This whole thing started when I saw the pin by Neisha on Pinterest with the geometric portrait of Twiggy with a promise of a tutorial. The links unfortunately were duff, but I thought to myself how hard would it be to figure it out, and after experimenting on 2-3 pictures of ducks I then spent 3 days trying with the first portrait. Several scrap-its and lets-start-it-agains from scratch. I made a mistake and created it first in the original resolution of 1024x768 and then liked it so much I wanted to do it again but this time not flood filling, instead using the solid papers. I finished it after 3 days and about 20 odd layers (all of which are merged layers in their own right)and it still looked too "patchworky", more than I wanted. So I set up a new task, and tried again until it comes almost easy. I will try to explain it to you here, but please remember I am hardly a wordsmith, so ask questions, if I can I will answer here, if I don't know, I am sure somebody will pick it up. I would like to keep it like open source, so we all add to the tutorial, and the experts in other programs if and when they work it out, or need to change something do so by adding to the thread therefore making it more usable by the others, and making more accessible and wide-spread. One more thing: I can hardly call it a tutorial, it's more of my thoughts on the matter and the looksie into how I do it. With that being said...
Let's begin.
I thought it would be easier to show it on the new image, I haven't
finished it at this stage, but I am sure we'll find out what it looks
like in the end... eventually. If you want to learn from my mistakes
save the intermediate stages! I lost my work around midnight last night
(I guess I was too tired to notice which file I was closing without
saving) so had to start again this morning but the first steps would
have the last night's results showing, keep in mind that no two results
from the same image will be the same. You don't have to choose a
portrait, it can be landscape, full body, duck, sillhouette, you name
it, it can be done, but I like portraits, so I open the photo made to
fit the size I need it to be when I will eventually use it. Mine
comfortably fits into a document 12x12 inches.
I zoom in on the part I want to start with, I usually start with the eyes, so zoom in on the eyes, and select the area you will be filling with colour or paper next, again, you can use different tools, I do it with the lasso in Paint Shop Pro that I feel more comfortable with, having used it for 10 years. To create not too jagged an edge I use the point to point lasso with the smoothing of 13.
I open the white paper reverse the selection (Ctrl+shift+I) and hit delete, so that I am left with two blank eyes for that lovely zombie effect
I make the layer invisible (if at any point you need to ask HOW about anything, please, do, but for now I assume that you already know) and select the next portion of the eye.
Here is a small trick: I open the folder with different papers next to the portrait many a time to match the colour better, like now whilst looking for the colour of her eyes.
Now I use brush (round somewhat squashed and tilted) in black for the pupil, and white with reduced opacity for those highlights, I add a couple of lights using my trusty lassoo for those stray hairs in front of her baby blues, and then lighten the colour of selection with the Shift+B and playing with the sliders (remember that trick at any point of the game), if you want the two or more shades of the same tones of colour.
Continue building your image like that using papers to replace the selections. Remember you don't have to go from the bottom up like for a cake, if you want to create a detail of the cheek, and then decide to go for the major part of the face in the other colour, just position the layer underneath, save your time, not having to go carefully around the cheek highlight...
I keep blending the finished areas, that way you will keep it to a more manageable number, note, I saved the eye details separately from the face so that I could go back and add the eyelashes in between.
See when I finally get to doing them, I make them too dark to look realistic, (I used the lasso with smoothing 2 to create the shape) so I use the trick with Shift+B again to lighten them.
I start working on the hair strands, this time I use freehand tool on some of the strands, and point to point on the others.
or 4?!
I am incapable of self control.
Since I wrote this, I have added a board on Pinterest, where I add the new creations and other people's layouts that use this tutorial.
https://www.pinterest.com/zinzilah/digi-paper-portrait-collages/
Let me know if you play with it, whether with a question, or showing your results.
