ART133_tut1.pdf

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December 2006

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TUTORIAL |

PHOTOSHOP • ILLUSTRATOR

HANDS-ON DESIGN

Combining traditional media with digital techniques is a fail-safe way to add an interesting new dimension to

your artwork, but you must be prepared to get your hands dirty, as Mark Mayers explains

ON THE CD

Slick, clean and technically perfect

images are easily achieved with the

software available to today’s digital artist,

but the computer can sometimes seem a

sterile and impersonal tool. Instead of

sitting in front of the easel spending time

painting with brush and paint, artists can

create images using computer software in

a relatively short time.

Although it has revolutionised the way

we work, software cannot duplicate the

randomness of a paint drip or leave a bristle

hair on your canvas, and neither does it

have a ‘happy accident’ tool. Sometimes a

less slick and more ‘edgy’ image is what’s

needed. The best way to achieve this is to

roll up your sleeves, dust off your forgotten

tools, such as paints, brushes and a canvas,

and adopt a far more hands-on approach.

Throughout this tutorial you’ll be

encouraged to think outside the box and

use often overlooked traditional techniques,

combining them with digital methods of

working. The source ﬁ les are on the CD,

but by creating them yourself you’ll add a

unique, personal touch to your artwork,

and have more fun in the process!

Here you’ll use a variety of blending

modes in Photoshop, make some custom

brushes from real-world source material,

create some stencils for spray-paint effects

and use Adjustment Layers. I’ll also show

you how to create natural-looking brushes

in Illustrator and use them to trace a sketch.

Whether or not you’re talented with a

paintbrush, these techniques will teach you

a ‘best of both worlds’ approach that can be

applied to your own images, giving them a

painterly look that can’t be mimicked with

digital media alone.

You’ll ﬁ nd all the ﬁ les

you need to complete

this tutorial in the folder

marked Tutorial\Hands-

on on this issue’s CD.

TIME NEEDED

3.5 hours

INFO

Mark

Mayers has

worked in

the design

industry

for over 18 years.

He currently works

freelance from his studio

in Cornwall and was

recently named Designer

of the Year by MetalFX

Technology. To see more

of Mark’s work go to

www.markmayers.co.uk

using a wide brush, create a series of

background textures. Experiment using wet

and dry paint. Also try using really thick

paint on different types of material, such

as card. The idea here is to capture the

textures from the canvas and brush strokes.

3 Drag-and-drop/scale

your other painted textures into your

working ﬁ le. Working in this way is quite

intuitive, so exercise your creative freedom

and experiment with different Layer Modes.

Here I used a combination of Screen,

Multiply and Linear Burn.

2 Wait for your textures to dry or, if

ﬁ le into your working ﬁ le, name the

layer Buildings and set the Blending Mode

to Linear Burn. Now go to Image>

Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and change

the Hue to 18 and Saturation to 100 per cent.

Check the Colourise option and press OK to

apply these changes.

you’re impatient like me, use a hair

dryer. Next scan them at 300dpi and save

to a convenient location. Now create a new

Photoshop document that is 290mm

square, CMYK and 300dpi. Alternatively,

open the background_canvas.jpg supplied

on this issue’s CD.

Tutorial and illustration by Mark Mayers

www.markmayers.co.uk

Original photography by Tatiana Sayig

March 2007

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1 Grab some sheets of canvas and,

4 Drag-and-drop/scale the buildings.jpg

| TUTORIAL

PHOTOSHOP • ILLUSTRATOR

the Custom Blending options. Adjust the settings as

shown by Alt/Opt-clicking the left-hand side of the triangle

and adjust the sliders until you are happy with the result.

You can also experiment with the other blend options by

dragging down from the Blend If... menu.

8 In Photoshop or Illustrator, create some black

lettering in a suitable stencil font. If you don’t

have a suitable font, take a look on the web, but

please check the usage restrictions. I used a freebie

from www.dafont.com. Now print it out on to the

thickest card available for your printer.

or open the stencil_2.jpg ﬁ le supplied on this

issue’s CD, and repeat the previous step. This time,

try using a paler orange and experimenting with

different Blending Modes and Opacity settings.

Here I used Lighten with an 80 per cent opacity.

9 Cut out your stencils with a scalpel and aerosol

spray splatter you

made earlier and Copy

and Paste as in step 10. Try

ﬁ lling it with a darker orange and again experiment

with Blending Modes and Opacity. Here I used Hard

Light with an opacity of 60 per cent. Alternatively,

use the spray.jpg ﬁ le supplied on the CD.

make a selection around one of the brush strokes. Go

to Edit>Deﬁ neBrushPreset, give it a name and then

continue making selections to create more brushes. By

default these will appear at the bottom, in the list of your

current brush presets.

spray onto suitable stiff card. Any dark colour

aerosol paint will do because you’ll add colour later.

At the same time create some random splatters

and scan-in the results once dry. Alternatively, open

the stencil_1.jpg ﬁ le supplied on the CD.

