In this "La Belle Femme" tutorial, watch how a simple portrait is transformed into an awesome looking artistic image...with an edge. You will learn how to add lines on the portrait to create eye lashes or strands of hair and how to blend a texture image with another. You will also learn how to apply different layer blending techniques that will enhance your artistic image even more.

For this tutorial, the software we will use is Adobe Photoshop. The images that will be used can be found on www.123RF.com.

Images to prepare are:

Portrait of a beautiful teenage girl with long curly hair : 8802685 © Vitaly Valua 123RF.com	Textures and colors of sandrock formation : 5198432 © Danuta Kania 123RF.com	Vector set of grunge elements : 8060246 © Dmitry Skvortsov 123RF.com	Deep outer space background with stars and nebula : 7275545 © rustyphil 123RF.com
Starry background of stars and nebulas in deep outer space : 7267479 © rustyphil 123RF.com	Great orion nebula : 8915041 © Pere Sanz 123RF.com	Beautiful clouds with shining light : 10341148 © renamarie 123RF.com

1. Firstly, open the image with the title 'Portrait Of Beautiful Teenage Girl' (code: 8802685) in Adobe Photoshop, seperate the girl from the background and place it on a new layer. You can use 'Channel Masking' to remove the background.

2. You may use a white color layer for the background after separating the girl from its original background. Then, remove the color and convert it to 'Grayscale'. To control the level, just follow this step: Image > Mode > Desaturate.

3. Next, decorate the image of the girl with lines. Set the brush to 'Hard Brush - 8pt', select 'Pen Tool' and create a curve path at the hair section near the girl's head. Then, right click and select 'Stroke Path' and activate the 'Simulate Pressure' option.

4. Too add more lines on the girl's hair, repeat the previous step until you have created sufficient amount of lines.

5. Once you have completed the hair section, you can continue creating lines on the face section.

6. From the face, let's move on to the body. Add lines on the edge of the girl's arm, hands and fingers.

7. After that, create lines to form longer eyelashes on the girl's right eye in order for it to stand out even more. To create the long eyelashes, use the 'Pen Tool'. Add on smaller and shorter eyelash shapes by duplicating it.

8. Repeat the same step for the eyelashes on the girl's left eye.

9. Next, open the image entitiled 'Colors And textures Of Sand Rock Formation' (code: 5198432). Rotate the canvas to a 90^o cw and convert the image to 'Grayscale'.

10. Place the sand rock image on top of the girl's body and create a clipping mask from it. You can also select and remove unwanted sections of the sand rock image until it covers up the girl's body shape. Please refer to the image below for clarification.

11. Then, change the sand rock layer blending to 'Difference'.

12. Duplicate the sand rock image and place it on top of the girl's face. You can use the 'Warp Tool' to control the flow of the sand image.

13. Change the layer blending to 'Difference' and remove unwanted parts of the sand rock image from the girl's face. We will add another sand rock layer at the girl's forehead section after this.

14. Place another copy of the sand rock image on the girl's forehead. Flip or rotate it until you get the flow of the sand as shown in the image below. Set the layer blending to 'Hard Light' with a 50-60% Opacity and erase excessive parts of the sand rock image around the girl's head.

15. Next, let's add in more details. Open the 'Vector Set Of Grunge Elements' image (code: 8060246).

16. Insert one of the splatter from the grunge vector image and add a long drip at the end of it. Place the splatter at the top left of the girl's hand, near her hair.

17. Continue to insert more splatters with long drips throughout the image. You can place it around the girl's arm, hand and neck.

18. Feel free to add more splatters on the image, where ever you like. You can use black and white color for this.

19. Next, open the image titled 'Outer Space Background With Stars And Nebula' (code: 7275545 and 7267479)

20. Place the stars and nebula image (code: 7267479) around the top part of the girl's hair. Change the layer blending to 'Lighten'.

21. Then, place the other stars and nebula image (code: 7275545) towards the bottom part of the girl's hair. Change the layer blending to 'Lighten'.

22. Repeat the previous step with the same stars and nebula image. Flip it first and change the layer blending to 'Screen'.

23. Now, let's tweak the overall color of the image. You can use 'Selective Color' and make changes to the Black, Neutral and White colors. For example, you can follow these settings and use Black (Yellow: -45, Black: +25), White (Black: -100) and Neutral (Black: -21). Be creative and tweak the colors according to your preference.

24. You can change the white color to a cream-ish baby yellow color. Use the 'Channel Mixer' and change the settings at the Blue Channel (Constant: -6).

Note: Step 23 & 24 are not fixed steps. Feel free to customize your own color pallet based on your preference.

25. Next, create a circle shape. Color it however you want and change the layer blending to 'Color Dodge' with a 40-50% Opacity.

26. Add more details by putting in more circle shapes and add more layer blending variations like 'Color Dodge', 'Screen', 'Lighten' or 'Hard Light'.

27. Open the 'Great Orion Nebula' image (code: 8915041) and place it on top of all the layers. Change the layer blending to 'Difference' with a 50-60% Opacity.

28. Now, add a background image. Open the 'Clouds With Shining Light' image (code: 10341148) and place it below all the layers.

29. Change the Opacity to 25%.

30. Finally, use the 'Scattering' soft brush and apply it all over the image of the girl. Just go to 'Window' and click on the 'Brushes' menu. Select the 'Scattering' option and adjust it based on how you want it to be. For better result, you can apply the 'Outer Glow' effect.

So, there you go, the 'La Belle Femme' tutorial is completed.

Check out the Before and After result below:-

Hope you had fun following these easy-peasy steps prepared for you.

Till next time! 

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About The Author

Teddy Soegiarto

www.theycallmeteddy.com

Twitter: @tcmtstudio

A delusional dreamer, idealist and digital artist who lives in Surubaya, Indonesia.

He built his identity under the alias "theycallmeteddy".

He also enjoys experimenting with various digital projects that allow him to expand his creativity and collaborate with fellow artists that share the same artistic vision as him.

Besides being a digital artist, he keeps himself busy by setting up an urban street wear clothing line called "TEE41 URBANWEAR".