Ninja vs Penguin

Ninja March 31st, 2009

With my Powerbook in the shop, it’s difficult to get my Photoshop work done. Penguin kindly let me hop onto his PC in the meantime. My fingers felt a tad off when it came to the keyboard shortcuts, but with a quad-processor and 4 gigs of ram, it’s hard to complain.

Here’s the scan. The paper was too big for the scanner, so I had to piece it together. It has a very obvious seam, but no worries, all will be well in Photoshop.

I cloned out stray bits of dust, adjusted the levels and curves, and painted in some of the gaps with the paintbrush tool.

Afterwards, I painted several ugly, color layers. This is an example of one of my color layers with the normal blending mode selected.

To add more color and depth to my original painting, I simply changed the layer blending modes of the messy, color layers (mentioned above). I’ve still many more layers to go, but you get the idea.

Happy drawing,
Ninja

• Swan Lake sketches (1)
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Tags: Photoshop, Process, Swan Lake, Tanya Dakin

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Ninja February 4th, 2008

It looks like the Decapitator is up to his old tricks.

Related link:
+ Check out the Decapitator’s Flickr page

• Post it note project (5)
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Tags: Graffiti, Guerilla, Photoshop

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Ninja February 1st, 2008

NvP reader and fellow Daily Monster open source participant, Tiffany, asked if I could post a step-by-step process of blot no. 23. For you, Tiffany, of course! I only wish I took more photos along the way.

Here are the steps

1. Print out open source blot 23.

2. Use blue pen to draw the girl.

3. Add a thin wash of gesso to blend the pen.

4. Wait for gesso to dry. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you’re satisfied.

5. Scan in your pen drawing. Open this document in Photoshop. On a separate layer (with blending mode set to Multiply), use the paintbrush tool to color the girl’s body and clothing.

6. Scan in a wood grain pattern. Copy this image into your working Photoshop document. It will appear on a new layer. Then desaturate it (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate). Adjust the levels so that you have a high-contrast pattern (Image>Adjustments>Levels). Tweek the color to your liking (Image>Adjustments>Color Balance).

7. On a separate layer, create a gradient from light blue to dark blue. Place this layer over the wood pattern layer and change the blending mode to Multiply. The wood grain will now have a blue tint and not look so harsh.

8. Open blot 23 in Photoshop. Copy and paste it onto a new layer in your working document. Set the layer blending mode to Hard Light so some of the original inky texture will still show.

9. On another layer, use the pen tool and create a new path. This will be in the shape of the butterfly’s wings. Fill this selection with white. Then set this layer blending mode to Overlay. I adjusted the opacity of this layer to 60% so the wings wouldn’t be as bright.

Enjoy & happy drawing,
Ninja

• Zach’s crow samurai (2)
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Tags: Photoshop, Sketches

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Ninja October 12th, 2007

My friend Tony posted a good viddy tutorial. See him transform this image of a girl playing with vegetables to a girl playing with water. Oh the wonders of Photoshop!

Before

After

Link:
+ Watch his tutorial viddy here.

• The Decapitator strikes again!! (8)
• Open source blot no. 23 process (3)
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Tags: Photoshop

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