Psd Photoshop Issue 09 - Oct 2010

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    cover artist interviewOliver Weiss 4

    Oliver Weiss is an illustrator from Germany who works in a varietyof different techniques ranging from whimsical drawings to mixed-

    media collage artwork.

    con

    tent

    issue0

    9/2010

    Dearest Readers!

    I have a pleasure to present you the latest, October issue of our magazine. I hope youare as excited as I am and that you will be eager to try out all our tutorials. This monthwe decided to prepare you for Halloween with Benoit Ladouceurs tutorial Trick or treat.You can also learn how to give your image a vintage look with Julia Trotti or how tobuild your portfolio with some help of Alex Eckman-Lawns exercises. We didnt forget

    about photo retouch fans: check out Tina Fosters tutorial. As always, you can find inour magazine interviews with artists. This time we talk with Oliver Weiss and Alex Eck-man-Lawn who show us what it means for them to be digital artists.

    We have all this and much more for you in our October issue so I am leaving you apleasure to discover all the other articles we prepared. Have a good lecture!

    Magdalena Mojska

    [email protected]

    Editor in Chief

    creative classTrick or treatBenoit Ladouceur 8

    Fell in Love with an AlienJulia Trotti 16

    interviewInterview with Alex Eckman-Lawn 20

    photomanipulationSolitudeAndrei Oprinca 24

    On the roadJulie Waterhouse 30

    interviewInterview with Doopla 34

    workshopMaking of a building - 1Alex Eckman-Lawn 38

    Making of a building - 2Alex Eckman-Lawn 41

    Editors choiceGallery of Katerina Tumanova(Belkina) 44

    photo retouchSmileTina Foster 48

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    london academy

    3.psd Photoshop

    View the many courses available in London and let us know if you

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    interview

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    Interview with

    Oliver Weiss

    Oliver, could you say a few words about yourself?I remember the first time a drawing of mine ever got published wasin a large parenting magazine in Munich when I was ten years old.The school had entered an art competition, and my drawing yieldedan award that paid for a hiking trip for my class. I guess thats whenit all got started. I have always wanted to be an illustrator, and for mebeing able to work in this field professionally is like a dream cometrue, especially given that I come from a wholly different backgroundin engineering and science.

    What do you like the most about being a digital artist? Why doyou think it is worth to choose this profession?Most of what I do is created and assembled directly on the com-

    puter, so I think it is fair to call me a digital artist, even though Istill do use pen, pencil, paint and glue from time to time. It is suchfun getting up in the morning and having a whole day of art aheadof you. I couldnt picture myself doing anything else these days. Iam always at awe that I am actually making a living from doing funlittle images all the time. I think what is so exceptional about theart of illustration is that unlike fine art that hangs in galleries andmuseums your illustration needs to fit with a given topic or an ar-ticle in a magazine, and this commercial aspect of it all gives youan immediate feedback about your work. I find that very gratifying.I also like working with editors and publishers, and crave to see thefinal product. I feel the best concepts are those that are receivingconstructive critique on behalf of the client, and the final result isoften (though not always) better than what I would have been ableto come up with on my own.

    Are there any downsides of being an illustrator?As with every profession, I am sure there are negative sides to be-ing an illustrator. I am a freelancer, like most of us, which means thatin lack of an employer you need to motivate yourself to get to work.Also, you only make money once you actually nail a given project.You dont have regular working hours and sometimes have to pull an

    Oliver Weiss is an illustrator fromGermany who works in a varietyof different techniques ranging from whimsical drawings to mixed-media collage artwork. His clients from twenty years include RandomHouse, Rowohlt, Reed Business, Die Zeit, The Christian Science Monitor,Der Spiegel, Deutsche Bank, and theMunich Oktoberfest.

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    interview with oliver weiss

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    all-nighter. The very concept of vacationing is unheard of. The roy-alties are usually quite low, and so forth... But frankly, for me thesearent really downsides but rather essentials that go with the profes-

    sion and make it exciting. I am not sure that my peers will agree withme here, but this is how I feel. So all put together I dont see a greatdeal of downsides to the profession as such.

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    interview

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    Tell us about your biggest achievements. Whatare you especially proud of?I dont really think I am proud of anything I have

    done, as pride is not a term that I can relate to. I do feelhappy about a variety of projects I have been luckyto be involved in, even though I am not really lookingback on my achievements all that much. I often feelthe happiest when I am working on a new project, andI am sensing that it is turning out nicely. That said,there have been a number of lovely projects that I feelgood about to this day. One such project is my Okto-berfest poster design award from 2008 which cameabout through a competition that I was invited to takepart in. My design was chosen to be displayed onposters, beer steins and kitchenware, and on a greatdeal of apparel, too. That was really cool.

