Tabla de contenidos para No. 143 en Photoshop Creative

Photoshop’s filters are underestimated. While they can provide one-click fixes to improve images or add fun effects, used creatively filters can produce stunning results. Turn to p18 and see for yourself! Create a fantasy scene like the one on this issue’s cover, dramatic fire effects, a pop-art portrait or a surreal composition. Also in this issue are step-by-step tutorials on illustrating with the Pen tool, crafting a travel composition with masks, retouching old photos like never before, and much more. There are advanced guides on painting perfect portraits, creatively editing product shots and making isometric art. Plus, Elements users will learn how to build a low-poly portrait, make a miniature scene in a light bulb and more. If that isn’t enough, check out some of the incredible entries to our…

Andreas Schmalz www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/A.S-Artworks Image of the issue I like the beautiful Chinese mountain region of Songshan, so I laid out some pictures of it and added fantasy elements, such as the waterfall and temple, to it. After I felt the components were right, I started adding light, shadows and colour. Joseph Xerri photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/joseph.xerri The idea behind this artwork was to create a fantasy image to promote a casino slot game. Using basic Photoshop tools and digital-painting techniques, I was able to create this artwork showing a mermaid protecting treasure. Yasser Khaddor photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/castillano I made this image by composing five images: the earth, the moon floor, the sky, the ball and the person sitting on a wall. I focused more on shadows and brightness, and finished with Gaussian blur and a…

Coffee and a clear mind 08:30 Most days I start with coffee. We have a nice bar in the office, where I gather with people from different industries and we discuss various topics. This is good for clarifying the mind before we get to work. Recapping 09:00 First I check what I have done the day before and if I have the same satisfying feeling as I had when I was leaving work. This is an important moment for me, so I can continue to work peacefully or amend what I have overlooked the day before. Monitoring the plan 10:00 During the day, I regularly check the plan that I wrote the day before. I don’t leave work before the plan is completed. Of course, it’s important not to set…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to use filters, masks and blend modes for a mixed-media portrait Time taken 2hours Expert Andre Villanueva “Mixed media and collages are my favourite types of art to create and admire. Jumping into a mixed-media journey after a long stretch of straightforward (tedious) design work is such a nice break. “I discovered Photoshop when studying web design. I’m now art director for a tech company, soothing my inner instructor by sharing techniques with readers.” What’s more liberating than a mixed-media artistic journey? You’re free to do anything and add whatever you like! In the physical realm, mixed media can be a messy affair. A studio setting is definitely recommended, as various paints can and will splatter everywhere. With your choice…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to edit photos with filters, layers and blend modes Time taken 2hours Expert Mark White “The Screen blend mode is my favourite, and it’s one that I used a lot with this picture. It’s a dream for any artist who wants to erase black from a photo quickly, and with adjustment layers, you can create some amazing effects with all kinds of blend modes. “As senior staff writer on Photoshop Creative, I’ve learned all kinds of quick tips to help with even the most impressive-looking pictures.” Editing a sports photo is a great exercise for any designer or artist. This is a project that can have limitless potential, as you can incorporate all kinds of stock imagery into the piece,…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to use masks, blend modes and more to create an abstract body Time taken 8hours Expert Rodrigo Marinelli “I always like to make surreal images using a realistic style. It’s a great exercise because it forces you to focus on the details; a single shadow can make all the difference in the final image. This is definitely one of my favourite styles. “I’m an art director and have 11 years of experience in advertising agencies. I learned and am still learning to use Photoshop through following tutorials.” The human body is an amazing machine; it’s fascinating to observe how everything is connected and works in harmony at the same time. It was the human body that provided the inspiration for…

Essentials Time taken 10 hours The artist Emi Haze “I’m an Italian digital artist and illustrator. My artworks are a mixture of painting, digital art and photography. I have worked for several clients and big agencies, such as Adobe, Wacom, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Penguin Random House and Getty Images.” To see more of Emi’s work, check out www.emihaze.comand follow him on Behance at www.behance.net/endalaust. Emi Haze explains that “Flux is part of a project based on deconstruction of the human body using various tools and graphic effects that render it almost a sketch.” Emi usually creates double exposures, and has contributed a number of bright and colourful pieces to Adobe and Wacom adverts, so the black and white of Flux feels like a completely new style. Although there are…

CREATE REALISM IN YOUR PAINTED PORTRAITS This whimsical and soft portrait is the work of freelance graphic designer and illustrator Martyna Zajac (www.iamrabbitlab.com), who does her realistic digital paintings as a hobby. She says that the face shows everything when it comes to emotions and that the eyes need to show a person’s feelings. For realism, she paints highlights in the eyes, adds puffy areas to the lips, and paints deep shadows and textures over the skin. Check out the step-by-step guide opposite to see how she created this. BASIC BRUSHES This whole image is built from start to finish using the basic Round brushes. They are tweaked using the controls in the Brush palette, adding various Dynamics to suit different areas. THE FINAL PHOTO EFFECT Right at the end…

