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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” Intended for intermediate users” ?