Advanced_Photoshop_Issue_136_-_2015_UK_.

CREATE A DISPLACEMENT EFFECT TECHNIQUES

BREAKDOWNANDRECONFIGUREAPORTRAITUSING

SHAPE LAYERS, MASKS, AND LAYER STYLES

CREATE A

DISPLACEMENT

EFFECT

T

he artwork for Adobe Creative Suite 6

features stunning portraits flavoured with

the technology and culture behind the

associated program. Illustrator shows a

woman festooned with beautiful vector doodles. The

artwork for Photoshop, by Alberto Seveso, portrays a

face broken down and re-imagined using organic

shapes, elements, and texture. It’s a prime example

of how Photoshop can help you produce complex

visuals with a layered approach.

Let’s try creating something in the vein of this

image. We’ll start by using the Pen tool to layout

shape layers and adorn them with layer styles. This

tutorial assumes you have Pen tool basics down.

READY THE BUILDING BLOCKS

CREATE SHAPE LAYERS AND PREPARE THE MODEL

After compiling a decent array of shapes, we’ll

extract our model and begin piecing together the

base forms using clipping masks. We’ll continue to

add the shapes we made (and create more) to

build up the detail.

Shape layers are extremely flexible and can be

reshaped with the Direct Selection tool. Shape

layers incur no degradation or blurriness when they

are transformed, making them the perfect building

blocks for this tutorial.

For textural interest, we’ll mask and blend in

some shots of foamy water and broccoli. To

finalise, we’ll use a series of adjustment layers and

blend modes to get the perfect look.

01

CREATE SHAPES

Open Shapes.psd from FileSilo. There are a

few example shapes. We’ll make some more. Create

a new layer. Select the Pen tool. In the options bar,

set to Shape and choose a Fill colour. Click and drag

on-canvas to create your shape. Create more

shapes. Don’t spend too much time refining the

shapes though, as we can do that later.

02

USE GRADIENT OVERLAY

Layer styles, accessible from the Layers

palette’s fx button, can add some quick dimension and

interest to our flat shapes. Apply a Gradient Overlay with

the Black and White preset for versatile dimension. You

can use a darken blend mode like Multiply, a lighten

mode like Screen, or a contrast mode like Soft Light.

Adjust opacity and angle as needed.

03

ADD MORE STYLES

Inner Shadow can help bestow a bit more

heft. Use sparingly with low opacity, choke, and size.

Drop Shadow is key to building up the depth in the

piece. Be moderate with opacity and size, and

increase when needed. As you stack and overlap

shapes, the shadowy interplay will create some nice

complexity throughout.

BUILDITUPANDREFINE

WORK IN

PROGRESS

Progress 1: Layer the

model forms

Progress 2: Add shapes and

more elements

Progress 3: Apply adjustments

ANDRE VILLANUEVA

000-000-0000.com

OUR EXPERT

Andre fell in love with Photoshop

while studying web design in college.

He taught for several years in the

media arts department. He’s now an

art director in Birmingham, USA.

SOURCE FILES

FileSilo contains the source files

needed to complete the tutorial:

blurs, shapes, foamy water shots,

and broccoli! Feel free to supplement

with your own textures and/or swap

out the model shot, which can be

downloaded from http://www.dreamstime.

com (image number 51969906).