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ISSUE 134 CONTENTS

ISSUE 134

WELCOME
Welcome to the latest
issue of Advanced
Photoshop. This issue we
take a look at what a lot
of people think of as
Photoshops most
complicated tools: those
that deal with colour.
APRIL MADDEN
Editor
IN THIS ISSUE:
COLOUR CONTROL
CC APPS
PHOTOMANIPULATION
DIGITAL PAINTING
ARCHVIS

COVER IMAGE
MOE PIKE SOE

www.be.net/moepike

Moe Pike Soe is a

22-year-old self-taught
digital artist and designer
from Yangon, Myanmar.
He is currently working
as a freelance graphic
designer while extending
his knowledge at Parsons
the New School of Design.

This issue weve got a selection of expert tips

from Photoshop professionals to teach you the
tricks you need to know for brighter, more vibrant
images. Master colour profiles, histograms and
much more, on p28.
We also take a look at some of the hot new CC
tools you can use to enhance your workflow. On
p44, artist Paul Scott Canavan walks you through
the new Adobe CC apps and how you can use them
with Photoshop to capture assets and create a
unique digital painting. Meanwhile on p54, Brandon
Cawood gets to grips with the Render Flame filter
and uses it to create a smoking hot composite.
We also got our hands on Adobes Ink & Slide,
which is now available in the the UK. Find out what
we thought of Adobes first foray into hardware
design and whether its got our recommendation on
p82. Plus this issue is packed with info and advice
from creative pros to help yo
Photoshop. Enjoy the issue!

12 ART WITH

PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW:

CHARACTER
Piper Thibodeau is well known for her long-running
daily painting project. We find out more

FIND US ONLI
@advancedpshop

/AdvancedPhotoshop

.co.uk

64 PAINT CONCEPT ART

WORKSHOP:

FOR ARCHVIS

Follow digital painting and sketching techniques

for creating an architectural masterpiece

003

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ISSUE 134

CONTENTS
EYE ON DESIGN

Whats hot, whos in and the

latest art & design happenings

08
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Meet this issues experts
INDUSTRY NEWS
More Wacom tablets on the way
PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
Art with character
PROJECT FOCUS
Box branding for Jaf Tea
STUDIO INTERVIEW
Dazzle Ship

20 DAZZLE SHIP
44

004

CREATE WITH CC APPS

28

PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR

ISSUE 134 #/.4%.43

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Professional artists reveal their high-end Photoshop skills in

our easy-to-follow workshops

28
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54
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Pro tricks for mastering colour

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80

FEATURE:
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HOW I MADE

Mechanical Dragon
WORKSHOP

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HOW I MADE

Love and War

READER INTERVIEW

Building a vision
RESOURCE PROJECT

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EYE ON DESIGN PRO PANEL

PRO PANEL

MEET THE PROFESSIONALS SHARING THEIR PHOTOSHOP

EXPERTISE AND TECHNIQUES IN THIS ISSUE
RAMN VOIGT

www.behance.net/rammmon
Whether working for commercial projects, in the film or game industries or even in personal work, creating thumbnails in Photoshop is
one great tool to push your creative output to the next level. You give yourself and the client more options, so you reach a better result faster
and more efficiently. Just working in black-and-white makes you focus on the main composition and general lighting situation. Get your
values straight first, and then concentrate on colour and detail.
Get more industry secrets from Ramn Voigt on p64 where he shares some killer techniques for arch-vis concept art

Ramn Voigt

PAUL SCOTT
CANAVAN

www.paulscottcanavan.com
Experimenting with
different techniques is
useful for both learning
new skills and keeping yourself engaged and
excited about your work. Try pulling
photographs into the sketch phase of your
painting in order to add texture or inspire
design concepts, for example, or create
abstract shapes in Zbrush and see if you can
create a landscape from them!
Get a complete overview of how Paul
Scott Canavan creates epic landscapes in
his feature on CC apps on p44

008

Paul Scott Canavan

The magazine for Adobe Photoshop professionals

SOUFIANE IDRASSI

www.artstation.com/artist/cgsoufiane
Its a great thing to find your own style of manipulation, but its very important that you
gain experience and skill first to help you on your journey to find that special touch that
represents you. Getting your own style will make your art look unique and anybody that
looks at it will automatically recognise that its yours, and that will help you get more
exposure. This also applies to every art area, not just photomanipulation.
Learn more about how Soufiane Idrassi developed his unique style in his tutorial on p74
Soufiane Idrassi

Imagine Publishing Ltd

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Magazine team
Editor April Madden

[email protected]
 01202 586218

Editor in Chief Amy Squibb

Production Editor Rebecca Greig
Designer Rebekka Hearl
Photographer James Sheppard
Senior Art Editor Duncan Crook
Publishing Director Aaron Asadi
Head of Design Ross Andrews
Contributors
Julie Bassett, Paul Scott Canavan, Brandon Cawood,
Soufiane Idrassi, Larissa Mori, Kirk Nelson, Moe Pike Soe,
Ramn Voigt and Poz Watson

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Disclaimer

Just working in black-and-white makes you

focus on the main composition and general
lighting situation. Get your values straight first,
and then concentrate on colour and detail

The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited

material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the
copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine
may be reproduced in whole or part without the written
permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised
and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review.
Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all
information is correct at time of print, prices and availability
may change. This magazine is fully independent and not
affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark
of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/
or other countries and is used with express permission.
All $ prices are US Dollars unless otherwise stated.
If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post,
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grant Imagine Publishing an irrevocable, perpetual, royaltyfree license to use the images across its entire portfolio,
in print, online and digital, and to deliver the images to
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RAMN VOIGT / WWW.BEHANCE.NET/RAMMMON

Imagine Publishing Ltd 2015

ISSN 1748-7277

009

EYE ON DESIGN INDUSTRY NEWS

WACOM ANNOUNCES
FOURTH NEW
TABLET OF 2015
PHOTOSHOP USERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW TOOLS, BUT IS
TOUCH ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU UPGRADE TO THE LATEST CINTIQ?
fter unveiling both the flagship Cintiq
with a wide format, 13.3 inch HD LED backlit
What makes this new
27QHD and Cintiq 27QHD touch as well as
screen that can display 16.7 million colours, with
addition to the Cintiq
the Cintiq Companion 2 at CES earlier this
a 178-degree viewing angle and 1920x1080
year, Wacom has now announced the
resolution for handling intricate imagery and
range truly different to other
release of another exciting graphics tablet.
graphics. Frequently used shortcut commands
tablet choices such as Wacoms
Called the Cintiq 13HD touch, the tablet is
are then available at the users fingertips through
essentially a brand new version of Wacoms smallest the Cintiq 13HD touchs four customisable and
Cintiq 13HD is the new multiCintiq 13HD pen tablet, but with a whole new set of
application-specific ExpressKeys and the
touch integration
multitouch capabilities; and it looks as professional
Rocker Ring in the middle.

and refined as youd expect from such a consistently

well-regarded brand.
Like other Cintiqs, the new Cintiq 13HD touch
has been specifically created to make users feel
like theyre truly drawing on paper in part thanks
to features such as the Pro Pen, 2,048 levels of
pressure sensitivity, and tilt recognition. It even
comes with an adjustable, detachable stand to
allow any artist to draw comfortably in four
settings: flat, 22-, 35-, and 50-degrees.
Similar to Wacoms other Cintiq tablets, the
Cintiq 13HD touch is able to connect to both Macs
and PCs for both right and left handed artists. To
ensure a crisp colour quality, its been designed

What makes this new addition to the Cintiq range

truly different to other tablet choices such as
Wacoms very similar pre-existing Cintiq 13HD,
however, is the new multi-touch integration. This
allows the user to navigate the touchscreen of the
Wacom and rotate, move, and zoom into and out of
an image or illustration in a simple, familiar way. The
tablet is even perfectly compatible with Photoshops
new touch features.
Weighing in at just 1.2 kilograms with a fairly
portable size to match, the new Cintiq 13HD touch is
now available to buy on Wacoms eStore and other
selected retailers for 800/$1000. Learn more at
www.wacom.com.

THE NEW CINTIQ 13HD

TOUCH: TECH SPECS
Product Type: Creative pen & touch display
Size: 375 x 248 x 14mm/14.8 x 9.8 x 0.5 in
Weight: 1.2kg
Screen Size (measured diagonally):
33.8cm/13.3inch
Displayable colours (maximum): 16.7 million
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Viewing Angle: 178 (89/89) H, (89/89) V
Brightness: 250 cd/m2
Response Rate: 25ms
Color Gamut: 75% Adobe RGB
Pressure Levels: 2048, both pen tip and eraser
Tilt Recognition: 60 levels
Nibs: 9 standard
Pen Box and Stand: Yes
Resolution: 5080 dpi
System Requirements
PC: Windows 8, Windows 7 SP1 or later
Mac: OS X 10.8 or later, Intel processor

Wacom

010

This sketchbook offers pressure-sensitive

controls for natural pen-on-screen feel and
convenient touch-screen capabilities

Whats Included:
Cintiq 13HD creative pen & touch display
Cintiq adjustible stand
Pro Pen, pen case with nine replacement nibs
and nib removal tool, pen stand
Wacom 3-in-1 cable with HDMI and USB
connectors
AC power adapter
Installation CD
CD-ROM with driver software
Quick start guide

TURNING IPADS INTO

GRAPHICS TABLETS
AN IMPRESSIVE NEW APP LETS ANY
iPAD WORK AS A GRAPHICS TABLET
FOR A MAC, SO YOU CAN USE
PHOTOSHOP ON BOTH TOGETHER
Developed by ex-Apple engineers Mate Ronge and
Giovanni Donelli, Astropad is a new app that presents
an exciting way to use an iPad together with a Mac
as a whole interconnected workspace. After
downloading Astropad on both a Mac and an iPad, all
users then need to do is simply connect the iPad to
the Mac either through USB or completely
wirelessly with wi-fi, for the freedom to draw from
the sofa. The iPad will then be turned into a truly
impressive graphics tablet.
It will be able to work with and mirror any
application on the Macs desktop at the time, with
no drivers required, as well as support most
styluses that have been made specifically to work
with iPads. This means that with Astropad, any
Photoshop user will be able to create work with
the full version of Photoshop on their iPad, and use

Apple

all the iPads functionality to pinch, zoom, or pan

while doing it.
A new technology Ronge and Donelli have called
LIQUID ensures the iPad stays true to the original
source with colour corrected output and Retina
resolution so that it exactly matches what a user can
see on the Mac connected to it. LIQUID also helps

create better responsiveness, with network

technology that lets the system keep up even when
an artist is drawing on the iPad wirelessly.
Astropad for Mac is available now for $49.99, or
$19.99 for academic users. The iPad app is free in
the App Store. Learn more or start a seven-day free
trial at www.astropad.com.

AFFINITY PHOTO BETA AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD

SERIF HAS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED THAT ITS PROFESSIONAL IMAGE EDITING APP FOR MAC,
AFFINITY PHOTO, IS NOW AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD FOR PUBLIC BETA TESTING
Were delighted to be shaking things up with this
exciting new app that doesnt compromise on power
and could make creative pros fall in love with photo
editing and raster art all over again, explains Ashley
Hewson, Serifs managing director.
The creative app development company recently
made headlines when they achieved App of the Year
at Apples Best of 2014 awards for Affinity Designer
and Affinity Photo which the team have now made
available to download for free as a first beta version
for the public to test. Although still a beta, the Affinity
Photo image editor is already feature-rich, boasting
some really professional touches such as
end-to-end CMYK, 16-bits per channel editing, LAB
colour, RAW processing, ICC colour management,
and Photoshop and 64-bit plug-in compatibility.
Other features include pro photography adjustments
like Frequency Separation editing, live blend modes,
inpainting, and advanced retouching, as well as
lossless editing to scale, crop, and blur while still
maintaining the original image quality.
We directly targeted professionals when we
dreamt up the Affinity range, making performance,
reliability, pro-level tools and a slick workflow our
top priorities, added Tony Brightman, head of
Affinity development. Its early days for the Affinity
Photo beta, but with the welcome help of our
professional users during the test phase well be
able to fully deliver on these aims for launch and
with free updates afterwards. Im also very happy to

Affinity

say to all photographers and creatives, when Affinity

Photo launches itll be a one-time purchase we
dont do subscriptions.
You can download the free beta version of Affinity
Photo to try now at affinity.serif.com/photo. After

launch, Serif has said that Affinity Photo will be

available exclusively through the Mac App Store
for a one off charge of 39.99/$49.99 (subject to
App Store matrix adjustments) with no ongoing
subscription charges in sight.

011

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

www.piperthibodeau.com

ART WITH
CHARACTER

PIPER THIBODEAU IS WELL KNOWN FOR HER LONGRUNNING DAILY

PAINTING PROJECT. WE CAUGHT UP WITH HER TO TALK CHARACTER
DESIGN AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CHALLENGING YOURSELF

very day, the denizens of deviantART wait

eagerly for the latest update from user
CryptidCreations, aka character designer
Piper Thibodeau. For over two years,
Thibodeau, whose clients include Nickelodeon, Intel
and CGMA, has completed a self-imposed daily
challenge to create a painting before midnight. The
resulting images are prime examples of the
character designers art full of life and character
despite or perhaps because of their swift
execution. We caught up with Piper Thibodeau to talk
Photoshop, the fundamentals of character design
and what that self-imposed Daily Painting project
has done to improve her work.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST START CREATING YOUR
OWN ARTWORK?
Ive been a chronic doodler ever since I could
remember though I only began to take art seriously
in my mid-teens. As a really young kid, I had an
unhealthy obsession with doodling creatures after
being influenced by cartoons like The Land Before
Time and Digimon. Because of this, instead of paying
attention in school, I would fill the outer layers of my
work-sheets to the brim with imaginary monsters
and battle stats (which resulted in a lot of flustered

teachers notes being sent back home). Once I learnt

about them, I yearned for a drawing tablet and
Photoshop for many years I had banked on it being
the magical solution to making my art better. But
fast-forward to my 15th birthday, when I acquired
both, I was sorely disappointed to learn that tablets
dont do miracles. The device soon collected dust.
It wasnt until I saw another students (Valerie Lim)
digital artwork on my homeroom wall that I regained
interest in using Photoshop I contacted her and we
became fast friends. She showed me the ropes of
drawing digitally and motivated me to keep at it.
Thanks to her, Ive really learnt to love the medium. I
use Photoshop CC exclusively for my digital artwork
now. Its very convenient to be able to finish the
majority of the work in one program.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE TOOLS TO USE IN
PHOTOSHOP AND WHY?
My favourites have got to be the Adjustment tools
(colours, Curves, filters). I honestly cant count how
many times Ive run into situations where I regretted
a colour choice and had these tools save my behind.
Ive also (embarrassingly) discovered how to use the
masking tools as of late. Its been making my
process a lot easier!

WHAT WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS

YOU LEARNED DURING YOUR EARLY YEARS
OF IMAGE MAKING?
The single most important lesson Ive learnt is not to
be discouraged by failure. You come to discover that
the most exciting part of this craft involves reflecting
on your improvements sure it can be frustrating at
times, but the pay off is so worth it. Five years from
now, I eagerly look forward to scoffing at all the
mistakes Im currently making!
Another major lesson I learnt is to find a healthy
balance when it comes to comparing your art to
others, which can quickly become toxic. As a student
or professional, you should set a bar of quality for
yourself based on the work of others, but youve
crossed the line when it turns into a source of stress
and envy rather than inspiration.
More practically, in recent years Photoshop has
implemented an auto-save feature, but you should
always rely on your own saves first!
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CREATING
A CHARACTER?
Ill start with brainstorming a topic. If I cant think of
anything interesting, I might browse the twitter
handle @sketch_dailies or Google various creatures

Daily Painting 756# Kanto, Eeveelutions: An

excerpt from the Pokemon re-designs I had been

infrequently working on for the past year. Ive
l fi i h d ll 151 f th i i l

012

I use Photoshop CC
exclusively for my digital
artwork now. Its very convenient
to be able to finish the
majority of the work
in one program
Daily Painting 830# Sushi
Party: I was having sushi at the

time and it influenced me to create

a bountiful array of cutesified
soul-staring sushi rolls

All images Piper Thibodeau

Sidhe Cats: The faerie cats from my upcoming

short film Sidhe. They carry staffs adorned with
the skulls of mice and can dissolve into smoke
when spotted by a human

Intels Pocket Avatars, Potoo Model Sheet:

I was hired by Intel to work on this cool

messaging app called Pocket Avatars. The Potoo
was the first design I did for the app

013

Youve got to be able to break down

your character into basic shapes.
Visualising the character with too much
noise, like colours and extra details, will
just complicate the process

Insomniganza Challenge 12/20: I felt that I was

neglecting full paintings in favour of characters on a white

background. I decided to create a challenge for myself to
create 20 paintings in 48 hours

Daily Painting 836# Fox in

Socks: Topic derived from

@Sketch_Dailies. A fox playing
with some socks very loosely
based on the book by Dr. Seuss

Dundundundundun.: A modified daily that I had

turned into a business card for a class assignment.

Initially, there was no Jaws or deep water

014

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

and myths. Once thats figured out, Ill start compiling

a reference library based on the topic. I keep this in a
separate window while drawing.
From there, Ill start off with some extremely rough
scribbly doodles. And after settling on one, Ill lower the
opacity of the sketch and re-draw the design,
sometimes more than once, until its satisfactory. After
this point its just a matter of rendering.

Heffalumps & Woozles: An illustrative

re-design of Winnie the Pooh and a menacing
Heffalump. It was done to participate in the
@Sketch_Dailies challenge for the day

WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR REPRODUCING A

CHARACTER DESIGN CONSISTENTLY ACROSS
MULTIPLE IMAGES?
Youve got to be able to break down your character
into basic shapes. Visualising the character with too
much noise (colours, extra details) will just
complicate the process for most people.
Its always very useful to have a model sheet of the
character handy. Having both a shape breakdown
version and a detailed one is even better.
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS A
CHARACTER ARTIST SHOULD WORK ON?
Personally, the worst rut to be in with character
design is when youre limited on what you can draw.
A solid understanding of the fundamentals of
anatomy, perspective, and colour will bring so much
more life and variety into your work. Its something
that Im working on improving myself.
When it comes to drawing the character in
different poses: facial expressions are great, but
theres more to acting than just a face. Its really no
different than animation: tell the story through the
body and posture; the face is secondary. It wouldnt
hurt to practice acting like animators do; study it
through film or perhaps even taking an improv class.
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF
CHARACTER DESIGN?
I think the biggest challenge is keeping things
fresh and original. There are countless designs out
there and you want to be sure that you dont
indirectly take too much influence from them.
You also dont want to get too repetitive with your
designs either. Ive unfortunately caught myself
doing so lately Ill have repeated a pose or the
colour palette will be too similar.
WHY DID YOU START THE DAILY PAINTINGS?
I was influenced during my second year of college
to try them after a fellow student had done a
365-day challenge. Her work improved quite a bit
and it really influenced me at a particularly low
period in my art journey.
My inconsistent work ethic was really put to the
test when I got swamped with school deadlines. As
a result, I put off drawing for a few months and
was greatly disturbed to realise I lost most of my
abilities during that break. Forcing myself into a
routine was my only hope and it really dug me out
of my slump.

HOW HAS PRODUCING A DAILY PAINTING

HELPED YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR WORK?
Its improved my work ethic tenfold! The challenge
was set up to tackle my issue with deadlines: either I
submit a painting before midnight, or the daily
counter would go back to day one (save for any
serious emergencies). I could barely get past ten
days the first few times, but now Ive been going 847
days straight and I no longer struggle with meeting
harsh deadlines. Aside from that, I feel that daily
painting has given me more drive and ambition to
improve myself.
HOW LONG DOES A DAILY PAINTING
TYPICALLY TAKE?
The time I spend on a painting really depends on
the complexity of the subject and how much free
time Id have on that particular day. When I started
the challenge, the average was about 30 minutes.
But now, since I tend to render more, it tends to be
about an hour.

TELL US ABOUT THE SHORT FILM PROJECT,

SIDHE, THAT YOURE WORKING ON?
Sidhe is a thesis film that Im working on for my final
year at Dawson College. The story is about a young
falconer boy who experiences the five stages of grief
following the loss of his bird to then have its body
whisked away by a ghostly black cat. Its going to be
a 2D/3D hybrid film and my first foray into the
medium, which Im very excited about. Im aiming to
post it online sometime around September [2015].
HOW DO YOU DEVELOP THE CHARACTERS
AND DESIGNS FOR THE FILM?
The film started off with a random concept of a black
cat with glowing blue eyes and a tail like smoke. I was
very fond of the idea visually and later pinned down a
story in which I could use these creatures as a plot
device. I was influenced by the forests and creatures
from the film Princess Mononoke I really loved the
creepy yet alluring vibe they had. And it really served
as a good visual guide for what I wanted to achieve.

