Build a fantasy castle in Photoshop

Pick up incredible photo-montage and texturing tricks with this tutorial from Jeff Huang.

Fantasy art is a genre all of its own: just like any other art form, it has its own rules and conventions. Slick, polished finishes are central to fantasy art. To achieve these slick finishes, you’ll need razor-sharp compositing skills and a neat way with color – you’re aiming for something that looks as though it could be real, but that nonetheless has a faraway, dreamlike feel.

In this tutorial, Jeff Huang shows how to use blending modes, textures, shadows and colour to create this hilltop castle – which makes the perfect backdrop to any fantasy composition, and will teach you a few of the tricks you’ll need on your way. The Masterclass is also great for anyone seeking to brush up their compositing skills in general.

01. Open GreenHill.jpg from the cover disc in Photoshop, and rename the background layer as ‘BG’. Renaming the layer helps us to be better organized, and also unlocks the layer. Next, we’ll need to dream up the atmosphere of our image, and the environment the castle will sit in.

02. Create a new layer and name it ‘Atmosphere’. In this layer, click on the primary colour picker in your toolbar and enter reference number #ffd258 in the bar at the bottom, to bring up a yellow hue. Fill the Atmosphere layer with this colour (Cmd/Ctrl + Delete). Your entire canvas will now be yellow – don’t panic, just change the blending mode to Multiply to get a mysterious, yellowtoned atmosphere.

03. Now let’s enhance the atmosphere. Create an empty layer and name it ‘SkyDarken’. As the name indicates, we’re going to darken the sky to make it more dramatic. As in the previous step, go to the colour picker, and enter #4d320c to bring up a brown hue. Use the gradient tool (being sure to set the preset to Foreground to Transparent) and create a gradient going from the top of the canvas to about halfway down the canvas. Now set the blending mode to Multiply.

04. Next, we’re going to create a light source for our scene so that it’s not so neutral. Create a new layer and name it LightSource. Go to the colour picker and enter #fff5dd to bring up a light peach hue. We’re going to use the gradient tool again, but this time instead of a Linear Gradient, we’re going to use the Diamond Gradient. Before using the gradient, set the blending mode of our LightSource layer to Overlay. Now, with the Diamond Gradient, create a light source from where the dark clouds meet the light clouds on the right side of the canvas.

05. Because this is not a complete startto- finish tutorial, we are going to skip a few steps so that we can focus on more technical aspects. In order to save time, I’ve prepared a modified version of the green hill, which we will be plotting onto our canvas. Open ModifiedHill.psd from the CD, and hold Shift while dragging the image layer onto your working canvas. It should now be neatly plotted onto the canvas with no flaws. I have also pre-modified the lighting and shape of the hill, as we will not cover that in this tutorial.

06. Next, we’ll plot a pre-painted castle onto our canvas. Open CastleBase. psd from the CD. While holding Shift, drag the CastleBase image onto our tutorial’s canvas. This is the painted base of our Castle, which we will begin to texture in the steps to come.

07. Next, we’ll create a stone texture for the castle. Download a flat stone-wall image or texture – you can download the one I’ve used from http:// tinyurl.com/3wf8d2. Fiddle with it until you’re happy with the texture, and drop that into our tutorial’s canvas on a layer named ‘StoneTexture’. Don’t worry about exact placement at this point.

08. We’ll start texturing our castle now. Duplicate the ‘StoneTexture’ layer and hide the original. With the duplicated texture, first set the blending mode to Multiply, then hit Cmd/Ctrl + T to free-transform the texture. Resize and move the texture accordingly, then right-click (Ctrl + click) on the bounding box and choose Distort. Drag the corner points of the bounding box to fit the perspective of the castle wall.

09. In the layer stack, we’re going to move the distorted stone texture layer to be above our castle layer. Once that’s done, hold Alt/Opt and click on the space between the ‘StoneTexture’ layer and the ‘Castle’ layer. You’ll notice a symbol that resembles an inverted lock showing up if you’re doing this correctly. Click on the symbol to make a clipping layer between the texture and the castle layer. Your texture layer should now be stacked on top of the castle layer.

10. Although clipping layers help tremendously and save you from needing to mask precisely in all areas of the castle, minor masking will still be needed. Create a layer mask on the texture and mask out all of the castle’s light sides, so that you’re just texturing the dark sides of the castle walls with the Multiply mode. We will be texturing the light sides of the castle later on with another blending mode.

11. Repeat Steps 08-10 for the rest of the castle’s dark walls. This should give you at least five layers of textures. Duplicate the original ‘StoneTexture’ layer and begin the process again. Pay close attention when distorting the texture – matching the perspective of the castle walls is key. Also, make sure that you’re using Multiply as the blending mode, that you have a consistent size ratio of the stone textures. Do not scale the walls to different sizes, or it will harm the image’s realism. When you’ve finished texturing and masking, merge the layers to one single layer and rename it ‘Darks’. Also, if the blending mode resets from being merged, change the mode back to Multiply.

