Design an Interesting Human Face Manipulation with Tree Roots Texture in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Design an Interesting Facial Manipulation with Tree Roots Texture in Photoshop. This is an intermediate tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try :)

The PSD file of this tutorial is available to buy on PSD Vault Shop, or via the PSD Vault VIP members area.

Along the way, we will practice some pen tool selection technique, image adjustments, layer mask and filter effect.

For awesome prices on club flyers click here, Next Day Flyers has incredibly fast turnarounds too.

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

PSD Vault VIP Membership

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 200+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorials there. Signup now and get exclusive!

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

Portrait

Roots – by Cat-in-the-Stock

Some Grunge Brushsets

Step 1

Create a new document with black background (size doesn’t really matter here, I used 700px * 700px). Load the portrait image into Photoshop, use Pen tool to select the face area:

Make this path a selection, copy an paste the selection onto our document, resize and place it in the centre:

Use a soft eraser to remove the edges of the face in order to blend it into the background:

Step 2

We will manipulate the face in this step – firstly, use the downloaded grunge brushes as eraser, erase some part of the face off as shown below:

Use the Burn Tool (Shadow, 15% exposure) on top of the following areas to prepare for the later adjustment layers:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping mask to this face layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Create a new layer under the face layer, use a soft orange brush to paint some fire shape as shown below:

Create another layer on top and paint some yellow colour with a soft brush:

Go back to the black and white adjustment layer in the previous step – on its adjustment layer, use a soft eraser to remove some parts around left eye:

Step 4

Now we will add the roots into the photo. Load the roots image into Photoshop and select a piece as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto the canvas, then apply this reduce noise filter to this texture:

Use a soft eraser to tidy up the edges, you will have the following effect:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping mask to this texture layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and you will have the following effect:

Put all these layers into a layer folder, duplicate this folder a few times and scatter them around the face, as shown below:

You can also use the liquify filter to add some flowing effect around the edge of the roots, as shown below:

Step 5

Now we can add some overlay highlights around the eye and forehead area: use a soft brush with overlay blending mode to paint to the area shown below:

We can add some flying lines around the canvas: firstly we can draw a blue line with 1px hard brush:

Then use the liquify filter to warp this line as shown below to add some flowing effect:

Then, create a new layer on top of this blue line layer and set it clipping mask , use a soft white brush to paint a dot on the front tip of the line, change the blending mode of this white dot to “overlay”. This will add some highlight to this line:

Put those two layer into a folder, duplicate this folder a few times and scatter them around the canvas, as shown below:

You can also paint some lines over the left eye to add some motion into the picture:

Step 6

We’re almost done! In the final step, we can further add some grungy texture with the grunge brushsets we downloaded around the face area:

Use a colour balance adjustment layer around the left eye area to enhance it’s yellow colour:

Hint: draw a selection around the eye using a 20px feather lasso tool, then add a colour balance adjustment layer. This way mask will apply automatically on this adjustment layer.

I then further added some colour and light adjustments and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!