Photoshop Tricks, Part 2 - More Fun with Pseudo-Painting
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Things are going to liven up from here on out. The hero, the fat star, needs to be treated delicately simply because it is the hero of the picture and you don't want to totally demolish it with paint strokes. So, you make a copy, apply the Artistic...wait a second. I should be telling you this in the following tutorial!
When You Brush Upon a Star Switch active layers on the Layers palette so that the Fat Star is chosen. Press Ctrl(Command)+J to duplicate the star layer. The Fat Star copy should be the active layer on the Layers palette. Choose Filter, Artistic, Dry Brush; see Figure 24.29 for the settings to apply. Then click on OK to apply the Dry Brush effect and return to the workspace.
Figure 24.29 Add some preconceived artistic excitement to a copy of the star by using the Filters menu.
Okay, follow me closely now. You have the Brush tool selected, right? Right-click (Macintosh: hold Ctrl and click), click on the Brushes palette's flyout menu, and choose Natural Brushes. Then click on OK to replace (as opposed to adding to the current list of brushes) in the ensuing dialog box. Choose the tip near the top of the list that says "29" (pixels) on it and looks as though someone sneezed on a windshield. Crank the Flow up to 20%, and press Q to enter Quick Mask mode (or click on the Quick Mask icon). Make sure black is the foreground color; if it's not, press X to switch.
Ctrl(Command)+click on the Fat Star copy layer to load the selection of the star. Paint away on the star, as shown in Figure 24.30. It helps verisimilitude (to seem more real) to paint more heavily—that is, repeat strokes more often—in the darker areas of the fat star. Use fewer strokes and perhaps leave some empty places in the fat star's lighter areas.
Figure 24.30 Paint back and forth or in any direction you might paint a star on a blank canvas.
Press Q to exit Quick Mask mode, or click on the Edit in Standard Mode icon. Save the selection as Alpha 2 on the Channels palette, and press Ctrl(Command)+D to deselect. Click the Fat Star copy layer in the Layers palette to make it the active layer. Then it's off to the Lighting Effects filter for texturizing, using the same settings as the preceding exercise, except that you should make Alpha 2 the Texture Channel and adjust the point in the proxy window again until the color matches the star color from the document window. Click on OK to apply settings.
- When the fat star has been textured on the copy layer, try turning down the Opacity on this layer to achieve a blend of unfiltered and filtered versions (30% gives a subtle effect). This is a swell way to control the number of "paint strokes" after you've applied them (see Figure 24.31).
See Figure 24.32? This image is beginning to look grand, and you don't even have to know how to use Painter!
Figure 24.31 Just "dial up" the amount of effect you want for the finished painted star.
Figure 24.32 Everything's been painted except the glow and horoscope signs.
Optional: Get creative with the strokes you apply to the glow layer in Quick Mask mode (see Figure 24.33). Me? I painted back and forth around the circumference of the glow to strongly suggest the emanations are traveling outward. Go ahead and experiment using the same techniques we've applied so far.
Figure 24.33 Paint in Quick Mask mode on the glow layer until you achieve the effect you want.
Whoa, Nelly! Let's take a break for a moment to contemplate final strategies for making the horoscope signs look painted.
Insider - Be sure to return to the Brushes flyout menu (on the Brushes palette) and choose Reset Brushes before you continue with the tricks!
The horoscope signs will not withstand the radical type of filtering you've just applied to everything else. Instead, let's try a different approach and filter—so that you can make the symbols both legible and interesting.
 This chapter is from Inside Photoshop CS, by Gary Bouton (Sams, 2004, ISBN: 0672326442). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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