to offer my skills no matter my day. However, even though my school orientation
emphasise the final image as a whole. Some others, what I have to do!” wasn’t art related, it really helped me in the sense
though, say that they just like the little touch of fun to Read on to discover just how Waldo injects such that I could learn new tools and software really
each of my images!” variety into his workflow. quickly later on in my life.
Waldo’s career didn’t start out in the advertising I started out doing jobs like flyers and posters, and
and illustration business. After a brief stint in graphic CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF then I moved onto working within the videogame
design, it was in the videogame industry that Waldo AND YOUR HISTORY AS AN ARTIST? industry, as that was something I really wanted to
truly got his teeth into. “I worked for a videogame I’m a freelance 3D/CGI illustrator and photographer do. After a great experience of working in the

01

01
Beaux Arts Magazine: This project saw
Waldo work in collaboration with
photographer Marc Da Cunha Lopes
(www.marcdacunhalopes.com) for a
Beaux Arts Magazine commission. It’s
one of his most striking pieces of work
© Leo Burnett

02
France Galop: Once again working with
Marc Da Cunha Lopes, Waldo created the
3D monster made out of leaves, while
Marc provided the original photography
© Y&R - Waldo LEE / Marc DA CUNHA
LOPES

03
Graffiti Girls: Also shot by Waldo’s
collaborative partner Marc Da Cunha
Lopes, this editorial series for Lady
Caprice Magazine demonstrates a keen
knowledge of how to make an image
truly pop © Waldo LEE / Marc DA CUNHA
LOPES

010
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eye on design portfolio interview

gaming business, I moved onto being a freelance

artist, and I’ve loved it ever since.
04

When did you first discover your

talent With PhotoshoP?
I can’t really say. I probably started toying with
version 3.0 of Photoshop on Windows and of course
it was a blast compared to what you could do with
Deluxe Paint on the Amiga! The layers, the brushes;
everything was just so cool.

Where do you find insPiration?

Everywhere. It can come from a book I’ve read; from
an exhibition I attended; from a movie I’ve just seen;
from a walk in the mountains; from surfing on the
web. Inspiration can come to me from anywhere and
everywhere. From colours, to shapes, to feelings;
you just have to open your eyes. There’s beauty all
around you.

hoW do you ensure your Work feels 04

Syfy: This is an example of Waldo’s full
fresh and different from that 05 3d/Cgi work. However, as with any work
of this kind, Photoshop was heavily used
designed by your Peers? in postproduction © Waldo Lee
I try to stay creative in the work I do by incorporating
05
everything I like into something of my own. I try tRUN: The strong use of light makes
for an extremely sleek and effective
pushing the boundaries of things that haven’t been image in this piece of work
© Waldo Lee / Marc dA CUnHA LoPes
done yet.
06
Optimize The Sun: Waldo’s portfolio is
hoW do you strike a balance betWeen incredibly diverse, featuring a broad
variety of style and content. Whatever
commercial and Personal Work? the project, though, it’s always sure to be
imaginative © Waldo Lee / Marc dA
Commercial work comes first, as you’ve got to put CUnHA LoPes
food on the table! As such, for me the balance
07
between commercial and personal work is related to BRIGHT Magazine Poster: Waldo
worked on this illustration for a huge
how much I need to do to pay the bills. However, it poster, which came free for those who
subscribed to BRigHT magazine. it
can happen that between two jobs I’ll find some free showcases Waldo’s 3d abilities, as well
as his Photoshop skills © Waldo Lee
time. Then I can work on my world, and sometimes
when I’m too lazy, I’ll finally sleep to get some rest!
The funny thing about it is: when you spend most of
your time working for clients, you wish you had
more time to work on personal projects, but when
you do, you find yourself procrastinating.

Would you say that maintaining a level

of Personal Work is imPortant for
your artistic develoPment? 06
Definitely. You have to pay attention to your personal
work, as it is what really represents yourself as an
artist. You don’t always have the liberty to do
whatever pleases you on a commercial project, and
if you want to let your portfolio grow while displaying
a great degree of diversity, then you have to take
some time to work on your own projects. Also,
regarding your artistic development, you have to take
some time to learn new tools and create new
techniques that will help you work faster and
sharpen your style.

Which artists have had the biggest

influence on you and your aesthetic?
There are so many artists, but to name a few, I’d say

012
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08

Voodoo Doll: this image was part of some

work research that Waldo performed for
the rosbeef! advertising agency in Paris
© Waldo lee

Mode2 for his unique graffiti style, HR Giger for his the lighting, and so on. This step should provide a great flexibility dealing with all these adjustment
crazy biomechanical design, and Katsuhiro Otomo reference guide as to what you want to sell to your layers to get the look you want for your creation. This
for being the artist that introduced me to the world of client. This way, you don’t start with a circle and end is especially the case when you compose an image
Japanese illustrators and their crazy mecha designs. up with a triangle, if you know what I mean. from different media – for instance, photo shoot and
Generally speaking, I would say that a lot of the Once you’ve got the base idea set, you’re ready to 3D/CGI integration. When dealing with a lot of 3D
things I do come from the influence of the hip-hop execute your image. This means spending some rendering with a lot of different passes, it’s really
and Asian culture. Also, nowadays with the internet, time in the photo studio or sitting in front of the easy to composite the pass in Photoshop to save
you can easily gain access to the work of new, computer for several days until it’s all done. Of some time when adjusting for the correct look you’re
talented artists. They always make you want to push course, you will need to validate your progress with aiming for.
the limits of what you do. the client during the process of creating the image,
but the initial sketch will always be a reminder to portfolio tips
How would you best describe tHe style stay on the path you’ve set for yourself. Waldo reveals the core qualities that
of your work? distinguish a good artist and a great one
A friend of mine told me that I do images that are wHat would you say is tHe most ■ stay up-to-date
serious, but with a twist of fun. From my point of important tecHnique you Have learnt in Don’t be left behind. Keep up-to-date with the latest
techniques and technologies that are evolving the artistic
view, I simply make images that look good to my pHotosHop during your career? world. You need to consistently sharpen your workflow,
eye, and hopefully that will please the viewer’s eyes To be honest, Cmd/Crtl+S! You can never save too finding ways to work ever faster and more efficiently.
too. It’s true that most of my work looks often, as you never know when the almighty crash ■ quality versus quantity
photorealistic, but I really don’t want to be stuck in might strike. When working on a piece for your portfolio, always be sure
to spend the time required to make it really top notch. It’s
one category, as there’s so much I want to explore. better to have a few images that are top quality rather than
in wHat ways Has pHotosHop been hundreds of images that are average. You want to show
your client that the images they will get will always be good.
can you describe How you approacH a integral to implementing and
new project for a client? enHancing your design work? ■ sHarpen your style
Take the time to work out how you can make your style
I start by sketching out the idea on paper, and then Photoshop is really great at dealing with all the unique and stand out from the crowd. You don’t want to be a
validate this initial idea with the client, along with the post-work regarding the light and the calibration of copycat, replicating all of the work that’s already out there.
There’s no secret to achieving this; just work, work, work.
artistic direction. That includes the colour scheme, the colours of your image. You really have some

014
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eye on design Delicious aDvertising

project FocUS

Delicious
aDvertising
We met up With Russian design studio CatzWolf to leaRn hoW it

Y
tRansfoRmed oRdinaRy teapots and Cups into fine-looking feasts

ou would be surprised to learn the lengths They were changed, of course, but this mostly only
that advertisers go to in order to sell you concerned the shape of the objects. The textures
delicious-looking food. From using glue in should be as natural, realistic and lush as possible.
the place of milk to actually varnishing You should avoid over-retouching the image, though,
hamburgers for that nice, tasty sheen, there are as this can actually start to make it feel unrealistic to
hundreds of tricks to make what is probably stale, the viewer.
cold food look tempting and delicious.
A far less complex method of achieving the same How was PHotosHoP used tHrougHout
goal is to simply fire up Photoshop. That’s what tHe Process?
about tHe studio Russian studio Catzwolf did, at least, when hired to What we have in the final images is actually a collage
Tom AlTmAn make a series of adverts for Curtis tea. However, the of many studio-shot fragments. They were carefully
www.catzwolf.com studio was more imaginative than simply adding placed together using Photoshop and then retouched
Tom Altman is the CEO of Catzwolf, some steam and condensation to cups of coffee. to make them look whole. We used Photoshop to
a company he founded in 2009 Catzwolf went all out, transforming teapots and cups add some volume and physicality to the image,
after five years of working at BBDO.
The company started out working into the embodiment of their contents. The result is a making tweaks to the lighting and shade, and then
through freelancers, but soon tantalising series of images that immediately some details were hand drawn onto the images to
adopted a studio workflow. Today,
Catzwolf provides illustration,
illustrate the refreshing, thirst-quenching contents of make them feel even more lifelike.
creative retouching, 3D, animation the drinks in question in one quick glance.
and digital services such as web We sat down with Tom Altman, CEO of Catzwolf, wHat PHotosHoP tools were useful in
production, mobile app
development and Flash projects. to discover exactly how the team went about tHis Project and How did you go about
achieving this goal. using tHem?
name of Project We used the Liquify tool a lot during this project to
TAsTy TeApoTs
For CurTis can you give us a bit of background on deform and rebuild the various shapes of the pots
tHe Project? wHat was tHe brief given and cups. Mainly, however, we used the usual set of
to you by tHe client? correction tools and light and shade brushes for
Out main goal was to create an amazingly drawing by hand.
realistic mix of fruit and tea ware in one simple
image. The viewers needed to be able to wHat were tHe main cHallenges you
almost taste the teapots and cups, and even to faced wHen creating tHese adverts?
want to bite them! The creative agency There were many challenges, but in truth the biggest
supplied us with detailed sketches, which one was the size of the posters! These were A1 and
helped us a great deal in understanding the at 300dpi. This complicated everything from the
end goal of the project. material selection to the shooting session, and made
the drawing and retouching process much longer
How mucH PHotograPHy was than usual.
used in tHese images, and How No single image stood out as being any more or
mucH of it was edited? less difficult than the others. They were all very
The number of photographs used was similar to each other in terms of the process,
different for each image we created. different only from one another in the details. There
Some only required two or three, while were some standout elements, however. The dragon
others, such as the chocolate praline fruit, for example, has a very complicated shape, so
cup, needed about ten. For a project like we needed to divide it into several fragments first,
this, you require top-quality photos when and then put them back together in such a way as to
starting out, with lighting similar to that form a handle and spout. The final image also
which the final image will have. This ensures needed to be covered with drops of water, which we
that all the parts fit together nicely when it had to draw in by hand during the last steps of the
comes to manipulating the original photo. creative process.

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Elements like this spout needed to be carefully cut out

from photos of the original orange. Shading was then
carefully applied in order to give it a sense of depth and
believable authenticity

Features such as the condensation making its way down

the side of the teapot were hand drawn after using shade
brushes, as were features such as the steam emanating
from the spout

The size of the final image posters meant that much more
attention needed to be given over to detail. Note the
slightly rougher edges to the chocolate – this was a feature All images © Artemy Altman
added during post-production

can you give us a little more detail on Photoshop is a big program with an extensive set of following program failures. We no longer have to
these stages? hoW did you add other tools for raster graphics. However, we only use a worry about losing work.
elements such as the steam? limited number of tools and filters in our work. I
This is usually the final stage of the work, when the would say that I wish the application was more What tips Would you offer to others
picture is almost ready. Water droplets, steam and stable, and worked without any failures or crashes. looking to create pieces like this?
some other small details that render the tea ware as Although they are rare, they do happen, and they can To begin with, you need an artistic education, or at
more fresh and lifelike objects are put into the image really hold you back. Also, I would like to see a faster least some traditional drawing skills either on paper
at the end. We utilise maximum zoom and great operation speed when working with big files. or on a graphics tablet. Specifically, pay attention to
photo references to ensure that everything looks However, as a whole, Photoshop is a very details, but don’t forget the object’s image as a
right in the final image. well-balanced piece of software and I really can’t whole. You need to think about both to create a great
raise many complaints about it. piece of art.
are there any tools that photoshop I would like to thank the authors for the back-up Finally, practise a lot with graphic software. That is
does not yet have that you Would like saving option introduced in the latest version. This essential. Once you can use simple tools correctly
to see implemented? new addition has saved us a lot of hassle in the past and efficiently, good results will come naturally.

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EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

STUDIO INTERVIEW

MOONBOT STUDIOS
INVENTION COMES FIRST AT THIS STUDIO, WHERE INDIVIDUAL TALENTS
COMBINE TO CREATE EXTRAORDINARY ENTERTAINMENT. SEE HOW THEY’RE
USING PHOTOSHOP TOOLS TO HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN

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M
oonbot Studios began when friendships In fact, this shared passion for storytelling is one asset. It’s our major strength,” explains creative
converged to form a place of outstanding essentially what continues to bind the latest team partner Oldenburg.
individual talent. Partners Brandon members together, now including art lead Joe Moonbot always keeps an eye out for exciting and
Oldenburg, William Joyce and Lampton Bluhm and artists Tyler Schatz and Christina Ellis. As innovative ways to deliver its projects. “A great
Enochs all had experience in different areas of the individuals and as a collective, they strive to present example is the way we’ve dabbled in augmented
entertainment industry. The three teamed up to tell work in every available medium – even those yet to reality,” Oldenburg reveals. “Projects include the
the stories they wanted to in new and exciting ways, be fully realised commercially. “It’s important to have IMAG-N-O-TRON app for our Morris Lessmore
on their terms and with their friends. They did this every discipline covered by the best of the best, but a picture book and the Diggs Nightcrawler video game
while operating out of Louisiana, USA. real passion for what we do is our team’s number for the PlayStation Wonderbook.” However, he’s

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eye on design studio interview

quick to warn that the gimmick is always secondary

to the story. “We need to be certain that it makes
sense for a story to be told in that medium before we
work with it.”
The entire team share the belief that life is too
short, which would explain Moonbot’s willingness to
experiment no matter how precarious it may be. This
leads to Oldenburg urging you to enjoy what you do.
“We have to appreciate the process and the journey
just as much as the final product,” he adds. “It’s cool
when clients recognise your playful nature and it
affirms you’re doing something right. This is how we
are, and play is at the core of everything we do.”
Oldenburg describes most of the Moonbot team
as generalists in terms of style, which allows them
to produce many looks and end products. Each team
member has a fundamental art skill, but must they
also have multiple talents. This seems essential in
the modern creative arena. “The same person that
paints the backplate for a film might help design a
character for a game,” explains Oldenburg. “If things
change, we then have the ability to adapt to each and
every circumstance.”
So far, Moonbot Studios has had a ‘build it and
they will come’ approach. The studio’s first project,
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,
set a high standard. “We knew that our first foot
forward had to be our best. It sets the bar for
everything else you do,” reveals Oldenburg. “You’re
only as good as the last thing you did. Our clients

We knew that our first foot

forward had to be our best.
It sets the bar for everything else
you do
acknowledge this quality and expect the same from
everything they ask us to do.”
This means Moonbot’s commercial work can
become very involved. With this in mind, Oldenburg
makes sure the chemistry is right when working
with clients. He explains: “As much as clients court
us and kick our tires, we do the same to them. We
want to make sure the brand we’re associated with
meets our standards. This way, we’re invested in
every project we take on and so are our clients.”
The team makes sure that the entire process is
documented, with the intention of sharing as much
of it as possible. “That’s one of our favourite parts of
our ‘special sauce’,” muses Oldenburg. “I grew up on
DVD extras and there’s a whole DIY community that
wants to know how an end product was made.”
Showing the world the cogs in their machines allows
their audience to become more emotionally involved
in all Moonbot Studios’ projects.
Moonbot is armed with the latest creative arsenal,
allowing Oldenburg and his team to continue to

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Diggs Nightcrawler
character DesigN
See HoW MooNbot StuDioS DeSigNeD itS leaD
cHaracter for DiggS NigHtcraWler uSiNg
PHotoSHoP bleNDiNg MoDeS aND bruSHeS
Diggs Nightcrawler is Moonbot Studios’
latest video game for PlayStation’s
Wonderbook augmented-reality
platform. The project was created in
collaboration with the Sony London
Studio and Exient. “It’s a film noir,
mother goose story about a bookworm
detective who needs to find out who
bumped Humpty off the wall,” explains
art lead Joe Bluhm. “I relied heavily on
reference material, including Humphrey
Bogart’s appearances in film noir Diggs Nightcrawler is a bookworm detective
seeking to find out who pushed his pal
movies, to create the character design Humpty Dumpty in Moonbot’s game for the
PlayStation Wonderbook
for Diggs Nightcrawler.”

