Photoshop Art. Photoshop Elements tutorial—how to make digital art with Photoshop Elements. Wentworth Miller portrait.

Photoshop Elements Tutorial: Transforming a photo into digital art.

Digital fan art of Wentworth Miller from Prison Break: Before and after with Photoshop Elements.

Exploring some simple Photoshop techniques, using the budget-friendly Photoshop Elements.

This tutorial will show you how to make a simple piece of "digital art" from a photo. It is written with the assumption that you are somewhat familiar with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but are not necessarily an "expert" user. (I am not an "expert" user either, so obviously I cannot write a tutorial at that skill level!) Photoshop Elements 3 was used in this tutorial, but most versions of Photoshop or Elements will suffice. I will describe the approximate process I went through to make this portrait; however, I am not suggesting that you will get exactly the same results with your own attempt at digital art.

If you are new to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, here is a more beginner-friendly tutorial on my "sister site" (for making avatars) that will cover many of the basics.

Photoshop Elements does not offer as many advanced features as the full version of Photoshop, but it does have the essentials I needed: Layers, layers, layers. And the paint brush, eraser, and a few filters.

The first thing that needed to be done with the photograph was to correct the color. Levels was used to lighten it enough to show on this page—the actual screencap was very dark. The color was also too blue. I adjusted the color using basic color correction techniques. In addition, I used a Photo filter (under Filter >> Adjustments >> Photo Filter) to give the skin a more rosy, life-like color. The unflattering, dingy lighting in prison gives everyone an unnaturally sallow complexion, after all!

After color correcting the image, I duplicated the layer and started my initial work on the image.

Duplicating Photoshop Layers: One of the things I often do when creating these digital portraits is to make duplicate layers of the work in progress. After I have made a significant change to a layer, I duplicate it, and start doing more work on the new layer. For instance, if I desaturate a photo (make it black and white), I keep the original (color) photo as a layer underneath the desaturated one, "just in case" I want to go back and bring the color back in later. This may not be a necessary step, but I consider it a "safety net." Of course, Elements has a version of Photoshop's "History" (which means you can go back more than a few steps and undo mistakes). But, I find that keeping copies (in the form of layers) of previous "stages" of the work can be useful.

A little bit of a blur: This new (just duplicated) layer was then blurred slightly. (Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur.) I wanted the blur to just give a slight softening to the face. I erased the features of the face (eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, and surrounding areas) to show the un-blurred layer underneath. These two layers were merged (Layer >> Merge Down) so that they became one layer. Then I duplicated this new (just merged) layer. (I will not continue to repeat how I make these duplicate layers throughout the process. I recommend that you duplicate layers as you see fit—I suggest doing so after you make major changes. And remember to save your file frequently!)

Erasing the features on the top layer to show the sharper, more focused features on unaltered layer below.

Now the portrait has a softened look, but the features are still in sharp focus—this is what I wanted. In your portrait, you might want to erase more than I have in the above illustration so that you allow most of the facial area to be sharper.

Painting over: I like to paint over the image—I'm especially fond of adding highlights. Putting in highlights can be a tricky thing, because you sometimes have to guess at where to place them. If this is something that is beyond your comfort zone, then pass on this step.

Painting highlights on a new blank layer.

I made a new blank layer on top of my current layer, and used the eyedropper tool to pick a light area of the face. This is my basis for the highlight color—only I lighten it several more steps in the color picker. I do not believe in using straight white for highlights—this rarely happens in nature. Few things are true white or black. Usually the highlight color is a very pale flesh tone. Sometimes I will make the highlight color warmer (very pale yellow or orange), or cooler (pale blue or green) depending on the effects I'm going for.

Using a small brush size (perhaps between 3-9 pixels) I fearlessly paint onto the areas of the face that I feel could use a little "punch" with a highlight. (I say "fearlessly" because there really is no risk involved here—I am using a fresh layer that can be discarded if I mess things up too much.) Where these highlights will be placed always depends on the individual photo. Often all that is needed is to look where existing (but subtle) highlights are. But be selective—don't hit every part of the face with a highlight!

The painted highlights look pretty abysmal as-is, but that's okay. There's more work to be done.

Blurring and lowering opacity of highlight layer.

The next step is to blur the painted highlights, and lower the layer's opacity. I adjusted the blur and layer opacity until I got it where I liked it. At this point, I may merge this layer with the one below. However, there are times when I keep painted over areas (like highlights) on their own layer for a little while longer, because I find that I sometimes want to go back and tweak them later on.

Applying some filters to the portrait.