    Another venture that proved quite fortunate wasmy jacket design for a book on philosophy written

    by Richard David Precht. It got published by RandomHouse, and has evolved into Germanys bestsellingnonfiction title currently, selling well over a million

    copies so far, with no end in sight. I also enjoy assign-ments I do for Die Zeit, Germanys largest weekly news-paper. In one such project I designed a large poster onthe history of German parties since 1848. I used riversas visuals for the political streams coming from the left,the right, and the liberal middle. The fun thing aboutthe poster was that there was very little art directioninvolved, and so first I had to educate myself about thehundreds of German parties that evolved over the years

    through a PhD thesis from the 1960s that they handedme, and through complementary research on the webbefore I was able to come up with suitable imagery. A re-ally fun product that will come out this fall is a number ofpackaging designs for coffee, tea, sugar, flower and thelike that I created for a large manufacturer of tin boxes.I am really excited about seeing them up for sale in thestore shelves soon.

    Where do you get your ideas from?Actually, the ideas come with the given assignment.Its not like I have a preconceived mindset about aspecific topic, but rather, once I tackle a project I needto get into things rather quickly, often within minutes.You develop a sense of coming up with visuals swiftly

    though I guess this comes with the profession afterdoing it for a while. Typically, I conjure up a small hand-ful of concepts before getting to work on the final art.

    Any advice for the beginners on this field?I think it is important to keep in mind that the profes-sion of illustration is not all about drawing fun little

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    interview with oliver weiss

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    pictures, but it is about running a business. The business of illus-tration, as I see it, is not so much about getting paid for art that youenjoy creating, but you get paid for creating art that pleases the cli-ent. Ideally, of course, both sides of the story will be addressed toin the process.

    I have come to learn that many of my peers are lacking commonbusiness sense big time. One of the greatest mistakes that artistsmake is that they are outsourcing all issues dealing with businessmatters and legal stuff. I think that is a big mistake, and quite irre-sponsible at that. As a freelancer you need to be in full control of yourgoings-on, and understand all financial matters. By this token, neversign a contract without knowing what exactly it says. I usually draftmy own contracts, or modify the clients contract to my liking. Also,

    never spend more money than you make, and always leave a little onthe side, especially when you are starting out.As far as the artistic aspects of the profession are concerned,

    I recommend learning as much as you can, and see to it that younever stop getting inspired not only by art, of course, but by themultitude of things going around us. Art is all about creativity, inspi-ration, and fun, and you shouldnt loose that on the way.

    Also, it might be good to know for those starting out that eventhough the world is your market nowadays, there are substantialcultural differences that need to be taken into account. For exam-ple, if you are working for the American market, which in my view isthe largest and most versatile in the world, you need to know thatart directors dont like it when you give them more than one style.Europe is probably the least restrictive market in that regard, butunfortunately the market for illustration isnt all that large, particu-

    larly in German-speaking countries.

    What do you currently work on? Do you have any ideas for yourfuture projects?I got a number of things lined up for the future. I am working onsome concepts for books, and in the longer run I also want to focusa little more on doing paintings and artwork for galleries.

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    trick or treat

    9.psd Photoshop

    preparing my canvasI don't particularly like starting from a blank can-vas... and especially not from a white canvas.Once I had created a new Photoshop document

    I quickly proceeded, using a heavily texturedbrush, to covering the entire canvas with texture.

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    referencesIn order to speed up the process, I rumagedthrough my sketchbooks for a sitting charactersketch I remembered doing a few months back.I always carry a sketchbook with me. I try to draweverything and anything that comes to mind. Formost of my character work I try to sketch fromlive model or photo references to obtain realisticproportions. Looking for my sketch ended up tak-ing me over 3 hours... would have probably beenfaster to draw the character again from scratch!Once I found it, I scanned it into photoshop andproceeded to clean the image up.

    basic layout sketch

    Once I had my character, I started layout out mydifferent elements. The woman would occupycenter stage with a zombie at the door to her back.I try at this stage to keep everything loose andflowing, nothing too tight for now. Going to tightin the begining can put us in a corner creatingproblems later on where it becomes difficult to gooutside the planned idea.

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    creative class

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    perspective layoutI work as a matte painter in my day job, a jobwhere I frequently use 3D animation softwaresto produce images. Because of this I often go to3D packages and quickly build a 3D layout of myimage to make sure my perspective work is good.Using 3D like this permits me to quickly evalu-ated different angles, lenses and spatial relationof every objects in the image. Once I made a 3Dlayout of the room, I screen captured a frame andimported it in Photoshop as a new layer. It's then

    blended with the background by changing the lay-er setting from Normal to Overlay.

