Artist Tutorial for Photoshop - Guitarist Grunge
...continued

Find two good pics? Cool.
Lets decide first which one you want to 'ghost' or overlay the main image.

I picked this for the overlay- we will call it 'ghost'.

Just set your ghost image to the side for now.







The main image we can call 'main'.
It was already a bit grungy- So all I did was desaturate it to remove the color.
To Desaturate go to your top toolbar &

Image
Adjustments
Desaturate.

Simple.

If you want to grunge up a photo, go into:

File
Artistic
Smudge Stick

Play with the settings till you are happy.

Ok now pop back over to the other image- (ghost). Make sure it will fit over most of the main- if it is too small or too large, resize it to fit.
It doesn't have to fit perfectly, just cover at least 2/3.

Now, Select- All then- Edit - Copy

Now select the Main by clicking on it and
Edit-paste.

You should now have in your layer box your main image and a copy of the ghost in the next layer up.




With this image I duplicated the ghost by dragging it down to the little file icon as you see in the image above. I only did this because it followed the natural curve of the main.  In the large image above you see both ghosts overlaying the main. I then Merged the ghosts by selecting the top layer, clicking on the little arrow button at the top right of the layers box and selecting 'Merge down'..

Ok now you should have two layers. One ghost and one main. Ghost on top.
Make a third layer by clicking on that little file icon again. POOF! A new layer. Drag this to the bottom of the pile and fill it with black- Edit- Fill.
Now click on the Main layer and select 'difference' from the little drop down on the layer box.

Then click on your Ghost and select 'Overlay' from the same drop down box. See where we are going with this?

 

Alrighty now- almost done.
Go to Image, Canvas Size and make your canvas 50 or so pixels bigger all the way around. Now select the black layer and refill if it left a transparent border. Then select the Main and open your Effects browser. You do this by clicking on the little black button at the bottom of the layers box to open it. It looks like it has a small 'f' on it.
Select a color that is one of the lighter colors in your Ghost.
Do a Stroke and drop shadow- as illustrated in the image above. The stroke will look 'choppy'.
You may be happy with this just the way it looks now-or you may want to add a 'grungy' border. If so, continue on.

Grab your pen tool - Use the settings as illustrated.
Look at the image right. You will see the stroke and a fine, drunken looking line following it all the way around.
That fine line is the path I drew with the pen tool. You do the same.

Now here is a cool trick. Grab your Eraser, then go to your big brushes box - If it isn't open, go to 'Window' 'Brushes' on the top bar.

Click on the little arrow button on top right on the brushes box and select 'Assorted Brushes'
If you have some good, grungy, brushes, great. Pick one that is about 50 - 70px.

Now make your brush settings nearly match what you see in the image below. If you haven't played in the big brushes window yet- shame on you. This is your opportunity.

You see the boxes I have checked in the image to the left .
Shape,
Scattering, etc.

Get in there and play till you have an approximation of the brush image shown in the box window.

I am assuming here that you still have your Eraser tool chosen.  Ok good.

Now click on the layer with the stroke- Main.
At the top of your layers box you should see a little tab that says 'path'.





Click the Path tab - as in this image left. Now with your eraser  still selected - and the 'Work Path' selected, click on the little round icon at bottom- see red arrow.

Watch what happens to the image when you do this.

If the 'smudge' effect is too strong or too light, Edit, Undo and play with your brush settings again. Then re-stroke. Do this till it looks right to you.

You can also grab your paintbrush and do the same with a color. I would suggest making a new layer to do this on though.

Last step is to grab your 'Work Path' and drag it to the trashcan at the bottom of the Path box. It will NOT erase the work you have done.

And that is it. I will be making new tutorials as we go along here.
Meanwhile you some toys to play with. Mixing brushes, layer effects and different blends such as Overlay, Difference, etc can give you spectacular effects.

I have another Tute posted at Graphics.com where I used the 'stroke path' to string lights on a tree. It was Holiday oriented, but the same technique could be used to say, populate a forest glade with fireflies.

So if you had fun with this, and like playing with light-
Head over to my 'Stringing The Lights' Tutorial.

If you would like to play with Fire- go on to the next Photoshop Artist Tutorial and heat things up.

Tales around the Camp-Fire Tutorial

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