content issue 09/2010

cover artist – interview

Oliver Weiss 4
Oliver Weiss is an illustrator from Germany who works in a variety
of different techniques ranging from whimsical drawings to mixed-
media collage artwork.

creative class Editor‘s choice

Trick or treat Gallery of Katerina Tumanova
Benoit Ladouceur 8 (Belkina) 44
Fell in Love with an Alien
Julia Trotti 16 photo retouch
Smile
interview Tina Foster 48
Interview with Alex Eckman-Lawn 20

photomanipulation Dearest Readers!

Solitude I have a pleasure to present you the latest, October issue of our magazine. I hope you
Andrei Oprinca 24 are as excited as I am and that you will be eager to try out all our tutorials. This month
we decided to prepare you for Halloween with Benoit Ladouceur’s tutorial Trick or treat.
On the road
Julie Waterhouse 30 You can also learn how to give your image a vintage look with Julia Trotti or how to
build your portfolio with some help of Alex Eckman-Lawn’s exercises. We didn’t forget
about photo retouch fans: check out Tina Foster’s tutorial. As always, you can find in
interview our magazine interviews with artists. This time we talk with Oliver Weiss and Alex Eck-
Interview with Doopla 34 man-Lawn who show us what it means for them to be digital artists.
We have all this and much more for you in our October issue so I am leaving you a
workshop pleasure to discover all the other articles we prepared. Have a good lecture!
Making of a building - 1
Alex Eckman-Lawn 38 Magdalena Mojska
Making of a building - 2 magdalena.mojska@psdmag.org
Alex Eckman-Lawn 41 Editor in Chief
 london academy

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.psd Photoshop 3
 interview

Interview with
Oliver Weiss
Oliver Weiss is an illustrator from
Germany who works in a variety
of different techniques ranging
from whimsical drawings to mixed-
media collage artwork. His clients
from twenty years include Random
House, Rowohlt, Reed Business, Die
Zeit, The Christian Science Monitor,
Der Spiegel, Deutsche Bank, and the
Munich Oktoberfest.

Oliver, could you say a few words about yourself?

I remember the first time a drawing of mine ever got published was
in a large parenting magazine in Munich when I was ten years old.
The school had entered an art competition, and my drawing yielded
an award that paid for a hiking trip for my class. I guess that’s when
it all got started. I have always wanted to be an illustrator, and for me
being able to work in this field professionally is like a dream come
true, especially given that I come from a wholly different background
in engineering and science.

What do you like the most about being a digital artist? Why do
you think it is worth to choose this profession?
Most of what I do is created and assembled directly on the com-
puter, so I think it is fair to call me a digital artist, even though I
still do use pen, pencil, paint and glue from time to time. It is such
fun getting up in the morning and having a whole day of art ahead
of you. I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else these days. I
am always at awe that I am actually making a living from doing fun
little images all the time. I think what is so exceptional about the
art of illustration is that unlike fine art that hangs in galleries and
museums your illustration needs to fit with a given topic or an ar-
ticle in a magazine, and this commercial aspect of it all gives you
an immediate feedback about your work. I find that very gratifying.
I also like working with editors and publishers, and crave to see the
final product. I feel the best concepts are those that are receiving
constructive critique on behalf of the client, and the final result is
often (though not always) better than what I would have been able
to come up with on my own.

Are there any downsides of being an illustrator?

As with every profession, I am sure there are negative sides to be-
ing an illustrator. I am a freelancer, like most of us, which means that
in lack of an employer you need to motivate yourself to get to work.
Also, you only make money once you actually nail a given project.
You don’t have regular working hours and sometimes have to pull an

4 .psd Photoshop
 interview with oliver weiss

all-nighter. The very concept of “vacationing” is unheard of. The roy- sion and make it exciting. I am not sure that my peers will agree with
alties are usually quite low, and so forth... But frankly, for me these me here, but this is how I feel. So all put together I don’t see a great
aren’t really downsides but rather essentials that go with the profes- deal of downsides to the profession as such.

.psd Photoshop 5
 interview

Tell us about your biggest achievements. What

are you especially proud of?
I don’t really think I am “proud” of anything I have
done, as pride is not a term that I can relate to. I do feel
happy about a variety of projects I have been lucky
to be involved in, even though I am not really looking
back on my “achievements” all that much. I often feel
the happiest when I am working on a new project, and
I am sensing that it is turning out nicely. That said,
there have been a number of lovely projects that I feel
good about to this day. One such project is my Okto-
berfest poster design award from 2008 which came
about through a competition that I was invited to take
part in. My design was chosen to be displayed on
posters, beer steins and kitchenware, and on a great
deal of apparel, too. That was really cool.
Another venture that proved quite fortunate was
my jacket design for a book on philosophy written
by Richard David Precht. It got published by Random
House, and has evolved into Germany’s bestselling
nonfiction title currently, selling well over a million

copies so far, with no end in sight. I also enjoy assign-

ments I do for Die Zeit, Germany’s largest weekly news-
paper. In one such project I designed a large poster on
the history of German parties since 1848. I used rivers
as visuals for the political streams coming from the left,
the right, and the liberal middle. The fun thing about
the poster was that there was very little art direction
involved, and so first I had to educate myself about the
hundreds of German parties that evolved over the years
through a PhD thesis from the 1960’s that they handed
me, and through complementary research on the web
before I was able to come up with suitable imagery. A re-
ally fun product that will come out this fall is a number of
packaging designs for coffee, tea, sugar, flower and the
like that I created for a large manufacturer of tin boxes.
I am really excited about seeing them up for sale in the
store shelves soon.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Actually, the ideas come with the given assignment.
It’s not like I have a preconceived mindset about a
specific topic, but rather, once I tackle a project I need
to get into things rather quickly, often within minutes.
You develop a sense of coming up with visuals swiftly
though – I guess this comes with the profession after
doing it for a while. Typically, I conjure up a small hand-
ful of concepts before getting to work on the final art.

Any advice for the beginners on this field?

