Harry Potter inspired - Photoshop Manipulation

Oh man, I had so much FUN doing this one. I've never been a Harry Potter fan myself, actually when the hype was on, I believe I read the first three books but never quite fully engaged. And then, every now and then when a movie was on, I would catch a few tidbits here and there. Until last month, that I decided that I would watch the whole series from the beginning. And I'm glad I did, the whole thing is AMAZING. Of course I was inspired to do a photoshop manipulation within that universe. And here it is: Expecto Patronum!

From the start, I knew two things: that I wanted Hogwarts up there burning, and it would be focused in a battle happening in some kind of staircase at the bottom. Then the search for the perfect assets began. For this one, it wasn't particularly difficult to find those pictures. Always using pixabay.com, pexels.com, unsplash.com and the dementor one is from AdobeStock.

I had a blast doing it, and of course, there's a speed art video for it. But for educational purposes, I'll start to upload the normal version too so you can really follow through my process.

On this one, you can learn: - Change backgrounds;

- Change the color of clothes;

- How to do the lighting with brushes;

- Selection using the pen tool, quick selection, lasso and polygonal lasso;

- How to cast realistic shadows using the objects' real shadow. (that's really useful!) You can watch the speed art here:

Hope you guys like it!

See ya!

I Know Places - Photoshop Speed Art

The first photoshop manipulation I did in almost 20 years!

I used to do wallpapers, banners and photoshop manipulations of my favorite TV show (Charmed fans, I see you!), and how fun was that! And trust me, in 1999 the internet was nothing like it is today and tutorials were not so common so I had to learn it by myself. And I was pretty decent with it.

But then, I went to college. And what was just a hobby turned into work... and the fun was practically gone, you do the math. Until I've decided that I would try to do something just for fun. One day, listening some Taylor Swift songs, I came across this on in particular called "I Know Places" with some very inspiring lyrics.

"Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes (and guns) They are the hunters, we are the foxes (and we run)

And I got stucked with this specific scene in my head: something dark, kind of mysterious and with an urgent feeling of escape. I decided to give it a try and start slow. And boy, I had a blast doing it! I totally forgot how therapeutic it was. While working on it, I realized the lighting was all wrong, but went on anyway just for the sake of it. For something that I haven't done in 20 years, hell, I was so proud of it.

If you already know the basics, you can learn:

1. How to cut images perfectly with the pen tool

2. How to blend images together in Photoshop

3. What is the difference between levels and curves

4. How to use the Puppet Warp tool

5. Shading and lighting in Photoshop

You can check the speed art for it below.

Don't forget to subscribe, more to come!