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6. Now make a copy of your background layer, move it to the top of the
layer palette and set the blend mode to luminance. While you may not see
a difference in the image, this will help us with the next effect we'll
apply, otherwise the background colors would "bleed through".
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7. Make sure the copy of the background is the active layer and go
to Effects -> Texture Effects -> Texture and choose the Wrinkled preset.
With the copy of background layer still active, load your selection
from the alpha channel and hit delete enough times until you get the
effect you're looking for. On my image, I deleted 4 times as I wanted
almost no wrinkle in the raccoons. This is what mine looks like.
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8. Select none and merge all visible layers. Add a new raster layer and move
it to the bottom of the palette. Choose a complimentary color from
your image as your foreground color. (Note: for a quick way to select a
complimentary color double click on the foreground color in the materials
palette. In the open material window, place your mouse in the "Current"
block then hold down your control (Ctrl) key. While still holding
the control key, move your mouse to your image and find the color you want
(you'll see the various colors display in a little "swatch window"). Once
you have the color you want, left click and it will now be your current
color.) I chose some of the brown in the raccoon's fur (#554942)
to keep a "wood look" to the picture. Make your merged layer invisible and
with your new bottom layer active, flood fill with this color. Apply
Effects -> Texture Effects -> Straw-wall at the Factory Default preset. |
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9. Make your merged layer visible again and make it the active layer. Apply a mask of your choice - one that exposes some of the outer edge,
but leaves the middle alone.
Here is the mask I applied, made from a black to white gradient. (This
is a PSP8 mask). Choose Layers -> Load/Save Mask -> Load Mask from
Disk. Choose the gradient_mask. Make sure your mask settings are at
"fit to canvas" and "source luminance". |
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10. On the layer's palette, right click on the mask layer and choose
"Delete."
You'll receive the message "Would you like this mask merged into
the layer below it". Click "yes". |
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11. The picture is looking pretty good now, and you could stop here
if you wanted to.
To get even more of a wood effect, however, make a copy of the merged
layer found in what was the Mask group and move it to the top of the layer
palette. Now change the blend mode on the merged group to Darken and the
new layer (copy of merged) to screen. Lower the opacity of
this top layer to 86. The darken brings some of the straw wall
texture out into the image and the screen lightens it down and blends it
in a bit better. 
12. Merge
all layers. If you used the raccoon picture, you should now have
something that now looks like the finished image at the beginning of this
tutorial. I hope you enjoyed doing this tutorial! |
Variations
On different images, experiment with other types of blends for the mask
and upper layer. On the picture below (me as a little kid many years
ago), I didn't delete as much of the wrinkle from the selection and used
these settings for the final blend.
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