I think it is important to keep in mind that the profes-
sion of illustration is not all about drawing fun little

6 .psd Photoshop
 interview with oliver weiss

pictures, but it is about running a business. The business of illus-

tration, as I see it, is not so much about getting paid for art that you
enjoy creating, but you get paid for creating art that pleases the cli-
ent. Ideally, of course, both sides of the story will be addressed to
in the process.
I have come to learn that many of my peers are lacking common
business sense big time. One of the greatest mistakes that artists
make is that they are outsourcing all issues dealing with business
matters and legal stuff. I think that is a big mistake, and quite irre-
sponsible at that. As a freelancer you need to be in full control of your
goings-on, and understand all financial matters. By this token, never
sign a contract without knowing what exactly it says. I usually draft
my own contracts, or modify the client’s contract to my liking. Also,
never spend more money than you make, and always leave a little on
the side, especially when you are starting out.
As far as the artistic aspects of the profession are concerned,
I recommend learning as much as you can, and see to it that you
never stop getting inspired – not only by art, of course, but by the
multitude of things going around us. Art is all about creativity, inspi-
ration, and fun, and you shouldn’t loose that on the way.
Also, it might be good to know for those starting out that even
though the world is your market nowadays, there are substantial
cultural differences that need to be taken into account. For exam-
ple, if you are working for the American market, which in my view is
the largest and most versatile in the world, you need to know that
art directors don’t like it when you give them more than one style.
Europe is probably the least restrictive market in that regard, but
unfortunately the market for illustration isn’t all that large, particu-
larly in German-speaking countries.

What do you currently work on? Do you have any ideas for your
future projects?
I got a number of things lined up for the future. I am working on
some concepts for books, and in the longer run I also want to focus
a little more on doing paintings and artwork for galleries.

.psd Photoshop 7
Trick
or treat

With Halloween fast approaching I was in the mood for something a bit darker. Being a fan
of zombie films it became apparent that this image would be a good occasioin to play
around with one of my favorite horror themes. This time I decided to go for something more
spontaneous... More along the lines of a mood study then a final highly polished image.
I started thumbnailing on paper with "Trick or treat" as a main direction and came up with
this: A woman hiding in a dark basement or room with a zombie knocking at the door. It
fitted with what I wanted... a very cliche Halloween idea !!

medium | 35 h.
adobe photoshop CS3 | wacom tablet
 trick or treat

01

preparing my canvas
I don't particularly like starting from a blank can-
vas... and especially not from a white canvas.
Once I had created a new Photoshop document
I quickly proceeded, using a heavily textured
brush, to covering the entire canvas with texture.

02

references
In order to speed up the process, I rumaged
through my sketchbooks for a sitting character
sketch I remembered doing a few months back.
I always carry a sketchbook with me. I try to draw
everything and anything that comes to mind. For
most of my character work I try to sketch from
live model or photo references to obtain realistic
proportions. Looking for my sketch ended up tak-
ing me over 3 hours... would have probably been
faster to draw the character again from scratch!
Once I found it, I scanned it into photoshop and
proceeded to clean the image up.

03

basic layout sketch

Once I had my character, I started layout out my
different elements. The woman would occupy
center stage with a zombie at the door to her back.
I try at this stage to keep everything loose and
flowing, nothing too tight for now. Going to tight
in the begining can put us in a corner creating
problems later on where it becomes difficult to go
outside the planned idea.

.psd Photoshop 9
 creative class

04

perspective layout
I work as a matte painter in my day job, a job
where I frequently use 3D animation softwares
to produce images. Because of this I often go to
3D packages and quickly build a 3D layout of my
image to make sure my perspective work is good.
Using 3D like this permits me to quickly evalu-
ated different angles, lenses and spatial relation
of every objects in the image. Once I made a 3D
layout of the room, I screen captured a frame and
imported it in Photoshop as a new layer. It's then
blended with the background by changing the lay-
er setting from Normal to Overlay.

05

basic values
Grabbing a simple basic round photoshop brush
with a 70% Opacity I set off placing my first at-
tempt at light and shadows. It's an important
step... since the dark masses that are painted in
have a tremendous impact on the overall compo-
sition. The 3D layer being just a reference, I start
covering it. I want all the attention to the main
character so I'm leaving the area lighter. The zom-
bie in the doorway will be mostly backlight since
I don't want the image to be too gruesome with
a nice light spot on the floor that will run to my
character, helping to tie together background and
foreground.

06

more paint
At this point, I'm just adding layers of paint to the
elements in the picture. Slowly making the refer-
ence grid disapear and shaping the mood I want.
I also start to move away from my now mostly
black and white composition and add color to the
main character. I've decided to go for another
cliche... the red dress. I quickly scribble in some
flesh tones and pick a bright red color for the
dress area. quiclky putting thoses in like this per-
mits me to, again, evaluatte the impact it's going
to have on my composition.

10 .psd Photoshop
 trick or treat

07

color
I'm now satisfied with layout and composition.
I add a layer over my sketch and set it to Over-
lay. With the same brush I used to paint my lay-
out, I start putting flat colors over my grayscale
sketch. This way the gray values get transformed
to the colors I pick keeping my darks and whites
mostly intact with a hint of tint. I'll use green val-
ues for the interior with golden tones for what we
see through the door. I also add another layer of
red to the dress.

08

clean up
Working in this fashion although very fun and
not constraining brings in it's share of issues.
One issue being that the result feels extremely
rough. In order to clean some roughness off of
the image I switch to the Smudge tool. Set it to
50% and change the pattern to one of the spack-
led brush. I then use this brush to smooth out the
rough brush strokes from most of the character,
background and zombie. This step completely
removes what was left from my perspective refer-
ences. It also gives me a very fluid looking base
from wich to continue my work. Almost like if I had
used watercolors and washed over the whole area.

09

lighting
In order to created a quick lighting scheme, I add
a layer, fill it with black the use the Gradient tool
to create a big round gradiant over my main light
source. I then change the layer setting to Overlay
and bring the Transparency to about 20%. This
makes the area around the door brighter and ev-
erything else like if it was in shadows. I also take
a few minutes to make a fake news paper front
page with headline to help the viewer understand
the picture's story.

