Fanart tutorial
Ok I've never written a tutorial because there was never the need but someone asked so I thought, why not.
Please let me know if anything is unclear (as I'm sure it will be). :) This is done in Photoshop 7, and there are a lot of images, so let them download. :)
This is the finished product.
1. First open a new document, I'm using size: 800x600 with a white background.
Then go ahead and open the photos you are using. I'm going to use three of Julianne Moore.
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
I usually stick with around three photos because it tends to look messy with more than that, but it all depends on how you arrange them.
2. Next you want to arrange the photos where you want them for the blend. You are going to want them to overlap and it is ok if some of the main features are a bit covered because you will blend them out later.
3. Now we are going to mask out just in the middle so that the pictures blend together. We will worry about the edges later. I usually only worry about one picture at a time and hide the ones I'm not working on. I never mask with a sharp edge brush, you won't get a very seamless blend that way.
So I selected my first two photos, hid the third one, and selected a watercolor type brush. In the layers menu click on the second photo, the one you want to blend. Then select the mask button at the bottom of the layers menu, which is the button that looks like a box with a circle in it. You want to make sure your foreground color is black. Then start brushing the edges of your picture.
If you make a mistake, it's ok, change the foreground color to white and brush back over the mistake, it will bring the picture back.
4. Once you have the first picture blended the way you want, do the same to the second picture.
5. After that you should have three pictures that look blended together but the main edges should still be there.
6.Next you are going to want to flatten the image.
7.Then make a duplicate of the layer.
8.Desaturate the duplicate layer.
9.Add a new layer to the top.
10. With this new layer we are going to paint some color. You can choose what ever colors you want but the brighter shades with be bright and the darker softer shades will give it the aged look. I like to go with darker purples, pinks, yellows, greens.
You want to choose different colors and paint them in various blobs all over the layer. I usually just cover the whole layer but it's up to you.
11.Next you want to use a gaussian blur on the layer. For this one I used one at 87 pixels but it's up to you how much you want the colors to blend into each other. Play around with it.
Then I set the layer to overlay blend mode.
12. The colors looked right but the image was too dark, so I played with the levels. I selected the desaturated layer and went to Image>Adjustments>Levels. I set this one to Input levels 0, 2.01, 202. But once again, play with it and find what you like.
13. Now for me the colors were still a bit too bright. So I selected the color layer and went to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and put the saturation to -42
14. The color looks good so now I move on to brushes. I like to use a lot of smoke, mist, antique type brushes because they don't make specific pictures on the blends but instead give it depth. For this type of blend i like to use the bruses in white because I usually put them on an overlay blend mode. I make a new layer for every time I use a brush. So one click of a brush and then a new layer. That way if I don't like it, it's easy to get rid of. It doesn't matter if you can't really see the brushes when they are on overlay because they still give it some texture.
You can see I added 10 layers with brushes and all are on overlay, I did lighten the opacity on a few. It just gives it a textured feeling.
Now it's time to give it the borderless look and take care of the sharp lines.
15. First you want to flatten the image.
16.Now if the image is locked (it will have a little lock in the layers menu) like mine, make a duplicate and delete the locked layer.
17.Add a new layer under the image layer. Fill it with white (or black depending on what color you want the underneath to be)
18. Now we are going to mask like before. Make sure the image layer is selected, the mask button has been clicked and the foreground color is black. Now start masking out the edges. Don't be afraid to erase things.
Right now we are just trying to make it borderless, we will do the texture next.
19. Now, once you have it the shape you want, it's time for the textured bit. Stay with the image layer and masking square selected. We are going to brush like we did earlier but instead of with color we will mask it out. I like to use brushes that are scratches, blotches, spatters, that sort of thing. Select a brush, making sure the foreground color is black and click on the image near the edges of the picture. It should make the image of the brush but in white, because it's deleating the image.
Keep using different brushes and clicking until you get the edges the way you want.
