+ PS: Tear/Vampire/Red Eye tutorial
I've posted a few tutorials already under my personal journal name (lostluckkitten) and figured I'll start posting tutorials under my icon journal, since... this is where my icons/resources are ;)
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Crop and prepare your base... this picture of Alexis Bledel can be found at either www.visionsofalexis.com or www.alexisbledelfan.com, and it's awesome because it's a HUGE high-resolution pic. I cropped a little over half of Alexis' face and some of her hair and resized to 100x100 pixels. I then used Smart Sharpen (Filters ---> Sharpen ---> Smart Sharpen) once for Lens Blur, then did a regular Sharpen filter twice (Filters ---> Sharpen ---> Sharpen). Then I used the Blur tool to smooth her skin, and adjusted the levels (Image ---> Adjustments ---> Levels) until her skin tone was evened out... that famous Alexis Bledel porcelain-doll complexion. Duplicate the base once, Desturate (Shift + Ctrl + U), and set to Soft Light 75-100%.
Now, she's far too lifelike for the look we're going for... we need to make her paler. Adjust the Saturation levels by going to Image ---> Adjustments ---> Hue/Saturation. Move the Saturation bar to the left until it's somewhere between -40 & -60. For this image, I went to -48. The goal is to make the subject paler, but not to Desaturate the image so much that there's no color left.
Now we're going to make Alexis cry :'( Find your Burn tool... if you right-click on your Dodge tool (which looks like a circle on a stick), you should see a pinching hand. That's your Burn tool. The settings should be at about 50% Midtones. Select a small round brush, and run your Burn tool underneath your subject's eye to bring out the mascara. Little by little, start making a tear-line down her cheek. You may have to go over the line a few times to get it dark enough, depending on your subject's skin tone. It may take you a few tries to get a believable-looking tear... remember to go with the curve of the cheek, as opposed to straight down. (Aside: She had a few stray hairs that got in the way of the tear, which I edited out with the spot healing brush/smudge tool).
Create a new layer, and select a medium-dark red (I used #771f1f). Set the new layer to Overlay 100%, and use your Paintbrush tool and a small round brush to color the eyes and lips with red. If your subject's eyes/lips are light-colored, you may need to duplicate the layer. One layer of red wasn't enough for Alexis, so I duplicatd the layer and set it to 75%. If your subject is blonde or a light brunette, use the burn tool to darken their hair.
Flatten your image. Duplicate the base and set it to Soft Light 70%. Create a new layer, fill with a light gray (I used #adacad) and set to Hard Light 100%. Then create a layer mask (on your layer menu, mouse over the buttons on the bottom of the menu to find the layer mask) and use a black/white gradient to fade the gray so it only covers part of the subject's hair.
Create another new layer, and find yourself a blood/splatter brush. Apply it with a light-medium gray, and set to Color Burn 100%.
Use Times New Roman to make a size 18-24pt X, and then make some various tiny text using Times New Roman set to 2pt, 600 spacing/kerning. Go to Blending Options for each of your text layers... you can do this by right-clicking the layer, then selecting "Blending Options" from the pop-down menu. Select "Outer Glow" for each text layer, and change the color to red and the pixels to 5-8px for a nice red glow around your text. Flatten the image. Use the Dodge tool on her eye to brighten the red and bring it out more. For good measure, if the tear line isn't defined/dark enough, run the burn tool over it one more time.
You're done! ^.^
Go from
to
Crop and prepare your base... this picture of Alexis Bledel can be found at either www.visionsofalexis.com or www.alexisbledelfan.com, and it's awesome because it's a HUGE high-resolution pic. I cropped a little over half of Alexis' face and some of her hair and resized to 100x100 pixels. I then used Smart Sharpen (Filters ---> Sharpen ---> Smart Sharpen) once for Lens Blur, then did a regular Sharpen filter twice (Filters ---> Sharpen ---> Sharpen). Then I used the Blur tool to smooth her skin, and adjusted the levels (Image ---> Adjustments ---> Levels) until her skin tone was evened out... that famous Alexis Bledel porcelain-doll complexion. Duplicate the base once, Desturate (Shift + Ctrl + U), and set to Soft Light 75-100%.
Now, she's far too lifelike for the look we're going for... we need to make her paler. Adjust the Saturation levels by going to Image ---> Adjustments ---> Hue/Saturation. Move the Saturation bar to the left until it's somewhere between -40 & -60. For this image, I went to -48. The goal is to make the subject paler, but not to Desaturate the image so much that there's no color left.
Now we're going to make Alexis cry :'( Find your Burn tool... if you right-click on your Dodge tool (which looks like a circle on a stick), you should see a pinching hand. That's your Burn tool. The settings should be at about 50% Midtones. Select a small round brush, and run your Burn tool underneath your subject's eye to bring out the mascara. Little by little, start making a tear-line down her cheek. You may have to go over the line a few times to get it dark enough, depending on your subject's skin tone. It may take you a few tries to get a believable-looking tear... remember to go with the curve of the cheek, as opposed to straight down. (Aside: She had a few stray hairs that got in the way of the tear, which I edited out with the spot healing brush/smudge tool).
Create a new layer, and select a medium-dark red (I used #771f1f). Set the new layer to Overlay 100%, and use your Paintbrush tool and a small round brush to color the eyes and lips with red. If your subject's eyes/lips are light-colored, you may need to duplicate the layer. One layer of red wasn't enough for Alexis, so I duplicatd the layer and set it to 75%. If your subject is blonde or a light brunette, use the burn tool to darken their hair.
Flatten your image. Duplicate the base and set it to Soft Light 70%. Create a new layer, fill with a light gray (I used #adacad) and set to Hard Light 100%. Then create a layer mask (on your layer menu, mouse over the buttons on the bottom of the menu to find the layer mask) and use a black/white gradient to fade the gray so it only covers part of the subject's hair.
Create another new layer, and find yourself a blood/splatter brush. Apply it with a light-medium gray, and set to Color Burn 100%.
Use Times New Roman to make a size 18-24pt X, and then make some various tiny text using Times New Roman set to 2pt, 600 spacing/kerning. Go to Blending Options for each of your text layers... you can do this by right-clicking the layer, then selecting "Blending Options" from the pop-down menu. Select "Outer Glow" for each text layer, and change the color to red and the pixels to 5-8px for a nice red glow around your text. Flatten the image. Use the Dodge tool on her eye to brighten the red and bring it out more. For good measure, if the tear line isn't defined/dark enough, run the burn tool over it one more time.
You're done! ^.^