Design stylized images with Photoshop and Illustrator

The image above has been stylised in Photoshop and Illustrator.

To trace a photo in Adobe Illustrator, go File > Place and select the photo you want to trace. I find it useful to then lock this picture layer in the Layers palette and click on the New Layer icon to make sure your trace and your image remain separate in your Illustrator document. Then, as you can see below, I selected the Pen Tool (P) and traced the eyes, the nostrils and the lips. Tracing the picture gives you the added bonus of a good vector illustration to use elsewhere!

Now open up the original image in Photoshop. This is when you should perform the usual cloning and trickery to get rid of any blemishes, scratches or general untidiness in the photo. I used this technique to smooth the model’s skin. And I also brightened up the teeth, the whites of the eyes and the eyebrows.

Next you should bring in the elements of the Illustrator trace bit by bit. So, I selected the mouth first, copied it and pasted it onto the Photoshop image. The trace was done in black, so setting this layer of the pasted Illustrator lips to Overlay in the Photoshop Layers palette really makes the lips stand out and deepens the red.

Then the eyes were done in a similar way, first the irises, only this time I coloured them pale blue in Photoshop and set the Layer’s Blend Mode to Saturation. Then the highlight in the eyes was made white in Photoshop and their Layer’s Blend Mode was set to Overlay. Finally I pasted in the eyelashes.

The underlying image of the woman’s face is quite pale that is why employing this technique causes a really striking, almost “pop art” effect.

See below the original image on the left, the trace in the middle and, on the right, the finished piece.