01 sketCh digitally
Start designing characters with sketches,
both on paper and in Photoshop. Different opacity
02 reFine the sketCh
Once the team likes a sketch, we flesh it
out by painting more detail and volume. Change
03 Create volume
Create a new layer above the silhouette
one and link both together. This new layer is the
settings and blending mode options can emulate the sketch layer mode to Multiply and paint a place to develop a sculpted version of the character.
traditional light table or tracing paper techniques. silhouette on a layer underneath, creating a base Clipping masks conveniently allow you to paint
This way of working gives more freedom to iterate. for your painting so it looks more 3D. within a silhouette.

04 CharaCter variations
Once the design is looking more
three-dimensional, you can easily create variations
05 adding Colour to diggs
You can paint on a new layer and colour
the sculpted designs using blending modes such
06 Final look
Once the design is nailed down and the
team are happy with the direction, our technical
using the Lasso tool and Transform functions. You as Color and Overlay. This lets you quickly get a artists create the 3D character you see in the video
can move around parts, then deform and distort feel for how a final composition might look. You game. The more efficient we are with the art, the
them quickly, creating design variations to present can also give your image an extra kick by adjusting more time we have to spend on crafting the
to the team. Hue and Variations. in-game details.

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anticipate and experiment with innovative design Moonbot toolkit. “As we’re developing a visual style through a bunch of bad ideas fast. It’s easy to be
processes. “We have Dell computers with tons of for a project, we’ll download or create brushes to precious with things too soon.”
RAM so our artists can paint extremely large share among the team,” Oldenburg tells us. “This is Although Adobe Photoshop lets you work at the
backplates for our animated films,” he explains. helpful because it keeps the style consistent among required pace, it will not do all the hard work for you,
Most of the Moonbot team use Wacom tablets, artists with different approaches.” you have to do this yourself. Neither will the other
either Cintiq or Intuos. They also occasionally use Speed is of the essence at a commercial studio advanced software. “Diverse skills, love of
Python to automate exporting images from like Moonbot, and Oldenburg does admit to being storytelling and being really, really good at what you
Photoshop, based on different parameters for each hard set on ensuring this mantra is stuck to. “I’m do are also essential,” admits Oldenburg. “Draw from
project. “We use Photoshop almost exclusively when always analysing how much time it takes to create life and do this a lot. Many members of our team
texturing 3D assets that are created in Maya, as well something. Speed is really important, so that we can have known they wanted to work at a place like this
as for textures composited later in Nuke,” explains have the time on the back end to make a project since they were six years of age. It’s love at first sight
Oldenburg. “We use several other programs from the great,” he explains. “I want to get to the final idea as because of their passion. It’s like we’ve been waiting
Adobe Creative Suite as well, from both version CS5 soon as possible. To do that, you’ve got to get to meet them our whole lives.”
and CS6.”
Photoshop, however, is used in almost every
phase of Moonbot’s workflow: whether it’s painting
and illustrating books, designing app icons and
interfaces, or texturing assets for games. “Heck, we
even use it to produce model sheets, style frames,
character design, storyboarding, point-of-sale
displays and marketing material,” Oldenburg adds.
Amazingly, he continues by saying, “but that’s just a
tiny bit of how we use it.”
The team all use Layer Comps when
storyboarding. “We’ll start by creating a frame in
Photoshop, usually a layer for backgrounds and
characters,” explains Oldenburg. “We’ll then group
layers together for each shot. The Behind blend
mode for brushes is useful for painting behind line
drawings. We’ll then add a Layer Comp for each
frame.” Hot keys are set up on each creative
member of staff’s tablets so that they can quickly
move through groups, seeing what’s working in the
sequence and what is not.
Painting is a technique that is heavily involved in
all of the studio’s concept and illustration work, so
Photoshop brushes have become a vital part of the

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF CHrIsTINA ELLIs

Christina is Currently working on art for Moonbot’s upCoMing piCture book, the nuMberlys. she takes the tiMe to share her day

09:00 Look up
inspiration
In the morning, I usually try to
09:30 Work on
thumbnaiLs
Today, I’m working on the cover
11:00 making
brushes
I’ve made and modified some
11:15 adding
texture
This is one of the brushes I’m
12:00 reference
materiaL
We have a big reference library
find something cute and fun to of The Numberlys picture book, Photoshop brushes to use on working with today. I’ve shared at Moonbot and I have really
keep on my computer monitor so I started with thumbnail the illustrations for The it with Kenny Callicutt, another enjoyed checking out Little
throughout the day. sketches from William Joyce. Numberlys book. artist working on the project. Nemo in Slumberland.

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Top 5
producTion Tips
At Moonbot, we’re AlwAys trying to find better
wAys to collAborAte, off And online
■ brainstorm ideas
Go through 99 bad ideas as fast as you can because the 100th
one will be great. Quick iteration is incredibly valuable. Nothing is
too precious at the start of a project.

■ CommuniCate regularly
Stand up, walk away from the computer and talk to the people
around you. This makes your ideas better and it’s much more
fun to involve others.

■ prioritise tasks
Get to work early. Start the day by looking at your to-do lists and
prioritise. Doing this every day helps you focus your efforts.

All images © Moonbot studios

■ take a break
Your professional work is only as good as the time spent off
work. You need to find a balance. Great work doesn’t come from
working all day, every day, for your entire life.

■ get organised
We collaborate all the time and pass PSDs from artist to artist.
Having your layers and files organised makes the whole
process a lot easier. Just be sure to name layers appropriately.

13:00 Changing
the hue
The Numberlys is mostly a
14:00 time for a
break
Whenever I need a rest, I sketch
15:00 adding
textures
This afternoon, I’m using Quick
16:00 dolls on
my desk
I keep dolls and toys on my
17:00 end of
the day
I report the time I’ve worked on
monochromatic book, but on the back of printouts. I’m Masks in Photoshop to add a desk, which are sometimes the project in our time-tracking
sometimes I add a sepia tone here nine hours a day, so different texture to this part of cute and sometimes creepy. system at the end of every day.
using Hue/Saturation. breaks are important. the illustration. They help me to stay inspired. This helps us stay organised.

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 TIP S FOR
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PROFESSIONAL
DESIGNERS
PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS SHARE THEIR ESSENTIAL TIPS TO HELP
YOU TAKE YOUR ARTWORK TO THE NEXT LEVEL

MATTE PAINT FROM A RENDER

JACEK PILARSKI
http://jacekpilarski.com
Digital matte painter Jacek Pilarski explains how to create an image from a 3D render. “The
most important thing at the beginning is to get the right shape from renders. Everything else, like colours
and additional details, can be corrected or added in Photoshop along with photos and painting retouches.
There are a few ways of creating 3D matte painting. Personally, I like to build my scene around one render.”

01 THE 3D RENDER
“Height Map from National Map Viewer is a
fast way to create believable terrain. After saving the
02 ADD SKY TO SET THE MOOD
“I created two clipping masks set to Multiply
and Lighten, filled with the cloud and distant sky
03 FINISHING TOUCHES
“Finally, I added textures and renders, and
painted in elements like foliage and the figure. Since I
map with MICRODEM, I improved the quality using colours, which were manipulated using Opacity and wanted to imply more action with motion blur, I
World Machine and its erosion node. I also exported Curves. I added sunlight on a duplicate layer set to painted most of the elements in the first plane
Flow and Deposition maps for distribution in Vue.” Screen mode and again adjusted with Curves.” instead of modelling them, to speed up the process.”

© Jacek Pilarski

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The key to
blending the
CGI render and the
stock photo is to
match up their
lighting setups
MIKE CAMPAU /
MIKECAMPAU.COM

■ Shadows
“I created shadows cast from the
sculpture on the dancer and vice
versa. Doing this correctly is key
to making composites believable”

BLEND CGI AND

PHOTOSHOP
MIKE CAMPAU
■ Render www.mikecampau.com
“Using alphas from the render and
Digital artist Mike Campau
creating custom masks to isolate
the dancers, I had to carefully created this image as part of the ‘Motion in
intertwine the two together” Air’ series. Each image freezes a moment
of time in a dancer’s aerial maneuver
and turns them into static sculptures
that represent their motion and style.
“Original dancer shots were stock
photography and stylised to fit
within the scene. The sculptures and
stage areas were created entirely with CGI
using Luxology’s MODO. The key to blending
the CGI render and the stock photo is to
match up their lighting setups. In this case, I
was starting with a photograph, so I had to
© Mike Campau

■ Colour grading
harmonise lighting in CGI to make sure all the
“To finish each image, I applied some highlights and shadows matched colour,
colour grading using a combination of intensity and direction.”
photo filters, Curves and Gradient Maps”

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TECHNIQUES 15 TIPS FOR PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS

USE GRADIENT
SHAPES EFFECTIVELY
ARI WEINKLE
http://ariweinkle.com
Ari Weinkle is an artist and designer who has
been working in the industry for six years,
during which time he has worked for clients such as Adobe and
Shutterstock. He created this geometric artwork, The Alternative Of Two,
using Photoshop’s Shape tools and Gradient options. “Gradient shapes are a
key part of my workflow. In this artwork, they add another layer of depth. To see
this effect in action, begin by creating a triangle using the Polygon tool and changing
the number of sides to three in the settings. From there, set the Fill to a two-colour gradient at a 90-degree
angle. Duplicate your triangle by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. Next, position the new layer to the right of your base
layer. Use the Direct Selection tool to grab the top point of the shape and drag it over to the left so that it is at
the same point as the previous shape layer. Then, grab the point at the bottom-right and drag it so that it is
above the left corner, creating a faux 3D pyramid. Finally, change the angle of the gradient to 130 degrees
under the Fill options. Using this technique with different types of shapes can create incredibly varied results.
Alternatively, you can combine different colour gradients to create a more surreal effect.” © Ari Weinkle 2013

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CREATE SYMMETRY FORM HARMONY DON’T FAKE IT

IN GRAPHICS AMONG OBJECTS
DAVID COUSENS
www.coolsurface.com
LUCA MOLNAR JONATHAN FOERSTER
www.lucamolnar.com For designer David Cousens,
www.atleastwedream.com
Illustrator and painter Luca one of the vital ingredients to
Digital artist Jonathan
Molnar knows how important it good artwork is authenticity.
Foerster uses an array of
is to balance an illustration. “Creating symmetry is “Take the time to research the subject and content of
different elements in his work, from stock
very easy to do in Photoshop; it can also really make your designs: look at reference photos, watch films,
photography to 3D rendered objects. “When
a piece stand out. Just Ctrl/right-click on the layer read up about the subject in books or visit a relevant
piecing elements together, I generally use
containing your object, choose Duplicate Layer, then place. Your research will inform you and filter into
colour correction, saturation adjustments,
go to Edit>Transform and choose Flip Horizontal or your artwork, and your audience will recognise the
contrast adjustments and the brushing of
Flip Vertical. Now place your new object next to your authentic details and be impressed. When you try to
highlights and shadows using different blend
previous one to make your composition symmetric. fake details, somebody will always notice. Being well
modes. This gives the [impression] that objects
Use guides to make sure it is all in the right place.” informed helps to avoid making any silly mistakes”.
are in the same space and lighting. When
finalising the piece, I make these adjustments © David Cousens
as well to ensure harmony as a whole.”
© Luca Molnar 2013

© Jonathan Foerster

USE A MOOD BOARD TO PLAN PROJECTS

ALEXANDER OTTO
www.alexanderotto.com
Alexander Otto is an art director and designer who has been in the
industry for seven years. He has worked for some impressive clients,
such as Alfa Romeo, Redbull, Mazda and Chanel. Otto was given the opportunity to work
on style frames for the Infiniti FX50 project, on behalf of Parasol Island (www.parasol-
A lot of detail went into these style frames to ensure that the final
island.com). The main idea was to figure out how they could integrate the car into a dark result was well integrated
and foreboding landscape. “Before I start a new project, the first thing that I do is find
reference images and use these to create a rough mood board. This helps you to visualise
the direction and idea that you plan to go with, but it also makes sure that you and the
client are on the same page before you head too deep into your design. As soon as a clear © Alexander Otto

design direction is set, you can spend the hours making your design work and look
beautiful, but before that you should make sure everything is set. That not only saves you
time later on, but also keeps you from becoming frustrated and unmotivated.”
The style frames were created using lots of different photographic
sources, perfectly composited together

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TECHNIQUES 15 TIPS FOR PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS

BUILD UP YOUR
ILLUSTRATIONS
STEVE SIMPSON
www.stevesimpson.com
Steve Simpson produced these
labels and neck hangers for El
Mariachi, a Mexican wine. He was initially engaged
by branding agency IKON BC just to illustrate the
neck hangers, but later was given the opportunity to
design and illustrate the labels. “The agency supplied
a template for the hangers, over which I sketched
my three amigos. Once approved, I scanned them
into Photoshop and used them as a base for my
illustration. First, I copied the pencil drawing onto a
new layer, reduced its opacity and set it to Multiply,
allowing me to use it as a guide for rendering the
layers beneath it. Using the Shape tool, I traced the
main elements of the characters onto multiple layers
and adjusted the colours accordingly. I then
rasterised the shapes, locked down the transparency,
and using a textured brush, added depth, light and
shade. I spend a lot of time tweaking colours using
the Hue/Saturation slider. To give the colours a little
more depth, I added a couple of layers of scanned-in
paper textures, one set to Multiply for shadows and
the second set to Linear Dodge for highlights.”

© Steve Simpson

© Mario Sánchez Nevado USE SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS

TO BLEND STOCK
MARIO SÁNCHEZ NEVADO
http://aegis-strife.net
Mario Sánchez Nevado created this colourful
composite as an advertising poster for artistic
collective Hysterical Minds’ (www.hystericalminds.com) exhibition at
the Parallax Art Fair, London 2012. “When I build photomanipulations, I
need several stock photographs from many different sources, such as
stock image websites or my own photography. The quality, lighting and
other specifications tend to be quite different from each other, so my
main goal is to homogenise them and make them look as if they were
taken in the same shoot. My preferred method for this is to use
Shadows/Highlights, which you can find in the Image>Adjustments
menu. It allows you to correct over and underexposed areas of the
photos, lightening or darkening pixels according to the overall
luminance of the picture. This is very useful for creating a consistent
light spectrum across the different stock files. Depending on their
original lighting conditions (intensity, direction, harshness etc), you can
use settings to achieve similar lighting [across all of the photographs].”

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“Using this method should give your
image better contrast, make it sharper
and boost your highlights”

■ Final touch
“If you make any additional changes to
your image, you will need to redo the
High Pass effect”

■ High Pass
“A High Pass layer is often used to
sharpen images in Photoshop and is
ADD CONTRAST AND HIGHLIGHTS commonly used by pros”
PERTTU MURTO
www.perttumurto.com
This image, One Night, is an EP cover for a band called Timeflies, and was
created by Perttu Murto. Here, he shares his technique for giving an image

© Timeflies, Perttu Murto

some final contrast and highlights, making artwork look and feel like a professional package.
First, you need a flattened or merged layer of everything you have done, and then you need to
duplicate that layer. “Go to Filter>Other>High Pass and change the Radius value as you wish,
experimenting to find the right value for your piece. After that, change the High Pass layer to
Overlay and then play with the opacity.”

