Composite a Modern Matte Portrait in Photoshop

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a mixed media artwork using Photoshop and Illustrator. You’ll learn how to combine different stocks together, work with abstract subjects, create your own design elements and more.

We’ll start this tutorial by adding the landscape, model and deer, then blending them together using adjustment layers, masking and brush. After that we’ll create some abstract effects for the model using Illustrator and stock images. Finally we’ll use several adjustment layers to finish this tutorial. You’ll need Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS or newer to follow the process.

Tutorial Resources

• Landscape
• Paper texture
• Model
• Deer
• Forest
• Render
• Flower 1
• Flower 2
• Circles
• Splatter brushes

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with the following settings:

Step 2

Open the landscape image. Use the Move Tool (V) to drag it into our white canvas and use the Free Transform Tool (Cmd/Ctrl+T) to resize it as shown below:

Step 3

Open the paper texture pack. Choose the one you like and place it over the landscape, change the mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 4

I used some adjustment layers to change the contrast and mood of the whole image. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation:

I used Curves to darken the scene:

Step 5

Place the woman image in the middle of the canvas and remove the background using a layer mask:

Step 6

I used an adjustment layer with Clipping Mask to reduce the model saturation:

I used Photo Filter to change the model color a little:

Step 7

I used Curves to darken the model and on its layer mask, used a soft black brush to remove the dark on the brighter part of her:

Step 8

Place the deer behind the model and remove the background part using a layer mask, also set this layer under the model one:

Duplicate this layer and move it to the right, use a soft black brush (on its layer mask )to erase the left part of him:

Step 9

Make a Color Fill layer (Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color) with Clipping Mask for the duplicated deer layer with white:

On this layer mask use a hard black brush to reveal some parts of the horn:

Step 10

Make the deer layers selected then press Cmd/Ctrl+G to create a group for them. Change the group mode from Pass Through to Normal 100%. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer within this group for the deer layers:

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