Filterize it: The next step is to add some filters into the mix. The use of filters can be grossly overdone, so take care with this step. And remember to duplicate your layer so you have a version of the image that has been untouched by the filter. With this portrait I used several filters—the first being Angled Strokes. I tried to keep the filter effect light, but still noticeable.

As I did when I blurred the photo, I erased (using an eraser brush strength set to be around 70% or above) the area around the eyes, nose and mouth.

This is the phase where I tweak and fiddle. I cannot really describe in detail all of the stages I went through—I experimented with several filters (always duplicating layers during each stage), and then either erased away an area that got too "filterized," or lowered the opacity of a layer which had too strong of a filter effect.

Making one side of the face cool.

Warm and cool: There came a point where I was getting close to being done, but had decided that the portrait's overall color was too warm. I wanted the shadowed side of his face to be a cooler (more blue) color. I flattened all layers, duplicated the just-flattened layer, and then cooled down the whole face by using a "cool" (bluish) Photo filter. Then, using a soft eraser brush, I erased the highlighted side of the face. This revealed the original layer (with the warmer color cast) underneath. The closer I got to the middle of the face (where the transition from warm to cool tones is supposed to take place), I used a smaller, softer brush, and lowered the eraser strength so that it would not erase the layer too sharply (making the transition from warm to cool more gradual).

I talk a lot about "warm" and "cool" colors in this tutorial, and it's something that cannot be emphasized enough. When working on digital art such as this, conscious choices should be made for what the color "scheme" should be. Is it a soft, warm color scheme? A cool color scheme? A contrast of warms and cools? In addition, try to keep the colors harmonious—don't be constantly introducing new colors into the mix. One of my favorite tricks is to use the eyedropper tool to pick out a color existing in the photo to use somewhere else—for instance, I used a variation on Wentworth Miller's blue eye color to make the blue reflected light on the shadowed side of his face. "Recycling" color is a good way to keep your color scheme harmonious.

Additional painting over: With all the warming of flesh tones on this portrait, the eyes got a little too brownish for my tastes—they weren't as blue as they should have been. So, using a fresh, blank layer, I carefully painted some blue back into the eyes—blurring the color a bit to hide my paintbrush marks and make the tinting more natural. On yet another blank layer, I cooled down the whites of his eyes—used a very light grey-blue. Remember, the whites of the eyes are rarely really white; and, especially when they are in shadow, they aren't all that light either. Be very careful when painting over the whites of the eyes.

Final touches: After a certain point I decided that the face was mostly done, so I flattened all the layers in the file, then duplicated the flattened layer. Then, the whole duplicated layer was blurred rather a lot. I erased away the entire head but left the edges of the picture blurred.

Some additional tweaking was done with the highlights, the blue reflected light was painted in on the shadowed side of his face, and then I decided: Put a fork in it, it is done!

Wentworth Miller - Prison Break
The finished work: Wentworth Miller from Prison Break.

Additional tips and bits of advice:

When using Photoshop to make digital art, remember that you are the artist—not the software. Don't think that filters or other special effects can replace your own creative decisions. You are the one with a brain, not Photoshop.
Don't assume that just because you are a "beginner" in Photoshop that you can't make interesting digital artwork. Your creative sense is the most important tool that you possess. If you have interesting ideas, a good sense of color and composition, and are not afraid to do some experimenting, you can create some really nice work. In fact, having a creative streak is far more valuable than knowing all the fancy Photoshop tricks in the book.
Select an image with a pose that lends itself to being made into artwork—don't pick a photo that has flat or dull lighting, or doesn't really look all that much like the subject (either is a bad expression, is too heavily retouched already, etc.).
Simplifying the background is often a good idea. One easy way to keep the colors harmonious is to use the eyedropper tool to select a color already existing in the portrait (perhaps the color of the eyes, color of shirt, etc.) and use variations of that color as your background. Create a new layer, paint in the new color (perhaps painting areas with lighter and darker versions of this color) around the subject. Use filters or other techniques to help make the background "blend in" with the rest of the picture.
The eye area and mouth are two key parts of the face, and are essential for the "personality" or likeness of the person. Do not allow these features to lose too much detail. If you use heavy filters, be careful to not "filterize" the eyes or mouth excessively. In addition, the area around the mouth (especially the corners of the mouth) is important.
I sometimes end up making several different files of the same project. I'll get to a point on the portrait where I want to go in some radical new direction, but I don't want to risk messing up the original work (or giving it too many new layers with convoluted adjustments). I will save the existing file under a new name and do some experimenting on it. If I hate what I've done, I can return to the "old" file in its un-messed-up state.