The secrets on how to make artwork of the Sam/Jack ship family thread

[Valerie_Jackson]

New Set.

[Aveo_amacus]

Challenge siggies

[josiane]

Nice work, girls! That's a fab quote, Aveo

Oh, and some icons...

[jasminaGo]

Beautiful work kids!


OK, so the tuts for Padme and Kitty

Spoiler:

This is mostly a combination of several techniques I've already put in tutorials before.

1. First we prepare the pretty Helen/John image

1.1 Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Variations. Make sure 'Midtones' is selected and click twice on the Lighter. Hit OK.

1.2 Make a stamp (ctrl+shift+alt+e). The secondary color should be set to white.
Filter -> Distort -> Diffuse Glow
graininess 0
glow amount 4
clear amount 15 (these numbers can change depending on what you think works best for the picture you're using)

Set the layer to Soft Light

1.3 And another stamp.
Filter -> Other -> High Pass
radius 60

Set the layer to Soft Light.

1.4 Make another stamp that's gonna go in the actual wp.

These steps give a really nice contrast to the image.

->

2. Next it's the prep for the background image.

2.1 First the unnatural blue coloring needs to go.

Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves



Change the channels, bring the RGB and Red lines up, and the Blue and Green lines down.

2.2 Make a stamp and repeat steps 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3. The only difference is when after you add the high pass filter in 1.3 don't change the blending mode of the layer right away. Make two copies of that layer (ctrl+J). Leave the bottom one as is, set the middle one to Soft Light, and the top layer to Overlay.

-> ->

2.3 Make another stamp that's gonna go in the actual wp.

3. Now we start on the wp. is the base. It was too light and I didn't like the coloring so I added a gradient map on top of it.

Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map



Set this layer to Multiply

4. Next transfer the background image from earlier. Set the blending mode to Hard Light. With a large soft brush (250 pixels) get rid of the edges.

5. Transfer the H/J image and get rid of the background. Mask it or erase it, whatever you want.

6. Now to do some coloring

Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Selective Color
reds: -42; 0; 6; 0
neutrals: 14; 6; 6; 0

7. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map



Set the blending mode to Soft Light, opacity 35%

8. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map



Set the blending mode to Soft Light

9. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Selective Color
reds: -50; 33; 37; 0
yellows: -8; 0; 13; 0
neutrals: 25; 17; 11; 0

10. Make a stamp.
Filter -> Noise -> Reduce Noise
5; 5; 0; 0

11. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels
input levels: 16; 1; 255

12. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Color Balance
shadows: -17; -9; 15
midtones: 18; 0; -12
highlights: 0; 0; 22

13. And finally desaturated and set to Soft Light.

[jasminaGo]

Spoiler:

1. First I blended the three pics together.



2.1 Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Varaiations. Make sure 'Midtones' is selected and click twice on the Lighter. Hit OK.

2.2 Make a stamp (ctrl+shift+alt+e). The secondary color should be set to white.
Filter -> Distort -> Diffuse Glow
graininess 0
glow amount 2
clear amount 17

Set the layer to Soft Light

2.3 And another stamp.
Filter -> Other -> High Pass
radius 60

Set the layer to Soft Light.

3. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Hue/Saturation

Saturation : +27

4. Then I made a stamp and with the clone and smudge tools I spread the image over the entire sig.

5. I made a copy of that layer and added a Shape blur filter.



Got rid of the part covering Helen with a large soft brush.

6. Added this texture, set to Color Burn, then resized it and moved it till I liked the way it looked.

7. I added this under the flower texture, set to Screen, opacity 25%. Erase parts, scale it, duplicate it, rotate it, go wild. The position of the lights should fall mostly under the flowers so that it brightens them and it'll give nice shadows.

8. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Selective coloring
reds: -76; 19; 24; 0
yellows: -100; 23; 100; 0
blacks: 18; 0; 0; 17

9. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map



Blending mode set to Vivid Light, Opacity 35%

10. Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Color Balance
shadows: 0; 0; 15
midtones: 35; 0; -29
highlights: -28; 0; 20

11. Then I added some random brushes on the left side so it wouldn't be so empty, drew the box for the name and added the text.

12. On a new layer added a 1 point stroke around the entire sig.

13. Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color
filled with deep blue color (#010012) set to Exclusion.

[Blacky Kitten]

Great arts, everyone!

Thanks, for the tut(s), Jas!
I might ask you about that stamp thing later, i've never used it

[hlndncr]

Since I can only use one icon at a time, I thought I'd play with a few and make a challenge sig:

[Estrela]

Oooo love all the challenge entries! I have a few to add too:


Look Aveo we used the same quote.






Then the mojo dictated it was time for some mother-daughter arties too.





Great new icons Josi!

Oh joy! New tuts by Jas Hooray and thank you! I love how you prepped the pictures. I can't wait to try that method. *runs off to play with new tuts*

[LadyGalaxyJ]

Ohhhh! So many pretties!

Sapphire_Jade - Love the colouring and composition on the McKay sig.

Valerie - Great avi/sig set!

Aveo - Lovely challenges entries. I really like the Sam one.

Jas - Thanks for the tuts!

Hlndncr - Nice icons... sig! I was thinking about making something like that too. I have a lot of icons and since I can't get a custom one yet, perhaps a sig could be in order?

Estrela - Great entries! My favourite is the first one. And the mother/daughter sigs are gorgeous. The first one is Sanctuary... what's the second one? o.ô

[Sapphire_Jade]

Ohhhh! So many pretties!

Sapphire_Jade - Love the colouring and composition on the McKay sig.

Thanks .. I was worried that it was too bright..

[XFchemist]

Estrela - Great entries! My favourite is the first one. And the mother/daughter sigs are gorgeous. The first one is Sanctuary... what's the second one? o.ô

I can answer! It's from V (Visitors): Anna (Morena Baccarin) and her daughter Lisa

[LadyGalaxyJ]

I can answer! It's from V (Visitors): Anna (Morena Baccarin) and her daughter Lisa

Ahhhhh... So, that's why there's a V in the bottom right! *feels a bit stupid*

EDIT: And take virtual green for giving me the answer. My fridge is locked...

[Jumble]

Challenge week 127
from Bekki


Make some artwork inspired by a Confucious quote.

Size: Any
Text: A Confucious quote, or text inspired by one
Pic: Any

Estrela







Jumble



Josiane



Aveo

I have no idea what the next challenge is. *looks around for Oma*

Anyone want to offer an idea?

[Blacky Kitten]

Amazing challenge entries, guys!

Asking for help: i can't that stupid deviantart to load and that puts me out. Can someone ask on deviantart support (if it's exist) whay that happens? Please?? It's so not happy not to use it

[Jumble]

Oma is still very busy in RL and hasn't been around much lately So I'm going to just jump in and suggest a challenge........

CHALLENGE WK 128
from Jumble

Seeing this pic.....



suggested a possible challenge ..... how about a crossover between your two favourite shows/ships/whatever?

Size: Any
Text: Any
Pics: At least one from each of your two fave shows/ships/whatever

SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO SARAI