Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Posted on May 31st, 2010 under Photo Effect

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In this tutorial, I will show the steps I took to create this awesome grungy style artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop.  Have a try!

Along the way, I will show you some paint techniques I used to make the hair and the surrounding grungy textures. We also will be using Pen Tool a lot in this tutorial, so if you’re not family with it, check out this post.

Here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

grungy model poster flatten 2 500x678 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

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vip sign up 250 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Grungy Brushsets (Pick some from the list)

Model

Step 1

Create a new document sized 700px * 950px, use the grungy brushsets from the list and paint some texture around the edges of the canvas, as shown below: (when you paint the texture, make sure you adjust the flow and opacity, and don’t just use one brush for the entire canvas)

1 texture Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Create a new layer and grab another grungy brush, this time with a bigger brush size but a lower opacity, fill the centre portion of the canvas:

1 fill1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Step 2

Load the “model” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the model using whatever method you prefer (I found the quick selection tool here is probably the quickest).

As you can see this model has short hair, which is nice but personally I think it would be better with long hair in this occasion. So i decide to extend her hair (which I will show you in step 3) and also add some textures around her to blend her body with the surroundings.

I erase the outer portion of her hair with a soft brush:

2 hair erase Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

I also added some grungy texture on the bottom of the model for support:

2 texture bottom 500x319 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

and some white texture around the model:

2 white texture 500x300 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

plus some dark texture around the violin and her arms:

2 texture around 500x414 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

The important thing to remeber here is when you paint the textures, make use of the size, opacity and flow settings for the brush – this way you can create more depth to the image and add variety.

I added some hair on the shoulder with a 3px, 75% hardness brush with a dark grey color:

2 hair paint 500x188 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Also I paint some more hair on top to form a head shape:

2 paint top hair 500x349 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Step 3

Now we can get to the fun part of the tutorial – the hair creation :)

Grab the Pen tool and create a path like this:

3 path 500x556 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Stroke the Path with the brush settings as shown below: (make sure you tick “simulate pressure” setting when you stroke)

3 stroke path 500x390 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

3 brush 500x132 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

you will have the following hair-like effect:

3 hair one Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

duplicate it and make them into a bunch (around 10-12 of them), then group all those hair into one folder, name this folder as “hair group”:

3 hair group Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Put the bunch onto the model’s shoulder part:

3 adding hair 500x324 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Keep adding more hair by duplicate the “hair group” a few more times:

3 adding more hair 500x277 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

and you will have the following effect:

3 effect3 500x611 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Step 4

Now let’s add some abstract lines around the model. I created a brush with the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

4 shape dyn Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Scattering

4 scat1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Other Dynamics

4 other dyn1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Also tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer below the model layer called “abstract lines”, and use the brush to paint some dots as shown below:

4 paint1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Apply the following motion blur settingss to it:

4 mo blur Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

then Warp it as shown below:

4 warp Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Once you finish the warping, duplicate it a few times and put them to the positions as shown below: (you can flip, resize them as you see fit)

4 lines around 412x700 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Step 5

Now we can add another layer of hair to the model for some variation and depth. Use the same method as the previous described, but choose a lighter colour (grey) this time, make some hair as shown below: (don’t forget to group them once you make around 10 of them)

5 lighting color Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Duplicate the hair group a few more times to add more lighter colour layer:

5 more hair light Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

To blend the two hair layers together I added a new layer on top of all layers and use a soft round white brush to paint a layer of light to the position as shown below: (set blending mode to “Screen” and drop the layer opacity to 60%)

5 highlight 500x355 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

I added the following two adjustment layers to fine-tune the image a bit:

Curves

5 curves2 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

5 curves mask 500x682 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

Color Balance (set blending mode to “soft light”)

5 col sha1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

5 col mid1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

5 col hig1 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

I also Smart Sharpen the image a bit and add some lighting around model, and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

grungy model poster flatten 2 500x678 Create Awesome Grungy Style Artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learnt something new :) of course you can further enhance the final effect by adding more objects and textures, but that’s totally up to you.

Also if you have any question about this tut, drop me a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Until next time, have a nice day!

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  • http://www.mjrportfolio.com Matt

    dang this is a nice new layout you got here!

    also Im gona go out on a limb and say that this is by far the greatest outcome of any tutorial I have seen you create yet, amazing work!

    keep it up ;)

  • http:/amansofts.com ayoub

    wow very very nice tutorial

  • http://zazzle.com/alepho A

    Beautiiiiiiiful….
    :D
    thanks

  • http://www.justgraph.com NickDesign

    Great tutorial and style. Thanks for sharing

  • http://lavidalocainsingapour.wordpress.com emma

    Great, even if I think one of the most interesting effect in this work is the lighting around the model that you didn’t explain. It is what give the picture a “fantastic” aspect …
    I tried to do something similar but the result is not that good :-(
    thanks for the tuts anyway.

  • http://Website JohnnyD

    Awesome tutorial. Inspired me to finally open PS again. Mine didn’t come out anywhere near as good as yours, but it really helped improve my brushing and just general use of stuff. I’m gonna try this same tutorial but with a different model involved and try adding more into it, great job.

  • http://Website Salim

    Very good and styled tuto. Many thanks

  • http://www.pato.pl/en/ photo editor

    Best abstract art. I’m lovin’ it. More, more, more… :)

  • http://Website Elly

    I’m really in a tight spot with the “Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer” part.

    I kind of tried everything but I can’t seem to go to that one.

    Can someone elaborate? Please and thank you! :)

    God bless!

  • http://Website Slc

    Very good tuto thanks for the share

  • http://www.feevoo.com laptop accessories

    I’m gonna try this same tutorial but with a different model involved and try adding more into it, great job.

  • http://Website RB

    I tried this and I got amazing result. Adding some elementts will really enhance the design.Thanks for the nice tutorial.

  • http://Website jon

    hi i really love your tutorial but i cannot follow everything . would it be possible if you could send me a video tutorials of your photoshops so i can then start applying it to my photos . i honestly love your work & hoping you can consider my request . keep it up & as always following your tutorials

  • http://Websit ian

    @jon . same as me . i cannot follow very well.

    your work very nice. i hope you could make a video tutorial of this . love it

  • http://Website ruxoture

    donno what I’m doin wrong but whatever I do I can’t make it to simulate brush pressure , It just won’t do it !

    these are my settings :
    Brush size : tested many sizes !
    Brush Hardness : tested from 100% to 0 ..
    and the line I create with the pen tool is the exact copy of what you draw in the picture above .
    Stroke , simulate brush pressure . and what I get is a bold line following the pen ..
    is there some kind of pre-settings !? anything !? suggestions !?

  • http://www.psdvault.com PSD Vault

    Hi there, try the suggestions on this link here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375894, hope this helps :)