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    basic values

    Grabbing a simple basic round photoshop brushwith a 70% Opacity I set off placing my first at-tempt at light and shadows. It's an importantstep... since the dark masses that are painted inhave a tremendous impact on the overall compo-sition. The 3D layer being just a reference, I startcovering it. I want all the attention to the maincharacter so I'm leaving the area lighter. The zom-bie in the doorway will be mostly backlight sinceI don't want the image to be too gruesome witha nice light spot on the floor that will run to mycharacter, helping to tie together background andforeground.

    more paintAt this point, I'm just adding layers of paint to theelements in the picture. Slowly making the refer-ence grid disapear and shaping the mood I want.

    I also start to move away from my now mostlyblack and white composition and add color to themain character. I've decided to go for anothercliche... the red dress. I quickly scribble in someflesh tones and pick a bright red color for thedress area. quiclky putting thoses in like this per-mits me to, again, evaluatte the impact it's goingto have on my composition.

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    creative class

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    unevenessAt the moment I get the feeling that all the val-ues in my image are a bit all over the place. Thatthey lack unity. A quick way of fixing this is withthe help of the Gradient map adjustment layer.I generate the layer and I pick 2 values, a warmone for the lights and a cool one for the darks.I then switch the layer to overlay and push it'sTranparency to 30%. This instantly evens out the

    whole image by adding common values to thewhole composition.

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    changeI pick up a couple of days later and start to thinkthat I don't have the impact I want with the com-position. The eye wanders in the image withoutlocking to my main character. After a few minutesthinking about it I start experimenting and cometo the conclusion that I have conflicting areas...the window behind the character brings the eyeto the background away from where I want it. Thezombie is also a bit big. I cut the image to pieceswith the lasso tool, remove the window and scaledown the door and zombie.

    fixesThe image is pretty damaged at this point. I adda layer on top and start painting in some fixesand more details on the different elements. Thisimage is all about the woman character so I moveonto painting in more light on her, more details onher face and dress.

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    trick or treat

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    quick background workIn order to obtain a quick background I go throughmy image reference bank looking for some verytextured pieces of flooring and walls. After findinga couple of interesting images I want to use, I shutoff my foreground elements (character, table,zombie) keeping only my background ones. I thenpaste my refs over the desired areas and use theTransformation>Distort function to deform themto the right pespective. I blend them to my paint-ed background by switching the textures layersto Soft light with a Transparency setting of 35%.

    I now have a nice heavily textured environnent tobuild on.

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    more paintI turn on the foreground elements again wichbrings a new look to the image and continuepainting in light information, details and mood.The door still bugs me a little but I keep it aside fornow.

    all about the characterLike I said, I want this image to be all about thewoman character. I still feel a bit distracted be-

    tween the competing shapes and brightness ofthe zombie-door combo vs. my character. I decideto darken the wall behing her to broaden the con-trast of her light skin against the dark backgroundand at the same time I add planks to the door tokind of fence out and breakup the zombie's sil-houette. My eye now goes to my character's facewich is what I wanted.

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    creative class

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    blood, guts and lightingTime to move on to the fun stuff... I zoom in to the area occupied by thezombie and start painting in details. I texture the planks with ovelayedtexture, followed by painted in brush strokes. The zombie is paintedover with a heavily textured brush at a 50% Opacity. I like this techniquesince it works by building up the values, and with a texture brush you

    can see all sorts of motifs and patterns emerge... just great for a rot-ting corpse. Altough I wanted them to be mildly gruesome, the zombieswouldn't be zombies without blood all over. So I use a nice red color ona separate darken layer to paint in the juicy spots. Having the blood ona different layer is great since you can tone it up or down as needed.A nice trick to have when doing illustration at a professional level wheresome markets will want to censor things like blood. You can then quicklyproduce the "censored" version without going in to do a full repaint. Atthis point I also work in some "interactive" lighting. In order to obtain mybright light from the door I'm going to use a layer+layer mask technique.I use the round Gradient tool on a top layer, picking my color from oneof the colours seen through the door, I the make a large round gradiantmaking sure the center is in the middle of the source of the light I wantto cover. I then use a Layer Mask and the Lasso tool to cut out theshadow covered areas. Switching this layer to Color dodge or Vivid light

    always gives the best results. You obtain a nice bright lighting that youcan control without having to repaint everything if you're not satisfied.