WORK WITH The quality,

MIXED MEDIA lighting and other
DARIUSZ SZWEDO
www.d-sphotography.co.uk specifications of the
Add interest to your digital artwork by
incorporating traditional media, as photographer
stock photographs I
Dariusz Szwedo did in this graphics based image. “The use tend to be quite different
main image was from a set of photographs of my
friend and some stock photos. In order to achieve the
from each other, so my main
paint effect, I have scanned in some ink splashes which goal is to homogenise them and
I made myself, as well as some brush presets. Several
shapes were also brought into the image: simple
make them look as if they were
taken in the same shoot. To do
©Dariusz Szwedo

circles as well as some lines were created with the

Polygon tool. Finally, shadows were done with a simple
selection filled with black and a Gaussian Blur set to
this, I use Shadows/Highlights
about 500.”
MARIO NEVADO / HTTP://AEGIS-STRIFE.NET

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001

SOURCE THE
RIGHT
002 PHOTOGRAPHY
BART VAN LEEUWEN
www.oedipoes.com
Bart van Leeuwen’s
amazingly detailed photomanipulations are
the result of carefully selected photographic
elements. “BM-Doublicious (shown here) is
made out of several more or less
recognisable parts, such as the front of a car
(for the body) and a gas turbine (for the gun).”
The best thing that you can do for your
photomanipulations is to spend a few
minutes working out what kind of
photography you need, so that you can
search with a purpose. For this image, van
Leeuwen was looking for “shiny metallic
parts; a reflective car door or a motorcycle
helmet, for example.”
003 001 | Work to a guide
“For the overall composition, I used a few photographs
of female models as guidelines, onto which I placed
the photographic parts”

002 | Use similar photos

“The key to making it all believable is consistency of
the photographic parts [in terms of] contrast, colour
and lighting”

003 | Get creative

004
© Bart van Leeuwen
“Even the limbs and headgear in this artwork are made
from photographs, which can be manipulated to fit
their intended use in the image”
004 | Key tools
“Essential tools for this kind of image are quite basic:
the Pen tool for cutting out and the Warp tool for
deforming stock”

BUILD A BRILLIANT BACKDROP

RICHARD ROBERTS
http://richardbroberts.com
Richard Roberts created this image for Tiger Beer’s Tiger
Translate, which aims to celebrate global creativity through
exposure to different cultures and experiences. Bringing creative artists from the
East and West together, they showcase their artistic collaborations spanning the
areas of music, design and art, fashion, dance, photography and more.
“One of the key features in designing this piece was creating a soft Asian
mountain backdrop. Compiling a few images together with different layer blending
modes, specifically Overlay and Soft Light, did this. The key is to start with a very
soft plain background such as calm clouds. After that, bring in your mountain stock
photos and use Overlay or Soft Light, and mess around with the opacity.
I usually turn the images I am laying down to black and white by desaturating
them so that they pick up the colours of the base image. So, for example, my base
image was a soft, calm blue cloud photo. I laid a dark contrasted black-and-white
mountain photo on top of that and played with the blending mode. Overall, this is a
fantastic tip when trying to achieve an almost silhouetted background in your
image. It can also be done with trees, which looks fantastic. It can really give your
piece that extra edge.”

I usually turn the images I am laying down

© Richard Roberts

to black and white by desaturating them so

they pick up the colours of the base image
RICHARD ROBERTS / HTTP://RICHARBROBERTS.COM

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painted roots, and changed their blending mode to Normal.
This allowed me to make colour corrections within each group
without affecting others. There is another nice trick to keeping
a dark image saturated at the same time: change the blending
mode of the Exposure layer to Luminosity.”
©Radim Malinic

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www.brandnu.co.uk
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Contributors
ADAM SPIZAK RADIM MALINIC STEVE SIMPSON ARCHAN NAIR
WWW.SPIZAK.COM WWW.BRANDNU.CO.UK HTTP://STEVESIMPSON.COM HTTP://ARCHANN.NET
Digital illustrator Adam Art director Radim Award-winning Art director Archan
Spizak lives by the Oil Malinic strongly illustrator Steve Nair uses every filter
Paint filter, using it to believes that well Simpson uses only a at his disposal and
produce the exciting, thought out filter few filters, to create any that suits his
vibrant style seen application improves believable imitations of surreal mixed media
© Archan Nair

throughout his the editorial images traditional print effects style at that point of
portfolio of work. for his clients. in his projects. his invention.

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TECHNIQUES CREATIVE FILTERS IN PHOTOSHOP

working with stock images that don’t always come

This image is a prime example of
with the same quality.” how the Gaussian Blur filter can
be easily used to detach UI
His last sound bite is of course referring to the elements and create a
three-dimensional effect,
new Photoshop CC Camera Shake Reduction filter. highlighting widgets
Matte painters, creative retouchers and digital
illustrators will certainly put this option to good use,
under the circumstances noted by Spizak. All these
art forms are steeped in photomanipulation and rely
on compatible detail to create authentic looks. This
serves as a prime example of how important the
appropriate use of a filter can be when achieving
successfully visual outcomes.

FASTER WITH FILTERS

This is an opinion shared by art director, illustrator
and graphic designer, Radim Malinic (www.
brandnu.co.uk). “To me, Photoshop filters are like
candy sprinkles on a chocolate cake. They play a
crucial part and add to the final ingredient,” he
muses. “But much like sprinkles without a base,

© Grégoire Vella
you can’t make a great looking image with just a
bunch of filters. Well thought out filter application
always adds that much-needed finishing flourish,
adding depth to an image.”
Even more fundamental is the ability to deliver
your work within the deadline given, and combining
This isn’t the same as cutting corners. Utilising
the correct filters with the right tools becomes your filters to boost your strengths will make
essential. “This isn’t the same as cutting corners,”
adds Spizak. “Utilising your filters to boost your
you more competitive in the creative arena
strengths will make you more competitive in the ADAM SPIZAK / WWW.SPIZAK.COM
creative arena.”
Adobe also realises this, so the latest filter and make a cup of coffee while waiting for the “Photoshop is such a vast tool that certain filters
functionality serves to help you improve your progress bar to finish. It really could take ten might be used in a lot of areas and never in others.
workflow. Photoshop CC caters for users who like minutes or more. I think if anything, my style might So I never find any of them totally useless.”
to make manual adjustments, but this new have been influenced by finding and adapting filters Some artists are far more dedicated in their use
software also does a great job fixing any image and brushes to create effects more conveniently.” of filters, however, which determines the version of
automatically. Latest algorithms lay the foundation There will always be filters that seem obsolete. Photoshop they use. Digital illustrator Adam Spizak
for impressive editing, which is just one more However, Photoshop’s user base spans many levels is a prime example, as he endorses Photoshop CS6
reason to embrace these latest additions. and markets, so what some may consider as old and the Oil Paint filter introduced with this version,
New functionality has been well received. As and useless could be a vital tool for someone else. although he runs this from the Creative Cloud. This
Malinic tells us: “Photoshop should be a tool that Illustrator and art director Archan Nair (http:// allows him to successfully fuse photography, digital
helps you achieve your ideas much quicker. archann.net) agrees. Although filters have never painting and 3D in his signature style.
Whether it be just trying different art direction ideas dictated his style, they’ve definitely contributed to Spizak admits that 3D elements can make his
or cramming for an urgent deadline, all the latest and enhanced the mixed media looks in his work. digital illustration especially sterile. “Being able to
filters offer a myriad of possibilities to finish an Those he chooses to use depend on the direction of give these a softer look with this filter makes my
editorial or graphics piece with ease.” However, with a piece of work and feeling he gets from it. work feel more authentic and less synthetic. I would
Photoshop CC, it’s as much about the method as it
is the outcome. Many of the CS6 filters are now
applicable as Smart Filters, so you can run them New Camera Raw filter
non-destructively. This reflects how older filter
Photoshop CC combines the power of Adobe Camera
versions are still being readily adopted.
Raw 8.0 (ACR), now available as a filter option. The
reason why this is so great is that the Camera Raw
CLASSIC FILTERS
filter presents its own host of new options that
Subsequently, this coupling of old and new shows
improve image results. These can be applied to any
how Adobe has actually been packing Photoshop
merged image or image layer in your stack. The
full of useful filter upgrades since version CS6,
all-new Spot Removal tool, Upright controls and
perhaps even earlier. Award-winning illustrator and
Radial filter are applicable. The Camera Raw filter is
designer Steve Simpson (http://stevesimpson.
also wholly editable at any time, as it can be applied
com) certainly thinks so, as he reveals: “I’ve been
as a Smart Filter.
using Photoshop since 2.5, when you had to go off

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FILTER UPDATES IN PHOTOSHOP CC
TAKE A LOOK AT HOW FILTERS HAVE PROGRESSED OVER THE YEARS

■ ALL-NEW SMART SHARPEN FILTER ■ NEW SHAKE REDUCTION FILTER

The all-new Smart Sharpen can still be found from the Filter>Sharpen menu. A Photo editing has never been so easy with the brand-new Camera Shake filter.
new Noise slider now sits in the dialog, which lets you boost the Amount slider This fixes single-focus images that have been affected by your hands shaking
like never before, combating artefacts through improved algorithms. Even at a when shooting. The filter’s algorithms go about radically fixing images
maximum Amount of 500%, you’re able to create usable effects. automatically, but you can also manipulate effects manually.

■ UPDATED BLUR
GALLERY
The Blur Gallery was one of the
more notable updates in
Photoshop CS6, supplying users
with three brand-new filter types
to create effects with. These
include Field Blur, Iris Blur and
Tilt-Shift. A simple new interface
with on-image and in-context
controls enables users to quickly
create photographic blur effects
with one focal point, or vary the
blurriness between multiple focal
points. This still exists in
Photoshop CC, but is a little more
special, as you can now apply any
of the Blur Gallery filters as a
Smart Filter.

■ UPDATED LIGHTING
EFFECTS FILTER
This update in Photoshop CS6 finally
addressed dialog size issues, allowing
you to apply effects full-screen – no more
squinting! CS6’s new Adobe Mercury
Graphics Engine reinforced improved tool
functionality, with effects applicable in
real-time on screen. The filter includes
three options: Spot Lights lets you alter
the intensity, location and direction; Point
Lights, acting as a light bulb does, lets
you alter location and intensity, but not
direction; Infinite Lights completes the set
and is more distant, only letting you
change intensity or colour. Each is now
also applicable as a Smart Filter in
Photoshop CC.

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TECHNIQUES CREATIVE FILTERS IN PHOTOSHOP

advise you to avoid the Shine setting though, as this

option can make the elements look too clayish and
Photoshop is such a vast tool that certain filters
moody.” He’ll also apply digitally painted looks on might be used in a lot of areas and never in
top of 3D elements using the very same filter, which
is an essential step in his work process.
others. So I never find any of them totally useless
On a very basic level, using the Oil Paint filter is ARCHAN NAIR / HTTP://ARCHANN.NET
great to blend colours while keeping image edges
and silhouettes intact. “Often, after base shapes are
added, I’ll apply the Oil Paint filter to blend colours, invisible to the end viewer,” reiterates other creative Similar filters play a huge part in Middle Boop’s
working with thumbnail on quite high settings. Oil director Nathan Goldman. work (www.middleboop.com), by illustrator
Paint>Stylization is set to 7 and Cleanliness to 40, Gordon Reid. When he started out using Photoshop,
which polishes shape detail,” he explains. FILTERS FOR PRINT his work was very flat and a lot more hand-
Full service graphic design and illustration studio Since the majority of DKNG’s work is also screen rendered. “As I developed skills in Photoshop, I
DKNG Studios (www.dkngstudios.com) also printed, the team starts by using very basic layers began to experiment with all sorts of filters,” he
continues to use CS5, primarily out of convenience and shapes. “We’ve since graduated to using a lot of reveals. “Eventually, I found a number of go-to types
and familiarity with the software. Creative director texture and depth in our work,” explains Kuhlken. that have been used in countless pieces of my work,
Dan Kuhlken explains: “The basic filters we tend to “Filters have allowed us to explore a more realistic and have really been a key factor in evolving it.”
use are Guassian Blur, Render Clouds and Add style, while at the same time being able to output Now, he uses Photoshop filters to help create
Noise. These are usually just a first step that we can halftone separations required for our print medium.” work for all manner of formats, including branding,
refine later. We don’t require filters with very robust DKNG use Gaussian Blur filter to blur the infographics, editorial illustration, vinyl, advertising
option settings.” halftone dots until they disappear. “This lets us work campaigns, and surprisingly, web design. “Filters
Based on the simplicity of the filters DKNG use, with a close approximation of the original, add depth and texture to my illustrations, and
these seem to have had a lot of staying power. anti-aliased file,” reveals Goldman. “This is typically without them I don’t feel my work would be of as
“They’re so universally used and can be fairly subtle achieved with a Gaussian Blur>Radius of 5.0px, but high a calibre,” he admits. “For example, without the
in appearance. We try to avoid being overbearing varies depending on the texture, size of the halftone Noise, Gaussian Blur and Motion Blur filters, my
with our use of filters because we want them to be dots, as well as the resolution.” piece for West One Music wouldn’t be as strong.”

Filters for poster design

DKNG use the Gaussian Blur filter to imitate depth

01 SEPARATE LAYERS
Artwork should be imported
into Photoshop in at least three layers,
02 APPLY GAUSSIAN BLUR
With the background layer
selected, apply a Gaussian Blur with
recreating a foreground, mid-ground Radius set between 5 and 7px. This
and background. This is so you can creates a deeper, more distant look.
independently apply varying degrees of Reducing the opacity of this layer will
blur and opacity to each layer. also create the illusion of depth.

03 LAYER BLURRED
EFFECTS
With the mid-ground layer
selected, apply Gaussian
Blur again, with the Radius
set at half the value of the
first – between 2 and 4px.
© 2012 DKNG Studios

This creates the appearance

of an object that is
positioned just below the
surface of the water.

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001 MULTIPLE
FILTERS
DIGITAL ILLUSTRATOR ADAM
SPIZAK REVEALS HOW HE ADDS
PHOTOSHOP FILTERS TO CREATE
PAINTERLY LOOKS

001 | Oil Paint filter

002 After the base render of the head is
complete, scale up the image by 100%
and apply the Oil Paint filter to blend
colour. This helps to remove jagged edges
and achieve a smooth outline. Set both
Oil Paint>Stylization and Cleanliness
settings at 4, with no Shine setting at all,
as you don’t need texture at this point.

002 | Liquify filter

Liquify can be a lifesaver, especially when
working to tight deadlines. Constantly
jump back and forth to the Liquify tool
while painting to modify elements that
003 don’t fit or feel right. Use a large brush to
apply Liquify effects and change the
shape of the 3D renders.

003 | Back to Oil Paint

Once you have added the elements, apply
the Oil Paint filter again to unify your
image. All 3D elements get the Oil Paint
treatment to make sure they fit better
and look less artificial. Back flames get
Oil Paint>Stylization and Cleanliness
slider treatment, set to 2.5 and 3. This
retains detail, but softens sharp areas.

004

004 | Smart Sharpen filter

I use Smart Sharpen to exclude the
Highlights by setting this slider to the
© Adam Spizak

maximum value – the higher the setting,

the less visible sharpening will be. Set at
Amount of 167%, Radius at 5.6px and
Reduce Noise at 9%. Play with Shadow
settings to get a nice boost of detail in
darker areas.

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TECHNIQUES CREATIVE FILTERS IN PHOTOSHOP

Package design Filters have allowed us to explore a more

STEVE SIMPSON SHOWS US HOW HE USED FILTERS TO
realistic style, while at the same time output
REPLICATE TRADITIONAL PRINT EFFECTS halftone separations required for print medium
DAN KUHLKEN / WWW.DKNGSTUDIOS.COM

The Add Noise filter is certainly a valuable tool to and brown background. So I chose a photo of a cow
Reid,
Reid and especially so when his work takes on a in a meadow and added the Gaussian Blur filter,
more retro feel. He explains: “I rely on this often to setting the Radius at 60px. It’s funny because I’m
add the finishing touch to a piece. In my West One the only one who knew that’s a cow behind the
Music artwork, I applied then set the Noise>Add widget – the only one!”
Noise filter at an Amount of 44.79%, with Uniform Vella also predicts how the new Camera Raw
settings and Monochromatic active to achieve the filter in Photoshop CC will help to edit photo-based
perfect look.” web elements. “If I have to deal with photos, this

01 TRADITIONAL SKETCH
I was tasked with designing the
packaging for Mic’s Chilli Inferno Sauce. I was able
FILTERS WITH WEB
With regards to web design, many styles trending
new filter will no doubt save time,” he explains. “I’ve
already researched how to open a JPEG with
Camera Raw in CS6, but never found a direct
to consider and personalise each part of the bottle, are minimalist, clean and functional. Special effects solution. So from now, I know I can use the Camera
right down to the barcode. All the main elements are becoming rare, and perhaps applying filters for Raw filter directly, via the updated menu.”
were drawn using a retractable pencil to retain such projects goes against the grain. But certain So after reading what our experts have to say,
gritty pencil lines and a less digital feel. designers are still finding ways to make use of we once again pose the question: should you avoid
Photoshop filters. using Photoshop filters? It’s hard to move away
User Interface (UI) designer Grégoire Vella from 20 years of history and application. The
((www.gregoire-vella.com) still uses these to
(www.gregoire-vella.com gradual build up in development of the filters
produce three-dimensional effects. He too comes arsenal has given many creatives the chance to
back to Blur filters, as he explains: “I apply Gaussian work with some great all-time classics, to produce
Blur to create drop shadows or to detach UI convincing commercial design. Only time will tell if
elements from a background. For example, in my the latest additions will become as
Placemotion widget design, I needed a green, blue indispensable as the rest.

