In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I created my piece Spring Secrets. With a little bit of digital painting and a whole lot of adjustment layers and blending modes you can really make the colors pop in any image.
Final result preview
Stock used
- Woman: www.photoxpress.com/stock-photos/flower/pink/green/12486540
- Background: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/sweet-amusement/88020
- Retouched Bird: http://fav.me/d5webhf
- Original Bird: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1315744
- Brushes: http://browse.deviantart.com/art/My-Brush-Pack-118954791
- Leaves: http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Leaves-Waterdrops-CUT-OUT-119530432
Download source files
Step 1 – Preparing Background
Create a new file named Spring Secrets. Size Width: 2925 Pixels Height 4710 Pixels Resolution300. Open your Adjustments window; window > Adjustments and Mask Window; Window > Masks, are open.
Open your background image and using the Move tool drag the image into your new file. Name this layer Background. Drag the image up and over to fill the whole screen. Keep moving it until the tree trunks frame the sides of the canvas. Next, apply a Color Balance adjustment layer to remove some of the red from the image.
Step 2 – Make colors pop in Background
Above your adjustment layer create a new layer named BG Colors. Set the blend mode toOverlay. Using your AdonihsBrushes select the cloud brush named 500. Resize to just above 900. Opacity set to 40%, start adding more color to the image to make the tree leaves green and the sky area more yellow. I added green and blues to the tree and grassy areas and yellows and pink to the sky area.
Step 3 – Fix Models eyes
Open the model file. The first thing I want to do is remove the big yellow eyelash things on her face. To do this I’m going to paint her brand new eyes. Zoom in really close to her face, 200%. Using a hard round Brush I start sampling colors from her eyelids and surrounding skin and at45% opacity I start recreating the eyes. I also use the Smudge tool at 40-70% to blend the colors together. If you don’t like painting eyes you can always leave them in or swap them out for another stock piece at the same angle. Above is a step through of how I repainted the eyes.
Step 4 – Extract Model from background
After you are done painting in new eyes extract the model from the background as I did above. Don’t worry about removing the background from inside her fishnet just yet. Drag your extracted image into your Spring Secretsfile using the Move tool. Line the bottom left corners up. Name this layer Model.
Step 5 – Removing background from Fishnet
In you Mask window click on the Add Pixel Mask button. Switch to your Photoshop native Basic Brushes and chose a hard round Brush, size 48, opacity 100%,Harness 53%. Chose the color #a0a0a0. Paint over the fishnet parts that are see through.
NOTE: I’m not painting on the inside of each see-through area, I’m painting the whole area as shown in red above. It’s a lot faster! If there are parts you would like to erase more, just choose a darker gray color to paint with.
Step 6 – Filling in the flower
Using the pen tool I traced around the flowers, once outlined I made a selection; Right clicked > Make Selection. Keeping the Feather Radius at 0, click Ok. Now Copy and paste onto a new layer. Name this layer Flowers fill. Move the new flowers up so they come up to the middle of her neck. Then added a Layer Mask from your Mask window. This time, with a Hard Brush, color Black (000000), mask out the flowers so the look like they are behind the original flowers.
Because the flowers look a too “pasted” in we are going to want to add some shadows. To do this, add a new layer above your Flower Fill layer. Name this layer Flower Fill Shadows. Add a clipping mask, Alt +Click on the line between the two layers. Set the blend Mode to Multiply. Choose a Soft Brush, Opacity at 30% and a dark green color and gradually paint in the shadows.
Step 7 – Creating her Arm
Now I wanted to recreate the missing part of her arm. Create a new layer. Name it Arm. Using a hard Round Brush, sample colors from her arm and paint in the basic shape of her missing arm. Start with a mid-tone color at 100% Opacity and paint the whole base. Now chose a soft roundBrush, opacity at 30%, and paint in the shadows.
Step 8 – Drawing in the Hair
Since we deleted a lot of her hair I want to paint some back in; and since I’m going for a fantasy look with this piece I want her hair to be big and long. Create a new layer. Name this layer Hair.Using a hard round Brush, Opacity at 100% and Brush size at 100, select a darker color from her existing her. To choose color, hold down the Alt/Option key to get the color picker.
Paint in basic shape of the hair. Reduce brush size and lower opacity to around 30%. Keep sampling colors from her existing hair working darkest to lightest, varying the size of the brush all the way down to 2px for the lightest stands of hair. Erase any parts of the hair that cover the butterfly or flower next to it
Step 9 – Leaf Hair Accents
I wanted to add a big green leaf behind her ear to tie in the forest background and flowers on her dress. Open Leaf file. Using the Move tool drag into Spring Secrets file, resize and place behind ear. Use the Eraser tool to erase any part of leaf that goes over the ear, except the big leaf on the bottom. Have that one cover the ear. Name this layer Leaf.
Step 10 – Elf Ear
Keeping with the fantasy theme I want to give her an elf ear. To do this, start by turning off the visibility on the layer named Hair. Go down to your Model layer and select it. Using the Pentool trace the top part of the ear.
Make Selection; Right click > Make Selection, Feather Radius 0. Copy Selection. Turn on visibility on the hair layer again and select it. Paste in the ear and make sure it lines up exactly. Name this layer Elf ear.
Using the Warp tool; Edit > Transform > Warp, pull the left corn up and warp into a pointy elf shape. Use the Smudge tool to adjust and the Eraser tool to clean up the edges.