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    character detailsThe BG and zombies are mostly done at this point,I move on to the female character... some area arestill rought so I blend them more and I also spenttime on her hair. I fix the dark looking shadow ar-eas and give her smoother skin. Her hair color isalso evened out.

    detailsOnce I'm down to this point I usually zoom in tomy canvas and start fiddleing in the details. I addmakeup to the characters, fix the eyes, lips, jew-elry, gun... I also darken her lower left leg to makeit as if it was in shadows. This helps making thecharacter feel in the light patch coming from thedoor.

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    trick or treat

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    the girl with the dragon tattooEven though I'm satisfied with the image at thispoint, the character feels a bit plain... I startplaying around with different ideas and the bestresults came from adding body art on her.I scrounged the net for tribal inspired tattoo mo-tifs and created my own design. I then painted it

    on a different layer before Hard lighting it on her.It makes the character more interesting.

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    final touchesI find there is too much warm tones in the pic-ture so I use a cool blue photo filter adjust-

    ment layer to remove some of it. It leaves theimage a damp cool basement feeling color. In or-der to even out my values more and to add a bitof glare, I select all [Ctrl]+[A] then copy all layers[ctrl]+[shift]+[C] then paste to another layer.This gives me a layer with a full copy of the image.I proceed to Gaussian blurthis layer with a strongvalue slider at half way. This blurred version isthen switched to lighten over my work and toneddown to 15%. this evens out my colours by addingsurrounding values to different areas and at thesame time imitated the glare produced by high-lights in low light conditions.

    save work... its done!

    by Benoit Ladouceur

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    In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to add clouds to a photo by using layer masks,

    how to edit colours in Photoshop to give your image a vintage look and how to work withlayering textures. This tutorial is relatively easy, but gives amazing looking results from thesimplest tools.

    I Fell in Lovewith an Alien

    medium | 30 min.

    adobe photoshop CS5

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    i fell in love with an alien

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    Step 1Open the original image with the girl holding theumbrella in Photoshop. Press [C] for the CropTool, and hold [Shift] down to crop the image intoa square. Use the Blurtool with a brush of 70px Di-

    ameter, 20% Hardness and 10%Strength to slight-ly blur down some sections of the grass.

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    Step 2Press [Ctrl]+[J] two times to copy the back-ground image twice. Make the top layer invisibleby pressing the eye, and make the middle layeractive by clicking on it. Press [Ctrl]+[M] to bringup the curves box. This section is all up to person-al preference move each of the red, green andblue colour curves around to try and get some-thing similar as the example, keeping in mind thatyou are trying to bring out the reds more, keepingthe greens out of the image as much as you can.When you are happy with how it looks, press [OK]and change the layer style to Color.

    Step 3Make the third background layer visible and ac-tive. Press [Ctrl]+[M] to bring up the curves box.This time while going through each of the colourcurves, we are going to do the opposite and bringout the yellows and green of the image. Whenyou are happy with how it looks, press [OK] and

    change the layer style to Darken. Now your co-lours should look almost as you want them to lookin the final image. Open the clouds image and dragit on to the fields image in a new layer. Change thelayer style to Overlay. With the clouds layer select-ed, press the Add layer mask in the bottom of thelayers box. It is the second from the left and lookslike a square with a circle in it.

    01

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    creative class

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    Step 4To start with, grab a brush of 100% Opacity, 175pxin Diameter, and 75% Hardness and press [D] toreset your colour palette, and [X] to switch thecolours around, so white is in the foreground andblack is in the background. Then proceed to getrid of the entire bottom part of the clouds imagewhere there are trees and grass. With a brush of100% Opacity, 75px in Diameter and 75% Hard-

    ness, remove all the blue you can see in the girl'sdress.

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    Step 5To make the final finishing touches so the cloudsblend in seamlessly with the fields, use a brush of40% Opacity, 125px in Diameterand 75% Hardnessand dab and brush over and over again at the edgeof the fields until you are happy. The results aresubtle, but make a drastic impact over the look ofthe final image.

    Step 6At the moment, the blue of the clouds are stand-ing out compared to the rest of the image, sopress [Ctrl]+[M] to bring up the curves box withthe clouds layer selected. I used the following set-tings to give the clouds a more vintage feel likerest of the image.

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    interview

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    proach in some of their work. Using this kind of rich, textural work asinspiration, I started experimenting more with Photoshop and thingsreally clicked. I can remember pretty clearly the feeling that Id foundmy direction, and I havent really looked back since.

    Which of your own works is your favourite and why?Wow, that is a really tough question! I dont know if I can choose

    just one thing, but usually what Im working on right now is what Immost excited about. I just wrapped up the second and final collectedvolume ofAwakening, a comic book that Ive been illustrating for thelast 4 years. Im pretty excited and proud about it and I really hope

    Interview with

    Alex Eckman-Lawn

    Could you introduce yourself to our readers?Sure, Im Alex Eckman-Lawn, a freelance illustrator from Philadel-phia. I work primarily in comic books and music illustration.

