Gfx Sally PSP 8 & 9 Tutorial

Blending Images

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This tutorial will not only teach you a simple way to blend images, it will give you some ideas for making grungy looking backgrounds that are so popular. You can use your own images but you will need to play with the blend modes, colors and allow for sizing. For the purpose of this tutorial I chose the large starting size because I didn't want to have to resize the guy images (call me lazy). The dimensions are customizable so if you are using your own images don't forget to size them before starting.

Resources

PSP 8 or 9. You can download a demo of v9 HERE.
2 images for the background. You can use your own or the ones I have used. Since I like working with large photos I have zipped them separately. Download them here Image 1 and Image 2. Unzip them to your harddrive, open in psp, and delete the watermark layer (which I made to remind me where they came from). These images came from Resurgere at Deviantart. They have some amazing art, you should check it out!
As many images as you want. I have chosen 3. Download the ones I have used here Guy 1, Guy 2, Guy 3. Open in PSP and delete the watermark layer.
A large size grunge brush. You can download the one I used Grunge Brush. Unzip it into your My PSP files/brushes folder. If you have done my porthole tutorial your will not need to download it.

Let's get started

*Please note: If you install this tutorial as a quick guide you may get a script error when trying to view the images, just click "yes" at the prompt and the images will show properly. Don't know how to install quick guides? then check out the tutorial found HERE.

Open all the necessary images in PSP and minimize them to the bottom.
Open a new image 750 x 300px, 72 res, any color background. (we'll call this the original image) Then select all (Ctrl+A).
Bring up image1.pspimage, delete the watermark layer if you haven't already, Ctrl+C to copy it. Paste it into the selection (Ctrl+Shift+L). Close image1 without saving the changes, you won't need it again.
Add a new raster layer. Bring up image2.pspimage, copy it and paste it into the selection. Select none. Set the layer blend mode to Hard light and lower the opacity to 32. Close image2 without saving changes. Do not merge these two layers yet.
Add a new raster layer. Set your foreground color to a color that you want your overall tone to be. In my case I set it to a red #FF3F44. Get the grunge51_gfx brush, default settings and make 2 clicks of the brush. Try not to over lap the paint so that no definite overlap will show. Set the layer blend mode to burn.

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Add a new raster layer.
Bring up the image of guy 1. Delete the watermark layer if you haven't already. Get the ecliptical selection tool set mode to replace, feather 26, anti-alias checked and make a selection around the guy's head similar to shown below. It may take you several tries to get the selection where you want it so remember that Ctrl+Z is your friend .

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Crtl+C to copy him. Then paste him as a selection (Crtl+E) on the right side of the original image (refer to finished image for placement). Select none (Ctrl+D).
Repeat step 6 & 7 for guy 2 but make the selection from midway down and place him in the middle on the same layer as guy 1.
Bring up the guy 3 image. Delete the watermark layer if you haven't already.

Notice that he is in black and white and not sepia tone as the other two? And if you read the image information you will see that his color depth is off too (8/256). In order for the finished image to work properly we have to select images that are approxiamately the same coloring, and color depth. So now we have to fix him before we can continue. So...

Set his color depth to 16 million. (Image->Increase Color Depth->16 Million)
Get the eyedropper tool and click some of the sepia tone from guy 2. Bring up the foreground color and take note of the highlight and saturation levels. This eliminates some of the guesswork .

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Now colorize (shift+l) him using the settings you took note of, in my case h 24 S 63.
Make the selection, copy and paste him as you did before, on the left side of the original image. Select none. Set the layer blend mode to hard light.

Ok I have the image pretty much the way I want it except I don't like the tree limb from the background on the face of guy 3, kinda looks like a scar to me.

I tried flipping and rotating the background layer several time but that just put the limb in another spot so I...

Click on the bottom layer to activate it. Make a circular selection over the area and give it a gaussian blur radius 5. Select none.
Merge all layers and save.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and found it easy to follow and useful. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to .