.psd Photoshop 11
 creative class

10

uneveness
At the moment I get the feeling that all the val-
ues in my image are a bit all over the place. That
they lack unity. A quick way of fixing this is with
the help of the Gradient map adjustment layer.
I generate the layer and I pick 2 values, a warm
one for the lights and a cool one for the darks.
I then switch the layer to overlay and push it's
Tranparency to 30%. This instantly evens out the
whole image by adding common values to the
whole composition.

11

change
I pick up a couple of days later and start to think
that I don't have the impact I want with the com-
position. The eye wanders in the image without
locking to my main character. After a few minutes
thinking about it I start experimenting and come
to the conclusion that I have conflicting areas...
the window behind the character brings the eye
to the background away from where I want it. The
zombie is also a bit big. I cut the image to pieces
with the lasso tool, remove the window and scale
down the door and zombie.

12

fixes
The image is pretty damaged at this point. I add
a layer on top and start painting in some fixes
and more details on the different elements. This
image is all about the woman character so I move
onto painting in more light on her, more details on
her face and dress.

12 .psd Photoshop
 trick or treat

13

quick background work

In order to obtain a quick background I go through
my image reference bank looking for some very
textured pieces of flooring and walls. After finding
a couple of interesting images I want to use, I shut
off my foreground elements (character, table,
zombie) keeping only my background ones. I then
paste my refs over the desired areas and use the
Transformation>Distort function to deform them
to the right pespective. I blend them to my paint-
ed background by switching the textures layers
to Soft light with a Transparency setting of 35%.
I now have a nice heavily textured environnent to
build on.

14

more paint
I turn on the foreground elements again wich
brings a new look to the image and continue
painting in light information, details and mood.
The door still bugs me a little but I keep it aside for
now.

15

all about the character

Like I said, I want this image to be all about the
woman character. I still feel a bit distracted be-
tween the competing shapes and brightness of
the zombie-door combo vs. my character. I decide
to darken the wall behing her to broaden the con-
trast of her light skin against the dark background
and at the same time I add planks to the door to
kind of fence out and breakup the zombie's sil-
houette. My eye now goes to my character's face
wich is what I wanted.

.psd Photoshop 13
 creative class

16 blood, guts and lighting

Time to move on to the fun stuff... I zoom in to the area occupied by the
zombie and start painting in details. I texture the planks with ovelayed
texture, followed by painted in brush strokes. The zombie is painted
over with a heavily textured brush at a 50% Opacity. I like this technique
since it works by building up the values, and with a texture brush you
can see all sorts of motifs and patterns emerge... just great for a rot-
ting corpse. Altough I wanted them to be mildly gruesome, the zombies
wouldn't be zombies without blood all over. So I use a nice red color on
a separate darken layer to paint in the juicy spots. Having the blood on
a different layer is great since you can tone it up or down as needed.
A nice trick to have when doing illustration at a professional level where
some markets will want to censor things like blood. You can then quickly
produce the "censored" version without going in to do a full repaint. At
this point I also work in some "interactive" lighting. In order to obtain my
bright light from the door I'm going to use a layer+layer mask technique.
I use the round Gradient tool on a top layer, picking my color from one
of the colours seen through the door, I the make a large round gradiant
making sure the center is in the middle of the source of the light I want
to cover. I then use a Layer Mask and the Lasso tool to cut out the
shadow covered areas. Switching this layer to Color dodge or Vivid light
always gives the best results. You obtain a nice bright lighting that you
can control without having to repaint everything if you're not satisfied.

17

character details
The BG and zombies are mostly done at this point,
I move on to the female character... some area are
still rought so I blend them more and I also spent
time on her hair. I fix the dark looking shadow ar-
eas and give her smoother skin. Her hair color is
also evened out.

18

details
Once I'm down to this point I usually zoom in to
my canvas and start fiddleing in the details. I add
makeup to the characters, fix the eyes, lips, jew-
elry, gun... I also darken her lower left leg to make
it as if it was in shadows. This helps making the
character feel in the light patch coming from the
door.

14 .psd Photoshop
 trick or treat

19

the girl with the dragon tattoo

Even though I'm satisfied with the image at this
point, the character feels a bit plain... I start
playing around with different ideas and the best
results came from adding body art on her.
I scrounged the net for tribal inspired tattoo mo-
tifs and created my own design. I then painted it
on a different layer before Hard lighting it on her.
It makes the character more interesting.

20

final touches
I find there is too much warm tones in the pic-
ture so I use a cool blue photo filter adjust-
ment layer to remove some of it. It leaves the
image a damp cool basement feeling color. In or-
der to even out my values more and to add a bit
of glare, I select all [Ctrl]+[A] then copy all layers
[ctrl]+[shift]+[C] then paste to another layer.
This gives me a layer with a full copy of the image.
I proceed to Gaussian blur this layer with a strong
value slider at half way. This blurred version is
then switched to lighten over my work and toned
down to 15%. this evens out my colours by adding
surrounding values to different areas and at the
same time imitated the glare produced by high-
lights in low light conditions.

21

save work... it’s done!

by Benoit Ladouceur

.psd Photoshop 15
IwithFell in
an Alien
Love
In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to add clouds to a photo by using layer masks,
how to edit colours in Photoshop to give your image a vintage look and how to work with
layering textures. This tutorial is relatively easy, but gives amazing looking results from the
simplest tools.
medium | 30 min.
adobe photoshop CS5
 i fell in love with an alien

01

Step 1
Open the original image with the girl holding the
umbrella in Photoshop. Press [C] for the Crop
Tool, and hold [Shift] down to crop the image into
a square. Use the Blur tool with a brush of 70px Di-
ameter, 20% Hardness and 10% Strength to slight-
ly blur down some sections of the grass.

