One of the best parts I like about making a piece in Photoshop is not necessarily the outcome but the process it takes to get to it. I learn a lot when I can visualize somebody’s progress in creating a graphic. I always enjoy seeing work in progress because it shows you that the skills to make that piece aren’t complicated at all and art is really all about visualizing and experimenting.

Walk in the Park was probably one of my first pieces that I experimented fully with the use of stock photos and using the mask tool in Photoshop. I never knew you can blend in photos in that way so that they look seemless and natural (to an extent). Here’s my WIP on Walk in the Park (and also some notes on what I did).

The Concept Behind Walk in the Park

The main concept to this piece was to show how a unity between 2 people can bring life to their world. Hence you see the couple walking out of this black and dull city and into a colorful peaceful “island” with flowers, water, and more. This piece was created for Vina.

Initial Study and Preproduction

In order to convey my message, I had to gather stocks. And so I got most of my stocks through stock.xchng and from other free stock photo sites. My general process in this stage is to collect as much as I can that I think are usable. I got stocks of skies, clouds, mountains, rocks, water, beaches, couples, flowers, etc… If I think I could use it, I downloaded it. As to most people, this might be called the preproduction stage. You gather all your needed materials to start off your production.

Work in Progress – Screenshots

Step 1

1. I started off with my city. I had a good black and white stock of buildings (Figure 1.1), and basically I duplicated and positioned them around so I could form an island-like landscape (Figure 1.2).

Step 2

2. I placed in my mountain stock and masked unneeded parts. As you can see with Figure 2.1 the original picture of the mountain had a lot of things to it. And so I masked around it along with the other stocks to make it like Figure 2.2. In addition, I added and masked more pictures of that black and white city.

Step 3

3. I began to work the background by adding a sky. It was simply a gradient and then I brushed around with a grayish blue brush and set it to multiply to sort of mimic clouds.

Step 4

4. Following the same process as step 2, I had pictures of green forests and grasses, and I scaled them down to fit on the rocks. I set the layers to hard light, and they seem to work best for me. I duplicated them as well to make it more vibrant and green. You can also see me putting flowers in there as well.

Step 5

5. I messed around with the sky more and added some stocks of clouds and set them on overlay and screen to get the sky to be more bright. I picked out the picture I wanted to use for the couple and embellished that area with a rainbow (using a circle shapes and put a rainbow gradient with blending options) and also some bubbles. I also made the water bluer by painting a layer with a blue brush and setting its blending mode to “Soft Light”.

I also started my typography work since I wanted to make it a part of the piece rather than something slapped on at the end. Simple text with a gradient on it, and I brushed around to make it more fitting into the water.

Step 6

6. From here, I decided to change it up a bit and mess around with colors. I added a Sepia Toned Gradient Map and set it to multiply and added a Curves layer to increase the brightness a bit.

Step 7

7. One of my favorite things to do and I guess you can say it’s my style is that I always like to introduce shapes into my pieces. They add that piece of abstractness to a graphic and can give some great color, flow, and composition. From figure 7.1 and figure 7.2, I simply added more shapes. Some of them I made with the pen tool, and the other shapes are part of my Custom Photoshop Shapes that I made a while ago.

Step 8

8. At this time, I like to experiment with brushes. I had some brushes that I downloaded from deviantART or some other places (If you happened to make the brush, let me know.) And also I’ve used some brush sets that were made by Vtension. Her wireframe brushes and various shapes packs were the ones I used in this piece. Check out her blog for more brush resources.

TIP: Remember that you can mask pretty much anything. Sometimes brushes and shapes may not be good unless you mask out the parts that doesn’t fit into the piece.

I also added more shapes to add more to the piece. I also find myself doing more than what’s needed, but at this part of the piece, I eyeball what looks good to me.

Step 9

9. And finally, more brushes, and I added some fireworks stocks set to screen blending mode to put some particles into my piece. I touched up a few things here and cleaned some mess with masks and added a gradient map and photo filter. I cropped it a bit and added black bars on top and bottom. After all of that, my piece is finally done.

What Happened and What I’ve Learned

Basically I learned that it takes a lot of patience. You have to take the time to mask things accurately so that the photos can work together. You have to take the time and experiment with brushes and shapes to decorate the piece, and you have to also test out a lot of settings when creating your color scheme in the piece. Everything has to be in consideration, lighting, composition, colors, typography, and overall your idea.

Conclusion

Thanks for viewing my first WIP. If you have any questions specifically on this piece, I’ll be happy to answer them. Leave a comment and I’ll reply to them. I’ll have more WIPs in the future so make sure you follow and subscribe to see my updates.