    Why did you choose to become a digital ar tist? How did ithappen?I really didnt know how I wanted to work when I first got to college,but I knew I liked to draw. Early influences of mine were guys likeDerek Hess and Jake Bannon, artists Id run into through hardcoremusic. I discovered some more fine art minded comic artists likeAshley Wood and Dave McKean, who both use a strong digital ap-

    Alex Eckman-Lawn is a bloodthirsty youngillustrator from Philadelphia who complet-ed the Illustration program at University ofthe Arts in 2007.He has worked with many bands, includ-ing Psyopus, Architect, Yakuza, Hacrideand Circle of Dead Children, designing t-

    shirts and album art. He has also done de-sign and/or artwork for Willowtip Records,Black Market Activities, Tribunal Records,and Scholastic Books.

    Alex has just wrapped up work on Awak-ening, an existential horror comic book be-ing published by Archaia Studios Press.

    He uses a combination of photo andtraditional media with heavy digital work inPhotoshop and Painter.

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    interview with alex eckman-lawn

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    people check it out and get as excited asI am!This question is extra tough since I tryto work in a few different styles, but latelyIve really enjoyed working with buildingsand architecture.

    What do you find the most challengingabout your profession?Making a living? Theres a lot thats toughabout freelance illustration, but often thehardest thing is finding a way to make workfor your clients and still make it your ownand a success on your own terms. Some-times this is way easy, but if a client asks fora change you dont agree with, the choice is

    ultimately theirs. And also making money isnot easy in this profession.

    Would you recommend our readers tobecome artists as well? Do you have anyadvices you could give them about thisoccupation?I want to say Of course I recommend you allbecome artists! but its not really that sim-ple. Its pretty hard out there and takes a lotof time and commitment, and moreover, latenights. This really has to be something youlove the most in the world. That said, if thisis something youre really passionate aboutand youre willing to stick with it, its the best

    job you could ever ask for, even when themoneys not so good! My advice is just to dothe kind of art that gets you excited and notto get discouraged. If youre excited aboutthe work then itll come across in the finalproduct and if you stick with it, you will al-ways improve. Also, dont be afraid to shame-

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    interview with alex eckman-lawn

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    lessly promote yourself and network either! People have to see yourwork before they can start loving it.

    Say a few words about your current projects and future plans.As I mentioned earlier, I just wrapped upAwakening vol. 2, which willbe out in October 20th! You can get it at your local comic shop orpre-order (with a discount) here: http://www.amazon.com/Awaken-ing-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UT

    F8&qid=1285491070&sr=1-1

    Im always hard at work on a few album covers, so if youreinto metal music keep an eye out for the new Maruta, Dim Mak, andBackstabbers Incorporated albums. My art will grace their covers.I also just did some art for Clinging to the Trees of a Forrest Fire and

    that album, Songs of ill-Hope and Desperation is killer. Im about tostart on a new comic project called Rusted/Faded Signal with thewriter ofAwakening and you can get a taste of it in Popgun vol. 4,which is out now through Image comics. And of course, my buildingblog where I cut up and reassemble photos of buildings:

    http://re-building.tumblr.com/ And last but not least, my web-site: http://alexeckmanlawn.com/

    http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UThttp://www.amazon.com/Awakening-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UThttp://www.amazon.com/Awakening-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UThttp://re-building.tumblr.com/http://alexeckmanlawn.com/http://alexeckmanlawn.com/http://re-building.tumblr.com/http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UT
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    medium | 60 min.

    adobe photoshop CS4

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    25.psd Photoshop

    Creating the ambienceDownload the background image from: http://

    phatpuppy.deviantart.com/art/Phatpuppy-Forest-Stairs-Stock-145249785 and open it in Photoshop.You will have to make adjustments to this layerand turn it into a night scene. I suggest you use

    Adjustment Layers to create the night effect be-cause they dont damage the image. Create a Hue/

    Saturation adjustment layer: Layer>New Adjust-

    ment Layer>Hue/Saturation and increase Satu-ration to + 27. Create a Gradient Map adjustmentlayer and use a Black to White gradient. Set theBlend Mode of the adjustment layer to Soft Lightand reduce the Opacity to 40%. Select the Gradi-ent Tool, choose the radial type from the toolbarand use the Black to Transparent preset. Draw thegradient from the middle of the image outwards.The Blend Mode should be Normal but you canexperiment with Soft Light. Duplicate the layer ifyou want to get a darker effect. Your objective isto darken the image using the gradient but leavethe stairs visible.

