Photoshop Tutorial, Part Four

[Harry P.]

Let's finish up the rear window.

Going back to my original black rear window shape (still on its own separate layer), I duplicated it again, and this time changed the color to sky blue with the color overlay function I've already mentioned. Then I duplicated the new blue window shape, so now I have two identical blue window shapes, each on their own separate layers. You'll see why I needed two in a minute:

I'll make one of the two blue window shapes the active layer (by clicking on it in the layers palette)... then use the eraser to remove the part I don't need, like this:

Now I'll make the other blue window layer (remember, I made two copies of the blue window shape) and use the ellipse tool to select the area I don't want...

And hit the "Delete" key to remove the unwanted blue area:

Now I'll take both blue window layers, merge those two layers together into one layer, and resize it slightly smaller to fit into my black window opening, like this:

[Harry P.]

And here's a shot of the finished rear window showing the window surround detail that I created in Part Three. At this point I merged all the layers that make up the rear window down into one layer:

However, I thought the soft highlight on the left side of the glass was too bright... so I used the "Magic Wand" tool to select the area I wanted to darken...then used the "Burn" tool (circled in red) to darken the area. (PS has both "dodge" and "burn" tools to lighten or darken photos, just like the old fashioned way in the darkroom).

More to come...

[Bernard Kron]

I finally caught up to part four. As a beginner/intermediate user of P-shop, thanx for this opportunity to see a skilled hand at work, fully exploting the many tools and functions of this great program.

[Harry P.]

I finally caught up to part four. As a beginner/intermediate user of P-shop, thanx for this opportunity to see a skilled hand at work, fully exploting the many tools and functions of this great program.

Actually I'm just scratching the surface. There are so many different features, filters and functions in PS that I could spend weeks explaining them all. The good news is that most of them are very specialized functions and not really needed to create illustrations using my techniques. Over the years I've boiled down things to just a few simple techniques to create the look I want.

Also keep in mind that I'm keeping this illustration fairly simplified. No interior detail, just blacked-out glass, simplified highlights and shadows, etc. I just want to get the techniques across... the level of detail could be increased significantly (like I do in my "real" illustrations, like the ones I posted in the "Photoshp Phun" thread.