Ten Steps To Creating A Poster Illustration With Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Adobe Inspire Magazine
Ten Steps To Creating A Poster Illustration With Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Adobe Inspire Magazine
Ten Steps To Creating A Poster Illustration With Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Adobe Inspire Magazine
Ten steps to creating a poster illustration with Adobe Photoshop CS6 | Adobe Inspire Magazine
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Adobe Photoshop is a powerful design tool used to manipulate photographs and create illustrative graphics. Photoshop can
be used for tasks as simple as applying color corrections to a photograph or as complex as combining multiple images and
special effects into an illustration. If you are a photographer or designer interested in creating high-end designs for print, web,
and mobile, Photoshop is a tool you cannot live without.
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Photoshop CS6 introduces a range of performance improvements and tool updates, including new brush features with stylus
support and improved photo editing filters and adjustments, just to name a few. Photoshop CS6 Extended now provides
enhanced support for 3D text extrusion and video editing in the new Timeline panel.
In this article, I guide you through some of the main features in the Photoshop workspace and introduce you to a basic
workflow for creating an illustration. The expressive features in Photoshop can be used for many possible workflows. This
tutorial is designed to help you take your first steps as a designer. You'll build a poster illustration by combining photographs,
an imported typographic element, and graphics created in Photoshop (see Figure 1). You'll also learn how to create an
editable master Photoshop file using composite elements as well as how to set up the final design for both print and web.
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Figure 2. Get familiar with the Photoshop CS6 workspace (click to enlarge).
Tip: Use the workspace switcher pull-down menu in the top right corner of the Photoshop workspace for a preview of how
the Photoshop panels can be configured for different tasks. Select the Essentials workspace for this tutorial.
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You can import photographs, artwork, typographic elements, and 3D objects in Photoshop to use as building blocks for the
design. This is common practice when creating illustrations from composite images, and it's a great way to quickly create
special effects and color themes.
In this step, you'll import two photographs and a typeset vector graphic for your design.
Import artwork for your design:
1. Choose File > Place. Navigate to the clouds.jpg file in the project folder. Click the Place button to import the image. Note
that the image appears with size handles. Use the handles to make the image the same size as the canvas.
2. Import the sunflower.jpg image from the project folder. This time, scale the image to be about two-thirds the height of
the canvas (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Scale the sunflower image to be two-thirds the size of the canvas.
3. Import the sunflower_text.ai file. This file contains text set along a path in Adobe Illustrator. Position the text above the
sunflower.
4. Save the file.
At this point, you've imported the primary graphics for the composition.
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Figure 4. The Layers panel shows the imported graphics plus two new layers.
Step 4: Work with tools to create content and navigate the design
The tools in Photoshop can be used for a wide range of tasks. For example, you can use the Pencil and Brush tools along
with new erodible brush tips to simulate sketching or painting. Use the shape tools to create rectangles and ovals, and use
the Text tool to create text. Use the selection tools to select areas by shape or color. Use the Clone, Blur, and Sharpen tools to
correct damaged areas in an image. Use the Eyedropper and Pain Bucket tools to sample and apply color. And use the Zoom
and Hand tools to navigate through your work at high resolution. You typically use these tools together to control the
workspace and see the details of your images.
In this step, you'll add some simple compositional shapes to the illustration.
Draw a background rectangle and outline:
1. Select the Sky layer in the Layers panel.
2. Select the Rectangle tool (press U) located near the bottom of the tool bar. (Be sure to select the Rectangle Shape tool
and not the Rectangular Marquee tool at the top of the tool bar.) Notice that the Rectangle tool properties appear in the
Properties panel. In Photoshop CS6, you can choose whether the rectangle shape has a fill color, a stroke (outline) color,
or both. Click and drag from the top left of the canvas to the lower right to draw a rectangle. Notice as you're dragging
that the new rich cursor feature shows you the width and height of the shape. The rectangle should have about a halfinch margin from the edge of the canvas.
3. Select the Border layer. Draw another rectangle the same size as the first. Set the fill color to no fill, and set the stroke
color to black with a width of 5 (see Figure 5). Notice that the rectangle shapes look crisp and clean due to the new
Snap To Pixel Grid option. The Snap To Pixel Grid and Align Edges features snap the edge of the shape to pixel
boundaries when you draw or move shapes.
4. Save the file.
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4. Choose Select > Refine Edge. In the dialog box, you can use several tools to refine the edge of the selection, including
Contrast, Feather, and Smooth. You can also output the selection directly to a layer mask.
5. Take a moment to experiment with the Edge Detection and Adjust Edge settings.
6. Change the Output To field to Layer Mask and click OK. Notice that the background of the sunflower image is masked
from view (see Figure 7). Also notice that the Sunflower_text layer now includes a linked mask. You can click the mask
icon on the layer and open the new Properties panel to modify the mask or show or hide it.
7. Save the file.
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Figure 7. The sunflower photograph now has the background masked out.
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Figure 9. The photographs appear to have the same monochromatic color adjustment.
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Figure 10. The completed image uses the Oil Paint filter.
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Noise: 25
4. Click OK. Notice that the effect appears on the layer so you can turn it on and off.
5. In the Layer Style dialog box, select the Gradient Overlay option on the left. Click the gradient color from the Gradient
Overlay options to launch the Gradient Editor. Choose the Orange, Yellow, Orange option from the presets or make your
own gradient.
6. Select the Stroke option in the Layer Style pop-up menu. Set the width to 8 and choose red or brown for the color. Click
OK.
7. Select the Text tool again and choose the following attributes:
Font: Book Antiqua
Weight: Bold
Size: 60
Color: Black
8. Type the text CAFE and place it below the flower image.
9. Right-click the Sunflower_text layer and choose Copy Layer Styles from the context menu.
10. Right-click the CAFE layer and choose Paste Layer Styles. Notice that all the effects now appear on that layer.
11. Complete the design with the last bit of text. Select the Text tool and choose the following attributes:
Font: Harlow Solid Italic
Size: 21
Color: Red or Brown
12. Type the text Open Friday Tuesday from 9am 10pm and place it below the CAFE text. Notice that the text
includes en dashes, rather than ordinary hyphens. You can add en dashes and other ASCII characters on Windows by
using Alt-key codes. For en dashes, press Alt+0150 (Windows) or Shift+Option+hyphen (Mac OS). Save the file.
Tip: You can use the new Character Style and Paragraph Style panels in Photoshop CS6 to save styles for use between
projects.
At this point, you've completed the poster design (see Figure 11).
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Figure 11. The typographic elements are painted with strokes and gradients.
Tip: Check out Photoshop Dimensions magazine to learn more about working in 3D in Photoshop CS6 Extended.
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For more information about Photoshop, check out the following resources:
Photoshop CS6 new features: Quick overview (video)
Tips for getting started with Photoshop CS6 (blog)
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