Winner's Tutorial #93 by alyburns
Thank you all again for the First Place! I wasn't sure what this challenge was really about, having not been around the last time a brush was used as the object - so I just did what I envisioned the moment I saw the picture - which was basically a 21st century version of a painting by Rubens.
I used Photoshop Elements 5.0
So, going from this:
to this:
I had some idea of how to get the image I wanted, but it still took some experimentation. I started by cropping the picture (with just her upper body because eventually, she would look as though she were leaning against a pillar instead of vines) and then resizing down to 90x90 so I could position her correctly with the textures I had in mind:
I then opened a new base - 100x100 in white - placed a neutral texture
over it and set it to color. I then made the white base invisible, added the girl (but shifted her to the left) and then erased everything around her. Because of the setting to 'color' of the neutral texture over white, this is how she ended up looking:
I then duplicated her because I decided I didn't want her so ethereal yet - and without changing the setting (both girls are at 'normal'), I got this:
This darkened her just enough.
Now I wanted some color on her, so I chose #ad3036 and, using a small, soft round brush, I hand-painted the flowers in her hair and then her lips and set to 'color':
Now it was time to add more depth and color to her skin and hair so I thought the easiest way (remember, I'm lazy) would be to simply duplicate the texture and bring it to the top, which I did, and set it to 'color' too. I then erased the texture over the flowers and her lips:
Now it was time to "Rubenesque" her. I flattened my image and opened a new texture as my new base. The texture would be the base of the golden hues you often see in a Rubens painting. It's by staticshadow.
I flipped it so the line ran vertically and added my girl, whom I set to 'Luminosity':
Now I wanted to start getting more of that golden feel in spots, so I duplicated the texture, brought it to the top and set it to soft light. This worked perfectly. However, I wanted to retain the rainbow effect from the 'luminosity' setting, but only on the right side, so I erased that part of the duplicated texture:
Of course, I lost my color in the flowers/lips, so I duplicated my girl, set her to soft light, erased all but the flowers and lips, then duplicated her again to deepen the flowers etc.:
Now it was time to add my final texture, the one that would add the feeling of being in a Ruben garden, so I chose a texture by EM (#1244):
But I wanted the flowers on the right side, so again, I flipped it and placed it over my girl, set it to 'color burn' and erased anywhere it interfered with the girl:
I was close now, and thought all I needed was *more* of the EM texture on the right, so I duplicated, kept the settings, and erased everywhere but the right side:
I could have stopped here - almost did - but I wanted a few spots of brightness so I tried duplicating my background texture (the base), bringing it to the top, setting it to 'soft light' and then erasing where I didn't want the brightness - which gave me my final product:
And that's it.
Layers:
First half:
Second half:
I used Photoshop Elements 5.0
So, going from this:
to this:
I had some idea of how to get the image I wanted, but it still took some experimentation. I started by cropping the picture (with just her upper body because eventually, she would look as though she were leaning against a pillar instead of vines) and then resizing down to 90x90 so I could position her correctly with the textures I had in mind:
I then opened a new base - 100x100 in white - placed a neutral texture
over it and set it to color. I then made the white base invisible, added the girl (but shifted her to the left) and then erased everything around her. Because of the setting to 'color' of the neutral texture over white, this is how she ended up looking:
I then duplicated her because I decided I didn't want her so ethereal yet - and without changing the setting (both girls are at 'normal'), I got this:
This darkened her just enough.
Now I wanted some color on her, so I chose #ad3036 and, using a small, soft round brush, I hand-painted the flowers in her hair and then her lips and set to 'color':
Now it was time to add more depth and color to her skin and hair so I thought the easiest way (remember, I'm lazy) would be to simply duplicate the texture and bring it to the top, which I did, and set it to 'color' too. I then erased the texture over the flowers and her lips:
Now it was time to "Rubenesque" her. I flattened my image and opened a new texture as my new base. The texture would be the base of the golden hues you often see in a Rubens painting. It's by staticshadow.
I flipped it so the line ran vertically and added my girl, whom I set to 'Luminosity':
Now I wanted to start getting more of that golden feel in spots, so I duplicated the texture, brought it to the top and set it to soft light. This worked perfectly. However, I wanted to retain the rainbow effect from the 'luminosity' setting, but only on the right side, so I erased that part of the duplicated texture:
Of course, I lost my color in the flowers/lips, so I duplicated my girl, set her to soft light, erased all but the flowers and lips, then duplicated her again to deepen the flowers etc.:
Now it was time to add my final texture, the one that would add the feeling of being in a Ruben garden, so I chose a texture by EM (#1244):
But I wanted the flowers on the right side, so again, I flipped it and placed it over my girl, set it to 'color burn' and erased anywhere it interfered with the girl:
I was close now, and thought all I needed was *more* of the EM texture on the right, so I duplicated, kept the settings, and erased everywhere but the right side:
I could have stopped here - almost did - but I wanted a few spots of brightness so I tried duplicating my background texture (the base), bringing it to the top, setting it to 'soft light' and then erasing where I didn't want the brightness - which gave me my final product:
And that's it.
Layers:
First half:
Second half: