Artists often work with a team of individuals to complete a project. This team could include a client, a creative director, an art director, a photographer, a retoucher, and a graphic designer. In this two-part tutorial, I teamed up with photographer Natalie Fobes to create a magical photo illustration that depicts a child interacting with toys that have come to life. In the process, we will show you how to not only shoot the photos that you need, but also, how to retouch them and combine them with stock photos to create artwork that closely resembles a sketch. Let’s get started!
The Photo Shoot
To learn how the photography for this tutorial was shot, go to Natalie’s tutorial in the Tuts+ photography section.
Speed Art Video
Long Video
If you would like to see a slowed down version of the above video, we have included it here to help you along. This video is 45 minutes long and shows the real-time video sped up 350%. Unfortunately, there is no audio for this video.
Note: This tutorial makes heavy use of Adjustment Layers and Clipping Masks. If you are unfamiliar with how Clipping Masks and Adjustment Layers work, take a look at the video below, or see Martin Perhiniak’s tutorials on Clipping Masks and Adjustment Layers.
Tutorial Assets
You will need the following stock assets to complete this tutorial. Please download them before you begin or find alternatives if you do not wish to pay for them. We have also included the photos that Natalie shot in the first part of this tutorial as a free download.
- Free Image Pack
- Bear #1
- Bear #2
- Bear #3
- Rabbit
- Worm
- Duck
- Dinosaur
- Rocket
- Plane
- Fireworks
- Light Effect
- Flare
- Fairy
- Fairy’s Arm
- Fairy’s Wings
Planning the Illustration
Before I began building this tutorial, I worked closely with other Tuts+ instructors to develop a concept for the final image. We came up with the idea of a scene where a child is interacting with toys that have come to life. Below are a couple of the sketches that I put together.
After some discussion, we decided that the mood of the first sketch was a better fit, so I sent that sketch off to Natalie (the photographer) so she could shoot some photos with a similar look and feel. More information about that process can be found in the photography section of this tutorial.
1. Prepare the Room
Step 1
Open the photo of the empty room. This will be the base for the entire image. As you can see, the room in the photograph is slightly different to the room in the sketch. We weren’t able to build a set or scout out a location to the exact specifications of the sketch, so we had to improvise just a bit.
Using the Clone Stamp Tool (S), remove some of the objects that do not belong, like the flash and reflector.
Now, using a Quick Mask (Q), darken the areas of shadow with a Curves adjustment.
To accentuate the light from the window, make a merged copy (Command/Ctrl-Shift-Alt-E) and set the Blend Mode to Screen and 35% Opacity. Then, apply a mask following the direction of the light.
2. Insert the Girl Into the Scene
Step 1
Open the photograph of the girl, to insert her into the scene. With the Pen Tool (P), create a selection around the girl and feather about 0.5 pixels.
Now to make the hair mask, go to the Channels and duplicate the red one, then with a Levels Adjustment (Command/Ctrl-L), increase the contrast until it is black and white. At this stage the only thing that matters is the edge of the hair.
After that, with Command/Ctrl pressed, click on the channel you just created to make the selection, and on the mask of the girl that you made earlier, paint with white colour to show the edges of the hair.
Using Puppet Warp, adjust the forearm of the girl to make it look like she is pointing where she is looking.
After that, reinforce the light and shadow of the girl with a Curves adjustment layer. For the light, set the Curves to match the image below and mask the areas according to the light.
For the shadows, set a Curves adjustment layer using a Clipping Mask, match the curves to the image below and mask the areas opposite to the light.
3. Insert the Toys
Step 1
Open the toy images (from the assets provided above) and use the Pen Tool (P) to cut around them. For a soft selection, add a Feather of around 0.5 or 1.0.
Place the cut-out toys into the final image. Start with the panda in the background, on the dresser. Mask and position it as shown. Decrease the light a little bit with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and set the Lightness to -20.
For the shadows, use another Hue/Saturation adjustment, masking the parts opposite to the light.
For the light, use a Curves adjustment similar to the example shown below.
Mask the parts that need light.
For the shadow on the wall you can use the same selection of the bear, move it to the side, and darken the color of the wall with a Curves adjustment.
Step 2
For the bear on the bed, decrease the light with a Hue/Saturation layer, and set the Lightness to -35.
