Wallpaper Tutorial
I decided to make a tutorial for the following wallpaper because I really like it. The techniques aren't anything exciting, but I still thought I would share.
I made it in PS CS, and it uses curves and selective colouring, but everything else should be transferable.
1. I started off with this texture by Fix&Mix which I set to Normal, opacity 100. I did, however, flip vertically and use free transform on it to resize it and remove the black bit from the top. Both of these features can be found under Edit > Transform.
2. I copied my choice of image onto the wallpaper and moved it into my desired location. I set it to Darken, opacity 100, to make it feel like it was merging into the background a bit more than it was set on normal. It doesn't really make much difference with this image what it's set on so you could just leave it on Normal.
3. This is where I staretd to have fun building up the large picture of Fernando in the wallpaper. Obviously I don't quite remember the order I did anything in because it was months ago, but the basic aim is to use the layers and the layer masks to build up the effect you want. I will often go back to a layer I haven't touched in a while and just paint another stroke on the mask if I think it needs it. Very rarely will the mask I started with be the mask I end up with. As you will see in a minute the first mask I've got is probably a good example of that because I'll not have started off with part of his hair missing like it is.
To add a layer mask it's easy. You can either go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All, or you can use the second button in at the bottom of the layers pallet (my prefered way.) To use the mask it's easy, just like using the paintbrush you can set the colour you're painting onto the mask with using the Colour pallet. White reveals all of the image, black hides it all and the shades off grey in the middle make it semi revealed (the closer the grey is to white the more visible the image is.) You can use your paintbrush to paint on the layer mask (that's the foreground colour) or you can use the eraser (which is the background colour) I personally prefer to use the eraser on masks because I don't tend to use it for much else and as most of the time I use a circular brushtip on it I don't have to keep recreating/reset it because I've used a paint brush on the wallpaper. Most of the time all I play around with when creating my layer mask is the master diameter and the hardness of the circular eraser brush I'm using.
If you don't like masks you can obviously just use the eraser (as an eraser) to remove the bits you want. However, with a mask you don't lose the underlying image so if you change your mind about something you've done you can just repaint the mask and you haven't lost anything like you would have done if you decided you'd removed too much with just erasing it.
Ok, back to the wallpaper, I decided I wanted Fernando and a bit of the background because I quite like the background of the image.. Something about it interests me somehow. Am I odd? Having created the mask on one layer I've duplicated it and used Sharpen Edges (Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges) on the duplicate. I left this layer set to Darken, opacity 100, and duplicated it (so that I had two layers with sharpened edges.)
4. At this point I started thinking about how it might work later on with the colouring and I decided that the image of Fernando needed to look a bit more 'dynamic'. To solve this I duplicated the base image of him (the one I hadn't sharpened) and dragged it to the top. I set this layer Screen, opacity 35. Now Fernando was brighter, but lacking depth (imo) so I duplicated the screen layer and set it to Soft Light, opacity 63. If you compare the appearance now to before I added these two layers I think it has more depth/looks less flat... I prefer how it looks.
5. Now I wanted to add something to the other side of the wallpaper in the big empty space I've got with arranging Fernando in the corner. I settled on starting with a paper texture from Rain Harbour. I would show you the full size thing, but I haven't saved it and the site is on hiatus. I added the paper set to Normal, opacity 100, and used a layer mask to remove some of the edges a bit. Basically I added this layer so that it would provide a bit of interest and also a bit of a different background to seperate the next step from the rest of the background.
6. I'd decided I wanted to stick to just using this one photoshoot photo of Fernando on the wallpaper so I added a cropped and resized version of this as a new layer. I thought it was a bit boring on it's own so I added a new layer behind the small photo of Fernando and selected an area a little bit bigger than the photo and flood filled it in white to create a nice border. Then I linked the two layers and rotated them a bit because I thought it would add more interest if they weren't perfectly straight.
7. I thought this one extra image on it's own was a bit boring so I duplicated it and the border and moved these two layers a bit closer to the side of the wallpaper and rotated them a little bit further (I thought it was more interesting than leaving them rotated the same amount)
8. Like I did with the larger image of Fernando I moved on to preparing the images a bit for when I add the colouring later. If you compare the large image to the two smaller ones you can see how much more dynamic the bigger one looks.