12. Now that we have finished the dark sides of the castle, we will need to work on the light sides. Repeat Steps 08-10 on these sides, except this time use Overlay as your blending mode. Once you’ve done this, merge the layers like before, and change the mode to Overlay if it has reset to Normal. Clip this layer on top of the castle layer.

13. It’s all about details from here. The castle is looking convincing now, but it’s missing shadows. Create an empty layer, name it ‘Shadow’, and clip it on top of our ‘Castle’ layer. Set the blending mode to Multiply, and using the colour picker, enter the reference #2b190f to get a brownish hue. Using a soft brush with a low opacity, begin brushing in the shadows for our castle, observing the light source.

14. Let’s add some highlights to the castle. Create a new layer, name it ‘Highlights’, and clip it on top of the Castle layer. In the colour picker, enter reference #fef993 to select a light yellow. Now paint in some highlights where you feel they would occur. The light source is from the right of the sky, so highlights should be on the outer right edges of the castle. If the highlights become too strong, simply lower the opacity of that layer to a comfortable level.

15. It’s time to add final adjustments to our castle. You can create your own elements from your imagination, or use the ones included on the cover disc. Open up BridgeAndGrass.psd, hold Shift, and drag the layer into our canvas. Make sure it is our top layer. If done correctly, your image should now have grass, a bridge, and minor details, tweaks and adjustments on the canvas.

16. Finally, let’s plot some more fun elements onto our canvas to complete our piece. Also on the CD are Birds. psd and LensFlare.psd; open them and Shiftdrag them onto your canvas. Again, make sure they are at the top of the layers hierarchy. You should now be able to create imaginative scenery and convincing texture elements with no problem.

Author: Jeff Huang

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Transform your doodles into art

Doodling is an everyday part of life for most creatives – it’s as natural as holding a pen. Whether you’re etching out little characters on the back of an envelope while you’re on the telephone, or creating a complex masterpiece in the back of a notebook, bus trip by bus trip, it’s an essential part of developing your own style and honing your imagination and artistic skills.

Many creatives, then, will have a bag full of doodle-filled notebooks, and a desk covered in messed-up envelopes and Post-It notes. But what do you do with them afterwards?

Much of the time they end up in the bin – we don’t see them as an important part of our creative work. This is a shame, as when you’re freed from commercial constraints and drawing for fun, your true style can shine through.

In this masterclass, Craig Shields shows you how to turn these little outbursts of creativity into artworks. You’ll learn how to spirit your doodles off the Post-It note and into a digital illustration, using them to add a very personal touch to an image. The masterclass makes use of several images that can be downloaded for a small fee or for free.

01. Find yourself a decent high-res stock image, or use an image of your own. For this illustration I’ve chosen a quirky futuristic image of a model, which you can download for a small cost from iStockphoto at this link: http://tinyurl.com/5j2jog. You can use any portrait that has a fairly clear background.

02. We’re going to insert some layers behind the figure later on, so we need to create a layer mask. First, select the Pen tool, and create a path around the edge of her face, hair and arms. Then right-click (Ctrl + click) your path, and pick Make Selection. Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to create your layer mask. Name this layer ‘Woman’.

03. To replace the background that we’ve just got rid of, create a new layer and call it ‘background’. Move this layer to the bottom of the layer stack. Choose a light purple and a dark purple, and fill the layer with a radial gradient, making sure the lighter shade is in the centre.

04. Right-click on the layer mask you created in Step 02 and select Apply Layer Mask. Next, cut out her left arm and paste it onto a new layer. The arm doesn’t look right where it is, so we’re going to rotate it towards her body slightly. After you’ve done that, merge the arm and woman layers together. Then select Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

05. Grab a piece of paper, and something to draw with – this could be pencil, pen or inks. Sketch out some drips, similar to flowing blood. Be as messy and as rough as you want: the messier, the better. Use the photo of the woman as a reference point so that your drips will work with her body when you scan the drips into Photoshop.

06. Scan your drip drawings and open them Photoshop, dragging them onto a new layer named ‘drips’. Set the blending mode to Multiply. This gets rid of all the white and leaves you with only black. All you have to do now is move them around to see where they would fit best. I drew mine so that they would come from her fingertips and eye, but it’s up to you. Have as many drips as you like – have fun and experiment with markers, felt-tips and paint.

07. Open splat.psd from the cover disc and drag it onto a new layer called ’splat’. Make sure to put it behind the ‘woman’ layer. Next you need to desaturate it (as in Step 04) and set the blending mode to Multiply.

08. Next, have a hunt through your sketchbooks and anywhere else for doodles you’ve done, or grab a pen and get doodling, to create the materials for the next step. These can be as random as you like there are no rules here.

