.zomgHUGE tutorial (05): color composition, erasing, and detail work
First, I wanted to say thank you all so much for your responses to my last tutorial! *heart* They were really great, and I'm so happy you found it useful. I had this piece started already when some of you said you'd like to see other tutorials like the previous one, so I thought I'd do another one in a similar vein, this time focusing on more color and talking a bit more about erasing stuff and the virtues/vices of really tiny details.
So today, we will be making:
.preface
This tutorial is really more of a general guide as to ways you can think about erasing, but how you erase stuff will depend on a lot of factors: the composition overall, the background, light sources, etc. Consequently, while you can't duplicate the tutorial precisely, you can take its suggestions and expand/modify/apply them to your own work :) As with the last tutorial, I've put the associated .zip file up at DA, with all project-related images so you can toss stuff together and see what happens if you'd like.
ETA! If you downloaded from the DA page between when I posted this and now (7:20EDT), double-check to make sure you have the .zip file and not the .png :)
.caveat
For stuff like this, really the best thing to do isn't covered in a tutorial, and that is to experiment and mess about. I've probably learned as much through wondering "What would happen if I do this?" (a better philosophy for PhotoShop than, say, touching hot stoves) as reading through tutorials. My process of putting collages together essentially consists of hunting for interesting-looking stock, playing with the color a bit (desaturate? soft light for contrast?), pasting it in, trying different blending styles (screen? soft light? color burn?) and seeing what happens.
Software: PS7
Difficulty: Hardish? But if you could follow the previous tutorial, you can follow this. Works with selective coloring, variations, and curve layers (just a bit). The collage part is a bit more involved because the various stock components will be more heavily modified.
In the last zomgHUGE tutorial, I was working with desaturated colors on a black/white background, so this time I'll try something different and have some hot color-on-color action. As another way to change things up, instead of having a background relying on scratch textures, I decided to play around with paper stock this time around.
And hey, how about some Sam Winchester while we're at it?
As is my custom, this is a full tutorial subdivided into remarks on composition, image prep, background, and assembly (subdivided into blending and texture work). This time around, though, the section on erasing is a bit longer :D
A. On composition
I talked about composition a lot in the last tutorial, and the remarks here will be pretty much the same as the remarks there. This time, however, I wanted something with a little more color and a lot less black, but still with some energy and drama to it. So I hunted through my stock collection and pulled out this cap of Sam Winchester. It has an interesting perspective and nice color potential, and the stupid CW logo can be worked around thanks to the power of the Magic Eraser.
B. Image prep
The cap, as is typical with SPN screencaps, is very dark, and needs to be brightened up. To do this, I worked a bit more with adjustment layers to get rid of the black and grey values. Unlike the previous tutorial, in which I wanted color saturation to be minimal, I really want the colors to stand out.
1.) Resize to 400px wide
2.) Duplicate > Screen > duplicate Screen layers 4x.
3.) In the top Screen layer > Image > Adjustments > Variations > MORE GREEN 1x
->Edit > Fade Variations > fade to 48% > set mode to Soft Light
4.) New Adjustment Layer > Curves > (RGB) In: 188 Out: 200
5.) New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation > Sat +26
6.) New Adjustment Layer > Selective Coloring > (WHITES) Y -29; B -16
7.) New Fill Layer > #E9F9FF to Color Burn
8.) Layer > Merge Visible (Ctrl + Shift + E)
result
Crop all the background stuff.
->Cropped .psd is in the .zip file.
C. Background
1.) Open a new document, 481.688px (you'll see why next)
->New Fill Layer > Normal #F5F5F5
2.) Starting with a grey stock texture (stock xchng):
->Image > Image Size > resize to 481.688px
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down (Ctrl + E)
->Paste into the document with the fill layer > Multiply
->The stenciled 4 was a bit much, so using the cloudy eraser (set to 398px), I got rid of it.
3.) Open this paper texture (brasaremean).
