Create Floral Contemporary Art in Photoshop

1. Introduction: Everyone, My name is. And today I'll be teaching you how to create contemporary art in Photoshop. This is a really popular art form these days, and I will show you exactly how you can create this image. I've been using Photoshop for almost 20 years now. And the last couple of years, I've been focusing on digital art with animals, especially portraits. This class is great for beginners. It's very slow, so you can easily follow along and do exactly what I do. And after this class you will learn some cool techniques which you can use to use for your own photos. Or just simply use free stock photos like I usually do to create digital art. If you want to learn more, check out my other classes or simply go to my website. I have a lot of courses in Photoshop. Check it out. I've also some Lightroom presets in case you want to bring your art to the next level with just a simple mouse-click. Anyways, I hope to see you in the class and have fun. 2. How To Create Patterns: Let's start with creating our artwork. So first of all, open up Photoshop and download the project files. Now, in this project files you can see we only have four images. And that will be actually enough to create this artwork. So let's first open up flowers PNG into Photoshop. And the first thing we want to do is we want to create a pattern of this image. You can see here this image has no background, so that is really good. So first of all, let's go to Edit, Define Pattern. And this will actually save this pattern in your Photoshop library. You can name this however you want. I'm just going to leave it like this press, Okay? Now we have created our pattern. Now we want to make sure we start working on the image of the line. So let's open up the line PNG, also into Photoshop. And we don't have to change anything here. I've already made sure it's the right size. Now, to make some patterns around this image on a grade these flowers around this line, I'm going to create a new layer first by pressing this here. Then go to Edit. And this time I'm going to select Fill. And with fill, we can select some contents that we want to do. So obviously, we want to create a pattern, right? So select pattern here. Make sure you have script selected here, because when you first open this up, It's not selected, select script. And here you can select the custom pattern. So this is the pattern we just created. If you click on that, it's going to select it and make sure you have selected random field. And that's gonna go into the other ones right now, because I just want to show you how to create these quickly. Now, if we press Okay, we get this second window popping up. Here we have the settings of this pattern. And here you can see how it looks. Now, I want to make sure the density is somewhere between 36. I have this, this, and this looks like the best results for this kind of image. You can also play around with these if you want to. And let's make them a bit smaller so they are too big. So maybe something at one. And this one, let's say something at one also. Let's keep that one to keep it simple. Now, here you can also play with the colors. This will make it really colorful, but I don't want to do that now. I want to make sure it's still realistic instead of like a fantasy kind of artwork. So make sure to keep it a bit low to have it like realistic. But if you want to have more funky colors, you can also increase that one. But I like to have stuff realistic and just keep it at, let's say even less than one like this. Now here you can also play with the brightness, but we're not going to do it now. I'm going to click on, Okay, and it's going to create this pattern. You can see already we have created this pretty cool pattern and it felt a lot of area. Now let's create a new layer again and go to Edit. Fill. This. I'm gonna do the same. And what Photoshop does is it's going to create, again, this kind of pattern, but it's gonna be different because it's always random. So if we're going to click Okay, now we have this window again, I'm going to leave the settings the same disk. Click Okay, again, a gassy, it's a different kind of image that is created. And let's, let's do one more. Let's go to Edit, Fill, and keep the settings again the same. And this one also just press Okay, and we have another one. And you can see it fills the whole area up with these flowers. 