09. Next, scan in all of your doodles, drag them into your document, and stick them in a folder called ‘doodles’. Select a doodle’s layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Invert, set the blending mode to Screen, and play with its positioning. Repeat this for all your doodles.

10. Go to http://tinyurl.com/6sbbsp, download the image and drag it onto a new layer called ‘nebula1’. Drag the layer to the top of the layer stack, and set the blending mode to Screen. Select Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and enter a brightness of 5 and a contrast of 50 respectively. Then select Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and drop the hue to -90. Leave the other controls alone.

11. Go to http://tinyurl.com/6jj2r4, download the image and drag it onto a new layer called ‘nebula2’. Change the blending mode to Screen and play with the colours. You can use any star field or space scene as a means of creating a bright and colourful textured overlay for your images. It’s just a matter of experimenting.

12. The background is looking a bit bland at the moment so let’s embellish it. Open bg_texture.psd from the cover CD and drag it onto a new layer above the ‘background’ layer. Set the blending mode to Overlay and select Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and enter –10; 100. Rename the layer ‘texture’.

13. We’re nearly there – just one more flourish of colour. Download the image from http://tinyurl.com/5kystq, drag it onto a new layer and set the blending mode to Screen. Mess around with the brightness and contrast, and the hue and saturation. Make sure you keep it bright and colourful.

14. For the finishing touches, create an adjustment layer. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Colour Balance and enter these values: 17; 1; 22. You can keep adding to this image as much as you like, throwing in any hand-drawn elements you have to hand, or whatever you dream up. Digital is good, but mixing it up with oldfashioned recycled doodles is better. Just to finish, select Layer > Flatten Image, then Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. You may want to increase levels and saturation as well.

Author: Craig Shields

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More About the Mesh

Change the color of a mesh point

Method 1 - Use Direct Selection Tool (The white arrow), select the mesh point, then choose your swatch

Method 2 – Drag the swatch to the mesh point

Remove unwanted mesh line segments

Method 1 - Using Mesh Tool holding down the Alt/Option key, click on a mesh line to deleteManipulate Mesh Select any point on your mesh with the Mesh tool and you’ll notice that directional lines appear. Grab a directional handle to move a directional line and you’ll alter the contour of the mesh line and, as a result, alter the direction in which the color of the selected point and the colors of the surrounding points blend into each other.Save Symbol LibraryUnzip and Save .ai file to: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS3\Presets\SymbolsSave From with Illustrator

1. Open the file -> go to your symbol’s panel
2. From the Symbol’s Fly-out Menu-> Choose Save Symbol Library
3. Save the new library to the default Symbols folder. The library name will automatically appear in the Symbol Libraries submenu and the Open Symbol Library submenu.If you save the library to a different folder, you can open it by choosing Open Symbol Library > Other Library from the Symbols panel menu. Once you open it using this process, it will appear in the Symbol Libraries submenu with the other libraries.

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Cool graffiti techniques

Mark Mayers shows you how to mix pixels and spray paint to create edgy urban art.

Graffiti has influenced many of today’s graphic designers and illustrators: skateboard graphics, clothing, and the music industry have all drawn on it heavily, while the distinctive graffiti style pops up in ads, magazines and elsewhere.

From modest beginnings in the 1970s as simple tags in New York subways, to the modern-day hip hop behemoth, graffiti art has gone global, as likely to crop up in chic art galleries as on the streets.

Here, you’ll learn how to add some chaotic, urban grit to your artwork using selection and layer blending techniques. You’ll also learn how to replicate a three-colour graffiti stencil using Photoshop’s filters and channels – then you’ll get the chance to get your hands dirty by adding some overspray and drip effects.

Finally, to pull off the effect, you’ll apply blending modes, as well as using Photoshop’s lesser-known Displace filter to map your graffiti to the contours of the wall.

The skater image for this tutorial is kindly provided by Paul Frost, www.theimageworkz.com. Some other images for the tutorial can be bought online for a small cost.

01. In Photoshop, create a new RGB landscape canvas measuring 29.7- x-21cm at 300dpi. Download the wall image from iStockphoto http://tinyurl.com/6k6x47, or use a similar image of your own. Import the wall image into your document as a new layer, then use the Clone tool set to All Layers to extend the plaster on the left-hand side plaster. You might also like to clone out the black paint area in the top right corner of the image. When you’re happy with your wall merge the layers (Cmd/Ctrl + E).

02. Save the image as Graffiti Tutorial. Next, desaturate it (Cmd/Ctrl + U), then give it a Gaussian blur of 2.5 pixels (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Now hit Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + S to Save As, check it’ll save in Photoshop format, and label it Bumpmap.psd. You can now close the image – we’ll be using it in the final step as a displacement map for the graffiti.