02 ADD THE STAMP FILTER

The pencil sketch was scanned into
Photoshop, where I applied Levels to increase
contrast and boosted resolution from 300 ppi to
400 ppi. I then applied the Stamp filter to the
slightly blurred image, creating a look similar to
linocut or block print.

03 PAINT COLOUR
Color Range was used to select black
areas, which I cut and pasted onto a separate
layer. I then coloured individual areas while
© Steve Simpson

retaining some of the pencil texture. Locking

down the layers and using the Brush tool lets you
rough out colours before committing.

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© Middle Boop

■ TOP
Apply Add Noise to a
layer placed over
the entire piece. Set
layer Opacity to
around 20% and
activate Uniform
and Monochramatic.
Amount was then
set at 35%
■ LEFT
Even though the
final image uses
really dark tonal
values, each of the
thistle plants has
extra contrast
added via High Pass

■ RIGHT
The flattened final
image was simply
Sharpened. Though
this filter is more for
photographers, it
works really well
with illustrations
and designs
© Radim Malinic

© Radim Malinic

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WORK WITH FILTERS TECHNIQUES

BOOK COVER DESIGN

WORK WITH FILTERS

T
CREATE COMMERCIAL STYLES WITH THE AID OF PHOTOSHOP FILTERS
IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER OPTIONS
he beauty of book covers is something that In this case, the story is about unexplained change
many designers and illustrators will talk in one person’s life. Graphic designer Radim Malinic
about at considerable length. Book cover was tasked with coming up with a design to portray
design might even be at the top of their lists, that. This tutorial goes behind the scenes to explain
just before album covers. It’s an exciting format to the logic behind the design process and decisions. An
work with, and if the book is successful, your image can say a thousand words and it is the
artwork can be seen everywhere. However, cover designer’s task to find the right representation to
design can also prove to be very tricky. Unlike achieve that with ease and finesse. You will find out OUR EXPERT
abstract album art, illustrators and digital artists can about stock image research, typeface choices, quick RADIM MALINIC
only skim the top of the full story when creating a retouching tips and of course, Photoshop filters. You www.brandnu.co.uk
Whether it’s work for international
book cover. So designing one for an elaborate tale can even follow the steps to create a book cover household brands or small start-up
can be difficult to get right. design of your choice. Let’s get started. businesses, Brand Nu provides
unrivalled, innovative and forward
thinking art direction and illustration.

@brand_nu
SEARCHING FOR STOCK
FIND THE RIGHT IMAGES AND CUT OUT CORRECTLY

WORK IN
PROGRESS
CONSTRUCT YOUR BOOK
DESIGN

01 THE RIGHT STOCK

The magic of digital collage illustration
begins with research for the right elements. The
02 DETAILED SEARCH
It pays off to spend extra time on the site
and do an extensive stock search, considering your Progress 1: A rough mock-up
success of an image depends on the quality of your options. Having a choice of a few images for each
chosen photo stock. As the budgets for projects can element also helps. Once Photoshop is open, it’s
be highly varied, a subscription website can help you better to be prepared than have to go back to find
with spreading out the image costs. additional stock.

03 CUT OUT IMAGES

As with any photo
collage project, the next part could
be either tedious or exciting,
depending on whether you enjoy Progress 2: Add effects
cutting out with the Pen tool. You
can minimise your efforts by
choosing images with white
backdrops, as these are much
quicker to extract via Channels, or
even the ever-so-improved
Background Eraser. Once you
have cut them out, save them as
a transparent PSD. Progress 3: Choose typeface

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TECHNIQUES WORK WITH FILTERS

04 LENS CORRECTION
Sometimes, even the best image will need
tweaking so that it fits right in your composition. The
05 EASY FILE IMPORT
This is when the fun starts. The images are
all prepared as single layers and can then be put into
06 ADD ADJUSTMENTS
The majority of the photo images were shot
at different times of the day, with different settings.
photo of the town house needs a heavy Lens a new Photoshop document to create the basic You need to blend the images closer together to
Correction to fix its perspective. Go to Filter>Lens layout. Since you have each object as a transparent make them look as if they are illustration elements,
Correction and click Custom. Vertical Perspective PSD, simply dragging them onto the main PSD with a surreal quality. To do this, add a Hue/
needs to be set to -68 and Horizontal Perspective to canvas right from the Finder window will spare you a Saturation adjustment layer and set Saturation to
-2. Set Scale to 66% so that the image doesn’t jump lengthy one-by-one import. By importing an image +25. Another important step is to bring out a better
out of the main view window. The roof is then directly, the layers will also retain their file names, contrast through Levels via an adjustment layer.
straightened using Free Transform. which will save you time renaming any. Select Preset>Increase Contrast 1.

07 DODGE AND BURN WITH BRUSHES

The previous step has already brought out much nicer colours, but the overall effect can be taken to
another level. Any regular object can be retouched to have extra shadows and highlights. This makes them a
08 BLEND IN IMAGERY
The elements should look like hybrids
between a photo element and a hand-drawn object.
little more exciting. Add a new layer with a Clipping mask and set its blending mode to Overlay. Press the D The Undergound sign, after being cut out from the
key to set foreground and background colour to default black and white. Activate your brush, select a soft image, is given a full black Color Overlay blending
round style and set brush Opacity at 10%. Use white brush strokes to accentuate highlights and black for mode set to Color Dodge, which will lighten the
shadows. This is technically dodge and burn, but with a lot more freedom and versatility. object. Then, in the same way, add Gradient Overlay
with colour #f4dec6, set to Normal at 64% Opacity.
These effects will remove some of the hard colour
values and make it blend better with other elements.

QUICK TIP
Some of the filters can be used as custom
patterns to save you time. Put an hour aside to
prepare noise layer patterns of various strength
and opacity. These can then be applied as a new
pattern via an adjustment layer, with extra
options to vary the effect.

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Retouch youR elements

Clone, transform and re-Colour objeCts in your digital illustration

09 second hAlF plAnning

Although there is a hint of the final image coming together, there’s still quite a lot to do. The book
cover needs to be bright in colour and full of exciting details. In the next few steps, you will retouch a few more
elements to give them a more illustrated look, clone out text and add more colour.

001 002 003

10 Blending options
In order to give the image full perspective,
you need a simple way of adding some ground for
the objects to stand on. The solution was found in a
cobbled street image, which was brought in and
warped to suit the angle. This was placed between
the main character and the buildings behind her.
Select Layer Style>Blending Options, hold down Opt/
Alt to separate the points and slide the Underlying
Layer options to a value of 124 /238 255.

Your element should look

almost like a film set item
001 002 003
or even a computer-generated
you need to retouch elements
successfully and also get pleasing
results quickly. it’s all about finding
signage in your elements can be
changed easily. just clip a new
layer on top, set Clone stamp to
select layer styles>Color overlay and
add a solid black colour (#000000), with
blend mode set to Color dodge. also add
object. Basically, anything but a
unexplored possibilities rather than
giving yourself a headache
sample all layers and clone out
any type
a white to transparent gradient overlay,
with opacity set to 64% regular photo cutout

11 Free trAnsForm edits

Continue to tweak the perspective using the
Free Transform options (Cmd/Ctrl+T). Apply this to
12 Work With detAil
Now repeat the process with the country
house. Its texture will provide for even more exciting
13 Add noise
Every step is about giving the image a fresh
identity. Create a new layer and fill it with a light grey
the building in your image, holding the Opt/Alt key to results. You can brush in-between tiles with small colour. Select Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set Amount
move the top-right corner out of the shape. Help brushes to achieve tonal opposites. Detailing can be to 35%, activating Uniform and Monochromatic.
yourself by switching on the transparent grid (Cmd/ very intricate, so create two new layers to apply each Create a copy of the layer but hide this duplicate.
Ctrl+;). This helps you to visualise the re-alignment of colour. This will help with any tonal overlays. Your Return to the original noise layer and lighten it using
right angles. Be sure to blend the bottom edge using element should look almost like a film set item or a Brightness & Contrast adjustment. Set its blending
a layer mask. Also apply the brush dodge and burn even a computer-generated object. Basically, mode to Multiply. Unhide the duplicate layer and set
technique learnt in Step 7. anything but a regular photo cutout. its blending mode to Vivid Light at 35% Opacity.

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TECHNIQUES WORK WITH FILTERS

3D EFFECTS
ADD BLUR AND SHADOW EFFECTS TO CREATE DEPTH OF FIELD

TYPE STYLE RESEARCH

It is important to pre-determine the cover type
and its balance with imagery and illustration. A
quick trip down to your local book shop will help
you to formulate your ideas. The style of some
current titles and their placement on the market
should give you an idea of what you do and don’t
want to do. In addition, bear in mind the sizes of

14 PAINT IN SHADOW
Your objects may still appear disjointed, so
cast shadows will help to make them look grounded.
15 TWO-TONE BACKGROUND
The two-tone background is actually quite
important, as it represents how this book is a story of
book covers on new devices such as kindle or
iPad. An alternative cover with a bold type is a
possibility, helping you not to compromise too
These shouldn’t be too harsh, but are subtly achieved two parts. Create a new layer above the background much on the printed edition design.
by painting with a simple soft round brush on a layer and fill it with pink (#e7a8cc). Create another new
set to Multiply. It’s never recommended to brush with
heavy brush opacity. As in Step 7, only use 10%
layer and fill this with orange (#f9be88). Click Cmd/
Ctrl+T to activate Free Transform and scale your
The two-tone background
Opacity and Flow. The virtual light source is heading orange layer so that it sits halfway on your page. is actually quite important,
from the bottom-right corner, diagonally through the
centre. Paint your shadows in an imaginary 11
Now add a vignette effect using Levels to breathe
more atmosphere into your design. Just paint out
as it represents how this book is
o’clock direction. your centre using a layer mask. a story of two parts

16 FONT STYLES
A design should give you an idea of the
story at first glance, therefore the choice of typeface
17 DROP SHADOW EFFECTS
You can work up the shadow on your main
type using a little trick called Drop Shadow. Open the
18 SMART OBJECT MASK
With all main elements firmly in place, see if
you can squeeze a bit more energy and motion into
is also important. There are thousands of options out Layer Styles options and add Drop Shadow with 25% the image. Get an image of a flower and cut out a
there. The ones used in this instance are Cheap Pine Opacity; Distance, Spread and Size all set to 10%/px; few petals. Place them around the canvas at various
for the lean, tall type and ITC Caslon 224 for the rest and angle at 90 degrees. Ctrl/right-click the FX sizes. Turn each flower layer into a Smart Object and
of the text. Their contrast strikes a nice balance option in your layer and select Create a Layer. This apply Gaussian Blur with Pixel Strength set between
between the modern-feel, condensed type and the will separate the shadow from the type, which is 4 and 8px. This will make the petals appear closer to
classic values of a serif. Feel free to experiment with automatically placed below the main layer. Click Free the viewer, causing a depth of field effect. Select one
other type styles and see and how they influence the Transform and push the shadow towards the centre of the petals and paint to the Smart Filter Mask to
final look of an image. of the page. This should create a camber-like effect. brush away some of the effect, for a subtle blur.

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MIXED MEDIA COLLABORATION TECHNIQUES

GRAPHICS

MIXED MEDIA
COLLABORATION
C
FIND OUT HOW TO TAKE YOUR TRADITIONAL IMAGE INTO DIGITAL SOFTWARE TO
CREATE THIS VIBRANT STYLE
ollaboration is defined as a process where all discussed in Phase 1. Andy Potts (www.
two or more people work together to realise andy-potts.com) then picks up the baton, running
shared goals – in this case, a super-vibrant with it headfirst into Photoshop. Phase 2 of this
piece of artwork. We have teamed up with tutorial explores ways to digitise your image using
two of the globe’s most talented mixed media photo stock, textures and more. These are
artists, from totally different ends of the creative combined with Prades’ impressive scanned
spectrum, and asked them to merge their illustration to produce this vibrant masterpiece.
comparative styles into one super style. Mixed Photoshop makes it all possible, of course, and
OUR EXPERT
media has never felt so energised. you’ll discover how to apply layer masks; crop, cut
SIMÓN PRADES
Traditional artist Simón Prades (www. and paste texture and image stock in new ways; www.simonprades.com
simonprades.com) puts pencil to paper in a and boost colour using adjustment layers combined Simón Prades is a freelance
productive way, showing you how to master with blending modes. By the end, you’ll have illustrator living and working in
Saarbrücken, Germany. He works
physical application for an authentic result. Brush mastered this fresh mixed media style, which is for editorial and advertising clients
such as The New York Times, Vice,
marks, paper types and post-production tools are applicable to any of your future projects. Nike and Serviceplan.

@simonprades
PHASE 1: TRADITIONAL MEDIA SOURCE FILES
SIMÓN PRADES SHOWS YOU HOW TO MASTER YOUR MARK-MAKING WITH HIS EXPERT DRAWING TECHNIQUES On the disc you can find the start
model file, ‘DSC_5534.jpg’, which

01
made this entire tutorial possible.
PENCIL ON PAPER Work from this using the steps to
Using the model in ‘DSC_5534.psd’ as a recreate all of the effects you
discover in these pages.
guide, sketch a face in pencil. Try to identify the
significant parts, for example the nose, eyes and
mouth. As all pencil lines will be erased later in the
creative process, you don’t have to be overly careful;
just go with the flow instead. This lets you add
interesting lines to work with when inking later on.

OUR EXPERT
ANDY POTTS
www.andy-potts.com
Andy Potts is a London-based
illustrator and motion designer. His
career has encompassed image
making, graphic design, animation
and art direction. He’s worked for
clients including the BBC, The New
York Times, Little White Lies and
Warner Music.

@AndyPottsTweet

03 FIND YOUR WAY

Also make sure you don’t spend too much

02 SIMPLE SHADING
Try not to go into too much into detail while
shading with your pencil marks, as you’ll want to
time obsessing over one area of the face – move
around as much as possible. This way, you won’t
lose the view of the whole image. You can learn a lot
save most of your efforts for when you’re detailing in by educating yourself on the hatching techniques of
ink. All you need to do is present the areas of the the masters like Rembrandt and Ingres, but you’ll
face that create shadow and contour, like the brow find your own way the more you work with pencil
and the nose. and paper.

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Techniques mixed media collaboration

05 dark to light
Remember: there is no going back when
working with this medium. Every line you draw is
permanent and you will have to live with it. A simple
way to tackle mark-making with ink is to approach
your drawing as you did with your pencil. Start
working in the darker areas of the image, then move
onto the lighter ones. Draw without fear and you’ll
make your inking look interesting in the end.

quick tip
A lot of people may ask themselves what the
point of drawing on paper with ink is, when

04
Photoshop, Illustrator and drawing tablets are
Work With ink
available. The main reason is that your way of
Once you feel as though there is enough information in the pencil marks, move onto working with
creating is always more unique when working in
ink; in this case made by Rohrer & Klingner. You only need to use a normal nib and brushes. There are lots of
analog. This shows much more about you and
different materials available for you to try and buy, but in the end what you feel comfortable using depends on
your rhythm than if you were to start directly in
your practice. This is more important than spending too much time looking for material in art shops.
digital media.
Sometimes it’s a case of the simpler the better.