02

Step 2
Press [Ctrl]+[J] two times to copy the back-
ground image twice. Make the top layer invisible
by pressing the eye, and make the middle layer
active by clicking on it. Press [Ctrl]+[M] to bring
up the curves box. This section is all up to person-
al preference – move each of the red, green and
blue colour curves around to try and get some-
thing similar as the example, keeping in mind that
you are trying to bring out the reds more, keeping
the greens out of the image as much as you can.
When you are happy with how it looks, press [OK]
and change the layer style to Color.

03

Step 3
Make the third background layer visible and ac-
tive. Press [Ctrl]+[M] to bring up the curves box.
This time while going through each of the colour
curves, we are going to do the opposite and bring
out the yellows and green of the image. When
you are happy with how it looks, press [OK] and
change the layer style to Darken. Now your co-
lours should look almost as you want them to look
in the final image. Open the clouds image and drag
it on to the fields image in a new layer. Change the
layer style to Overlay. With the clouds layer select-
ed, press the Add layer mask in the bottom of the
layers box. It is the second from the left and looks
like a square with a circle in it.

.psd Photoshop 17
 creative class

04

Step 4
To start with, grab a brush of 100% Opacity, 175px
in Diameter, and 75% Hardness and press [D] to
reset your colour palette, and [X] to switch the
colours around, so white is in the foreground and
black is in the background. Then proceed to get
rid of the entire bottom part of the clouds image
where there are trees and grass. With a brush of
100% Opacity, 75px in Diameter and 75% Hard-
ness, remove all the blue you can see in the girl's
dress.

05

Step 5
To make the final finishing touches so the clouds
blend in seamlessly with the fields, use a brush of
40% Opacity, 125px in Diameter and 75% Hardness
and dab and brush over and over again at the edge
of the fields until you are happy. The results are
subtle, but make a drastic impact over the look of
the final image.

06

Step 6
At the moment, the blue of the clouds are stand-
ing out compared to the rest of the image, so
press [Ctrl]+[M] to bring up the curves box with
the clouds layer selected. I used the following set-
tings to give the clouds a more vintage feel like
rest of the image.

18 .psd Photoshop
 i fell in love with an alien

07

Step 7
Open the first rusty and scratchy looking texture
and drag it on to the image you are working on.
Set the layer style to Soft light and Opacity to 64%.
Press the Add layer mask and with a brush of 40%
Opacity, 150px in Diameter and 75% Hardness be-
gin to remove some of the intensity of the scratch-
es around the middle area of the image.

08

Step 8
To tie in all the elements of this picture, drag the
final paper looking texture onto the image, and set
the layer style to Multiply and Opacity to 100%.

by Julia Trotti

.psd Photoshop 19
 interview
Interview with
Alex Eckman-Lawn
Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Sure, I’m Alex Eckman-Lawn, a freelance illustrator from Philadel-
phia. I work primarily in comic books and music illustration.
Why did you choose to become a digital artist? How did it
happen?
I really didn’t know how I wanted to work when I first got to college,
but I knew I liked to draw. Early influences of mine were guys like
Derek Hess and Jake Bannon, artists I’d run into through hardcore
music. I discovered some more fine art minded comic artists like
Ashley Wood and Dave McKean, who both use a strong digital ap-
20
Alex Eckman-Lawn is a bloodthirsty young
illustrator from Philadelphia who complet-
ed the Illustration program at University of
the Arts in 2007.
He has worked with many bands, includ-
ing Psyopus, Architect, Yakuza, Hacride
and Circle of Dead Children, designing t-
shirts and album art. He has also done de-
sign and/or artwork for Willowtip Records,
Black Market Activities, Tribunal Records,
and Scholastic Books.
Alex has just wrapped up work on Awak-
ening, an existential horror comic book be-
ing published by Archaia Studios Press.
He uses a combination of photo and
traditional media with heavy digital work in
Photoshop and Painter.
proach in some of their work. Using this kind of rich, textural work as
inspiration, I started experimenting more with Photoshop and things
really clicked. I can remember pretty clearly the feeling that I’d found
my direction, and I haven’t really looked back since.
Which of your own works is your favourite and why?
Wow, that is a really tough question! I don’t know if I can choose
just one thing, but usually what I’m working on right now is what I’m
most excited about. I just wrapped up the second and final collected
volume of Awakening, a comic book that I’ve been illustrating for the
last 4 years. I’m pretty excited and proud about it and I really hope
.psd Photoshop
interview with alex eckman-lawn

.psd Photoshop 21
 interview

people check it out and get as excited as

I am!This question is extra tough since I try
to work in a few different styles, but lately
I’ve really enjoyed working with buildings
and architecture.

What do you find the most challenging

about your profession?
Making a living? There’s a lot that’s tough
about freelance illustration, but often the
hardest thing is finding a way to make work
for your clients and still make it your own
and a success on your own terms. Some-
times this is way easy, but if a client asks for
a change you don’t agree with, the choice is
ultimately theirs. And also making money is
not easy in this profession.

Would you recommend our readers to

become artists as well? Do you have any
advices you could give them about this
occupation?
I want to say Of course I recommend you all
become artists! but it’s not really that sim-
ple. It’s pretty hard out there and takes a lot
of time and commitment, and moreover, late
nights. This really has to be something you
love the most in the world. That said, if this
is something you’re really passionate about
and you’re willing to stick with it, it’s the best
job you could ever ask for, even when the
money’s not so good! My advice is just to do
the kind of art that gets you excited and not
to get discouraged. If you’re excited about
the work then it’ll come across in the final
product and if you stick with it, you will al-
ways improve. Also, don’t be afraid to shame-

22 .psd Photoshop
 interview with alex eckman-lawn

lessly promote yourself and network either! People have to see your
work before they can start loving it.

