Andy Warhol effect - brief tutorial

I have occasionally been asked to provide Warholesque images for my clients. I had seen many efforts of 'shopped' Warhol-like prints and I found many of them not leaving too many details that would help the sitter to be recognised. The Monroe series of prints were really iconic (I know... I know... it is an overused word today but in the case of those particular prints, I thought it was justified) but images of less well-known people don't seem to suit that treatment.

My aim was to come up with a method that would retain some important detail and allow the user the complete freedom to change every aspect of the colouration. The before and after example images will follow. The second posting is the method with the final result.

Have fun!

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Andy Warhol effect - brief tutorial (part 2)

1. Open your image in Photoshop
2. Layers palette > duplicate background layer (drag layer to new layer icon) and name 'subject'
3. Rename background layer to 'original' and click on the eye to hide its visibility
4. Remove background from subject layer (magic eraser tool)
5. Make image Black & White > Image > Adjustment > Black & White or [Shift] + [⌥] + [⌘] +[B]
6. Filter > Artistic > Cutout > Levels 4 ~ 6 > edge simplicity 0 > edge fidelity 3
7. Layers palette > new duplicate layer and name it background
8. Fill the background layer with any colour you wish and drag it into the space beneath your subject layer
9. Layers palette > new duplicate layer and name it foreground
10. With the foreground layer highlighted [⌘] click on the subject in the subject layer to load the selection into the foreground layer
11. Fill the selection and change the blend mode (drop down menu in the layers palette) to soft light
12. [⌘] D to deselect and you now have your Warholesque image.
13. Delete original layer by dragging it onto the bin icon at the bottom of the layers palette

Save the image as a .psd file so that you can adjust its colours at any time. Colour adjustments can be made via the Hue/Saturation dialogue box which is invoked with [⌘] U. Highlight either the foreground or the background layer in the Layers palette to affect those particular colours in your image.

Note: I have used the keyboard shortcuts for the Mac. Windows users will need to substitute the command key [⌘] with control key [CTRL] and the option key [⌥] with the [ALT] key.

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Pretty cool stuff there, Pixelmangler!

tonylong wrote in post #10811119
Pretty cool stuff there, Pixelmangler!

Thanks tony.