HDIW: Here's Looking' At You (Pt. 1)!

Written by Hall

Thursday, 03 April 2008 07:36

"How did you create the covers of the novellas and the cover of Skein of Shadows?"

I have been asked that many times since the novellas were put out and our book hit the shelves. Ya wanna know? I'll show you! And better yet YOU'LL do it with me as I show you! This is How Does It Work: Art Edition, where I answer questions and try my best to show you what goes on in the mind of a crazy artist.

I figured I would start things off like I did when we first started designing the character art for the novellas: with an eyeball! I worked primarily in Photoshop CS-CS3 for all 6 covers. Some drawing was done outside of the program but I'd say 95% of the art was done in Photoshop.

This tutorial is set up for someone who is just learning their way around Photoshop but I also tried to keep it interesting for those who have been on it a while. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think about it and DEFINITELY send me some finished works (or post them on our forums). I'd love to see um! So, without further ado...

HERE'S LOOKIN AT YOU!

STEP 1: In Photoshop, create a new document 500 x 500 pixels 150 DPI (dots per inch).
STEP 2: Make a new layer by going to Layer--> New--> Layer and fill with white.
STEP 3: Now, at the base of your tool bar there are two squares, make foreground (the top one) ink black and background (the bottom one) white.
STEP 4: Go to and apply Filter--> Render--> Difference Clouds. Do this about six or seven times until you have something that looks like the image below.

STEP 5: Go to and apply Image--> Adjust--> Brightness/Contrast to the following values:
Brightness: 60
Contrast: -15
STEP 6: OK, looks like we got ourselves a smoky mess! It gets good just hang with me here. Make a copy of this layer to work on.(This is easy to do: just click and hold onto the layer and drag it over the icon just to the left of the trash can at the bottom of your layers window. Presto!)
STEP 7: Hide the first layer by clicking the "eye" icon to the left of the layer's name. We'll get back to it later.
STEP 8: Go to and apply Filter--> Distort--> Pinch: 100%. Then, do it again...really! Filter--> Distort-->Pinch: 100%. Lookin better? Thought so! You should see something like what we have below:

STEP 9: With the circular marquee tool (you can find it on your tool bar. It is the dotted lined image near the top. If you have a rectangle showing (we’ll need it in a minute) just click and hold it down and you'll see the "circle-version" appear). Now, make a circle selection. I start at the top left corner and drag to the bottom right while holding shift to keep it in a perfect circle. You should now have a perfect circle in the center of the image.
STEP 10: Create a transparency mask by clicking the icon at the bottom of your Layers window. It looks like a box with a circle in it. Now all you can see is the center of the image you put the circle on.

STEP 11: Remember that layer you hid earlier? Now you need to copy it into a new document (Unhide and make sure the once hidden layer is active. To do this: Select all by clicking Ctrl+A (or Command+A for Mac) and then copy (Ctrl/C). Now, to open a new document, go to File--> New. Be sure and set the width and height at 500x500 pixels @ 150 DPI! Finally, paste the copied image by clicking Ctrl+V.
STEP 12: Now resize your image. Go to Image--> Image Size and change things in the following manner:
Width: 512
Height: 5120
NOTE: make sure "Constrain Proportions" is unchecked.
STEP 13: Now you have a long stretched cloud. With the Rectangular Marquee tool (see told ya we'd need it), select an area about 512x512. Again I start at the top left corner and drag to the bottom right holding shift to keep it a perfect square. You'll have some left over at the bottom but don't worry, it'll be ok.
STEP 14: Now crop it, go to Image--> Crop and copy back into original document. Select all (Ctrl+A or Command+A for Mac), followed by Copy (Ctrl+C). Return to the original document and Paste (Ctrl+V). You no longer need the second document we just worked on so close it and be a rebel, DON’T SAVE!!!. What you're seeing now should be something along these lines:

STEP 15: Ok, go to and apply Filter--> Distort--> Polar Coordinates: Rectangular to Polar. There are a few quick things to check on here...
1) Make sure the new layer you pasted in is on the top of all other layers.
2) If you don't have one on this new layered you'll need to create another circular transparency mask. (See above if you need a refresher on how to do that.)
STEP 16: Now to set the "Layer Adjustment", look just below the tab in your Layers window that says "Layers" (top left); the tab just below it should read "Normal". As we all know, "normal's" no fun, LET'S CHANGE IT!!! Click on the little down arrow. You'll get a long drop-down menu, scroll down until you find the word "Overlay" and select it. You should now see something like this:

STEP 17: Ok, here is where things start gettin' really cool! Go to Select--> Reselect: to get your circle selection back.
STEP 18: Now make a new layer (this time just click on the icon next to the trash can at the bottom of the layers window, no dragging necessary).
STEP 19: You'll see the dotted line of your circle is still there, fill the circle with black by going to and apply Edit--> Fill - make sure the pop up window says "Black", "Normal", and "100%".
STEP 20: Now to Contract the selection, go to Select--> Modify--> Contract: You want to "Contact By:" 20 pixels.
STEP 21: Then Select--> Modify--> Feather: Chose a Feather Radius: 15 pixels.
STEP 22: Hit delete. Yes, delete. A soft faded dark ring should remain at the edges.
STEP 23: Set layer adjustment to Multiply (tab under the word "Layers" in the top left corner of your Layers window) and Opacity (found just to the right of the Layer adjustment, top right) to: 65-75% You should now be looking at something in this vein:

You now have a grey iris, congrats... it would look better with some color, I agree! So let's do it!
STEP 24: Select--> Reselect: to get the circle selection back.
STEP 25: Go to Select--> Modify>Expand and expand by 20 pixels to return your circle selection back to its original size. It should once again cover the iris.
STEP 26: Create a new layer and fill with light green. To do this, you should have two squares at the base of your tool bar. Double-click the one on top and set "R G B" colors to: R: 17
G: 127
B: 25
Hit OK.
STEP 27: Now, to fill, go to and apply Edit--> Fill and make sure the pop-up window reads "Foreground Color", "Normal", and "100%". STEP 28: Set Layer Adjustment to Color. STEP 29: Make a transparency mask like before. (Gettin' good at those, ain't ya?!? Now you have a cool green iris like this!!

What...a Pupil, you say? Ok, I guess it WOULD look better with one, but for that you're gonna have to wait til the next installment of How Does It Work: Art Edition. Don't worry - I'll be back soon, so BE SURE AND SAVE for now and...

...Keep Painting!!
HALL