Say a few words about your current projects and future plans.
As I mentioned earlier, I just wrapped up Awakening vol. 2, which will
be out in October 20th! You can get it at your local comic shop or
pre-order (with a discount) here: http://www.amazon.com/Awaken-
ing-2-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UT
F8&qid=1285491070&sr=1-1
I’m always hard at work on a few album covers, so if you’re
into metal music keep an eye out for the new Maruta, Dim Mak, and
Backstabbers Incorporated albums. My art will grace their covers.
I also just did some art for Clinging to the Trees of a Forrest Fire and
that album, Songs of ill-Hope and Desperation is killer. I’m about to
start on a new comic project called Rusted/Faded Signal with the
writer of Awakening and you can get a taste of it in Popgun vol. 4,
which is out now through Image comics. And of course, my building
blog where I cut up and reassemble photos of buildings:
http://re-building.tumblr.com/ And last but not least, my web-
site: http://alexeckmanlawn.com/

.psd Photoshop 23
medium | 60 min.
adobe photoshop CS4
 Solitude
Creating a night scene can be a challenging task. In this tutorial I show you
a few techniques that I used to make this manipulation. I will show you how to
use adjustment layers and how to create light effects and shadows to achieve
a more realistic look.

01 Creating the ambience

Download the background image from: http://
phatpuppy.deviantart.com/art/Phatpuppy-Forest-
Stairs-Stock-145249785 and open it in Photoshop.
You will have to make adjustments to this layer
and turn it into a night scene. I suggest you use
Adjustment Layers to create the night effect be-
cause they don’t damage the image. Create a Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer: Layer>New Adjust-
ment Layer>Hue/Saturation and increase Satu-
ration to + 27. Create a Gradient Map adjustment
layer and use a Black to White gradient. Set the
Blend Mode of the adjustment layer to Soft Light
and reduce the Opacity to 40%. Select the Gradi-
ent Tool, choose the radial type from the toolbar
and use the Black to Transparent preset. Draw the
gradient from the middle of the image outwards.
The Blend Mode should be Normal but you can
experiment with Soft Light. Duplicate the layer if
you want to get a darker effect. Your objective is
to darken the image using the gradient but leave
the stairs visible.

Model
02
Download the image pack with the model from
here: http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Sylph7
-102629570. You will use two images from the
pack. Open Sylph faestock (1).jpg from the pack
in Photoshop. The first thing you have to do is to
subtract the model from the original background.
Use the Pen Tool because it’s the most accurate
selection tool. Exclude the wings, you don’t need
them for this tutorial. Place the girl model on
a new layer and scale it down to 35%. As you can
see, the dress is not entirely visible but luckily
you can use another photo from the same pack to
complete the dress. Open Sylph faestock(2).jpg
from the same pack and cut the part of the dress
that is missing. Blend the images using a soft
eraser brush or a layer mask. After you blend the
edges, if there are color or contrast differences,
use the Levels and/or Color Balance tools to
match both pieces. When everything is OK, merge
the two layers by first selecting them and then
pressing [Ctrl]+[E] or from Layer>Merge Layers.
.psd Photoshop 25
 photomanipulation

03

Model shading
The realism of the scene is given by the lights and
shadows. Use Clipping Mask Layers to make all
the adjustments on the model because the back-
ground is already done so you only want to affect
the model layer. Just as you did with the back-
ground layer, create a Black to Transparent ra-
dial Gradient to darken the model. Apply an Inner
Shadow to the model layer with the following set-
tings: Blend Mode Multiply, Angle 50º, Distance
12px, Choke 8px, Size 58px. That will create a nice
shadow on the edges of the girl’s body.

04

Model color and contrast

adjustments
The model needs more color and a stronger con-
trast. Again, use Adjustment layers. Create a Color
Balance Adjustment Layer by going to Layer>New
Adjustment Layer>Color Balance or from the icon
located below the Layers Palette. When the pop-
up window appears, check the option Use Previ-
ous Layer to create Clipping Mask. Set the Yellow
value to - 6 on the Shadows, Midtones and High-
lights. On the Midtones, also set the value to +6.
Increase the Saturation of the model to +10 and
using Levels, increase Shadows to 7, Midtones to
0.92 and Highlights to 246.

05

Dodge/Burn sculpting
Create a new layer above the model layer and se-
lect the entire canvas with [Ctrl]+[A]. When you
have the selection loaded, right click and select
Fill. On Use, choose 50% gray and set the layer’s
Blend Mode to Soft Light. Get the Burn Tool, set
Range to Midtones and Exposure 6-9%. Burn on
the gray layer over the the girl’s body. The objec-
tive is to darken the dark areas. Then, use the
Dodge Tool with the same settings as with the
Burn Tool and paint over the lighter areas of the
girl’s body. The preview is in Normal Blend Mode
so you can see where I used the Dodge and Burn

26 .psd Photoshop
 solitude

06

Add the lamp

Download the lamp from here: http://pieceofme-
stock.deviantart.com/art/Glowing-Lantern3-
stock-104991466. Open it in Photoshop and
subtract it using the Pen Tool. Scale it down and
put it on a new layer above the model layer. Use
a large brush and the color #e6dfb0 to simu-
late a glow light around the lamp. Set the Blend
Mode to Hard Light and reduce Opacity to about
50%. I also added a Lens Flare on a new layer
with a black background. I used Hue/Saturation
to make the flare yellow and then I changed the
layer’s Blend Mode to Screen to hide the black
background.

07

Lighting up and final shading

Now that you have the light source, you cast some
shadows and recreate the light on the ground.
Use a big soft brush about 600-700px and set
your Foreground Color to #e9d89b. Create a new
layer below the lamp layer and stroke twice on
both sides of the lamp. Set the layer Blend Mode
to Overlay. Use the same brush to create another
light on a new layer using the color #9e975a. This
time change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and
reduce Opacity to 75%. This light will make a very
realistic light effect.

08

Shadows
We have the lights, but now we must make the
shadows. Shadows are very important because
they give more realism and depth. Right now, the
lamp and the girl look like they are floating be-
cause of the lack of shadows. Get a soft brush,
black color and create a new layer below the girl
and the lamp layers, right above the background.
Set your brush Opacity to about 20% and start
painting along the edges of the girl’s feet and un-
der her dress and legs and also under the lamp.
Make several passes.
.psd Photoshop 27
 photomanipulation

09

Post editing
As a final step, create a new Stamp with the short-
cut [Shift]+[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[E] but first make sure
you select the top most layer on the palette. Then
go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Use the fol-
lowing settings: Intensity 16, Color #f6f2dd, Nar-
row 53, Material 78, Ambience 10.