015

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

WHICH OF YOUR IMAGES ARE YOU MOST

PROUD OF, AND WHY?
Id say at the present, Im quite happy with the Wolf in
Sheeps Clothing piece. In a critique I received from
the CTN Expo this year, I was told to include more
character interactions in my pieces, and I think this is
one of the few recent artworks to really exercise that.
Its kind of an early 2015 benchmark for myself: I
want to create more artwork that tells a story rather
than a character with a default pose.
WHAT ARE YOUR PROFESSIONAL AMBITIONS
AS AN ARTIST?
Im VERY interested in working in the TV animation
industry. Id say that its my goal at the moment,
professionally. Recently, Ive had a couple of freelance
gigs that involved that industry, I got to work on
something for Nickelodeon Junior and on a pitch for
a major network. I adore freelancing, but I would like
to give working in a studio a shot at least.
YOU SHOW WORK ON PATREON WOULD YOU
ENCOURAGE MORE ARTISTS TO USE IT?
I dont want to stop making daily paintings, though I
Daily Painting 787# Sheeps Clothing:
One of my favourites for the early 2015
year: a wolf in sheeps clothing trying to fit
into a suspicious flock

016

Facial expressions are great, but theres more to acting

than just a face. Tell the story through the body and
posture; the face is secondary
do fear the possibility of having to sideline it because
of difficulties making ends meet. While Im not
dependant on Patreon for funds, I very much
appreciate the support and I feel like its also made
me more conscious of the quality of work I produce.
I dont want to rip people off, so I put in extra effort
which is a win-win!
WHATS NEXT FOR YOU AND YOUR ART CAREER?
Improvement is my biggest goal at the moment. I feel
as though Im getting too repetitive and I want to
broaden the area of subjects that I can cover. As
mentioned before, fundamentals is something Im
taking a focus on, and Im very confident that my art
will vary significantly after building a sturdier
foundation to my studies. For 2015, Im aiming
for more human designs, realistic monsters, and
painted environments.

PORTFOLIO TIPS
PIPER THIBODEAUS TOP TIPS FOR IMPROVING
YOUR CHARACTER DESIGN PORTFOLIO
KEEP YOUR PORTFOLIO CONSISTENT
Its generally a good idea to have a consistent theme in your
portfolio. For example, try adapting an old fairy tale: give it
your own twist and base your characters, environments
and concept art on it. Itll demonstrate that you can work
within limitation (and its a lot more interesting than stray
pieces: it tells a story).
FOCUS ON YOUR GOALS
Keep your work varied but not too irrelevant. If youre a
character designer, it would be best to showcase your
talents in that area and not, lets say, storyboards. Not that
you cant be a storyboard artist either, but you have to cater
to the employment youre aiming for.
MAKE SURE CHARACTERS INTERACT
For character artist portfolios, be sure to have multiple
interactions in there. Characters are scarcely seen on their
own in TV shows or features.

EYE ON DESIGN PROJECT FOCUS

BOX BRANDING
FOR JAF TEA

ANDREW GUSEV AND DMITRY ANASHKIN REVEAL HOW THEY

COMBINED THEIR 3D AND PHOTOSHOP SKILLS TO CREATE A
BRAND NEW BOX DESIGN FOR A TEA COMPANY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
ANDREW GUSEV AND
DMITRY ANASHKIN

2andreich.com, www.3dima.ru

Andrew Gusev is a creative director

and digital artist specialising in
exclusive websites, computer
graphics, post-production,
photomanipulation, 3D graphics,
and animation. Based in Moscow,
Dmitry Anashkin has been
creating 3D graphics and
illustrations for the past 19 years.

NAME OF PROJECT
GOLD SHEEP

All images Andrew Gusev and Dmitry Anashkin

018

ow do you go about illustrating a brand new

box of tea? For art director Andrew Gusev,
this was a question that needed to be
figured out not too long ago. After working
with clients including Microsoft, Nokia, Nvidia, and
Panasonic, he was approached to direct the design
for a unique new box of tea for Jaf Tea.
I first asked an artist to draw sketches of the
environment and sheep, Gusev begins. He then
asked his co-worker on the project, 3D artist Dmitriy
Anashkin, to start transforming the sketched
landscape into 3D CGI. The work began to be divided
into two separate sections that needed to be
combined together with the help of 3D software and
Photoshop: the backdrop and the sheep.
Together with character designer Irina Salynkina,
Gusev created the 3D model of the sheep with
ZBrush before sending the sheep render to
Anashkin to incorporate into his 3D landscape.
Dmitry applied the render and obtained a layered
scene for post-processing, explains Gusev. Next, it
was Photoshops turn. In Photoshop I created the
background using stock images, added haze to
visually separate the foreground and background,
painted sheep muzzles and sheep in the foreground,
and used a stock texture to add realism to [the]
fleece. Finally, I did some colour correction.

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOURSELF, AND HOW

YOU STARTED USING PHOTOSHOP?
Andrew: I got to use Photoshop for the first time
back in 2002, after I designed my first website.
The customer liked my work very much and I
realised that it was what I wanted to do. I started
learning [about]Photoshop with any [tutorials] I
could find on the internet, [while] I continued
making websites at small design studios.
In 2008, I took up post-production and matte
painting. It was more of a hobby, though, and web
design remained my primary job.
Frankly, my first attempts with Photoshop
were hideous, but I didnt give up. I watched
lessons created by professionals, I continued
trying, and participated in contests. Gradually, my
skills improved. By 2010, I had become quite good
with key illustration tools and started offering
those skills alongside web design. This way,
combining beautiful, high-quality illustrations and
web design became my primary focus. In 2012, I
started getting lots of requests for illustrations
and websites, so I went freelance.
In my three years as a freelancer, I gathered up
a small team of professionals to help me
implement my ideas. These days, Im more of an
art director I create ideas for our projects.
Dmitry: Back in 1997 when I was about 18, I
started working on television, designing stage
sets as well as ads.
During my time with several public
broadcasters and media companies, I took on a
variety of roles including designer, cameraman,
cutter, and composer. 3D graphics was what
attracted me the most, so I focused on it and took
up 3ds Max, Maya, XSI, and Cinema 4D. Today I
create 3D graphics for movies, illustrations, and
ads. I contribute to creating ideas and scenarios. I
also do some freelance work.
HOW WERE YOU FIRST APPROACHED TO MAKE
AN ILLUSTRATION FOR A BOX OF TEA?
Andrew: After listening to the customers ideas, I
suggested a concept for a New Year tea gift box
[based on the idea that 2015 is the Year of the Sheep
in the Chinese zodiac]: on the lid is a cornucopia [that
is] spouting coins, which turn to a river of gold when

Both 3ds Max and V-Ray were used

to render the final piece. Photoshop
textures have been made for many
objects in this illustration

The rendering process involved

in producing Gold Sheep at 6,000
pixels took 15 hours in total

Many details needed to be added with

Photoshop to complete the piece, including the
background, and the lambs, dog, fish and other
animals, which were taken from photographs
The final image render

After looking through lots of

photos of sheep, I realised they
were not cute enough, explains
Gusev. I turned to lambs

Adding detail

The final colour correction

they fall. After bathing in that river, a regular sheep

would become a golden one.

WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE FINAL DESIGN

OF THE BOX A SUCCESS? WAS THE
CLIENT HAPPY?
Andrew: Like with any other illustration, you like it
when youre just finished. Then after a few days, you
begin to think you couldve done better. Anyway,
Jaftea did like the result and I [have continued]
working with them. Already I have a very interesting
idea for 2016, the Year of the Monkey.
Dmitry: Today I can say Ive improved my skills and can
do better work because of the project. Plus, the
customer did like my work. They even sent me a pack of
tea, which was very nice of them.

WHAT WERE THE MAIN TOOLS AND

TECHNIQUES YOU USED?
Andrew: The main Photoshop tools were brushes,
[the] Eraser, [and] masks [together with] overlaying
photos to create [the] background [and] colour
correction. Im not sure but I think it took me about a
week [to complete]. The main challenge was [the]
sheeps golden fleece, which seemed unnatural
after the first few tries.
Dmitry: [The] gold sheep was created with the help of
3ds Max and V-Ray too. Everything was done from the
initial sketch [to the finished design]. The image
resolution was 6000 pixels; so the rendering process
was very long, about 15 hours!

WHAT WOULD YOU MOST LOVE TO SEE AS NEW

TOOLS WITHIN PHOTOSHOP IN THE FUTURE?
Andrew: I absolutely loved Perspective Warp. We

need more tools like that.

Dmitry: I would like more tools to create textures for
3D models, like [those] seen in Substance Painter, for
example. Hotkeys could be better though. Do people
really find combinations with [Cmd/] Ctrl convenient?
I have Zoom In (Out) bound to F1 and F2 and use
similar hotkeys for brush size, and Flip Canvas
Horizontal. Also, why is it that [Cmd/] Ctrl+Z undoes
just one action?
WHERE DO THE TWO OF YOU AIM TO BE
PROFESSIONALLY IN FIVE YEARS TIME?
Andrew: Id like to be the art director of my own design
studio in Russia and work with major customers from
all over the world.
Dmitry: I would like to live in a country where theres
no winter and continue working on interesting projects.

019

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

DAZZLE SHIP

WE SPEAK TO THE TEAM AT THIS FUTUREOBSESSED

CREATIVE PRODUCTION STUDIO TO FIND OUT HOW THEY
CREATE THEIR BESPOKE MOTION PROJECTS

azzle Ship states boldly on its website that,

At our core, were a design studio but we
believe in creativity beyond design. The
creative production studio looks to push its
limits, applying its skill and quality to all manner of
platforms and projects. Essentially everything is
designed at some point, whether we are conscious
of it or not. In terms of categorising your skillset, its
easy for designers to get pigeonholed We want to
work across as many mediums and technologies as
possible to progress our work outside its existing
barriers, says creative director Alex Donne Johnson.
That ethos is apparent in the work that the studio
outputs, senior producer Jody Mcalavey explains:
We were known for our cool design work, but we
have taken that style and applied to UI/UX, TV, online
and B2B content.
Dazzle Ship evolved from Donne Johnsons
freelance career as a designer. He worked under the
alias Vector Meldrew, which started off as branding
and graphic design for fashion and music clients, and
moved into VJing at clubs and festivals: I learned
motion and became a video specialist. After working
hard to build up trust with clients, the projects started
to become more about forming teams and
developing concepts. From here, he realised that
operating as a studio was essential to deliver work
and take on bigger projects. Mcalavey knew Alex
through the VJ scene; they both performed at
festivals in their spare time. He graduated from
Westminster Film School and worked in both
documentary TV and online video production. As
Alexs freelance work moved more into mixing
motion graphics and live action, wed often discuss
ideas and production techniques, he says. When
Alex started the studio this naturally progressed to
us working on projects together.
The studio has now expanded and has a loyal
team, who work together to deliver bespoke projects
to well-known clients looking for something that
stands out. Communication is key to what Dazzle
Ship offers, but its just as important to have the right
people doing the right jobs to ensure high quality at
all times, as account manager Bryan Longhurst
explains: Each member of the Dazzle Ship squad
has a varied background, their influences have
evolved from different sources and we like to
embrace this dissimilarity when possible. Having a
diversity of skills in our team allows everyone to do
their job to the best of their ability, without crossing
over into other areas of the business unnecessarily.

020

We want to work across as many mediums

and technologies as possible to progress
our work outside its existing barriers

ABOUT THE STUDIO

DAZZLE SHIP
www.dazzleship.com
@dazzlesh1p

Alex Donne Johnson

Creative director

Elin Giczi
Producer

Bryan Longhurst
Account manager

Jody Mcalavey
Senior producer

Teamwork: Focused and

working as a team in the
Dazzle Ship studios

All images Dazzle Ship 2015

Dazzle Ship is a creative

production studio producing
lms, digital content and
multi-platform campaigns.
Its a design studio at heart
but drives to put creativity rst.

021

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

Adidas About to Blow Olympics

campaign: Tinie Tempah

Adidas About to Blow Olympics

campaign: With Mo Farah

Heineken: Ivy-themed
bottle for Heineken

Every project is bespoke, finding the best way to

produce what the client wants, but in a way that
hasnt been done before. From receiving a brief well
sit with the core production team and brainstorm.
We normally consider how we can push forward the
creative as much as possible within the clients
constraints. We like to find new ways to work with
technology or experiment with techniques we
havent explored yet, says Donne Johnson.
One project, which really did test the team to their
full potential, was The Future of Big Data installation.
This involved interactive touchscreens and projections
for an experiential marketing installation. It was a
pretty cool brief that revolved around how big data
will be used in the future to fight crime. Think Minority

022
40

Report mixed with Cluedo. There was a lot of

development work and the idea was constantly
evolving, something that demanded a skilled creative
team and good project management. The project was
incredibly interesting to be involved with and we got
to develop some stylish UI designs as well, says
Donne Johnson. The challenge came from
understanding everything at a UX perspective before
being able to see it as a physical experience. We went
through months of development, wireframes, UX
flow diagrams, UI designs that constantly evolved as
each area was pushed forward We had to be able to
visualise the storytelling element from flat designs,
as we werent able to start testing until right at the
end of the project.

This was definitely a technical challenge for the

team, as Mcalavey describes: The Future Zone,
which we primarily worked on, was based around an
80-inch touchscreen computer, which was linked to
6x 4K projects creating an immersive interactive
environment. It was challenging to work out how to
effectively create an engaging narrative using the
technology, making sure it was straightforward to
use for an audience with a mixture of technological
ability. The project was really well received by
participants and I think due to the complexity it was
even more rewarding to get that positive feedback.
While the studio has done amazing work for
massive installations, it also takes on projects that it
is passionate about for different reasons. For

JD SPORTS

4()302/*%#4).6/,6%$!,)6%!#4)/.3(//4#/-0/3)4%$7)4(#'"!#+'2/5.$34/3(/7#!3%4(%$%4!),/&*$3&//47%!202/$5#43

01

DRAFT 3D MODEL WITH IPHONE

04

STUDIO SHOOT WITH FULL CREW

Upon receiving the product we first

create a draft 3D model that allows us to
manipulate the object in a CG environment.
We use our smartphone cameras and an app
called 123D Catch to do this.

We put together a crack team that

consisted of well-known fashion director of
photography Kit Fraser, known for his work on
Dior, the lighting team from Fast And Furious
and the props guy from Star Wars. Nothing
could go wrong!

02

PR%6)35!,)3!4)/.
CAMERA MOVEMENT

05

CREATE CG BACKGROUND

Once we have the model, we use 3D software to

play with camera moves. The idea here is to create
something that focuses on the details of the shoe.
Creating pre-vis allows us to send examples to the
client before shooting, meaning we can refine
everything in advance. Things are much harder to
change afterwards!

Back at the studio with one of out CG

artists, we created the 3D environments that the
shoes would sit in.

03

TRANSLATE CAMERA MOVES TO

MOCO BOLT

06

FINAL RENDER

To create the dynamic moves with a live-action

camera, we used the Moco Bolt robotic arm
attached to a Red Epic 5k. This was the same
camera used in the film Gravity. It meant we could
input our CG pre-vis moves into a real camera.

We created these photo-realistic

renders and then composited the shoe
footage over the top using After Effects.

023

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

example, they are currently working on a series of

infographic-style films for Wateraid, with the aim
to better educate people in the process of
achieving cleaner water in third-world countries.
Its great to do jobs for charities that are helping
people in other parts of the world, says Mcalavey.
Were using a mixture of Illustrator to do the initial
drawings and Photoshop to add compositing
layers, such as textures, depth of field and
vignettes. These projects will then be taken into
After Effects for animation.
For such a motion-based studio, Photoshop is
still an important part of the process. Photoshop is
a big part of our daily toolkit, says Donne Johnson.
The most common use is for creating styleframes for the video work we do. Photoshop is the
perfect place to bring in the mixture of media we
work with. Often its a combination of CG renders,
photography and vectors. We find it more
comfortable than delving straight into After Effects,
which can sometimes restrain creativity at the first
hurdle. It is also used for storyboarding, as
Mcalavey explains: Photoshop speeds up the
storyboard process, as its often a lot easier to
show ideas than to explain to designers and
clients. This is especially acute when we work
remotely with them, a quick sketch can accurately
show an idea much better than an email or even a
conversation over Skype.

Photoshop is the perfect

place to bring in the mixture
of media we work with. Often its
a combination of CG renders,
photography and vectors

Red Bull Music Academy:

Yearbook motion graphic

The studio itself is a hub of activity with a

friendly team who love what they do. We are a
cheerful bunch of people! If you pop by our office,
youd most likely find us surrounded by lots of tea
and lots of teal our brand colour, enthuses
producer Elin Giczi. This positive and creative vibe
is exactly what Donne Johnson was hoping to
achieve with his studio: I wanted to create the
studio that myself and everyone else are excited to
come to every day, as I believe being happy is the
key to good creative work.
The future certainly looks bright for this creative
production team. Its versatility and ability to handle
any project that is thrown at it is where its
strengths lie. Dazzle Ship is a cutting-edge and
future-obsessed studio. Alexs experience and
contacts allow us to discuss various work in many
disciplines, says Longhurst. We can explore
areas that a static film studio or design studio

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALEX DONNE JOHNSON

would not be able to. We can collaborate with

anyone on any kind of project. This is very exciting;
using directors, artists, or motion graphics
designers based on their suitability to the
particular job in hand.
Its down to the handpicked team, each with their
own strengths. The fact that there are many people
with different backgrounds gives us the advantage
of a unique mix of perspectives, says Giczi.
Their aspirations are certainly high and
forward-looking, while maintaining their individual
ethos. We want to be doing work thats even more
dazzling and working in partnership with clients
that want to achieve this too, says Donne Johnson.
We want to keep exploring the corporate and
commercial space, but also making sure we are
doing stuff with a positive impact through working
with charities.
Were also building up a great team of designers
at the studio and we have some really exciting
projects in the pipeline so watch this space!

THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR TALKS US THROUGH ONE WORKING DAY

08:30

GET PREPARED

First one in the studio on this

beautiful day. Being in early allows me that extra
time to prepare for the day before people start
asking me questions!

024
040

11:00

TV WORK

Attending VO session and grading

for our latest TV commercial.

13:00

FUTURE PROJECTS

Client meeting with Taxi Studio

to discuss future projects.

Red Bull TV: Motion graphics for I am benga

Adidas About to Blow Olympics

campaign: Jeffrey Lawal Balogun

TOP 5 PRODUCTION TIPS

Dazzle Ships essential advice

USE A CONCEPT
Its easy to get carried away thinking of cool new techniques and
styles to explore, however sometimes you find yourself going
down this road without a solid concept and then trying to
shoehorn something in. Put concept first and then think of the
best way to achieve it.
KILL YOUR DARLINGS
When it comes to generating ideas its easy to become precious;
often people are precious over their first idea and it can be hard
to develop in a group dynamic. Its important to be self-critical.
THE CUSTOMER ISNT ALWAYS RIGHT
Sometimes the client will put forward requests that are
detrimental to the quality of a project. Its your job to advise them
in an amicable way that it may not be the right decision.
Diplomacy is the key.
WORK SMART, NOT HARD
Burnout is quite common in creative industries. Late nights and
all-nighters can be unavoidable. If you cant perform mentally
you risk failure. Be running at 100 per cent every day, have off
days and break projects down into smaller chunks with
manageable deadlines.

We can collaborate with anyone on any kind of project. This

is very exciting; using directors, artists, or motion graphics
designers based on their suitability to the particular job in hand
All images: The Team 2014

KILL YOUR EGO

Successful creative work is about collaboration. Its important to
enjoy the process and the working relationship. Ego can always
come into play with creative work, however if you can manage
your own, problems are less likely to occur.

15:00

FINAL EDITS

Sitting in on the edit, bringing

together the VO and final-graded footage of our
TVC ready for delivery via Clearcast. Hitting TV
screens very soon.

18:00

NIGHT SHOOT

No rest for the wicked! On a night

shoot getting some live-action footage for a VFX
commercial weve been developing for a soon to
be launched project.

00:00

PIZZA TIME

Still shooting, so ordered the whole

crew pizzas directly to our location in East London.
Using the hire car as a dinner table. This is what
dedication looks like!

