Drawn elements are certainly something that can enhance an illustration. Even if you’re not very good at drawing, you can still create a quality piece. All you need is a good idea and some Photoshop skills. And if you don’t believe me, you will definitely change your mind after reading this Part II of his two part tutorial series. So let’s take a look inside!

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Part II Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop CS3
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 4-5 hours

Introduction and Preparation

It’s a themed illustration about "No Beauty," this hides an idea that no beauty lasts forever. Suddenly all that’s great and beautiful falls apart. All the happiness is gone with the colorful pieces. The final outcome has its own mood, even thou it’s colorful, it’s still kinda frightening.

And as I said this is kinda simple but you may be wondering why this tutorial is labeled as advanced level. Well everything is fine as long as you have some base to work on. Here we have absolutely nothing, we will create this piece from scratch. So what’s hard, is all the illustration depth, shading and colorization. Beside that, there are some things you just need to feel.

Ok, now let’s take a look what we’re going to use here:

• Splatter, from 123rf.com
• Broken Blush, from sxc.hu
• Scratchy texture, from sxc.hu
• Splashes 1,2,3, from istockphoto.com
• Handmade Brushes 1,2, from brushesdownload.com
• Ink Brushes (optionaly), brushesdownload.com
• Paint Strokes 1,2, brushesdownload.com
• Self-Drawn Elements on Paper

Step 1

Just to remind you of what we created in the Tutorial Part I, the first image below shows our final outcome. Remember that you need to work now below all adjustment layers (which affect the whole illustration) and also below the overall room shading that we added.

OK, so pay attention to the second image below. I drew something like that in the first tutorial part, this is the sketch of how I pictured the splashes. And I decided not to cover the whole face with splashes.

Step 2

I found three nice splashes (1,2,3) from istockphoto, which you can view in the first image below.

There are few ways to do the extraction, and because the background is white it’s quite an easy task. You can do this using Color Range, however we don’t need the full splashes here, and a more accurate job need the Pen Tool. Look at the third splash below and the green rectangle. It’s a good part to fit our face.

Let’s zoom into this part and use the Pen Tool to cut it out. Using this technique is reasonably fast (and the color range technique sometimes leaves a little bit of the background color, which we don’t want). So check the last image below (the black one) and you can see it’s very precise. I compared the background with a black color and yes, it’s full red, no white edges.

Step 3

Now as I said we just need a little bit of this splash, so make it fit into the face and use a soft eraser or a layer mask to get rid of the square edge of the splash (first image below). Then apply Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and brighten all the tones in this dark red splash. To do this we need to use Reds, Yellows, Neutrals, and Blacks (second image below). Now this looks over saturated, so let’s take the saturation down (third image below). Then it’s good to give a little more brightness (forth image).

Step 4

I’ll show you now what to do in points:

1. This is the result we reached so far.

2. Create a new layer above the splash, with Blending Mode set to Color. Grab a soft brush and paint with a brownish color to make the shade more suitable to skin shadows.

3. Compare image 1 to 3, and see how the shade changed its color. It’s starting to look like it’s really a skin splash!

4. Merge all the layers connected with the splash into one. And use the Burn Tool (range: Midtones) to make the splash darker, like the bottom face color.

Step 5

Now duplicate the face layer and place it above the splash. Flip it horizontally to make the dark skin cover our splash (first image below). Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All (second image below). Then use a soft, black brush and paint on the layer mask while having the “splash” selection activated (third image below).

This may look a little confusing. Let’s review what this does? Well, basically we’re revealing the skin from the copied face. And we’re doing this on the splash to make it look more skin textured. It’s a tiny difference, but believe me, if you zoom in, you will see the difference. The splash will look like real skin.

Step 6

OK, let’s bring up another splash. Again use the Pen Tool to make a precise cut out. Now turn it in the right direction (first image below). Then use a hard eraser (or layer mask with a hard, black brush) to make a perfect match to the skin (second image below). Then soft-erase the squared top part of the splash.