->Resize to 650px wide
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Sharpen (SL layer) > Merge Down
->Paste into the collage > Color Burn
->Move down so that the lowest fold/crease in the paper texture is near the bottom, about 185-90px up. This is going to form a very faint base to support the subject.
D. Assembly
Like before, this section comes in two parts: blending and texture/detail work.
Blending
1: Okay, erasing! To help illustrate what I'm going to try to do, I made an eraser guide:
As you can see, I want the straight edges and sharp corners to go, as well as the damned inconvenient CW. The devil is in the details here: I want the eraser to fade out at the shadow/light line just underneath Sam's jacket collar, because I will need the shadow in there for blending purposes later on. The same is true for the shadows under the fold of his shirt. Another tiny devil is the light on the ridge of his cheekbone--see how it follows the ellipse just below his eye? I want to use that light space to blend in with background colors as well, but I don't want the eraser effect to be very heavy here.
Everything I've just said covers a range of things to think about in using erasers as a blending method: light and shadow, points of anatomy, contour lines (bones, folds in clothing, etc.) the relative strength of the eraser effect and how obvious it needs to be. I want the eraser effects to be most noticeable at the edges, but very subtle the further in I go. As in the previous tutorial, I'll be using my favorite brush of all time (inxsomniax), and which those of you from the previous tutorial have encountered before.
A rule of thumb with cloudy brushes is to start at the far edges and work your way in. As you go in and the work becomes more detailed, decrease the brush size.
After pasting Sam in and positioning him just above the crease in the paper texture layer:
1.) Starting at the bottom straight edge, set brush to 66px. Get rid of the straight lines and logo.
2.) As you get closer to the shadow under Sam's left jacket collar, reduce eraser size to 41px. Erase out the rest of the logo, but stop just as you get to the line between shadow and light.
3.) On his right size, resize eraser to 72px and erase his jacket collar but leave a bit of the top curve.
4.) Go up to that light patch on Sam's cheekbone and erase (VERY VERY LIGHTLY--click down and hold, then drag) following the light curve there, just below his eye. Once is plenty! You should barely see the grey background through it.
result [The .psd for this is in the .zip file]
And so you can see roughly where I used the various brush sizes:
Because I can't say it enough: This will require some trial and error :)
2: In order to bring Sam into the background and texture a bit more, duplicate him and set the top copy to Multiply and the bottom to Screen. I will actually change this is a bit, but keep it like this for now.
->Before you go, sharpen the Multiply layer twice, and on the second sharpening fade to around 40%
Texture work
Ah, more fun. My process behind this was really just to grab stuff that looked interesting or promising and play with it. If it fit, great. If it didn't, I scrapped and started over. There really is no system to the process at all, so the following steps reflect an order that doesn't actually exist.
[All of the additional textures will be added under the subject]
1.) Open this crumpled paper stock (rain harbour). To give you an idea of the amount of randomness involved, here's what I did:
->Image > Adjustments > Variations > MORE BLUE 5x, MORE RED 1x (for the hell of it)
->Paste into collage > Color Burn.
->Fantastically horrible, yes? To make it better: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate [The extreme variations brought out some contrast in the end--one good thing that came out of an otherwise failed experiment]
->Position the texture behind Sam's head
2.) For a bit more color, especially yellow and other warm tones, open this blobby paint stock (kavewall).
->Duplicate > Screen > Duplicate Screen layer 2x > Merge down
->Resize to 500px
->Paste into collage > Color Burn
->I rotated it a bit so the dark half-loop at the top curves around a bit more and closes off the top of the composition, and the dark blue streaks approximately follow Sam's line of sight. I then got rid of the thick black border lines using the eraser.
3.) Open blue square stock (brasaremean). Paste as is into collage > Lighten [We're starting to build up some pale blue values here.]
4.) Open this blue paper stock (elli).
