Step 1
Start with a 400 pixel by 400 pixel document. Select a small strip near one edge with the Rectangular Marquee tool, and fill it with 50% gray (Edit > Fill > 50% gray). Add noise (Filter > Noise > Add Noise...), setting the Amount for 5%, Gaussian distribution and check the Monochromatic box.

Step 2
With the noisy stuff selected, s-t-r-e-t-c-h the noise sideways to fill the square (Edit > Free Transform, then pull the sides out to the edge of the document.) Hit Return (Enter) to apply the transformation. Voila- brushed steel! Name the layer Steel.

Step 3
Duplicate the Steel layer by dragging it to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Step 4
Hide the top Steel layer by tapping on the eyeball icon. Select the bottom layer, and then type in the name you want in brushed steel. (By selecting the bottom layer, the Type layer will fit between the two Steel layers.) Use a bold font- Impact in all caps seems to look good for this example of a logo for the Steel Drum Festival.

Step 5
Turn on the top Steel layer's eyeball, and then create a clipping group (Command-Option-G [Control-Alt-G]). You'll see the top Steel layer move to the right on the Layers palette and a small arrow will appear. A clipping group limits the visibility of the top grouped layer to the layer it's grouped with. You won't see any change... yet. .

Step 6
At the bottom of the Layers palette is the Add a Layer Style icon- it looks like an f in a gray circle. Click and hold on it, and pull down to Bevel and Emboss. Choose Inner Bevel, Chisel Hard, and set a pretty serious Depth of 250%. Set your Highlight to 100% and your Shadow to 40%. You'll see the beveled type appear as if by Photoshop magic.

Step 7
For those of you who want to go a little farther, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for a little color and a slight drop shadow to finish the effect.

Step 1
Open your image, select all and copy. Paste the copied image into a new document, and name the document Displace. (When you copy something to the clipboard and create a new document, Photoshop automatically creates the new document the same size as the clipboard image.) Change the image mode to Grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale.)

Step 2
Run a slight Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). We'll be running a Displace filter using this image as our displace map, and a too sharp displacement map looks harsh and fake- a little blur takes care of that. Save and close Displace.psd.

Step 3
Place the tattoo artwork- this is an Illustrator file of mine. Size it to the muscle and hit OK to place.

Step 4
With the tattoo layer selected, go to Filter > Distort > Displace. There's two steps to this filter- first, type in the amount of horizontal and vertical scaling you want Photoshop to perform. I used 5 for this example- your mileage may vary. Next, select the Displace.psd file as your displacement map, and hit OK.

Step 5
For the final step, set the Tattoo layer blending mode to Multiply, and reduce the opacity to show a little of the skin texture. A great way to get "an interesting past"- without the needles.

Step 1

Start by going to Image > Adjustments > Replace Color. Tap in the image to select the color to replace-- I always begin with the purest part of the color. Fuzziness sets the tolerance of the Replace Color mask. Set the hue you're changing to with the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders.

Step 2

Next, choose the eyedropper with the plus sign to add to the selection. Tap on any areas of blue remaining to change them to yellow. (If you accidentally click in a spot you don't want to change, hit command/control-Z to undo.)

Step 3

When you're finished selecting all the blue that needs to be changed, hit the OK button. Save under a different name (yellow_aloha.psd) to keep both the original and the replaced color boards.

Step 2

Copy and move the selected areas to a new layer by hitting command/control-J. Double-click on the words Layer 1, and rename the new layer Eyes and Mouth.

Step 3

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set an Amount of 100%, a Threshold of 0 levels, and a Radius of 2 pixels. Feel free to play around with the Radius setting to get nice, sharp, clear eyes and teeth without getting that oversharpened 'halo' effect.

Step 4

Hit the OK button, pardner, and you're done- you've just lassoed up a pair of eyes and a smile with just a little more sparkle than the average cowhand.

Start with a simple head shot with a plain background. (This simple head is mine.) Feel free to remove the background with a layer mask if it's too busy. Desaturate the image with the Channel Mixer (Image > Adjustments >Channel Mixer). Set the Mixer to Monochrome, and move the Red, Green and Blue sliders until you have a well-balanced image with decent contrast.

Next, go to Filter> Sketch > Stamp. The Stamp filter creates a high-contrast image (like a rubber stamp). Aim for an effect that gives you enough detail to recognize the face. (For this image, I used a Light/Dark balance of 13 and a smoothness of 1- your mileage may vary.)

No matter how good the Stamp filter works, you'll still have some areas you'll want to paint in with black or white. Add a new layer on top, and name it Changes. Grab a Hard Round 19 pixel brush, and set your color palette to the default black and white by typing the letter D.

If you're using a Wacom pen, set the brush to react to pressure with size by going to the Brushes palette, selecting Shape Dynamics and setting the Control to Pen Pressure. With these settings, a firm stroke will give you a fat brush; a lighter touch lets you paint with a thin brush.

Next, double-click on the top layer, re-name it Black and set the layer's blending mode to Multiply. Put a new layer underneath it, and name it Color, and fill it with a bright color.

For a really Warhol-esque (is that even a word?) effect, paint on the Color layer behind the face with a contrasting color. Copy and paste the layers, change the colors, and sign your name for a poster ready for the gallery.

Step 1

First, change the color mode of the photo from grayscale to RGB (Image> Mode...> RGB). Next, add a new layer, name it Face, and change it's blending mode from Normal to Multiply- that way, any color we paint in this layer adds itself to the layer underneath.

Step 2

To fit in with the headline, we'll give the man on the right a greenish skin tone. Select a medium green, and paint on the Face layer. If you are using a Wacom tablet, set the Brush Dynamics to react to pressure with Opacity and you can get a lighter shade of green by pressing softer as you paint.

