Do you even photoshop/gimp brah?!?

[starlet]

4436_original_tumblr_ln3t7w7zfo1qb5gkjo1_400.jpg

This pretty much. I need to learn2photoedit in 4 days for that squeenix/deviant art lightning returns contest. I basically need to glue together 4 drawings within a 2000 wide x 500 high px limit pagethingamabob. HALP. Send me tutorials and stuff. TUTORIALS FOR THE DIGITALLY DUMB PLZ.

[Pete for President]

To the rescue!

Photoshop is my friend. Don't know too much about gimp.

By your brief briefing I think what you'll be looking for are opacity, masks and optional blend modes.

When I'm glueing together separate scanned drawings I always start with a new canvas. Yours would be 2000px x 500px. Then make a new layer for each of your separate pieces and paste each piece in the correct layer. Decide which layer you want to be the base (background) layer and make sure that one is at the bottom.

Aside from that bottom layer, change the opacity of the other drawings to something like 50%. This way you can align them into the right position. Change them back to 100% to see if everything is aligned perfectly.

Next I imagine you want to cut away any bits and pieces you do not want to use. This is where we use masks. There are several ways to do this.

I recommend using the pen tool to make an outline of the part you want to keep. Be sure to work in the correct layer. When you complete the outline, right click and select "Make selection". Then, in the bottom right underneath the window with all the layers there is a mask icon. Click that icon and it automatically cuts away the part around the selection, but it doesn't delete it. Nifty!

Another option is the magic wand tool, but that often works dodgy and pixelish depending on your contrast, scan quality etc.

One final tip is blend modes. I often use it to make colours more vivid and create some psychedelic effects. Next to the opacity setting there should be a dropdown menu that says "normal". Click on it and mess around with the various types. Each one will do a different form of blending and can work wonders. I imagine "Multiply", "Overlay", "Darken" and "Colour Burn" could come in handy for you.

Hope this helps!

[starlet]

I'm using gimp because it's free and I'm poor. Is there really that much of a difference between the 2 programs? They look relatively the same to me, but I'm the dumb when it comes to this stuff. I'm going to try and follow your instructions the best I can in gimp for now, thanks!

[starlet]

DOUBLE POST CAUSE I DO WHAT I WANT
This is what I have so far:
lightningreturns_by_coronetta-d76r7or.png

I stopped working on blending things out because Im not sure how I feel about this layout. Constuctive criticisms please! What can I do to make it awesome? I feel like the pictures need to be in a different order but can't quite pick out what order they should be in...Maybe I've been looking at this project for too long today XD,.

[Pete for President]

Those are some pretty good drawings. I really dig the sword and arm sleeves. Did you scan them of did you use photographs? I'd say up the contrast a little as the paper still looks very grey instead of white.

Are you planning on colouring them all or leave them black and white?

[starlet]

They are photographs, the paper is tan-toned so it's supposed to be darker, and yes i plan on leaving the others black and white. I just thought one color illustration would be a good idea instead of making it all black and white

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I think I'd find a way to make the portrait one a little bigger, and arrange the three others around it. The pictures all look good, but the arrangement isn't too attention grabbing to me.

Maybe top left is for the portrait (or even the color one, if you can change the sizes enough.

You can frame it with the color picture to the right of the portrait, lightning with her back to us below the portrait, and lightning/captain morgan in the diagonal bottom right.

Would there be a way to give the back ground an aged paper look, since she's a pirate, without messing with the quality of the drawings? Maybe with random treasure map themes in the background. Y'know, the "X", the fancy compass, some sea or waves, stuff like that.

Something that looks like old da Vinci sketch work, or maybe Darwin's sketch work.

Just throwing out ideas.