Photoshop for Artists

INTERVIEW WITH VANESSA HO

2010-07-18T21:49:00.000+01:00

Our latest interview with Vanessa Ho is now up on the site HERE Her work is truly inspiring. It combines the talent of a photographer with the skills of a true digital artist. Read what she has to say and her top photoshop tips.

YELL SACCANI

2010-06-05T10:19:00.003+01:00

We have a new interview with another top digital artist. This time it is Yell Saccani and he is good - very good. Go and check out the interview HERE and while you are there don't forget to have a look around the site as well www.photoshopforartists.com

PHOTOSHOP SHORTCUT KEYS

2010-05-25T12:23:00.002+01:00

If you like working in photoshop but don't like wasting time moving the mouse all the way up to the menu bars then this A4 printable downloadable pdf document of photoshop's best shortcut keys is really going to save you a lot of time - and if time is money then it will save you some money as well which can't be bad for something that is free.

All you have to do is sign up on the site and the pdf is yours - it is that easy. The shortcuts was done over a real keyboard (the sexy apple one) so that it should relate better to what you are working on that those photoshop shortcut keys that are printed in a long confusing list.

CLICK HERE to sign up and download it

SHOW OFF YOUR ART

2010-05-24T10:40:00.003+01:00

We have a new page on www.photoshopforartists.com and it's the place where we show off other people's work of art. Anybody can submit their work (as long as you used photoshop to create it) Just email info @ photoshopforartists.com with a small image of about 100 pixels with a weblink to where others can see more of your work. This is an excellent opportunity to show off what you can do.

HOW TO TURN A BORING PHOTO INTO A DIGITAL MASTERPIECE

2010-05-22T14:45:00.001+01:00

This new tutorial by Jorge Machado shows you how to create a digital masterpiece from just one quite boring photograph of a rabbits skeleton taken in a museum. To take a look at the tutorial CLICK HERE and to see more of Jorge's work CLICK HERE.

FREE BRUSH

2010-04-21T23:20:00.001+01:00

This is a new brush I've just uploaded to the website that is a free download for anybody who wants to us it. It's from a very old book with the words 'Journal' written on the front. I thought it would make a great brush for anybody but especially scapbookers who would find this very useful for any scapbooking projects. If you do use it please show me anything you did with it.
To download it just go to this link by CLICKING HERE

CREATE THE LOMO LOOK

2010-04-18T21:42:00.008+01:00

This is our new photoshop tutorial teaching people how to create the lomo (lomography) look. Have a watch. And don't forget to visit the website www.photoshopforartists.com to view our other photoshop video tutorials

INTERVIEW WITH JOSE GABRIEL

2010-04-17T21:35:00.002+01:00

The interview with Jose Gabriel has just been posted on the website www.photoshopforartists.com He's a vert talented digital artist with some great things to say so make sure you read what he has to say.

PINK BLOSSOM

2010-04-04T22:18:00.002+01:00

Blossom
Originally uploaded by photoshopforartists
It's the spring so there is a glut of images with blossom in them on flickr. So as not to disappoint anyone I'd thought I'd give my take on spring with a blossom picture with some textured layers applied to give it a bit of an arty edge.

I used textures from my BEST TEXTURES 1 SET and started with the very versatile:
DRAIN GREY - vivid light - 56% then
MUD DUST - color dodge - 23%
FUZZY LINEN - color burn - 100%
WASHME VAIL - color burn - 100%
And that was it for the textures.

On top of these I added an curves adjustment layer and painted with black over the middle flower as that retained some detail after the added contrast from the curves.

Finally, I duplicated the background and put it on the top of the stack and applied a soft light blending mode at 100% just to bring out some more detail.

That's it. Hope you like it.

You can buy the textures used in this picture by CLICKING HERE

PINK FLOWER

2010-04-01T22:02:00.003+01:00

Pink flower
Originally uploaded by photoshopforartists
If you take a look at the before picture of this finished image you will see a really bright, over-the-top pink and red picture. I wanted to try and get a really faded, old look and below is how I did it.

Do take a look at the screen shot of the photoshop layers and it does look like a complicated job but in fact there are only two textures used and they are from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set.

The first texture is SAHARA MIST - vivid light - 82%
Then SMOKEY BOOK - exclusion - 88%
I then coped the smokey book layer again with an adjustment layer to burn in the edges.
After that I copied the background layer moved it up the stack and with an adjustment layer brought out some of the pink flower.
I finished it off with a few curves adjustment layers and a hue/saturation layer to remove a lot of the colour.

