Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform a photo of a face into a pop art cartoon.
This is an update of similar tutorials I've done on earlier versions of Photoshop.
This update is simpler and more stylized.
Before we begin, if you're not already a Subscriber to Blue Lightning TV, click the small "Subscribe"
button at the lower, right corner to let you know as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials.
Open a photo of a face that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one and the other one from Shutterstock.
To ensure that your results will look similar to mine,
let's check your document's size and resolution.
Go to Image and Image Size.
Make its resolution: 150 pixels per inch and its width and height more or less within a
couple hundred pixels of 1000.
First, let's separate our subject from its background by making a selection around our subject.
There are many ways to do this and I covered them all in my tutorials.
Once you have a selection around your subject, click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer
mask of the selection.
Make a new layer below it by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with white, but first, if your foreground and background colors
aren't black and white, respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since your background color is white, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, Shift-click the top layer t make it active, as well,
and click the icon at the upper, right corner of the Layers panel.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Name the top layer, "Line Art"
and the bottom layer, "Color".
Make the top layer active and go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Artistic folder and click "Poster Edges".
Make the "Edge Thickness": 0, the "Edge Intensity: 5 and the "Posterization": 6.
Go to Image, Adjustments and "Threshold".
Make the Threshold Level: 80.
Go to Filter, Stylize and "Oil Paint".
Make the Stylization: 5, the Cleanliness: 3, the Scale: 0.1 and the Bristle Detail: 0.
Make sure "Lighting" is unchecked.
We'll give our line art more contrast, but first, to save space in the Layers panel,
let's collapse the effects.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Levels".
We want to restrict the adjustment layer to affect just the "Line Art" layer
and not the "Color" layer, as well.
To do this, click the Clipping Mask icon or press Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows
or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
You can also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
Make the Input Highlights: 160 and the Input Shadows: 100.
Make the "Line Art" layer active and change its Blend Mode to "Multiply".
Make the "Color" layer active and go to Filter, Blur and "Surface Blur".
Make the Radius: 20 pixels and the Threshold: 10 levels.
Go to back to Filter, Stylize and "Oil Paint".
We'll keep the same settings as before and click OK.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
In the Artistic folder, click "Cutout".
Make the Number of Levels: 4, the Edge Simplicity: 4 and the Edge Fidelity: 2.
Collapse the effects and click the Adjustment layer icon.
Click "Hue ? Saturation" and clip it to the Color layer.
Increase the Saturation to 40.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon again and click, "Levels".
Then, clip it.
Make the Shadow Output level: 40.
Next, we'll colorize the eyes.
Make a new layer and name it, "Eyes".
Zoom into the eyes by pressing "z" on your keyboard to open your Zoom Tool
and drag it over the eyes.
Open your Pencil Tool.
If your foreground color is black, press "x" to invert the colors, so white is your foreground color.
Open the Pencil Picker.
We'll adjust the size in a moment.
Make the Hardness and Opacity both 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To make your pencil point bigger or smaller, make sure your CapsLock key is off press
and the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Just like a coloring book, brush over the areas of the eyes that you want to be white.
It won't affect the black lines, since the black Line Art layer is above it in the Layers panel.
To give the eyes a bit of dimension, we'll paint in light grey at their corners.
Click the foreground color and pick a light grey color.
Adjust the size of your Pencil if you need to and brush over the corners of both eyes.
We'll change the color of the irises by clicking the foreground color again and picking a color.
Then, brush in the color inside the irises.
Add white reflections on the pupils by pressing "i" on your keyboard to open the eyedropper tool.
Click the white of the eyes to pick up the white color.
Press "B" to open back your Pencil Tool and paint in the reflections.
To fit the image back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Next, we'll change the background from white to a color.
Double-click the Line Art layer to open its source image.
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag it onto the tab of your cartoon document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, press and hold the Shift key as you drag the subject down.
Then, release.
Holding Shift kept your subject centered.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the layer mask to make a selection of its shape.
Now, that we have its selection, we can delete the layer and its layer mask.
Go to the layer and drag it to the trash.
Go to Select, Modify and Contract.
Contract the selection by 2 pixels.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and make the Color layer active.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
We'll create the background layer below the Color Layer.
To do this, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the New Layer icon.
We'll fill it with a color.
Click your foreground color and pick a color for your background.
Since I already know the color I want, I'll paste into the hexadecimal field.
To fill the empty layer with your new foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!