Welcome back to another very exciting tutorial here at the PhotoshopTrainingChannel.com.
My name is Jesus Ramirez, and you can find me on Instagram @JRfromPTC.
In this tutorial, we're going to use Photoshop to create a Banksy-like stencil effect.
Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist, perhaps, the most controversial street artist
in the world.
Banksy's real name and identity are unknown.
His work includes many powerful and often controversial images.
He uses a distinctive stenciling technique to create his art and that's what we're going
to focus on in this tutorial.
We're going to use Photoshop to recreate the stencil effect by simply using a few adjustment
layers.
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for more free tutorials.
Okay, let's get started.
We're going to work with these two layers.
I have this background layer which is a picture of a wall and this picture with a little girl
holding a balloon.
Now, she's obviously in a white background.
If you're working on an image that does not have a white background, what you need to
do first is make a selection around your subject, and then, create a layer mask so that you'll
only keep your subject and not the background.
So I'm going to go ahead and undo that because I have a white background, so I don't have
to create a layer mask.
What I want to do, instead, is I want to create a threshold adjustment layer, and this threshold
adjustment layer is going to help us create that stencil look that we're going for.
I'm going to click on the clipping mask icon to clip this layer to the layer below it.
Notice this down-pointing arrow on the threshold adjustment layer.
This is saying that Photoshop will only apply that effect to the layer directly below it
and not the wall.
In the Properties panel, I can click and drag the slider over to the left and right to adjust
how the threshold is going to be applied.
Again, this is creating that stencil effect.
You really can't get a perfect stencil effect by using just this single adjustment layer,
so we're going to use a few other adjustment layers to enhance the effect, so I'm going
to click on the girl with balloon layer, and I'm going to add directly above that a Levels
Adjustment Layer.
Notice that by default, this is already clipped to the layer below it.
And I'm just going to click on this middle slider and drag it over to the right just
so we can get more detail on the arms and the legs.
Obviously, this effect is too strong for the rest of the image, so I'm going to invert
the layer mask to make it black.
Right now it's white so it's showing everything, but if we turn it black, it will hide everything.
You can invert a layer mask by pressing Ctrl I, Command I on the Mac, or by clicking on
the layer mask, and in the Properties panel, clicking on the Invert button, so either of
those will work.
So with the black layer mask, I can paint with white using the Brush Tool to reveal
that effect in the areas that I want more detail on, for example, the arm and the legs.
So I'm going to increase the size of my brush by tapping the right bracket key on the keyboard
and painting with white to bring in some of that extra detail.
Okay, so that's before and after.
Now, we added some detail by making the image darker, but you can also add some detail while
making the image brighter.
Let me show you how to do that.
I'm going to create another Levels Adjustment Layer, but this time, I'm going to click and
drag this middle slider to the left, and notice the detail that we're now getting in the balloon.
I think it looks better than just having it completely black, so something like that will
work, I think.
We're going to do the same thing we did before.
We're going to invert the layer mask, so I'm going to press Ctrl I, Command I on the Mac,
and once again, we'll paint with white on the areas that we want to reveal the effect
on, so the balloon, so painting with white using the Brush Tool right in this area here;
so this is before and after.
So we also need the string that's going from the balloon to the little girl's hand, so
let's draw that in.
I'm going to click on the girl with balloon layer, add a new blank layer, and with the
Brush Tool selected, I'm just going to draw that in.
I'm using a Wacom tablet so it might be a little bit easier than using the mouse.
So if you're using the mouse, just be a little more careful.
I'm going to tap the left bracket key on the keyboard to reduce the size of the brush and
this will be the thickness that I want the string to be, so maybe something like that,
and that looks pretty good.
And what we're going to do now is hide the white pixels so that only the black pixels
show.
I'm going to click on the girl with balloon layer and I'm going to change the Blend Mode
to Multiply.
All the blend modes in-between this divider here and this divider here, in-between Darken
and Darker Color, make it so that the black pixels stay and the white disappear.
So I'm going to select multiply, and sure enough, the black pixels stay and the white
disappeared, so that's the blend mode that we're going to use.
I'm also going to click on the little girl layer and also hold Shift and click on the
threshold layer, press Ctrl G, Command G, to transform to put that into a single group,
and now we can move it all together at the same time.
I press V on the keyboard to select the Move Tool.
I can also press Ctrl T, Command T, to transform, and I can click on the corner handles to scale
this image here, so I'm just going to just move it up a little bit right about here,
and that size seems to be pretty good.
I'm going to move it up by using the arrow keys on the keyboard.
I'm holding Shift so I can move it a little bit faster as I tap on those arrow keys, so
that seems to be a good spot.
What I'm going to do now is open up the group and we need to start adding some color to
this image.
I want the balloon to be red, so I'm going to click on the top adjustment layer here,
the threshold adjustment layer, and I'm going to create a Hue and Saturation Adjustment
Layer.
I'm going to click on Colorize and this is going to colorize the entire image.
Obviously, we only want to work on the little girl layer, so we're going to turn that into
a clipping mask, Ctrl Alt G, Command Option G on the Mac.
Notice this bar here at the bottom.
This is the color that this adjustment layer is applying to the image.
Notice that if I move the hue over to the right, right under this blue, this bar turns
blue.
If we want to add a saturation, then we click and drag the saturation slider over to the
right.
And, now, this is the color that is going to be applied on to this layer.
I'm going to click and drag this slider over to the left, the hue slider, so that it's
red.