You can buy the textures used in this picture by CLICKING HERE

TREE AMONGST GRAVES

2010-03-28T22:39:00.003+01:00

Tree amongst graves
Originally uploaded by photoshopforartists
You are probably looking at this and thinking this is a tree in winter silhouetted against the sky - so what. There are thousands of pictures like this in flickr already. And you'd be right and I'd be thinking the same if I saw this as well. But...this was taken one very early morning with a mist rolling down the hills spilling into this graveyard where this one lone tree stood out watching over this hundreds of graves. It was a bit spooky and rather chilling so by using textures I tried to get across the eeriness and this is how I did it.

All these textures were taken from my BEST TEXTURES 2 set .
First one was:
EMERALD SHINES - overlay - 14%
SILVER SHADOW - color dodge - 97%
FADED GOLD - hard light - 79% with an adjustment layer to bring out bit of warmth in the heart of the tree.
RUSTED SLATE - overlay - 35%
WHITE OUT - linear burn - 100%

I finally duplicated the original tree layer moved it to the top of the stack, desaturated it with a hue blend mode at 51%.

I then added an adjustment curves layer and played around with the blue channel to bring out a bit of green.

Hope you like it.

You can buy the textures used in this picture by CLICKING HERE

POWER LINES IN FRANCE

2010-03-05T23:13:00.001Z

Power lines in France
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

These are some power lines I photographed while in France. I just loved the graphic nature of the poles and line against the blue sky and wheat field. A very simple picture but it really caught my eye.
This type of shot really lends itself to a texture so couldn't wait to have a go at this one.
I started with EMERALD SHINES from my BEST TEXTURES SET 2 using overlay blend mode at 100%. Then picked FADED GOLD with color burn at 43%. I then copied that layer and used soft light at 57% and added an adjustment layer to it and just let the bottom show through.
I then added the SILVER SHADOW with screen at 11%. Then I went for BUSY JADE at overlay at 74%.
To finish it off I then went for a curves layer to boost the contrast.
And that it is.

FLOWERS IN VASE

2010-03-03T22:59:00.002Z

FLOWERS IN VASE
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com
Compared to some of the other textured pictures over the last week or so this one was by far the least complex. I only used three textures and two adjustment layers. I debated having only two texture layers as well as I wasn't sure if one of them was too heavy but in the end decided to leave it in.

My first texture was SMOKEY BOOK using vivid light blend mode at 15%. I followed this with WASHME VAIL with overlay at 57% opacity. And my final texture was SAHARA MIST and blend mode soft light at 100%.

On top of all of these was two adjustment layers. One curves to give it a bit of contrast and finally a hue/saturation layer to take away a lot of the orange colour in the image.

Hope that helps and try it for yourself. My low res textures are here in my flickr stream and the high res ones are on the website www.photoshopforartists.com
Best
You can buy the textures used in this picture by CLICKING HERE

NIKILYNN INTERVIEW.

2010-03-03T22:15:00.000Z

The interview with young digital photoshop artist Nikilynn is now up. CLICK HERE to see the interview.

PARIS

2010-02-26T23:12:00.001Z

Paris
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

A book publisher wanted a shot of Paris and this was the picture I submitted with the added textures from my BEST TEXTURES 1 AND 2 sets. There is quite a big difference from the original shot (see below) and it is quite amazing what can be done with some good textures. Follow below to how I did it.

I started off with CHURCH RED at colour blend mode at opacity of 88%.

Next was CHERRY SMOKE at multiply at 57%.

Then PLASTER DUST from my BEST TEXTURES 2 set using soft light at 41% opacity.

Lastly I used BOOKWORM JACKET using hue at 100%.

And to finish off the edges I added BORDER 7 from my new black borders set that you can see here as well as on the photoshopforartists.com website.

BOAT ON THE BEACH

2010-02-26T09:37:00.001Z

Boat on beach
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

I photographed this boat on the beach late one summer's evening before spending the night camping on the beach.

Like all of my textured pictures so far I've got these textures from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set.

Began with MUD DUST using the screen blending mode at 100% opacity.

Next was WASHME VAIL with soft light at 58%.

Then CHURCH RED and the hard light mode at 28%.

For the last two textures I added a layer mask and brushed out the boat so it showed through a bit more.

The last layer was drain grey with soft light at 26%.

And lastly finished it off with a curves adjustment layer just to darken down the edges to create a vignette.

That's it.