Step 3

To bring out the eyes and white teeth, switch to the Photoshop Eraser, select a small brush, and erase the green from the teeth and eyes.

Step 4

Add a new layer, name it Hair, and set the blending mode to Multiply. Choose a nice blue, and paint in a new hair color. Giving each item (hair, face, etc.) its own layer makes editing much easier- you can erase the hair without touching the face, and change the color of any layer with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer or by lowering the layer's opacity.

Step 5

Add a little color to the man on the left, and you're done- ready for the front page of the Enquirer.

Step 1
Start by changing your image to grayscale mode (Image > Mode > Grayscale). Advanced Photoshop users can use Image > Adjustments > Channel mixer for more control over their grayscale conversion.

Step 2
A mezzotint looks cleaner when the original photo's edges are nice and sharp. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask..., and set the Radius to between 5 and 10 for a really sharpened effect. The "haloing" effect you get from extreme sharpening is all right, as it will help hold detail in the mezzotint.

Step 3
We need to give our image a mezzo-like pattern, so we'll use Filter > Pixelate > Pointillize. Set the cell size to 3 or 4 for smallish points.

Step 4
Now for the cool part. Tap on the Add Adjustment Layer button, and select Threshold. Threshold will change all you pixels to either black or white, with no shades of gray. The Threshold Level determines where the break between black and white occurs. In this image, the default of 128 works well, but feel free to experiment to get the look you like. (Use the adjustment layer without pointillizing it first, and you'll have a stark poster-like effect.)

Step 5
For most images, that's all you need to do for a great mezzotint. With this image, however, the upper bun is a little light in the mezzo. Every adjustment layer comes with a built-in layer mask, however, so paint out the top bun with a black paintbrush.

Step 6
Run another Threshold adjustment layer, this time looking at how it affects the upper bun. 185 worked well as the Threshold layer for this image. (The new Threshold adjustment layer won't change any of the previously mezzotinted burger, because it is already pure black and white.)

Step 7
And there you go-- lunch in the Mezzotint Cafe.

Final

Step 1
Start by opening the Sunflower image, and add a white border (Image > Canvas size). Bump up the saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation), and then create a new pattern (Edit > Define Pattern...), and name it Sunflower.

Step 2
Double-click on the Background layer, name it original, and lower the opacity to around 15%. Add a new layer, and name it Paint. Finally, select the Pattern Stamp tool (click and hold on the Clone Stamp tool to see it). Set the Pattern to be Sunflower, and select both Aligned and Impressionist.

Step 3
Now we'll set up the brush to work the way we want. Start with the Soft Round 27 Pixel brush, and add Texture-- Molecular will give your art a paper-like look.

Step 4
Add a Dual brush look using the 17 pixel Chalk. Turn on Wet Edges and Airbrush. For those of you using a Wacom pen, have the size of your brush react to pressure as well (it's under Shape Dynamics.)

Step 5
Paint in the petals with smooth strokes. Leave a little white in between the petals, so your brush strokes don't blend into each other.

Step 6
Step back and check your artwork occasionally by turning off the original layer by tapping on the eyeball to the left of the layer name.

Step 7
To increase the color saturation, duplicate the different layers. You can decrease the opacity of some layers if the color is too saturated.

Step 8
Add a layer to the top, sign your name with the Chalk 11 pixels, and you're finished-- a watercolor rendering from a photo with Photoshop's Pattern Stamp.

Step 1
Start by creating a pen path around the pencil. Don't include the pencil's shadow. (If you have trouble seeing the edge of the pencil in the shadow, use a Levels adjustment layer to bump up the contrast, then delete the adjustment when you're finished with the path.)

Step 2
Select the pencil path by dragging it onto the Select Path icon on the Paths palette, then hit command-J (Mac) or control-J (PC) to copy and "jump" the selection to a new layer. Name this layer Pencil.

Step 3
Tap on the first snapshot (Skier.jpg) to change the blurred image back to a sharp one. Next, tap in the little square directly to the left of the Blurred snapshot- you'll see a paintbrush appear. That lets you know that you're painting from the Blurred snapshot.

Step 4
If you're using a Wacom pen, here's a tip for imitating the look of a number 2 pencil. Choose the 11 pixel Chalk brush, then open the Brushes palette. Set the Brush Size (under Shape Dynamics); Scatter (under Scattering); and Opacity (under Other Dynamics) to react to Pen Pressure. I used a Scatter of 43% here.

Step 5
IWrite your message on the Writing layer. The Multiply blending mode lets the shadow of the pencil show through the writing.

Step 6
So go ahead-- write a note, draw a cartoon, or try your hand at sketching like Da Vinci.

Step 1
Open the image, and use the Motion Blur (Filters > Blur > Motion Blur...). Set the angle to match the direction the skier's heading, and choose a distance that will give you enough blur to work with- in this example, I chose an angle of 14 degrees and a distance of 40 pixels.

Step 2
Next, open your History palette. You'll notice that you already have a Snapshot of the image as it was when you opened it. Tap on the little camera icon to create a Snapshot of the current state, and name this new Snapshot Blurred.

Step 3
Tap on the first snapshot (Skier.jpg) to change the blurred image back to a sharp one. Next, tap in the little square directly to the left of the Blurred snapshot- you'll see a paintbrush appear. That lets you know that you're painting from the Blurred snapshot.

Step 4
Paint in the motion blur on the right side with the History brush.

Step 5
If you're using a Wacom tablet, set the Brush Dynamics to react to pressure with Opacity, and you can control how much of the motion blur you paint in. Press softly for less blur, and firmly for more of the motion blur.

Step 6
If you blur more than you wanted, simply tap to the left of the first snapshot and paint in from the original. Tap to the left of the Blurred snapshot to continue painting in the motion blur.

Step 7
And there you are- a realistic motion blur.