Self-portrait tutorial
Step 1
Pick/take portrait of yourself
Step 2
Open image up in Photoshop (file open)
Step 3
Firstly we are going to vectorise our image. This is done by creating blocks of skin then adding in the rest of the important details.
Create a new layer (ctrl + shift + n) name it skin! Select a colour you want to use for your skin. I decided to go with the colour #f8daa1
With the magic want tool (press letter W on keyboard) click the body and hold the shift button until all of the body’s silhouette is covered. Don’t include any clothes or hair.
Fill shape with skin colour (tool bar-edit-fill-foreground colour-#f8daa1)
Hide this layer
Step 4
Create new layer called “skin layer”(ctrl+shift+n) Select a brush (press letter b on keyboard) Change colour to dark brown
Pick brush with 3px radius
Go to “skin line” layer Create line work to outline the body using the pen tool. (press p on kepboard) Use pen tool to create lips, eyes, nose, eyebrows and all defined features on body/face. To get into more detailed areas e.g eyes change the size of the pen (make sure the fill colour
on brush is on transparent.
Step 5
Create new layer. Name is hair Using pen tool again outline hair(when reaching finer bits of the hair change the size of
brush to give a more gentle look Fill colour into match the colour you want your hair to be
(OPTIONAL) If you want to make your hair look more detailed on a different layer (name it hair) you can give your hair highlights by using a darker/lighter colour using the pen tool.
Step 5
Below skin layer create a new layer (name it colour) on this layer paint eyes & lips & face. To get in closer to the shape zoom into image (ctrl +) use brush tool to fix image to desired
colour
When doing the highlighted bits on the cheeks/chest/nose bring the opacity down low and change to a soft brush
Step 6
To add the background you go to filter section on the tool bar at the top filter-blur-motion