Create Intriguing Manipulation by Mixing Nature and Grunge Elements in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the process of creating this create an intriguing manipulation by mixing nature and grunge elements in Photoshop. This will be an interesting experiment for you to use tools such as image adjustment layers and layer blending modes, as well as practice the use of liquify filter and brush tool.

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try!

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in CS6 – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Grunge Brushset (Pick a few from the list)

Model by ~Neriah-stock

Nature Photo

Step 1

Create a new document sized  900px * 1169px with black background. Use the the grunge brushset you download, paint some random patterns on the canvas as shown below.

Hint: You will need to set the brush flow and opacity to around 40%-60% in order to achieve more depth. You can use eraser tool to fade certain areas of the painting as well.

Cut out the female from the model stock image and paste it over to our document, resize it as shown below:

Use the Surface Blur to smooth out the model layer with the following settings:

Then we can use the grunge brushset as eraser, remove the edges of the model layer as shown below:

Please note that you can adjust the opacity and flow of the eraser tool to add more depth when removing the body texture:

Step 2

We can now add the following adjustment layers as clipping mask to this model layer:

Black and White

Apply the following layer mask on this black and white adjustment layer:

and this mask will create the following “Highlight” effect:

Levels

Apply the following layer mask on this levels adjustment layer:

Use a soft white brush, paint a shining dot over the mode’s eye, this will create a surreal effect for our image:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 3

We will add the nature pattern into our image. Load the nature photo into Photoshop and use the Lasso Tool to select a piece of the grass and flower as shown below:

Note: set the Feather value to 40% for this lasso tool.

Copy and paste the selection to our document, apply the following levels adjustment settings to this new nature layer:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Screen”:

and you will have the following effect:

We can duplicate this nature a few times and attach them to different parts of the body, as shown below:

Step 4

We will add some liquify effect to our document. Create a new layer and use a lime/yellow brush to paint a line as shown below:

Go to the liquify settings under the “Filter” top menu, grab the forward warping tool and set it according to the following values:

Warp this line as shown below:

Then, use a soft brush to paint some soft dots connecting the lines:

Step 5

We will now add some touch-ups for our image. We can flatten the layers and apply this following Unsharp Mask filter to sharpen the image a bit:

This unsharp mask filter will make the details of the nature pattern stand out:

We can also render some cloud down the bottom with the cloud filter, or brush. Remember to keep this cloud effect subtle by reducing the layer opacity to around 30%:

I then adjusted the colour balance a bit with the colour balance adjustment layer, and here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!

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