06 Find your rhythm

Try to switch between pen and brush often,
so you achieve rhythm in your drawings. Rhythm is
07 embrace the medium
Little side effects of your ink drawing
always add personality. These include strokes or
08 time to stop
One of the biggest problems when drawing
freehand is knowing when to stop and say ‘enough is
actually something that is very important, as the points and circles you’ll leave on the paper, and are enough’ before moving on into the digital canvas. It’s
more you keep your hands moving, the more things you can’t experience when working digitally natural to spend too much time on something rather
interesting marks you’ll make. In parts like the hair, it with a tablet. It’s good just to let these happen, as than quitting too early, but sometimes you overdraw
doesn’t make sense to show each and every strand. you can still erase parts later. Also, keep sheets of the picture and regret doing it, by which time it’s too
So again, look out for lighter and darker areas and paper at hand for cleaning the brushes or noting late. A good drawing lives from the contrast between
use the brush, especially when there is not a lot of ideas. This is always a good source for textures you the light, sketchy parts and the areas where you
ink left on it, to create good textures. might want to use later when colouring digitally. really went into detail.

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09 Scan your image

After the work is dry, move onto digital
application by simply scanning the picture in. This is
10 Separate the blackS
The good thing about working with ink is
that you don’t have to worry too much about the
11 colour your black markS
Your black marks may now seem too harsh
when offset against your coloured background. You
better than taking a photo. If you’re working with an tonal correction once you’ve scanned to Photoshop. can add a new colouring to your black marks by
A4-size scanner, you’ll often have to merge parts in You would if you had scanned your pencil drawing. again selecting Color Range to target your black
Photoshop. Always aim to scan in around 200 per Just try to filter out all good black marks and lose the marks (Select>Color Range>Select: Shadows), then
cent larger than the intended final size, as this gives paper colour, using Select>Color Range. Choose fill the selection with a new colour. You might have to
you the possibility to crop the picture or rearrange Select: Shadows, then duplicate to a new layer. Erase try a few times to get the right one, but to help why
the composition and still have a high resolution at the original backdrop, create a new layer beneath not try starting with a dark blue hue (#17293f) like
the end. your ink layer and add a new colour (#b0c6c2). the one used in the example, so contrast isn’t lost?

12 intereSting arefactS
As mentioned before, there are little side effects that might appear in your image. Embrace the
strokes and splodges caused by drawing in ink, as they add personality and individuality to an image, even if
13 add more bruSh markS
When you have areas that feel a bit too
empty or perhaps just a little boring, you can always
not every art director will let you get away with keeping them in. If you want to highlight certain elements in a work with some of the brush strokes you created
graphical way, just paint beneath your line work on a new layer using a bright colour. Working with a drawing while drawing but didn’t use. Recycle these by
tablet helps a lot here, letting you paint precisely and keep inside the lines. scanning them in, colouring them using the
techniques in Step 11 and overlaying them on top of
your background, beneath your line work. Edit these
marks by lowering the layer opacity and working to
layer masks. These always look more authentic than
digital brushes. However, there are some very nice
expert brushes on the web, such as those by Kyle
Webster (www.kyletwebster.tumblr.com).

Embrace the strokes and

splodges caused by drawing
in ink, as they add personality
and individuality to an image

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14 Phase 2: enhance digitally
Let’s recap on what’s been done before
proceeding to phase 2, produced
by digitaL artist andy potts

choose select>color range

and separate your marks from
the original background by
duplicating them into a new
layer. this lets you re-colour
these using a simple selection
switch between pen and and the fill command. apply a
brush often, so you colour that achieves contrast
achieve rhythm in your with a new background
drawings. this is very
important, as the more you
keep your hands moving,
the more interesting
marks you’ll make

with your ink marks on a

separate layer and the old
background deleted, you
can now add a new one.
simply create a new layer
at the bottom of your layer
stack and fill this with a
colour that again
recycle your leftover contrasts with your newly
brush marks by scanning, coloured ink marks
copying and pasting these
into your artwork. position
them between your line
and background layers,
then re-colour and edit
with layer opacity and
layer masks to create a
mixed media effect

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16 cut out the model

Next, you’ll add flesh tones to the illustration
using the original photo. Open the ‘DSC_5534.psd’
file supplied, then choose Select>Color Range. Use
the Color Picker to choose the white space around

15 increase canvas size

To add a little breathing space around the traditional illustration, extend the canvas at the top and
sides. This provides more space at the top in particular. The decision to boost colours was made,
the model and set Fuzziness to 160, picking out
fiddly hair edges. Inverse the new image selection
choosing Select>Inverse. With the selection, activate
implemented by adding a new blue base colour (#02498b) on a new layer. Add a vector mask to this. Apply a the Lasso tool, hold Shift and quickly draw around
black to white Radial Gradient tool to the mask to make this colour layer faint around the edges and set the the face and hands area to complete a whole model
layer blending mode to Overlay. Duplicate this layer and remove the mask to strengthen the overall blue, but selection. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy and paste your
retain a more intense central area. selection to a new layer.

17 Place the face

Drag and paste the model cutout into your
working PSD. Set the Opacity of the illustrated model
18 Blue in the face
Hide the photo layer and reduce the opacity
of the brush marks. Select the cutout layer, press
19 style the hair
Use Gradient Map to apply colour to the hair
in the model photo layer beneath your face layer
layer to 50% to help position the photograph with the Cmd/Ctrl+U and set Saturation to -100. Hold Cmd/ group. Choose a bright magenta foreground and a
drawing accurately. Use Transform (T) to adjust the Ctrl+L and set Levels to create a higher contrast. royal blue background in the palette, then apply a
photographic face to fit the lines. Create a new path Duplicate this and place the new layer beneath the Gradient Map to the model photo, as shown in this
layer and use the Pen tool to trace around the original version. Set the foreground to dark blue and example. This will pick out magenta hair texture in
model’s face only. Select the Path (Cmd/ the background to light blue, then apply a Gradient the drawing. Use a mask and gradient to fade out the
Ctrl+Return). Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy and paste to Map. Set the blending mode to Soft Light at 50% body, leaving only the left side of the face affected.
a new layer and place this above the blue colour tints Opacity. Apply a layer mask to both layers and add Use the Lasso tool to create two simple selections at
created in Step 15. gradients as shown to blend elements. the front of the hair, painting in a magenta tint.

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Techniques mixed media collaboration

21 dEtail fEaturEs
Now that the colour, flesh tones and hair have been worked out, it’s time to add a few simple
finishing touches to the face to bring it to life. This is before working on the rest of the illustration. We’ll do this
by detailing certain key facial elements, like the eyes, lips and hair.

001 002 003

20 EyEs and lips

Use your Lasso tool to create simple eye
shape selection on a new layer under the drawing
layer. Fill these with an off-white colour. Select the
black-and-white face layer and create a selection
around the lips using the Lasso tool. Copy and paste
to a new layer, place above the illustrated model
layer and set blending mode to Hard Light and
Opacity at 50%. With the lip selection still active, 001 002 003
A sense of realism is important, A photographic layer has been placed above the You’ll now continue to add even more
create and fill a new layer above this one with a introduced with the photo model’s lips, set to hard Light blending mode to elements to enhance the mixed media
texture skin tones and the add more realism. An applied magenta colour feel of this collaborative image. You’ll
magenta colour. Set its blending mode to Color. colouring of the model’s eyes keeps the vibrant theme going be working with textures and masks

Adding digital textures to the illustration will help to blend the

photographic elements

23 zEbra tExturE
At this stage, you’ll want to add more visual 24 Edit shapEs with masks
Open ‘magenta_splat.psd’ and copy it. Back

22 add hints of yEllow

Now the face is in place, start to develop
the illustration and composition around it. Open
interest to the image. This will be in the form of
zebra marking in the brush marks in your backdrop.
Open ‘zebra_mask.psd’ supplied on the disc and
in your image, activate the illustrated model layer
and select Edit>Paste Special>Paste Into. Position
the magenta shape in the lower-left area of the hair.
‘yellow_dots.psd’ and drag it into your image, placing drag the layer into your image. Add a layer mask to Cmd/Ctrl-click the thumbnail yellow shape layer,
it beneath the illustrated model and eye shape layers the brush mark layers applied in Step 13. Select the create a new layer and fill your selection with
created earlier. Apply a Hard Light layer blend mode zebra shape by hovering the cursor over the layer magenta. Open and drag the circular ‘mask.psd’ into
to this new layer and do the same with ‘yellow_ thumbnail and click while pressing Cmd/Ctrl. your image. Select it, activate the previous magenta
shape.psd’. The yellow adds another colour dynamic Activate the brush mark layer mask and fill the zebra shape layer and click Add Vector Mask. Move your
to the illustration and highlights the model’s eyes selection with black to create the new mask shape in mask over the magenta shape to create the desired
and hair in unusual yet interesting ways. that texture. effect. Place behind the model’s hair.

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25 Add structure to your design

Open ‘bridge.psd’ and paste it into the
top-right of your image, under the blue tint layer.
26 texture imAge AreAs
Open ‘texture_1.psd’ and place it in the
bottom-left below the blue tint layer. Add a layer
27 texture the whole imAge
Adding texture to the illustration will help to
blend the photographic elements. Open ‘texture_2.
Open ‘building.psd’ and repeat, positioning it to the mask and use a gradient to fade the right side. To get psd’ and place it beneath the blue tint layers, filling
left of the model. Set both layers’ blending modes to a smooth fade on the top edge, simply Cmd/Ctrl+J the whole canvas. Add a Soft Light blending mode
Overlay and Opacity to 70%. Add a layer mask and the texture, delete the existing mask, add a new one and set Opacity to 30%. Paste the same texture into
gradient to fade away the bottom edges. Cut out the and edit again. Add another gradient mask to fade the black-and-white face layer, using the Edit>Paste
lamppost from ‘building.psd’ using the Marquee tool. the remaining top edge and apply an Overlay Special>Paste Into technique in Step 24 and setting
Apply Levels, add a Multiply blending mode, then blending mode. Add the ‘texture_1.psd’ again, place the same Soft Light blending mode and 30% Opacity.
place it at the bottom. Place the final ‘building_2.psd’ this above the bridge layer and set Saturation to -100. This lets you move it to an optimum position and
under the bridge, set to Overlay and at 70% Opacity. Mask out edges with the Gradient tool. work with the facial features through the mask.

28 more grAdient mAps

Open ‘palm_tree.psd’ and paste it into the
bottom-left, above all the layers. Open ‘texture_2.psd’
29 Add levels
The image tones are quite subtle and could
do with being a lot more vibrant. You can resolve this
and apply a magenta to blue Gradient Map. This issue by merging your image, then selecting
creates colourful texturing. Edit>Paste Special>Paste Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Set Shadows
Into a selection of the palm tree layer, then scale and to 15, Midtones to 0.90 and Highlights to 245 to boost
position accordingly. Place the final ‘yellow_shape_2. the contrast. This will result in an exciting, digitally
psd’ over the main palm tree and set this layer’s fleshed-out ink drawing of a beautiful woman in a
blending mode to Hard Light for a little final flourish. tropical urban environment.

Colour ranging
Being able to edit a photograph and cleanly take
the texture you need is important when working
in digital mixed media. Use Hue/Saturation to
create a black-and-white image, then apply Color
Range to cleanly select either black or white
areas, adjusting Fuzziness to accurately decide
selection amounts. To ensure you get the most
from your selection, choose the opposite colour
you need, then inverse your selection before
cutting out. This picks up more pixels in tricky
edges. You can then lift your texture and use this
to mask detail from the original photo, or even fill
it with colour for a pop art effect.

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© Ministry of Sound Australia

I wanted to create a distressed

background that reflected an
outdoor environment, as well as a
dark, cold, atmospheric version of
the image for a winter release

a
ali
u str
dA
un
So
of
ry
nis t
Mi
©

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HOW I MADE TECHNIQUES
BLEND
CGI
SPECIAL
HOW I MADE

MINISTRY OF SOUND
RUNNING TRAX 2013
LUKE CHOICE
DISCOVER HOW ENERGETIC CG ELEMENTS
ARE PERFECTED INSIDE PHOTOSHOP

T
his album cover image began as a 3D model that was started to adjust the image colours using multiple gradient map
created inside Cinema 4D. CGI artist Luke Choice adjustment layers and colour overlays inside Photoshop. “I
(www.velvetspectrum.com) used an array of wanted to create a distressed background that reflected an
deformers to achieve an explosive look in certain outdoor environment, as well as a dark, cold, atmospheric
areas of this render. These create a sense of motion and version of the image for a winter release,” he explains. Choice
velocity, reflecting the energetic music tracks on the album. also added a couple of ink splash stock images, once again
Choice rendered out the image using V-Ray, which enabled turning to gradient map adjustment layers to blend, overlay and
him to get the most realistic representation of the shoe. He then mask out specific areas.

02 GRADIENT MAPS
An alternative way to
specify colour is to set
different coloured gradient
maps on top of one another,
then brush away from the
attached layer mask with a
black brush.

03 MOTION GRAPHICS
Easily create dynamic
streaks of light of varying
widths by adding a starry
landscape. Apply a Motion Blur
filter to this new layer, at an
angle that compliments the
direction of the shoe.

01 SELECTIVE COLOR
Render out your image and open it in Photoshop. Perfect
individual colours using a Selective Color adjustment layer. This helps to
specify the desired intensity.

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I MADE

04 Depth of fielD
Duplicate the shoe layer and apply a Lens
Blur filter to imitate depth of field. This makes the
05 Colour Depth
In order to create a richer blend of cyan in
the background, make sure that the black base
06 DoDge anD Burn
Set the Dodge tool exposure at a low value
and apply it to the render’s specular highlights,
image look like a real photograph. Apply a layer colour has a majority of cyan in the CMYK enhancing these as well as lighter colours. Then
mask and brush away to reveal the main focus. breakdown grid. apply the Burn tool to create depth.

Colour Control
MasTer coMplex blending by avoiding
hue/saTuraTion
I use gradient maps as opposed to a Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer most of the time.
But this depends on the complexity of the
colour breakdown in an image. Using a
gradient map allows you to create the exact
blend of colours you’re after, rather than
running the risk of a Hue/Saturation layer
distorting them.

07 texture overlays
When overlaying a texture in the
background, clip a black-and-white gradient map
08 Colour overlays
Build up coloured highlights by duplicating
the same layer, then increasing its size. Reduce
Most sections of the image will have a gradient map applied in
some way. This helps to create a surreal colour palette, which instead of converting to Grayscale. That way, you Opacity and set this duplicate layer’s blending mode
gives it a graphic style © Ministry of sound australia
can personally control the level of detail. at Random to create a softer blend.

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 Learn to inspire
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3D ABSTRACT GRAPHICS TECHNIQUES

GRAPHICS

3D ABSTRACT BLEND
CGI
GRAPHICS SPECIAL

A
LEARN TO BUILD ATMOSPHERE WITH TEXTURE, SHAPES AND
PHOTOSHOP’S EXTENSIVE COLOUR ADJUSTMENT TOOLS
bstract art has a long history of placing stocks for manipulation, used Dodge and Burn to
the surreal among the real and you will be help blend those stocks into your scene, become
capturing some of the essence of that familiar with Layer Masks and seen the benefits of
heritage in this tutorial. using Groups in organising layers. Finally, you will
You will begin by using 3D modelling software (we use several of the Adjustment Layers available in
used Cinema 4D) to generate a number of abstract Photoshop to dramatically transform the image
stocks quickly and easily. Then move into Photoshop through changes to colour, vividness and depth.
CS6 or above, manipulating your stock images to It can’t be stressed enough that the key to creating OUR EXPERT
create a unique and interesting design, which can be images like this is constant experimentation and it MARC GOODMAN
placed into a vivid and atmospheric scene of your may prove difficult to replicate some of the steps in www.el-nombre.deviantart.com
A self-taught Photoshop enthusiast
own creation. this tutorial. More important here is that you create for over six years, Marc is a
By following this tutorial, you will have used the something unique, interesting and very much in the UK-based artist who mixes
commercial work with his more
Magic Wand tool as a simple method of preparing spirit of abstract art. abstract-style personal pieces.