3. Filing The Area: The next thing we need to do here is to make sure we see our line because he's in the background now, if we want to make sure he's like in-between these flowers. So what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to duplicate this background layer with the line. So for this, you can press Control J. Or if you're on a Mac Command J, or simply take this layer and drag it to this icon here. And this will duplicate the layer. Now we need to make sure it's above the flowers. So I'm going to drag this all the way up here and put it there. Now, obviously, it's covering up the flowers. Now, I want to make sure we don't see the stuff that's going on like here, here and here. So let's make a mask by pressing on this layer here. This is a adjustment layer and it's going to create this mask. Now, if you want to brush stuff away, we need to use a black brush and with a white brush, we can bring stuff back. So first of all, click on the brush here, or you can press B on your keyboard to select the brush. Now, if you go here, we have the settings here for the brushes. And I'm going to click on this one. It's going to open up this window. And here I have all my different kinds of brushes. Now, if you just started the Photoshop, you have the general brushes. And the first one is the soft round brush, which I use a lot of times. Now click on the soft round brush. Let's close this window again and make the size, let's make it a bit bigger here. And you can see this size in this brush actually. And if I'm going to select colors here, so the foreground color is what you're brushing. So I'm gonna switch these to make the black. And I'm going to start with brushing. Make sure you have this clicked and this, you can see the stroke around this icon. So make sure it's the right one to brush in the mask. Now, I'm going to brush here and just gently click brush. And you can see how easily we can remove the background. Because this line has like a lot of fur here. It's actually really easy to brush this stuff away and already it blends pretty well with this image. Now, obviously it is better to remove the background separately, but I'm not doing that in this free training. If you watch my courses, I'm showing you exactly how to perfectly cut out images like lions with first or humans with hair. It's all actually the same. So in this free training, we're gonna do it like this, to do it quickly. Now, let's brush a bit here. Still see some breakdowns. And I wanna make sure like this area is also feasible. So now it looks like the line is sitting instead of laying down like the original photo was. So something like this and maybe a bit more there. And that's it. If you want to zoom out the image, you can hold down Alt on your keyboard or Option on Mac and scroll your middle mouse and it's really easy to zoom in and out. I use that a lot to see how my image looks from a distance and from clause. Now, if you accidentally breast maybe too much like they're just rotate, switch these colors from black to white and you can bring back the line again, right? So black to remove Antwi to bring them back. And you can also see here the areas that you pressed. So we removed some, some of the line here. Let's do a bit more so we can see some more of these flowers. And now it looks like he's just in front of these these flowers. So I want to make sure it looks like he's in-between these flowers. So we need to create some depth. So I'm gonna go back into this flower. And the only thing I have to do is I have to take this flower, make sure you have this selected the Move tool, and just take it and drag it in this file. And it's going to put it above there. And this way we can put flowers in front of him and not only in the background. So I'm going to place them somewhere, maybe here. Have discovered up in front of him. Now, obviously we need a bit more of these flowers. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to press Control or Command J, like we did with the align to duplicate it. Or you can just simply take this and drag it here and it's going to duplicate this, right? So duplicate this and move them around. Let's fill the area a bit more up. Let's play some, maybe there. Then press Control J again. And let's, let's place maybe there. Let's, let's make a rotation to this image so we don't see the same pattern. Now, to rotate the image, we can simply press Control T or Command T on Mac, and you can take this Free Transform window. Now, if you see this icon, it's already shown you, you can rotate it. So let's rotate it a bit to have some different types of flowers. Now, let's duplicate it again and let's move some there. Let's press Control T again. Maybe rotate it another way. And Control T again. Maybe their console t Again. Let's rotate this again. Control J. To duplicate it. Command J, if you're Mac, I'm using a maximum used to pressing command instead of console. And I think this is already enough, maybe some, some leaves that are sticking out in front of its face. You can also make it a bit bigger. If you see this icon, maybe some are bigger like that. Let's do some there. And let's do some here. I think this is already enough. Now we have all these flowers here. Our Photoshop file is gonna get a bit messy. So what I usually do is I start organizing it a bit. So I put stuff in folders to F, a bit of overview of everything. So let's select this one, the last layer that you have created. And until this one, by holding down Shift, you can select them all. So take the first one, hold down Shift, select the last one. If you're going to press Control G or Command G, you can make a group. You can also drag them into this icon. If you select them all and just drag them into this icon. It's also going to make a group, and this is our flowers on the foreground. And let's move them around. And now you can play with them if you want. Let's put