DESCRIPTION: Create a marble statue from a photo.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Save often.

1. Open your image. Save As and close the original.
This is the photo I'm working with:

2. Select the Lasso Tool with Snap to edges unchecked and a soft edge of 5 and make a rough "drawing" around your figure. Double-click inside the shape you've formed to change it into a selection.

3. Click on the Mask Mode icon in your Tool Panel. My mask colour is white. You can change it in File / Preferences if you wish.

4. Click on Paintbrush with a soft edge of 20, picking a size you're comfortable with. In Mask Mode you can only work with white, black or greys in between. With white you paint the (white) mask away. With black you add more to your (white) mask. If you're feeling clever, use your keyboard Y for your Eyedropper to click inside or outside the mask for your black or white. Then press the P key to continue painting with your selected colour.

5. Zoom in to 200% by pressing once on the + key of the "calculator" pad on your keyboard. Paint around the figure adding to your mask so that you are outlining closer and closer to what you eventually want. If you go in too far, simply switch to white to take the mask away. Click the Mask icon every now and then to disable to see any parts you've missed. If you have lots of straight areas as I do in this image, use the Straight lines option for your brush around these areas. This makes the work a lot easier.

I realise too late that I've picked a complicated image but too bad - he's my son and it's more fun working on someone you know than a complete stranger :). So I plug on. When done, click out of Mask Mode and drag your object into the workspace to create a new document. Smudge away any extraneous stuff left over from the previous image (e.g. for me it was the microphone stand).

6. Format / Hue & Saturation. Drag the saturation slider all the way over to the left to desaturate your figure. Click once on the + Brightness button on the Tool Panel to brighten a little.

7. Edit / Fill / Image (Ctrl F). Browse to your marble texture. Settings: Merge: Lighting, Tile the image.

8. Effect / All / Emphasize Edges / Options / Level: 1.

9. Open the background "pedestal" image you wish to use for your statue or make a simple object for it to stand or sit on. If you've made a head bust, a simple stone stand will do. I'll leave that to your imagination. Drag your figure to the background image.

10. When you have your person "in situ", Tool Panel / Burn while the selection's active where necessary if it needs a little depth especially at the bottom where the statue's resting. Use a large brush and gently swipe across those areas. Right click Merge All. Burn or Airbrush shadows where needed - he still looks like he's floating so I created shadows on the "seat" and ground to anchor him.

Thank you for trying out my tutorial :). I trust you've enjoyed it.

Hillie © 2004