QUICK TIP
When designing individual elements for retro
posters, it is important to not be overly
concerned with achieving photorealism.
Complex subjects such as overgrown tree
trunks should be simplified where possible,
with simple repetitious geometric shapes
used to illustrate ivy for example, and just a
few lines used to indicate bark texture.04
SKETCHING AND SCANNING ELEMENT OUTLINES
The rough layout in step 1 shows the River Thames surrounded
by encroaching vegetation, as described in the source novel. Each of the
various elements in the design can be drawn separately with pen and ink
directly onto paper then scanned into Photoshop. Try to divide the
elements into discrete areas that may be colour-filled with the Paint
Bucket tool later in the tutorial. When scanning, scan as black and white
images, with no greyscale. This ensures striking element outlines.05
CREATE ELEMENT OUTLINES WITHIN PHOTOSHOP
If you prefer, you may create the black and white outlines of the image elements
within Photoshop. Load the source photos into Photoshop (from File>Open>
’referencephotos’ or internet search) then create a new layer (Layer>New>Layer). On this
new layer, trace directly around the feature of interest with the Pencil tool – a stylus or
graphics pad may be preferred. Try to leave no gaps in an element outline, so the regions of
the element can be filled with the Paint Bucket tool later in the tutorial. When the outline is
drawn, delete the source image layer and save.06
SET UP SWATCH
Commonly, retro travel posters use a
limited colour palette to unify design and make it
more eye-catching. At this stage you need to think of
a colour scheme and set up a swatch to keep
organised. Wherever possible, colours from this
swatch should be used, particularly for large poster
elements. To add to the swatch palette, select a
foreground colour (using either Color Picker or
Eyedropper) and select New Swatch (Swatches>New
Swatch). A swatch set may be loaded from the
source files (‘retroposter.aso’).07
CUT ELEMENT OUTLINES FROM SCANS
After scanning the sketches of the various
poster elements as black and white files, these
sketches need to be cropped to size and copied into a
new CMYK file so they may be coloured. At this
stage, it is important to ensure that areas of white in
an image can be removed, to allow the element to be
layered into the main poster design. To do this,
double-click on the Background layer in the new
CMYK image and set Opacity to 0%. Then save the
image as a PSD file.08
REFINE ELEMENT OUTLINES
The next step is to make sure that areas of
each element can be later filled with the Paint Bucket
tool, and that all areas of white are removed from the
element. First, zoom in on the image and inspect it
for gaps in the black outline. If any gaps are present,
use the Pencil tool and a black foreground colour to
correct this. Next, use the Magic Wand tool to select
areas of the image that will not contain colour (ie
between the stems of plants) and delete these.GRAPHICS AND WEB