CREATE A CHALK ILLUSTRATION IN PHOTOSHOP
It’s fast. It’s fun. It’s bright and colorful. If you want some editorial art that doesn’t look like your run-of-the-mill stock art, or need something to accent the corner of a print piece, here it is. Chalk à la Photoshop!
This tutorial will show how to use channels to create a “fixed” texture not unlike working chalk on a real canvas.
Getting Started—While not critical for the completion of this tutorial, when applying this technique in the real world it is important to know the final size of the art before you begin illustrating. It is best to work at 100%. Although resizing as much as 20% in either direction should be fine, be careful with anything more, as it may degrade the quality. Too much enlarging tends to make the texture look rasterized and hard; while excessive downsizing will cause the texture to close up and you’ll lose the details that define the chalky porous look.
Document Setup—Start a new canvas at 10 x 8 inches; 300pixels/inch; CMYK Color Mode; with a White Background.
Drawing The Masks—By using paths for mask instead of the channels, you keep your file smaller and easier to manage. So, we’ll do just that. On the Paths Pallette select New Path and name it Flowers. Using the Pen Tool (P) draw the shape of a flower—keep it simple.
Use Command + T to adjust and position the path.
Option + Drag to copy pieces of your flowers. Adjust and arrange the flower path as you like. Add a simple path for the stems.
Now, create the fish. For convenience and to prevent any confusion against the Flower path, create a new path layer called Fish.
Creating The Canvas—Fill background layer with 50% Cyan.
Add a new Alpha Channel by selecting New Channel from the menu on the Channels Pallette. Name this new Alpha Channel Texture.
With the Texture Alpha Channel highlighted go to FILTERS > TEXTURE > TEXTURIZER. Choose Canvas as the Texture. Set to maximum both the Scaling (200%) and Relief (50). You want the strongest contrast and most detail. It doesn’t matter where the light comes from as long as it’s not directly from the top or the side. This will give you the nice crisscrossing pattern that happens when the light hits the canvas at an angle. Hit OK.
Your Texture Alpha Channel should now have a very high−contrast canvas pattern like the one above. Enlarge the pattern even more by dragging the Marquee to about 4 x 3 inches and then sizing to fill the entire canvas.
Note: Use Command + T and hold down Shift to size proportionally.
Duplicate this Alpha Channel; call it Texture Copy. Rotate Texture Copy 180° by going to EDIT > TRANSFORM > ROTATE 180º.
Finally, Duplicate the Texture Alpha Channel one last time and call it Texture Fish. Go to EDIT > TRANSFORM > SKEW and Skew the entire pattern 10°. (There will be some extra space at the corners—just quickly clone, or marquee and copy the skewed pattern over it. This does not require perfection.)
Adding Color—The next few steps will require a leap of faith. You will either find yourself giddy or disappointed with the outcome. The History palette is your friend, so relax and have fun. Experiment with the colors. I arrived at my color choices after experimenting with about 30 different combinations. My only strong suggestion would be to use extreme contrasts and variations. Also, periodically reduce your view to make sure the colors are not muddy. Above all, keep it simple.
- 1. Choose 20 magenta/100 yellow for your Background color. You should already have 50% cyan on your canvas.
- 2. Select the Alpha Channel Texture through SELECT > LOAD SELECTION. You should see a “noisy” mess over the cyan.
3. Command + T to transform the entire textured selection. Those are the “marching ants” of your selection.
4. Rotate 180°, either by doing manually and holding shift or input into tool bar.
5. Select 400px Airbrush; 25 Hardness; 30 Opacity; Switch the Orange to the Foreground color and airbrush in more intense areas.
Repeat this general process with more layers of different colors, but use the Alpha Channel Texture Copy, rotate at random angles (SELECT > TRANSFORM SELECTION) and Fill. This will decrease chances of moiré patterns occurring.
Keep all of the different colors on separate layers so that you can still erase some of the edges and areas to make your background look imperfect.
Here’s a picture of the purple addition…
Magenta addition and then green.
Fish And Flowers—Using the paths you’ve already drawn, make selections.
Go to SELECT > LOAD SELECTION and choose Texture.
Under Operation, choose Intersect with Selection. Click OK. (Use Command + H to get rid of the “marching ants” so that you can see clearly.)
Airbrush your flowers in white and yellow. (See toggle Pointer below)
Using the same process as with the flowers, create the base color of the fish.
Using the Texture Fish Alpha Channel add the details to the fish.
Adding Detail—Create a new Alpha Channel named Stems by selecting only the paths that comprise the stems; choose a Brush (B) of 35px, 100 Hardness; stroke with white.
SELECT > LOAD SELECTION > Stems and then brush in some white and bright green. Keep it random.
Pointer: By creating the two colors you want to use in the foreground and the background, you can toggle while you draw by using (X) on the keyboard. Drawing tools will be using the foreground color.
One of my favorite things to do is use the Lasso (L) tool and just freehand draw shapes to brush in color. (It helps if you have a drawing tablet, stylus and confidence.) I drew some leaves and waves. You can either SELECT > SAVE SELECTION or create another Alpha Channel to save your hand−drawn shapes. You can now add and subtract these shapes from your drawing to create spontaneity.
Pointer: View the hand-drawn Channel and CMYK layers at the same time. This way you can add or subtract to the Channel with accuracy.
Adding An Adjustment Layer—Great for non-commitment and a chance to go back to change the colors and contrast.
1) Load the Selection you’ve just created with the leaves; 2) Choose Hue/Saturation in the pull down menu; 3) Click the box for Colorize and then slide the Hue, Saturation and Lightness until you get the color you want. I chose a similar magenta/purple as the background but with more saturation and darkness. Any color will work as long as it contrasts with the background and doesn’t take over the subjects.
By using an Adjustment Layer, you can change your mind later.
Note: I’ve adjusted the Background layer so that some texture and colors show through transparently—keeping with the Chalk characteristics.
Completing The Drawing—Don’t create detail for detail’s sake, the goal should always to make the piece as strong as possible and then leave it alone. I added some blue circles or “bubbles” to balance out all that blue in the corner where the fish is, some soft white swirls to add movement. By using the Burn and Dodge (O) on some layers, you can intensify colors and add colors. Remember, that by utilizing Alpha Channels, Adjustment Layers and Layers, you can experiment to your hearts content—something you could never do without muckying up your real Chalk drawing. Have fun!