025

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LEARN HOW TO
USE HISTOGRAMS
ON P36 AND
TAKE COMPLETE
CONTROL OF
YOUR COLOURS

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WHY AND WHAT TO CALIBRATE

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)DEALLY YOU WANT TO CALIBRATE EVERYTHING

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PERFECT STORM THE ORIGINAL PHOTO HAS A COLOUR CAST THE
EDITING MONITOR HAS A DIFFERENT COLOUR CAST AND THE
DESIGNER USES THAT TO BALANCE THE COLOUR OF THE ORIGINAL
SO BY THE TIME IT REACHES THE PRINTER THE COLOUR IS WAY
OFF AND ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIX IT ON PRESS
Deane Nettles

X-RITE

HOW, AND HOW OFTEN TO CALIBRATE

028

Simon Prais, the technical director at X-Rite Photo

Europe (www.xritephoto.com), says that monitor
calibration should be repeated on a monthly basis.
The process takes between three and ten minutes
depending on if [you are] using the i1 Display Pro or
the Color Munki Display. He advises that brightness
should be 90120 CDm2, with the lower end if you
are in low light, the higher end if you are in brighter
conditions. Colour temperature should ideally be
D65 (6500k), as this is very much the accepted
standard for a calibrated monitor white-balance
temperature, however if [you are] matching to prints
viewed in a professional controlled D50 viewing
booth, a corresponding D50 monitor calibration
should be set.

He continues: The frequency of printer

calibration depends on a number of factors;
predominantly the consistency of the printer and
media, along with your own personal expectations
of colour accuracy. As a general guide a printer will
benefit from profiling every two to three months
but other considerations such as a different batch
of ink or media could result in the necessity to
re-profile. Camera calibration (if shooting in RAW),
should be implemented whenever time and the
situation allows. This comprises of capturing an
image of an X-Rite Color Checker Passport chart
and then processing it to create a calibration file
that can be applied to your images, at the point
when you come to work on them.

PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR TECHNIQUES

ESTABLISHING GAMUTS
02%$%4%2-).).' 4(% #/,/523 4(!4 #!. "% 53%$ ). 9/52
7/2+ (!3 2%!, 0/7%2 !3 */. 7%347//$ %80,!).3

0

CONSTRUCT CONFINES

When painting with a gamut, says Jon

Westwood (www.jonwestwood.ca), whatever
colours are established are the ones that will
define the colours in the piece. This is an extreme
example of how the confines of a gamut can affect
the colours in a piece. Value can be interpreted
however you want, but the idea is to keep all
colours in the composition within whats given in
that triadic area.

0

0

SHRINK YOUR CHOICES

Here, the gamut is rotated and kept the

same size and shape. Its closer to what we want,
but there still isnt enough restriction in our colour
choices. Lets shrink it even more.

BREAK YOUR OWN RULES

This is the final image and the gamut used to define the piece. Westwood explains that the
colours are much more muted and controlled and most of the variation is interpreted in value rather
than saturation. There are a few areas where some liberties are taken outside of the gamut, like on the
terminator of the mountains shadow or the vibrant rock on the far left, but the idea is to keep the
general image contained, which will bring out those features even more.

q*ON7ESTWOOD

UNDERSTAND ICC
Colour management expert Paul Sherfield (www.
missinghorsecons.co.uk) explains that there are
around seven differing types of ICC profiles. ICC is the
International Color Consortium, an organisation set up
to look at specification for managing digital colour, and
an ICC profile gives colour meaning to images when
used by software that is ICC aware.
For general use, Sherfield explains, most designers
only need to look at RGB and CMYK profiles. An RGB
profile in an image is usually defined by the creator. The
de facto standard for professional photography is a
profile called AdobeRGB1998.
CMYK profiles have a different purpose. In colour
management speak, explains Sherfield, they are
what is termed device dependent. This means each
CMYK profile is added at a defined way of printing. It
describes the printing method, paper stock and the
inks or toners used. So if youre converting images to
CMYK for print its important to know the printing
method and paper to be used. Sherfield notes: The
default CMYK setting is wrong for the European
market, and is not even current for the US market.
Lab colour is something that many professional
Photoshop-using artists never have to think about, but
Sherfield explains that it is a colour gamut or colour
space that models human colour perception. It is
modelled in the colour management systems
software and as the connection space used when
converting from one profile to another. So when Mode
or Convert to Profile is used the image with its profile
describing its colours is translated into the Lab colour
space, then using the chosen output profile, converted
from Lab to this new colour space and profile.

q!ARON#AMPBELL

DONT LIMIT YOURSELF

This may seem obvious to experienced Photoshop
users, weighs in Aaron Campbell (www.
aaroncampbell.ca), but many people who are new
to Photoshop feel they need to always design in
CMYK if they intend to print, which severely limits the
amount of colour you can use in your image.
Designing in RGB can allow you to have tons of
variety in colour, so when you need to print it, all you
have to do is adjust the colours in a flattened CMYK
image using tools such as Replace Color, Hue/
Saturation, Channels and adjustment layers It is
also good to keep in mind what colours youre using;
bright colours such as neon green (#a2fe1e) or bright
magenta (#f75ddf) will not properly display when
printed, but display beautifully on monitors.

029

TECHNIQUES PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR

Paradigm Color Studio

PROFESSIONAL APPROACHES TO CALIBRATION

Like most studios, says Fred Muram, managing director

of the Paradigm Color Studio (www.paradigmcolorstudio.
com), we have a host of issues we have to identify from
the moment we receive files. The goal is to make sure we
are able to translate colour properly to the standard the
images will to be reproduced. Once we have submission
standards from the printing company, or media distributor,
we go through all of the assets and make certain
everything we are delivering meets the standard. Every
once in a while we have to figure out a complex project,
usually dealing with additional spot colours that need to
get separated in a particular way and we have to figure out
a creative work-around.

Saverio Truglia /Paradigm Color Studio

Jennifer Marx Photography / Paradigm Color Studio

Bracket Studios/Paradigm Color Studio

Paradigm Color Studios approach to colour on digital devices is to view the content on as many different
popular devices as we can and find a good balance, says Muram. We will sometimes create printed proofs
for online work, but only so we can make notes about what needs to be revised. Jobs going to press we
absolutely create a printed contract proof to the print standard and media the job is being reproduced.

Most people think about colour theory with regards to

colour matching and graphic design, notes Muram, but
there is a very scientific approach to colour theory when
discussing colour management. There is a great book by
Jan-Peter Homann called Digital Color Management that
does a great job about the principles of digital colour and
how to understand gamut for different standards (be
prepared for lots of equations and graphs).

When it comes to calibration, Muram takes both hardware

and software seriously. On the hardware side, he says,
we use X-Rite i1 devices for calibrating monitors, printers,
and for creating profiles for our proofing devices to meet
various printing standards. The quality of equipment is also
very important. Prepress grade monitors like EIZO and NEC
make a huge difference. We have used Apple Cinema
Displays as well, but I have always felt they have a bit too
much contrast. For output, I really love our Epson 9900 and
7900 models. They calibrate fantastically and hold colour
quite well. On the software side we have quite a lot of tools
for managing colour. Our setup includes monitor
calibrations, Photoshop colour setting, InDesign and PDF
creation colour management, and then our RIP software.
We have two kinds of RIPs, which allow us to produce
extremely accurate colour on our proofing devices for
contract proofing.

BEAR THE LIGHT SOURCE IN MIND

WACO

030

The new Cintiq 27QHD comes with Wacom Colour

Manager, which is a customised version of the X-Rite
i1DisplayPro. According to Wacom youll be able to
achieve a more precise adjustment of gray scale
gamma, white point, and other primary settings. The
profiler software has two modes, basic and advanced.
With the former you knew little understanding of
colour science or calibration, with the latter you have
infinite control over white point, luminance, contrast
ratio, gamma and more.
And those extremes are appropriate, given that
colour is incredibly complicated to manage perfectly
across the myriad of devices we all use and the variety
of inks and papers an image could be printed on, but in
the end it is quite simple, and about achieving the colour

that you want. X-Rites Simon Prais says We love to

blame a computer and technology and to get concerned
about complex settings whilst overlooking the obvious. If
the objective is to match the printer to the screen,
remember that just because the print is a tangible
object, the colours can still vary considerably depending
on the viewing conditions. Taken to an extreme, switch
the room lights off and you have a black sheet of paper,
switch on the lights and there is potentially a colourful
image. But the colour balance and intensity on the
image is totally dependent on the type of light under
which you are viewing the print. Room lighting will
change throughout the day and will be affected by
reflections, how you see a print will also vary depending
on how close the image is to the light source.

MANAGE FROM ALL SIDES

DEANE NETTLES EXPLAINS HOW A HOST OF PHOTOSHOP PROFESSIONALS CAN MANAGE THEIR COLOUR PROCESSES
Herrmann & Starke LLC/ August, Lang & Husak/Deane Nettles

Dont worry about the web: You can check

work on every device you have, and your
friends too, ultimately, you cant control
how someone else views your web
projects. But its still better to have your
side of it calibrated so you know that the
quality is the best it possibly can be on
your end, says Nettles.

Snap right: A photographer can calibrate

their camera images by shooting a colour
target in the light they are shooting in; the
colour of the image can then be adjusted
using a plugin to Lightroom like the X-Rite
Color Checker Passport. For this Betsy Fisher
bus shelter signage, the photographer colour
balanced their equipment, allowing me to
have faithful reproductions of the shoes to
assemble the final art.

Be a stickler: If you send a file to a printer,

they have in-house colour management; be
sure you get a press proof back from them so
you can check the colour, and be sure to go to
the printer and view their proof in their
colour-balanced proofing room to be sure of
what youre seeing. Looking at it at home
under mixed lighting sources wont let you
see colour accurately.

Use your own judgement: Set Photoshop

to fill your screen, so that photo of your
honey on the desktop doesnt influence
your eyes ability to see colour.

Read up: If you really want to know a lot about

colour management, theres a good (if slightly
out-of-date) book called Real World Photoshop
CS3 by David Blatner and Conrad Chavez.

Design bright: A designer can calibrate their

monitor using pucks or spyders Even
something as simple as X-Rites ColorMunki
Smile would be an improvement over an
uncalibrated monitor.

KNOW YOUR VALUES

Kevin Smith Photography / Paradigm Color Studio

We are constantly doing colour matching for our

clients, says Fred Muram. These jobs range
from product, packaging, food and furniture and
need to be colour corrected to match different
references. I have found the more expensive the
product the more attention that the colour
matches precisely. Our studio has GTI colour view
stations at each workstation to allow us to
correctly view the references in correct light as we
are making adjustments. We also have
spectrophotometers we use to read colour values
from the reference material and get RGB, CMYK,
and Lab values that closely match the sample.
Essentially it all goes back to the fact that there
are two types of colour mixing; additive and
subtractive. Additive is using the three primary
colours, red, green and blue. Subtractive is using
cyan, magenta and yellow, with the addition of
Key (black) in printing because the other three
dont create an impressive enough result for large
amounts of the stuff.

START RIGHT
Paul Sherfield, who runs colour management
courses through his company The Missing
Horse Consultancy (www.missinghorsecons.
co.uk), says that all too many Photoshop users
dont understand the settings that you can
access though the Edit menu, which are vital.
There are a number of colour setting Pre-sets
in a drop down, he says, the opening Default
being North America General Purpose 2. This is
not a good setting for professional work,
especially for digital photography and print

production. It is best to create your own settings

and use better CMYK ICC profiles, which as they
are not in the Adobe CS/CC build, will need to be
installed. However, if this is a step too far then
change the colour setting file to Europe
Prepress 3, which is in the latest versions of
Photoshop. For print production work, he adds,
always talk to your printer and or client
[regarding] the CMYK profile to use for
converting images. They may say, supply RGB
images, which they will convert.

031

TECHNIQUES PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR

CONVERT TO CMYK
WITHOUT LOSING
SATURATION

Jon Westwood

Much like a painting gamut, a gamut in computer

graphics and printing is the range of colours that a
computer or printer is able to produce, explains
Westwood. The ideal method of preparing items for
print is to keep as many original colours as possible
and only change those that would be affected by a
mode change into CMYK. Unfortunately, some
colours simply dont exist in ink, so some of those
vibrant reds, hot pinks, and mint greens might need
to be adjusted and some saturation may be lost, but
you can get close to the original RGB image with
some adjustment. Luckily Photoshop comes with its
own colour management display options called
gamut warning and proof colours. Both are
available in the View menu make sure the proof
setup is set to display a CMYK gamut in View>Proof
Setup>Working CMYK.
Selecting Proof Colours will display what the
image will look like when converted into the CMYK
colour mode, while Gamut Warning will highlight
exactly what colours will be affected in the change.
From here, its possible to make a number of colour
adjustments while still within an RGB format with
the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer [Window>
Adjustments] or the Replace Color adjustment
[Image>Adjustments>Replace Color].

CHANGE THE CHANNEL

Aaron Campbell

Aaron Campbell likes to use Channels to quickly

adjust the colour of the atmosphere in my image,
which, most commonly for me, is an illustration.
Just doing a quick Levels adjust on one of the
Channels can make it easy to change the hue of the
large spots of coloured glowing parts of my pieces
without having to go in and change each part
independently. Lets say I have eight glowing
mushrooms in my piece that all have an ambient
green glow and I want it to be more green and

032

stronger, I can go in the Green channel and do a

Levels adjust to slide the whites up a bit or brush in
the parts I want to be more green, instead of
adjusting them one by one.
If hes using Replace Color, for instance to change
the colour of someones clothing in a photo, hell try
to have as much fuzziness as possible to make sure
all of the colour gets changed, then just brush in any
parts of the coloured area that didnt change with a
soft brush on Overlay or Soft Light.

CREATE ONLINE
IMAGES DIFFERENTLY
Preparing colour images for the web, social media
and so on, does need a differing colour approach,
says Paul Sherfield. As the content will be viewed on
consumer devices; computer monitors, tablets and
smartphones with screens that in the main have an
sRGB gamut this is then of course the profile to use.
However do not embed the profile as this will
increase the file size of the image. Most web
browsers do not yet support ICC colour management,
but just assume sRGB. So convert your images to
sRGB, around 96dpi. It is best to talk to the web
developers involved as regards the file format, but is
in doubt use JPEG. There is a Web colour settings file
in the Color Setting menu in Photoshop.
Colour management is becoming more
automated, Sherfield explains, adding that Used
correctly Adobe CS/CC is a repro shop in a box.
However knowing what colour setting files to use,
and how to make and install customised ones does
still require knowledge and training.

Establish your gamut: A gamut is a range of

predetermined colours that are used in a painting,
explains Westwood. Oftentimes good colour choices
in a composition come not just from what is included
but from what is left out. Think of it as a small musical
ensemble. If the composition is composed correctly, a
trio consisting of a broad range of instruments can
have just as much aesthetic impact as a full orchestra,
and can be much more intimate and meaningful.

USE A HOOD
The missing link, once you have taken control of
the colour calibration of your monitor and printer,
notes X-Rites Simon Prais, is the conditions
under which you are viewing your screen and the
illumination of your physical prints. Professional
top grade monitors tend to include a monitor
hood this is for a good reason, the surrounding
light and reflections will affect what you see. Also,
a hood creates a tunnel effect resulting the ability
to set the monitor brightness at a lower level
which can provide a more realistic representation
of a print whilst also reducing the risk of eye
strain. If such a monitor is out of budget, it is also
possible to add a monitor hood separately. The PC
Hood is a versatile and sturdy product that fits
most monitors from 15 up to 27 and includes a
cable access space for when connecting a
monitor calibrator.

Hiding your light under a bushel: The

only truly cool colour in the composition
is the hidden blue building in the very
centre (actually very near a neutral
grey), says Westwood, which when
placed next to the warm yellow of the
light shining on the building, helps to
push that warmth.

Where to work: I use sRGB colour working space

(rather than Adobe RGB 1998), says Westwood, for
documents because it provides the best gamut for
both web and print which is where the majority of my
work is viewed rather than on specialized monitors. I
have an Asus ProArt monitor that is factory calibrated
specifically for digital art.

ALWAYS CHECK
COLOUR SETTINGS
The key consideration when it comes to colour
management is to determine the primary use of the
final imagery. Is it to be viewed on-screen, online or in
print? says X-Rites Simon Prais. As long as you have
that in mind, colour management can become a simple
check list of considerations that you always have in the
back of your mind. His advises: 1: Select Adobe colour
settings appropriate to your work requirements. 2:
Calibrate your monitor to the suggested default settings
(and your printer if applicable). 3: Compare the screen
display to that of your profiled print, ideally with a hood
on the monitor and a correctly illuminated print. 4: If you
are using a GrafiLite, rather than a professional viewing
booth, adjust the brightness of the monitor to achieve a
comparable contrast display to that of the illuminated
print, this is easiest achieved when using a
monochrome test image. And 5: Recalibrate the
monitor without adjusting the brightness in order to
achieve a colour correct calibration to match the
brightness and contrast of your printed image.
X-RITE

Jon Westwood

Skys the limit: The eye gets tricked into thinking its
looking at a cool colour in a painting completely
composed of warm colours, says Westwood. Thats
why it was important for the coolest colour in the
composition to be a neutral grey (the sky in the
background) rather than an actual blue or green.

actually including any, which I think helped to produce

the feeling of cosiness in an otherwise harsh
environment. As long as colours are seen in relation to
one another, and stay within the predetermined colour
gamut, a warm colour like a reddish-grey can look like a
cool green if its placed adjacent to a bunch of very warm
colours that look white (like the greenish area of snow in
the bottom right).
Westwood also uses atmospheric perspective, which
is the perception of objects as they approach the
background as a result of the atmosphere theyre placed
in. In this case, the build-up of snow in the air helps to
establish a very discernible atmospheric gradation. I
flattened warm tones and values as the foreground
receded, steadily transitioning them into a single tone
neutral grey, which in combination with the change of
warm colours in the foreground to cooler colours in the
background helped to achieve that illusion.

X-RITE

EVEN WHITE NEEDS WORK

Perhaps surprisingly, Jon Westwood says that one of
his most challenging images in terms of colour
management was Winter Town, an image that is
largely white. This was because the tones and values
needed to reflect the conditions of the environment in
the painting, but also needed to be manipulated into
what I wanted the viewer to experience from it. In this
case, even though the painting would depict a harsh,
cold snowstorm, I wanted the viewer to feel warm
when they imagined themselves there. This was
achieved mostly through atmospheric perspective and
colour temperature.
Colours are very much associated with
temperature; reds, yellows, and oranges
describing a warmer temperature and violets,
blues, and cool greens describing cooler
temperatures. It was very important in this piece
to give the illusion of cool colours, while not

033

 Jon Westwood

TECHNIQUES PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR

HUE AND CRY

I generally use the Hue/Saturation adjustment on a
specific portion of an image, says Jon Westwood.
For more significant changes, Ill tend to use a Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer [Window>Adjustments]
in order to work non-destructively, or the Selective
Color adjustment. Hue/Saturation can be a powerful
tool for dramatically changing a specific area of
colour in a work like if the skin tones arent as
vibrant as I want them to be, or if a sky isnt muted
enough. Another application is in adding richer
colour variation to a piece. Often I will work in a base
layer which defines preliminary colours, a

pre-beauty layer which defines tone and other

details, and a beauty layer which blends and renders
details and linework. Saturating and lightening the
pre-beauty or base layer makes colours shine
through to the gaps in the beauty layer and adds
more colour and value variation and a little bit more
interest in the object being rendered.
But all of Photoshops tools are for nothing if you
dont know what you want the colours to do in an
image. In Strange Sunset, your eye is greeted by
the vibrant magentas of the rocks in the close
midground, as it moves up to the reddish pinks in

the background. One role of complementary

colours (colour opposite each other on the colour
wheel) is to help establish a clear distinction
between objects. I wanted the dichotomy of light
and shade to be particularly visible, so as the reds
of the midground transition to yellow, theyre
stopped abruptly by the complementary purple
rocks in the midground which brings forth a
distinct difference in atmosphere. The eye then
moves down to the riders in the foreground,
accented with purple-blues to provide something
of a split complementary colour scheme.

Selective Color is one of my favourite adjustment

layers in Photoshop, says Jon Westwood. I use it
mainly for post processing on large areas of a
painting or the whole painting. It differs from Hue/
Saturation because it allows me to add hues to
specific values from colour channels rather than just
adjust hues on their own using a single colour
channel. It can be used to change the temperature of
a painting by adding a slightly warm or cool tone to
the darks or lights in an image. It can also be used to
add some vibrancy to a specific colour without the
harsh clipping that is sometimes produced from
Hue/Saturation.
Blend modes are also useful. Even on a painting
where the subjects are mostly in shade, says
Westwood, I will have a layer which defines a subtle or
strong core shadow on the subject depending on the
environment. The environment also dictates what
colour the core shadow will be, and how vibrant that
colour will be. That layer is blended with the Multiply
mode onto the base layer before rendering to allow
those shadows to interact with whatever value theyre
sitting on while keeping colour intact.