And that is about it. I'm guessing that this made no sense, so please feel free to ask me questions. :)
Please let me know if anything is unclear (as I'm sure it will be). :) This is done in Photoshop 7, and there are a lot of images, so let them download. :)
This is the finished product.
1. First open a new document, I'm using size: 800x600 with a white background.
Then go ahead and open the photos you are using. I'm going to use three of Julianne Moore.
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
I usually stick with around three photos because it tends to look messy with more than that, but it all depends on how you arrange them.
2. Next you want to arrange the photos where you want them for the blend. You are going to want them to overlap and it is ok if some of the main features are a bit covered because you will blend them out later.
3. Now we are going to mask out just in the middle so that the pictures blend together. We will worry about the edges later. I usually only worry about one picture at a time and hide the ones I'm not working on. I never mask with a sharp edge brush, you won't get a very seamless blend that way.
So I selected my first two photos, hid the third one, and selected a watercolor type brush. In the layers menu click on the second photo, the one you want to blend. Then select the mask button at the bottom of the layers menu, which is the button that looks like a box with a circle in it. You want to make sure your foreground color is black. Then start brushing the edges of your picture.
If you make a mistake, it's ok, change the foreground color to white and brush back over the mistake, it will bring the picture back.
4. Once you have the first picture blended the way you want, do the same to the second picture.
5. After that you should have three pictures that look blended together but the main edges should still be there.
6.Next you are going to want to flatten the image.
7.Then make a duplicate of the layer.
8.Desaturate the duplicate layer.
9.Add a new layer to the top.
10. With this new layer we are going to paint some color. You can choose what ever colors you want but the brighter shades with be bright and the darker softer shades will give it the aged look. I like to go with darker purples, pinks, yellows, greens.
You want to choose different colors and paint them in various blobs all over the layer. I usually just cover the whole layer but it's up to you.
11.Next you want to use a gaussian blur on the layer. For this one I used one at 87 pixels but it's up to you how much you want the colors to blend into each other. Play around with it.
Then I set the layer to overlay blend mode.
12. The colors looked right but the image was too dark, so I played with the levels. I selected the desaturated layer and went to Image>Adjustments>Levels. I set this one to Input levels 0, 2.01, 202. But once again, play with it and find what you like.
13. Now for me the colors were still a bit too bright. So I selected the color layer and went to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and put the saturation to -42
14. The color looks good so now I move on to brushes. I like to use a lot of smoke, mist, antique type brushes because they don't make specific pictures on the blends but instead give it depth. For this type of blend i like to use the bruses in white because I usually put them on an overlay blend mode. I make a new layer for every time I use a brush. So one click of a brush and then a new layer. That way if I don't like it, it's easy to get rid of. It doesn't matter if you can't really see the brushes when they are on overlay because they still give it some texture.
You can see I added 10 layers with brushes and all are on overlay, I did lighten the opacity on a few. It just gives it a textured feeling.
Now it's time to give it the borderless look and take care of the sharp lines.
15. First you want to flatten the image.
16.Now if the image is locked (it will have a little lock in the layers menu) like mine, make a duplicate and delete the locked layer.
17.Add a new layer under the image layer. Fill it with white (or black depending on what color you want the underneath to be)
18. Now we are going to mask like before. Make sure the image layer is selected, the mask button has been clicked and the foreground color is black. Now start masking out the edges. Don't be afraid to erase things.
Right now we are just trying to make it borderless, we will do the texture next.
19. Now, once you have it the shape you want, it's time for the textured bit. Stay with the image layer and masking square selected. We are going to brush like we did earlier but instead of with color we will mask it out. I like to use brushes that are scratches, blotches, spatters, that sort of thing. Select a brush, making sure the foreground color is black and click on the image near the edges of the picture. It should make the image of the brush but in white, because it's deleating the image.
Keep using different brushes and clicking until you get the edges the way you want.
And that is about it. I'm guessing that this made no sense, so please feel free to ask me questions. :)