Photoshop Creative No. 154

On the surface, filters may look like one of Photoshop’s more basic features, but when you look closer, they can help you unlock a whole world of opportunities, whether it comes to adding subtle final effects to an artwork you’re tweaking, or dramatically transforming an image to create something stunning and unique. Turn to p14 for an in-depth guide to their many uses. In addition, our oil painting effects tutorial on p42 shows how you can use filters to turn a simple image into a striking portrait. If you’re looking for that extra dimension to make your art pop, we have not one, but two exciting 3D features. Our advanced 3D city tutorial on p58 will teach you to build a city in the sky, and the tutorial on p22…

Textures Get crafty with your design using our 30 free textures Mock-up packs Make use of clothing and photo mock-ups in your design Tutorial files The assets and start photos you need to follow our tutorials On the FileSilo this issue… • 4 grungy photo mock-ups by Vibeke Alvestad Johansen worth $8 • 30 craft textures by Anna Komissarenko, $20 • 8 ladies tank top mock-ups by GoMedia, $37 • 200 light leaks by SparkleStock worth $5 • 180 lightning Strikes, by SparkleStock, $5 • A total of 604 resources worth $85 Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have creative resources, how-to videos and tutorial assets The home of great downloads – exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future Publishing Secure and safe…

There’s nothing more inspiring than surfing the internet and seeing what other artists are creating, and we encourage you to do so. Here are some of our favourite pictures that caught our attention recently, from some of the world’s most exciting artists and designers. Rafael Boo www.behance.net/rafaelboo This was created with the smoke cut out and applied using blend modes, and space elements added. The smoke was given a colour temperature, light effects and spots using gradient maps, Curves and blend modes. Risfan Fariansyah www.behance.net/rsvn This was created in Photoshop and Lightroom. The Transform tools were key in creating a surreal environment, masking helped to bring all the elements into the final image and blend modes helped unify the elements. Chatchanok Wongvachara www.behance.net/ chatchanokwong The artwork was created drawing that…

Elissandro Pinto www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/ Elissandro Image of the issue Layers, blend modes and masking were vital in this image. The rhino was the first thing to be added to the scene, before the town was added to its back and everything was blended with adjustments and brushes. Caroline Julia Moore www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/ CJMArt I took the main photo of the two subjects at the studio and merged this with a woodland photograph that I’d taken. The image was stylised with Dodge and Burn, and a Color Lookup adjustment was applied. Alexander Kruglov www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/Shurelo I used a lot of layers and masks for the mood in this image. I used an image of an old gramophone from a museum and Liquified it to make it look like an unusual flower. I added my…

Challenge entries The best entries and overall challenge winner 1 Sheri Emerson Space Detective I used Polar Coordinates to make rings from the rockets, duplicated and blurred for glow. I put the arctic scene in the background, filtered and added a desaturated rainbow ribbon. 2 Bob Parsi Love, Strategy & War I created a movie poster theme based on Love, Strategy and War. I created this design using all images provided. I used a lot of masking, layer adjustments, blurs, blending and more. 3 Previatti Consanni Don’t Worry, Be Happy This image uses a main subject as the focus, with a spacey background. The background was created with adjustments, layers and blend modes. 4 Neil Kelly Spaceman This depicts a spaceman landing on a planet once inhabited by humans, but…

Filters can turn a good piece of artwork into a great piece of artwork. Whether you’re looking to add noise, reduce it, blur, sharpen, or create an artistic effect on a photo, there’s a filter for that. And the best part is they’re fun to experiment with! Filters can sometimes have a bad reputation in the Photoshop world, because they create simple, immediate effects in your work, which can look obviously edited. However, this is only if you don’t use them correctly: there are hundreds of ways that you can subtly or dramatically change the look and feel of any project, just by using filters. They never have to just be the finishing touches either, because filters can be built upon or intertwined, for you to create stunning effects throughout…