06
CREATE A BACKGROUND COLOUR
I’ve worked with an A3-sized image, so
create a new document in Photoshop at 300dpi.
You’ll use a yellow background, so start by filling
the area with a bright, paler yellow. You can create
a dark to light range by adding a layer mask to this
and using the Gradient tool to make the
bottom-left side transparent so the white
background comes though. Create a new layer
above the yellow and fill it with a darker and
warmer yellow. Add another layer mask to this
and fade off the bottom half.05
SEPARATE TONAL AREAS
You need to repeat the process of levelling,
colour ranging and separating on the original
non-halftoned head to get a wider range of dark
facial tones separated on a layer as well. Go back to
an earlier duplicated layer and go through the
previous techniques. You should now have James
Dean’s darker facial areas in halftone and a regular
range on separate layers to begin editing with. This is
a process I use regularly to break down any
photograph into its component light and dark areas
and will be used again later in the tutorial.04
ADJUST LEVELS
After halftoning, you can adjust the contrast
even further by using Levels to get good edges. Set
Input values to 0, 2.90 and 165. To use these dark
areas as a shape, you need to separate them using
Color Range. Select the head and go to Select>Color
Range. I tend to select the opposite tone to the one I
need as this gives a more defined edge. So choose
white as the sampled colour and set Fuzziness to- Okay that then go to Select>Inverse to choose
the black before using Layer via Copy to move to a
new layer.
08
PASTE IN COLOUR
Set the original Dean layer to Soft Light at
50%, the Photo Dark Tone to Overlay at 50% and
Halftone to Overlay at 35%. You can start to build
colour into the portrait now, so open up ‘red_blue_
colour_wash.jpg’. I like to use bright, high-
contrasting colours, and this was created with a red/
blue Gradient Map on a basic watercolour texture.
Copy this texture then select your Photo Dark Tone
layer area and go to Edit>Paste Special>Paste Into.
You can now move this coloured texture around
within the layer mask to see what look works for
you and achieve an instant pop art feel. Move the
colour layer beneath the original face tone layers.07
BEGIN THE PORTRAIT
Drag your previously created layers, a halftone, photo dark tones and the original, from the James
Dean document into your newly created yellow A3 one and group them. These will provide definition to your
painterly layers later. You can make the bottom edges of the Dean image more interesting by adding a layer
mask to each and using the Gradient tool to fade off at different points. To be more creative, you can open one
of the brush PSDs and use that selected shape in the layer masks to delete areas around the edges and
create more dynamic shapes.QUICK TIP
Be sure to duplicate layers before applying effects or altering beyond recognition. It’s always useful to
retain the original shapes to refer to or recycle later on.PHOTO EDITING