034

Jon Westwood

ADJUSTMENT ACTION

GRADIENT MAP ADJUSTMENTS

JON WESTWOOD EXPLAINS THE POWER OF A GRADIENT MAP ADJUSTMENT LAYER, WHICH
CAN APPLY A COLOUR GRADUATION TO THE VALUE OF YOUR IMAGE

Jon Westwood

01

SET YOUR SCENE

The idea here is to try a find a way of

making background scenes with a very quick
turnaround time, so I transformed images from
pictures I took into a loosely painted
environment. While value is important, original
colours dont play a role in the final image since
they will be defined by the gradient map, so I
dont need to worry about the mismatched
colours in the composition.

02

APPLY THE MAP

The gradient map then gets applied to

flatten and isolate the tones and colours of the
original image. Everything below the Gradient Map
adjustment layer will be affected by the adjustment
and everything above the layer will be excluded.
What sets it apart from simply desaturating and
recolouring an image is its ability to apply different
colours to chosen values and manipulate the
colour gradation between those values.

03

ADJUST YOUR IMAGE

Now you can finish the composition with

some miscellaneous colour and value
adjustments that wont be affected by the gradient
layer (in this case, a Hue/Saturation change, a little
bit more colouring on the ground, and some noise
to blend brush strokes).

USE MULTIPLE MAPS

This makes it easy for me to adjust the
intensity of each gradient map thats contributing
to the atmosphere, and makes it easy for me to
change the mood of the piece just by changing
the gradient maps colour rather than going
through and changing each layers or objects
colour one by one. You can also lower the
opacity of the whole folder if you want to lower
your custom atmosphere all together. I find this
to be a simple but effective way to tinker.

For Campbell, choosing the right colour is

generally a matter of instinct, albeit one that has
been honed through years of experience. For
instance, he notes, most images that have a
modern or futuristic feel to them most commonly
have light, clean and cooler colours with everything
feeling very smooth, while retro or nostalgic images
have dusty, warm and dark colours, usually with
washed out darks. The tools in Photoshop really
make these colour palettes very easy to achieve.

Aaron Campbell

Aaron Campbell (www.aaroncampbell.ca) likes to

layer up his gradient maps to establish atmosphere
in his work using colour. He explains: In most of my
pieces I use a combination of around two to four
gradient maps on a variety of blend modes and
adjust percentages to add just the right amount of
each colour to my piece. This makes it so any colour
I add to my image thats under the gradient maps
will automatically be blended into the scene and will
only need minor tweaking.

035

TECHNIQUES PRO TRICKS FOR MASTERING COLOUR

TYPES OF HISTOGRAM
AND HOW TO USE THEM

RGB HISTOGRAM
The main RGB histogram gives you an overview
of the distribution of lights, darks and midtones
in an image. There is no such thing as a good
histogram, but there are a few things to keep in
mind. If you want a dark image your histogram
should stack to the left, and if your image is
mainly light-toned, its stacked towards the right
instead, while a midtone-based image should
form a loose bridge shape with the peak in the
middle. If your image has a strong contrast of
light and dark, it should form a gentle U-shape
dominated by peaks at the left and right.

COLORS HISTOGRAM
The Colors histogram shows you the
distribution of light and dark, plus the
distribution of colours in your image. When a
paintings colour scheme just looks wrong the
Colors histogram can provide you with the
reason why. You can instantly see which
colours are over and under-represented and
how they relate to the intensity of tones in the
image. Remember warm light, cool shadows;
cool light, warm shadows!

UNDERSTAND AND USE

HISTOGRAMS

MAKE SENSE OF PHOTOSHOPS COLOUR GRAPHS AND

LEARN HOW TO USE THEM TO ENHANCE YOUR IMAGES

LUMINOSITY HISTOGRAM
The Luminosity histogram monitors the
brightness of your image, and to do that it takes
account of how we see levels of brightness. Its a
quick and easy way to check whether an image
is over or under-exposed. It looks at your image
pixel-by-pixel and determines whether each one
is mainly red, blue or green our eyes are more
sensitive to brightness changes in green light
than they are to blue or red. Its a very useful
resource when youre matching light or tonal
levels between multiple photos in a composite.

036

he histogram is an incredibly powerful

tool for monitoring and editing colour in
your images, but many Photoshop
users are put off using it by its seeming
complexity. The truth is that histograms are
relatively simple to understand once youve got
a good grasp of basic colour theory and
Photoshops other colour tools, and using the
histogram enables you to take complete control
of the colour and contrast in your image so that
you can achieve professional results.
At its most basic, the histogram is simply a
graph, which shows you how dark, light and
midtones are balanced in your image. The left
hand side shows the darkest tones, the middle

the midtones and the right hand side the

lightest, brightest tones. You can display the
histogram at any time by going to
Window>Histogram, and control how the
histogram shows you the colour and tonal
distribution in your image by using the
drop-down menu in the Histogram panel to
select RGB, Colors or Luminosity. You can do
this for the whole image, or make a selection
and view an individual histogram for this part of
the image alone, which is particularly useful if
youre adjusting the colours in a composite. You
can also get a split view of the individual Red,
Green and Blue channels in your image
underneath each of the types of histogram.

ALL CHANNELS
This expansion to the histogram panel lets you
view the standard RGB histogram so you get an
overview of the distribution of dark, mid and light
tones in your image, but extends that to the Red,
Green and Blue colour channels in your image so
that you can view each one individually. This is an
excellent way to get a full-channel drill-down of
your image for channel mixing or colour grading.
With the All Channels histogram open, you can
click on the individual Red, Green and Blue
channels to view additional information on each
of the colour channels.

IMAGE DATA
On the left of the histogram theres some
mathematical data. Mean represents the overall
intensity value. Std Dev stands for Standard
Deviation and shows you how widely the intensity
values vary a high number means a lot, a low
number means a little. Median represents the
middle value. Pixels shows you how many pixels
were used to calculate the data. Then on the right

hand side, Levels shows the intensity level of the

area under the cursor when you mouse over the
histogram, Count shows the total number of pixels
that correspond to that intensity value, Cumulative
shows the number of pixels at or below that level,
and Cache shows the image cache level, which
governs how quickly Photoshop samples and reads
the data the higher the better!

LEVELS VERSUS CURVES

WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO COLOUR TOOLS
AND HOW CAN YOU MAKE THE BEST USE OF THEM?

PREVIEW HISTOGRAM
CHANGES
When you make an adjustment to colour in
Photoshop, using Levels or Curves for example,
you can preview what those changes will look like
on the histogram. With the histogram panel open,
go to your adjustment of choice and make sure
that Preview is ticked. Now when you make
changes, youll see how theyll affect the
histogram, giving you complete control. Its worth
noting that this works via Image>Adjustments
only, not on adjustment layers.

The basic difference between Levels and Curves is that Levels allows you to correct the overall tonal
balance of an image, broken down into shadows, midtones and highlights, while Curves allows you to
adjust individual points in an images tonal range. Many Photoshop users favour one or the other for
adjusting images, but the truth is that they both have a place in your image-editing workflow. Both of
them offer you the option to save presets so that you can apply the same adjustments to multiple
images or image assets, and both allow you to drill down into colour channels to make individual
adjustments. Where they differ is that generally, Levels is used to make tonal adjustments to the image
as a whole, and while Curves can do this, it also allows you to make adjustments to individual tones and
colours within the image without altering other parts of it.

ADVANTAGES
OF LEVELS

ADVANTAGES
OF CURVES

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colour channels
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individually across colour channels

037

CHANGING COLOURS
USE HISTOGRAMS TO MONITOR TONE AND COLOUR
CHANGES AND TRANSFORM AN IMAGE FROM DUSK
TO DAWN USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS

01

LIGHTEN TONES WITH LEVELS

With the histogram open (Window>

Histogram) set to RGB and with Expanded View
selected from the fly-out menu, open a dark-toned
image, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer and
choose Levels. Leave the Dark slider and Light
sliders where they are and slide the Midtone slider to
the left slightly. Notice how the midtone levels in the
histogram leap up as the image lightens. In the
Output Levels box, slide the Dark slider right to 20 to
lighten the image overall.

038

02

REDISTRIBUTE REDS WITH CURVES

Make a new adjustment layer for Curves

and set the histogram to Colors. Drop down to Red
in the Curves channel menu. Most of the reds in
this image are darks; to lighten them, we want
some red to show in the highlights. Make a
flattened S shape with the Red Curve. Notice how
on the Color histogram the reds are now distributed
at both extremes of dark and light, balancing out
the sunlight in the image.

03

FIX FOLIAGE WITH A GREEN CURVE

Still in the Curves panel, select Green from

the Channel dropdown, ensuring that the histogram
is still set to Color. The greens in this image are
mainly the dark foliage in the foreground, and we
want to enhance this without getting a green colour
cast in the sky. Pull the Green Curve up over the dark
part of the Green histogram in the Curves panel, and
down in the highlight area. Notice on the histogram
how the greens are now distributed from the darkest
areas to the darker midtones, and arent present in
the highlights at all.

04

TRANSFORM THE SCENE WITH A BLUE CURVE

Drop down to Blue in the Curves panels channel menu. Make a soft S
shape over the Curves histogram, pulling down between the darks and
midtones and up over the brightest highlight. Notice on the Color histogram
how blues dominate the midtones, giving the image an overall blue colour cast.
Now the image has really begun its transformation from dark, warm,
high-contrast sunset to light, cool, lower contrast sunrise.

06

BOOST COLOUR INTENSITY

WITH VIBRANCE

09

BRING OUT THE MIDTONES

Make a new adjustment layer, this time for Vibrance,

and return to the Color histogram. On the Vibrance
panel, increase the Vibrance to +25 and the
Saturation to +5. Youll see that colours are more
evenly distributed over the image, with more cool
magenta appearing in the shadows and clearer
yellow in the highlights, while blue still dominates.
The image itself has a subtle, soft colour boost
without being oversaturated.

Choose Midtones from the Tones menu

in the Color Balance panel and push the Greens
up to +25 and the Blues up to +50. The image
becomes bluer and cooler in tone, while on the
Blue channel of the histogram youll see that the
blues have been boosted across the tonal range
of the image, apart from in the deepest shadows,
where blues and greens are entirely absent. This
lets them contrast with the complementary
orange-red shadows and highlights, which well
adjust in the next step.

05

LIFT LIGHTING WITH AN RGB CURVE

Switch to RGB on the Curves panels channel menu and switch out the
Color histogram for Luminosity so youre looking at the overall tonal intensity of the
image. Make a gentle S shape with the topmost part of the Curve placed above the
highest points on the individual RGB channels. The lower point should sit between
the darks and darkest midtones on the histogram, on or just above the closest
convergence of the Curves for each individual channel.

07

LIFT LIGHTING WITH BRIGHTNESS

AND CONTRAST

10

INCREASE THE HIGHLIGHTS

The image still has a bit too much darkness and

contrast for a sunrise, so set the histogram back to
Luminosity and make a new adjustment layer for
Brightness/Contrast. Increase the Brightness to +25
and reduce the Contrast to -10. Now the Luminosity
histogram shows less dramatic darks and a more
even distribution between midtones and highlights,
which evens out the previously high-contrast lighting
and allows the colours to glow.

Now choose Reds from the Tones menu

and push the Red/Cyan slider up to +5 red. The
reds, oranges and magentas in the image now
look clearer and more saturated, while the Red
channel of the histogram shows a U-shape with
spikes in the shadows (which complement the
overall cool tone of the image) and highlights
(which warm and enhance the magenta tones of
the sunrays and again, complement the overall
blue-green tones of the image).

08

BALANCE THE SHADOW COLOURS

11

ADJUST HUE/SATURATION

Put the histogram back into RGB mode

and use the fly-out menu on the histogram panel
to switch to the All Channels view. Now make a
new adjustment layer for Color Balance and
choose Shadows from the tones menu in the Color
Balance panel. The darkest area of our image is
the green foliage in the foreground, and this is
affecting how much of the colour we can actually
see. Use the centre slider to boost the greens to
+5. The Green channels histogram now makes a
U-shape, meaning that its now showing contrast
between the green tones and making the foliage
look much more realistic.

Switch the histogram back to Colors but

leave it in the All Channels view, then make a
new adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation. Shift
the Hue to +10 to further enhance the cool tone
of the image, boost the Saturation by +5 and
increase the Lightness to +5. This brings back
definition, and as you can see from the main
Color histogram, balances the colours of the
image in relation to how they appear in the
individual channel histograms below.

039

 Geneva Benton

040

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

CAFFEE

GENEVA BENTON
DIP INTO HOW GENEVA BENTON CREATED THIS DELICIOUS IMAGE

orth Caroline based Geneva Benton

(www.genevab.com) is a young,
self-taught artist and graphic designer
currently aiming to branch out into the
creative industry. Her colourful digital paintings
typically offer cheerful, whimsical subject matter
thats guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

01

This piece, Caffee, was inspired by longing for

the cakes and candy featured in the illustration: I
was fasting from sweets and suddenly craved
them, so instead of eating sweets I made a still life
of them as inspiration, Benton explains. Such
self-control resulted in a beautiful composition
with distinctively Art Nouveau inspiration, but

INITIAL SKETCH

I start with a basic background colour and basic sketch on another

layer. The Hard Round brush is mostly used for sketching.

02

surprisingly very few tools were used to create it. I

used mainly the Brush tool [Using] standard
Photoshop brushes, Chalk and Hard Round And
[I] used Color Balance to keep it the right shades I
want while rendering it. A great example of how a
simple idea, simply executed, can produce a
beautiful piece of artwork.

FLAT COLOURS

Under the sketch layer I lay down some flat colours. They are usually
colours from a colour scheme I already have in mind.

I was fasting from sweets and suddenly craved them, so instead

of eating sweets I made a still life of them as inspiration

03

ROUGH SHADING

A new layer is made over the flats layer, and set to Multiply.
I roughly shade with the light source in mind. Some Color Balance is used too.

041

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

04

RENDERING ONE

06

RENDERING THREE

08

FINISHING TOUCHES

Now to render! A layer is made over the sketch layer. I mostly use the Chalk brush
with Transfer turned on. I render according to light source and nearby colours.

I continue painting in and adding a few more details on some new layers. A few
objects have been rearranged and the background tone has been set in.

More details are added and the overall image cleaned up. Some layers are
merged together to make it easier to fix or colour over areas if needed in the future.

05

RENDERING TWO

07

THE FINER DETAILS

Continuing to render. Some colours used in shading are brought

in from other sections of the art or are brought in with the Color Picker.

Now I add in some finer details with a smaller Chalk brush and
the Hard Round brush. I have also masked out the old sketch guidelines
that were poking through.

STILL LIFE
INSPIRATION FROM ANOTHER ART STYLE
Geneva Benton says that she wanted this piece to look like
a classic still life the old-fashioned kind featuring food and
drink and the composition and the colour scheme were
directly influenced by that idea. This is great proof that even
the most unlikely sources of inspiration can pay off, as the
final piece looks cool and contemporary.

042

+44 (0) 800 180 4801

[email protected]

cgi illustration by sanders.shiers

Up To: 2x 14-Core CPUs . 256GB DDR4 . 4x AMD FirePro W9100 . 64GB GDDR5 . 24x 4K Displays

www.workstationspecialists.com

Copyright Workstation Specialists Acecad Software Ltd. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their
respective owners. E & OE.

USE THE ADOBE CC SUITE ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE

AND TABLET TO SKETCH ON THE GO AND THEN
INTEGRATE IT INTO PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE
STUNNING DIGITAL ARTWORK

In an era where everybody carries a smart phone

equipped with a decent camera its easier than ever to
explore the world and capture images wherever we go

044

CREATE WITH CC APPS TECHNIQUES

reparation is everything in the world

of digital painting. The more time we
have to gather references, figure out
our composition, test palettes and
sketch ideas before starting a new painting
the more enjoyable and less stressful the
process will be. In an era where everybody
carries a smart phone equipped with a decent
camera its easier than ever to explore the
world and capture images wherever we go.
Even better is that were starting to see more
and more applications, which allow us to take
that information and edit it on the spot,
speeding up the creation process and making
that preparation stage easier than ever.
Adobe offer a great suite of applications for
the iPhone and iPad which can help you prepare
for your next masterpiece without being tied to
your workstation, and they all integrate
seamlessly with each other and with Photoshop

via Creative Cloud. You can photograph landscapes

and turn the colour information into a palette using
Color, or capture objects around the house and
make digital brushes out of them in Brush, then
simply open Photoshop and import that
information at the touch of a button. You can share
your work between applications, sketching ideas
on the train in Sketch then transferring them to
Line for some detailed linework before bringing
the full composition into Draw for refinement and a
colour pass (using the colour information you
obtained earlier, of course). Its a slick process and
one which is especially useful if you find yourself
travelling or simply have a sudden burst of
inspiration on the bus one day.
In this feature we will learn how to use the Adobe
suite to prepare tools and a sketch to take into
Photoshop in order to create a dramatic digital
landscape painting. You will see how, by taking your
time, sketching, researching and using reference

photos, the process of creating artwork becomes

less intimidating and more accessible. We will
cover each application individually and go over
how to use them, tips and tricks to get the most
out of them and how to make them talk to each
other, then how to export your files onto the cloud
and into desktop applications such as Photoshop.
Along the way youll pick up additional titbits of
information such as how to use custom shapes
imaginatively, how to sketch an interesting
composition and use basic colour theory to your
advantage. All of these lessons will teach you to
become a more thoughtful, prepared artist,
something which is incredibly useful in the world
of concept art and illustration for the
entertainment industries.
All you require to get going is an iPhone, iPad,
a copy of Adobe Photoshop and some coffee to
fuel your adventures (this is optional). Lets get
started with Adobe apps!

045

TECHNIQUES CREATE WITH CC APPS

ADOBE BRUSH
TURN PHOTOGRAPHS OF DOODLES OR OBJECTS INTO DIGITAL BRUSHES USING
ADOBE BRUSH, THEN IMPORT THEM INTO PHOTOSHOP FOR TWEAKING

USE YOUR BRUSH

IN SKETCH AND
PHOTOSHOP
IMPORT YOUR NEW BRUSHES INTO
PHOTOSHOP AND TRY THEM OUT
At this stage we have a variety of brushes sitting
in Adobe Brush time to get them into
Photoshop to. Access your CC Library by going to
Window>Libraries; this will pop up a panel
containing everything you have synced with the
Cloud. Click one of the brushes and try scribbling
around on a canvas to get a feel for it. If you want
to further tweak a brush open the Brush panel,
also under Window, and play with the settings
remember to save this as a new pre-set by
clicking the button in the bottom right of the
panel. This will add it to your current brush set.
Try creating several different brushes from the
same shape and experiment with scattering and
stroke spacing to get different results.

Adobe Brush is one of our favourite applications

in the Adobe Suite. It allows you to import
photographs of anything, be it scribbles on a
sketchpad, objects of interest, pet ferrets or real
painted brushstrokes, and turn them into brushes
which are compatible with Photoshop or the
other applications in the suite. Within the app you
can easily tweak settings to create the perfect
brush for a specific job, adding scatter, for
example, or pressure sensitivity, and these
settings can be expanded to an even greater
degree in Photoshop itself.
For this well keep it simple; take some pens,
pencils and any other traditional media you like
(charcoal is fantastic) and doodle some interesting
marks on a blank sheet of paper. Try to space
them out so that you can photograph each mark
individually and photograph them under natural
light if you can you want as much contrast as
possible to separate your doodle from the paper.
Because the software is so powerful and you are
able to tweak so many values, almost anything
can work as a brush; experiment and have fun

with this stage and always think about what you

would like the end result to look like. If you are
looking for a traditional media effect try creating
paintbrush-like marks using pens, or use an actual
brush or palette knife.
Once you have photographed each doodle you
can import it into Adobe Brush. Click the plus
button at the bottom to add a photo from your
Camera Roll, and then choose Photoshop as the
target. Use Crop and Refine to clean the image up,
removing any unwanted information, then hit Next
to access additional settings. Keep an eye on the
preview image at the top of the screen this
shows you how the brush will look when applied.
Remember, you can change any of these settings
in Photoshop so you dont need to get it perfect.
Once you are happy with your new brush hit Save
and it will be added to your library.
To access your brushes in Photoshop open the
Window tab and select Libraries. Here you will find
all synced data from your Adobe suite including
Brushes, Color Themes and more. Select a brush
by clicking on it and you can now use it as normal.