Essentials Time taken 5hours The artist Javier González Pacheco “I’m a 2D artist and illustrator from Villarrobledo, living in Barcelona, Spain. My work has had over 100,000 views on Behance, and I’ve been featured by Wacom’s online gallery. I use all kinds of natural media, and I use Photoshop to paint digitally.” Javier’s work is available for sale on Society6, and you can check out his art gallery at https://www.behance.net/javiergpacheco. Artist Javier Pacheco loves to paint girls using lots of different techniques, “sometimes in traditional styles, such as watercolour, ink, acrylics and pencils, but often in digital too,” he tells us. “I love Photoshop for creating my own brushes, scanning traditional textures that I’ve made, and generally just mixing digital styles with bright colours to create something unique.” It’s evident…

WHAT’S THE EASIEST WAY TO ADD A NEBULA TO A PHOTO? Though it’s rare to actually see them in the sky, nebulas are an extremely popular way to brighten up night-time shots with colour and sparkle. While you can build them from scratch with brushes that are available to download online, the easiest way to build them is to layer real pictures of nebulas over your existing photos; the best thing about this is that there’s little blending to be done if you set the layers to Screen, as the darker shades from the nebulas are cancelled out, leaving the light and colour. As well as adding real nebulas set to Screen, try setting them to Overlay, as well as adding Color layers with bright hues. For more clouds, set…

Bram Vanhaeren is clearly ambitious, and keen to create as much art as he can. “I’m working on an artwork with my girlfriend,” he says of his next project. “It’s all canvas-based – it’s fun to step aside from the computer!” We caught up with him to find out about his influences and the story behind his career. How and when did your relationship with Photoshop start? When I was 13. We’d just got the internet and I found gaming forums where people had profile images. One user told me he used Photoshop to create these. I quit gaming and got into design forums, and showcased my small creations. Then DeviantArt and not so long after Behance followed. Would you say you have always had an interest in art? Yes,…

A ta Alishahi has always loved the raw form of photography, but his passion for photomanipulations came much later. “When digital technology was introduced to the world,” says Ata, “I saw unlimited creative possibility and set about educating myself about software.” Despite this love of digital art though, Ata’s work is focused on nature. We caught up with him to discover his Photoshop secrets. What do you think makes a good Photoshop composition? My icons are women, nature and animals. When you combine these elements, it makes for a beautiful picture. I usually begin by looking for a story, then consider how to put that story into a composition. A good composition to me is one with the right textures, colours, lighting, background, foreground and the elements that create the…

Building the background I started with the background, which I created from two photos of clouds, and converted the image to black and white by desaturating it, though there are many other ways to do that. Creating a gradient I created a new layer and picked two colours in the foreground and background swatches. I then used the Gradient tool to create a fade between the two. Adding fish I decided to add the fish, which I duplicated by Ctrl/right-clicking. I then resized them by using the Transform tool (Cmd/Ctrl+T). I also added some rose petals and stars. Inserting the subject Finally, I added the girl with the umbrella, which was downloaded from DeviantArt, and used the Lasso tool to cut her out before adding her to the image.…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to use the Pen tool, paths, path strokes and more to illustrate Time taken 2hours Expert Moe Hezwani “I love illustrating in Photoshop. Even though I use the Pen tool on a daily basis, I am constantly discovering new techniques and tricks. Path strokes was one of my favourite discoveries; creating simulated pressure using the Pen tool really adds depth to an illustration. “I’m a professional graphic designer/illustrator, and Photoshop is my go-to platform for my designs.” Bring a hand-drawn sketch to life with bold block colours and shapes. The best things about an illustration like this is that you only have to draw one half of it, then simply duplicated your layers and reflect them to finish off the…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn Add colour and shading with blend modes, mask, clone and remove grain Time taken 1-2 hours Expert Sarah Cousens “I love the nostalgic feeling I get when looking at old, black-and-white photos. I really enjoyed adding a modern twist and creating a piece of art by combining the old and the new here. “Working as a freelance designer, I have been using Photoshop extensively ever since forming my own design and illustration company, CoolSurface.com, over 10 years ago.” It is fascinating to look through very old photos of people and places; to see these snapshots from another era, giving us a glimpse into a world gone by. In this tutorial we’ll be adding colour and a new background to an old…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to use Warp Transform to manipulate text, brushes and masks Time taken 6hours Expert Simon Skellon “Combining portrait photography with text effects can produce incredible results. The Warp Transform is one of my favourite tools for getting more creative with type. It’s amazing what you can do with it! “I have been working with Photoshop for more than 10 years, and even to this day I find myself learning new techniques and discovering new things in the program.” Ever wanted to turn a portrait of your favourite famous person or friend into a piece of digital art? Using these simple techniques, it’s possible to do just that. Follow these steps to find out how to use the Warp Transform tool,…

