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photoshop preppy sign tutorial -new!(advanced)

**THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP USERS. UNFORTUNATELY I AM NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU WITH THIS, SO PLEASE TRY YOUR BEST!**

-I am aware there may be different/easier/alternative ways to get this same result. This is how I do it-

This is a LONG tutorial.

Today I am going to teach you how to make a preppy style sign. I will take you step by step. I am using photoshop cs4, but they're all pretty similar. We will be doing this transition :

 

First things first. You're going to need a picture, a color scheme, and some important patterns/brushes.

I will be using this picture & these colors
you will need all of these brushes to complete this tutorial

First you are going to want to edit your picture in any way you'd like. I am going to add a gradient to the girl's shirt. Don't know how to do this? Click here.

Now you should have something similar to this, depending on how you chose your gradient:

 

Now, if you have multiple layers on your image, merge them all together by selecting them all and pressing ctrl + e, or by going into the "layer" drop down menu at the top of photoshop and selecting "merge visible"

Now, its time to cut out your image.

Cut around the person in the image so that they are selected. Don't know how to do this? Click here.

Your sitemodel should be selected; You can now minimize this window.

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Now, it is time to make your vector.

Open the vector brush I gave you (this one)

Now resize the vector brush so that it matches the size of your sitemodel picture (355px x 474px)

Grab your wand tool by pressing W. leave all the top settings the same; make sure contiguous is selected.

Open the rest of the brushes I gave you. Define them all as brushes (edit --> define brush preset)

Now, select some pieces of the vector. This depends on how you personally want your vector to look. I usually select every third piece of each color. Here is an example:

Select your first piece as you would select anything else. Then, when you're ready to select the next piece, hold SHIFT; and continue to hold shift until you have selected all of the pieces that are shown in red. (Holding shift allows you to select multiple pieces of a picture without having to move each piece to a new layer separately.)

Now its time to move those to a new layer. When they're all selected and you're ready to go, press ctrl + shift + J. That will move your selection to a new layer. Now what you're going to want to do is reselect them. This requires a bit of memory. Select the 'contiguous' box at the top so that it is unchecked. Now select ONE of the pieces you previously picked. Any one works -  now all of the pieces on that layer should select.

Before you continue, open the color palette I gave you earlier in the tutorial.

Right click on the top layer and select the "blending options" window. Go to color overlay and select one of your colors. I picked the darker orange.

Now go to stroke and match your settings to mine:

Press okay and then your blending options window should close. Now you should have something similar to mine:

Now it is time to add some brushes to that layer. Select all of the pieces on that layer by going to SELECT -- > LOAD SELECTION & then press OK. All of your orange pieces should now be selected.

MAKE A NEW LAYER for the brushes. To do this, press ctrl + shift + n. Name the layer "dark orange brushes"

I am going to use the star brushes for this layer.

Before you continue, MAKE SURE YOUR FOREGROUND COLOR IS WHITE.

Now, fill in the orange pieces with the white stars. You can resize the stars if you want or rotate them however you feel. I'm just going to make it a little smaller so that you can see the stars in the vector. You should now have something similar to this:

 

Now you are done with that layer. Press ctrl + D to deselect.

Click on the background layer (bottom layer). Grab your "wand" tool again. BE SURE TO SELECT CONTIGUOUS.

Now you're going to want to repeat the exact same thing again. The next pieces you want to select are the BLACK pieces AFTER the orange ones. For example, these;

Now you want to repeat the same steps as above. Once all of your pieces are selected move them to another layer by pressing ctrl + shift + j. Right click on the layer and select blending options, then go to color overlay and select a different color. I'm going to select the green. Then go to stroke and use the same settings as you did before. When you're done with that, press okay.

Now its time to add brushes to the green layer. Grab your wand tool (press w) & make sure contiguous is NOT CHECKED. Now click one of your green pieces and they all should select. CREATE A NEW LAYER by pressing
 ctrl + shift + n. Name the layer "green brushes"

Now get another one of the brushes I gave you earlier. I am going to use the zebra one. Fill in the green pieces with the zebra brush.

Your vector should now look like this.

Now repeat those steps over and over until your vector is completely filled. Mine came out like this (yours may be slightly different depending on which brushes you used where, and which colors you picked for specific rays)

Now go back to your sitemodel image and press ctrl + c to copy the selection. Paste it onto your vector.

Move the sitemodel layer down a little bit so that it fits the vector. I also moved it to the right a little bit so that it covers the center of the vector, and then I cropped the left part of it out. Here is what I mean :

Notice that on the arm with the camera, there is still part of the original background left? It's time to get rid of that. Using your polygonal lasso tool, select the parts of the background that are unwanted and cut them by pressing ctrl + x. Your image should now look like this:

Now its time to stroke. Right click on the layer with the sitemodel on it and go to stroke. Match your settings to mine:

Now the sitemodel should have a small white stroke around her. Press okay to exit the blending options window.

Now create a new layer by pressing ctrl + shift + n. merge it with the sitemodel layer by selecting them both and pressing ctrl + e. Open the blending options window for this layer and stroke it again; match your settings to mine

Now, save this pattern to your computer.

Open that pattern in photoshop and go to edit --> define pattern. You can now close that pattern.

Now repeat the previous step -  create a new layer by pressing ctrl + shift + n. merge it with the sitemodel layer by selecting them both and pressing ctrl + e. Open the blending options window for this layer and stroke it again; match your settings to mine

Now, go to the "outer glow" portion of the blending options window. Match your settings to mine:

Press okay to exit the blending options window; now you're done! Here is my final result: