Are you a fan of a particularly popular game featuring a group of agitated birds and noisy green pigs? Well, in this week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques, Deke McClelland shows you how to create your very own “grumpy bird” with Adobe Illustrator. Let’s get started.
Follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
Welcome back to Deke’s Techniques. This week learn how to transform the Dunguaire Castle image from last week’s technique into a weathered black-and-white print with Adobe Photoshop and Camera Raw. We’ll balance the luminance levels to create the sepia tone, and we’ll add some film grain and vignetting. Let’s see how it works.
This week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques reveals how to develop a dramatic photograph inside of Camera Raw—in particular, an already enchanting photo of the Dunguaire Castle in County Clare, Ireland, that Deke shot on his Canon 5D Mark III. Deke applies a series of discrete selective nondestructive modifications in Adobe Camera Raw to achieve even more of a dramatic effect. Let’s see exactly how it works!
To get started, follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
This week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques returns to optical art territory. Deke McClelland starts off with some very basic path outlines in Adobe Illustrator, and then converts them into a seamlessly repeating tile pattern. Let’s see exactly how it works!
To get started, follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
If you’re a lynda.com premium member, you can use the exercise files Deke provides with the course, or simply use the instructions he gives in the first part of the video to create your own version.
In this week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques, Deke shows you how to create a pattern of morphing, color-changing inset circles inside Adobe Illustrator. We’ll do this by blending multiple groups of circles. Then we’ll blend and re-blend those groups to get a couple of different iterations of the effect. To get started, follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
If you’re a lynda.com premium member, you can use the exercise files Deke provides with the course, or simply use the instructions he gives in the first part of the video to create your own exercise file.
Welcome back to Deke’s Techniques! This week, Deke shows you how to assemble a single Adobe Photoshop composition, or comp, from the six Warhol–like image treatments we created with the last two techniques. Learn how to precisely align each image so that not a single pixel is clipped or singed. To get started, follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step. Use the portraits you’ve assembled over the last two tutorials (here and here), use your own images, or work with the exercise files included with the course.
1. Start in Adobe Bridge by Shift-click-selecting all of your images. Choose Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers.
This method flattens each of the files and assigns it to an independent layer in Photoshop.
2. To give yourself more room to work, choose Image > Canvas Size. Deselect the Relative check box. Since there are six images and the plan is to place three of them in each row, you need to enlarge the image by 300 percent horizontally and 200 percent vertically. If you’re using a different number of images, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
Also make sure to click in the upper-left corner of the Anchor Matrix to expand the canvas in the correct direction.
3. Select the second image layer and choose the Move tool (V). This enables the Align menu in the panel options bar.
4. Click Align Bottom and then Align Horizontal.
5. Select the next image layer. Alternatively, press the Alt+ (Windows) or Option+ (Mac) shortcut to move down the layer stack. Use the Align horizontal centers for this layer.
6. Select both of the last two images and choose Align Right Edges from the options bar.
7. Press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (Mac) to deselect all layers and save your work.
This technique is good for combining any number of images, as long as they are the exact same size. Just remember to scale your canvas size by the number of photos you want to place vertically and horizontally.
Tune in at the same time next week when Deke reveals an Illustrator technique for creating a repeating pattern of circles of various sizes and colors, the perfect decorative element for page backgrounds, print assets, or even, as Deke says, “your next shower curtain.” And as always, members of lynda.com can view the entire Deke’s Techniques collection in our library.
Suggested courses to watch next:
• The entire Deke’s Techniques collection
• Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
• Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
Valentine’s Day is approaching, and in this week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques, Deke shows you how to build a Warhol-style serigraph portrait of your valentine, whether it’s your main squeeze, your best bud, or your favorite furry friend. This technique combines last week’s effect with a new high-contrast color palette and luminescent highlights in Adobe Photoshop. Follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
1. Use the image variation from last week’s technique or start fresh with Deke’s exercise file, which includes a set of preselected color swatches. And here’s a tip if you’re starting from scratch: keep your palette garish, high contrast, and concise (around five swatches in total) for maximum impact.
2. Isolate and select the eyelids of your subject and fill them with white, the default background color in Photoshop.
3. Use the Eyedropper tool to sample your first color swatch, click on the eyelids again, and press Shift+Alt+Backspace or Shift+Option+Delete to fill them with the selected color.
4. Repeat step 3 to fill the lips, hair, and background of your image with the colors of your choice.
5. To offset the fill layers so that they appear out of “registration,” as they would in a real screen print, select the layers, press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) key, and press the right and up arrow keys a few times.
6. Save a copy of your new variation by choosing File > Save As.
7. To add more dimension to the image, create a rough mask of your subject (free of most of the background) and add a Color Overlay effect. Change the effect’s blend mode to Screen to brighten all of the clipped layers in the image. Experiment by adjusting the Brightness and Saturation values.
8. To create the luminescent highlights, Shift-click the base black and white image and then choose Image > Calculations. Set both Layer options to Merged and select the Red channel for Source 1 and Blue for Source 2. Change the Blending setting to Difference and check Invert.
9. Back in the main image, press Ctrl+I (Windows) or Command+I (Mac) to invert the highlights effect.
10. Apply a Levels adjustment and increase the black point value to 100.
11. Turn the visibility of your other layers back on.
12. Finally, fill your highlights layer with the final swatch color and move it to the top of the layer stack.
Now you have a true Warhol-style portrait. However, Warhol would have never stopped at two variations. Tune in next week to watch Deke combine six variations in a precisely aligned hexaptych, or six-panel artwork. In the meantime, members of lynda.com can view the entire Deke’s Techniques collection in our library.
Suggested courses to watch next:
• The entire Deke’s Techniques collection
• Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
• Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
Warhol became famous in part for his brilliant high-contrast and high-color renderings of famous figures like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and even Mao Zedong. In this week’s Deke’s Techniques video, learn how to add an Andy Warhol-like treatment to your favorite portrait.
Deke shows you how to avoid inferior automated effects by building your own in Adobe Photoshop, complete with canvas texture and midtones. Follow along with Deke in this week’s free video and use the companion text below to help with each step.
1. Start by converting your image to a high-contrast black-and-white version by applying a Black & White adjustment layer. Choose the High Contrast Red Filter from the Black & White presets.
2. Increase the contrast of the image by applying a Levels adjustment. Increase the black-and-white points using the histogram.
3. Add texture to the image using a new layer filled with an image like plain-woven fabric or crumpled paper, or use the exercise files provided by Deke.
4. Make the texture appear more organic by choosing Edit > Free Transform and entering Warp mode. Use the handles provided to change the angles of the texture.
5. Change the blend mode of the texture layer to Overlay.
6. Select the Brush tool to start painting in the color. Choose a variety of different vivid colors to paint the eyelids, lips, hair, and so on. And here’s a pro tip: reduce the Spacing value to make sure the brush strokes are applied smoothly.
7. Select the image layer and change the blend mode to Multiply to merge the layer effects.
8. Finally, add a border to your image to make it a bit more authentic.
To learn about a whole other set of Warhol-style treatments (six, in fact), tune in next week. And as always, members of lynda.com can view the entire Deke’s Techniques collection in our library.
Suggested courses to watch next:
• The entire Deke’s Techniques collection
• Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
• Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
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