SOURCE FILES
CONSTRUCT THE ABSTRACT
A selection of abstract 3D stocks can
be found on the disc, and the rest
are available from sxc.hu.
RENDER AND MANIPULATE SHAPES TO BUILD THE CENTRAL ABSTRACT IMAGE
WORK IN
PROGRESS
FROM 3D MODELS TO VIVID
ABSTRACTION

Progress 1: Paste the abstracts

01 START IN 3D
Start in Cinema 4D. Create a text spline
(Create>Spline>Text). Go to the text object properties
02 CREATE THE ABSTRACTS
There are now three objects: the NURBS
and two Caps. With the Move tool (E), move the two
and in the text box enter a letter. Go to Caps away from the central NURBS. Now select
Create>NURBS>Extrude and in the Object Manager, Extrude (Mesh>Create Tools>Extrude) and click one,
drag your Text Object into the Extrude NURBS. Select hold the left mouse button and move, giving your
the Extrude NURBS and press C, making it editable. object substance. Repeat on the other two objects.
Progress 2: Colour effects

03 DEFORM, TEXTURE AND RENDER

Select the Magnet tool and change to
Polygon mode. Select and move random points on
the objects to create interesting shapes. Apply
deformers to manipulate further. Repeat the first
three steps, making a range of abstract shapes.
Create a texture with a vibrant colour and apply to all
objects. Now render several PNG images in various
positions, giving a range of stock images. Progress 3: Colour adjustments

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Techniques 3D abstract graphics

04 Paste in the abstracts

Now move to Photoshop and create a
large portrait canvas. Open up all of the newly
05 Fill the background
Pick one of the abstracts with the most
vibrant colour and hide all of the others. Now create
06 build your image
Unhide all of the abstract stocks again and
arrange them around the canvas so that they can be
created abstract stocks and for each one, go to the a light to dark colour gradient that will contrast well used to create your base image. Generate a sense of
Channels window and Cmd/Ctrl-click on the Alpha with the colour of the abstracts. In this example, it is flow from the top of the canvas to the bottom by
Channel preview window. This will automatically a range of blue hues. Note that it doesn’t need to go using those stocks with the longest lines. Using the
select the abstract, letting you copy and paste each too dark, as you will be using a number of Transform tool (Opt/Alt+T), you can resize, rotate
one into the new canvas. Close all of the stock files adjustment layers later. Create a new layer, select the and flip them to generate that top-to-bottom shape
and return to the new canvas. Select all of the Gradient tool, then choose Radial Gradient and fill the and flow. Try to use Transform as much as possible
abstract layers and put them into a group (Cmd/ background from a point in the upper-right quarter to avoid repetition and obvious use of the same
Ctrl+G) and rename it ‘Abstract’. to the bottom edge. images, for a more interesting design.

07 trim the Fat

There will always be elements that just don’t seem to fit or sit contrary to the overall flow. Those
need to be removed, so add a Layer Mask to each stock that you want to adjust. This means you can erase
08 start to add eFFects
Now to start adding some more dynamic
elements. The first step will be to create an almost
and experiment without fear of permanently erasing the originals. Just press X to quickly swap foreground tangible ‘glow’ around the abstract. Hide the gradient
and background colours, and paint on the Layer Mask directly to put anything erased straight back in. background layer so that you see the chequered
pattern underneath, indicating transparency. Press
Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+C and paste to create a single
layer of the work so far. Ctrl/right-click on the Stocks
folder layer and select Duplicate Group. Rename the
duplicate ‘Main Glow’, maximise it, hide all layers
and place the layer just created inside it. Now unhide
the gradient background.

Quick tip
When creating the glow, the majority of work is
just resizing the original image. To make it more
interesting, create a number of areas that stand
out. A great way to do this is to use the Smudge
tool with a soft round brush, teasing some of the
glow’s edges out.

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3D abstract graphics techniques

build layers and elements

Apply strokes with your brushes And tweAk the composition

09 eAsy colour effecTs

Once you’ve created an interesting design, you need to make the colour really stand out. Add easy
colour effects by taking the compressed layer, changing it to Linear Dodge and adjusting the Hue. Experiment
10 Tidying up
Simply adding a glow in one layer has the
downside of ‘flattening’ the depth, but allows you to
by moving it around the canvas, seeing how it affects the abstract and the background. see where it works best. Begin to restore depth by
adding a Layer Mask and removing the Dodge from
001 002 003
anywhere it doesn’t fit. Now unhide some of the
other layers in Main Glow, setting them to Dodge and
moving them into the Stocks group. By putting them
between and behind the original layers, you can get
some of that depth back. Experimentation is key.

The intention is to re-create

001
open hue/saturation and slowly cycle
002
repeat the dodge process with the
003
take the compressed layer and change it
some of the ethereal
through the hues until you find one that
complements abstract and background
duplicate stock layers, experimenting
with hues and building up further effects
to linear dodge. resize it so that it
covers both the abstract and background elements of underwater light

11 Build up depTh
Now start work on the background to build
atmosphere and depth. Open a stock image of
12 Add To foreground TexTure
Open further bubble stock images and
place them in the Background group. Repeat the
13 unexpecTed elemenTs
Some of the best examples of abstracts
contain an unexpected element of reality. The image
bubbles in a dark liquid and put it in a new group process in the previous step using varying levels of created here has a strong underwater atmosphere,
called ‘Background’, which will go below the other blur and use them to frame the focal abstract. Now so now add some real fish. Open the stock image
two groups. Resize the stock to cover the entire open a bubble stock with a good amount of (www.sxc.hu/photo/823028). As it has a clear
canvas and set to Soft Light at 50% Opacity. Select high-contrast detail and place it above all your other background, you can quickly remove the fish from its
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set it to a high radius. groups. Resize it to ensure that it covers the entire surroundings. Select the Magic Wand (Shift+W) and
The intention is to lose the detail but take advantage canvas and change the layer mode to Color Dodge. click the background. Increase Feather or Smooth by
of the contrast, to re-create some of the ethereal The highlights in the stock will bring out detail in the small increments to refine the selection, being
elements of underwater light. background and create points of foreground interest. careful not to lose too much of the stock.

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Techniques 3D abstract graphics

Finishing touches Quick tip

Add more sTock, AdjusT colour And Apply filTers It’s easy to become too familiar with an image,

14 15
meaning you can’t see the weaker elements that
More fish add bubble stoCk i
could be easily fixed. One way to look at the piece
Use Transform to resize and position the fish Open a bubble stock, paste it into the
differently is to desaturate it to black and white
to the left of the abstract, facing into the middle. Open canvas and change the colour mode to Lighten. Test
and see if you still have the same high-contrast
the other two fish stock images (www.sxc.hu/ the stock in various positions around the abstract,
focals you’re aiming for.
photo/893415 and www.sxc.hu/photo/573350) both above and below the original layers, making the

16
and extract them from their backgrounds. Transform bubbles fit with the flow and shapes already created.
add bubble stoCk ii
them so that they are facing in from the right side of Again, be sure to use the Transform tool to rotate,
The bubble stock used in the example
the canvas. Now lightly use Dodge and Burn to help scale and Warp the stock, ensuring that there is no
doesn’t have a lot of definition on the Lighten layer
them fit in with the scene. Apply a gentle Gaussian obvious repetition. Only pick two or three areas to
mode, so you can paint straight onto the layer to
Blur to one of the fish to simulate a degree of depth. add bubbles to, so that the effect isn’t overused.
make the bubbles stand out. Select the Brush tool
and change to a small brush of 3-6px and Hardness
of 0. Using small strokes, paint directly on top of the
stock bubbles to help define them. Using this small
white brush, you can also paint some smaller
bubbles around the abstract to add to the fine details.

content-aware patching
Working in larger image sizes than ever before
17 Colour adjustMents
Add a Levels Adjustment layer, changing
the drop-down from RGB to Green. Drag the left tab
18 tidying up
Press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+A to select the
whole canvas, then copy and paste to quickly make a
quickly leads to systems being pushed to their
to 60, removing a lot of green from the background. single layer version of the image. Duplicate the layer
limits. So flattening your images is increasingly
Repeat with Red. Add another Levels layer, adjusting and apply a Smart Sharpen filter. Apply a Layer Mask
necessary, and it’s inevitable that errors sneak
the middle tab for Red and Green to 0.78, and on and remove any areas that appear over-sharpened.
through. At this point, Photoshop’s array of clone
another one, increase the middle Blue tab to 0.71 and Copy and paste the whole image once more. Lastly,
and retouching tools will help. For small
reduce the right to 243. The pink needs to blend more select the Burn tool with a very large round brush
retouches, the Clone Stamp is ideal. For larger
with the blue, so add a final Levels Adjustment layer, (Hardness 0) and burn the bottom edges of the
areas, the Patch tool can be used. Select the tool,
setting the Red left to 19 and middle to 0.89. canvas in a ‘V’ shape.
changing the Patch option to Content-Aware.
Define the area to be corrected, click, and while
holding the button, move around until you find a
match for the area to be fixed. Photoshop will
automatically blend the patch in.

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Techniques Build a fantasy landscape

Work in
Progress
From mock-up to
impressive Finale

Progress 1: compose elements

Progress 2: values and colours

Progress 3: add details

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BUILD A FANTASY LANDSCAPE TECHNIQUES

PHOTOMANIPULATION

BUILD A FANTASY BLEND

CGI
LANDSCAPE
SPECIAL

P
MASTER PHOTO TEXTURES, PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES AND CG
ELEMENTS TO CREATE THIS POSTAPOCALYPTIC SCENE
ost-apocalyptic landscapes overtaken by The reason for using CG assets is very clear. There
wild nature have a certain undeniable are simply times when you will need something ever
charm. This makes them a pretty common so specific that you won’t be able to find in any stock
request from clients in the matte paint library. In a situation like this, elements created in 3D
OUR EXPERT
world. This tutorial shows you how to get to grips software come in handy. For the purpose of this
with this commercial style, giving you a head start in tutorial, you’ll use a couple of additional applications,
ADAM KUCZEK
www.ak-art.net
creating unique and believable scenes. namely Autodesk Maya (totally optional) and Kuczek is a freelance concept artist
and matte painter, working primarily
The image created goes for a more modern look, freeware DAZ 3D. for the entertainment industry. He
inspired by blockbuster movies such as I Am Legend Adjustment layers also play a major role in this specialises in sci-fi themes.
and the latest sci-fi hit Oblivion. A combination of 3D tutorial, as you use them to merge your elements. @adamkuczek
and photography is explored, discussing how these You’ll also be required to paint digital ‘patches’, SOURCE FILES
can be merged to create believable looks. Digital additional foliage, detailed textures and create the If you want to follow the tutorial, you
painting plays a massive part in producing right mood that will eventually result in a realistic will find all the main files, including
3D renders, photographs and
successful outcomes. post-apocalyptic scene. brushes, on the CD.

PUTTING VARIOUS MEDIA TO GOOD USE

FROM THE INITIAL SKETCH TO PHOTOSHOP

01 INITIAL SKETCH
The initial sketch only needs to be very
loose. You’ll use this to come up with an idea and a
02 COLLECT REFERENCE
Once you have an idea of what you want to
create, it’s time to collect photo textures. Create a
03 BLOCK IN 3D
For scenes that involve a lot of
architectural elements, blocking the overall shapes in
rough composition, which can be adjusted and rough composition to see what looks best, using 3D is very helpful for a number of reasons. This
played with in 3D later on. Begin by drawing out a photos of high-rise buildings, stones, foliage and the helps to establish proper composition, scale,
sketch of a ruined cityscape with a central figure. The sky. All are supplied on the disc. You could also take perspective, and basic light and shadow. Maya was
viewer’s eyes should be led through the painting, snapshots of yourself or friends posing for your used for the creation of this base render, but pretty
moving from the characters, through the buildings intended scene, which is much better than trawling much any 3D application will suffice, including
on the right to the far skyscraper. through stock libraries. freeware like Blender or SketchUp.

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TECHNIQUES BUILD A FANTASY LANDSCAPE

04 CREATE ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS

You can either model the architecture yourself or import ready-made models
into the scene. In this particular image, a few models from the DAZ 3D library (www.
daz3d.com) were used, especially the ‘Dystopia’ series, many available for free download.
This saves time and ensures that you get more realistic results. Such elements can be
rendered out either directly in DAZ using the sketch as a backdrop for rough placement, or
imported into any other 3D application as OBJ files, together with their textures.

05 IMAGE CHARACTERS
You could use model stock to create image characters if you
can find the right pose. But here, a 3D model was used instead. Poser
or DAZ 3D has loads for you to find. You can apply a bit of digital painting
on top of the render to create patches and elements like belts, buckles,
bandages, bags and so on. Dirtiness can be achieved by applying a
generic grunge texture, overlaid on top with low opacity. The spear and
feral animals are also painted over kit-bashed 3D models.

QUICK TIP
Clipping masks are essential when working on complex matte
paintings or photo-heavy projects. These can be used to couple
adjustment layers with specific elements, controlling their colour,
contrast and saturation values. Such non-destructive editing is vital
if any changes are necessary, able to be applied at any stage.

06 RENDER THE SCENE

Now it’s time to bring all the main
elements into Photoshop. Composite the sky image
07 BRING ELEMENTS TOGETHER
Now adjust the colour and light value of
each element to separate the foreground, midground
08 BASIC COLOUR ADJUSTMENT
Now you can lay down the first textures
and brush strokes. It’s a good idea to start with big
into the background and scale it accordingly. This and background from one another. Lower contrast in chunks of photo stock placed on top of the main
important element dictates the overall mood and the far buildings using Curves or Levels. Foreground parts of the image, in areas such as the ground and
general light colour in the image. Make sure that all buildings are too dark, so remedy this with Curves. ruins. Starting with small details like individual plants
CG elements are placed in respective folders and It’s also good to balance the colour in the entire would make the process much longer, and it may be
named accordingly – this helps you to stay organised image, bringing all the elements together. This can hard to blend all the elements seamlessly. You
when using multiple stock. Also add selections then be done by creating an additional group at the top of should always go from big shapes to small, from
masks to all the major elements like foreground the layer stack, adding the Curves, Hue/Saturation higher contrast to lower, from full opacity to lower
ruins, background buildings and characters. and Color Balance layers you might need. opacity and from full to washed-out colour.

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BUILD A FANTASY LANDSCAPE TECHNIQUES

09 CREATING DEPTH AND ATMOSPHERE

ADJUST AND OVERLAP ELEMENTS TO IMPLY A THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCENE

■ ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE
Match the values of the far background to create the
right depth. There are three main elements that need
to be adjusted at this point; the sky, buildings and
distant fog. A balance between these is important so
that your background isn’t too muddy.

■ OVERLAPPING
One way to make sure your scene looks like it
occupies a three-dimensional space is to use
overlapping to your advantage. The more
architectural, foliage and smoke layers you can put
down the better. Even distribution will give your
image the depth it requires.

■ GOD’S RAYS
Another way to create a convincing atmosphere is by
adding God’s Rays. Create these by filling a triangular
selection with a yellowish gradient. Set the layer
opacity quite low, so that the effect is subtle and
doesn’t look over the top. Additionally, you can add
dust by painting a few brighter dots here and there.

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TECHNIQUES BUILD A FANTASY LANDSCAPE

BRING THE IMAGE TO LIFE

USE PHOTO ELEMENTS AND CUSTOM BRUSHES TO CREATE RICH TEXTURES

10 LAYER TEXTURES
Add photographs to create rich textures.
You’ll find all those used in this image supplied on
11 DESTROYED BUILDINGS
Now create the damaged buildings. There
should be no 90-degree angles and no straight CG
12 PHOTO VERSUS BRUSH STROKE
You can now start painting over the whole
image, fixing parts and bringing all the elements
the disc. You can use Curves to blend textures into edges. Giving surfaces a weathered appearance may together. If you’re relying on photos for detail and
the scene, making these darker or brighter. take some time, as it’s quite hard to replicate nature’s texture, don’t over-exaggerate your digital painting.
Alternatively, you can apply an Overlay or Soft Light randomness. Very often, hand-painted roughness The difference between high-resolution photo detail
blending mode and adjust the opacity. The looks artificial and not very convincing, because it’s and brush strokes can become noticeable. Use
background should be kept relatively light without too evenly distributed or has non-realistic shapes. If small, rough brushes to merge and enhance parts of
too many distracting details, otherwise the image parts of a building fall off, they don’t disappear; they the image. A good tool to use is the Clone Stamp,
may end up looking flat. should be scattered or piled up on the ground. especially if you need to extend some textures.