Step 7

As when we were applying the previous splash, use Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and adjust the same colors. Play around with the values starting from Reds, Yellow, Neutrals, and Blacks. Try to make the splash color brighter (first image below). Then turn down the saturation (third image below) and finally give a touch of brightness (forth image below).

Step 8

1. Use the Burn Tool to match the colors of the bottom face skin and our splash.

2. As previously, duplicate the “face” layer and place it to cover the splash with skin.

3. Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All (this fully masks the duplicated “face” layer).

4. Add the skinny touch painting on the layer mask with a soft, white brush.

5. Make some final touch-ups. I used the Patch Tool to get rid of unwanted light and burned some parts more with the Burn Tool.

Step 9

OK, when it comes to adding lighter splashes, the job is much easier.

1. Make a good match with the skin shape.

2. Use Selective Color the same way as previously to get the over saturated look (and it’s great with selective color, as it also makes the shade softer).

3. Next use Hue/Saturation and turn the Saturation halfway down (don’t overdo) to match the splash color with skin color.

4. If it still isn’t enough, go (as previously) to Brightness/Contrast and enhance the Brightness, while lowering the Contrast just a touch, and we should be fine.

Note: The lights may sometimes come a bit sharp and bright, so you can always get rid of them using the Patch Tool or just by erasing some parts of the splash.

Step 10

As you see now, the shadow below the face will be a little bit different because we changed the shape. Find the same color as you used previously, while painting the shadow. Grab a very soft brush and add more shadow where objects are getting closer to the ground (as you see in the fist and second images below).

Step 11

Now to add more skin-splash touches, we need to use another image of paint. It’s a good to have it in the same color, then the adjustment values will not change much. So bring up this Splatter image to Photoshop and start extracting using the Pen Tool.

As you see in the first image below, you do not have to cut out the whole piece, just the bottom part. And also the extraction needs to give you a nice rounded stain without dark shadows.

Everything is shown in the images below. You just need to repeat what you did previously with the splashes, but yeh, with each new splash you must search new adjustment values (as they are not the same). So the values will be quite similar, but not exactly the same.

Step 12

Grab the Brush Tool with soft settings (Flow at 2% and Hardness set to 0%). Create a new layer below these skin parts, and use a dark color (that fits to the surface) to add a tiny shadow. I used the color: #2f1d0e.

Then look at second image below and create two new layers above the skin parts. We will make a small touch up to one of them. As shown in the image – change these layer Blending Options: one to Overlay and the second to Multiply. Then using the same soft brush, change your color as shown in the second image below and paint in the indicated spots to make this skin look more realistic.

Step 13

It’s the right time to add some hand-drawn pieces. My drawing skills are pretty lame and I’m aware of that, but since I have some basics I was able to create several very simple elements that look good enough for this purpose. And with good Photoshop skills you can turn your simple drawings into something really cool.

So take a piece of paper, a pencil and use your imagination to create some nice shapes (or you can use mine as well). Now shoot a photo of each one (it’s good to have natural daylight while taking a picture). Then open each one and if they are too dark, use Layer > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and then Layer > Adjustments > Levels to get a nice contrast between the edges and the background. Next use the Pen Tool to extract. While extracting, work on a big canvas (don’t resize the photos).

Step 14

As you see my drawn element is quite big and that’s a good thing. Now you can use Command + T and click Warp in the top menu bar. Work on bending this shape to get various results. Obviously the warping will get our element a little blurry, but after we resize it down it will not be noticeable (second image below).

Next I wanted to add some depth to this piece by making it less plane. To do this you need the Burn Tool and Dodge Tool. In the third image below, the green arrows indicate the lower spots (that need to get painted using the Burn Tool set to Midtones) and the red arrows indicate the upper spots (that need to get painted with the Dodge Tool set to Highlights).

And after adding depth, you may color this element using Hue/Saturation.

Continue Learning…