Make your own pop art poster
July 13, 2007 – 1:48 pm
Most pop art pictures in the public’s imagination contain a photograph that has been reduced to only two tones, black and white, for example Andy Warhol’s Marilyn. The best way to do this is to go Image > Adjustments > Threshold in Photoshop. Move the slider until you get the best result.
Flat colours should then be added on layers above your black and white background. Set these layers to Multiply so that the black shows through. Pick no more than about four or five quite vibrant colours. It was quite good to get the background cyan in the above picture of Rihanna. More on Rihanna plus another pop art image here.
However, other effects can be achieved by reducing a greyscale picture to four or five tones instead of just two. Go Filter > Artistic > Cutout and choose the number of tones you want. Then they can be coloured up by going Image > Adjustments > Hue/Satuation, checking the Colorize box, putting the Saturation back up to the middle point and playing around with the Hue. See George W Bush below.
I also added those little dots favoured by another famous pop artist – Roy Lichtenstein. To achieve this I had to add a “clouds layer”. Click the small black and white squares by the foreground and background color on your Tools palette to default the colours (or press D) and go Filter > Render > Clouds on an empty layer. This is a handy way to get something to play around with when you’re setting textures generally.
Then go Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone. I chose the smallest dot, 4 pixels wide. The layer is set to Multiply at 10% Opacity – just enough to see it.
The image below of Kanye West was created by using the above techniques.
If you want me to do a pop art poster design or anything else – for a fee, of course – then please contact me.
I’ll give it a try now.
38 Responses to “Make your own pop art poster”
I tried this a time or two, took a while to understand it, but I finally got it! Very fun to do when bored!
By Matt on Jul 30, 2007
I agree, Matt, it is fun!
By Rob Cubbon on Jul 31, 2007
Nice effect and have tried this myself before, but not with this quality of results. Would be great to have a Photoshop plugin for this, but for now I’m going to try it with the explanation you gave. Thanks
By Henri van den Hoof on Aug 21, 2007
That’s a thought! I wonder if there is a plugin for this, there probably is somewhere… If you need any help get back to me. Remember to keep copying your Photoshop layers (Cmd/Ctl-J) – you never know when you’ll need to refer back to them. Thanks for popping by.
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 21, 2007
Rob - Your information is invaluable! keep it flowing!
Cheers
Pam McHale
By pam mchale on Aug 30, 2007
Thanks, Pam, more to come!
By Rob Cubbon on Aug 31, 2007
that’s an interesting tutorial you’ve got there. I’ve always been wondering how to create a pop art. I’ve spent numerous hours trying to achieve that kinda effect. thanks! you’ve made my day!
By Cory W on Sep 15, 2007
Great, Cory! I’m glad you’ve found something useful here. Pop by again!
By Rob Cubbon on Sep 15, 2007
Beautiful. The first image is really amazing. Thanks for the tutorial
By Andly on Sep 26, 2007
i loved doing this its very entertaining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!chelsie
By chelsie on Sep 26, 2007
:]
By chelsie on Sep 26, 2007
Im in a bit of a pickle .. i was wondering,do you know how to do a photo into pop art?
Im only asking cause it’s a science project, and youre most intelligent!
Tatty-Bye .
Yours Truly
(SBOGOL)
x x x x
By Sbogol on Sep 27, 2007
:P.. Gosh guys you don’t have to be so unreasonable! . will you please mail me as soon as you can.. im getting worried it won’t be finished! Uh-oh.. what if i get detention:(
Please Help me out here! ..
Yours Truly.. YET AGAIN!
sbogol
x
x
By sbogol ;( on Sep 27, 2007
@Andly. Thank you!
@chelsie. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
@Sbogol. I hope you didn’t get detention!
By Rob Cubbon on Sep 30, 2007
I like the effect of the picture it looks really very good and i like the fact that you can us esome one that every one knows because then you can know what they looked like before and even th eafter efter that we can see no wit is amazing any one who does not like it then they are a bit odd
By amiyah on Oct 3, 2007
I like the effect of the picture it looks really good.
By amiyah on Oct 3, 2007
i don’t understand how to do this ??????-_- need help
By nana on Oct 9, 2007
@amiyah. Thanks, I like the effect too. Thank you for your encouraging comment.
@nana. Please tell me which bit you don’t understand how to do and then I may be able to help you.
By Rob Cubbon on Oct 12, 2007
it doesnt work!!!
i add a new layer and when i get to that cloud bit it just covers my pic with some black and white cloud!!
By mandy on Oct 15, 2007
@mandy, that’s what it’s meant to do! After you’ve done that then go Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone, choose the smallest dot, 4 pixels wide. The layer is set to Multiply at 10% Opacity – just enough to see it.
It’s just a method to overlay small dots over a picture.
By Rob Cubbon on Oct 16, 2007
This website is a really good website for students that have to pop art for art class or if you got a do an pop art for something alse.
By Hanah on Oct 22, 2007
i lvu ur work its amazin
im usin ths couse for my art project
luv u
from qt
By qt on Oct 26, 2007
Thank you Hanah and qt. I’m glad you’ve found something of value here.
By Rob Cubbon on Oct 27, 2007
i dnt understand how yhoo can do it!
By kathy on Oct 27, 2007
how do i make my own pop art? is there some sort of site??
By melissa on Oct 29, 2007
am in a tec lesson an i cnt do this stupied website!!!!:@:( x
By hannah on Oct 29, 2007
i would like to learn a bit about pop art because i am doing my gcse and i would like some help thank you can you plz e-mail me at [email address removed] i hope to hear form you can you tell me every thing you know or can think of if you do not mind if you do not worry about it thanks for just reading it if you have thanks again plz contect me if you do not mind it is ok p.s how do you make your own pop art
By emily on Oct 30, 2007
kathy, melissa, hannah and emily. Thank you for your comments. The article above explains how to make the above examples of pop art. If you don’t understand the article or have Adobe Photoshop then I can’t help you. If there is something specific that you don’t understand then please tell me so I can help you. Good luck!
By Rob Cubbon on Oct 30, 2007
Very nice tutorial. I use a very similar technique on my own website (except for a few secret differences
)
There’s a really good Lichtenstein tutorial over at http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-popart.html.
Well done Rob…
Matt
By Pop Art from Photos on Nov 1, 2007
You’re right Matt, turning the image into a bitmap from a greyscale and then controlling the halftone screen gives you better Lichtenstein dots.
I’m finding I get a lot of traffic from Google Images for these images! Rob
By Rob Cubbon on Nov 1, 2007
Blimey! Snappy Snaps are charging a fortune for this! I can do it on my laptop! I just need to find someone who screenprints canvas for a reasonable price now!
By Des on Nov 5, 2007
I’m glad this website can save you money, Des. If you want T-shirts printing I know plenty of companies who can do that.
By Rob Cubbon on Nov 5, 2007
bomba sprawa takie rysuneczki^^ wczesniej nie mialam pojęcia jak to sie robi, no ale teraz to juz będę miała cały pokój obklejony:)
Perhaps someone will writeto me something;) it’s my e-mail: [email address removed]
maeg
By magda on Nov 11, 2007
i love it wooo n aidan
By scott on Nov 12, 2007
well done on the pop art
By Anonymous on Nov 13, 2007
heya loving this, iam doing pop art for art in school at the moment i was wondering how do you do this ? because i wanted to do one of myself on my project of pop art in my art class ? can you direct me to how to do this ? im confused write back please x
By Princess Bianca samantha on Nov 22, 2007
Good website but you need to tell them how to draw.
By Revikka on Nov 26, 2007
hi loving the kayne west pic
By kt on Nov 29, 2007