04. Continue adding layers, remembering to leave areas clear for the skater stencil and mural. Experiment with different blending modes: for this image I’ve used a combination of blending modes. Try filling selections with paler colours and dropping the opacity for a weathered look. You can also blend layers by doubleclicking their thumbnails and dragging the whitepoint Blend If slider to the left (hitting Opt/Alt and dragging to split the slider will refine the blend).

05. Open Skater.jpg from the cover CD and crop the excess background. Now use the Pen tool (set to Paths) to isolate the skater. You don’t have to be 100% accurate plotting your points here because the final stencil result is fairly crude. When you’re done, save the path by double clicking its thumbnail.

06. Press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + U to desaturate, generate a selection from your path by Cmd/Ctrl + clicking its thumbnail, then hit Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + I to invert the selection and fill with white. Now access the Levels (Cmd/Ctrl + L) and set the blackpoint to 71, the midpoint to 3.37 and the whitepoint to 187 to increase the contrast.

07. Intensify the contrast by selecting Image > Adjust > Posterize and entering a value of 3. We now need to simplify the level of detail to mimic the way a hand-cut stencil is produced. Paint within a selection from your path using a hard-edged brush on the black and white areas, then use the Eyedropper tool to sample the grey and paint on those areas. Now go Filter > Noise > Median and enter a radius of two pixels.

08. With the Magic Wand tool set to Contiguous and a tolerance of 2, select the black areas from the image. In the Channels palette, create a new channel. Now use the fly-out menu to access the Channel Options, and click the Selected Areas option. Changing the default channel settings will make the following steps clearer.

09. Label the new channel ‘Black’, then set your foreground colour to white and hit Delete to fill the active selection with black. Now the black is independent from the white and grey you can paint out areas using a white brush to simplify it further. Remember – you’re aiming for a hand-cut effect.

10. Select the grey areas from the image and fill with black in another new channel. Paint out any fine hairlines that appear and simplify as in the previous step, then label it ‘Grey’. Select the white areas and fill with black in another new channel, then generate a selection from your path, inverse and hit Opt/Alt + Delete to fill with white. Clean it up and label it ‘White’.

11. Add a new layer, then delete the Background layer. Generate a selection from your ‘Grey’ channel, and fill the active selection with a pale brown (R = 243; G = 165; B = 114). Use a selection from the ‘White’ channel, and fill with an off-white (R = 200; G = 240; B = 224) on a new layer. Repeat using a selection from the ‘Black’ channel, filling with black on another layer.

12. Select the Crop tool and expand the bottom of the canvas, before accepting the crop prompt. Rotate it anticlockwise as shown. Now for the overspray effects: open Paint_1.jpg from the cover CD and use the Magic Wand tool (with the Contiguous option unchecked) to select the image and Copy > Paste it above the ‘Black fill’ layer. Transform and position, then set the blending mode to Multiply. Now erase any excess areas, then continue using the remaining paint files to further the effect.

13. Now use the same off-white and pale brown to fill more overspray areas using default blending mode – we’re aiming for a fairly subtle effect, so don’t overdo it. Once you’re happy, Merge Visible (Shift+ Cmd/Ctrl + E) and name the layer ‘Skater’. Now access the brush presets and pick a medium, soft-edged brush with Noise selected. Add some gentle overspray using the same colours as well as black. Drag and drop this as a new layer into your working document above the group folder.

14. Download the graffiti image from http://tinyurl.com/6nt584 or use a similar graffiti photo of your own – it must be bright and bold enough to work as a centrepiece for the image. If you’re using the downloaded image, you’ll see the bottom left-hand graffiti is missing. To restore it, first use the Crop tool to extend that side of the canvas by approx 2cm. Now draw a path for the missing area, then using the Clone tool set to All Layers, paint within a selection from your path. Finally, invert the selection to fix the remaining area.

15. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + E to Merge Down and label it ‘Main graffiti’. Drag and drop it into your working document above the skater and position in the bottom right. Next, use the Eraser tool to blend out the hard edges. Change the ‘Main graffiti’ layer’s mode to Screen and the opacity to 60%. Duplicate the layer and set its mode to Linear Burn, then increase the opacity to 77%.

16. Set the skater to Screen and 75% opacity, duplicate it, setting its mode Linear Burn and opacity to 77%. Open ‘Tag.tif’ from the cover CD and drop it as a new layer at the top of the stack, transform, set the blending mode to Screen, at a 50% opacity. Target your top layer and apply the displacement map by going Filter > Distort > Displace, in the next window set the Horizontal and Vertical Scale to 5, check Stretch To Fit and Repeat Edge pixels, then click OK, navigate to your saved bumpmap. psd file and click Open. Finally, target all your remaining layers in turn and hit Cmd/Ctrl + F to repeat the filter. Your graffiti now matches the contours of the underlying wall.

Author: Mark Mayers

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