Morning Glory Designz

Bad to the Bone: Your first blend.
A tutorial by Genita Love for Morning Glory Designz.

For the first tut in the series, we're going to merely explore the selection tool method for blending. Any similarity between any other tutorial and this one is purely a quirk of fate. It isn't my intention to mimic or steal anyone's work.

I have uploaded the photos to illustrate this tutorial in my photobucket. Here is the link, if you are a visual learner:

http://s1121.photobucket.com/albums/l503/Genita_Love/blending%20tut%20photos/


Materials Needed:

Paint Shop Pro- I'm using 9. Any version will suffice.

Images to blend. I'm using the gorgeous stock photography from :Darky Stock.
You can find it here: http:darkyStock.deviantart.com
Two Moons: Trekkie San

Heartache Texture by Pendelstock. You can find it here:

http://pendlestock.deviantart.com/art/Heartache-65853891?q=&qo

Fibers Texture by the nightbird: You can find it here:

http://the-night-bird.deviantart.com/gallery/25063340#/d2zxpt4

Texture 61 by Sirius_sdz You can find it here:

http://sirius-sdz.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=144#/d1nf5gc
Mask of choice with grungey edges. I used Masksstt2- I don't remember where I got it.If it's yours, please let me know, and I'll properly credit it.
Let's get started:

Open a new transparent canvas 700x600.

Copy and paste your images into the canvas as new layers in the same canvas.

I like to have the center image on the bottom layer. For me, this makes it much simpler in blending the two other images in. Makes for MUCH easier blending.

Use your Selections Tool, and set the feathering anywhere between 35 to 38. This nicely feathers or mists the edges so that blending is so MUCH more simpler.

To clear away the portions of the images you don't need, simply hit your delete key! You may have some small areas that need to be erased with your Fuzz Soft eraser. The best advice I can give you here is to experiment with the eraser size and opacity level to find what works for you. In a sense there aren't a lot of Hard,Fast Rules.

Blend each of the two images in with the center image. You'll need to use your layers palette and the move tool for this.

Feel free to move them as needed to achieve the look you want. I prefer to have the results looking like one flowing image, - meaning no lines of demarcation revealing where one image starts and the others

It doesn't need to be perfection. The finishing techniques used will turn any small flaw into a design element.

Once you have your basic blend the way you want it, now is the time to merge visible, and crop as desired.

And, that, is The Selection Tool Method of Blending! That is only half the job. Next, we'll move onto transforming it into a finished signature tag. Are you ready?

Now, on to the fun stuff!!!

Now that you have your basic, cropped blend, In your layer palette, duplicate it. Go to Effects, Plugins, Two Moons Trekkie San, and apply at the following settings:

Set your Phasers to: 37
Intensity: 47
Dark Wars: 32.

In your layers Palette, change your blend mode to screen and lower the opacity to 92.

Merge Visible.
In your layer Palette, add a new raster layer. Open the Heartache texture, using your magic wand on your blend canvas, click on your new raster layer. Copy the texture into the selection. Change the blend mode to burn, and lower the opacity to 72. Using your Fuzz Soft eraser, with the opacity at 26, lightly erase away any gray bits that look unsightly to you in the facial areas of your blend.

Merge Visible.

In your layer pallet, add a new raster to your canvas. Open, copy and paste the Fibers Texture by the Night Bird into it.

Change your blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 72. Merge Visible.

Right click on your layer palette, go Merge, Merge Visible.



In your layer Palette, make a new raster layer, using the magic wand click on it in your canvas. Open Texture 61 by Sirius sdz, copy and paste it into your selection.

Change the blend mode to Color Legacy. If needed, again, using your fuzz soft eraser, lightly erase in the facial areas of your blend as needed, if at all.
For a few layers, add your brush work. Grunge, or even various text brushes. Whatever you happen to have. The trick to this part is lowering opacity, changing blend modes, a little bit of light erasing as needed to get the look you like. The other crucial trick to this is using your Eye Dropper tool, clicking on your blend to lift colors out of your blend so that the brush work is subtle, yet noticeable.
Merge Visible.
Add copyright information and personalization. Save as a .png
My personal challenge to you:
There is a reason I'm not giving you detailed instructions for this part. This is to help you learn to trust your own eye- learning what works, and what doesn't. Also to help you develop a better eye for color as well. While I am giving you the basic tools, I'm also encouraging you to venture out on your own, learning by trial and error. I don't think that tuts are really meant to hold a tag maker by the hand. Rather,I think their purpose is to teach new techniques to further your skill and artistry as a signature tag maker. In all honesty, I think the cookie cutter mentality, following a tut book chapter and verse is boring. I really don't have the patience to be a cookie cutter sort of tagger. -Like some of my fellow taggers at Creative Misfits say: Be original.
(And, do they ever rock MY world with their tagging efforts and originality! Ladies, you SO rock!!!!)
If anything, I really would rather see people taking the techniques I use and make their tags their own- be original...be unique. Why be cookie cutter? I've also learned as a Tag Maker that in going my own way with the BEST materials available, that my skills, artistry, and originality as a tag maker have been well served by learning by trial and error

Really, for all intents and purposes, my tutorials are like a Twelve Step Meeting- Take what you like and what you've learned, and discard that which doesn't work for you. - With that in mind, I honestly DO NOT mind it when people take what I've shared and make it their own. - That's what I'm in it for! To watch my peers in the PSP community learn and grow as Taggers. I certainly don't expect anyone to follow my tuts book,chapter and verse.

By all means you do NOT have to download every resource I suggest. Use what you already have. Make the skills and techniques uniquely your own! For ME that's what Tagging is all about- a visual representation that is uniquely you!