also these in the group. So hold on shifts like this. Let's Control G and this is our background. You can see we already created a pretty good image. Now I want to make sure these flowers are a bit more in space. So I'm going to move them slightly to the frontier. If you hold on Control or Command and click on a layer, it's going to select it. Or you can select, auto select. But I hate this option because you click so many times, you accidentally going to click on something. You don't want to move. So this, select this and hold on control if you want to click and select something like that. Alright, so I think this is already pretty cool. For now. We need to make sure that it's going to look realistic now because we don't have lighting. We don't have colors that we changed. We didn't change anything yet. We just made the composite now. 4. Lighting & Colors: Let's work on the face of the lion. So this layer, I want to make sure it looks better than now. And the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to select this layer and then go to adjustment layers here. And I'm going to select curves. And with course we can change the lighting. Now, here we have the height highlights and here we have the darker tones and incentive, we have some midtones. So first of all, let's make them dark and take the mid tones and bring this also done. So if bit more contrast. Now we're going to create a new curves again by going down here and select curves again. One thing we need to make sure that we only edit this layer. So press this button here, so only affects that layer and add the flowers. And the same goes for this one. Click on the layer and press this. Alright? And for this one, I want to make sure it's going to make it light again. And something like this. You can see it already is a lot better now. The next thing to do is to make some areas a bit darker around him because in the sites around them, I'm gonna make sure it's a bit darker so we have more focus on its face. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna create a new layer again. And I'm going to press right mouse on this layer and create a clipping mask. This means we only work inside this layer. Then I'm gonna go to Edit Fill. I would edit fill. We can select something. We want to fill this area. Now, I want to make sure it's 50% gray. With 50% gray, we are creating a 50% gray layer which we can work on. So if I change this from normal to overlay, you won't see this layer anymore. You only see what I'm doing with different tools that I select here. So I want to select the burn tool. Now, let's select the burn tool here. And the first thing to do is to change these two highlights and exposure somewhere around 50. And let's brush the outer area a bit darker like that. Just a bit of a brushing, not much. We can have some dark areas there. And that's it. And if I compare this, you can see it's a bit darker. Now, I'm going to move from highlights, midtones, and drop the exposure a bit so it won't be too much. Maybe you're out 20 and do this again. Like dead. It's also a bit in his face. So we have some nice dark areas in its face. And let's move to shadows and do it one more time, like really low, like that. And that's it. Now, if I compare before and after, it's a bit darker. Now I'm going to select the Dodge Tool now, which is here. And I'm going to make sure we have mid tones around 50. And I'm simply going to make the eyes a bit lighter like that. So we can still see this IS, and this looks already a lot better. Now, the next thing we need to do here is to make sure the colors are right. So this purple is really purplish. I want to make sure it's a bit less purple. So I'm going to click on the layer from the foreground here. And we're gonna go down here. And we're going to select Hue and Saturation. Make sure we press this one. Only affect this folder here of all the flowers. And let's bring the saturation down. Just a bit like that, maybe minus 40 something in this range. You can also change the colors here if you want to. But I'm going to leave it like the purple one. Alright? Now we need to make sure this background here is also less colorful. So I'm simply going to duplicate this adjustment layer by clicking on this given situation. Press Control J or Command J. Take this layer and drag it underneath the line here, and click on this double-click and make sure to press this saying only affect those layers there, right? And let's also make them a bit darker by adding some curves. Now, press this again and make them a bit darker like that. 5. Corrections: Let's work a bit more on these flowers in the foreground. They can look a lot better than now. So that's this one, this folder. And if we create a new layer on top of this one, press right mouse and select Create Clipping Mask. So we only work inside this folder. And I'm going to go again here and fill this with 50% gray like we did before. Now, change the blend mode from normal to overlay again. And let's select the burn tool so we can bring some areas, make sure we have. Let's do highlights here a bit. And let's burn these flowers a bit more, especially on the outer areas. So