13 ADD MORE FOLIAGE

Now paint more foliage, showing it climbing walls and peeking out of the cracks
in the ground. Some roots hanging here and there won’t hurt either. When creating
14 FINAL SCAN
Once the environment is complete, focus on detailing your
character and the wild animals by adding subtle rim lights, shadows and
additional leaves with the sun behind, you should remember about sub-surface scattering additional textures. Also make sure that the overall contrast and colours
and that the light will brighten them up. Feel free to also use photo stock or custom are the way they should be. If you have accumulated dozens of layers,
brushes; a couple of these are on the disc. Unless you’re using additional textures in your once you’re happy with the image it’s good to make a copy of the file,
brushes, you should control the size of your brush strokes. Otherwise, they may appear then flatten the whole thing. Enlarge it up to 100% and scan it for any
too smooth and out of place in comparison to the detailed surfaces. elements that need fixing.

Giving surfaces THE RIGHT BRUSH FOR THE RIGHT PROJECT

Creating your own brushes is a better idea than sourcing them. New
a weathered brushes can be made easily by picking an element from a photo that

appearance may you want to use, such as a leaf or a few blades of grass. Select the
Channels panel to separate this element from the background. Clean
take some time, as it up by painting with black and white, making sure there is no noise

it’s quite hard to or jagged edges. Then select Edit>Define Brush Preset and give your
brush a name. Bring up the brush controls and adjust things like the
replicate nature’s spacing and flow while testing the brush. Once you’re happy with the

randomness way it looks, save it for future use.

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 BUILD A BETTER
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PAINT A STEAMPUNKINSPIRED PORTRAIT TECHNIQUES

SECTION HEADER

PAINT A STEAMPUNK
INSPIRED PORTRAIT
T
USE LIGHT, SHADOW, COLOUR AND TEXTURE TO CREATE
A CAPTIVATING PORTRAIT
he following tutorial is for those who wish to Once you understand how light interacts with your
learn the basics of digital painting and subject matter, the possibilities are limitless.
discover tips and tricks to add texture, Learn how to pick compelling colours to establish
luminescence and mystery to illustrations mood, to paint different materials such as cloth, OUR EXPERT
with simple Photoshop methods. metal, and skin, including how to apply textures and ASHLEY WALTERS
www.ashleywalters.net
Learn to sketch non-existent objects using basic patterns realistically using filters. Finally, discover the Ashley Walters is an illustrator with
perspective and visualise lighting so that you can add secret to creating glow effects and glares using a love of all things fantasy and sci-fi.
She spends her spare time being a
any element to your painting regardless of reference. various layer blending modes. From start to finish, mum to three kids and watching
Discover the difference between form shadow and you will learn how to employ Photoshop effectively Doctor Who.
cast shadow and how to effectively render both. to create a compelling painting. SOURCE FILES
Included on the disc, you will find the
Photoshop file of the illustration as
BACK TO BASICS well as corresponding texture and
pattern files to help you replicate the
DECIDE THE AIM OF THE PIECE AND CHOOSE YOUR REFERENCE steps listed in the tutorial.

01 VISUALISE YOUR IMAGE

Before starting, visualise what you want to
accomplish. In this case, the goal is to paint a
02 GATHER REFERENCE
Paintings should be unrecognisable from
reference unless the material belongs to you, so take
Steampunk piece which integrates portraiture with liberties in deviating from online sources. The easiest WORK IN
mechanical elements. It’s meant to be a dark, way to obtain reference is to take photos yourself, PROGRESS
atmospheric image with lush colours to invoke but be sure that all of your images have the same FROM START TO FINISH
mystery and interest. Remember to download the light source or be prepared to paint them differently
resources before you start. to how they appear.

Progress 1: Sketch the outline

Progress 2: Paint the image

03 START A NEW DOCUMENT

Begin by creating a new document (Cmd/
Ctrl+N). Set the image dimensions to 4800px by
6400px at 300ppi. Decide between RGB or CMYK for
Once you understand how
your colour mode (RGB can achieve richer colours light interacts with your
while CMYK is useful for printing). Fill it with a warm
green tone in the middle-range of value (not too light
subject matter, the possibilities
and not too dark). are limitless Progress 3: Add effects

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Techniques Paint a SteamPunk-inSPired Portrait

05 PiCk Colours
Colour defines the mood of a piece. The key
to having lush colours is finding a balance between
rich and dull. Too bright and your image looks
contrived and over-the-top. Too dull and your image
looks washed out. Lighter colours should be less
saturated and darker colours more saturated. On a
new layer, pick a basic flesh colour, scribble and
repeat, increasing the saturation as you go darker. To
help the image pop, add subtle oranges and warm
pinks for the eyes and cheeks. Pale cyan works as a
highlight colour to contrast against warm shadows.

quick tip

04
Paint separate elements on their own layers so
sketCh the outline
that you can lock the transparency and paint
Create a new layer named ‘Sketch’ (Layer>New>Layer). When sketching, think about the focal point
each one without going over the edges. To do
to keep the eye moving within the image. Use your reference as a rough guide as you freehand the sketch in a
this, choose the corresponding layer in the
dark burgundy colour. Keep in mind perspective as you draw objects without reference, like the dragon and
Layers palette and click the checkered square
goggles. It helps to sometimes draw boxes in perspective with the rest of the piece and then chisel away at
icon at the top next to the word ‘Lock’.
the objects inside to create angular shapes before finally rounding off the details.

06 understanding light
Form shadow (or core shadow) creates the
illusion of form and gives objects depth. It occurs
07 Visualise where light falls
When creating an object without reference,
it is vital to be able to picture in your mind where the
08 Create the BaCkground
Create the illusion of a light source just off
canvas using a hard round brush in a pale yellow
when light fails to completely wrap around the form shadow would fall if you could see it. Sometimes it hue. Sweep the brush downward to emulate the
of something and is a gradual transition from light to helps to picture the subject matter as if it were made glowing effect of light on a wall. Picking a dark green,
shadow, with softer edges (like the cheekbone, up of several small geometric polygons. Look at sweep the same brush along the edges of the
which at first catches the light and then curves each surface plane and ask yourself if the angle canvas to push the corners into darkness. Blend the
downward into shadow). Cast shadow occurs when would catch the light or not, then translate that into colours with a soft round brush as necessary. Note
something (like the nose, for example), blocks the your painting. Don’t forget to add in cast shadows of that the light will be brighter and the change between
light, throwing areas below into darkness. It tends to made-up elements to ground the work and give it a values will be more drastic near the top where the
have sharper edges. cohesive feel. light is closest to the wall.

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down to detail
Apply pAint, Add texture And creAte Atmospheric effects

09 stArt pAinting
On a layer beneath the sketch, paint the
skin using a default round brush. Keep your Opacity
10 shiny versus dull
When painting matte surfaces like the
cotton vest, do not paint highlights. Only two values
11 pAinting skin And hAir
When painting skin, find a balance between
matte and shiny. The skin will have sharper and
and Flow at 100%, and rely on the sensitivity of your are needed for these – mid-tone and shadow – with brighter highlights if the face is wet (like around the
tablet to blend the colours. Make a clear delineation gradual transitions between the two on occasion. eyes) or where oils of the skin reflect light (like on the
between light and shadow. As you continue to refine, When painting reflective surfaces like silk or brass, nose and inner tear duct). If you haven’t already, add
add the transitions between the two values using a however, exaggerate the drastic change in value by these specular highlights to create luminescence.
soft brush when needed. Use your highlights using sharp specular highlights in areas where the When painting hair, start by putting in the darkest
sparingly for the greatest effect. Merge your Sketch light would logically fall and by using contrasting values first, and then add the midtones using a
layer and your painting layer and gently paint out the strokes. Remember to incorporate surrounding chunky round brush. Gradually reduce the size of the
sketch until all the lines are gone. colours, as metal is highly reflective. brush until you are painting individual strands.

More on pattern
Pattern should conform to the form beneath. To
create the effect of the pattern wrapping around
the silk shirt, paste the pattern on a new layer
above the painting. Create a quick mask over
your painting by clicking between the two layers
on the Layers palette and pressing Opt/Alt. Set
the layer Blend Mode to Overlay and reduce the
Opacity to 30%. Go to the Liquify filter
(Filter>Liquify), and with the painting layer visible
beneath your pattern, use the Forward Warp tool
(W) to push the pattern downward around the
edges of the arm. Do the same for the fabric
texture above the vest area.

12 Add texture And pAttern

Texture and pattern add realism to your
work when done correctly. To create the illusion of
13 Add Atmospheric effects
The last step is to add subtle atmospheric
effects. Create a glare on the highlight of the goggles
wallpaper, paste a damask pattern on a new layer using a soft round brush in a pale yellow colour on
and set the layer Blend Mode to Overlay from the low opacity. For the blur on the dragon wings, copy
drop-down menu on the Layers palette. Reduce the the wings onto a new layer underneath and use the
opacity of the layer so that the pattern is not Motion Blur filter. Set the angle to 40 degrees and the
overbearing but still present. You don’t want your distance to 200px. Use a smoke brush for the dragon
image to be too busy or distract viewers from the steam. To make it glow, on a new layer use a soft
figure in the foreground. green brush set to Hard Light.

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TECHNIQUES SCIFI CONCEPT ART

BLEND
CGI
SPECIAL

DIGITAL PAINTING

SCIFI CONCEPT ART

A
DISCOVER HOW TO USE A DULL 3D RENDER PLATE TO
CREATE A STRIKING SCIFI SCENE
rtists, in every artistic field you can think of, have The advantage to using this is that there is a lot of information
different approaches to realising ideas. When it comes on it. Things like highlights, shadows, colours and atmosphere
to concept art, you have to work quickly to create can easily be sampled off the plate image, which can help you to
something that mirrors the initial idea and creates find a starting point. In this tutorial, there is a 3D plate that serves
mood and atmosphere. It’s not so much about creating a as a base. You will then use painting techniques to add more
pixel-perfect painting. One approach would be to start with rough depth. You will also use photos, with the help of blending modes
brush strokes that become more and more detailed over time. A and textures, to suggest more detail. Last but not least, take a
different approach is to use a plate picture, which can be from a look at how filters can give it a stylised look. Now, it’s time to see
photo or a 3D render. In this case, it’s a plain 3D render. how to bring some life into a dull scene!

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WorldMags.net

OUR EXPERT
CHRISTIAN HECKER
www.tigaer-design.com
For the past few years, I have
focused on creating environmental
concept art and illustrations using
digital matte painting techniques. I
learnt everything in an auto
didactic way, and I now build my
own techniques to create fantastic
landscapes for practically
everything, from book covers to
games and movies.

@tigaer

SOURCE FILES
All textures used and the complete
PSD can be found on the disc. The
PSD contains extended layers,
showing how the different
elements can be used.

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Techniques Sci-Fi concept Art

Work in
Progress
From here To There

Progress 1: room for detail

Progress 2: rough painting

01 the plate
First, go onto the disc and gather up all of the resources. Load the ‘plate.psd’ file into Photoshop. Immediately take
a look at all the space available to you for extensions, specifically in the sky region. That is what you should focus on right at
Progress 3: A dynamic scene the beginning; adding in a sky replacement.

Masks are perfect tools for non-destructive work, and allow

you to go back at any time to fix or adjust things

02 preparing the sky replaCement

Open ‘sky_a.jpg’ and load the image into
Photoshop. Hold Cmd/Ctrl while dragging the
03 Channelling the sky
Next, open the Channels palette. If not
active already, it can be found via Windows/
04 Fixing the mask
Near the horizon, you will see a few small
holes in the mask. First, release the selection. Hit M
picture onto the ‘plate.psd’ tab in the upper-left Channels. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the small preview and click somewhere on the picture. With the mask
corner of the screen. Hold your mouse there until thumbnail of the Sky channel. A selection should still active, use the Eraser (E), Ctrl/right-click and
the ‘plate.psd’ appears. Then, move your mouse appear. Switch back to the Layers palette and click select a small standard round brush to fix the areas.
onto the picture and release the mouse. Repeat the the Sky folder. To apply the selection as a mask, click The colour white closes the hole and black opens
procedure with ‘sky_b.jpg’. Double-click the layer the square and circle icon at the bottom of the Layers areas in the mask, and you can easily switch
name in the Layers palette to change the names of palette. Notice that the mask is inverted. Just click between them using X. Masks are perfect tools for
the imported photos to Sky_a and Sky_b and put the mask thumbnail next to the folder and correct it non-destructive work and allow you to go back at
them into a new folder titled ‘Sky’. with Cmd/Ctrl+I. any time to fix or adjust things.

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05 Replacing the sky #1

Click on the eye symbol left of the Sky_b
layer to toggle it invisible and select Sky_a. Since it’s
06 Replacing the sky #2
Toggle Sky_b visible and do the same as
before, but move the right side more into the picture.
07 Blend the sky
With the mask selected, use the Eraser (E),
Ctrl/right-click and take a soft round white brush at
far too big, use Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform it. Make the Now set Sky_a to Vivid Light at 66% Opacity and 277px and 0% Hardness. Now add some aerial
bottom part of the image align with the horizon. Go place the layer above Sky_b. This gives a bit of extra perspective by painting along the horizon line as well
to the upper-left point, click, and move it to the texture to the clouds. Now, set the Sky folder to 70% as softly reducing the impact of the overlaid photo
upper-left corner of the workspace. Do the same for Opacity to make it blend a little more with the overall textures around the sun. Be sure to have Opacity set
the right side. Use squashing and stretching to make scene. To fix areas around the sun and horizon, click to Pen Pressure, under Transfer in the Brush
the sky fit the perspective and sit nicely in the scene. on the Sky folder mask again. settings (F5).

Quick tip
To add a little bit more detail to your brush
strokes, open Brush Properties (F5). Check
Scattering and set it to 133%. Transfer should
also be active, with the Opacity set to Pen
Pressure. This is an easy way to suggest more
detail when painting simple things, especially if
using a tablet.

08 looking foR detail

Now it’s time to focus on the city. While
there is great depth and nice silhouettes, it could still
09 painting detail
Painting highlights onto the edges of
certain structures adds more detail and depth, but
10 city BackgRound extension
Create a new layer via Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N
and name it ‘Back City’. Now create a hint of city far
do with a little more detail. For orientation, open and accuracy is not too important right now. First, make in the distance by sampling (Opt/Alt) a darker colour
import ‘specular.jpg’. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+A, switch to the the Specular layer invisible, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to from the foreground. Again, use a hard round brush
Move Tool (V) and use the buttons in the tool bar to create a new layer and name it ‘Painting’. Use a with a size of 22px. Hold Shift while painting short,
align it horizontally and vertically. Rename the new round brush at 6px Size and 90% Hardness and start straight vertical lines into the background. These
layer ‘Specular’ and set the blending mode to Screen to paint along some of the edges of the buildings. don’t have to be accurate, since you only want to
or Color Dodge. This will give you an overview of the Hold Opt/Alt to switch to the Color Picker and suggest detail. Last but not least, set the Opacity of
areas (marked white) that need a little extra detail. sample highlight colours right off the picture. the Back City layer to 75%.

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Techniques Sci-Fi concept Art

12 a plaTe of lighT #2
Create a copy (Cmd/Ctrl+J) of the Point layer and name it ‘Spot’. Turn the Point layer invisible and
move (V) the Spot layer to the right. Run Filter/Noise/Median with a radius of 24px to avoid artifacts. Hit
Shift+M until the square selection tool is active again and create a selection right through the centre of the
light. Via Cmd/Ctrl+T, stretch the light to the left. Ctrl/right-click to select Perspective, click the upper-left
corner, drag it down and hit Enter. This results in a light beam-like shape. Save the image as ‘light_plate.psd’.

11 a plaTe of lighT #1
To bring in lights, create a separate picture
that will serve as an additional plate. Cmd/Ctrl+N
creates a new file. Make it 3000px wide and 1650px
high. In the new picture, fill (G) the background black.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+J and name the new layer ‘Point’.
Hit the Marquee tool via Shift+M until the round
selection is active. Hold Shift, draw a circle selection
and fill it black as well. With Filter/Render/Lens
Flare, 100 Brightness and the 105mm Prime, try to
locate the centre of the flare and execute the Filter.