->Resize to 500px wide > Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down > Sharpen
->Paste into collage (over the crumpled paper) > Color Burn
->Erase using the cloudy brush set to 114px or so. Get rid of the defining straight lines from the image frame, but leave the crumply/torn edges intact [result]
->rotate counter-clockwise so the lines follow (roughly) the angle of Sam's line of sight. This directs the viewer's gaze along the same path Sam is looking.
5.) Now there's a bit too much blue behind Sam, and he's starting to look a little dull so we need to brighten him up.
->Open this light texture (amalgam), resize to 400px
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Paste into collage > Screen
->Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal
->Position so the red/yellow values are just behind Sam's cheekbone and eye (the part that needs to be brought out a little)
6.) Not quite enough, so I decided Sam might be the problem here. Isn't he always? (Wait, that's Dean.)
->Duplicate the screen layer. Much better :)
7.) Open notebook stock (myrasis).
->Resize to 500px > Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Past into collage > Linear Burn @ Opacity 41%
->Position behind Sam's head and rotate so the edges of the paper form lines that seem to radiate out from some point just behind him.
->Using the eraser, get rid of almost all of the stock (I know!) I used the eraser at about 150-200px everywhere except in the corner where the two pieces of paper come together, then I reduced to about 50px to keep the shadows. The lines in the paper should just be suggestions, not very obvious. (We're all about subtlety here @ discolore.)
The idea behind the lines in this piece of stock, the blue envelope, and the crumpled paper is to have them "radiate" out from roughly central points that are located behind and below Sam's head. They don't match up perfectly, but they don't need to.
8.) For a bit of text, open up this (halo).
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Paste into collage between the rain harbour and crmble layers
->Edit > Rotate Image > Flip Vertical > Move so it's just below Sam
->Set to Color Burn
->As a final touch, Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
9.) So close I can taste it! A few more things and we're done, I swear! First:
->Using the cloudy brush as a brush this time: New Layer > brush (398px) #001288
->Position the brush just at the base of Sam's neck > CLICK ONCE > set layer to Lighten
10.) Two more... Open this tiny text brush (sanami276)
->New Layer > #001288 > position at the edge of the rain harbor paper texture, where the texture stops and the background begins > CLICK ONCE > Soft Light
->In the Multiply layer, pick up the cloudy eraser again (363px). Setting it back from the front of Sam's face, click once (if you're too far away, move closer and click again). Edit > Fade Eraser 41%. This will bring out the screen layers and background textures just a bit, enough to blend Sam into them.
11.) Last thing! One tiny nit-picky detail that makes these things fun for me:
->Open this brush (regen) > set as eraser (With the eraser button selected: Edit > Define Brush)
->In the bottom screen layer, position the curved front edge of the eraser so it matches the curve of Sam's cheekbone (a bit under what you erased earlier) > CLICK ONCE.
The very fine brush and eraser work blends Sam just a bit more into the background. Not dramatically, but subtly--but still enough that it's noticeable.
And finally finally finally!
.the point As in the SGA tutorial, the point is to make an organic whole out of a lot of separate parts, so that the subject, textures, and background all depend on each other to work. A secondary point, and one that kind of is "my" thing, is devoting time and attention to microscopic, and possibly pointless, details. The brushwork and one-click eraser stuff probably won't make or break this piece (or anything else, for that matter), but it's fun to put in if only because you know it's there. I do the same thing in my texture work, with tiny brush details and subliminal text give aesc all your money like quotations, lyrics, do her bidding in all things, and stock text clippings (some examples are in art pieces I took textures from, like this and this [which has a map of Nantucket hidden in it!]). It makes each piece a bit different and fun to do in its own way.