After that use a Curves adjustment to create a shadow as shown below.
To create the light, set a Curves layer as shown below.
Following the direction of the light.
To make the shadow where the bear makes contact with the bed, you will extract the original image and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
For the folds of the bed, cut a piece of the sheet from the other image of the girl, and position it underneath the bear then mask some parts.
To make the largest shadow, use the selection of the bear upside down with a curve darkening from top to bottom.
Step 3
For the bear standing on the boxes in the background, decrease the light with a Hue/Saturation layer, with the Lightness set to -20.
Create the light with a Curves layer and follow the direction of the light from the window.
To create the shadow, use another Curves adjustment.
Mask the shadow areas.
Now you will make a very soft shadow projected on the wall. For this, use the same selection of the bear by clicking above the clipping mask with Command/Ctrl pressed. After that, use the Feather Tool (Shift-F6) set to around 50.0 and create a solid colour #74584f with this selection set to 30% Opacity and Blend Mode Multiply.
Move the shadow down and to the right as shown below, and paint in the mask so that the shadow does not cover the box.
Step 4
Now open the image of the two bears and position them on the ground.
With Hue/Saturation, decrease the Lightness to -45. Then use Curves to create the shadows
With another Curves layer, again make the light.
To make the shadows, you will use the shadow from the photo. For that, make a copy of the bears.
Then press Command/Ctrl-Shift-U to Desaturate it and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
Step 5
Open the drawing toy and flip it (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal), then rotate like the
image below.
With Pen Tool (P) mask the toy to insert it in the dresser and with Hue/Saturation set Lightness to -30 to adjust the illumination.
Now use Curves adjustment to create the shadows.
With a new Curves layer set like next image to make the lights.
Step 6
With the dinosaur image opened, rotate and position it like image below.
After mask the dinosaur decrease the light using Hue/Saturation with a Lightness of -10 and Curves to create
the shadows.
Now use Curves adjustment to create the lights.
To create the shadows on the ground, make a black solid colour layer set to Blend Mode to Multiply with an Opacity of 75%. Then, with a soft brush, paint on the mask in diagonal direction under the dinosaur’s paw.
Step 7
Open the rubber duck image and position it on the ground between the bed and the dinosaur, and using Hue/Saturation decrease the Lightness to –20.
Now use Curves adjustment to create the lights.
With new Curves layer create the shadow.
To make the shadow on the ground, use the same technique you used in the hugging bears image. Make a copy of the original rubber duck image and mask the shadow area.
Then set the Blend Mode to Multiply, and mask the above area to correct the perspective.
Step 8
To insert the rabbit on scene rotate and position it as shown below.
Use Hue/Saturation to adjust the Lightness to -25.
For the shadows, use Curves to do it.
Use a new Curves layer set as shown in the next image to make the lights.
Step 9
Open the worm image and position it on the girl’s leg.
After you mask and position it, you have to decrease the light a little bit with Hue/Saturation. Set the Lightness to -30.
For the light, set the Curves adjustment like image below and mask the areas according to the light.
To make the shadows you will use Curves adjustment.
To make contact shadow of the worm with the girl, you will cut the original image and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
To make biggest shadows you will create a solid black colour and set Blend Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 30%. With a soft brush, paint in the mask following the leg’s curve.
Step 10
Open the airplane image, flip horizontally and position it close to the window.
Because this toy is near the window, it will be desaturated and brighter, so use Hue/Saturation set to Lightness +15 and saturation -35.
To bring back the contrast, create a new Black & White adjustment layer and set the Blend Mode to soft light.
Now increase the light with Curves.
Then, add some highlights with Curves again masking some points.
Now you will start to create the motion blur to give sense of movement. Duplicate the entire treatment of the plane and merge using Command/Ctrl-E, after that use motion blur and set the Angle to 15 and the Distance to 500, move this layer a little bit to the right and mask to show only the final of the trail.
In the final step, you will make the motion of the propeller. First, make a copy of the plane and cut only the propeller.
Then align horizontally.
After that make a square selection with the propeller centralised and use a Radial Blur set to
30, and mark the options spin and good.
Duplicated the layer and rotate vertically until they are perpendicular.
Using Distort Tool (Edit > Transform > Distort) put the propeller in proper perspective.
