Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create the look of gorgeous, mixed media portraits.
Before we begin, if you're not a subscriber to my channel, hit that small "Subscribe" button
at the lower, right corner.
I included 2 files that you can download, so you can follow along.
They're located in my video's description below or project files.
One is this watercolor image and the other is a watercolor paper texture that we'll use
later to create a pattern for our background.
For this particular portrait effect, open a sharp, well-focused profile of someone.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to separate your subject from its background by making a selection
around your subject.
There are many ways to do this, but for this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using this tool as well, I find that a radius of approximately 10 pixels generally
works well for most images that have resolutions from 72 to 150 pixels per inch.
Drag your tool over the inside of your subject.
To remove selections outside your subject, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Once your subject has a selection around it, to refine its edges, go to Select.
If you're using a recent version of Photoshop, click "Select and Mask", however, if you're
using an earlier version, click "Refine Edge".
I did in-depth tutorials on both Refine Edge and Select and Mask, so if you'd like to watch
them, I provided their links, as well.
If you'd rather use "Refine Edge" instead of "Select and Mask", Shift-click "Select
and Mask" to open "Refine Edge".
Check "Smart Radius".
To adjust the size of your tool, make sure your "CapsLock" key isn't on and press the
left or right bracket key on your keyboard.
Drag your tool over the soft edges of your subject like the hair.
Check "Decontaminate Colors", which prevents the background color from leaching into the
edges of your subject.
I'll slide it all the way to 100%.
Output it to a "New Layer with Layer Mask" and click OK.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Next, we'll create a new document, which we'll place our subject onto.
Go to File and "New".
Make its Width: 2500 pixels and its Height: 2500 pixels.
Its resolution is 150 pixels per inch.
The color mode is RGB and 8 bits per channel.
The background is white.
Then, click "Create" or Open.
Open the watercolor paper texture I provided.
Go to Edit and "Define Pattern".
Then, click OK.
Open the document you created.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Pattern".
Make the Scale: 50%.
Shift-click the Background to make it active, as well and convert them into one Smart Object.
Change its Blend Mode to "Multiply".
Open back your subject.
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag it onto the tab of your new document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize it, press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option
+ Shift as you drag it in or out.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Drag your subject below the background.
You can see the paper texture through your subject because we changed the paper texture's
blend mode is "Multiply".
Open the watercolor paint image I provided.
Drag it onto the tab of your new document and without releasing your mouse or pen,
drag it down and release.
Change its Blend Mode to "Hard Light".
Make the face layer active and go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Artistic folder and click "Watercolor".
Make the Brush Detail: 1, the Shadow Intensity: 0 and the Texture: 1.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and double-click the Smart Filter's "Blending Options" icon.
Change its Blend Mode to Color Dodge and its Opacity to 70%.
We'll make a new layer below our subject by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill it with white, but first, check your foreground and background colors.
If they're not black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since white is the background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Make the watercolor paint layer active and click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer
mask next to it.
We'll brush black paint strokes in the layer mask, which will mask out or hide the watercolor
paint inside the areas we brush into the layer mask.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
As you scroll down, If you don't see the "Watercolor" brushes folder,
download it from the linkI provided.
It's located in my video's description below or in my project files.
Once you download the brushes, click the gear icon and click "Import Brushes".
Locate the "Watercolor Brushes" folder you just downloaded and click "Load".
At the bottom of the Brush window, you should now see it.
Before you open it, click the gear icon and click "Brush Name".
Open the folder and scroll down to see all the watercolor brushes with their respective names.
If you can't see all of the names, just widen out the window.
I'm using a brush called, "Kyle's Real Watercolor - Natural Edge Texture".
I tried many of the brushes in this set and like this one the best for this particular
effect, however, feel free to experiment with as many as you like.
Before we brush over our image, we should decide which areas of the face or paint texture
do we want mask out.
For this example, let's mask out the paint texture to the left of our subject's face.
To do this, make a selection of the face by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the thumbnail
of the face layer.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift I.
To see our selection, we can temporarily convert it into a quick mask by pressing "Q".
The selection will act as a stencil by protecting the paint texture inside the face from being
masked out when brush over over our image.
Revert the quick mask back into a selection by pressing "Q" again.
Make the Layer Mask active, so when we brush over our image, we'll be actually brushing
over the layer mask and not on the image.
Brush over the paint texture outside your subject's profile.
If you want your brush to start out weak and increase its strength the more you brush over
an area, reduce its "Flow" amount.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Make the face active and click the Layer Mask icon
to make a layer mask next to it.
By brushing over this layer mask, it'll mask out or hide areas of just our subject.
I'll reduce the Flow and continue to brush over areas of my subject that I want to mask out.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!