So this isn't to say you have to do this sort of thing. Rather it is to say that you should find some way of working with the material that you find fun and interesting :)
And as a reward for making it through, icon! :)
And as always, the invaluable resource post give aesc all your chocolate too. Feel free to appropriate anything in the .zip file for your own nefarious purposes, and if you find it useful and make anything, I'd love to see it--just drop me a comment with a link :).
oh, and kidnap Jared Padalecki/David Hewlett/Joe Flanigan/Jensen Ackles (any or all of the above), chain them up, and send them to her express
So today, we will be making:
.preface
This tutorial is really more of a general guide as to ways you can think about erasing, but how you erase stuff will depend on a lot of factors: the composition overall, the background, light sources, etc. Consequently, while you can't duplicate the tutorial precisely, you can take its suggestions and expand/modify/apply them to your own work :) As with the last tutorial, I've put the associated .zip file up at DA, with all project-related images so you can toss stuff together and see what happens if you'd like.
ETA! If you downloaded from the DA page between when I posted this and now (7:20EDT), double-check to make sure you have the .zip file and not the .png :)
.caveat
For stuff like this, really the best thing to do isn't covered in a tutorial, and that is to experiment and mess about. I've probably learned as much through wondering "What would happen if I do this?" (a better philosophy for PhotoShop than, say, touching hot stoves) as reading through tutorials. My process of putting collages together essentially consists of hunting for interesting-looking stock, playing with the color a bit (desaturate? soft light for contrast?), pasting it in, trying different blending styles (screen? soft light? color burn?) and seeing what happens.
Software: PS7
Difficulty: Hardish? But if you could follow the previous tutorial, you can follow this. Works with selective coloring, variations, and curve layers (just a bit). The collage part is a bit more involved because the various stock components will be more heavily modified.
In the last zomgHUGE tutorial, I was working with desaturated colors on a black/white background, so this time I'll try something different and have some hot color-on-color action. As another way to change things up, instead of having a background relying on scratch textures, I decided to play around with paper stock this time around.
And hey, how about some Sam Winchester while we're at it?
As is my custom, this is a full tutorial subdivided into remarks on composition, image prep, background, and assembly (subdivided into blending and texture work). This time around, though, the section on erasing is a bit longer :D
A. On composition
I talked about composition a lot in the last tutorial, and the remarks here will be pretty much the same as the remarks there. This time, however, I wanted something with a little more color and a lot less black, but still with some energy and drama to it. So I hunted through my stock collection and pulled out this cap of Sam Winchester. It has an interesting perspective and nice color potential, and the stupid CW logo can be worked around thanks to the power of the Magic Eraser.
B. Image prep
The cap, as is typical with SPN screencaps, is very dark, and needs to be brightened up. To do this, I worked a bit more with adjustment layers to get rid of the black and grey values. Unlike the previous tutorial, in which I wanted color saturation to be minimal, I really want the colors to stand out.
1.) Resize to 400px wide
2.) Duplicate > Screen > duplicate Screen layers 4x.
3.) In the top Screen layer > Image > Adjustments > Variations > MORE GREEN 1x
->Edit > Fade Variations > fade to 48% > set mode to Soft Light
4.) New Adjustment Layer > Curves > (RGB) In: 188 Out: 200
5.) New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation > Sat +26
6.) New Adjustment Layer > Selective Coloring > (WHITES) Y -29; B -16
7.) New Fill Layer > #E9F9FF to Color Burn
8.) Layer > Merge Visible (Ctrl + Shift + E)
result
Crop all the background stuff.
->Cropped .psd is in the .zip file.
C. Background
1.) Open a new document, 481.688px (you'll see why next)
->New Fill Layer > Normal #F5F5F5
2.) Starting with a grey stock texture (stock xchng):
->Image > Image Size > resize to 481.688px
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down (Ctrl + E)
->Paste into the document with the fill layer > Multiply
->The stenciled 4 was a bit much, so using the cloudy eraser (set to 398px), I got rid of it.
3.) Open this paper texture (brasaremean).
->Resize to 650px wide
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Sharpen (SL layer) > Merge Down
->Paste into the collage > Color Burn
->Move down so that the lowest fold/crease in the paper texture is near the bottom, about 185-90px up. This is going to form a very faint base to support the subject.