To finish the helicopter with a soft brush erase the propeller in the mask of the plane.
Step 11
Position the rocket close to the window.
Because the toy is close to the window it will be brighter, so use Hue/Saturation and set the Lightness to +30.
To add more light, use Curves adjustment and mask according to light.
To make the Motion Blur, duplicate the rocket and set the Motion Blur to -50 and 500 pixels.
Mask the motion to appear only at the end of the trail.
Now, to make the rocket’s fire, open the fireworks image and position behind the rocket.
Set the Blend Mode to screen and mask only the fireworks.
After that, you will highlight colours. Create a Hue/Saturation layer, select Colorize to turn it red and set the Saturation to +100 and link adjustment layer to fireworks layer using Clipping Mask.
Now, to enhance the yellow colour, use the same process, create a new Hue/Saturation Layer mark the colorize option, and set Hue to 40 and Saturation to 100, after that, paint in the mask to colorise only the beginning of the flame.
To increase the contrast and brightness, duplicate all fireworks layers and merge (Command/Ctrl-E), then change the Blend Mode to Overlay and mask some parts.
4. Create the Fairy
Step 1
For the fairy, open the flying girl image, position it and flip horizontally.
Mask the girl with the same technique used on the girl on the bed, leaving out the background arm.
To the other arm, open the ballerina image and cut just the raised arm.
Then, decrease the size of the arm and position like image below.
Now decrease, a little bit, the light with Hue/Saturation set Lightness to -15 on the girl and the arm.
Use Hue/Saturation again to change the colour of the girl’s dress, mark the Colorize option and Saturation to 30 and mask only the dress.
With Curves adjustment add more contrast on girl’s leg.
Now, use Gradient Map on girl’s arm to equalise the skin colour with the rest of the body and use the same Curves adjustment that was used before on the leg.
Step 2
To create the wings, use the fairy image.
Try to make an organic and fluid form.
Duplicate the wing image, set Blending Mode to Color Burn and distort to make a smoother movement and mask some parts.
Duplicate the layers that you just created, set the Opacity to 65% and rotate to make the tip of the wing, once again, mask some parts to better integrate.
Make a copy of these two layers but change the Blend Mode to lighten, mask some parts to show only some highlights.
Now open the light effects image, and Warp it to create the light trail.
After that, use Hue/Saturation to turn blue on pink and change the Blend Mode to screen and mask to make a gradual trail.
Duplicate this new layer and use another part of the image to make a new trail below the one you made before and change the Blend Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 65%.
For the final touches, add some glitter. Open the flare image and cut all flares into their own separate layers.
Then, duplicate and scale to different sizes to create a small constellation and set the Blend Mode to screen, like the image below.
After that, spread at different points.
Now use two big flares to put between the girl and the fairy.
To finish, use Hue/Saturation to add a pink tone on the flare, mark the colorise option and set to Saturation to 100 and Lightness to -5, don’t forget to link to the adjustment layer with a Clipping Mask.
5. Environment and Mood
For the final process, you will create the entire environment, like colours, contrasts, brightness and everything related to it.
Step 1
Beginning desaturating the image with Hue/Saturation adjustment set Saturation to -40.
After that, to add more contrast to the project, create a new Black & White adjustment layer and set the Blend Mode to Soft Light and 60% of Opacity, then create a new Brightness/Contrast setting the Brightness to 5 and Contrast to 10.
Until this point the image should be looking like below.
Step 2
Now you will add colours on the project, create a Gradient Map layer like next image.
Use the color codes shown below and set the Blend Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 60%.
This adjustment will create a warm tone for the entire image.
Now, on the shadow add some cold tones. Create a Color Balance adjustment.
Then mask this layer selecting only the shadows, you can go in Channels click with Command/Ctrl pressed on the blue channel to make a selection and blur around 10, at the and the mask should be like below.
Then, use the same mask and create a Photo Filter layer.
After that, to finish the tutorial, add more Vibrance and Saturation.
You can see the difference on the images below.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we showed you how to create a photo manipulation using a combination of custom and stock photographs. We showed you how to apply realistic shadows to objects using adjustment layers and masks, as well as how to add motion blur and light effects. I hope that you learned something from this tutorial and can use these techniques to create something magical of your own.
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