I duplicated both of the small images and used Sharpen Edges and set the layers to opacity 27. With the small image of Fernando in the background I duplicated the base twice and, dragging the layers above the sharpened one, set one of the layers to Screen 34 and the other layer to Soft Light 36. With the foreground image of Fernando I only duplicated the base once and this layer I dragged to the top and set to Screen 28.
I used a different combination of layers to add a bit of variety, because it would be a bit boring if they were totally the same, right? With these things it's all about playing with the layer combinations and the opacities until you've got something you're happy with. And don't be afraid of changing them later when you add the colouring because often they do need a bit of tweaking depending on the image.
9. I don't know about you, but I think the layout is starting to look quite good. I wasn't happy with the large image of Fernando though, the image ends too quickly down by his arm and there is a lot of space the image could be flowing into. Therefore, I duplicated the base layer of him and dragged it above the two sharpened layers. I left it set to Darken, opacity 100, and using a largish soft grey eraser brush painted on the layer mask so that some of the background was semi-transparent.
I duplicated this layer and made the visible area a slightly smaller area. I left this layer set on Darken, opacity 100 as well.
10. Amazing what difference adding a bit of extra image background does!! I felt it was time to add some text for interest (because, lets face it, it's still a bit empty and boring looking...) I select a blue-grey colour (#3D3C53) from the wallpaper and using Century Gothic set to 48px added "fernando alonso" on the layer above all of the little images of Fernando. I then rotated the layer to match the fact all of the other layers in that group were rotated. I also gave it a white drop shadow, set to: Screen, opacity 28 and angle 120.
I tried to think of some text that would fit the image and after duplicating the "fernando alonso" layer changed the words to "mean moody magnificent" and changed the colour of the text to a paler grey-blue (#A6ADAE) and the size of the text to 24px. I also changed the drop shadow to: black, Multiply and opacity 26. The effect of the drop shadow is much more obvious on this layer with the shadow being dark and the background being pale.
11. I wanted to add some more stuff to the background so I found a newspaper texture by... I have no idea! I have a feeling it was Rain Harbour again, but I can't look. I added the layer above the background and set it to Softlight, opacity 100
12. Now the other corner looked empty so I added a large texture brush by The Magic Box in a pale grey-blue that I picked up from the image. I reduced the opacity of the layer to 24%.
13. I still felt that the bottom left corner was looking a little plain so I added this texture by Master Jinn as a new layer, rotated it a bit and sit it to Darken, opacity 26. I just wanted a bit of the mesh showing down in the corner.
14. I added a few more layers by Master Jinn. One was this texture which I rotated and then added a layer mask to so that essentially all you can really see is the splatter under "mean" and "mood". I set the layer to Darken, opacity 7. I also added this texture which again I rotated (mainly so the really dark bits are hidden behind the paper texture.) and set to Darken, opacity 29. I arranged it so that it's 'behind' "alonso" and under "magnificent".
15. I still thought that area looked a little empty so behind everything but the very background layer I added a text brush in a mid to dark blue I grabbed off the image (maybe: #2E4560) I set the layer to Darken, opacity 22.
16. That's looking quite good, other than the fact it's all very blue and grey... So I decided to add some red splatter brushes to add some colour! I used brushes by Blueberry Wings and select the red colour from the image. One of the brushes I added behind all of the images of Fernando and set to Darken, opacity 75. The other I added above the little images of Fernando and left set on Normal, opacity 100.
17. We're nearly there! I still felt something was missing so I duplicated the large image of Fernando again and dragged it behind the smaller images. I then painted in black over most of the mask to just leave some of the background visible. I set this to Darken, opacity 18.
18. To sort out the colouring I created a layer above all of the others and using #001E40 I flood filled the layer and set it to Lighten, opacity 33.
Next I created a curvers adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and set it to
Red: Input 70, Output 69. Input 182, Output 184.
Blue: Input 67, Output 77. Input 198, Output 192.
I added another adjustment layer, this time Selective Colour and set it to:
Red: -100, 28, 32, 0
Yellows: 0, 12, 32, 0
Cyans: 58, 0, 0, 0
Neutrals: 22, 0, -1, 0
19. And now for the finishing touches. A couple of light textures to add a bit more interest. I added both textures just beneath the selective colour layers. The first one I used was this one by Moargh.de and I set it to Lighten, opacity 46. I added a layer mask and painted in black over the big image of Fernando to keep it off him.
The second one I added was this one by Broken Frames. I set it to Lighten, opacity 51. This time I used the layer mask to mask out the texture over the big and small images of Fernando.
And there we go, the wallpaper is done!!