    01

    02ModelDownload the image pack with the model fromhere: http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Sylph7 -102629570. You will use two images from thepack. Open Sylph faestock (1).jpg from the packin Photoshop. The first thing you have to do is tosubtract the model from the original background.Use the Pen Tool because its the most accurateselection tool. Exclude the wings, you dont needthem for this tutorial. Place the girl model ona new layer and scale it down to 35%. As you cansee, the dress is not entirely visible but luckilyyou can use another photo from the same pack to

    complete the dress. Open Sylph faestock(2).jpgfrom the same pack and cut the part of the dressthat is missing. Blend the images using a softeraser brush or a layer mask. After you blend theedges, if there are color or contrast differences,use the Levels and/or Color Balance tools tomatch both pieces. When everything is OK, mergethe two layers by first selecting them and thenpressing [Ctrl]+[E] or from Layer>Merge Layers.

    SolitudeCreating a night scene can be a challenging task. In this tutorial I show youa few techniques that I used to make this manipulation. I will show you how touse adjustment layers and how to create light effects and shadows to achievea more realistic look.

    http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Sylph7http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Sylph7
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    solitude

    27.psd Photoshop

    Lighting up and final shadingNow that you have the light source, you cast someshadows and recreate the light on the ground.Use a big soft brush about 600-700px and setyour Foreground Color to #e9d89b. Create a newlayer below the lamp layer and stroke twice onboth sides of the lamp. Set the layer Blend Modeto Overlay. Use the same brush to create anotherlight on a new layer using the color #9e975a. Thistime change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge andreduce Opacity to 75%. This light will make a veryrealistic light effect.

    07

    08

    ShadowsWe have the lights, but now we must make theshadows. Shadows are very important because

    they give more realism and depth. Right now, thelamp and the girl look like they are floating be-cause of the lack of shadows. Get a soft brush,black color and create a new layer below the girland the lamp layers, right above the background.Set your brush Opacity to about 20% and startpainting along the edges of the girls feet and un-der her dress and legs and also under the lamp.Make several passes.

    06

    Add the lampDownload the lamp from here: http://pieceofme-stock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-stock-104991466 . Open it in Photoshop andsubtract it using the Pen Tool. Scale it down andput it on a new layer above the model layer. Usea large brush and the color #e6dfb0 to simu-late a glow light around the lamp. Set the BlendMode to Hard Light and reduce Opacity to about50%. I also added a Lens Flare on a new layerwith a black background. I used Hue/Saturationto make the flare yellow and then I changed the

    layers Blend Mode to Screen to hide the blackbackground.

    http://pieceofmestock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-http://pieceofmestock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-http://pieceofmestock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-http://pieceofmestock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-
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    There are many ways to play with photographs in Photoshop to give them a creative boost.Which method you choose depends both on your personal preference and what suits theparticular image. The techniques used here wont work for every image, but they may give

    you some ideas for other applications.

    On theroad

    advanced | 40 min.

    adobe photoshop CS4

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    on the road

    31.psd Photoshop

    Step 1The original image is a photograph of the Valley ofFire, in Nevada, USA. The photograph was taken atthe end of the day, and the subtle colors produced

    by the dusk light gave the scene a bit of a surreallook that I decided to magnify in Photoshop.

    02

    03

    Step 2: Starting image - over-exposed by 2 stopsThe image I started with was a shot of the scenethat was deliberately overexposed by two stops.Dont worry about the washed-out look. You willsee why the overexposure is necessary, and howwe bring back the contrast, when we get to step 3.

    Step 3 - Black and White FilterCopy road layer. To make the color even more sub-tle, add a Black & White adjustment layer. Reducethe layer opacity to 60% so that some of the origi-nal colors show through. Adjust the color sliders tomap colors to tones according to your own taste.

    01

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    photomanipulation

    32 .psd Photoshop

    Step 4 - Linear BurnMerge all layers to create a new layer, and changethe blend mode of the layer to Linear Burn. Playingwith layer blend modes is a fun way to experimentcreatively with your images. The Linear Burn blendmode uses the channel information for each color(RGB) to determine how dark each pixel in thetop layer should be. It darkens the top layer bydecreasing the brightness, according to the colorof the layer below. The darker the layer below, themore of its color is used. Using this blend mode

    keeps our colors subtle, but brings back thecontrast in our image.

    04

    05

    06

    Step 5 - Selective Color BlacksThe Linear Burn blend darkened the bush in thebottom right corner too much. One trick to cor-

    rect problems like these is to open the blendingproperties for the layer, and use the blend-if slid-ers to bring back the blocked up shadows. In thiscase, however, I like the blacks everywhere else inthe image, and want to localize the corrections tothe bush only. Using a Selective Coloradjustmentlayer allows us to mask out everything except thebush. Select Blacks in the Colors drop down menu,and reduce the amount of black from -3 to -5%.Note that in many images, increasing the blacksthrough Selective Coloris a great way to adda little punch to the picture. Try adding 3-5% to theblack slider in either the Blacks or the Neutrals.