Now, the reason that we're not seeing red is because we haven't changed the lightness.
And we have to remember that the image that we're working with is black and white, so
we have to make sure that we apply the red to the black and not the white.
So let me change the blend mode back to multiply, go back into the Hue and Saturation slider,
and notice what happens when we slide the Lightness slider to the left.
The pixels that were white turned red.
We want the opposite, so I'm going to click and drag the Lightness slider over to the
right, and now the pixels that are black are turning red, which is what we want.
Obviously, we don't want this effect to apply to the entire image, so I'm going to press
Ctrl I, Command I on the Mac, to invert so that it turns this layer mask black, hiding
everything.
And as you have seen before, I can paint with white in the areas where I want to reveal
that effect, so I'm just going to paint with white on the balloon and making the brush
bigger by tapping the right bracket key on the keyboard and now I can start painting
that balloon.
I don't really want any more color on this image, but if you want to, you can continue
painting with white and make the dress red as well.
But that's not something that I want to do, so I'm going to undo that.
Again, in this image, I don't want to add any more color, but in case you want to, you
can add a second or third color by repeating this step, so I'm just going to show you what
would happen with one extra color just so you could see.
So hue and saturation, turn that into a clipping mask, Ctrl Alt G, Command Option G on the
Mac, click on Colorize, click and drag the Hue slider to select the color that you want,
so, in this case, that's blue, and click and drag on the Saturation slider, maybe move
this over to the left a little bit, right about there.
And you can actually see that color here on the image and that's because those pixels
are no longer black; they're red.
You can see the preview of that here.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to press Ctrl I, Command on the Mac, to invert.
So, now, this mask hides everything in that layer and, once again, I can paint with white
on the layer mask to reveal that effect.
Now I'm painting with white and the effect is not showing.
It was showing when we are looking at the balloon.
The reason that it's not showing is because we didn't change the Lightness slider, so
I got to click and drag this over to the right.
Remember, we're working with dark pixels, so click and drag this over to the right.
The balloon was not black anymore so I didn't really have to move that Lightness slider,
but, anyway, there it is, blue dress and that's how you're going to go about adding more colors.
Again, I'm going to delete this layer because I don't really want to do that for this example.
What I'm going to do now is click on the top layer on the Hue and Saturation Adjustment
Layer and add a new Levels Adjustment layer, and I just want the darkest color of this
image not to be black.
I want it to be off black, so I want to click and drag this over to the right.
Of course, I want this to be clipped to the layer below it, so that's before and after.
It's not really that huge of a difference, but I think it's going to make the image look
a little bit better, so before and after looks a little bit more realistic if it's a little
dull.
And now I'm going to collapse the group.
I can double click on inside of the group there to bring up the Layer Style panel and
I can just click and drag this slider over to the right until I see some pixels start
disappearing here.
Then, I can hold Alt, Option on the Mac, split this in half and drag one over to the left
and one to the right.
And what I'm doing here is telling Photoshop that any pixel that is this shade of gray
or darker will come through and hide the pixels that are overrated on the little girl layer.
Any pixels that are in-between these two points have a smooth transition and any pixels that
are this shade of gray, all the way to white, will not affect the little girl layer.
So, notice what happens when I continue dragging this point all the way to the right and see
how it starts disappearing because now I'm telling Photoshop if it's this shade of gray
which is pretty light or darker, there's going to be some sort of transparency.
If I click and drag this one to the right, it's going to pretty much disappear because
now I'm saying if it's this shade of gray or darker, then make the pixels or the layer
above it disappear.
But anyway, so I'm just going to bring this over right about here and this one here and,
now, this looks a little more realistic.
And, actually, I'm going to continue adjusting it because I want the red to stick out a little
bit more, so I'm just going to move this over to the left, so somewhere around there, and
I'm going to press OK.
At this point, you can press V on the keyboard to select the Move Tool and click and drag
the layer around accordingly and place it wherever you like.
I think that spot is good so I'm going to leave it there.
The one thing I would recommend for you to do at this point is maybe download a stencil
font and you can use the Type Tool to type whatever you like if you want to include some
text or if you have a Wacom tablet, you might want to take advantage of the Brush Tool and
use one of these brushes that Photoshop comes with like this one here.
And notice what happens when I paint, sort of looks like a brush and so I'm going to
undo that and make it larger actually, so I'm going to tap on the right bracket key
on the keyboard and that's what it looks like.
If it's smaller, then, you get this effect here.
I'm just looking for the right size now so I'm painting, and then, using the bracket
keys to adjust the size.
So this size here seems to be good.I'm going to undo those brush strokes and I'm just going
to write something like Banksy.
And, of course, you could write whatever you like.
I'm going to zoom in just so you can see what that looks like up close.
Notice how it looks a like brush strokes.
If I'm at 100%, that's what it looks like.
And, by the way, if you want to use the same stencil font that I used in the featured image,
then you can go to Adobe Typekit if you're a member of the Creative Cloud, and download
a font called Industry Inc Stencil.
If you're not a member of the Creative Cloud, then simply look for a stencil font online
and you should be able to achieve a similar result.
And that's it for this tutorial.
I hope that you enjoyed it and that you learned something new.
Make sure that you leave all your comments or questions down below.
If you create an image using this tutorial or any other of my tutorials, feel free to
share it on Instagram with the hashtag #ptcvids.
I often do a search for this hashtag to see what you're all up to.
If I find your image, I would leave you a comment.
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Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you again soon.