Creative Effects Challenge No. 206 - Make a Pop-Art Portrait

This is the portrait I used for this project:

This is the finished product:

AND…here’s the final layer stack to use for reference:

1. Let’s start…Create a new document. File > New > Blank File. Choose a square format (8 x 8 inches at 300 Pixels/Inch, Color mode: RGB, Background Contents: White). Click OK.

2. Go to View; make sure Guides and Rulers are both checked. Then in View > Guides, click Guides and click “Snap to”…make sure all the items are checked.

3. Back to your square image file - Drag a guide down (start at the ruler at the top) to the halfway point (4 inches) and drag across another guide (starting at the ruler to left) the halfway point (4 inches). This will divide the square into four equal squares.

4. Open your image file and place it on top of your blank image (Portrait file: ctrl/cmd+A, ctrl/cmd+C…then go to the blank image and ctrl/cmd+V. It will come in as a new layer.

5. Resize the image to fit in the upper left square, sizing it to your taste; making sure your image layer is selected. Use the rectangular marquee tool to select the square area. It will snap to the guides you have in place. Then click the Add Layer Mask button at the top of the layers panel to create a mask that will hide the other areas of the photo. Now, duplicate that layer (ctrl/cmd + J) and, with the move tool selected, move the portrait on the new layer to the square on the right. Repeat, dragging the image down to the lower right square. Repeat again and drag the image to the left. You now have 4 exact copies of the image laid out in a square.

6. Create a new Merged Layer – with the top layer selected, hold down (all at once!) Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Cmd/Opt/Shift) + E.

7. Make a new blank layer above the Merged layer. Use the rectangular marquee tool to create a rectangular marquee of the upper left square. Go up to Window and open Color Swatches. In the Color Swatches window, the first row contains the RGB colors and the second row contains the CMYK colors. We’re going to use the CMYK colors on the second row because they are just a little bit duller and that works out better for this effect.

8. Click on the Magenta square to change the foreground color to Magenta. Now, select the paint bucket and fill the selected square with Magenta.

9. Now select your Marquee tool again and make a square in the upper right corner of the top layer. Click on the Cyan square in your Color Swatches to select it. Use the paint bucket to fill the upper right square with Cyan.

10. Now repeat these steps select the bottom right square, select Yellow in the color swatches and use the paint bucket to fill the bottom right square with Yellow.

11. One more time! Select the bottom left square using the rectangular marquee, select Green on the Color Swatches and fill that square with Green.

12. Close the swatches window. Hide the Guides (View > Clear Guides).

13. Go to the 2nd layer (the 4 portraits), select it and duplicate it (Ctrl/Cmd + J).

14. Click the letter D to reset the colors to their default Black and White settings.

15. Turn off the visibility (the eyeball) on the 4-color layer and select the copy of the image layer (the 2nd layer from the top).

16. Now we’re going to create a high contrast black and white version on our newest photo layer. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > choose Sketch > Torn Edges. Move the Image Balance slider back and forth until you get a pleasing look. You don’t want to go too far in either direction. In the video, George chose ‘20’ for the slider. On Smoothness, bring it all the way to the right until it goes darker, then back it up a bit. On the Contrast, you can darken your blacks by moving the slider down. Move it up but stop just before you get all snowy looking. Make sure it’s got solid black.

17. Turn the visibility of the 4-color layer back on (click the eyeball again).

18. Now Duplicate that Black and White layer (Ctrl/Cmd + J). Drag this duplicate above the 4-color layer.

19. Go to the 4-color layer and duplicate it. Drag it above the top B/W layer, to the top of the stack.

20. Now we’re going to invert the top two layers. Select the top color layer and go to Filter > Adjustments > Invert. Now select the B/W layer below it and go to Filter > Adjustments > Invert. This will create a negative version of it.

--On the next (positive color layer) set the Blend mode to Lighten.

22. The only problem (at least with the example used) is that the bottom right layer is too dark. Let’s fix it! Select the top layer and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. Use the Rectangular Marquee to make a selection of the bottom right square. Now go to Select > Inverse to select everything except that square. Make sure you’re on the layer mask for the Hue/Saturation layer and grab a large paintbrush to paint the whole area around the square. Now Deselect (Ctrl/Cmd + D). in the Dialog box for the Hue/Sat layer, click the Colorize button. Change the hue to more of a blue tone (George used 188) and raise the Saturation (100) and raise the Lightness (6).