RED ORCHIDS

2010-02-22T21:56:00.001Z

Orchids
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

I took this shot at a wedding and this was one of the table decorations. I really liked the green red pink contrast - just works so well together.
Adding textures to this image was quite challenging because it is quite a busy picture and some textures don't show through so well but with 4 textures from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set it seemed to come together.

I started by copying the background layer and blurred that. To it I added an adjustment layer to unblur the main orchids in the middle but leaving the background orchids blurred.

To that I added the first texture layer which was WEATHERED BLACK with a screen blend mode and set it to 63% opacity.
To that placed MISTY SLAB on top with 100% opacity and soft light screen mode.
Then DRAIN GREY -- linear light - at 22%.

I stopped the textures and added curves layer to increase the contrast then a hue/saturation layer to calm the red down a bit and finally something was still missing so added WASHME VAIL to it at overlay blending mode at 30% and that's it.

TREES IN THE WOODS

2010-02-22T09:29:00.001Z

Trees in the wood
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

I took this picture in Bordeaux, France on a cold February afternoon while on assignment for a magazine. The French do the regimented line of trees so well that I just couldn't pass it without pulling over a taking a picture. The difficulty was standing in the right place to get the feel of the symmetry of straight lines.

Anyway, I thought it would make a good texture picture but it took a lot longer to do that I thought it would. Don't know why but just couldn't get it to look like I wanted.

The textures for this picture all came from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set so take a look at them.

I started with GREEN GOO which is great on all pictures. I gave that a hard light blending mode at 79% opacity.
From where copied and pasted COCONUT TLE using color dodge at 48% and finally went for OUTER GALAZY at soft light dialling down the opacity to 53%

On top of these I added a few adjustment layer to boost the greens, increase the contrast and desaturate the image a bit.

Hope you like it.

POPPIES

2010-02-18T23:09:00.001Z

Poppies
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

This shot was taken in a field in France on a job for a magazine and I thought it would make a great picture to add a texture to.
Before I started to add any textures I need to tweek the picture a bit. I first over sharpened the poppies to make them stand out and give the picture a 3D look. On top of that I boosted the red and yellows with an adjustment layer and then I added another layer filled it with blue applied a gradient on the layer mask to make just the sky blue. Now for the textures.
Started off with WASHME VAIL in overlay blend mode at 100%. To this I added a clipped hue/saturation layer and blued up the sky some more.
Next up was OUTER GALAZY using soft light at 100% opacity again.
Lastly DRAIN GREY on hard light at 100%. Because this texture showed through quite strongly I added an mask and brushed out the middle.
To finish it off a slight 's' curve to boost the contrast some more.

If you want to see the video tutorial of how this picture was put together using the textures please CLICK HERE

Buddha

2010-02-16T22:26:00.001Z

Buddha
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

This shot of a buddha's head which I photographed in Singapore needed quite a few texture layers to get this look. These textures are all from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set. Nothing too complicated but there is 5 layers.
They start with COCONUT TILE using vivid light blending mode at 26%.
Next was GREEN DUST with colour dodge at 48%.
On top was then GREEN GOO using vivid light at 48%.
I then went for MISTA SLAB in overlay mode at 100% plus OUTER GALAZY at 100%. The last two textures had an adustment layer to cut down a bit of the green in the buddha's face and torso.
And lastly a hue saturation layer at the top just to remove more green from the face area.

If you want to buy the textures used above please CLICK HERE

BEACH HUTS

2010-02-16T08:47:00.001Z

beach huts1
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

This is a neat row of beach huts shot on a beach in Belgium. I used textures from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set. And this is what I used:
SAHARA MIST with overlay blend mode at opacity of 66% with an adjustment layer added to it with the middle brushed away to reveal more of the original layer.
Next up was SILVER PENDANT with soft light mode at 37% opacity.
Over the top of these I added BOOKWORM JACKET with soft light again at 14%
And lastly FUZZY LINEN with overlay at 50%.
It need a coupe of adjustment layers. One was a curves to increase the contrast and the next was a hue saturation to bring down the colours a bit. I then used a border brush and added that to the sides.