it's a bit darker. Let's change this to mid tones and drop the exposure. So this is actually the same as we did before with the line. So we have some more contrast like that. Let's see. And maybe if you go into this folder of these flowers, you can eventually even make some more. So if you're going to press Control J again like we did before, maybe you want to fill this whole area a bit more like dead. But I want to make some of these flowers also blurred out. I'm going to press Control T or Command T and make like really big flower here. Let's do one big and go to filter blur and select Gaussian blur. And we're going to blur out some flowers. So we create a bit of adapting this image just like that. Press. Okay, and that's it. And let's see, I don't want to ruin this image with it. So I'm printing press Control J or Command J again to duplicate this place somewhere, maybe, maybe here. And let's do some there. Just make sure we don't ruin the image with this. Something like, let's see, let's do there. On each side, I'm going to place this flower and I'm going to rotate it to make sure it's not the same, same pattern, right? So something like this. Maybe move this a bit closer so it covers up this phase. Just be creative with this. You can try a lot of different stuff. Alright, so we have a lot of stuff now going on. The only thing that's missing here is we don't really see shadows from these images. I want to make sure we also have some shadows and some lighter areas. So let's first go into this layer again. I'm going to drop the opacity here because I feel like it's too intense, like that. And I'm going to select the Dutch tool. So instead of the burn tool now I'm going to select the Dodge Tool with digital, we can make areas lighter. So let's go here. Mid tones. And I'm going to press some areas lighter. Just they're, they're not much. This will make some highlights in this image. And I think this is already enough. We're going to drop the opacity even more. Now, let's create some shadows. So for the shadows, I'm gonna go here and make sure it's between this folder and the line, because we want to create shadows on the line itself. So let's create a new layer here. And select a brush. Make sure it's the soft round brush again. And drop the opacity and flow to 2020 is a good range. We have black selected as a color and make the brush a bit smaller. And let's just simply start brushing. Maybe this is too much. I'm going to make the brush a bit smaller. Like they're some shadow there. So the only places I'm actually going to make the shadow is the areas that are touching its phase. So they're baked here. We don't have so much stuff that's touching m, So maybe a bit there. They're just these areas around it. And some here. A bit more dire there. Now, now they're going to go really into detail with brushing. In my courses, I do this really precisely, but this is just a free training. So I'm just doing this quickly to show you how it's done. And if you really want to go into details with this, you should definitely check out the course itself to master all these kind of little tricks to make your image look more realistic than just placing something in front of it. And then like I'm doing now in them brushing. Alright, so I think we have some shadows here. I can go on for hours with zooming in and making this pixel perfect. But Let's do much time. Alright, so these are the shadows, and let's change the blend mode to multiply so they look more realistic and let's drop the opacity like that. Now, to make this a bit better, I want to place something in front of it. So what I'm going to deny, I'm going to take this leaf from this project. And let's first make sure it's above all other layers. Let's do it somewhere there, above, above the shadows. So let's take this leaf and put it there. Maybe make it a bit bigger. And let's put it somewhere there. Like he's having a leaf in front of him. And I'm going to add some crystals leave. Don't forget this. And make it like that. Just a bit more contrast. And also going to brush some shadows. So I'm going back to the shadow layer and especially some shadows. So I'm quickly doing this now too, at some nice stuff in front of his face. So it looks a bit more creative. Now we have also another image, and this is the butterfly. I like to play stuff in front of his face. So we have really a lot of stuff going on. So you can play with this, maybe want to, like here on its nose or on side. It's all depends on what you want to do this. Now I'm going to instantly add some curves to this and make it like that. And also add some human situation and drop the color bits so it blends better with this image, maybe a bit more right to the left, sorry, and bit darker. Now, it also needs another layer. Create a clipping mask again, and fill this with 50% gray again. I might go a bit fast now because I don't go into details now and just show you quickly how I create this stuff. But if you want to go really into the details of everything, if you want everything really slow, you should check out the course itself. They are very slow end. I'm explaining everything more than I'm doing