STEP BY STEP MAKE GRAPHIC ART

Use your free ink start images to create alluring painterly images

01 OPEN UP YOUR PICTURE AND AN INK

Open up Photoshop Elements and go into the Expert mode tab, then head up to File>open and find the image you want to work on and open it up. Next, go back to File>open again, this time finding an ink start image you like from the Resources>elements folders on your download.

02 CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT

You’ll then want to go to File>new>blank File and set the Width to 29.7cm and the Height to 21cm, creating an A4-sized document. You can swap the width and height for a portrait shaped canvas. Then, set the Resolution to 240dpi and the Background Contents to White and hit OK.

03 PASTE YOUR INK SPLODGE IN

Go back into the ink splodge image and hit Ctrl/ Cmd+a to select it, Ctrl/cmd+c to copy it and then back in your new doc hit Ctrl/cmd+v to paste it in. Then, hit Ctrl/cmd+t to put it into Free Transform Mode and resize it to fit the document by pulling the corners of the bounding box.

04 PASTE YOUR PICTURE IN / BLEND IT IN

Now, go over to your main image and hit Ctrl/cmd+a to select it, Ctrl/cmd+c to copy it and hit Ctrl/ Cmd+w to close it down. Then, back in your new document, hit Ctrl/cmd+v to paste it in and hit Ctrl/ Cmd+t to put it into Free Transform Mode and resize it to fit the whole document.

05 BLEND YOUR SHOT IN

Go over to the Layers panel and change the Blending Mode from Normal to Screen. At this point, you’ll see your picture only appear through the black parts of the ink splodge. Now is a good time to click on each of the layers and resize them with Free Transform Mode to make them perfect.

06 BUILD UP THE EFFECT

You can build up the effect by copying and pasting in more ink splodges onto the Background Layer. Just change the Blending Mode to Darken, so that the ink splodges start to overlap and then hit Ctrl/cmd+t to put each splodge into Free Transform Mode to resize and move them as you see fit.