    Step 6 - Poster EdgesA subtle application of the Poster Edges filteradds to the surreal nature of the scene. Merge

    the layers below to create a new layer. ChooseFilters>Artistic>Poster Edges. Use an edgethickness of 1, an edge intensity of 1, anda posterization value of 3. Note that the imagewill have to be in 8-bit mode in order for this filterto be available. After applying the filter, you mayfind the effect too strong. If so, reduce the layeropacity to about 65%.

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    on the road

    33.psd Photoshop

    Step 7 NoiseThe Poster Edges filter gave the image someadded texture, but had very little effect on thesky. In order to add some interest there, and toenhance the overall look of the image, I choseto add some noise. Merge the layers below tocreate a new layer, and choose Filter>Noise>AddNoise. Add Uniform noise in the amount of 25%. As

    always, experiment with the setting to find whatworks for you.

    07

    08

    09

    Step 8 GradientThe sky at the top of the image is quite bright com-pared to the rest of the image, and appears a bitwashed out. I didnt use a graduated neutral den-sity filter in the field, which would have counter-acted this problem. As long as the sky is not blownout, and the dynamic range of the image is not toogreat, you can achieve the same effect in Photo-shop using a Gradient adjustment layer. Set the

    foreground color to black so you can use the defaultgradient setting. Reverse the direction using anangle of -90 degrees so that the dark part coversthe sky. While the dialog is open, you can click onthe image and drag the gradient upward to reduceits effect is not as strong. After you added the gra-dient change, you must change the layers blendmode toSoft Light.Soft Light blend mode works bylightening or darkening the lower layer based on thebrightness of the top layer. In this case, the blackgradient is our top layer, so it darkens the pixels ofthe layers below. Now our sky has a bit more detailand the colors stand out more.

    Step 9 - Curves and MaskOften there are specific areas within an imagethat you want to selectively lighten. In this case,the gradient has darkened the road sign. It wouldbe nice to make it pop a bit more. We could maskour gradient layer, but using a Curves adjustmentlayer with a mask gives us even more control tomake it even brighter than it was before we addedthe gradient. Add a Curves adjustment layer, andpull the entire curve up a bit. You can adjust itproperly later. First, create a solid black mask sothat the Curves layer has no effect. Now, paint inwhite on your mask over just the sign. In order

    to see where you are painting, you can hit thebackslash key [\] to toggle the mask on and off inthe main image. The mask will appear in red. Thismakes it easy for you to see exactly where youare painting. Once the mask is created, adjust thecurve to brighten the sign the desired amount.

    by Julie Waterhouse

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    interview

    34 .psd Photoshop

    We are a duo based in Lisbon (Portugal) that is in diversity ofskills the main added value.We like the details, many details,symmetry, Fashion, experimental photography, DrumnBass,opposite colors, irreverent Styling, urban art, Super Bockbeer, Custo Barcelona, Renault 4L, Apple gadgets and techni-

    Interview with

    Doopla

    Could you tell our readers a few words about Doopla? Who areyou and what you do?It may seem that there are many of us here, but actually weare only two: Andr Santos (Graphic Designer and Illustrator)and Lee Anne Ferreira (Decorator, Stylist and 3D Developer).

    We are Doopla.Multidisciplinary design team wholoves you.We work for fun and for money. Wedont have many friends. We wontaccept work just because someonewants us to. Our Art Director is a 70 srobot named Pedro.Looking forward to hear from yousoon.

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    interview with doopla

    35.psd Photoshop

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    interview

    36 .psd Photoshop

    cal drawing. We love our profession, even though in Portugal itis highly stigmatized. We do not accept projects just because

    someone wants to commit them to us, we accept, most of all,challenges.

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    making of a building 1

    39.psd Photoshop

    Step 1This is my original photograph: the picturesque

    street of Philadelphia. I like these crazy blue row-

    homes very much but right away I know Ill want

    to get rid of those cars and change the colors tosomething more vivid.

    02

    03

    Step 2Here Ive got the image into my format and Ive

    added some oil paint texture that I made, and

    a blue tint. Ive even started painting out the

    street area on the left. Clearly Im not worried

    about it looking really tight just yet.