D. Assembly
Like before, this section comes in two parts: blending and texture/detail work.
Blending
1: Okay, erasing! To help illustrate what I'm going to try to do, I made an eraser guide:
As you can see, I want the straight edges and sharp corners to go, as well as the damned inconvenient CW. The devil is in the details here: I want the eraser to fade out at the shadow/light line just underneath Sam's jacket collar, because I will need the shadow in there for blending purposes later on. The same is true for the shadows under the fold of his shirt. Another tiny devil is the light on the ridge of his cheekbone--see how it follows the ellipse just below his eye? I want to use that light space to blend in with background colors as well, but I don't want the eraser effect to be very heavy here.
Everything I've just said covers a range of things to think about in using erasers as a blending method: light and shadow, points of anatomy, contour lines (bones, folds in clothing, etc.) the relative strength of the eraser effect and how obvious it needs to be. I want the eraser effects to be most noticeable at the edges, but very subtle the further in I go. As in the previous tutorial, I'll be using my favorite brush of all time (inxsomniax), and which those of you from the previous tutorial have encountered before.
A rule of thumb with cloudy brushes is to start at the far edges and work your way in. As you go in and the work becomes more detailed, decrease the brush size.
After pasting Sam in and positioning him just above the crease in the paper texture layer:
1.) Starting at the bottom straight edge, set brush to 66px. Get rid of the straight lines and logo.
2.) As you get closer to the shadow under Sam's left jacket collar, reduce eraser size to 41px. Erase out the rest of the logo, but stop just as you get to the line between shadow and light.
3.) On his right size, resize eraser to 72px and erase his jacket collar but leave a bit of the top curve.
4.) Go up to that light patch on Sam's cheekbone and erase (VERY VERY LIGHTLY--click down and hold, then drag) following the light curve there, just below his eye. Once is plenty! You should barely see the grey background through it.
result [The .psd for this is in the .zip file]
And so you can see roughly where I used the various brush sizes:
Because I can't say it enough: This will require some trial and error :)
2: In order to bring Sam into the background and texture a bit more, duplicate him and set the top copy to Multiply and the bottom to Screen. I will actually change this is a bit, but keep it like this for now.
->Before you go, sharpen the Multiply layer twice, and on the second sharpening fade to around 40%
Texture work
Ah, more fun. My process behind this was really just to grab stuff that looked interesting or promising and play with it. If it fit, great. If it didn't, I scrapped and started over. There really is no system to the process at all, so the following steps reflect an order that doesn't actually exist.
[All of the additional textures will be added under the subject]
1.) Open this crumpled paper stock (rain harbour). To give you an idea of the amount of randomness involved, here's what I did:
->Image > Adjustments > Variations > MORE BLUE 5x, MORE RED 1x (for the hell of it)
->Paste into collage > Color Burn.
->Fantastically horrible, yes? To make it better: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate [The extreme variations brought out some contrast in the end--one good thing that came out of an otherwise failed experiment]
->Position the texture behind Sam's head
2.) For a bit more color, especially yellow and other warm tones, open this blobby paint stock (kavewall).
->Duplicate > Screen > Duplicate Screen layer 2x > Merge down
->Resize to 500px
->Paste into collage > Color Burn
->I rotated it a bit so the dark half-loop at the top curves around a bit more and closes off the top of the composition, and the dark blue streaks approximately follow Sam's line of sight. I then got rid of the thick black border lines using the eraser.
3.) Open blue square stock (brasaremean). Paste as is into collage > Lighten [We're starting to build up some pale blue values here.]
4.) Open this blue paper stock (elli).
->Resize to 500px wide > Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down > Sharpen
->Paste into collage (over the crumpled paper) > Color Burn
->Erase using the cloudy brush set to 114px or so. Get rid of the defining straight lines from the image frame, but leave the crumply/torn edges intact [result]
->rotate counter-clockwise so the lines follow (roughly) the angle of Sam's line of sight. This directs the viewer's gaze along the same path Sam is looking.
