Now
that we've twisted up this poor man's face, let's make it look more
like a painted image. We'll start by having a more artistic background.
Step 1
Add a Layer Mask to the caricature layer and use a textured brush to fade the bottom of the layer out. I chose the Sponge Brush Projection brush preset here. Reduce the Brush Opacity setting to around 40% so the texture builds up gradually.
Step 2
Open the BackgroundTexture.jpg file from the tutorial assets and place it as a layer underneath the caricature layer.
Step 3
Add
a new layer over the textured background. Use the same textured brush
from the mask work to add in a white brushed border effect.
5. Painted Effect
Now
we are ready to transform the caricature itself into a painting. We
want to retain some of the photographic qualities, but still give the
impression of a hand-painted piece. This is easily done using a smudge
painting technique.
Step 1
Smaller details tend to disrupt the smudge painting process, so it's best to smooth them out first. Go to Filter > Blur > Smart Blur. Use a Radius of 2.0 a Threshold of 10.0, with Quality set to High.
Step 2
The highlights in the photo appear a little bright. Correct this by clipping a Curves Adjustment Layer to the caricature layer and using the Curves to decrease the bright areas.
Step 3
Create a new layer at the top of the layer stack. Grab the Smudge Tool with a Brush Size around 40 pixels. Set the Strength to 80% and check the Sample All Layers
option. Then begin smudging along the major features of the image.
Follow along with the natural grain of the skin to keep the appearance
very fluid.
Step 4
Reduce
the brush size to about 5 pixels and begin smudging along the smaller
details of the image like the eyebrows, individual strands of hair, his
eyes, and his teeth.
Step 5
Create
a merged layer of the smudge layer, the caricature layer and the
adjustment layer by selecting all of them and holding down the Alt key while going to Layer > Merge Layers (Control-E). Then go to Filter > Other High Pass set the Radius to 5.0Pixels. Call this layer Details.
Step 6
Change the Details layer Blending Mode to Overlay, reduce the Opacity to 78%, and then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. Use a soft, white brush on the mask to reveal the details in the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and beard.
Step 7
Add a new layer called Dodge/Burn and fill it with 50% gray through the Edit > Fill feature. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay and then use a soft Black brush at 30% Opacity to simulate a Burn effect. Switch to White to simulate a Dodge effect.
Step 8
Add a final color effect. First create a merged layer of all the layers by holding down Alt while going to Layer > Merge Visible. Then go to Filter > Camera Raw and set the Contrast to +10, Clarity to +22, and the Vibrance to +48.
Done!
And
now you are finished! Behold your amazing photo caricature work. Now
take these techniques and go apply them to photos of your friends and
family to create some fun, unique, and personal portraits!
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