10

Conclusion
As you can see, the most important part of this
tutorial are the light effects and shadows. You
sould always work with adjustment layers be-
cause when you finish, you can make all the fine
tuning you want without affecting the original im-
age. I hope you learned something useful out of
this tutorial.

by Andrei Oprinca

28 .psd Photoshop

Oliver Weiss cover artist
Oliver Weiss is an illustrator from Germany who works in a va-
riety of different techniques ranging from whimsical drawings
to mixed-media collage artwork. His clients from twenty years
include Random House, Rowohlt, Reed Business, Die Zeit, The
Christian Science Monitor, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Bank, and the
Munich Oktoberfest.
Alex Eckman-Lawn
Alex Eckman-Lawn is a bloodthirsty young illustrator from Phila-
delphia who completed the Illustration program at University
of the Arts in 2007. He has worked with many bands, including
Psyopus, Architect, Yakuza, Hacride and Circle of Dead Children,
designing t-shirts and album art. He has also done design and/
or artwork for Willowtip Records, Black Market Activities, Tribunal
Records, and Scholastic Books. Alex has just wrapped up work on
Awakening, an existential horror comic book being published by
Archaia Studios Press. He uses a combination of photo and tra-
ditional media with heavy digital work in Photoshop and Painter.
Tina Foster
Tina Foster is a graphic artist who has worked in the publishing
and packaging industry for over 25 years. She can be contacted at:
beachtree.foster@gmail.com
Benoit Ladouceur aka. Yellowdog
Benoit Ladouceur is a Canadian artist based in Montreal. He has
been working in the field of film and television as a digital matte
painter, concept artist and illustrator for the last 15 years. He pres-
ently works as a senior matte painter and with Montreal’s Vision
Globale film studio.
www.bladfx.com
Editor in Chief:
Magdalena Mojska magdalena.mojska@psdmag.org
Special thanks to: Aurus Sy, Jack Waddington, Susie Ngamsuwan,
Ricardo Nakazawa and Tomasz W. Listkiewicz.
DTP: Przemysław Banasiewicz
Senior Consultant/Publisher/President:
Paweł Marciniak
Managing Director: Ewa Łozowicka
Marketing Director:
Magdalena Mojska magdalena.mojska@psdmag.org
Production Director:
Andrzej Kuca andrzej.kuca@psdmag.org
Postal address:
Publisher: Software Press Sp.z.o.o SK
02-682 Warszawa, ul. Bokserska 1
worldwide publishing
www.psdmag.org/en
contributing writers
Julia Trotti
As an artist, Julia Trotti tries to capture the ‘other’, those spaces
and places that evoke a memory. The detail fascinates her, co-
lour, light, reflection, the atmosphere of the artwork that evokes
a mood and presence and explains something of her. Wander-
ing through veils of life, meandering through the paths that
she chooses, everywhere there are choices. These choices are
what makes Julia’s practice. She senses the world through her
photography. Time, space and emotion become the narrative of
her subjects. Julia’s works are her signature of life and how she
feels. She is from Sydney, Australia. Visit her website:
www.juliatrotti.com
Julie Waterhouse
Julie Waterhouse is the author and photographer behind the
Ultimate Photo Tips website. Stop by for more photo tips and
inspiration! Ultimate Photo Tips provides friendly education
and encouragement for photo enthusiasts around the world,
presented in a way that’s clear, organized, and easy to under-
stand. Julie is passionate about photography, and loves to
teach workshops, coach one-on-one, and share her passion
in any way she can. Her photo tips website was born out of a
desire to reach even more budding photographers. Julie is a
digital fine art photographer who resides near Toronto, Canada,
close to the local farmland and woods she loves to photograph.
Andrei Oprinca
My name is Andrei. I’m a 22 self taught romanian artist
based in Spain. I usually work with Photoshop and I do it as
a hobby. In the early days of 2010 I created PSD Box my own
website where I write my photoshop tutorials.
I work with graphics since 2008 but I learn pretty fast. I don’t
like to write tutorials about the same things that are on the
internet so I usually scan the best known design sites and
try to write about something different.
All trade marks presented in the magazine were used only for informa-
tive purposes. All rights to trade marks presented in the magazine are
reserved by the companies which own them.
Mathematical formulas created by Design Science MathType™.
The editors use automatic DTP system
Editorial contributions should be sent to:
editors@psdmag.org
Customer Service +1 917 338 3631
The Software Press Sp.z.o.o SK works individually from Adobe. The psd
Photoshop team reserves the right not to be responsible for the topical-
ity, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided by
contributors.
02/2008 29
On the road
There are many ways to play with photographs in Photoshop to give them a creative “boost.”
Which method you choose depends both on your personal preference and what suits the
particular image. The techniques used here won’t work for every image, but they may give
you some ideas for other applications.

advanced | 40 min.
adobe photoshop CS4
 on the road
01

Step 1
The original image is a photograph of the Valley of
Fire, in Nevada, USA. The photograph was taken at
the end of the day, and the subtle colors produced
by the dusk light gave the scene a bit of a surreal
look that I decided to magnify in Photoshop.

02

Step 2: Starting image - over-

exposed by 2 stops
The image I started with was a shot of the scene
that was deliberately overexposed by two stops.
Don’t worry about the washed-out look. You will
see why the overexposure is necessary, and how
we bring back the contrast, when we get to step 3.

03

Step 3 - Black and White Filter

Copy road layer. To make the color even more sub-
tle, add a Black & White adjustment layer. Reduce
the layer opacity to 60% so that some of the origi-
nal colors show through. Adjust the color sliders to
map colors to tones according to your own taste.

