This tutorial will show how to transform an ordinary image into a digital piece using Photoshop, intended for intermediate to advanced users. (Click the images for larger views)

First of all, you need to find a picture (you may also take a scanned photo). In this example, we used a 300×240. If your image is not big enough, you can zoom in for easier manipulation.



The image is initially locked when you open it. Double-clicking on its layer allows you to rename and unlock it, let’s call it “Original”. Duplicate the layer and name it “Blur” (right-click on layer > Duplicate Layer…), and click the eye icon beside the layer Original to hide it.

If you don’t have a good quality image to work with, you should use the Blur tool (R), Brush tool (B), Dodge tool or Burn tool to make it look better. For the image we’ll use, select the Blur tool (R) with a 30% Strength and apply slightly over the pixels that affect the picture’s quality, then select the Brush tool (B) and apply it over the mouth, eyes, eyebrows, or any other area that you want to have more contrast.
Duplicate the working layer and call it “Image01″ (this is to prevent from accidentally saving the image). Since this is a black-and-white picture, use Dodge tool (O) make the tint of some areas around the image brighter.

Hide all layers except the one you’re working on, then use the Lasso tool (L) to cut the unused part of the picture. See this Image to compare the result until now. Create a new layer under the layer Image01, name it Back and fill it with a color of your choice, and in the Layers Tab, drag the layer Back downward to put it under the layer Image01 (the layers’ order in the image corresponds to that in the Layer Tab).

Zoom in the image to 200% to make the task easier.
Select the Brush tool, set the brush size to 1px-3px, put the mode to Normal or Screen if you want to have a little glow only, and chose a foreground color. This setting is for the glow of your contour line. In this example, I choose a brush size 3 and the color white.

Duplicate this layer and name it Outline. Select the Pen tool or Free Form Pen tool and start to create paths for the outline. Switch to Delete Anchor Point tool to delete a point or Add Anchor Point tool to add a path,

- Delete Anchor Point tool to delete a point,
- Add Anchor Point tool to add a new path,
- Convert Point tool to change the path’s form, and/or
- Right-click > Free Transform Points to move the points within the path.
Once the path’s editing is finished, right-click > Stroke Path > Brush (it will automatically chose the brush that you set earlier) to make it glow. Note that every time you want to create a new path, you have to hide (Ctrl+h) or delete (right-click > Delete Path) the old path. Now let’s draw the contours for the mouth, eyes, etc. See this image to make sure that you are on the right track.

Once you’ve finished creating all the contours, duplicate the layer “Outline” and name it “Outline Glow”, and in the Layers Tab, set the Fill field to 35%. Then, select the Move tool (V) and move the new layer 1px or 2px to the right using the arrow keys.

Duplicate the layer Image01, name it Image Gray, and hide all other layers (by clicking on the Eye icon). Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue > Saturation or Ctrl+u, and set Saturation to -100.
Edit the image using the tools mentioned in step 3. Note that there are 3 ranges in the Dodge and Burn tools, those are: Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. You are strongly suggested to try those ranges one by one, they are very useful in working on future designs or drawings.

Create a new layer and name it Texture. Draw creative lines using the Pen tool and make them glow (follow the steps above). You may create textures like the picture below or on your own. Show all layers (Eye icon) to see you final product.

Enjoy your new experiment!

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This tutorial will show you how to make a Digital Girl. This tutorial is intended for intermediate to advanced Photoshop users.

Step 1:

• Start off by finding an image you of a model that you would like to use. I used a picture of Jarah Mariano, and I used the pen tool in ‘Shape Layers’ mode and outlined the outside contour of her body.
• With the newly created shape layer rename is “Model”, and set the color to #B9C2D3 and put its fill opacity to about 77%.
• Then add a Stroke layer style with the stroke color set to white, and a 2px stroke radius. The image should look something like this:

• So now we want to have only the image of the model without the background. Make sure that your on the layer with the model’s image on it.
• Hold down the ctrl button and click on the “Model” shape layer you just created. You’ll get a dotted line around the outline of the model. With your Rectangle Marque Tool, left click on the document, and click on “Layer via Copy”. That should have created a new layer with only the model on it, and the background should be transparent.
• You can now change the background to a gradient or any color you wish. I made the background color black:

Step 3:

• Now we’re going to trace the inner contours of her body including the clothes she’s wearing. To being with, click on your brush tool, and set it to a “Hard Round Brush” and set the radius to 2px. Create a new layer, and using the Pen Tool set to ‘Paths’ mode, start tracing an inner contour of the model’s body.
• Once you have one inner contour finished, right click and select “Stroke Path”. Make sure that when you get the Stroke popup menu, that you have tool set to Brush and keep the ‘Simulate Pressure’ box unchecked. You should now have a stroke line on the new layer you created.
• Repeat this step until you have all the contours of her body stroked. I Recommend that you put the contours of the models face, and clothes, on two separate layers so you can tweak them later. Once you finish creating all the inner body contours, put those layers into a layer set. Your Image should now look something like this:

• Now, hide the inner countour layers and the ‘Model’ shape layer, and have the layer with the model’s image selected.
• Have the layer with the model on it selected and desaturate the image (ctrl+shift+u)
• Go up to Image>Adjustments>Curves, and set your curves so that the shading on the model’s body looks something like this:

• Go to Filter>Noise>Median, and set the median to 1px. Your image should look something like this:

• Go to Filter>Noise>Median again, and have the radius set to 1px.
• Make all the contour files you hid in step 4 visible.
• Select the ‘Model’ layer shape and set the blending mode to “Multiply” and put an Outer Glow layer style:

• I was looking at the image and i wasn’t happy with how the Plast Wrap filter left some parts of the image looking a bit…odd. So to fix that problem I used the Dodge and Burn tool to darken/lighten certain areas of the image.

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