5.) Now there's a bit too much blue behind Sam, and he's starting to look a little dull so we need to brighten him up.
->Open this light texture (amalgam), resize to 400px
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Paste into collage > Screen
->Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal
->Position so the red/yellow values are just behind Sam's cheekbone and eye (the part that needs to be brought out a little)
6.) Not quite enough, so I decided Sam might be the problem here. Isn't he always? (Wait, that's Dean.)
->Duplicate the screen layer. Much better :)
7.) Open notebook stock (myrasis).
->Resize to 500px > Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Past into collage > Linear Burn @ Opacity 41%
->Position behind Sam's head and rotate so the edges of the paper form lines that seem to radiate out from some point just behind him.
->Using the eraser, get rid of almost all of the stock (I know!) I used the eraser at about 150-200px everywhere except in the corner where the two pieces of paper come together, then I reduced to about 50px to keep the shadows. The lines in the paper should just be suggestions, not very obvious. (We're all about subtlety here @ discolore.)
The idea behind the lines in this piece of stock, the blue envelope, and the crumpled paper is to have them "radiate" out from roughly central points that are located behind and below Sam's head. They don't match up perfectly, but they don't need to.
8.) For a bit of text, open up this (halo).
->Duplicate > Soft Light > Merge Down
->Paste into collage between the rain harbour and crmble layers
->Edit > Rotate Image > Flip Vertical > Move so it's just below Sam
->Set to Color Burn
->As a final touch, Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
9.) So close I can taste it! A few more things and we're done, I swear! First:
->Using the cloudy brush as a brush this time: New Layer > brush (398px) #001288
->Position the brush just at the base of Sam's neck > CLICK ONCE > set layer to Lighten
10.) Two more... Open this tiny text brush (sanami276)
->New Layer > #001288 > position at the edge of the rain harbor paper texture, where the texture stops and the background begins > CLICK ONCE > Soft Light
->In the Multiply layer, pick up the cloudy eraser again (363px). Setting it back from the front of Sam's face, click once (if you're too far away, move closer and click again). Edit > Fade Eraser 41%. This will bring out the screen layers and background textures just a bit, enough to blend Sam into them.
11.) Last thing! One tiny nit-picky detail that makes these things fun for me:
->Open this brush (regen) > set as eraser (With the eraser button selected: Edit > Define Brush)
->In the bottom screen layer, position the curved front edge of the eraser so it matches the curve of Sam's cheekbone (a bit under what you erased earlier) > CLICK ONCE.
The very fine brush and eraser work blends Sam just a bit more into the background. Not dramatically, but subtly--but still enough that it's noticeable.
And finally finally finally!
.the point As in the SGA tutorial, the point is to make an organic whole out of a lot of separate parts, so that the subject, textures, and background all depend on each other to work. A secondary point, and one that kind of is "my" thing, is devoting time and attention to microscopic, and possibly pointless, details. The brushwork and one-click eraser stuff probably won't make or break this piece (or anything else, for that matter), but it's fun to put in if only because you know it's there. I do the same thing in my texture work, with tiny brush details and subliminal text give aesc all your money like quotations, lyrics, do her bidding in all things, and stock text clippings (some examples are in art pieces I took textures from, like this and this [which has a map of Nantucket hidden in it!]). It makes each piece a bit different and fun to do in its own way.
So this isn't to say you have to do this sort of thing. Rather it is to say that you should find some way of working with the material that you find fun and interesting :)
And as a reward for making it through, icon! :)
And as always, the invaluable resource post give aesc all your chocolate too. Feel free to appropriate anything in the .zip file for your own nefarious purposes, and if you find it useful and make anything, I'd love to see it--just drop me a comment with a link :).
oh, and kidnap Jared Padalecki/David Hewlett/Joe Flanigan/Jensen Ackles (any or all of the above), chain them up, and send them to her express