    Step 3All Ive done here is doubled the image and pulled

    it down a bit. This will be a 2-story row. There are

    still rough edges here and there and it looks a bit

    too obvious but weve covered up those ugly cars!Now I need to replace the white faade of the

    house on the far right with the blue faade of the

    middle house and then paint out some sections

    with a Vector mask. With a bit of sneaky brushing

    and healing brushing here and there and some

    color correction. I think it starts to look less like

    a carbon copy.

    01

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    workshop

    40 .psd Photoshop

    Step 4Now we need to add lots of soft light and overlay

    layers for color to create a bit more dramatic light.

    Ive cleaned up some of the edges and added

    some small windows here and there, like in the

    bottom right corner. These dont make strict sense

    but I think they look nice and make for a richer vi-

    sual feast! Ive also added some splatter and a bitof pattern to the face of the top middle building.

    04

    05

    Step 5Just a couple of finishing touches here. I addedsome lightness to the windows in the center,

    just to give the piece a focal point of some sort,

    and Ive done some blurring around the outside

    to soften some of those harsh textures. Nothing

    fancy there, just Gaussian blurin some key spots.

    This also helps the piece look a bit more photo-

    graphic, kind of like an old snapshot. Have fun

    here, choose sections to lighten and darken. And

    were done!

    by Alex Eckman-Lawn

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    beginner| 20 min.

    adobe photoshop CS3

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    workshop

    42 .psd Photoshop

    Step 1Once again, heres the original photograph. Already

    a pretty awesome building! Again, here Im plan-

    ning on just doing some subtle changes, adding

    texture and getting rid of the pieces I dont like.

    01

    02

    Step 2Heres the photo in format. Ive pretty haphazardly

    cut out the sections I dont want in the image.

    Makingof a building 2This tutorial is the second one from these two some way simple photo editsthat hopefully show you can transform a space without really overdoing it, orlosing what made the original photo exciting.

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    making of a building 2

    43.psd Photoshop

    Step 4Ive added some color and paint texture for start-

    ers. Also Ive replaced the center window with the

    doorway we cut out earlier, and added a third win-

    dow to the top. I like how this is looking but that

    black area is a bit too dead still.

    04

    05

    Step 5Ive added some scanned overlayed boards here

    and there to add some more chaos and interest,

    and some delicate linework pattern to the blackareas. Ive kept it subtle so as not to overwhelm

    the image, but the shadow areas looked too emp-

    ty without it. Then I just do some fun little touch

    ups, like adding some blue to the windows and

    blur around the edges again and were done!

    by Alex Eckman-Lawn

    03

    Step 3So far Im just painting out the empty sections,

    and building some shape with shadows. Im tryingto pull the eye upwards.

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    .psd Photoshop

    Editor

    sC

    hoic

    eB

    elkina

    Klimt

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    45.psd Photoshop

    Katerina Tumanova (Belkina)Russian digital artist, painter and photographer, born in 1974.Education: art school and than art college Petrov-Vodkin(Samara)

    2000-2002 - Photo Academy. Samara. She was one of the first Russian digital artists. Member of Rus-sian Union of photo artist.

    Awards:2008 Art Interview - 14th International Online Artist Competition -1st place for Hieroglyph series2008 Px3 PHOTO COMPETITION -2nd place in subcategory for No mans world series2008 International Photography Awards -2nd place in subcategory for No mans world series2007 Nominated to the Kandinsky Prize-2007 (Russian artist of Year)2007 International Photography Awards - 2nd place in subcategory for Masks series

    Currently lives and works in Moscow

    Bluebeard

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    This tutorial shows how to improve your photos with a minimal amount of work, especially ifyoure working with big batches or for presentations where finals are to be selected.

    Smile

    beginner| 20 min.

    adobe photoshop CS3

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    smile

    49.psd Photoshop

    Step 1Open image and convert to CMYK : Image>Mode>

    CMYK. Drag the picture to a new layer. Now you

    have a copy that wont be touched. Well clean andsharpen on background layer.

    02

    03

    Step 2Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp masking. Amounts ac-

    cording to need.

    Step 3Clean up dirt, blemishes, etc. Zoom to at least

    300% and use a grid View>Show>Grid if the shot

    is large to be sure no areas are left out. Change

    grid size and color under Preferences>Guides,

    Grids, Slices.

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    photo retouch

    Step 4

    A simple curves move: Layer>New adjustmentlayer>Curves will improve the contrast.

    04

    05

    Step 5This photo is a little red and needs color correction

    especially the skin tones. Layer>New adjustment

    layer>Selective color. Choose Red then adjust the

    Magenta in the Red. I also adjusted the Cyan and

    Black in the blue sky. To finish up I erased some of

    the mask from the selective color around the red

    tile roof in the background and her hair. Now our

    photo is ready to view.

    by Tina Foster