Shepard Fairey Tutorial 2012

Transcription

1 Shepard Fairey Tutorial 2012 Step 1 Find or shoot an awesome portrait photo. The photo can be self- portrait or a portrait from your research. No cartoon characters. We will be working with a photo. As always, the bigger the better when it comes to pixel dimensions. A black and white image will work for this tutorial. (In case you were wondering)

2 Also make sure that the image you choose has a range of values (highlights/midtones/shadows ) Step 2 Open your photo in photoshop and crop your photo as needed. This is just a portrait so I don t need much from the shoulders down. C is the shortcut for the crop tool. Draw a rectangle with the crop tool to select the area you want to keep. Then right click and choose crop. Step 3 Mask the background. Create a layer mask and hide the background. We won t be needing it. By now you should know how to do this step. Hair can be very tricky. Just try to get the basic shape. We will be simplifying the image later.

3 Step 4 Now we need to Posterize the image. Go to Image > Adjustments > Posterize. An appropriate posterization level for the look we are going for is 5.

4 Now we're going to create our guide layers that we will later trace in Illustrator. Start by duplicating your posterized layer. Click Layer>Duplicate layer. Name this new layer "Highlight Guide." This eventually will be the layer that will guide us where our highlights will be in illustrator.

5 Select the active pixels on the highlight guide layer by holding down the apple key and clicking the layer thumbnail as shown below. hit shift F5 on your keyboard

6 we want to fill this selected area with black Hit apple S on your keyboard

7 Save this file as 1 Highlight guide.psd Step 5 Now we're going to create our guide layers that we will later trace in Illustrator. Start by duplicating your posterized layer. Click Layer>Duplicate layer. Name this new layer "Pattern Guide." This eventually will be the layer that will guide us where to draw the layer with the horizontal stripe pattern in illustrator. With the pattern guide layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. We're going to slide our Point until we get something similar to below. We want it fairly dark, but still with a small amount of detail for highlights on the face. Also, when using Threshold, it is best to use the Peaks that you see on the threshold graph. Notice that on my image threshold level 191 has a peak on the graph. Results will vary here as your image will have different peaks. Just be sure that most of the face becomes black with a few defined highlights when choosing this first threshold level. It would be a good idea to have highlights that cover about 25% of the face on this layer.

8 Click File >Save as Save this newly created image as "2 patternguide.psd," as you'll need it later for Illustrator. Step 6 Delete the pattern guide layer and make another duplicate of the posterized layer just like you did before. Call this layer Light color guide

9 With the highlight color guide layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Compared to last time (on the pattern guide layer) we're going to slide our Point a little to the right, until we get something similar to below. This time we want slightly more highlights on the face. Results will vary as the lighting may be different on your portrait and the person may have different skin color. Notice I chose another peak on the graph.

10 Click File >Save as Save this newly created image as "3 light color guide.psd," as you'll need it later for Illustrator. Step 7 Delete the light color guide layer and make a duplicate of the posterized layer just like you did before. Call this layer contrast color guide

11 With the highlight color guide layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Compared to last time (on the light color guide layer) we're going to slide our Point a little to the right, until we get something similar to below. This time we want slightly more highlights on the face. Results will vary as the lighting may be different on your portrait and the person may have different skin color.

12

13 Click File >Save as Save this newly created image as "4 contrast color guide.psd,", as you'll need it later for Illustrator. Step 8 Delete the contrast color guide layer and make a duplicate of the posterized layer just like you did before. Call this layer dark color guide With the dark color guide layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. We're going to slide our Point until we get something similar to below. This time we want the image to be mostly white with just a little showing in black I decided that for this last threshold level I just wanted to make sure that there was a little bit of black to describe the facial features at this point. Results will vary.

14

15 Click File >Save as Save this newly created image as "5 dark color guide.psd," as you'll need it later for Illustrator. Check Point You should have 5 images, each with a progressively different ratio of black to white pixels as shown below Make sure you don t have any images that look identical in terms of black/white Step 9 Time to think about the color palette you want You will need to choose a hue that you will have both a shade and a tint of. You will also need to choose another hue that is in contrast of color of the first hue. It will look best if this color stands out but is not too dark or too light. For example: in the Obama poster, Shephard Fairey picked navy blue as a shade, light blue as a tint and red as a contrasting color. How patriotic? Other possible combos include: 1.Dark Green, 2. Light Green, 3. (Red, Orange, or Yellow) 1.Dark Purple 2. Light Purple, 3 (Red, Orange, or Yellow) 1. Dark Red 2. Light Red (Pink), 3. (Green, Blue, or Yellow)

16 and the list goes on Your 4 th color will be off white and you will have layer with a horizontal line pattern of both off white and the light color you have chosen. Confused?...Take a close look at the colors on the finished sample or of samples on the wall. Think of what colors you want to use that would look the best for the personality of the person in the photo. Step 10 Open illustrator Start a new print document Before we start to outline our layers, we need to create the horizontal line pattern and set up our swatch colors. To do this, start by creating a new Illustrator document. Give it a Height and Width of 4px.