Because the software is so powerful and you are able

to tweak so many values, almost anything can work
as a brush; experiment and have fun with this stage
MAKE A PHOTOSHOP BRUSH
TURN A SERIES OF DOODLES ON PAPER INTO INTERESTING CUSTOM PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES IN MINUTES

01

SCRIBBLE SOME BRUSH SHAPES

With a pen and paper draw some

interesting brush shapes. Try to think of tools
you might find useful in Photoshop soft round
pencils, hard square shapes, textures and
gradients. Look at real brush strokes and try to
draw them. Even try mimicking your favourite
Photoshop brush in your own creative way.

046

02

CROP AND REFINE YOUR BRUSHES

Use Crop to remove any unwanted marks,

bringing your brush shape to the centre. The Refine
slider will attempt to remove the background from
your photo in order to focus on the brush shape you
have created, experiment to get the best balance.

03

TWEAK SETTINGS TO GET THE

BEST RESULT

This is the fun part. Play with the size of your

brush, whether its affected by pen pressure,
the spacing of the strokes, scattering and jitter.
These settings let you tailor the brush to your
exact specification and allow you to get
different results from the same shape.

ADOBE COLOR
SAMPLE COLOUR SCHEMES FROM ANY PHOTOGRAPH WITH ADOBE COLOR,
THEN IMPORT THEM INTO PHOTOSHOP TO USE IN YOUR DIGITAL PAINTINGS
The skys the limit: The sky is one of the most
important aspects of any painting as it dictates
the overall colour of the image as well as the
direction of light, and because of this can
heavily influence the mood of the piece

Variety is the spice of life: When shooting

photographs make sure you find a nice range
of tones and colours in the environment
ideally you want to capture strong shadows,
distant mountains affected by atmospheric
haze, sky tones and more to give your theme
variation and you something to work with

Start by figuring out what

sort of mood you want to
create. Think about what you
want to tell the viewer about
the world you are painting
Colour defines the mood of your painting. Choosing
a strong colour palette is one of the most important
aspects of creating affecting artwork and one
which can be initially daunting. A great way to start
is to work with a limited palette, just a few colours
which work well together, and Adobe Color makes
it easy to create such a scheme by allowing you to
pull the colours directly from a photograph.
Start by figuring out what sort of mood you
want to create. Think about what you want to tell
the viewer about the world you are painting is it
scary and dark? If so perhaps a cold, blue/green
palette would be appropriate. Is it oppressively hot
and aggressive? Reds and oranges would make
sense in this scenario. For this tutorial we want to
create an invitingly warm, sunny spring day, so
spend some time finding photographs that match
the image in your head. We are going to see lots

Point and shoot: Try to photograph a landscape

with similar features or terrain to the
environment you want to paint. This isnt
completely necessary, you can simply use the
colour information to make something
different, but having a decent reference will
help you out during the painting phase

USE YOUR CAPTURED COLOUR PALETTE

IN PHOTOSHOP AND CC APPS
In Photoshop you will find your new Theme
under the Libraries panel. Click on the
colours to select them and try sketching a
little to see how they work together this is
a nice chance to play with your new brushes
and get comfortable with the setup. A quick
colour study of your reference photo can be
a great way to get a feel for them.
As an additional step you can save
swatches of these colours to access later by
of warm yellows, greens and some saturated blue
tones, so try looking at images of meadows or
Nordic valleys. Ideally you should shoot these
photos yourself, this will give you more control
over the end result, but you can also find great
stock images online.
Open Adobe Color and click the plus button to
create a new colour theme, then select your chosen
photograph. The app will instantly identify major
colours in the composition (highlighted by circles)
and place swatches at the top of the screen. You can

opening the Swatch panel under the Window

tab the advantage of using swatches is
being able to name each colour for ease of
use. Its good practice to name your
swatches after the section of the photograph
that they came from, for example sky or
mountain_shadow. To save a new colour to
your swatch panel simply select your colour
from the theme, click the plus icon under
your Swatch panel and give it a name.
move the circles around to select your ideal colour
setup, as well as altering what colours the app will
choose based on your preferred mood by touching
the smiley face in the bottom right hand corner.
This is a powerful tool, allowing you to pull different
colour setups from the same photograph. For this
tutorial we want a bright, colourful environment so
stick with the default setting. When you are happy
with the swatches simply press the tick and give
your new theme a name it will be uploaded to the
Cloud, accessible from Photoshop.

047

TECHNIQUES CREATE WITH CC APPS

ADOBE SKETCH
USE ADOBE SKETCH ON THE IPAD TO LAY THE FOUNDATIONS FOR
YOUR NEW PAINTING WITH LINE ART AND A VALUE STUDY

There are several sketching apps available on the

iPad, each offering different levels of complexity.
Adobe Sketch is deliberately simple and stripped
back, clearly aiming to be as easy to use as possible
for artists of any level, featuring a very small selection
of tools including a digital Pen, Pencil and Eraser.
Because of this it can feel a little light on functionality,
but it does adequately replicate the feeling of carrying
around a sketchpad with a few pens, which was
clearly Adobes intent. Crucially for us it integrates
nicely with the other apps in the Adobe suite allowing
the user to export documents directly to Draw, Line
or even Photoshop itself as a PSD file.
Before you start sketching, organise any
reference images you may have so that theyre
easy to view when you need them. If you are
travelling its worth saving your images your Photo
Library so you can quickly switch applications
while you work. Having some reference material
will help you render more realistic environments
but try not to over-use them if possible training
your imagination is as important as learning to
study an image.
Start by defining the horizon line of the image.

From there start sketching loose lines to indicate

where the mountains will be and work forwards.
There are no rules to this stage; relax and place
lines where you think they make sense. Studying
composition is always useful as it can help you
place objects in the environment in visually
appealing areas of the image. Im using lots of
diagonal lines to add energy and interest to the
composition and making sure to overlap shapes,
which helps to give the environment depth.
Adding rough values to your sketch will help you
to understand how the light falls in the environment
and save you time later on use shades of grey
painted with the larger brush to separate different
areas of the composition. Its worth looking at your
reference photos to see how light and shade work
under the lighting conditions chosen.
While you can sketch on the iPad using your
fingers its definitely worth investing in a decent
stylus this will dramatically increase your
accuracy and general comfort and can give you
an experience not dissimilar to working on a
graphics tablet. There are several models
available so be sure to read reviews and

Adding rough values to

your sketch will help you
to understand how the light
falls in the environment and
save you time later on

SKETCH YOUR COMPOSITION

DRAW YOUR LANDSCAPE AND USE REFERENCE TO HELP YOU PAINT IN THE VALUES IN SKETCH

01

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

Begin by drawing the horizon line. A low

horizon tends to make your image look more
dramatic as larger objects become exaggerated.
Once thats in place begin to loosely define the
main areas of the image use your reference
images to generate ideas if you get stuck or
want some inspiration.

048

02

REFINE YOUR SKETCH

Start to refine the image, using your

exploratory marks to guide you through the
composition. Use bold shapes, diagonal lines
cutting through the landscape give it a
dramatic feel and constantly think about
guiding the viewer to your focal point by letting
the lines point towards it.

03

PAINT IN VALUES

Choose a large brush and begin

sketching in the values. If you havent done this
before, try looking at your reference in
black-and-white and work from that initially.
On a bright day the foreground will generally be
darker, the focal point will have the highest
contrast and the background will be lighter.

ADOBE LINE

CREATE LINE ART BUILDINGS TO SIT IN YOUR LANDSCAPE USING

ADOBE LINE, THEN EXPORT THEM TO THE OTHER ADOBE SUITE APPS

If you need to create detailed drawings

featuring sharp angles or sweeping curves,
Adobe Line is the app to use. This application
uses a variety of implements including rulers,
expandable circles and squares to help you
draw clean line art and thus is perfect for
creating buildings, roads, cities or anything
technical. If you have ever done technical
drawing youll feel comfortable here.
For this painting the city will remain fairly
abstract and instead focus on a few interesting
shapes which hint at the buildings within, but you
can really go to town on the detail here if you
prefer. Bear in mind that the further away from
the camera you place your building or city the less
detail you will be able to show overall, so adjust
your sketch appropriately. Begin by using the
Default Ruler to draw a couple of lines and get a
feel for the program. It operates quite differently
to the other apps in the suite so may require a
little practice to adjust to the workflow. You will
need to use both fingers to manipulate the ruler,
allowing you to rotate and resize it, then draw a
line down the edge using one of the Pen tools
available at the bottom of the screen. Notice that
Line features snapping once you have made a
mark the ruler will automatically attempt to line
your next mark up with its edges, making it easy
to lock your shapes together.
Depending on how detailed your sketch was
you may find that you need to re-sketch the city
area before moving to Line in order to figure out
how the shapes work. Reference may once
again prove useful here, especially if you plan to
add more detail and perspective to your line art.
From here on its simply a case of following your
sketches and using the various tools to draw a
detailed version.
Exporting your line art is painless as well as
exporting to the Creative Cloud you can also go
directly to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator too if
youre a vector wizard. Right now we just want to
export to the Creative Cloud once were finished.

Bear in mind that the

further away from the
camera you place your building
or city the less detail you will
be able to show overall

Using rulers: The Rulers,

Circles, Square and Triangular
tools of Adobe Line are what
set it apart from the other
applications in the suite. These
allow you to accurately draw
line art which can be imported
into other applications

Choose your tool: Adobe Line

features some of the same
drawing tools as the other
applications, allowing you to
mimic traditional media in your
line work and break away from
the digital look. Pencils are great
for this stage

Colour between the lines:

Although we arent colouring
at this stage, notice that you
have access to your themes
in Adobe Line. Click on the
circular shape to access the
installed themes as well as
any you have saved

WORK UP YOUR LINE DRAWINGS

BOUNCE BETWEEN APPS TO ENSURE YOUR COMPOSITION IS ACCURATE

Because you will be painting over the line
art once everything is exported to Photoshop
it is not necessary for it to be extremely neat,
instead focus on drawing interesting shapes
and thinking about how they will look in the
environment. Flick between Line and Sketch
regularly by double tapping the home button
on your device and selecting the desired app
to make sure the perspective is working and
that it will fit into your landscape. Remember
that you can always make changes later to
help them flow together, were still in the
exploratory preparation phase of the painting
after all. Erasing lines isnt quite as intuitive
as creating them, the eraser tends to leave
messy edges if you make a mistake swipe
left with two fingers to undo your last line.

049

TECHNIQUES CREATE WITH CC APPS

ADOBE SHAPE
CREATE CUSTOM VECTOR SHAPES FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, DRAWINGS
OR OBJECTS USING ADOBE SHAPE, THEN USE THEM IN PHOTOSHOP
TO ADD DETAILS TO YOUR PAINTING

Custom shapes are one of the most powerful and

under-used tools available in Adobe Photoshop.
As vector images, they can be stretched, resized
and distorted with no loss of image quality, and as
such are fantastic for adding small details or
creating huge abstract forms. Traditionally these
would be created directly in Photoshop through a
fairly complicated process involving photographs
and masks, but thanks to Adobe Shape its easy
to replicate this process on your iPhone.
To begin, open Adobe Shape and youll
immediately be presented with the camera interface
with a large slider and a button in the bottom right. If
you are planning to take a photo with the app you
should first use the button to select whether the
object you are shooting is dark on a light
background or light on a dark background. Adjust
the slider so that your chosen object is highlighted in
green anything green will be incorporated into the
shape. Spend some time adjusting this, you may
find that you have to shoot under different light.

Here we are going to sample a bird image for

our painting. Birds are an easy way to start as they
are often used to give scale to a concept
environment, but because they are a little difficult to
photograph we are going to find a good royalty free
photograph online and save it to the Camera Roll.
As with Adobe Brush, try to find an image with
decent contrast you want to make it easy for the
application to separate the object from the
background. To import your photograph press the
cross button in the bottom left hand corner to take
you out of camera mode then the plus to add a new
shape from the Camera Roll. Once you have
chosen your photo you can adjust the green
selection as before. Press the Take Photo button to
process your new shape and give it a name. It will
be added to your Cloud Library automatically,
accessible within Photoshop alongside your
Brushes and Color Themes.
Try experimenting with your new shapes in
Photoshop and dont be afraid to think outside the

Birds are an easy way

to start as they are
often used to give scale to
a concept environment
box a seagull brush can be stretched to create
landscape shapes or mountain textures, for example.
Create a small library of interesting shapes for this
purpose, taking images of trees, mountains, vehicles
and skies and use them as vector brushes.

CAPTURE SHAPES TO USE IN PHOTOSHOP

TURN A SEAGULL INTO A USEFUL CUSTOM SHAPE FOR USE IN YOUR DIGITAL PAINTINGS WITH ADOBE SHAPE

01

FIND A SUITABLE BIRD

Find a royalty free photograph of a

seagull or similar bird online. Wiki Commons are
particularly good for free stock images as they
offer nice images at high resolutions. Save the
photo to your Camera Roll.

050

02

REFINE YOUR SELECTION

Choose Shape On Light Background to

highlight the bird then play with the slider to refine
the selection. You want to retain as much detail as
possible without including any of the background.
Press the Shutter button when you are finished.

03

SAVE YOUR NEW BIRD SHAPE

Once the application has finished drawing

the shape you can name it ready to import into
Photoshop through the CC library. Experiment with
different shapes and see how they work in
Photoshop remember you have total control
over these vectors so try using them like brushes
and see what happens.

ADOBE DRAW
REFINE THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF YOUR SKETCH USING ADOBE
DRAW WITH THE TOOLS YOU CREATED EARLIER AND CREATE
A COLOUR MOCKUP

CREATE A COLOUR
MOCKUP
USE THE BRUSHES AND COLOUR
THEME YOU CREATED EARLIER TO ADD
SOME COLOURS TO YOUR SKETCH

01

SELECT YOUR COLOURS

Open the Color Theme browser to view

the palettes available in Adobe Draw. Any
themes you have created with Adobe Color will
appear here simply tap a colour to select it. If
you wish to edit the colour, changing hue or
saturation, tap the colour wheel icon at the top.

The reason we are working at lower opacity is to allow

the sketch to show through, build up the colour through
various washes rather than applying heavy blobs

02

START PAINTING IN COLOUR

03

FILL THE CANVAS

Start by applying light washes of

colour over your image. Its best to start with
the sky tone then begin working into each area
of the painting. Use your reference image to
help with your colour choices.

Continue working in each area of the

image until it resembles a basic version of the
final. Dont worry about detail, we can deal
with that in the real painting, the goal is to fill
the canvas with colours which can then be
refined in Photoshop.

Adobe Draw is probably the most fully featured app in

the Adobe suite, offering a comprehensive drawing
and painting package for your iPad or iPhone. It
allows importing of images and supports multiple
layers meaning you can trace photos or paint over
them, and because of this its ideal for adding some
colour to our sketch in order to further prepare for the
real painting. Like the value sketch we created earlier,
a colour mock-up is going help remove the stress of
colour choice during the painting phase allowing us
to enjoy the process of rendering. Draw integrates
everything we have already created so far, bringing
together the brushes, shapes and colour themes, and
thanks to the layer support you can even import your
line work from Adobe Line.
To get started, lets import the sketch created in the
Adobe Sketch app. Press the Layer button on the left
hand side of the screen just under the colour circle.
This will pop up the Layer tab allowing you to add
new layers, change their opacity and move them
around. Tap the Photo Layer and either select On my
iPhone to choose an image in your Camera Roll or
My Files to pull the sketch directly from Creative
Cloud. Next, create a new layer above your sketch on

which to apply colour. Press the Color button to bring

up the installed themes and select the theme you
created earlier we will use this palette to create
our colour mock-up. Once again we dont have to be
neat during this stage, this is just another guideline
for the actual painting. Grab a big brush and lower
the Opacity to around 20% then start gently working
in those colours. The reason we are working at
lower opacity is to allow the sketch to show through,
building up the colour through various washes
rather than applying heavy blobs. Use your
reference to guide you when applying colour, paying
close attention to how the shadows differ from the
lighter areas and thinking about where to
exaggerate tones and where to hold back. The
same rules apply here as to the value study we
created earlier distant objects will appear lighter
and more blue due to atmospheric perspective
while the foreground tends to be darker and more
saturated. The end goal for this stage is to use
every colour in the theme we created and to have
an image that, if you squint at it, will roughly
resemble the final paintings tones. When you are
finished export this image to the Cloud as before.

051

TECHNIQUES CREATE WITH CC APPS

BRING IT TOGETHER
TAKE YOUR NEW TOOLS, SKETCHES AND STUDIES INTO PHOTOSHOP
AND USE THEM TO CREATE POLISHED, FINAL ARTWORK

ADOBE DRAW
Plan your painting
If you squint your eyes youll see
that the colours used in the final image
arent too far away from what we
produced in the colour mock-up. Being
able to create sketches like this
anywhere is one of the biggest
advantages of the Adobe suite

ADOBE LINE
Solve problems with lines
Simplify the shapes of the city so
that they dont draw too much attention
from the landscape. Working out those
shapes using the detailed line tools
available in Adobe Line can be extremely
useful in the early stages

ADOBE COLOR
Strong palettes read well
You can clearly see how effective
using a photo palette is in this painting
despite the landscape being heavily
stylised it still retains a relatively realistic
feel thanks to the natural colour choices

052

IN PHOTOSHOP
ADOBE SKETCH
Preparation is everything
Thanks to the relatively detailed
sketch and value study we made earlier
youll notice that the composition has
barely changed. The painting process was
also extremely relaxing as we had already
solved 90 per cent of the problems that
typically arise in a new piece of art

ADOBE SHAPE
Add life with flocks of birds
The bird custom shapes we
created earlier add life and movement to
an otherwise static image. They are also
useful indications of scale and make the
already large environment feel huge

ADOBE BRUSH
Get traditional with your brushes
Here you can see how the
textured brushes we created earlier can
be used to create a traditional media look
in your digital painting. Try using the
Mixer brush tool in conjunction with your
brushes for added texture

053

054

MASTER RENDER FLAME TECHNIQUES

MASTER
RENDER FLAME

HOW TO USE THIS NEW FILTER TOOL WITH YOUR OWN

ND FLAME ELEMENTS ALONG THE PATHS YOU CREATE

hat if Photoshop had the potential to

deliver composite elements at the
touch of a button? What if you didnt
have to spend extra time shooting
elements like fire and sparks, or scouring the
Internet for stock images?
Not only has Photoshop given us the ability
render our own trees in past editions, but now in
Photoshop CC 2014 we are able to use the new
Render Flame filter to create our own fire elements

from scratch. In this tutorial we will show you how

easy it is to create your own flames, sparks, and
other fire elements straight from your imagination.
To get the most from this tutorial, an average to
advanced understanding of layers, blending modes,
and the Pen tool will definitely prove to be beneficial.
Discover how to take it one step further by not only
using the Render Flame technique, but also
combining the render technique with real fire
element photographs.

OUR EXPERT
BRANDON CAWOOD

www.brandoncawood.com
@brandon_cawood
Brandon Cawood is a commercial
and advertising photographer
from Georgia, USA. He
specialises in high-energy
composites and does his own
retouching and Photoshop work.

SOURCE FILES
Check out FileSilo for an
alternative background, fire,
clouds, and spark images for
personal use images. Use them
to assist and enhance your own
Render Flame images.

SKETCH, PLAN AND PROCESS

BE SURE TO CONSIDER LIGHTING WHEN SHOOTING YOUR IMAGES

01

BEGIN WITH A SKETCH

When trying to pull off any composite,

proper planning is essential but even more so
when a client has a specific idea in mind. Having
a sketch will allow you to explain your vision to
your talent or client, or in this case allow the
client to explain their vision.

WORK IN
PROGRESS
FROM CONCEPTION
TO CREATION

Progress 1: Concept and sketch

Progress 2: Capturing effects

in camera

02

LIGHT THE PHOTOSHOOT

Whenever you plan to have a lighting

source, such as fire, close to your subjects body in
your final image, its very beneficial to create a
stand-in light during the actual photoshoot itself.
By placing CTO gel inside of a globe modifier you
are not only able to get the global light you need,
but also the orange colour cast as well.

03

PROCESS YOUR SUBJECT BEFORE MASKING

Its always good to process your model

image before you do your masking. There are many
different methods or presets that aid in processing
but they sometimes leave the edges of your subjects
with haloing or hard lines. To avoid having lines or
haloing in your final image, process first. This way
you can make sure your masks are tight enough that
any haloing or hard lines get eliminated.

