Art and Design in Photoshop: How to simulate just about anything from great works of art to urban graffiti [Pap/Cdr ed.] 0240811097, 9780240811093

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Steve Caplin

$067(5'$0‡%26721‡+(,'(/%(5*‡/21'21‡1(: Create Clipping ฀ Mask, or use as a shortcut. OAt first glance, the standing figure of the cowboy is too posed and artificial for our purposes. But when seen as a silhouette, it adds the sense of a mysterious stranger to the composition, as well as adding a sense of depth and perspective to the scene. It also serves to draw the eye back to the main figure, the direction in which the cowboy is facing.

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The ragged edge is made on a separate layer, above all the rest. Draw this freehand, with the ฀ Lasso tool, then inverse the selection using and fill the inverted region with white. This technique is far easier than making complex masks for every layer in the document.

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Finally, make another new, empty layer beneath the mask. Use a soft-edged brush with either a black or a dark brown foreground color, and paint in around the edge of the jagged shape. This adds depth to the poster, and gives it the impression of slightly burnt edges appropriate to the style.

OThis sky serves both as a sunset and as a suggestion of flames – which could be why they’re used so often.

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Science fiction +

Science fiction posters have intrigued, inspired and occasionally frightened us since the earliest days of film. There are as many different types of science fiction poster as there are science fiction films, of course; but they do share a number of common elements, and certainly a common feel. These films are always publicized using posters that have a strong black element to them, in order to express the emptiness of space. Ever since the first Alien poster, above, there’s been a tendency for widely-spaced lettering. We can’t attempt to show how every kind of sci-fi poster is put together. But we can look at some general principles which may help you in the design of your own posters.

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There are three starting elements to this poster: the model of a satellite, the photograph of the Earth and the starry background. Each is on a separate layer, and so may be moved around and manipulated at will. In this first example, we can see each element clearly.

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We’re used to thinking of the Earth as lying beneath us – the normal state of affairs. But when we move the planet to the top of the screen, we create a tension that wasn’t there before: this is no longer a satellite hovering above the earth, but a spaceship creeping upon it surreptitiously.

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We can make the lettering more eerie and atmospheric by adding a glow treatment to it. Here, we’ve used the Outer Glow section of Layer Styles to make a white glow. In fact, the glow alone is enough: we don’t need the actual letters at all. Set the text color to black, and set the layer mode to Screen so it disappears.

Art & Design in Photoshop

Poster design FEK? Stroke to apply a 1 pixel outside stroke. Here, I’ve also added a sunset – the first element of the montage.

I don’t know who invented the motivational poster. I don’t know who buys motivational posters. And above all, I can’t imagine how bored and unmotivated office and factory workers would have to be in order to be uplifted by these crass, corny, clumsy truisms. That said, the genre is ripe for parody. There’s a distinct look to these posters that’s seen nowhere else: the black frame, the serif white text with oversized first and last characters. But there’s more to these posters than the obvious. They tend to have very high production values, since they’re stared at (in theory, at least) for days on end: glossy sunsets, warm glows, and a sense of overall perfection mark these posters out.

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To make the reflective surface, we can begin by making a copy of the sky layer. Flip it vertically using Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical, and move it down to the bottom so that the reflection butts right up against the original sky. Don’t lower the transparency yet – we’ll do that later.

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Select the reflected sky, kitten, and both parts of the tray, and choose New Group from Layers from the pop-up menu in the Layers palette. We can now lower the opacity of the group as a whole: around 30% produces this subtle sense of reflection in a black surface, which adds an immediate sense of luxury and sophistication to the image.

Art & Design in Photoshop

Poster design FEK?