Che Guevara Vector

Here's a vector illustration i made of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a pop culture icon & one of the most well known revolutionaries of all time.


The Original image & the Vector that i made.


Download the vector here.
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Twitter Bird Vector

I'm not a twitter user, at least not yet. But i really find the twitter bird cute, so i made this vector rendering.



You may download it here.
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Which is Which? Jocelyn Wildenstein

One's the original pic of Jocelyn Wildenstein and the other one's retouched. But which is which?



Take a guess. But before you do, click here to know her claim to fame.

See the answer after the jump.

This one's retouched. Trust me, 'twas really hard.

and Here's the real deal:

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Old Photo Effect

Here's an easy way to make your photo look centuries old. This technique works best for buildings, monuments, etc.

1. Select a file to edit, and duplicate the layer (always do this when editing, you need to keep a copy of the original to use as a point of reference)



2. Create a Layer on top of your image (Ctrl+Shft+N)

3. Select the Pen Tool, your settings should be the same as the screenshot below. Use the pen tool to trace around the subject of your image.



4. After you're done tracing, select the Gradient Fill tool, your Foreground & Background Color should be black & white respectively. Click on the lower part of the image then drag it upwards diagonally.



5. Set the Blending Mode of the Layer to Color Dodge.

You should be getting something similar to the image below:



6. Go back the the image layer then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) then toggle with the Hue & Saturation settings, make sure the Colorize box is checked.



Added some text and here we have the finished piece.





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Photoshop Brush : Coffee Stain

To achieve the effect above, i set the Stain layer's blending mode to Multiply & added the Outer Glow Effect (blend mode: Linear Burn).

Download the brush here.


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Photoshop Brush Set : Facial Parts

Here's a cool brush set (Eye, Nose & Lips) i just made, feel free to download it here.



Here's a sample of the Eye Brush using different colors:

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Photoshop Template : Rings of Fire

Here's a template i made by layering squiggly lines that i made using the Pen tool, i set the blend mode for each layer to Overlay & Color Dodge and added Outer Glow effect. Download the file (1.04 MB) to see how i did it and you can further modify it as well.


The result looks like an album cover.
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Half Tone Effect

Here's a simple technique to achieve that half-tone effect.

1. Start by adjusting the contrast of the image.

2. Then create a new Layer (Ctrl+Shft+N), name it Halftone.



3. Select the brush tool and choose the soft brush and size should be 200px-500px depending on the size of your image, then set the opacity to 70%-80&.

4. Make sure that the Halftone layer is selected, go to Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone.

I used the settings below, you can play with the figures though.

5. Desaturate the Layer (Shft+Ctrl+U) or go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.

6. The final step is to set the Blending Mode of the Layer to Hard Light.

You should be getting something similar to the image below.

Here's the final output, i flattened the layer & tweaked the Hue/Saturation settings.

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Vector Art : President Corazon Aquino

To pay homage to the late President & her contribution to our country, i did a simple vector rendering of her.

Here's the original picture (left) & the completed vector image (right).


Below is the finished product. I just changed the hue/saturation, added background color and some text.


RIP
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Using the Patch Tool (Adobe PS CS3)

The Patch Tool is excellent for image enhancement, it leaves no trace, given that you don't overdo it. It works by sampling the selected part of the image & blending it with the area you want to retouch. Here's how to use the tool in 3 simple steps.

1. Open an image you want to retouch, make sure to save it as another file, so that you don't overwrite the original.

2. Select the Patch Tool.



3. Select the blemished area, then drag it to the area you want to sample.


The flawed area will then blend-in with the sampled area thus correcting the flaws. You just need to redo the steps to further correct the other flaws.


It works like magic, it looks untouched even to the trained eye.

before & after, respectively.

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PS Drawing 101 : The Eyes

The eyes are vital in any portrait painting, it is where different expressions are conveyed and it is often the focal point of any portrait. As they say, "The eyes are the windows to the soul" so what better way to jumpstart Graphicult's Drawing Tutorial Series than sharing some tips in illustrating the Eyes.

1. Create a new file (the one i made was 600x600), Create a new Layer (Shft+Ctrl+N), rename it as Outline.

Our goal is to make something similar to the End Result and this will be done freehandedly.

2. Select the brush tool and choose the hard round brush size 5px & foreground color should be Black or #000000.

Select the Outline layer.



3. Select the Pen tool, make sure the settings are the same as the ones below.

You need to set three points. Point A will be the inner tip, B will be the curvature and C will be the outer tip. When you click on Point B, drag it slightly downwards to create a curve between the points. Point A & B should be aligned horizontally.

5. Do steps 3 & 4 again to draw lower half of the eye. For finer details such as wrinkles, eyelashes, adjust the brush size (refer to Step 2). You should get an image similar to the one below. For the eyebrows, i set the brush size to 32px.

6. Now we'll be doing the Iris, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), then create a circle on the Outline Layer, then select the brush tool and fill in the Iris.

7. To create the Pupil, select the elliptical marquee tool and click the Subtract from Selection option (red box below). Now create a circle slightly smaller than the Iris and a smaller circle inside, which will be your Pupil.

Select the Eraser Tool (make sure you select the Hard Round brush, work with a brush size you're comfortable with) and erase the inner portion of the Iris, you should end up with something similar to the one below.

8. Create a new layer (Shft+Ctrl+N), name it as Color & make sure it's below the Outline Layer. Select the brush tool and choose a color for the eyes and color the area inside the Iris.

Then color the tear gland (#FFBDBD) as well as the skin (#FFEDBE) surrounding the eyes, remember to resize your brush to fill in the small gaps.

9. Create a new layer, rename it as Highlight and place this one on top of the Outline layer.

Select the Brush tool, set the color to white (#FFFFFF) then put in some highlights on the pupil.

Basically that's it, if you want to accentuate, you can go ahead and add layers for shadows, highlights, put in extra details like eyelashes and so on.

I hope you learned a thing or two in this week's edition of Drawing 101, till next time.

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Graphicult Debut

Welcome to GraphiCult!

I put up this blogsite primarily to share my knowledge in photoshop (now on referred to as PS), drawing, graphic arts and the likes, and from time to time i'll throw in a couple of personal entries as well.

I'm a neophyte in the blogging community so i have yet to familiarize myself with all the dos & don'ts, i still have a long way to go but i know i'll get the hang of this in no time.

And as for the updates, i'll make at least 2 entries per day. Expect PS tutorials as well as downloadable templates and i'll even cater to requests as soon as i figure out how to embed forms (my programming skills are rusted, haven't done it in 4 yrs).

So that's it for now, wish me luck!

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