Feature Give your sketches new life | Illustrating in Elements
13
Now that the armadillo is done, he looks like
he needs a suitable environment, so look for an image that he can be placed in. I found a grassy scene to copy and paste as the bottom layer using the same steps outlined above. The scene works OK, but I wanted something a little more grungy or embellished. Armadillos tend to root around and dig in the dirt, so I found another grungy textured piece of paper that I could place over the top. I copied it and placed it on top of all of the layers, including the Line layer. Now I tried changing its mode to things like Screen and Overlay, but found myself liking the Soft Light mode. I like how it is starting to look, but think it needs just a little bit more.
14
I tried several different options and eventually landed on a leafy pattern. This layer was copied and pasted as the top layer and set to Overlay… however both it and the grungy paper together were a little too much and I didn’t want the texture covering the armadillo. So I created a layer mask on the paper layer. Do this by clicking on the third icon above the Layers palette that looks like a square with a circle cut out of it (Add layer mask). A new box appears next to the thumbnail image of that layer and as long as that little box is selected, anywhere I paint with black it will hide whatever is in that layer under a mask. Anything painted with shades of gray will be have levels of transparency according to how close to black it is, and white will reveal or “unhide” anything.
15
Choose an appropriate brush. For this image I used a large brush set to black, Hardness set to zero and Opacity at about 30%. The low opacity will let me gradually hide anything on this layer and the softness will help it to not have hard edges. I started painting around the inside of the paper but left the frame mostly untouched. This hides a lot of the paper texture as I paint over it several times to get the amount of transparency I like. I did the same thing for the top leafy pattern layer, except I changed the Brush Opacity to 100% to completely mask it away when brushing the front of the armadillo. The great thing about using a mask instead of erasing is that if I take away too much, I can simply change my paint color to white and paint back in any parts of the image. Once that was done I stepped back and checked to see if I liked all of the settings as far as the strength of the highlights and shadows etc… and named the armadillo “Reginald” and declared it done. Hopefully this will encourage you to work on your own sketches and appreciate how handy it is to work on multiple layers. Have fun being creative. ■
Pete Collins is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and one of the co-hosts of Photoshop User TV. Pete has an extensive background in fine arts, photography, illustration, and graphic design to work. Along the way he has been a wedding, newspaper, sports and stock photographer. With rare combination of proven design experience, and a willingness to teach and inspire, Pete holds a unique perspective on what type of obstacles and demands are placed on today’s creative artists. Pete develops training classes for both Kelby Training Online and PhotoshopUser.com and writes for both Photoshop User magazine and Light It magazine. You can find out more on Pete Collins by visiting http://petecollins.com or petegplus.com
May/June 2013 | 29