CREATE A LIBRARY

By creating your own

library of hand-painted

textures and spray art

you can call on them

when required, which

is a lifesaver when

deadlines are tight.

Experiment by painting

with different mediums,

from thin washes of

watercolour to thick

layers of oils, and try

using different paper

stock. Also, try adjusting

your ﬁ nger pressure

while spray painting,

which will create random

paint effects that

software can’t replicate.

mask on the

Buildings layer by

clicking on the Add Layer

Mask icon. Now use your new

brushes to mask the left-

hand edge of the buildings.

Experiment by adjusting both

the brush sizes and opacity

until you are happy.

13 Launch Illustrator, create a new document

10 Adjust the levels so you have good contrast,

that’s 325x325mm in size and place the

ﬁ gure.jpg ﬁ le as a template. Now double-click on its

layer icon to adjust the default dimness until you’re

happy with the result. Because this is a fairly light

pencil sketch, set it back up to 100 per cent by un-

checking the Dim box.

use the Magic Wand tool to select the centre,

then choose Select>Similar and Copy and Paste

into your working ﬁ le. Select a pale orange colour,

Ctrl/Cmd-click to generate a selection and ﬁ ll it.

Now set the layer to Lighten at 100 per cent opacity.

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5 Double-click on the Buildings layer icon to access

11 Open up another one of your sprayed stencils,

12 Open the random

6 Open the strokes.jpg ﬁ le and, using the Marquee tool,

7 Create a

TUTORIAL |

layer between

your two stencil layers

and set it to Hard Light

with an 80 per cent

opacity. Sample some

pale yellows and

oranges from your

illustration and, using

your new brushes,

roughly ﬁ ll in the

ﬁ gure. Remember to

vary the brush size and opacity, and also to

work from light to dark.

DEFINING A

BRUSH SET

To save a set of brushes

for future use in

Photoshop, click on the

Brush palette then click

the circled arrow on the

right to display the drop-

down menu. From here,

select the Preset

Manager option. Select

the brushes you want

by Shift-clicking then

selecting the Save Set

button. It won’t appear

until the next time you

load Photoshop, but now

you can add brushes to

that set whenever you

choose to.

14 To create some simple, natural-

Adjustment layer using the following

settings under Master: Hue +11, Saturation

+6; under Reds: Hue +4, Saturation -10;

and under Yellows: Hue -8, Saturation -11.

Again, experiment with your own settings

and see what you come up with.

looking brushes, draw a black solid

ellipse then convert the right-hand smooth

point to a corner point. Duplicate this shape

a few times, scale each down, drag them

one at a time into the Brushes palette and

then save them as Art Brushes.

new brushes,

trace the ﬁ gure,

starting with some

fairly broad strokes

to ﬂ esh out the

outline and then

adding ﬁ ner details

with smaller

brushes. We have

supplied an

expanded-appearance line drawing

on the CD if you wish to skip this step.

When you’ve ﬁ nished, copy the line work to

the clipboard.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Throughout this tutorial

you’ve been encouraged

to look beyond the

realms of your computer

for inspiration. Try

painting directly on to

some 3D objects and

pressing them on to the

canvas surface. Or, why

not create a Photoshop

brush from your own

handprint? You could

even Live Trace it to

make a vector brush

in Illustrator. The

possibilities are endless.

the ﬁ gure’s head, create a mask by

clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon on the

Spray layer. Ctrl/Cmd-click on your Figure Fill

layer to create a selection of it, make sure the

Spray layer is active and paint out the areas

that overlap the head.

make the ﬁ gure stand out more from

the background. Select your Figure Fill

layer. Alt/Opt-click on the Create New Fill or

Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the

Layers palette and check Use Previous

Layer to Create Clipping Mask. Adjust the

Magenta Channel as shown.

have a good look

at your composition. If

you want, move some

layers around or try

some different

Blending Modes. As a

ﬁ nal touch, try adding

some more dripping

paint (spray_2.jpg) in

the top left-hand

corner. When you are

happy, save the ﬁ le and

you’re ﬁ nished.

16 Back in Photoshop, paste the ﬁ gure

of your stencils

again and Copy and Paste it into your working

ﬁ le at the top of the layer stack. Fill the stencil

with a dark burgundy colour and set the

Blending Mode to Vivid Light. Position the

image over the ﬁ gure’s T-shirt and use the

Eraser tool with a hard-edge brush to delete

any areas you wish.

into your working ﬁ le as pixels and

position/scale as required. Now Ctrl/Cmd-

click the Layer icon to generate a selection

and ﬁ ll the selection with a deep burgundy,

setting the layer to Multiply. Play around

with the position of the underlying paint

scans until you like the composition.

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17 Create a new

20 Create a new Hue/Saturation

15 Using your

18 To delete the spray from behind

21 You can now apply adjustments to

22 Step back and

19 Open up one

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