17 Now double click on the fill color in the toolbar This will give you the color picker You will need to select your light color tint. I am going with a color scheme of light purple, purple, and orange so at this point I need to choose my light blue color. You might have a different color scheme.

18 Hit ok. Open the swatches palette on the right hand side of your screen if it is not open already Now drag the fill box in the tool bar all the way to the swatches palette on the other side of the screen. Drag this color box to here tada! You just added a color to your swatch Now click the stroke in the tool bar

19 Click the box with the red dash to change the stroke to none. Now select the rectangle tool Hit apple U to turn on your smart guides, this will turn on your smart guides on or off your smart guides if you already had them on. We want them on so to be sure go to View>Smart Guides and make sure there is a check mark next to the words smart guides

20 Now hit apple R to turn on your rulers (note: this will turn off your rulers if you already had them on) Now you can draw a rectangle from the top left corner that will cover half of the illustrator document. The 2 px mark on your ruler is the midpoint. It should look like this

21 Hold down the apple button and click somewhere in the workspace other than where this light blue box is to deselect the rectangle. Now we want to draw another rectangle in off white on the bottom. Double Click the fill color on the toolbar again. This will give you the color picker. Enter FBDE8E as shown in the field marked # hit ok. Drag this fill color to the swatches palette as well. Now draw a rectangle on the bottom half of the document.

22 Hit apple A on the keyboard to select all. Hit V on the keyboard to select the black arrow. Now drag these colored rectangles to the swatches palette. Congratulations you made a pattern that we will use later.

23 I went ahead and added the other 2 colors I plan to use to the swatches palette as well the same way we added the previous colors, by dragging the fill color to the swatches palette. see Next we have to save this swatch!!! Don t forget. Click the swatch libraries menu button as shown below. click save swatches save this as an adobe illustrator file (.ai) onto your desktop (not the swatches folder because you can t add files to that folder at Granada). Give it a name you will remember.

24 Step 11 Now that we have our guides and pattern created, it is time to create a new document in Illustrator. Drag your Highlight Guide Layer into the Illustrator program icon on your dock

25 Hit ok Hit V on the keyboard to select the black arrow tool. Click on your image to select it You should have a bounding box around your image indicating that it is selected

26 Go to the object menu on the top of your screen and click object>live trace>make and expand

27 Illustrator will trace this image in vector format. Hit F7 to open your layers palette Click the target button on a white layer to select an area of white now go to Select>Same>Fill Color

28 Hit delete on your keyboard Now open your swatches window Click on the swatches library menu

29 click Other Library at the bottom of the menu Load the color swatch library that you previously saved to your desktop In the layer menu select the target on your highlight guide layer Now click the off white color that you saved in your color swatch

30 hit apple S and save this file

31 Drag 2 pattern guide.psd to the illustrator icon on the dock Hit ok Click on the image to select it (see the bounding box around the image)

32 Go to the object menu on the top of your screen and click object>live trace>make and expand Hit F7 to open your layers palette Click the target button on a white layer to select an area of white now go to Select>Same>Fill Color Hit delete

33 Select the pattern guide layer Select the horizontal pattern that you created and saved in your color palette hit apple S and save this file

34 Open 3 light color guide.psd in illustrator Click on the image to select it (see the bounding box around the image) Go to the object menu on the top of your screen and click object>live trace>make and expand Hit F7 to open your layers palette Click the target button on a white layer to select an area of white now go to Select>Same>Fill Color Hit delete Select the light color guide layer Choose the light color that you saved to your color palette

35 Hit apple S Save the file Open 4 contrast color guide

36 Click on the image to select it (see the bounding box around the image) Go to the object menu on the top of your screen and click object>live trace>make and expand Hit F7 to open your layers palette if it is not open already Click the target button on a white layer to select an area of white Hit delete Select the contrast color guide layer Select the contrast color that you saved to your color palette