13 Make iT shine
Now it’s time to bring the lights into the city.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+A and then Cmd/Ctrl+C. Switch
14 adjusTing The lighTs
Scatter lights by holding Alt Gr. Easily vary
the light sizes with Cmd/Ctrl+T and the colours with
15 TexTuring #1
First, create a new folder and name it
‘Textures’. Open ‘IMG_1561.jpg’ into your project, put
back to the city, paste (Cmd/Ctrl+V) the beam in Hue & Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U). This results in a ton it into the Textures folder, name the layer ‘Lights’ and
there and change the layer’s name back to ‘Spot’. Do of layers. If it becomes too much, just hold Cmd/Ctrl, set its blending mode to Lighter Colour. With Cmd/
the same for the Point layer. Put them into a folder select all the Point layers in the Layers palette and Ctrl+T, reduce it to a third of its original size and turn
named ‘Lights’. For now, toggle Spot invisible, click press Cmd/Ctrl+E. Set the blending mode back to it 90 degrees. Now place it on the facade of the right
the Point layer and set it to Linear Dodge. Press Linear Dodge. The same procedure can now be used building. To remove unwanted parts that still are
Cmd/Ctrl+T, reduce the size by holding Shift, find a for the spotlights. Playing with parameters like size, visible, go into Levels (Cmd/Ctrl+L) and change the
spot to put it and hit Enter. colour and opacity help to add variation to the lights. middle value to 0.75.

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16 texturing #2
Detail is all about variation. Load ‘IMG_0903.
jpg’ and treat this texture the same way as in the
17 make it sit
While you are allowed to be a little sloppy,
you should still keep perspective in mind, especially
18 the other side
Now, toggle the Facade layer visible again.
Select the layer, hold Cmd/Ctrl and move it to the
previous step. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to create a copy. when applying textures to buildings. The lines of light tower on the left side. Again, transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T)
Name one copy ‘Lights B’ and the other copy in the Lights B layer do not exactly match the this texture, make it smaller and turn it 90 degrees.
‘Facade’. Toggle Facade invisible and click the Lights building. To fix that, use Cmd/Ctrl+T again to go into Set it to blending mode Lighter Color and 24%
B layer. Press V and move the layer to the right transform mode. Reduce the size and make it sit Opacity. Create a copy (Cmd/Ctrl+J), transform to
building again. Use 28% Opacity and the Color Dodge better by adjusting the upper and lower-right corner squash it a little and move it down. Now you have a
blending mode. Different blending modes help to points. Hold Cmd/Ctrl+Shift while dragging the few textures to copy and paste onto other elements.
create variation in the lights. points up and down. Use the Eraser (E) to remove parts you don’t need.

19 sampling details
These textures can also serve as plates. For
example, to get more detail into areas that still look a
Playing with parameters like size, colour and opacity help to
add variation to the lights
bit empty, just click the Lights B layer and choose the
Clone Stamp (S). A simple round brush does the job
fine. Be sure to have ‘Current Layer’ active. Check
and uncheck ‘Aligned’, depending on whether you
want to sample a light over and over again or if you
want to paint an area. This is an easy way to
duplicate windows and lights.

Quick tip
If you are working in a newer version of

20
Photoshop, you can easily import images by
additional touches
dragging the file from your desktop into the
After adding/extending textures and lights with the techniques explained above, it’s time for the
Photoshop workspace of your current open
additional touches. Hold Cmd/Ctrl, select all layers, press Cmd/Ctrl+J and Cmd/Ctrl+E to create a copy and
project. It will automatically create a new layer.
merge them down. In Filter/Filter Gallery/Artistic, select Poster Edges. Use a Thickness, Intensity and
Be sure to uncheck ‘Place or Drag Raster Images
Posterization of 2. However, art is all about personal preference. If you wish to create a more realistic image,
as Smart Objects’ in the Photoshop Preferences.
as seen on the first pages of this tutorial, don’t apply the filter and instead add in detail like the lighting bolts.

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 reviews Alien WorldMags.net
Skin SoftwAre expoSure 5

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Alien Skin SoftwAre

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 REVIEWS ALIEN WorldMags.net
SKIN SOFTWARE EXPOSURE 5

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Black and white: Who says black-and-white photography is boring? Here, you can add aged looks in seconds with a simple click of a preset

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also shows how Exposure 5 is a forward-thinking Exposure 5 is of course fully customisable, so you
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 reader interviewWorldMags.net
From traditional to digital

reader interview

From traditional
to digital Hear How Takumer Homma moved on from TradiTional painTing
TecHniques To become a successful digiTal arTisT

T
akumer Homma only got into digital art WHo are your key influences?
when he was forced to buy his first PC after I was heavily influenced by Luigi Colani when I
graduation from high school and enrollment was involved in automotive design. His
in college. “Some of the projects I completed unconventional approach to industrial design really
had to be done digitally. I was introduced to inspired me and I fell in love with his ‘biodynamic’,
Photoshop as a photo-retouching program and I which is a term he uses to describe the rounded and
wasn’t aware of its painting capabilities until the last organic forms in his designs.
year of my Industrial Design studies. But after Since I started doing concept art and illustrations,
graduating, when I first bought and saw concept art I began looking at Syd Mead, John Singer Sargent,
for games and films, the fire was lit. I invested in a Edgar Payne and J.C. Leyendecker, who I learnt to Takumer Homma
tablet and started learning while I worked full-time, appreciate more as I got more involved in the Takumer Design
www.takumer.com
then I gradually started taking it seriously as a entertainment industry. I do love the impressionistic www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/
potential career path about three years ago.” approach in art, but recently I have found myself user/takumer.homma
Read on to discover Homma’s influences, what he looking at illustrators more.
thinks about the changes to Photoshop CC and what
his hardest learning curve to date has been in this WHaT is THe mosT reWarding projecT
Reader Interview. you Have been involved in?
all article images © takumer Homma

Bot: a suggestive painting that focuses on detailing only in the focal areas. Use the default Bridge Town: Using photos only in necessary places, especially in the highlight areas and the main focus points.
Soft round brush in Photoshop to knock back the values, and the Lasso tool to define shape remember to play with warm and cool while shifting hue for colour temperature

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I do love the impressionistic approach

to art, but recently I have found
myself looking at illustrators more
Clockwise from
top left;
My Neighbor:
Inspired by Hayao
Miyazaki’s My
Neighbor Totoro,
this was my
translation to a
sci-fi version.
Exploring custom
brushes, I created a
few textured
brushed by turning
on Dual Brush in
the brush settings
Necromancer:
When painting
something
dramatic, you need
to make sure you
understand the
form you are
lighting up. You can
create a Linear
Dodge layer on top
and paint the
highlight
separately
Hunter: This was a
good character
design exercise. I
focused on
designing his facial
structure to create
a certain
personality.
Remember to also
pay attention to
different materials;
you are allowed to
use photo
references

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Although it is a very suggestive

painting, pay attention to the edges;
soft versus hard

Try and leave the detailing stage to the

end. I have used photos and references
to add some noise

Create an overall mood; is it cool or warm?

You can use Color Balance adjustment to
easily add an overall colour

Even in a simple painting like this, be

sure to establish the foreground,
midground and background

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FROM TRADITIONAL TO DIGITAL READER INTERVIEW

INDUSTRY TIPS
HOMMA SHARES HIS TOP TIPS ON MAKING IT AS A DIGITAL ARTIST
This may sound cliché, but one of the most important tips is to continue studying the foundations. I also
think one of the major advantages to using traditional medium is that you become more disciplined to
make an intentional stroke or line rather than an empty one.
Another tip would be to spend a good amount of time researching existing products and services;
I just reorganise this information in my artwork. Lastly, try not to disregard other industries. Everyone is
creative in their trade and I have learnt so much from engineers, investors and entrepreneurs. If you can
keep your eyes open, I believe you can diversify as an artist.

This was the final project for my Industrial Design

studies. Although its base is a 3D rendering, you
still have to touch it up by using adjustment layers
and path tools to create a precise selection

I used quite a few photos in this image to achieve the

detailed look, but remember to paint over it if necessary.
Make sure the photos don’t dictate your design approach

Although this wasn’t for the entertainment industry, I do have different approaches to creating images There are benefits for those just starting out and
jewellery design was very fulfilling. Earlier in my depending on its use. When I need to focus on looking to get their foot in the door, but for those who
career, I worked for a diamond jewellery design design, I usually start off with a line drawing or are committed to this long term, I think it’s a
company that specialised in engagement and greyscale painting. However, if it is an illustration for disadvantage. I would much prefer to own software I
wedding rings. Custom designing for an individual, a cover or press shots or something that needs a can go back to whenever I want to, and not lose the
3D modelling for manufacturing and seeing it worn loud image, I start with colour and work purely like a access to my files and programs once I decide to
and appreciated in front of me was very rewarding. traditional artist with heaps of planning. stop the subscription. Another thing that I am scared
Everything is very digital these days, so I enjoy being of is the possible incremental increase in price that
able to see a big smile on a person’s face. WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU HAVE HAD I have no control over. I wish there was a choice.
TO LEARN AS AN ARTIST?
WHAT PHOTOSHOP TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS Having moved from one industry to another a few WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON AT
DO YOU USE MOST? times, I must say that the hardest thing about it is THE MOMENT?
I approach my designs very much like a traditional learning to really appreciate new things in a really I am currently working as a concept artist on a PC
painting, and sometimes I go all the way without short space of time. Once I have accepted them, the game for Epiphany games, an unannounced project
using any tools other than the Brush and Color process becomes a lot smoother, and doing so is a and I have been lucky enough to be able to work on a
Picker. However, other times I may find myself using critical part in understanding what the client, art variety of subjects including characters,
the Smudge tool a lot; I find it very useful in my work. directors or your audience wants and more. environments and architecture. The project really
The Warp tool, Lasso tool and adjustment layers are Becoming a versatile artist or designer takes a long keeps me refreshed, and the research I do for each
often used in the design process. I have also started time, and I am still constantly exploring, learning and topic is very educational and motivating.
to explore Color Dynamics in the Brush settings, and improving within the industry. I also work as an illustrator and artist for the
although I am still new to it, I am finding it to be gaming industry, which has a very high turnover of
extremely helpful, especially for use in my WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW projects, but I really enjoy having the opportunity to
environment paintings. CHANGES TO PHOTOSHOP CC? work on a variety of themes.

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GO MEDIA/
ON THE DISC

ARSENAL
SPRAY PAINT
TEXTURE PACK
ADD YOUR OWN GRAFFITI
EFFECTS DIGITALLY
These hand-sprayed
textures lend themselves to
just about any project.
Backgrounds are white and
can easily be set to Multiply
blend mode to layer on top
of your existing art.

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CREATE GRAFFITI STENCILS ON THE DISC

RESOURCE PROJECT
TUTORIAL FILES

CREATE GRAFFITI ON THE DISC

STENCILS
G
WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE THEM BY HAND AND IN
PHOTOSHOP? HERE’S HOW… ISLANDS AND BRIDGES
Using the number zero, notice how in Example
raffiti has always been about exhibiting a to produce vibrant and colourful images that invoke 1 the centre is surrounded by a solid mark (an
message. While this was originally confined to strong reactions among their viewers, whether they were ‘island’). Cutting out the black will result in the
centre falling out. By adding ‘bridges’ (see
an individual level, commercial brands are now made by hand or digitally. Example 2), it will stay intact in your stencil.
using this style to promote their own messages In this issue’s Resource Project, we explore ways to
to the public. Looks are of course cleaner and more create graffiti using both digital and traditional mediums.
controlled, as they’re applied in a digital workspace. But You’ll discover how to to produce your own stencils, and
they’re no less exciting. find out how graffiti styles are built for commercial
This mainstream appeal hasn’t gone all the way in projects. We also have a great giveaway, offering readers
eradicating the taboo rush individuals get from looking at the chance to win a book of laser-cut stencils designed by
and creating traditional styles. Practising artists continue the some of the world’s top graffiti artists.

CREATE GRAFFITI STENCILS BY HAND

USE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE BEST RESULTS

01 THE CORRECT CARD

First, source yourself some black card that
is between 200gsm and 300gsm. Stick this down to a
02 PLACE PHOTO
Work from a photo, but lighten all shadows
inside Photoshop using Levels or Curves before
03 DRAW YOUR LINES
Use a thick black marker to apply your
lines. These should all join to help you to avoid
cutting board firmly using Blu-Tack. This will stop the printing. This allows you to see detail more clearly. ‘islands’ – interior areas detached from your lines
card shifting when cutting out your stencil. Apply glue to the card and stick down your photo. that you’ll lose once cut out (see boxout above).

04 CUT OUT
Carefully use a very sharp scalpel to cut out
all the black lines in your image. You can check your
05 FIXED SURFACE
Securely stick your stencil to a surface. This
stops your medium getting in behind your card.
06 APPLY YOUR STENCIL
Now apply your medium. This can be paint,
chalk or even spray paint. If it is the latter, be sure to
progress by flipping the card, checking the cut, then Applying Spray Mount to the front of your stencil will wear a protective mask. Spray Mount lets you peel
re-securing it using the previously applied Blu-Tack. suffice, but do this in a well-ventilated area. the stencil from the surface without damaging it.

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on the disc CREATE GRAFFITI STENCILS

Create graffiti stenCils in PhotoshoP

Use AdjUstments And Filters to emUlAte cUt-oUt eFFects

atos Vektorgraffo
www.behance.net/atosvektorgraffo
Create graffiti with PhotoshoP
and illustrator
Many graffiti images start with a sketch, which is the case with this work from
Jefferson Ramos, aka Atos Vektorgraffo. “I’ll scan and import my design into Adobe
Illustrator and redraw its design using the Pen tool,” he explains. “I detail all parts, including shadows
between the letters applied on separate layers.”
The image is then imported into Photoshop so that lighting effects can be added with a Level
adjustment layer. “I adjust highlights and shadows, then apply brushes to brighten colours, detailing
shapes and edges,” he adds.
He finally applies a drop shadow effect to create a 3D look. “I normally duplicate my design, creating

01 convert to greyscale
Open your image in Photoshop, then apply
Hue/Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U). Set Saturation to -100,
a layer on top,” he reveals. “I select the original layer beneath and Cmd/Ctrl-click the layer thumbnail to
make a selection. I then fill this with black (Shift+F5) and drop layer Opacity to 50%. Lastly, I apply
Gaussian Blur.”
creating a greyscale image. Add an S-curve using
Curves (Cmd/Ctrl+M) to boost shadows and
highlights, so that all facial contours are obvious.
Improve exposure using the Dodge and Burn tools.

02 Define features
Select Image>Adjustments>Threshold and
apply a setting that picks out edges and clearly
defines facial elements, such as eyes, lips and the tip
or side of a nose. This is just the start of the cut-out
effect for your stencil.

03 apply filter
The second phase of creating your stencil is
to apply Filter>Filter Gallery and choose Cut Out.
Settings may vary, but essentially you want to
simplify detail before you okay effects. Select the
Eraser tool and add it to join up isolated white marks,
bridging all ‘islands’ in your image.

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EDITING CG GRAFFITI IN PHOTOSHOP

MAKE SELECTIONS AND ADJUST COLOURS TO CREATE A VIBRANT EFFECT
KENT FLORIS
www.kentfloris.com

01 APPLY COLOUR
Make a selection by Cmd/Ctrl-clicking a
layer thumbnail. Add a Gradient Map adjustment
02 EDIT COLOUR
Use a Color Balance adjustment layer to
even out image tones. With this adjustment layer, 03 ADD CONTRAST
Merge your layers separate from the
layer and use the Gradient Editor to specify the you’re able to achieve a warmer or cooler look in the background and duplicate (Cmd/Ctrl+J). Set this new
colour spectrum you want to add to this section of artwork, as well as colourise your shadows, layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light, then set its
the image. midtones and highlights. Opacity at 50%. This will enhance the contrast.

© Nike

WIN A COPY OF STENCIL REPUBLIC

Featuring 20 laser-cut stencils from the world’s best graffiti artists
Stencil Republic, published by Laurence King (www.laurenceking.com), features 20 laser-cut stencils on perforated
card which can be removed and used. These have been created by a host of international artists, which include A1one,
Artiste Ouvrier, Pisa73 and many more.
Advanced Photoshop have three copies to give away. For your chance to win, visit www.laurenceking.com/en/
stencil-republic and answer the following question:

What is the name of the graffiti artist representing Portugal in this book?

Please email your answers to [email protected]. This competition closes on 1 September 2013.

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