Promo Poster Tutorial...

Alright, in the spirit of all things new, I have put together a tutorial of the poster you saw in the first post just to show you guys how I do things.  This tutorial is semi-difficult and will require some patience, but when you see the finished result, it will all be worth it.  I have adapted my style and content to this poster and tutorial from another tutorial, http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tutorials-effects/create-a-dark-and-surreal-poster-using-your-own-portrait/...feel free to reference that tutorial if you find any difficulty with mine...lets get started!

You will need:

• Photoshop (CS3-CS5)
• medium or large cityscape image (of your choice)
• Wacom tablet (unless you feel confident enough with a mouse)
• portrait or self-portrait (size must be large enough to scale down to preserve detail)
• fair amount of patience

1.  Lets start of with a new document in Photoshop, about 900 x 1350 pixels.

2.  select the entire canvas (ctrl+A or cmd+A), grab your Paint Bucket tool (G) and paint your canvas a pure black shade #000000.

3.  This next part can be easy or expensive.  I found two textures that fit well with the style of my poster, you can go to http://wegraphics.net/ to find some great HQ textures and brushes (membership required).

4.  Now we need to desaturate the first image (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate or cmd+shift+U/ctrl+shift+U). The next image needs to be inverted (made into a negative so to speak) which simply can be done with cmd+I/ctrl+I.

5.  Next, pull each texture into your document and re-size and arrange them however you like. Make sure your paint texture is below your grunge wall.  Set the blending mode of your grunge wall texture to Overlay, and lower to opacity to about 80%, then select your paint texture and lower its opacity down to about 50%, and group the layers to keep them together. your current result should look something like this:

6.  Now let grab our portrait and pull it into Photoshop.  next, depending on your mode of preference, you can simply create a layer mask and mask out the background, leaving purely the subject. The method I used was taking the Pen tool (P) and drawing my selection around the subject, opening my Paths palette, and Cmd+clicking on the selection, then I selected my Layers palette, select the photo layer, cmd+C cmd+V and a new crop selection emerges above your photo. Delete the photo layer and there you have it.

 

7.  Pull your cropped image into your working document, re-size and place to your preference.  Now group your layer, go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide all.  This is where we are going to create a cool faded mask affect to help fit your subject in creatively. as your foreground color as white paint over everything to reveal the image, download and load some cool grunge and/or paint brushes, set your foreground color to black and begin painting away at the bottom of the image to create a cool faded painted look to fit your image into the poster.

8.  now it may seem out of order and feel free to do this before you apply your layer mask, but the next step is to convert your image to black and white by going to Image>Adjustments>Black & White and playing with the sliders to get the desired values for your image. next come a fun part, grab your Polygon Selection tool (L) and make a quirky shape selection, then grab the Move tool (V) and shift the pieces to create a broken up, off-kilter effect.

9.  Now i have added my Youtube logo to the poster, feel free to find a message, quote, or your own logo to add to the layout. Open your logo in Photoshop, then take your Rectangle Marquee tool (M) drag it around your logo and pull it into your working document, re-size to your preference and apply your transformation and place it above your modified image.

 

10.  this is where the fun part comes in.  If you have a Wacom tablet, take it out and select your Brush tool (B). Go into your brush palette and set your brush size to 3-4px, 100% hardness, and 1% spacing. I have set my color to a bright cyan (#72e3ff), but feel free to choose a color that suits your color scheme, or even black or white will do. Once you have imputed your settings, start adding little doodles and quirky elements to your poster.  I even doodled around my logo, but this is all personal preference. This is the step to really have fun.

11.  Now we are going to apply another layer mask to the logo.  select the layer your logo is on, group it (cmd/ctrl+G) go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide all. now with your foreground color set to white (#ffffff) use the same grunge and splatter brushes you used on the first layer mask and create the look of your logo being distressed like it was painted on a wall. Keep in mind your doodles layer is above this logo layer.

12.  Next, ass a layer above your grouped background, I used two different blue colors, a dark blue and a light blue, and grabbed a watercolor brush and painted in random places above the background. Once you have done that, set the blending mode to Color, it set them to a faded, set in look.  next we are going to add in a paint splatter accent layer above that layer by throwing in a few white and blue (or a color of your choice) behind your subject image. This adds a little more color and liveliness to your poster.

 

13.  I was born in California, and I really enjoy visiting L.A. throughout the years, so I found a cool image of the L.A. skyline to add into my poster, but feel free to add any other cityscape or landscape or another cool images that speaks to you. Once you have found this image, go ahead and desaturate it.

14.  Now once that is done, pull the image into your working file and set it below your grouped background. grab your Eraser tool (E) and lower the opacity to around 60% and the flow to about 80% so you don't completely erase the background and leave some texture in front. Erase away some of the texture to reveal the cityscape just enough for it to look blended in. Also, erase the bottom of your cityscape photo so you don't have a hard edge.

 your final result should look something like this.

This is the final step for me in this process, feel free to add or take away any elements to this poster to create your own grunge style promo poster.  I hope this tutorial helped improve your skills in Photoshop and opened the door to more advanced and fun creations.