Progress 3: Mastering

Render Flame

055

TECHNIQUES MASTER RENDER FLAME

04

MASK THE BODY

The key to any great composite is having

very clean masks. Focus on the body and clothing
first. Always add a layer mask so you can use black to
remove and white to add back. A pen tablet comes in
handy. Take your time. Zoom in to 500% and with a
black Hard brush, set at 8 pixels, follow the outline of
what you want to extract. If you make a mistake, just
switch your brush to white and paint it back. To make
sure you are masking out everything that needs to be
transparent, press the \ key and your mask will turn
red. Press it again to turn it off.

05

MASK THE HAIR

When you have contrast between the hair

and background, extracting the hair is much easier.
Duplicate your subject and add a Hue adjustment
layer and a Levels adjustment layer. Bring the
Saturation all the way down on the Hue layer. With
the Levels layer move the left and right sliders
towards the middle. The idea is to make the
background as white as possible and the hair as
dark as possible without distorting it. Use the Quick
Selection tool to select the face and all the hair.
Then you want to use Refine Edge to refine and
apply your mask.

06

PREPARE THE BACKGROUND

The main problem with the background

image is it was taken during the day instead of in
darkness. This is a simple fix. First you want to
follow the same procedures from Steps 3 and 4
and extract the buildings by masking the sky. After
that you want to drop an image of some dark
storm clouds behind the city image. Use a Curves
adjustment clipped to the background or the
clouds to get the exposures about the same. Group
the two images and clip a Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer to the group and bring the
Saturation down to about 50%. Colours arent as
vibrant when its dark and cloudy.

QUICK TIP
Its not uncommon to come to a crossroads when creating an image. Sometimes you see two very
different end results in your mind. Try them both! Save your PSD under two different names and try
out both ideas. Compare them and decide what one you like better. You may even decide to use
them both for different things.

07

MAKE THE EYES POP

Making the eyes of your subject pop can

really add emotion into the image. The key is to keep
it subtle but effective. Create a Curves adjustment
layer on top of all the other layers. When you do this
it will have its own mask already filled with white.
You want to fill the mask with black and grab a white
brush. Paint in the mask only over the pupils and iris.
Now you want to make an S shape on your Curves
layers. On your graph add a point about a quarter of
the way up, one in the middle, and one about
three-quarters of the way up. Leave the one in the
middle and bring the top one up slightly and the
bottom one down. You can now adjust the opacity of
this layer if the effect is over the top.

056

08

COLOUR MATCH THE SUBJECT AND BACKGROUND

Use an individual Curves adjustment layer on top of the background layer. Make sure it is clipped
to only the background layer by selecting Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Use the RGB channel to adjust the
exposure so that it matches the model. Next use Channels to match the temperature of the model. You
may want to repeat this process on the model. You will end up blending the two images even more when
you get to colour grading.

USE THE RENDER FLAME FILTER

COMBINE THE RENDER FLAME FILTER WITH A REAL FIRE IMAGE AND SPARKS

09

ADJUST SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS

If you feel that your highlights are too bright or not bright enough you can adjust them without
affecting your shadows. Add a new Curves adjustment layer above all other layers. Adjust the RGB
channel accordingly. This is just like Step 8 but we are using the RGB channel instead of the blue
channel. With your Curves adjustment layer selected go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. At the
bottom of the window you will see two sliders under Underlying Layer. Hold down Alt/Option then click
and drag the right corner of the black slider all the way to the right. This will cause the Curves to only
affect the highlights in the image. Do the opposite for shadow adjustments.

10

The Render Flame filter is a great way to create

custom flames quickly and effectively and its
relatively easy! For this composite we want to put
some flames on the buildings in the background.
Create a new blank layer above your background.
Grab the Pen tool and create a path where you would
like the fire to go. Next go to Filter>Render>Flame.
A dialog box will open up. You can adjust the type of
flame you want, the direction, the width, and much
more. Choose the quality you want the flame to be
rendered at. Once you get your flames the way you
want them, click OK. Deselect your path and you will
have a custom flame on its own layer. Turn the
blending mode to Screen.

002

001
003

001 BE PREPARED

Having a vision is crucial in executing a

well-balanced image. Having a plan will
keep you organised and on track to
creating something special

11

002 MATCHING COLOUR IS KEY

Making sure the colour temperature
and exposure match between your
subject and background is crucial to
creating a believable image

RENDER FLAME ON THE HAND

For this image you want flames to look like

they are riding up the fingers of the subject. This is
where Render Flame can be more effective and
beneficial than using real photos of fire. You are
going to want to focus on one finger at a time. Follow
the same procedure as Step 10 but make sure to put
each flame on its own layer so you can Transform
and Warp it if you need to. Since we are going to use
a photo of fire for the main fireball, make sure that
your finger flames go past the fingertips and flare
out so they blend with the real fire elements.

12

USE RENDER FLAME

ON THE BACKGROUND

003 ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Pay attention to even the smallest of

details. Even if no-one else notices, you
will sleep better knowing you put
everything you had into your work!

CREATE SPARKS

To create sparks you will reverse the

process a little. Create a new layer and grab a Hard
Round brush set at 8 pixels. Start drawing very
small dots and dashes about the size of sparks.
Use the Magic Wand tool to select the negative
space of the layer then inverse the selection. Next
go to your Paths panel then click the Make Work
Path from Selection icon. Follow the procedure
from Step 10 and make sure to change your
blending mode to Screen. Add a Motion Blur to
give the sparks some motion.

The Render Flame filter is a

great way to create custom
flames quickly and effectively
and its relatively easy!

13

ADD REAL FIRE ELEMENTS AND SMOKE

Although you are using Render Flame to

create custom fire elements, its hard to beat the real
thing. For the main fireball use a real photo of fire on
a black background. Put the fire on top of the layer
you want it to be over and turn the blending mode to
Screen. On you keyboard hold down Cmd/Ctrl+T.
This will allow you to transform and size your flame.
Follow the same steps to add fog and smoke. A
great smoke and fog package can be bought at
www.phlearn.com. Use a Levels adjustment layer
to adjust the amount of fog or smoke.

057

TECHNIQUES MASTER RENDER FLAME

ENHANCE IT AND ADD THE FINISHING TOUCHES

MAKE YOUR IMAGE MORE REALISTIC WITH SOME FINAL TWEAKS

14

ENHANCE THE FLAMES GLOW ON

THE BODY

Add a blank layer above your subject. Grab a Soft

brush, change the Opacity to around 20% and
make it orange. Take your brush and paint over
your subject where the light from the fire should
be hitting them. Clip the layer to your model layer
so it only affects that. Turn your blending mode
to Color. Use the procedure from Step 9 to make
it only affect the highlights. Add a layer mask and
mask out any areas that shouldnt have the glow
from the fire.

15

FINAL COLOUR GRADING

18

SAVE IT

First add a Channel Mixer adjustment

layer. Choose the Black and White With Green
preset. You will notice this turns your image black
and white. You want to use this adjustment for
some desaturation so bring the Opacity down to
15%. Next add a Color Balance adjustment layer.
The Color Balance adjustments will vary from
image to image so play around with them to get
the look you want. For this image the Shadows and
Midtones were pushed towards the cyan and blue
tones, while the Highlights were pushed towards
the red and yellow tones.

16

SHARPEN

Save your PSD. Once you have saved it

select Layer>Flatten Image. Make a duplicate copy
of the flattened image by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J.
Select your top layer. Next select Filter>Sharpen>
Unsharp Mask. Adjust the sliders as needed based
on file size. While still on the top layer, select
Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. You can then use a
Soft brush set to black to remove the sharpening
from any areas you dont want it. You can also use
the opacity to pull down the sharpening over the
entire image.

QUICK TIP
An easy way to enhance your fire elements even
further is to duplicate the layer. After that add a
Gaussian Blur with a radius of about 30 to give
your fire elements a nice soft glow. Use this on
flames as well as sparks.

17

ADD GRAIN

Lastly add grain. Create a new layer above

your sharpened image. Hold down Shift and click
Delete. Choose Fill with 50% Gray. Change the
blending mode of this layer to Soft Light. Next
select Filter>Noise>Add Noise. The size of your
image will determine the amount you use. Choose
Uniform and leave Monochromatic unselected.
Once you apply, hold down Cmd/Ctrl+U. Then pull
down the Saturation to -85%. Leaving a little colour
in the grain will make it look more natural. Make
sure to do this step at full zoom. You can adjust the
opacity if it feels like its too much. Save your PSD
with all layers intact.

058

You can save the image several different ways depending on its use. If you are going to use a good
quality printing lab you can leave the image in Adobe RGB and select File>Save As. Save the file as a JPEG
or TIFF. If you are planning on using a low-end printer or saving for online use you want to convert to SRGB.
Select Edit>Convert to Profile. Choose Working RGB. Save it the same way as before. For online use its
good to scale it down before saving. Select File>Automate>Fit Image. Do a width of 2048 pixels and a height
of 2048 pixels. Save it as a JPEG, and put it in a separate folder so you know its for online use.
VISUAL HELP
Sometimes techniques like Render Flame are hard to grasp in written form. A video or visual
explanation can sometimes help. Brendon Cawood has created a video tutorial to go along with the
Render Flame portion of this tutorial. You can find it by going to his website www.brandoncawood.com
and clicking on the video tutorials page. You will find videos that go into further depth explaining how to
incorporate the fire elements as well as colour grading.

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I used stock imagery to bring details in; it saved me

a lot of time instead of modelling all of them

Edvin Puzinkevich

060

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

KEEP COLD IN
YOUR FRIDGE NOT
IN YOUR HEART

EDVIN PUZINKEVICH

DISCOVER HOW EDVIN PUZINKEVICH COMBINED PHOTOSHOP

AND CINEMA 4D TO CREATE THIS ICECOOL IMAGE

ward-winning digital artist Edvin

Puzinkevich (www.behance.net/edvin)
has certainly moved around a fair bit
during his career and had a variety of
jobs. The Latvian-born artist has worked at
Unisono in Bahrain as a visualiser and illustrator, at
We Are XYZ in San Francisco as a senior creative
retoucher, and is currently senior retoucher at
Vault49 in New York.

01

BASE RENDER

First of all the body of the character was

modelled and rendered out in Cinema 4D so that it
could form the basis of the image.

This image was created for a competition

called Think.Eat.Save, aimed at highlighting the
issue of food waste. The idea behind the picture
is to show that by buying too much food we
make it prisoners in our fridges, he explains. I
chose a carrot because the colour of it is
reminiscent of prisoners clothes in the US.
This was one of Puzinkevichs first forays into
cartoon-style CGI characters, and he created the

image in a mix of Cinema 4D and Photoshop,

relying on stock photography to get the exact
expressions he wanted. To get the right
expression of eyes and lips was essential for this
picture I used stock imagery to bring details in;
it saved me a lot of time instead of modelling all
of them. The last step was bringing all elements
together, which usually takes a lot of [time and]
attention to detail.

02

03

TEXTURE AND COLOURS

Using stock images I completed the

character and balanced the colours of all parts of the
body. I applied a real texture of an out-of-date carrot
to the character to get a realistic look.

ADDING DETAILS

I added a prisoners shackle to the leg,

and painted in shadows under the chain. For the
drop shadow I used the original shadow from the
shackle image and set it to Multiply mode.

061

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

05

BACKGROUND

06

PLACEMENT AND SCALE

This image from a stock photo worked

perfectly for the scene. I used a slight Gaussian blur
on the fridge door to bring focus to the area where
the character is supposed to be placed.

04

MORE DETAILS

The green leaves are from a stock

image of a fresh carrot. To make it look faded
I bent it with the Warp tool.

Initially I just placed the character and the

milk carton without shadows, just to find the right
scale for the objects. The milk carton was left blank
to keep the focus on the character.

3D AND PHOTOSHOP
CC MAKES IT EASIER TO CREATE WITH 3D OBJECTS
Photoshop has been an essential part of texturising static 3D
imagery for a while now, and the 3D updates to Photoshop CC
have made this even easier. You can extrude 3D assets from 2D
layers and objects, or import a host of common 3D file types from
Blender, Cinema 4D and many more. This makes it a cinch to
combine 3D and 2D elements for incredibly detailed artwork.

07

SHADOWS AND REFLECTION

08

VIGNETTE

The fridge controller did not work well so I moved it a bit further away from
the character. I also painted in shadows and reflections. The shadow on the milk
carton was rendered in Cinema 4D.

Finally I added a vignette to reinforce the focal point of the composition and
enhance the light coming out of the open fridge door.

062

Keep cold in your fridge not in your heart:

This image combined Photoshop and Cinema 4D

to create realistic depth with a cartoon look

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TECHNIQUES PAINT CONCEPT ART FOR ARCHVIS

PAINT CONCEPT ART

FOR ARCHVIS
FOLLOW THESE DIGITAL SKETCHING AND PAINTING TECHNIQUES TO
CREATE AN ARCHITECTURAL PIECE READY FOR 3D RENDERING

earn how to use Photoshop to create a

complex architectural piece from scratch
with this tutorial. You will see how a
simple sketch is established followed by
detailed shading and texturing steps and
eventually final touches that will help present
your design in the best way possible.
Photoshop is perfect for working on
architectural sketches and paintings. There are a
vast variety of tools, techniques and shortcuts
built in to the software that makes it easy for
both beginners to jump in and professionals to
speed up their process of creating artwork. The
time it takes a skilled artist to complete

064

something is a huge factor in production,

therefore quite often a conceptual artwork like the
one shown in this tutorial is only one version of
many you may provide to your art director. Being
fast and efficient is the key to surviving as a
successful Photoshop artist.
With this tutorial you will learn shortcuts
and alternative techniques that will enhance
your skillset.
This piece is created as concept art that
will later be rendered into full 3D arch-vis for
an advertising campaign. You can see the
completed renders and video here at
www.tinyurl.com/qxye8fm.

OUR EXPERT
RAMN VOIGT

www.behance.net/rammmon
Ramn is a concept artist in the film,
television and advertising industry
creating interior, architecture and
environment artwork. For several
years he has worked at LIGA 01
Computerfilm for clients like Audi,
Base, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, ARD
and Commerz-Bank.

065

TECHNIQUES PAINT CONCEPT ART FOR ARCHVIS

WORK IN
PROGRESS
FROM SKETCH TO
FINISHED ARTWORK

Progress 1: Create an

architectural sketch

01
Progress 2: Add a light source,

textures and detail

Progress 3: Presentation

is everything

SETTING UP THE PERSPECTIVE

Open a new document sized at least

3840x2160 (double HD 1920x1080). Make your mind
up on how you want your architecture to be presented.
Put your horizon line in the lower part of the picture
and vanishing points slightly out of frame. Create a
new layer and paint a straight line for the horizon. On a
new layer create several parallel horizontal lines.
Right-click and Convert to Smart Object. This enables
you to make changes easily later. Now go to Edit>
Transform>Perspective and adjust the lines so they
vanish towards the horizon. Repeat this for a second
vanishing point. This should ensure a solid basic
two-point-perspective for a skyscraper design.

02

SKETCH THE BUILDING

Create a new layer and start sketching your complex.

Focus on proportion, style and scale. A big help while sketching
technical objects or architecture in Photoshop is the Shift button,
because it enables you to make straight lines horizontally and
vertically. You can also make diagonal lines by making a dot with
your brush, then holding down the Shift button and making a dot
again somewhere else. Or just rotate your canvas with the hotkey
R and make a horizontal or vertical line as described before.

As a concept artist or digital painter

in general its always useful to
create your own library of textures
and reference images

04
03

ESTABLISH THE LIGHT

For now you dont need the perspective guidelines any more. You can simply hide the layers or
layer group. Before going into shading and detailing the architecture, lets define the light source in the
scene. Everything will follow that definition. Use big Soft brushes or the Gradient tool to establish a
dramatic saturated sky. Put the sun out of frame and brighten the horizon line a tiny bit. Also make sure
the tones of the sky vary from cyan tones to darker indigo blue. This will make it more realistic.
QUICK TIP
Before going into shading and detailing the architecture, lets define the light source in the scene.
Everything will follow that definition.

066

CREATE THE SILHOUETTE

Now lets create a silhouette layer for your

building. You dont have to make a new layer yet. This
comes later and saves you some clicks for now. Just
pick the Polygonal Lasso and start making a
selection of the outline of your complex, then go to
Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color. This will create a
new adjustment layer with your selection already in
the layer mask. Make sure the layer is located right
underneath your sketch. Now double-click on the
colour icon of the adjustment layer to open the Color
Picker. Choose white as your base silhouette to
make your buildings pop out in front of the sky.

05

ADD TEXTURES

Now we want to put some textures in place

to have a base to paint on. As a concept artist or
digital painter in general its always useful to create
your own library of textures and reference images.
Choose one texture of a glass facade, ideally
undistorted and photographed from the front. Drag
the images onto your canvas. This usually creates a
Smart Object of the image. Now match the textures
lines to the pictures perspective. When you are done,
hit Enter to end the transformation. If you are not
sure about the position of the vanishing points,
unhide the guidelines from Step 1. When you are
satisfied with the texture, you dont need the Smart
Object any more, right-click on the layer and select
Rasterize Layer. Next, mask overlapping parts of the
texture by painting with black on the layer mask.
Repeat this step on a few more surfaces.

06

07

REFINE SHADOWS AND EDGES

Continue working on the overall shading.

Ask yourself where objects or buildings are
standing very close to each other and creating deep
shadow areas. Select a small brush to highlight
edges that directly face towards the light source.
This will make your objects more brilliant. Always
create a new layer from time to time, when you
start working on different areas or buildings. This
will later make it easier to reflect and make
changes if necessary. It also helps a lot in
production when your client or art director wants
you to remove elements. Then you can simply hide
the layer without over-painting those elements.

START SHADING

Lets start filling in some parts the texture is

not covering up. Always use selection in combination
with big, soft brushes. It is a great way to create sharp
edges in contrast to smooth, wide surfaces. Also try to
combine multiple selection methods to achieve the
selection you want. When you have completed one
selection simply hold down Shift to add another
selection to the existing or hold alt to reduce some
parts. When you start shading several areas always
have in mind where the light is coming from and
where shadows are being cast.

QUICK TIP
Real reflections behave in different ways and the best ones for your purposes when
painting architecture are diffuse reflections. These dont reflect accurate details, they
reflect softer light and shade, so they add instant realism without needing accuracy.

08

ADD REFLECTIONS

Some parts are still looking very dull and not reflective at
all. We are going to change that now. Select a big brush with
Pressure Sensitivity set to Opacity. Pick the colour of the surface
and shift its brightness a few per cent. Now paint big straight
shapes onto the surface to imitate reflection. Erase parts that dont
fit by selecting them and hit Backspace or just use the Eraser tool.
In such cases it is always helpful to look at real reflections and
references to train yourself and learn.

09

ADD LIGHT AND SHADOW

In this step we continue making our building complex sculptural with light and
shadow. You can achieve that by pushing some shapes further inside the form by
selecting an area and paint in a darker value. Also pick white and paint some big overall
glares on a new layer to strengthen the light side of the buildings.

067

TECHNIQUES PAINT CONCEPT ART FOR ARCHVIS

10

THE DETAILS

Now go ahead and continue refining edges

and make certain details pop out. The whole process
of adding detail can be very long. You need to figure
out by yourself how much effort you want to put in or
how much time you have been given by the client.
QUICK TIP
There is one more technique to check your
values. Simply create a black layer on the very
top of your layer stack and set its blend mode to
Color. Now your image turns black-and-white
and you can clearly analyse your values.

13

INSERT OVERALL REFLECTIONS

14

COMPLETE THE SCENE

Lets add more reflections to the

buildings and the surroundings. Create a new
layer and paint dark shapes inside the facades.
Dont be afraid of adding too much. You are
working with layers. Everything is separate.
When you are done, create a layer mask and
reduce and refine those painted reflections. Now
go to the blend mode drop-down menu and
select Overlay. This will not only darken some
areas but push the saturation. In cases like this
Overlay is a fun and powerful effect.

12

REFINE DETAILS AND CHECK VALUES

In this phase we are reconsidering the

overall brightness of the buildings one more time.
At this stage the main tower in the middle is kind of
blurring into the blue sky. A common technique to
check your composition is simply to zoom out very
far. Then you see the silhouette is not clearly
readable. So we are going to make our main focal
point pop up once more. Again create a new layer,
select the area to brighten and paint with a big soft
brush until the tower sticks out.