Essentials Time taken 3hours Expert Lewis Moorhead “ @ www I’ve thepixelprosites created .thepixel a clear style .com in my work, and hope people see that when they see a piece of mine. The look I go for is slightly unsaturated to look realistic but with a lot of vibrancy. I always increase the detail using the frowned-upon HDR effect but I only use it at around 10% so the only benefits I get from it is an increase in dynamic shadowing and highlights. “I’m a professional creative retoucher and have been creating advertisements and campaigns for companies all over the world using photo-compositing techniques. I have been a designer for five years and although I still have a lot to learn, I enjoy teaching others what I know and…

Price Software: £45.48 / $59.88 US – App: £3.99 / $4.99 US Web www.artrage.com The specs Company Ambient Design Additional specs Mac OS X 10.6 or above Windows Vista or above iOS 8 or later Android 4.0 or later STICKERS Use the Stickers icon on the left-hand side of the program to add images and shapes. You can also import your own to use. METALLIC TEXTURES The Metallic option can be activated by using the bottom-right button; it adds a shinier finish to your paint textures. TRACE OVER IMAGES Add a low opacity layer, which can be switched on and off with ease, so that you can follow exactly what you’re drawing. Digital artists are always looking for new ways to create painted effects in their artwork. Photoshop offers great…

There’s nothing more inspiring than surfing the internet and seeing what other artists are creating, and we encourage you to do so. Here are some of our favourite pictures that caught our attention recently, from some of the world’s most exciting artists and designers. Ahmed Karam www.behance.net/ ahmed21karam This image started off as a sketch before the low-poly triangles were added and then filled with colour. This image was created in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos tablet. Aly Bassam www.behance.net/ AlyBassam In this picture I kept the facial figures clear in the girl and worked on giving her a meaningful depth of perspective. In addition to that, I have used a layer mask and several copies of both images with different blending modes and opacities. Katya Maleev www.katyamaleev.com I used…

Photoshop has a wide variety of powerful built-in filters. They can be used to enhance the details in your images, create special effects, retouch your photos and much more. The filters appear in the menu bar and most of the them have their own set of controls, enabling you to adjust effects you want to create. You can find more filters under the Filter Gallery, which provide a preview of the special-effect filters and enable you to apply a single or multiple effect in an image using the Filter Gallery dialog box. You can apply a filter without overwriting the original image by transforming the layer into a Smart Object. Any filter applied to a Smart Object is a Smart Filter. This technique enables you to make changes to an…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to use masks, blurs, adjustments and paths to create natural light Time taken 4hours Expert Rodrigo Marinelli “Every time I have the opportunity to travel, I don’t think twice about it, and jump at the chance. It’s amazing to get to know different people and cultures. I always feel inspired to create an image that captures my trip. “I’m an art director and have 11 years of experience in advertising agencies. I learned and am still learning to use Photoshop through following tutorials.” One of the most popular pastimes is undoubtedly travelling, whether to nearby locations or faraway lands. Discovering new places, meeting other people and experiencing foreign cultures are important in enhancing our creativity by making us more curious…

01 Reduce the noise Duplicate the background layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J), go to Filter>Noise> Remove Noise. Enter Strength: 10, Preserve Details: 12%, Reduce Color Noise: 0%, Sharpen Details: 10%. 02 Create some surface blur Duplicate Layer 1, go to Filter> Blur>Surface Blur. Enter Pixels: 6, Threshold: 20. Hold Alt and click the Add Vector Mask icon in order to add a black-filled layer mask. 03 Mask it back Use a white airbrush at 50% Opacity to bring back some of the blurred layer. Paint over areas such as the skin and hair, avoiding detailed areas such as the eyes. 04 Reduce grain Press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge the top two layers, then use the Blur and Sharpen tools to smooth any remaining grain and sharpen the eyes and other details where necessary.…

RIGHT NOT BRIGHT If your icons are too bright, select Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation. Use the Saturation bar to dull the colours or remove some completely. DEMONSTRATE IT Make sure the icons are relevant to skills you possess, and you have no issues demonstrating your knowledge at interviews. Visual CVs are a great way of showing potential employers or clients your skills, what you have achieved and who you are by using your own creative, individual style. Your CV should communicate with the reader visually, be easy to read, and have essential and relevant information available, such as technical skills and education, work experience, interests and information about who you are. This is also where you can demonstrate your knowledge by creating elements of colour, design and layout. It is important that…