.psd Photoshop 31
 photomanipulation

04

Step 4 - Linear Burn

Merge all layers to create a new layer, and change
the blend mode of the layer to Linear Burn. Playing
with layer blend modes is a fun way to experiment
creatively with your images. The Linear Burn blend
mode uses the channel information for each color
(RGB) to determine how dark each pixel in the
top layer should be. It darkens the top layer by
decreasing the brightness, according to the color
of the layer below. The darker the layer below, the
more of its color is used. Using this blend mode
keeps our colors subtle, but brings back the
contrast in our image.

05

Step 5 - Selective Color Blacks

The Linear Burn blend darkened the bush in the
bottom right corner too much. One trick to cor-
rect problems like these is to open the blending
properties for the layer, and use the “blend-if” slid-
ers to bring back the blocked up shadows. In this
case, however, I like the blacks everywhere else in
the image, and want to localize the corrections to
the bush only. Using a Selective Color adjustment
layer allows us to mask out everything except the
bush. Select Blacks in the Colors drop down menu,
and reduce the amount of black from -3 to -5%.
Note that in many images, increasing the blacks
through Selective Color is a great way to add
a little punch to the picture. Try adding 3-5% to the
black slider in either the Blacks or the Neutrals.

06

Step 6 - Poster Edges

A subtle application of the Poster Edges filter
adds to the surreal nature of the scene. Merge
the layers below to create a new layer. Choose
Filters>Artistic>Poster Edges. Use an edge
thickness of 1, an edge intensity of 1, and
a posterization value of 3. Note that the image
will have to be in 8-bit mode in order for this filter
to be available. After applying the filter, you may
find the effect too strong. If so, reduce the layer
opacity to about 65%.

32 .psd Photoshop
 on the road

07

Step 7 – Noise
The Poster Edges filter gave the image some
added texture, but had very little effect on the
sky. In order to add some interest there, and to
enhance the overall look of the image, I chose
to add some noise. Merge the layers below to
create a new layer, and choose Filter>Noise>Add
Noise. Add Uniform noise in the amount of 25%. As
always, experiment with the setting to find what
works for you.

Step 8 – Gradient
08
The sky at the top of the image is quite bright com-
pared to the rest of the image, and appears a bit
washed out. I didn’t use a graduated neutral den-
sity filter in the field, which would have counter-
acted this problem. As long as the sky is not blown
out, and the dynamic range of the image is not too
great, you can achieve the same effect in Photo-
shop using a Gradient adjustment layer. Set the
foreground color to black so you can use the default
gradient setting. Reverse the direction using an
angle of -90 degrees so that the dark part covers
the sky. While the dialog is open, you can click on
the image and drag the gradient upward to reduce
its effect is not as strong. After you added the gra-
dient change, you must change the layer’s blend
mode to Soft Light. Soft Light blend mode works by
lightening or darkening the lower layer based on the
brightness of the top layer. In this case, the black
gradient is our top layer, so it darkens the pixels of
the layers below. Now our sky has a bit more detail
and the colors stand out more.

09
Step 9 - Curves and Mask
Often there are specific areas within an image
that you want to selectively lighten. In this case,
the gradient has darkened the road sign. It would
be nice to make it pop a bit more. We could mask
our gradient layer, but using a Curves adjustment
layer with a mask gives us even more control to
make it even brighter than it was before we added
the gradient. Add a Curves adjustment layer, and
pull the entire curve up a bit. You can adjust it
properly later. First, create a solid black mask so
that the Curves layer has no effect. Now, paint in
white on your mask over just the sign. In order
to see where you are painting, you can hit the
backslash key [\] to toggle the mask on and off in
the main image. The mask will appear in red. This
makes it easy for you to see exactly where you
are painting. Once the mask is created, adjust the
curve to brighten the sign the desired amount.

by Julie Waterhouse

.psd Photoshop 33
 interview
Interview with Doopla
Could you tell our readers a few words about Doopla? Who are
you and what you do?
It may seem that there are many of us here, but actually we
are only two: André Santos (Graphic Designer and Illustrator)
and Lee Anne Ferreira (Decorator, Stylist and 3D Developer).
34
We are Doopla.
Multidisciplinary design team who
loves you.
We work for fun and for money. We
don’t have many friends. We won’t
accept work just because someone
wants us to. Our Art Director is a 70 s
robot named Pedro.
Looking forward to hear from you
soon.
We are a duo based in Lisbon (Portugal) that is in diversity of
skills the main added value.We like the details, many details,
symmetry, Fashion, experimental photography, Drum’n’Bass,
opposite colors, irreverent Styling, urban art, Super Bock
beer, Custo Barcelona, Renault 4L, Apple gadgets and techni-
.psd Photoshop
 interview with doopla

.psd Photoshop 35
 interview

cal drawing. We love our profession, even though in Portugal it someone wants to commit them to us, we accept, most of all,
is highly stigmatized. We do not accept projects just because challenges.

36 .psd Photoshop

What kind of services do you mainly specialize in?
In the Portuguese market it’s very difficult for an artist (no matter
what his segment is), to work in only one area. It is a process that
can unfortunately take many years.
Lately we have been referenced in some sites and blogs in-
spired digital art which allows us to give the world our true vision:
Impact Communication.
We believe that regardless of the area, specifying an artist is the
best way to contribute to the development of the visual culture. We
work with a very clear vision: to tease people’s senses. Our expertise
therefore become less technical and more conceptual.
.psd Photoshop
interview with doopla
What values are the most important for you in your work?
What motivates us to do everything we do, is our job, our uncondi-
tional love for art, and will to share it with the others. Why? We do so
because we believe in art and its power to change mentalities. This
is the way design is seen and considered in Portugal.
The most important for us is the result of our products, the conceptu-
al design and impact communication. Doopla Collective’s work is basically
the taste for digital art, love for design and for the beautiful city of Lisbon.
Is it possible to benefit of your services from any place in the
world?
Sure thing! Please just forgive our poor English... We are ready to col-
laborate with agencies all around the world. As I said above, we ac-
cept challenges, from wherever they come from.
Tell us about your most important and interesting clients or
comissions.
Not always the customers with the most resounding names asked
for the most interesting work. Last year we had the opportunity to
work with brands like Opel, AutoEuropa, The KDU, Universal Music,
Computer Arts, among others.
Anyway, we continue to prefer, without any doubt, our personal
projects. They’re always the best way to sell ideas at its most pure
and sincere form, without thinking that there is a product that has to
be sold or to enhance a brand.
Is it possible to become a part of your team? If so, how to do it?
Doopla means a team of two people in Portuguese. So, not for now,
sorry... We have good and talented friends who will help in some
areas that we do not specialize in (web developping, programming,
printing issues).
Why is it worth to choose Doopla?
You tell me!
37
Making
of a building – 1
These two tutorials are fun and quick little exercises I do twice a week, basically just to keep
myself limber. It’s a really fun way to keep your mind sharp and build your portfolio quickly
and the best news is they’re pretty easy to pull off, especially if you have a nice source
material.