CREATE DEPTH

To create more dimension in the scene lets

put a skyline in the background to make this
complex integrated in a huge city environment. Look
for images that fit our perspective and pay attention
to resolution. We are creating a mid-size artwork
and do not want pixelated elements in between. Drag
the skyline onto the canvas and Rasterize it. Move
the image beside our main complex and scale it
down. Select all the buildings and shore elements
you want to keep. Click on the layer mask icon to
mask the skyline. Copy the layer by pressing
Cmd/Ctrl+J and move it to the other side. Try to use
different parts of the skyline to avoid repetition.

068

11

There is still one blank part of the image left in the lower area. It would be really nice to add a
water surface here, just to reflect some highlights and parts of our buildings. Create a new blank layer and
place a rectangular selection in the area where you want to illustrate the water. Now select various shades
and colours of the main and background buildings located just above with the Eyedropper tool (Shortcut I)
and paint soft vertical reflections (Alternatively: hold Alt to switch your cursor to the Color Picker, while
using the Brush tool). Now go to Filter>Distort>Wave and put in the following settings: Number of
Generators: 20, Wavelength Min. 1, Max. 25, Amplitude Min. 1, Max. 2 and Scale Horiz. 100% and Vert. 1%,
Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels. Now you have a good basis to refine the water. Do so by playing
around with the Wave filter, by adding tiny horizontal brush strokes with white and distorting the surface a
bit more with the Smudge tool.

15

ADD COLOUR

In this step we are going to add some detail

in the form of colour to the centre of the complex.
Lets just pretend in between those buildings is a
huge atrium and the company who owns this facility
is hosting a big event right there. Of course they are
going to have very powerful and amazing lightshows going on. We are going to use that story to
make our picture more interesting. Pick a red tone,
which is a complementary colour to the overall blue
of the image, and paint in details, where the light
would hit the facades.

16

ADD DETAIL FOR SCALE

We are now adding an aeroplane and some jet trails to intensify the metropolitan feel of the scene
and illustrate the big scale of the complex. Paint a tiny white shape of a plane in the top left corner of the
image. Add a soft glare to it to make it pop out. Now on a separate layer, paint two long, soft, diagonal and
white strokes, where one should obviously connect with the plane. Now again use the Smudge tool to
make them more organic and cloud-like.

Smart Objects and adjustment layers provide the flexibility

necessary to give you a truly non-destructive workflow

18

ADD CHROMATIC ABERRATION

To push the image ahead of its pure, digital

feel, we are going to add chromatic aberration and
grain. Click on the top layer in your layer stack, now
create a new merge layer of everything visible on the
canvas, by pressing Shift+Alt+Cmd/Ctrl+E. Select this
layer and go to Filter>Lens Correction. Open the
second tab, Custom, and adjust the Fix Red/Cyan
Fringe to +100 and the Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe
to -100. Hit OK. When you zoom in you will notice
some slight colour shifting around the edges.

19

17

COLOUR CORRECTION

20

GOOD PRACTICE

At first add a new layer, pick a soft brush

with the Opacity set to 20% and paint in some more
glares. Now go to the adjustment layer panel and
select Color Balance and push the colours to a
slightly warmer look. Cyan/Red +1, Magenta/Green
+15 and Yellow/Blue -10. Create a Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer and lower the Saturation by -30.
Yes, that looks better. Create one more layer, add
some more blues for the sky, brighten the
insolation from the right and push down the value of
the top left corner. Group all these layers by
selecting them and hit Cmd/Ctrl+G.

FINAL OVERALL TEXTURE

Lets put some film grain on top of the

picture. We do so by creating a new empty layer at
the very top of the picture. Fill this layer with a 50%
grey (RGB 128/128/128 or HSB 0/0/50) by selecting
the Paint Bucket tool and clicking on the canvas.
Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set the amount
to 10% and make sure Uniform is selected and
Monochromatic is Off. Now go to Filter>Noise>
Median and set the Radius to one pixel. The last thing
is setting your layers blend mode to Overlay.

Last but not least its important to label your

artwork with the project name, subject or task,
creation date and your name. In bigger productions
whether commercial, game or feature, where several
artists are constantly creating output, it is very useful to
put this information into the picture so supervisors,
producers and directors can refer to certain artwork at
a glance. With your artwork finalised, its time for it to
be passed to the 3D department for rendering.

069

lo
C ar

sQ

ue v

ad o

Mechanical Dragon is a fantasy piece with a lot of

steampunk influence; that was my main inspiration
070

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

MECHANICAL DRAGON

CARLOS QUEVEDO

HOW CARLOS QUEVADO COMBINED PHOTO ELEMENTS WITH DIGITAL

PAINTING TO CREATE THIS STEAMPUNKINSPIRED PIECE

hotoshop is the primary tool in Venezuelan

artist Carlos Quevados workflow. With
Photoshop there is no limit to [how you]
create or modify something, he says of his
love of the program. His favourite tools are blend
modes By using colour layers in different modes I

01

BACKGROUND

03

ADDING THE CHARACTER

can create that deep atmosphere to blend the

elements well and he builds up his artwork by
combining his own photography, stock photos, and
digital painting, as he did in Mechanical Dragon.
Mechanical Dragon is a fantasy piece with a lot of
steampunk influence; that was my main inspiration.

I start with a dark-coloured layer with a spot of light according with

the light direction of the main elements. This point is more painting than
manipulation; I usually create the atmosphere at the beginning.

02

I wanted to create this interesting mechanism of

gears and metal pieces incorporating a dragon skull
(the skull was provided by ekoh-stock), as well as
the woman who wears that fiery helmet.
Discover more of Carlos Quevados beautiful
artwork at carlos-quevedo.deviantart.com.

ATMOSPHERE

I use several colour layers set to Screen, Lighten and Soft Light, playing
with the opacity of each one, to get the dark and deep atmosphere. This group of
layers should always be on the top so they affect the layers below. I used an
Airbrush in Soft mode to paint different parts of the background.

After cleaning the background of the model, I added the girl below
the colour layers, then I modified the Saturation of the model to -40% to blend
the colours (You can also use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to do this).

071

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

04

MECHANICAL SKULL

With the Warp tool I changed the perspective of the skull a little bit to adapt
it to the models head. To create the mechanical part, I cut off several gears and
metals [from a photo] and I duplicated those layers to get more pieces.

05

WARPING LAYERS

06

PAINTING THE WING

I cut off a piece of the skull to build the bone on the wing.
Using the Warp tool I modified the shape, also, the piece on the
arm is a duplication of the front part of the skull too. I used some
Curves adjustments to get a darker environment.

The wing was painted with solid colour at first,

then I applied some brushes to give it texture.

07

SOFT COLOUR LAYERS

08

FIRE AND SPARKS

I used an Airbrush in Soft mode, playing with the opacity, to get

the fiery luminescence and that hot look where the dragon throws fire.

CREATING MULTIPLE ELEMENTS

The main element was the model and the rest was designed
around her. I started creating the background and then I added the
model, putting the skull on her head and adding its metallic pieces
using the Warp tool to adapt the different parts. The metallic pieces
are actually the duplication of a single image adapted to different
sizes. The same happens with the bone on the wing, it was made
by extracting parts from the skull and using the Transform tool to
get the proper shape. The rest of the wing is painted.

Using fire [stock photos] is quite easy, normally fire images have a very dark
background, so we just change the blend mode of the layer to Screen.

The multiple gears on the dragon skull were

created by replicating and warping a single image
to create many gears of different sizes and shapes

072

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074

ADVANCED BLEND MODE TECHNIQUES

ADVANCED BLEND
MODE TECHNIQUES
LEARN HOW TO CREATE A SCIFI SCENE
USING PHOTOSHOPS BLEND MODES

n this tutorial you will learn how to create a sci-fi

scene with a cinematic feel using blend modes.
You will also learn the techniques of
photomanipulation and the importance of values
to make your image pop out and look like its from a
movie. We will go through some digital painting for
the characters hair, so make sure to use a pen tablet
instead of the mouse as this will make your
workflow much easier.

Since our theme is sci-fi we will also go through

creating a futuristic suit for our model using parts of
superbikes as our stock, which is a technique that
many well known artists use for mech design. We will
also add a touch of abstraction to our
photomanipulation by blending geometrical shapes
and make key post-production edits using
adjustment layers, Lens Correction and Smart
Sharpen to finish the job.

TECHNIQUES

OUR EXPERT
SOUFIANE IDRASSI

www.artstation.com/artist/
cgsouane
@idrassisouane
Soufiane Idrassi is a self-taught
freelance concept artist and
Illustrator based in Meknes,
Morocco with five years of
experience in digital art.

SOURCE FILES
Get the PNG files used to develop
the characters suit, plus take a look
at the layered PSD on FileSilo.

SET UP YOUR STOCK

PLACE AND ENHANCE THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE IMAGE

01

SET UP THE MODEL

First of all we need to set up our model

into our canvas, so lets grab the model image
from Dreamstime, code: 22992223, then by
selecting the Pen tool (P), click and drag on the
edges of the model, then Cmd/right-click, select
Make Selection, and press Cmd/Ctrl+J to isolate
the model on a new layer, and finally place the
model into our new canvas.

02

MODIFY THE CONTRAST

Our model looks a little bit flat. What we

need is to add some depth, so now we will add
contrast by going to Image>Adjustments>Curves
and making the Curves an S shape. Dont drag the
points deeper as that will ruin the contrast. Next
we will grab a Soft Round brush with the blend
mode of the brush (not the layer) set to Overlay.
Turn down the opacity and start brushing dark
parts of the model. Doing this will give you more
control instead of doing a regular Brightness and
Contrast filter.

WORK IN
PROGRESS
FROM IDEA TO FINAL FINISH

Progress 1: Setting up

the model

03

CREATE THE BACKGROUND

Now its time to create our background, so

grab some bokeh textures from CGtextures.com,
place them behind the model layer and change
their blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add). Also you
can create a new layer, change the blend mode to
Screen, and with a Soft Round brush, add some
light around the model to make her pop out. Keep
in mind that composition is really important, and
our bokeh textures should not cover some parts of
the canvas because we will place other elements
and textures there later. Our background is
composed of three bokeh textures so we need to
blend them into one texture, to do that create a
layer mask and with a Soft Round brush, hide parts
of the textures that are not needed.

Progress 2: Creating the suit

Progress 3: Final effects

075

TECHNIQUES ADVANCED BLEND MODE TECHNIQUES

04

06

ADD SMOKE EFFECTS

We said earlier that composition is

important and the bokeh should not cover the entire
scene because we still need to add more elements.
Next, well add smoke effects to add more texture to
the background, so grab some smoke textures, and
repeat Step 3, but this time change the blend mode to
Color Dodge instead of Linear Dodge (Add), that way
the smoke will not ruin the bokeh shapes and it will
show clearly on the empty areas that we left earlier.
Now we need to blend the model with the
background; this is really simple, we just place a
smoke texture layer in front of the model layer, place
it as shown in the image and turn the blend mode to
Linear Dodge (Add).

05

SKETCH THE FUTURISTIC SUIT

Now its time to add futuristic elements to

the scene, but first, before we start designing our
suit, we need to have a clear idea about what we
will be designing. So create a new layer and, using
a pen tablet and a Round brush around 40px, start
sketching the shapes on the model that we want to
the suit to look like. Here we followed the anatomy
of the human body, so that the suit will look
functional and practical, and will not hold our girl
down. You can still do this step if you dont have a
tablet by holding the Shift key and pointing with the
mouse to create a straight line.

CREATE THE SUIT

The sketch is done, and right now its time

to make the actual suit. Superbike parts are the best
stock to create a futuristic suits or robots or anything
from the future thanks to their slick designs. Grab
our PNG files with the bike parts already cut out. On
this part you can be as creative as you can but keep
in mind that the suit needs to be practical. Our
models hand is in the foreground, so we need to
create a mask so that the suit will appear to be
behind the hand. To do that, we will select the Pen
tool and repeat Step 1. When the selection is on,
select the bike part that will be behind the hand and
click the Mask button below on the Layers palette,
then you can duplicate the mask by holding Shift and
dragging the mask to another layer.

QUICK TIP
When designing something you always need to have an idea or sketch; dont come up with something on the
spot unless youre really confident about your designing skills. Also, when designing a suit with superbike parts,
make sure to study the shapes very well. Combining two or three parts can be very useful.

07

ADD SHADOWS

For now, the suit looks too flat, so add

some shadows for some depth and realism in the
scene. Grab our Soft Round brush again. If you have
a pen tablet you can create the shadows using the
brush pressure feature, but if you dont have a tablet,
you can play with the brush opacity to get more
control over it. Now create a new layer below the
part where you want to paint the shadow, for
example, on areas like the neck and under her arms.

076

08

RAIN EFFECTS

Its time to add some motion to bring more dynamism to our piece. This part is very similar to Step
4. Create rain by using snow textures. Take the snow texture by Moosplauze on deviantart.com, place it
below the model layer and above the bokeh and smoke layers, go to Image>Adjustments>Curves, create a
point in the middle and drag it down to make the snow particles sharper, then change the blend mode to
Color Dodge, and go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the angle to 32, and Distance to 31 and click OK.
Then we need to blend the model, so duplicate the rain layer and place it above the model layer, and change
the blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add) and mask areas like the face. Also take a snow texture without
Motion Blur, create a mask, invert it, Cmd/Ctrl+I and paint back areas on the head and shoulder to make an
interaction effect.

ENHANCE AND ADJUST

TWEAK COLOURS AND IMAGE ELEMENTS TO GET THE REQUIRED EFFECT

09

MODIFY HAIR

Its time to modify the models hair to

make it more unique. Create a mask so as not to
go over the borders, select the model layer, hold
Cmd/Ctrl and click on the layer, it will give you a
selection. Next create a new layer above and click
on the Mask button below in the Layers palette.
Now change the layers blend mode to Overlay, and
with a Round brush and a red colour, paint over the
hair. Her original hair colour is brown, so the red
shouldnt look artificial.

Next we need to add details, so select the Brush

tool (it is necessary for this step to have a pen tablet)
with a small Round brush, hold Alt to select the Eye
Dropper, select the colour you want and draw the
hair as shown on the image.
And finally create another layer, drag the hair
colour mask to it, change the blend mode to Linear
Dodge (Add) and by using a light red and Soft brush,
paint the edges to create an effect of SSS (sub
surface scattering).

001

003

002

001 COLOUR

For a successful change of colour, your

original hair should always be light; if
dark, the Overlay filter will not work

11

002 DIGITAL PAINTING

Adding a touch of digital
painting to photomanipulations
is always a plus

003 REALISM

10

ADJUSTING VALUES

Now we need to adjust the values. Since

our background is bright and is our light source, our
model should be dark because the light cant reach
her. Only bounce light is illuminating her, so grab a
selection of our model by holding Cmd/Ctrl and click
on the layer, then create a new one above and fill it
with black using the Paint Bucket tool and then use
Cmd/Ctrl+D to release the selection. Turn down layer
opacity to 15% and create a mask and paint areas
like the face and hands to make them more visible,
then duplicate the layer. Right-click on the layer,
select Duplicate Layer, delete the mask, change
Opacity to 24% and blend mode to Overlay.

Since our background is

bright and is our light
source, our model should be
dark because the light cant
reach her, only bounce light
is illuminating her

The SSS effect in hair gives more

realism, but use it only according to
your light source

LIGHT EFFECTS

Its time to add light effects. Its important

to add some abstract lighting effects to your scene
to give it more life, so grab the cosmic lights PNG
pack textures from psdbox.com. Take 16 neutron
collision, place it as shown on the image and press
Cmd/Ctrl+U and change the Hue Slider to make it
blue, then change the blend mode to Screen. Next,
we will add a lens flare effect, also from the
psdbox.com optical flares pack. Take any lens flare
type you like and place it on the brightest spot of
the background and change the blend mode to
Screen and turn down Opacity to 60%.

12

MORE EFFECTS

Now add some more effects on the suit.

This step is pretty easy, so lets create a new layer,
grab a small Hard brush with light blue and change
the blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add), and draw
some lines as shown. Then click on the FX button
next to the Mask button and select Outer Glow and
make these modifications: Blend mode, Linear
Dodge (Add); Opacity: 75; Noise: 0; Colour: 71b7e8;
Technique: SSofter; Size: 38.

13

ABSTRACT SHAPES

Add surrealism to a piece to make it more

artistic and eye-catching, instead of just creating a
scene from a movie. So make a new layer and with
the Polygonal Lasso tool, create triangular shapes
around the model. When creating a shape, it will
automatically be selected. With a soft brush, press
Alt to select a colour with the Eye Dropper and paint
the triangle. Repeat this process until you get an
effect that works with the composition.

077

TECHNIQUES ADVANCED BLEND MODE TECHNIQUES

STORYLINE ELEMENTS
ADD ENERGY SHIELDS AND OTHER STORYLINE SIGNIFIERS

15
14

CREATE THE ENERGY SHIELD

17

COLOUR CORRECTION

Create a new document, make it around

2000 pixels, then select the Polygon tool, set the
sides to three, choose a blue colour for the Fill, and
no Stroke, then hold Shift and click and drag to
create a triangle shape. Now duplicate and flip the
triangle by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+T, right-click and
choose Flip Vertical, then arrange the triangles for
a good composition. Repeat this step again but this
time without Fill and the Stroke set to 5px.

PLACE THE ENERGY SHIELD

Now that the shield is done, its time to apply

it to our canvas, so select all the triangle layers,
right-click and select Merge Layers, then hit
Cmd/Ctrl+C and on the canvas hit Cmd/Ctrl+V. Next
hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and by holding the Shift key, distort
the triangles to make them look in perspective. Now
turn the Opacity down to 60% and duplicate the layer.
In the new layer hit Cmd/Ctrl+U and play with the
sliders until you get a darker blue, then change the
blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add). And finally
duplicate again, hit Cmd/Ctrl+U and make the blue
lighter, change the blend Mode to Hard Light and
move it over a little bit, and finally go to
Filters>Blur>Motion Blur, Angle: 20 and Distance: 30.

16

STORY ELEMENTS

Our photomanipulation is nearly done, so

finish it by adding some story elements. Here we
added tears, and smoke coming out of the gun, as
if she just killed someone she cared about that
betrayed her. So for this step we will use smoke
brushes and watercolour brushes you can find
free brushes like this on deviantART or any
resource site on the internet. Select a watercolour
brush, choose a black colour and apply it on the
eyes as shown, then erase any unwanted parts.
Next select a smoke brush, choose a white colour
and apply it on the tip of the gun.

Our illustration is basically finished, all thats left are the finishing touches. Lets add some
adjustment layers first to bring some cool tones to our piece. In the Layers palette next to the Mask button,
click on the Adjustment Layer button and select Gradient Map. Set the Color Pickers to: Left picker: 1f0c03
Right picker: acdfff. Set the adjustment layer to Hard Light and turn down the Opacity to 20%. Next select
Colour Correction and set it to the following: Midtones: 1st slider: -17, 2nd slider: -3, 3rd slider: +28,
Shadows: 1st slider : 0, 2nd slider : -28, 3rd slider : +20, highlights: 1st slider: -10, 2nd slider: 0, 3rd slider:
+20. Next add another Gradient Map: set the blend mode to Lighten and left picker colour: 220545 and right
picker to black. And finally select Exposure and set the middle slider to: 0.0165.

PHOTOMANIPULATION
In order to do great photomanipulations, you
need to have a great photo library. Here are
some great sites to gather the best stock photos
and resources: deviantart.com, cgtextures.
com, psdbox.com, mediamilitia.com. It is a
great thing to have good photomanipulation
skills because its not only used to create
illustration for books or music, but it is a great
tool to use in concept art for the film industry,
because it needs to look as realistic as possible.

078

18

FINAL EFFECTS

Make sure all your elements are in place and everything is set out properly, then right-click on any
layer and hit Flatten Image, this will merge all layers into one. For the final effects apply Smart Sharpen,
Lens Correction and Noise. Start with Smart Sharpen, go to Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen, set the amount
to 150 and Radius to 1.0px. Next go to Filter>Lens Correction. In the Custom panel on the Chromatic
Aberration slider, set the 1st slider to +50.00, 2nd slider to -30.16 and 3rd slider to -75.40. Finally, finish the
tutorial by going to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set the amount to 2.45, Distribution: Uniform and check
Monochromatic. Your composite is complete and thanks to blend modes, packs some awesome effects!
QUICK TIP
For a piece of artwork to be truly great, it is important that you are telling the viewer a story. Artwork
with a story is always far better than an emotionless piece of work.