now. So let's change this to five bit more. Shadow here, like that. Alright, so we have a lot of stuff now going on here. We're going to take these layers, maybe nothing in his face. Let's duplicate this. Maybe on the other side. I'm going to transform this, flip, this horizontal. There. Maybe want more, dare say we have a lot of these butterflies flying around him. Maybe some they're just wrote datum, place them somewhere. Different parts of this image. I think four is too much. I'm going to delete this layer. Alright, what I want to do now is accidentally disabled something. What I want to do now is I want to finish this image by adding some final adjustments. Now, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to create a new layer Command, Alt Shift E. So we have a duplicated version of everything. Then press right mouse, Convert to Smart Object and go to Filter, camera Raw Filter. And this is the last step what I do in my artwork. I always adjust stuff here. So here we have all these settings. We can change the lighting colors and all that stuff. So actually just watching the image, what happens when I move these sliders? So usually I make a bit more contrast here. Let's make this highlights pub. Let's see, let's make them a bit more contrast again. Let's increase the whites so we still have some nice highlights. And maybe bring down the texture and clarity like that. Let's see. We don't need these guys. If you want to make it colorful, you can really boost these vibrance and saturation. But I still like to keep it a bit more real. So I'm going to move on. And let's see highlights here. Bit more highlights. But not too much. So I'm gonna jump the light and the darks there. Let's increase the shadows a bit so it doesn't get too dark. Now here are some sharpening. To make this really sharp. We don't have nice soft, don't need that. And here can play with the colors. So this is a really fun part of the editing process where you can change all the colors, especially when you have like this image a lot of flowers here. So we can easily change the colors of the flowers to something else. Or for instance, this leaf here, maybe a bit more greenish, bit more yellow, greenish. And let's see, let's move on. Purple. Not really. I think this is fine for now. I'm going to leave it like this. And here I can also change the saturation of these colors. So first I play around with the color itself and then I can change the saturation on how many colors do I want? The 1 third less situation or more? And here can control everything in this artwork. I think this is actually pretty fine. I move on to, let's see what do I fear of? And yet, it's also good in these kinds of images at some vignette. Move on. This is the really intense vignette. I don't touch that one. And here we have the colors again. Let's see, maybe if we play around with the settings, sometimes you get a better kind of artwork, but sometimes it gets worse. So this all depends on playing around with these settings. You can see this bit better. Now, I'm going to press Okay, I think this is fine. And you can see it really changed his image that looked a lot better now. 6. Final Thoughts: To finish this design off, I'm going to create a new layer on top of everything and go to Edit, Fill, and fill this with 50% gray. Again. Change the blend mode to overlay and select the Burn tool. So I want to make some areas a bit darker. So I've mid tones here. Exposure 34 is fine. I'm going to just simply brush a bit areas darker. This will create even more depth in this image, especially the stuff that's in the background, maybe a bit darker around its phase. Let's drop the exposure bit here. So at this stage, it's pretty much done. I could also run this into Lightroom and apply one of my presets. That's what I usually do. I like to apply my presets to give that extra, extra touch to it, which makes it really different from the image sometimes. So also check out my presets. They work really good for kind of artworks and also for photos. So this might be a bit dark, so I just dropped the opacity here. Let's also make sure the colors are balanced. So I'm going to add a color balance. Let's give it a bit more. Debt like that. Not green, but we'll punish. So yeah, that's pretty much it. I also like to add some curves here to bring up the highlights so it doesn't get too dark now. And maybe a bit like, like dead. So this all depends on your own taste. If you want to have like really contrast image, you can make it like that. So that's pretty much it. Thanks for watching. I hope this will inspire you to create even more. So check out the courses. They are really good for beginners if you want to. Of the course is really slow because this one is pretty fast. But in the course is, everything is really slow and in detail. And now in this video, it was a bit fast. In the beginning, it was. It was okay Then it went first. But I did this on purpose. So you could actually go to the image quickly, but to create even more stuff with stuff in details and different kinds of effects, you get. Check out the courses. So thanks for watching and I hope to see you in the courses.