Again, Line Art and Illustrated Look

Due to Mas Suryaden's question here, I really tickled to reset it down. This is still engaged to the advance tutorial in about to make a vector image. But this time... it's a quite different. If on that tutorial, I utilized Shape Layers as selection on Pen Tool (P) -meaning your beautiful image is closed trace- a part quotient, and this time, a bit different I think, I utilize Path as selection for Pen Tool (P). It means, that image no longer enclosed coloration thoroughly, but... you are free to use this amazing Pen Tool (P) as an Opened Shape.

I will give you today this magnifique lesson about how to create a stylized illustrated look from a photograph, remember that, from a photograph. The best part is that it requires no artistic ability! You can do this to any photo and pretty much any subject, but I think it works best with people.


Step One:

This time, I use this awesome pic from www.thesun.co.uk. OK now, create a new layer and fill it with White. Above that layer, create a new blank layer by hitting the New Layer Button at the bottom of the layer palette. Name that layer Basic Shapes. Turn both of those layers off.




Step Two:

This is it! We are going to use the Pen Tool (P) to trace all of the basic structural elements of the image, it will be the outline of the body and the outlines of the clothes.

If you don't get how to use Pen Tool (P), you should check this Energy Beams first or simply click here to find about the Vector thing out!

With the Pen Tool (P) selected, simply click anywhere you would like to start, I mean anywhere...! Continue to click and drag to trace the part you are working on with the path. To make it look more like a sketch, we are going to use a lot of small paths rather than trace the whole thing with one long path.

Here are a few shots of how I traced my image:

See..?!?!?

A common misconception is that a path needs to be a loop. Not true. We are going to use all open paths in this tutorial.

Step Three:

Turn on your white layer and your blank layer. Select the blank layer.

On your gready paths palette, drag your work path down to the New Path button at the bottom of the palette to save it.

After that... Select the Brush Tool (B) and open the Brushes Palette by going to Menu > Window > Brushes or you guys could simply press F5 from your PC.

Isn't that simple?!?!? OK.. Select now any round, hard brush preset.

Under the Brush Tip Shape section, modify the brush to create a thin ellipse by bringing the roundness down to 12%. Make the angle 45 degrees.

Turn on the Shape Dynamics section bring the Size Jitter to 100, the Minimum diameter to 35, and the Angle Jitter to 5. Do some experiment on this step... it's quite fun if you did that with a glass of hot chocolate besides, lol.

With the blank layer still selected, hit D to make black your foreground color then right/control + click on the path and choose Stroke Path. Make sure that Simulate Pressure is checked and use Brush as your source. Hit OK. You might have to adjust the Master Diameter in the brushes palette if the lines are too thin or thick. It depends on how big your image size is ofcourse.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 a few more times, the more detail you trace, the thinner you should set the Master Diameter on the brushes palette. Each time you do a pass, make sure to apply the stroke onto a new layer. Remember about tons of layers I usually said when making something in Photoshop? Use Layers!

Step Four:

Now that we have the outlines, let's paint in some color. Copy the layer that contains your photograph (Background Layer). Put the duplicate image at the top, above all the other layers. Set the Blending Mode to Color. (that's the tricky part actually... without this step... just go to hell!)

Hit B for the Brush Tool. In the Brushes palette set the Brush Angle to -45 degrees and turn off the Shape Dynamics. Make the brush a bit larger.

Make a New Blank Layer (Shortcut : Shift + Ctrl + N) and call it Paint (...or whatever you'd like..!). Make sure that it's below all of your outline layers. Make sure that your foreground color is still set to Black (it's also the tricky part of this such amazing tut).

In the properties bar, set the Opacity of the brush to about 5 - 10%. Very roughly paint in the color where you want it. Be sure to release the mouse every now and then so that the color begins to multiply over itself. Don't worry about staying in the lines too much. Just do the best you can. Lol...

So far.. your Palette Layer should be like this ;

or not??? I don't give a damn! Lmao! Kidding!


Step Five:

Hit E for the Eraser Tool. Set the eraser brush up the same way that we did the paint brush. Make the eraser brush's Opacity is at 40 - 50% or even under. Now go back and tidy up your paint job. I like it when you can still slightly see the paint going over the lines.

Step Seven:

Create another New Blank Layer below the Paint layer. Call it BG Image. Hit the Brush Tool (B) again and make the master diameter huge. Mine is at 200. or sometimes, I like use it in 2500 (don't try this if you're not so sure about that, lol) with just one click on my damn image. That's it! You guys could set it totally different with mine ofcourse.. With the brush opacitie's at 5% do a few really broad strokes across the whole image just to bring in a little color to the background.

...and this is my final image ;

Satisfied?!!?!

Other samples of this tut!

Read also : How to use this amazing Pen Tool and do not miss about this Vektor with Photoshop!