Photoshop Tutorial, Part Five

[Harry P.]

The side windows are done using the exact same techniques used to create the rear window. First step is to draw the shape I want with the Lasso tool, using the photo as my guide, (and of course, drawing the shape on a new, separate layer... but by now you knew that! ), and dumping color into the shape using the Paint Bucket tool... in this case, black:

Drawing shapes with the Polygonal Lasso tool leaves jagged curves, because the Polygonal Lasso tool draws in a straight line, point to point... it doesn't draw curves or arcs. (PS has tools that can draw freehand curves and arcs, like the freehand Lasso tool and the Pen tool, but I like to do it this way; it's the way I'm comfortable with and I have more control going point to point vs. freehand curves). So what I do after I've drawn the shape is use the magnifier to zoom in, and then clean up the curves by using the Elliptical Marquee tool to draw a smooth curve, then either filling in the jagged area within the ellipse (the "live" area) with the Brush tool, or selecting the outside of the ellipse as the active area by using the dropdown menu "Select Inverse" command... and then using the eraser to clean up on the outside of the selected area. Sometimes I'll need to fill in within the live area and erase outside of it to get a clean curve. Here you can see one corner cleaned up, another jagged corner on the left still to be done:

Now I duplicated my black window shape, and used the color overlay command to change the color from black to dark blue. Then I duplicated that layer (the dark blue one) and changed the color to sky blue. I now have three identical window shapes, each on their own separate layers: one black, one dark blue and one light blue. Here you can only see the light blue one, because it's the top layer... but trust me, the dark blue and black ones are underneath, on their own layers:

Next I used the eraser to remove the part of the light blue color that I didn't need (now you can see the dark blue shape that is under the light blue shape, because I've erased some of the light blue colored area which is the layer above the dark blue shape):

And now I merged the two blue layers into one, and used the Edit>Transform>Scale function in the dropdown menus to make the blue shape slightly smaller, and merged that blue layer into the original black window shape layer that I created first. At this point I still have the base photo layer turned "on," that's why you can see it... but all the window work has been created on separate layers above the photo layer:

Next, I used the "Magic Wand" tool to select the black area of the window, then I created a new blank layer and dumped green into that selected shape (now on that newly created layer) using the Paint Bucket. This new green shape is on that new, separate layer: As before, I then moved the "live" area selection slightly to the right while leaving the green shape in place...

...and hit "Delete" to remove the unwanted part of the green shape:

[Harry P.]

Then I took the green shape, and using the Edit>Transform>Scale function, I reduced the size to fit within the window where I wanted it to go:

I used the Burn tool to slightly darken the top of the shape (remember, this green shape is still on its own separate layer, I haven't merged it down into the window layer yet):

I didn't like the color of the blue are on the side window, so I used the Magic Wand tool to select that area, and then selected the dropdown menu command Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation:

By moving the slider bars on the Hue control, I can change the hue to a shade that I liked better.

And here you can also see the highlights I added on the window edges using the brush and some white:

The other side window was created using the same basic techniques:

More to come...

[MikeMc]

WOWSER HARRY!!!!!! INCREDIBLE JOB!!!!!!!!

[Bernard Kron]

Learning something with every new section. I wondered how you were smoothing your shapes since you seemed to be using the polygonal lasso. The key is the separate transparent layer that allows you to impose more controlled shapes like the ellipse when you're editing your initial basic shape. Thanx again for this insight!

Edited September 19, 2010 by gbk1