beginner | 20 min.
adobe photoshop CS3
 making of a building – 1

01

Step 1
This is my original photograph: the picturesque
street of Philadelphia. I like these crazy blue row-
homes very much but right away I know I’ll want
to get rid of those cars and change the colors to
something more vivid.

02

Step 2
Here I’ve got the image into my format and I’ve
added some oil paint texture that I made, and
a blue tint. I’ve even started painting out the
street area on the left. Clearly I’m not worried
about it looking really tight just yet.

03

Step 3
All I’ve done here is doubled the image and pulled
it down a bit. This will be a 2-story row. There are
still rough edges here and there and it looks a bit
too obvious but we’ve covered up those ugly cars!
Now I need to replace the white façade of the
house on the far right with the blue façade of the
middle house and then paint out some sections
with a Vector mask. With a bit of sneaky brushing
and healing brushing here and there and some
color correction. I think it starts to look less like
a carbon copy.

.psd Photoshop 39
 workshop

04

Step 4
Now we need to add lots of soft light and overlay
layers for color to create a bit more dramatic light.
I’ve cleaned up some of the edges and added
some small windows here and there, like in the
bottom right corner. These don’t make strict sense
but I think they look nice and make for a richer vi-
sual feast! I’ve also added some splatter and a bit
of pattern to the face of the top middle building.

05

Step 5
Just a couple of finishing touches here. I added
some lightness to the windows in the center,
just to give the piece a focal point of some sort,
and I’ve done some blurring around the outside
to soften some of those harsh textures. Nothing
fancy there, just Gaussian blur in some key spots.
This also helps the piece look a bit more photo-
graphic, kind of like an old snapshot. Have fun
here, choose sections to lighten and darken. And
we’re done!

by Alex Eckman-Lawn

40 .psd Photoshop
beginner | 20 min.
adobe photoshop CS3
 workshop

Making
of a building – 2
This tutorial is the second one from these two some way simple photo edits
that hopefully show you can transform a space without really overdoing it, or
losing what made the original photo exciting.

01

Step 1
Once again, here’s the original photograph. Already
a pretty awesome building! Again, here I’m plan-
ning on just doing some subtle changes, adding
texture and getting rid of the pieces I don’t like.

02

Step 2
Here’s the photo in format. I’ve pretty haphazardly
cut out the sections I don’t want in the image.
42 .psd Photoshop
 making of a building – 2

03

Step 3
So far I’m just painting out the empty sections,
and building some shape with shadows. I’m trying
to pull the eye upwards.

04

Step 4
I’ve added some color and paint texture for start-
ers. Also I’ve replaced the center window with the
doorway we cut out earlier, and added a third win-
dow to the top. I like how this is looking but that
black area is a bit too dead still.

05

Step 5
I’ve added some scanned overlayed boards here
and there to add some more chaos and interest,
and some delicate linework pattern to the black
areas. I’ve kept it subtle so as not to overwhelm
the image, but the shadow areas looked too emp-
ty without it. Then I just do some fun little touch
ups, like adding some blue to the windows and
blur around the edges again and we’re done!

by Alex Eckman-Lawn

.psd Photoshop 43
 Editor’s Choice Belkina

Klimt
.psd Photoshop
Bluebeard

Katerina Tumanova (Belkina)

Russian digital artist, painter and photographer, born in 1974.
Education: art school and than art college “Petrov-Vodkin”(Samara)
2000-2002 - Photo Academy. Samara. She was one of the first Russian digital artists. Member of Rus-
sian Union of photo artist.

Awards:
2008 Art Interview - 14th International Online Artist Competition -1st place for Hieroglyph series
2008 Px3 PHOTO COMPETITION -2nd place in subcategory for No man’s world series
2008 International Photography Awards -2nd place in subcategory for No man’s world series
2007 Nominated to the Kandinsky Prize-2007 (Russian artist of Year)
2007 International Photography Awards - 2nd place in subcategory for Masks series
.psd Photoshop 45
Currently lives and works in Moscow
Homage to Picasso Snow White

46 .psd Photoshop
Sleeping beauty Thumbelina
Smile
This tutorial shows how to improve your photos with a minimal amount of work, especially if
you’re working with big batches or for presentations where finals are to be selected.

beginner | 20 min.
adobe photoshop CS3
 smile

Step 1
Open image and convert to CMYK : Image>Mode>
CMYK. Drag the picture to a new layer. Now you
have a copy that won’t be touched. We’ll clean and
sharpen on background layer.

02

Step 2
Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp masking. Amounts ac-
cording to need.

03

Step 3
Clean up dirt, blemishes, etc. Zoom to at least
300% and use a grid View>Show>Grid if the shot
is large to be sure no areas are left out. Change
grid size and color under Preferences>Guides,
Grids, Slices.

.psd Photoshop 49
 photo retouch

04

Step 4
A simple curves move: Layer>New adjustment
layer>Curves will improve the contrast.

05

Step 5
This photo is a little red and needs color correction
especially the skin tones. Layer>New adjustment
layer>Selective color. Choose Red then adjust the
Magenta in the Red. I also adjusted the Cyan and
Black in the blue sky. To finish up I erased some of
the mask from the selective color around the red
tile roof in the background and her hair. Now our
photo is ready to view.

by Tina Foster

50 .psd Photoshop