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Put Rainbow Butterfly Wings On A Friend’s Photo

posted by krissycokl

This tutorial is centered around the pen tool, with the goal of making a pretty pair of butterfly wings. So, let’s start by making a document with a white background. I’ll be using the dimensions 500×500–out of personal preference. First things first, make a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) for the base color of the wing to be on. You may choose to name this layer as BASE. Choose the pen tool, and make one simple wing shape.

Now, right click on the path using the pen tool and choose Make Selection… Then set your foreground color to the main color you desire for your wings. Now, fill the selection with this color (Alt + Backspace). Deselect (Ctrl + D).

Now, a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) called BASIC ACCENTS. Again using the pen tool, create a large general pattern on the wing. Right click, Make Selection. Fill with any color you’d like. Make two or more, if you’d like, but don’t bother making them too detailed as they’ll be covered by other accents.

Another new layer, and secondary accents in the same way as the last.

Keep it up! Make more and more, smaller and smaller, and more and more detailed.

Now in a new layer I like to use the ellipse tool to add some nice little dots–of a color not too light–around the fatter parts of the wing. Set this layer’s blending mode to Linear Dodge. Pretty, huh? Now it’s crunch time.

Merge all the wing layers (not the background) by selecting them all with Ctrl and then typing Ctrl + E. Select all (Ctrl + A), copy (Ctrl + C), and undo twice (Alt + Ctrl + Z). Now paste (Ctrl + V). Move this new wing directly over the other. Perform a Gaussian blur.

Now, set this blurred layer’s blending mode to Screen. Yay! It’s pretty. Reselect all layers again (all but the background), and click the small arrow in the upper-right of the layers window. Select New Group from Layers… Duplicate this group (right click, duplicate). Free transform (Ctrl + T), right click and flip horizontal. Then move the wing into position. You may also choose to rotate it to better fit with the other wing.

Here’s what you get:

And using the free transform tool and perspective tools, you can set the wings in more interesting positions.