Brushes Masterpiece

I used the Brush Tool to complete this whole picture. I first began with the grass. I chose a nice green and painted the grass area solid. Then, I took the brush that looks like grass and went over top of the previously colored area. This brush used dual tone, so I chose a darker and lighter green to compliment this function. I painted in the tree using a more typical brush and then went over it using a texture brush to give the effect of bark and to show that the tree is not smooth. Next, I lowered the opacity and created clouds. Then, I changed the mode to behind and used a light blue to add in the sky. I used a leaf brush, changed the scattering effect, the purity effect, and painted in the leaves of the tree. I used some of the special loaded brushes such as the flowers and the butterfly to add more to the image. I really enjoyed this assignment and how it was very free. The easiest part was adding in the clouds and the sky because the clouds were simple to create and the sky was just a solid color. The hardest part was adding the texture to the tree because it took a while to get it how I wanted it to look. It was also time consuming.

Text of Choice

http://www.adobetutorialz.com/categories/Adobe-Photoshop/Text-Effects/page/3

I begin by typing "VICTORIA" on a new document. Then, I added a gradient overlay and bevel and emboss to the text. Next, I went to Layer>Layer Style>Create Layers. I then merged all the text layers. From the Filter menu, I went to artistic then chose the plastic wrap effect. I then applied this effect again by pressing Control+F. I pressed Control + U to pull up the hue/saturation window and I changed the color to a blue. Next, I changed the bevel and emboss settings and added a stroke. Lastly, I duplicated the layer and changed the layer mode to color dodge. I really like this tutorial and I think it was fun. The hardest part was applying the plastic wrap effect. The easiest part was typing the text. 

Text Transformation

http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/30970034/1/photoshopping-aqua-wallpaper/2

I first started by creating a new document and filling the background with a blue color. I then used the brush tool to paint a darker blue around the edges of the document. Next, I took the Horizontal Type tool and typed my name. Then, I changed the parameters of the text. I positioned the letters and copied them in a darker blue to put as a shadow underneath. I added an outer glow to the darker letters. Then, I added an inner shadow, inner glow, outer glow, and gradient overlay to the top letters. Next, I added a satin effect to the last letter. I created a new layer and added a shadow behind the letters using the Brush Tool. I then created an ellipse, changed its parameter, and gave it an inner shadow. An ellipse like this was added to each letter. Lastly, I created bubbles by using two ellipses. One ellipse had an inner shadow and the other had a gradient overlay. Both of the shape's layer have an opacity at 0%. I then copied the bubbles, positioned them, and used the transform tool to size them. I really like the way the text came out. I think this was a fun tutorial. The hardest part was getting the bubbles to work the way I wanted them to. The easiest part was setting up the background.

Inner You

To create this image, I began with a picture of my house and sidewalk. Then, I took a full body picture of myself and selected the necessary areas. Next, I used refine edge to smooth and fix some of the selected areas, and I moved the picture of me on the the house image. Then, I worked on my shadow. I chose a giraffe to be my shadow (inner me), because I am short so the opposite would be that I am tall inside. I took the picture of the giraffe and selected the giraffe out of it, selected the inverse and changed it to Black & White in refine edge. I then used refine edge to try to smooth it out more and went back and changed some of the selected area until it was smoother. Next, I took the giraffe and put it onto my house and sidewalk picture. Then, I changed the opacity of it and used the move tool, transform tool, and warped it to position it how I wanted it. Then, I add text that said "Tall Inside" using the text tool. I think this was a cool project. The hardest part was getting the giraffe shadow to look and be positioned right. The easiest part was inserting the text.

Tattoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll5dWnVfT2Y

To create this image, I first I found a picture of someone's feet. Then, I created butterfly shapes that would make up the tattoo design. I set it to soft light mode and placed the tattoo where I wanted it. Next, I created a displacement map and duplicated the image. I created a new layer, pressed shift-backspace and made it a neutral gray color. I switched to a blend mode of overlay and used the dodge tool to add highlights to the feet. I also duplicated that layer and switched to the burn tool to make areas darker. Then, I saved the displacement map, went back to the original image and brought up the tattoo. I converted to smart filters and made sure the tattoo was positioned where I wanted it. I went to Filter>Distort>Displace and tried different scale numbers and loaded the displacement map. Once I had the numbers that worked with the distortion best, I continued by using a layer mask to fix some pieces. I changed the mode to subtract and lowered the opacity. The hardest part of this tutorial was using the burn and dodge tools to add darkness and highlights because it was hard to tell where they should go. The easiest part was creating the butterflies that would make up the tattoo.

Combining Vectors with Photographs (Cranes)

First, I opened the top image and then chose Image>Canvas Size to make room for the second picture. Then in the layers panel, I reduced the opacity of the top layer and re-positioned it to make the pictures overlap. Next, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to hide part of the top layer. Then, I chose Select>Inverse to invert the selection, added a layer mask and reset the opacity to 100%. I chose Image>Trim to eliminate the empty white canvas. I chose the Custom Shape tool and the flower shape and added some flowers along the seams of the image. Then, pressed Control, clicked on the Vector mask thumbnail, selected the middle layer and pressed Control-J. Then, I dragged Layer 2 to the top of the stack and turned off the visibility of the Shape layer. While on the top layer, I pressed Control and clicked on the Layer thumbnail. I took the Rectangular Marquee tool, clicked the Subtract from selection icon and put a rectangle above the seam around the shapes. I chose the inverse, added a layer mask, pressed Control and selected the Layer mask. Then, I selected the Multiple Crane Mask thumbnail and chose the inverse, set the default colors by pressing D and pressed Control-Backspace to show the top photo. I then added more flowers around the image and added one with a lower opacity to top right corner. I really liked the way the image turned out and think the techniques used to create it were very cool. The hardest part for me was getting the flowers to show through to the top background. The easiest thing was adding all the flowers around the perimeter at the end.

Displacement Map

I started by clicking on the channels palette and choosing the red channel. Then, I duplicated the channel. Next, I created a new document and added a .7 Gaussian blur by going to Filter>blur>Gaussian blur. Then, I saved this new document. Going back to the original image, I clicked on the "RGB", opened the layer palette and added text on a new layer. Then, I rasterized it by right clicking on the layer palette and choosing rasterize test. Then, I went to Filter>Distort>Displace. Next, I opened the image that I saved before.  I chose overlay mode and duplicated the distorted layer. Then, I added a inner shadow and dropped the opacity of the second layer to 30%. The hardest part of the assignment was remembering how to add the inner shadow, and the easiest part was adding the text. I really liked the way the image turned out. I think this was a good tutorial.