Spring Blossoms: Photoshop Tutorial
Intricate details and basic symmetry creating focus, themed colour palettes and a measure of aesthetic control is what art is all about, and graphic art is no exception. Blending ideas and various forms with inspiration drawn from Shadowgraphy and complex ornate Victorian floral patterns has helped me in finishing this artwork. Created in Adobe Photoshop 7 and completely done with mouse, it took me a little more than 8 hours to complete.
Author: Barnali Bagchi
Source: moonbeam1212.deviantart.com
Extensive use of the Pen tool and blending options, complemented by the burn/dodge tool, is what I am going to cover in this tutorial. In the following pages you will discover the steps taken from initial concept to the final rendering of the image.
STEP:1 Rough Sketch
It’s important to have a visual idea of what the end result should be. Why not take out a sketchbook and sketch the skeleton on a piece of paper to get the proportions right? After all this is where all the ideas – good or bad – come out that may perhaps lead to new ones, and you can actually surprise yourself. Once you are satisfied with the basic sketch, scan it to your computer, open Photoshop and make it the base layer, the foundation of the final image.
STEP 2: Choosing the colour palette
Once you have the reference picture, its important to decide on the final look and feel of the image, and choosing the right colour palette is very important. For the final effect, select shades of green for the leaves, blue and pink for embellishments and black for the main silhouette. It’s now important to decide the background colour of the image. Stick to a lighter colour while choosing a colour for the background. Select a neutral colour, like grey.
Note: If the main image is dark, the background should be in lighter shades so as to make the main image prominent and vice versa. It’s important to put the background in a ‘layer set’ and turn it off clicking the ‘eye’ on the layer window while working on the main image.
STEP 3: The silhouette
Grab your pen tool to trace the path for the silhouette. This is a tricky part, mainly because you have to know how much to cover and fill with black. However, it should not be difficult as you have the reference sketch handy. Use a new layer to do this and put this layer in a new layer set, name it “Silhouette”. After tracing the path and filling it with black, the image will look like this.
Note: To fill an area with colour, draw a path using the pen tool Right click on the path and select ‘make selection’ and use the paint bucket tool to fill the colour. Then hit Ctrl+D to deselect the path.
STEP 4: The leaves, flowers and the hearts
Turn off the “Silhouette” layer set and start painting the leaves. Make a new layer set and name it “Leaves”. Trace the leaves one by one with the pen tool and fill them with solid colour. Remember to paint each leaf on a new layer inside the “leaves” layer set. Open the blending options window by right clicking on the layers. Experiment with gradient, drop shadow, colour and bevel properties till you are completely satisfied with the look.
The image does not look quite complete. Time to add some flowers and hearts. Make a new layer set and name it “Embellishments”. Use the pen tool to draw a flower and fill it with blue solid colour. Open blending options by right clicking the layer and use the gradient tool to give a shaded effect to the flower. Select the style “Radial” for the flower, keeping the centre dark and the outside of the petals light blue. Use the “bevel and emboss” style to give a 3-d effect to the flower. Experiment with other tabs in the “blending options” window till you are satisfied and hit “ok”. The layer style would be applied to the image. Now duplicate this layer and place on the image appropriately.
On a new layer draw a small heart. You can use the pen tool to draw it or use a custom heart shape from the Custom Shape tool box. Fill it with colour, open blending options again and add layer style to it. Duplicate the heart, rotate and resize to place them appropriately.
Note: To duplicate a layer (in this case the flowers and hearts) hold down Ctrl+Alt and drag the layer to the desired location. To freely rotate a layer, hit Ctrl+T.
STEP 5: The extra strokes
Grab a hard round brush, 13px. in diameter, and stroke some finishing lines on a new layer. Use the pen tool to trace the paths and then right click on the paths, select “Stroke path” from the menu. Don’t forget to check the ‘simulate pressure’ box. The image now looks like this.
STEP 6: Burn and Dodge
It’s time to use the burn and the dodge tool to colour certain parts of the background. Use a soft round brush and use the burn tool on the ‘background’ layer to darken the parts around the leaves and use the dodge tool to add highlights to the leaves. Experiment with these tools till you are happy with the result. Adjust the hue and saturation of the layer to get a light blue tinge. You will love the result, I am sure.
STEP 7: Finishing the image
Save this image with the name SP1.png. Reopen SP1.png and duplicate the layer. Name the layer SP1 copy. Adjust the hue and saturation of the layer on top to a light sepia shade. To achieve this, minimize the saturation and adjust the hue to a light red colour. On the layer panel, drop the opacity to 77%. Now go to the original layer below this and use the pen tool to trace a rough path over the image, right click and select ‘make selection’ from the menu, give the feather radius 100 and hit ‘ok’. Copy the selection and paste it over the second layer. Align all the layers and save the image.
Reopen the image and adjust the curves, brightness and contract for the final look. You can also add a sandstone effect to the final image from the texture window under the Filter menu. Finally, add a vignette to the image. Use a large soft round brush, select black foreground colour, drop the opacity to 20% and paint around the corners of the image. Also add a border to the image. Voila!
I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and it is of use to you.
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