If you want to buy the textures used above please CLICK HERE

PINK FAIRY CAKE

2010-02-16T08:46:00.003Z

pink fairy cake
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

Being valentines day the mrs and the two kids bought me six fairy cakes and this one with the pink hearts on top I thought would be an appropriate theme for today.
These textures were all from my BEST TEXTURES 1 set.
I started over with MISTY SLAB at overlay mode at 61%.
Next up was CHERRY SMOKE in screen blending mode at 100%.
And lastly ANTIQUE BLUE with linear dodge at 22%
On top of these were three curves adjustment layers two of which had the edges burned in to give a little vignette and the third one was a general 's' curve adjustment to boost the contrast

If you want to buy the textures used above please CLICK HERE

RED UMBRELLA

2010-02-16T08:46:00.001Z

Red Umbrella after
Originally uploaded by www.photoshopforartists.com

This red umbrella is vivid enough already but felt it was a bit too flat and could use some textures to make it more interesting so used four textures from the BEST TEXTURES 1 set. See below for the recipe:
Started with the OUTER GALAZY using linear light blend mode at 77% opacity.
Then moved on to SILVER PENDANT in overlay mode at 100%.
Followed by TEACHEST RED with vivid light at 35%
And lastly FUZZY LINEN with linear burn at only 16%
To the SILVER PENDANT layer I then added an adjustment layer and brushed out the centre which was just a little too dark. And that was it. Hope you enjoyed it.

If you want to buy the textures used above please CLICK HERE

merry go round

2010-02-10T18:42:00.001Z

Just uploaded this to the photoshopforartists flickr site as the latest picture to get my new set of textures applied to it. CLICK HERE to see how I did it.

NEW TEXTURES UPLOADED

2010-02-10T12:40:00.000Z

Two new texture packs have been added to the website www.photoshopforartists.com Please go and check them out. You have the option to buy them and at only $25 for each set that works out at quite good value for money making each texture only $1 each. Or if you rather you could press this button to go and buy them. CLICK HERE FOR BEST TEXTURES 2 and CLICK HERE FOR BEST TEXTURES 1

INTERVIEW WITH ELENA RAY

2010-02-05T10:22:00.000Z

The interview with Elena Ray is now up. Her work is fantastic. She is inspired by nature and holistic things and this clearly show is her digital art. CLICK HERE to have a look.

NEW ARTISTS OF THE MONTH

2010-02-03T09:43:00.000Z

It's now February and we have some new artists of the month and they are all very talented digtial artists. Go to www.photoshopforartists.com and take a look.

THE WORK OF LES BRUMES

2010-01-20T21:54:00.001Z

I've been a fan for a long time of the work of Les Brumes. I don't know much about his lady apart from she is based in Canada and by the looks of her profile is a proud French-speaking Canadian. Please take a look at her work CLICK HERE

WORDS ON PICTURES

2010-01-19T21:50:00.001Z

I'm a bit of a sucker for images with words on them and this one is particularly lovely. It is by Jamie Heiden. She has some excellent work on her flickr stream so please take a look.CLICK HERE to see more of her art with words.

KIMBERLEY ROSS INTERVIEW IS NOW LIVE

2010-01-10T20:27:00.000Z

The interview with digital artist Kimberley Ross is now live and up on the site www.photoshopforartists.com If you like digital art you are really going to like Kimberley's work and what she has to say in the interview. I like all of her work but I really like what she has done with these dolls. Click below to see more.

CLICK HERE

COMING SOON

2010-01-04T13:55:00.001Z

The interview with Kimmika is coming soon. Watch this space on www.photoshopforartists.com

NOW ON YOUTUBE

2009-12-23T11:46:00.000Z

My YouTube account for photoshopforartists is now up and running. Please have a look and subscribe. I've even designed the background to give it that personal touch. Please have a look by going here www.youtube.com/photoshopforartists and don't forget to visit the site www.photoshopforartists.com

DOLLS BY KIMMIKA

2009-12-21T22:33:00.001Z

I'm quite excited because in a few days time I'm going to upload the interview with Kimmika on www.photoshopforartists.com Her work is truly amazing. She's done a series on dolls that are quite spooky - this one is from that set.

THE MOMENT I LOVE YOU

2009-12-21T09:26:00.001Z

the moment i love you
Originally uploaded by requiemm

Spotted this fantastic piece by Requiemm on flickr today and thought it would be a great piece to blog for other digital artists to take a look at.
www.photoshopforartists.com

NEW WEBSITE

2009-12-21T09:08:00.001Z

This is the new website www.photoshopforartists.com which basically the title just about says it all. I set the site up because I couldn't find anything on the web to do with photoshop that would help me create art in photoshop so thought this would be a great thing to do. The site has interviews with the best digital artists in the world as well as helpful practical video tutorials in HD to help people learn. Take a look. www.photoshopforartists.com