Learn in style

The
Series
Discover more with the Book series expert, accessible tutorials for
photography, 3D art, Photoshop, web design and more

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080

Jack Moik

I collected these box-top paintings of

ships and planes and it always fascinated
me how these painters achieved action and
adventure in these little masterpieces

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

LOVE & WAR

JACK MOIK

FIND OUT HOW ILLUSTRATOR JACK MOIK CREATED A WORLD

WAR II PINUP EMERGING FROM THE ARTWORK ON A PLANE

ince my childhood Ive been a huge fan

of model kit box art from painters like
Roy Cross or Roy Huxley, to name two
very gifted UK artists, explains German
illustrator Jack Moik (www.artofjack.com). I
collected these box-top paintings of ships and
planes and it always fascinated me how these
painters achieved action and adventure in these
little masterpieces. At the same time Im a fan of

01

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

03

ALL IN THE DETAILS

Sorayamas art and his wonderful skills of

capturing female beauty. I wondered how I
could marry these two different styles, so I
came up with the idea to make a warbird
pin-up come to life. I started with a pretty rough
kind of layout to find the right angle, colours and
mood. That took me about three hours. After
that, I resized the layout to the desired size,
which is often about 6400x4100pix.

This is the first layout, done in three hours. I used just five layers, so it
was much easier to play around with and find the right angle and colours. For the
man I used a reference photo from a friend, which I took spontaneously. I also
had some reference for the woman, but painted most parts from my mind as
there was no exact reference available.

02

The biggest problem with this painting was that

the legs of the woman are painted on the plane
but the torso, arms and face should come out of it
three dimensionally.
After experimenting with different colours,
hues and light I realised that it might work if I
put some panel lines, dirt, rust and scratches
over her painted legs to make it more connected
to the plane.

COMPOSITIONAL CHANGES

I also had some references for the P-38 Lightning plane, but they
didnt all match, so I used a little die-cast model to find the right angle. Then
I changed the positions of characters, hands and brush, adding more details
to clothing, hair and airplane. I made the corners and plane darker and added
more light on the characters.

Almost there, [I added] more panel lines

and patina on the plane, changed the hairstyle on
her and painted a lot more detail overall. Detailing
is the most time consuming [part of] my work, I
must admit; Im addicted to details so the last ten
hours was meticulous work on patina, hair and
folds. I tried to give her hairstyle a slightly Forties
look, but it looks too plain for my taste. So finally I
made it a bit more timeless, as this shouldnt be a
historic piece, rather its a daydream.

081

REVIEWS ADOBE INK & SLIDE

Draw on your iPad: Adobe Ink & Slide is a stylus

and ruler package for precision drawing on your
Pad using Adobes Line, Sketch and Draw CC apps

082

ADOBE INK & SLIDE

ADOBES FIRST HARDWARE PRODUCT HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO

IMPROVE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR MOBILE WORKFLOW
AND PHOTOSHOP, BUT HOW DOES IT MEASURE UP?

www.adobe.com/uk/products/ink-and-slide.html

dobes Creative Cloud packages have been

making ever-larger inroads into the mobile
space, but this latest product is a first for the
company. It marks Adobes first move into
branded hardware, with a stylus and ruler combo
designed for the iPad. The move into hardware can be
a potentially risky strategy for any software developer,
even one as large and well-regarded as Adobe, but it
has wisely partnered with experts in the field to
deliver a product that more than lives up to the quality

$124.99

expected from anything that bears the Adobe

marque. That product is Ink & Slide.
Developed in conjunction with iPad stylus
wizards Adonit famous for revolutionising the
unwieldy, first-generation iPad stylus into a tool
that can rival a Wacom pen Ink & Slide leverages
Adonits PixelPoint technology, which offers the
ability to make the stylus nib smaller, allowing for
greater drawing precision, and makes use of the
iPads accelerometer and capacitive screen, and a

tactile material for the pen nib, to mimic the feeling

of the pressure-sensitivity that a serious digital art
workflow requires. Adonit isnt the only partner
lending its creative genius to Ink & Slide either
the design was developed in conjunction with
studio Ammunition, responsible for designing
some of the iconic Beats headphones range. This
means that not only does Ink & Slide look good and
feel comfortable and responsive to use, but it
works intuitively and smoothly as well.

A first for Adobe: This sleek package is

Adobes first foray into branded hardware

083

REVIEWS ADOBE INK & SLIDE

LINKING WITH
CC APPS

Use CC apps: Ink & Slide is primarily

designed for use with Adobes CC apps

Typically for Adobes joined-up Creative Cloud

strategy, Ink & Slide works with a range of CC
apps to enhance both your drawing experience
and the ways that you can use the content
youve created. You can draw and sketch with
Ink & Slide using Adobe Line, Adobe Sketch and
Adobe Draw. Ink & Slide can also make use of
colour palettes youve captured in Adobe Color
(formerly Kuler), and import and export assets
youve made in other CC apps via the Cloud
Clipboard. You will need a Creative Cloud
membership to fully access and share files
between the apps that Ink & Slide makes use
of, but this means that youll also be able to
import the content youve created straight into
your CC Library in Photoshop. If you have the
full CC plan, youll also be able to use them in
other Creative Cloud desktop programs such as
Illustrator CC. For those who have been
resisting the pull of the Creative Cloud, the ease
of combining a mobile and desktop workflow
may be a deciding factor when it comes to
taking the plunge and signing up for the
subscription-based service.

Slide: The digital ruler makes

lines easier to draw and can be
used with Shape and Line to
create more complex shapes

The Ink & Slide stylus is ergonomically

designed in a triangular shape (similar to a
high-end artists pencil), which makes it
comfortable to hold and control for long periods
of time. The shape is offset so that it twists,
making it ultra-controllable, and its made of
lightweight hydro-formed aluminium, adding a
smooth aesthetic to the elegant design and
ensuring that its not too heavy. And theres a nice
little feature at both ends of the pen too both the

084

stylus and the end light up. You can change the
colour youd like the stylus nib to be in the
settings (ideal if youre working in a studio
environment and several of your colleagues have
Ink & Slides, as you can tell which one belongs to
whom by sight), while the end, when fully charged,
cycles through a full spectrum of colour. Its a little
thing, but it looks awesomely cool.
Slide is described as a digital ruler, although
stencil might actually be nearer the mark, as its

not for measuring but for drawing a range of lines

and shapes. Anyone whos ever tried drawing a
straight line or a French curve on an iPad will
know how difficult this can be, so Slide is certainly
designed to fill a much-needed gap in a mobile
artists workflow. Unlike Ink its battery-free, and
relies on the iPad recognising its capacitive feet
(which have magnets in them) to accurately draw
shapes and lines through the three drawing apps
associated with it.

The shape is offset so that it twists, making it ultracontrollable, and its made of lightweight hydro-formed
aluminium, adding a smooth aesthetic to the elegant design

Ink: The beautifully designed

stylus makes use of Adonits
PixelPoint technology

Precision tip: When used with

compatible apps, the stylus allows
you to make use of pressure
sensitivity on the iPad

The million-dollar question, then, is whether Ink

& Slide is a must-have or whether its a cool but
highly priced gimmick. Ultimately your opinion on
this will have to factor in how you use Photoshop. If
you rarely use Adobes mobile creative apps and
your Photoshop work is predicated on image
editing, compositing or photomanipulation, Ink &
Slide isnt necessarily for you. If on the other hand
youre a digital artist who primarily uses Photoshop
for digital painting, and you frequently sketch on the
move and then import your creations into
Photoshop for further work, then Ink & Slide could
be a valuable addition to your Adobe toolkit. The
stylus is one of the best iPad drawing tools weve
ever tested, and the novel ruler makes shape-

Colour coded: The end of the

stylus cycles through colours
when fully charged

based drawing tasks that are normally a pain on

the iPad much more fluent and fluid. If you want to
go the whole hog and have a nose-to-tail CC
workflow, then you could start with the Adobe
Smart Notebook, begin your digital process with
Ink & Slide and then import the lot into Photoshop
to be finished off.
Its worth noting too that Ink will work as a stylus
in other drawing apps (like Sketchbook Pro or
Sketch Club), but you will sacrifice some of its best
features, like palm rejection, pen pressure and
obviously CC connectivity. On the flipside though,
the release of the Adobe Creative SDK means that
independent developers may soon start creating
support, or additional apps, for Ink & Slide.

VERDICT
Features: 8/10
Ease of use: 10/10
Quality of results: 9/10
Value for money: 7/10

FINAL SCORE:

9/10
085

READER INTERVIEW BUILDING A VISION

BUILDING A VISION

ARCHITECTURAL VISUALISATION REQUIRES A SOLID BASE OF KNOWLEDGE

AS WELL AS ARTISTIC VISION, BUT BELGRADES RENDERUS  AND LEAD
ARTIST MARKO STOJKOVIC  IS CARVING OUT AN IMPRESSIVE NICHE

HOW LONG HAVE YOU USE PHOTOSHOP FOR?

Ive been using it for more than ten years, and the
period of making CGI visualisations without Photoshop I
call The Middle Ages. Five years ago, discovering the
potency of Photoshop in CGI creation was a true
renaissance for me. Since then, besides V-Ray,
Photoshop has become my second render engine.
HOW DID YOU ORIGINALLY GET INTO 3D?
While I was in elementary school, my parents bought
me the book 3D Studio Max F/X by John A Bell. The
attraction to videogames and the admiration for virtual

The Shopping Mall:

By introducing a bungee jump, a coffee shop and a
circus onto the rooftop through postproduction, the
Atrium becomes the beacon of the mall, says Stojkovic

086

worlds ignited the spark that made me start learning

the 3D craft. Today, I mainly use 3ds Max, V-Ray and
Photoshop but Im also proficient in Rhino, Grasshopper
and After Effects.
HOW DID YOU TRANSLATE THAT INTEREST
INTO WORKING PROFESSIONALLY?
It was during my architectural studies in Belgrade that I
started making architectural visualisation. As I was
greatly influenced by that experience I decided to pursue
my career as an architect and a CGI artist. After five
years of work in an architectural office, I founded my
own studio, Renderus. Together with a small team Im
forging our particular CGI style and striving to create
unique architectural visualisations.

OUR READER
MARKO STOJKOVIC
www.renderus.com
@renderus

WHAT IT IS ABOUT ARCHITECTURAL

VISUALISATION THAT EXCITES YOU?
I aim to show the quality of architecture and to hide its
flaws, although its very exciting to turn the flaws into
an advantage. Another challenge in architectural
visualisation is to create an alluring effect that will

All article images Marko Stojkovic

rch-vis, or architectural visualisation, is

increasingly becoming a buzzword among
Photoshop artists. Once solely the province
of 3D artists, Photoshops texturing and
lighting capabilities have seen it join its 3D brethren
as a key part of the art of making concept designs for
buildings look amazing. We caught up with reader
Marko Stojkovic, founder and lead artist at Renderus,
to find out more about his inspirational work.

Coldstream Gallery: Stojkovic says this

personal image was to practise postproduction skills. The main building is a 3D
model and the rest of the image was
manipulated in Photoshop

Id like to describe my current style as realism spiced

with a dose of utopianism, so you can call it an
upgraded reality with the elements of an idealistic society
Pervolia Beach Villas: Displaying the crystal blue sea,
white sand, swaying palms and a beautiful backyard,
Stojkovic says this work for Prime Property Group
evokes the sense of serenity and tranquil lifestyle

087

The Shopping Mall: Adding the swarm of shoppers

streaming into the mall, the challenge was to emphasise
the vastness of the mall and to make the images look
more dynamic, says Stojkovic of his work for Portner
Coastal Park Residence: In this piece for Prime Property Group,
Stojkovic says the challenge was to show it as a part of urban
surroundings but yet to keep its Mediterranean spirit by
creating the fresh sunny mood

088

BUILDING A VISION READER INTERVIEW

transport the observer into the object, and to provide

enough space for the observer to act and interfere
with the design in order to evoke his or her
imagination and emotions.
SO HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?
As my style is a dynamic category and evolves
constantly, I can describe it only as my current style.
Since style is a language, it requires constant
development, practice and interactive
communication; therefore my visualisation style is a
product of communication with the clients, the
forging of the message that they want to convey to
their customers. Id like to describe my current style
as realism spiced with a dose of utopianism, so you
can call it an upgraded reality with the elements of an
idealistic society.
WHATS A TYPICAL WORKDAY FOR YOU?
Usually I get up early, filled with hope and convinced
that Im going to work eight hours that day!
Unfortunately, these dreams disperse like dust in the
wind, because my working day often lasts until late in
the evening. As the owner of the studio and an artist, I
need to take care of the CGI work as well as marketing
and financial issues. This can drain me out and requires
a lot of time, but I get great support from my girlfriend
Sanya Ivanovic and Im convinced that I wouldnt be able
to run the studio without her effort.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PHOTOSHOP
TOOLS OR FEATURES?
I could talk for ages about this, but Ill single out just
three of my favourites. One; layer masks. Combined
with layer management, this feature gives you total
control of your image workflow. Preserving and
controlling the layer transparency level, the mask is the
most essential feature in Photoshop, and what makes

Casa F Family house: This personal work sees

Stojkovic create rays of light breaking through
the stormy backdrop, so the house is shown
in [a] sunrise fantasy mood

DESIGN TIPS
MARKO STOJKOVICS WORK HAS INCREDIBLE DETAIL AND VISION. HE EXPLAINS HIS APPROACH
My professor once said that making architecture is like cooking, and Id like to use this analogy
in CGI visualisation using three key concepts.
REALITY: Like a good dish created from top quality groceries, the image must look real. Try to make
the materials look as real as possible in order to get a solid architectural visualisation.
STORY: In top restaurants, storytelling is the key. Similarly, a good image needs to be founded on
storytelling, so try to make the image alive by adding dynamic elements or experimenting with
different atmospheric moods.
EFFECT: Lastly, you need to spice up the dish, to give it a kick, so zest the image with some special
effects, or unexpected elements. Be careful though, if you add too much or too little salt, you could
ruin the whole dish.

Sometimes, [Actions] decide if I make it home for dinner or not.

From making shadows of the crowd to mass adjustments for
multiple layers, the Action feature is a lifesaver
it awesome is the simplicity of use. Two; Actions.
Sometimes, this feature decides if I make it home for
dinner or not. From making shadows of the crowd to
mass adjustments for multiple layers, the Action
feature is a lifesaver and I dont hesitate to use it in
every possible situation in order to save hours of work.

Three; brushes. By being the extension of your arm in

virtual space and giving you the freedom of drawing,
the brush is the most vital feature, which basically
allows you to become the Creator in Photoshop. Since
I use a drawing board, the brush is an inseparable
Photoshop feature for me.
Poluostrov Family House: This work, for Portner, shows a
family house located in the Russian wilderness. The key
challenge was to display the modern architecture nestled
in the woods but yet close to the amenities of modern life

089

GATHER THE PROJECT MATERIALS

MATERIALS YOU CAN USE TO CREATE A GRUNGE TEXTURE EFFECT

Watercolour paint: Watercolour is

the best type of paint for textures
because its transparent enough
to blend well once in Photoshop

Coffee grounds: Half a cup of

coffee grounds with some water
left in them, for producing aged,
grungy effects

Paper: For these two methods youll

need two types of paper, watercolour
paper because its thick and has a
texture and white paper or newsprint
because it crinkles easily
Watercolour brush:
A watercolour brush holds lots
of liquid and therefore will give
a good area of coverage

090

VINTAGE GRUNGE TEXTURES ON FILESILO

VINTAGE GRUNGE
TEXTURES
LEARN HOW TO CREATE VINTAGE TEXTURES FOR
ADDING DEPTH AND AGE TO YOUR ARTWORK

runge textures are a common way of adding

visual interest to a design or layout. In an
industry dominated by pixel-perfect digital
designs, adding in a bit of chaos can be an
attractive element that makes your design stand out.
Using textures that tend to have a dirty, aged look

also brings a sense of the real world into the pristine

digital landscape.
In this project, we will show you two great
techniques for crafting grungy textures with real
materials that you probably already have in your
house. Then we show you how to digitise them and

incorporate your own textures into some digital

design projects. The very act of making a bit of a
mess in such a perfect world can be quite fun.
You may find yourself adding a bit of grunge to
every design just as a way to break free of those
perfect pixel chains!

CREATE VINTAGE WATERCOLOUR TEXTURES

USING WATERCOLOUR PAINTS TO CREATE A USABLE TEXTURE

01

LOAD YOUR BRUSH

Start by dipping your brush in water then

rub it around in black watercolour paint. There will
be a lot of paint in your brush but the watercolour
paper absorbs a lot of water so it will even out.

02

PAINT THE TEXTURE

Using the side of the brush, cover an area

with paint. Experiment with different amounts of
paint and using a more dry brush to create different
textures. Let paint pool in some places and drop
paint in the pools to create blooms.

03

SCAN THE TEXTURES

02

STAIN

03

LET IT DRY

Scan your paper once its dry. Next, isolate

sections that go together as individual textures.
Watercolours can be found relatively cheaply, so
you can create a large stash of textures.

COFFEE TEXTURE
HOW TO MAKE A GRUNGY TEXTURE WITH COFFEE

01

CRUMPLE IT UP

Start with a piece of newsprint. Newsprint

is non-archival and is super cheap and also super
fragile so textures made with it look extra grungy.
Crumple the paper and then unfold it to reveal the
beginnings of a grungy texture.

Using a paint brush and the wet coffee

grounds, paint over the paper. Experiment with using
more water or more coffee grounds in different places.
Follow the crinkle lines for more varied textures.

Without moving the paper, let it dry. You

can use a hairdryer as well to speed drying. If you
use a hairdryer, use it on low so the coffee
grounds dont blow around and make a mess.

091

TEXTURES FOR LOGOS

COMPONENTS OF A GOOD LOGO TEXTURE
Making vintage textures for logos is different from making vintage textures for use
on photographs. Youll need to be aware of smaller details and legibility of the text.

A variety of transitions are important

in a logo texture because it allows
the words to fade in and out
smoothly, which helps legibility

When you make textures, make sure you

have some overlap of dark areas and light
areas with both hard and soft edges. This
way you can really fine tune in Photoshop
to get the look you want

Have an image in your mind of the application of

the texture youre making. Think about how
vintage photos or signs look and where they fade

Combine grit and smoothness within

designs to make the texture look more
interesting. Keep the grittiness small so
it doesnt overwhelm but use it sparingly
to increase the grungy effect

092

VINTAGE GRUNGE TEXTURES ON FILESILO

VINTAGE LOGO
USE THE GRUNGE TEXTURES TO CREATE A VINTAGE STYLED LOGO
One of the most fun applications for these custom,
grunge textures is for creating vintage logos with
an aged, weathered effect. This becomes more
than just a stylised effect as it gives further
evidence of the age of the design. Any logo that
was produced back in the Fifties was not done so

digitally. Therefore the physical productions

would show some age and weathering.
As with the grunge layout, these textures are
best used as individual layers utilising blending
modes to create the textured effect. In the case
of our logo, the effect works best when the

textures are desaturated first. Use layer masks to

further control the specific application of the texture.
To see a step-by-step tutorial of how to create
this logo and add the vintage textured effect, be sure
to check out the video on the FileSilo as our expert
walks you through the projects, click-by-click!

093

ON FILESILO VINTAGE GRUNGE TEXTURES

USING THE TEXTURES FOR LAYOUT ELEMENTS

HOW TO MAKE EYE CATCHING VINTAGE EFFECTS USING THE GRUNGE TEXTURES

01

START SIMPLE

Start with a simple black-and-white

layout. Keep the shapes and visual elements
simplistic and sharp for the best legibility. Adding
small details and gradients just tends to muddy
the overall design.

VINTAGE LOGO TEXTURES

Included are coffee and watercolour textures for
application on logos, photo effects, or even as
design elements in layouts. These are free for
you to use in personal projects.

094

02

CLIPPED GRUNGE TEXTURES

Add textures as a layer over each

element. Then create the grunge effect by clipping
the texture to each object layer and changing the
blending mode to Overlay or Soft Light.

03

FURTHER GRUNGE EFFECTS

Add in some of the grunge textures as

simple layers using a blending mode. Also consider
using the grunge textures in a layer mask on a solid
colour layer to create a wonderfully colourful effect.

Plan your per

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Issue 135 of
098

is on sale 14 May 2015 from GreatDigitalMags.com

photorealism

Mike Campau
Creative Director / Digital Artist
WINNER PHOTOSHOP WORLD GURU AWARD 2014 - COMMERCIAL

Client: Lifeproof - www.lifeproof.com

CGI/Digital Art: Mike Campau - www.mikecampau.com

Photography: Tim Tadder - www.timtadder.com

MODO was the perfect solution for this project. With

its realtime preview, I was able to instantly see my
lighting and material setups, which was key to blending
the CGI with the photography. Plus, its super fast
render speeds helped me meet my very tight deadline!