37 Hit apple S Save the file Open 5 dark color guide.psd in illustrator Click on the image to select it (see the bounding box around the image) Go to the object menu on the top of your screen and click object>live trace>make and expand Hit F7 to open your layers palette if it is not open already Click the target button on a white layer to select an area of white Hit delete Select the dark color guide layer

38 Select the dark color that you saved to your color palette Hit apple S Save the file

39 Checkpoint You should have 5 illustrator files We will use the color layers in these files by stacking them one on top of the other Open 1 highlight guide.ai in illustrator save the file as portrait_yourname.ai Create a new layer at the top of your layer stack and click on that layer Now open 2 pattern guide.ai Select the pattern guide layer Hit apple C to copy Go to portrait_yourname.ai Hit apple V to paste Use the arrow keys to move this layer into position

40 Create a new layer at the top of your stack and click on that layer

41 Open 3 light color guide.ai Select the light color guide layer Hit apple C Go back to portrait_yourname.ai Hit apple V Use the arrow keys to move this layer into position Create a new layer at the top of your stack and click on that layer

42 Open 4 contrast color guide.ai Select the contrast color guide layer Hit apple C Go back to portrait_yourname.ai Hit apple V Use the arrow keys to move this layer into position

43 Create a new layer at the top of your stack and click on that layer Open 5 dark color guide.ai Select the dark color guide layer Hit apple C Go back to portrait_yourname.ai Hit apple V Use the arrow keys to move this layer into position

44 Hit apple S to save this file

45 Grab the artboard tool stretch the artboard so you have some more room for a border and a keyword that relates to your portrait (example: hope)

46

47 grab the rectangle tool. Create a layer at the bottom of your layer stack draw a rectangle using the off white color from your palette

48

49 notice the fill color is the color I want and the stroke is no color (with a red slash indicating no color) draw another rectangle as shown below

50 and draw another rectangle as shown below

51 create a new layer at the top of your stack grab the type tool TYPE

52 SAVE YOUR ILLUSTRATOR FILE

53 GO TO FILE>EXPORT EXPORT A JPG FILE GO TO OR ons/patterns/ DOWNLOAD A PATTERN FILE TO YOUR DESKTOP OPEN YOUR JPG PORTRAIT IN PHOTOSHOP Click the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layer window Choose pattern

54 load the pattern that you downloaded earlier

55 ok, your whole image will be that pattern for a moment.

56 change the blend mode of your pattern layer to a blend mode that suits your image

57 click on the layer mask for your pattern layer

58 hit B on the keyboard to select the brush tool make sure you have the color black as your foreground color. hit f5 to open your brushes window. Select a grungy looking brush I chose this one

59 bring your brush opacity down to about 50% start to mask away some of your pattern layer

60

61

62 Next I will show you two things you can do to make it look like your poster is up on a wall in a real setting. You can skew your image to match the perspective of a surface. And (Or)

63 You can distort your image to match the texture of a surface.

64 Both steps are very easy. To skew an image into perspective - First you need to find an image of a surface that is at an angle. I found this one on but you might find a better image. You could take a photo of a wall here on campus or seek out the perfect shot in your free time. - Open your portrait.psd in photoshop - Hit apple A on your keyboard to select all - Click edit>copy merged - now open the image of the wall or surface - hit apple V on your keyboard to paste

65 Now click edit>transform>skew Drag the corners of the bounding box until you have matched the perspective. Once it is in position you need to hit the enter key. *Notice that the left and right edges (vertical) of my poster align with the vertical edges of the bricks. Also, the top and bottom edges of my poster align with the diagonal edges of the bricks

66 To match a texture of a surface - first you need to find an image of a surface with texture - open that original textured image in photoshop - click image>adjustments>desaturate - click file save as displacement_map.psd - Open your portrait.psd in photoshop - Hit apple A on your keyboard to select all - Click edit>copy merged - now open the original image of the wall or surface (not the displacement map) - hit apple V on your keyboard to paste your portrait - move and scale your portrait until you have it in position

67 - with your portrait layer selected, click filter>distort>displace. It will ask you how much you want to displace your image. I went with 10. You can do more or less.

68 then it will ask you to locate your displacement map now it has matched the texture or at least come close. - change the blend mode of your layer to overlay to make it look more realistic.

69 - You may duplicate this layer to make the colors more intense.

70 - you can add a layer mask to either of these layers or both to make it look weathered and

71 grungy. I used a brush from brusheezy on my layer masks here is the end product

72

73 Save this psd file and save a jpg copy in your personal folder in the drop box.