Step 11 – Shadows
The image is looking a little to flat at this point with all the extras we added. We need some shadows. Create a new layer above our Model Layer. Name this layer Shadows. Set the Blending Mode to Multiply. Select a Soft Round Brush, opacity at 45%.
Paint with a dark green color over the flowers below hair. Also add more shadows around the original flowers to add more depth. Now choose a darker brown color and add a shadow behind the big leaves behind her ear.
Next create a new layer above the Hair layer, name this Hair shadows, set the blending Mode toMultiply. Paint in more shadows behind the big leaf by her ear and behind the butterfly.
Step 12 – Pops of Color
Create a new layer on top of all your other layers. Name this layer Color. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay. Select a Soft Round Brush, Size 175. Opacity 20%. Choose the orange color f4aa0c. Paint the orange color on the folds of her fabric.
Then choose a brighter yellow like f4f91f and paint a few more brighter points. When you are done with the fabric, you can add some red tones to her ear. I used a red f53632 and painted red all over the top part of her ear.
Step 13 – Arm Band
Create a new layer above all layers. Name this layer Arm Band. With a Hard Round Brush, Opacity at 100% set the color to 50% gray; 808080. Draw a swirling band around her arm up to her wrist, using the twirled metal from the original model image as inspiration. Now chose theDodge/Burn tool and add highlights and shadows.
Next, chose the hard round Brush tool, opacity at 100%; at different sizes and different shades of gray/purple add dots following around the arm band like beads. Exact colors I used shown in image above. Create a New layer below this one and name it Arm Band Shadows.
Set the blending mode to Multiply. With a soft round Brush size 13, Opacity 15% and a darker brown color; paint in the shadows being cast from the arm band. Build the color up gradually.
Step 14 – Face Sparkles
Create a new layer on top and name this layer Sparkles. Choose a sparkle Brush and set the opacity to 45% and turn on Opacity Dynamics; Window > Brushes > Click Other Dynamics. Set the Opacity Jitter to Pen Pressure and 0%. Keep flow jitter turned off. Chose a light skin color like feabe1 and draw random sparkles over the skin. If you go past the skin just use the erasertool and erase.
Step 15 – Combine Layers
Next we are going to combine all the model layers together so we can continue to work with her as a single layer with clipping paths. Select all the layers from Model to Sparkles, and group these layers together;Layer > Group Layers.
Duplicate this group. Drag group to Create New layer button. Turn visibility off on the first group and then right click > Merge Group on the top group. Rename this layer Model Merged.
Step 16 – Orange glow and Highlights
Create a new layer. Name this layer Orange Glow. Add a clipping mask. Set the blending mode toSoftlight. Choose a soft round Brush, Size 300, opacity 25%. Paint the orange glow as if the light was coming from the top right, hitting the top of her arms and right side.
Create a new layer and add another clipping mask. Chose the Paint Bucket tool and fill with 50% gray. Change the blending mode to Overlay. This will make the gray disappear.
Using the Dodge tool, Midtones 16%, chose a soft round brush.Paint on the highlights. The gray box above is what this layer looks like on a normal blending mode without a clipping mask so you can see where I added my highlights.
Lastly create a Selective Color Adjustment layer. I want to pull out the yellow tones a bit so they blend better with the hair and skin.
Step 17 – Yellow Bird
I created the fantasy bird by using several Color Balance adjustment layers to get to the yellow color. Then using the smudge tool and paint tool I added details and made the tail and head feathers longer.
Some of the steps I took are shown below. You can experiment with this on your own using the original bird file or you can use my already retouched image linked above. Now using the Movetool drag the bird into your file and place it on her hand. Name this layer Fantasy Bird.
Step 18 – Ribbon
Create a new layer and name it Ribbon. Using a hard round Brush, opacity at 100% draw a ribbon coming out of the bird’s mouth. I used an orange color, fca024. Then chose a lighter color and paint in texture and highlights.Now,use the Burn tool at a low exposure and add shadows. Next add another ribbon at a darker color behind the bird.
Step 19 – More Highlights
Create a new layer name More Highlight. Fill with 50% gray and set blending mode to Overlay. Although we already added some highlights to her body already, I wanted to add even brighter highlights to her and the bird. Using the Dodge/Burn tool add even more dramatic highlights and shadows.
Step 20 – Hand Shadows
Add a new layer above your Selective Color Adjustment layer. Creating a clipping mask. Set blending mode to Multiply. Name this layer Hand Shadows. Using a soft round Brush choose a darker skin color. Set the opacity to 10%.
Paint in the shadow from the bird around the birds feet and going down the top of her hand. Lower the layer opacity if needed, I lowered it to 67%, because I thought the shadows looked to dark.
Step 21 – Adjustment Layers
I feel like the image is too bright and I want to darken the whole image up a bit. Go to your top layer and add a Curve adjustment layer. Pull the bar to Output 152, Input 165.
I like it darker but now I feel like the model is just getting lost in the background. So I’m going to adjust the colors one last time. Next create a Color Balance adjustment layer. Apply these settings; Cyan -20, Magenta -7 and Yellow +20.
Step 22 – More Highlights
Select ALL layers, drag layers to Create new layer button. While new layers are still selected, right click Merge Layers. Rename layer Even More Highlights. Add a High Pass filter; Filter > Other High pass. Set the radius to 3.7.
Set the blending mode to Softlight. Using the Dodge tool, add even more highlights. Lower Opacity if needed, I lowered mine to 87%.
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