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Making of Sketchbook wallpapers

Tips about how I made the series of Sketchbook wallpapers ( see wallpapers ).

In this simple tutorial, I will write how I made Sketchbook series of wallpapers. I wanted to

draw small sheet of notebook paper on wooden table. To start, I found an appropriate stock image of wood texture from

www.sxc.hu.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 1

To make background more interesting, open Effects menu – Distort – Lens correction, and set

Vignette amount to about -30..35.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 2
I could draw sheet of notebook paper using vector tools, but I decided to take actual sheet and

scan it. Because paper is white, I put it under black book and scanned this way.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 3

Open scanned image in Photoshop, open Levels (Ctrl-L), move black triangle to the right as shown

here, and white rectangle to the left. Paper should become completely white (no light grey) and background completely

black.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 4

Invert image (Ctrl-I). Then, if your image is “flattened” (there is only one layer called

Background) you should “un-flatten” it. To do it, double click Background layer and click OK. It should be claled Layer 0

now. Now, this layer can contain transparency (we will need it now).

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 5

Remove white from the image. Use the following commands:

– Ctrl-A (select all)
– Ctrl-C (copy)
– Q (enter quick mask)
– Ctrl-V (paste)
– Q (quit quick mask)
– Del (delete selection)
– Ctrl-D (deselect)

Then use Ctrl-U (Hue/Saturation window) and set Lightness to -100.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 6

Invert image – our paper is white again. Copy and paste it to our original file (with wooden

background).

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 7

If you prefer, you can use the same Hue/Saturation window (Ctrl-U) to make paper beige color

(use Colorize checkbox for that).

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 8

Next step is to create shadow that will make paper edges “flow” above the wood a bit. Duplicate

layer with paper, make it black (Ctrl-U, lightness = – 100). Open Edit menu – Transform – Warp. On Toolbar, set Warp mode to

Arch, and Bend = 2.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 9

Apply a little Gaussian blur (Effects menu – Blur – Gaussian blur) with radius = 1-2 px. Set

layer mode to Soft light or Overlay.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 10

In Layers palette, move layer with shadow under layer with paper. Select layer with paper and

make similar transform, but warp the other side (Edit – Transform – Warp): Warp = Arch, Bend = -1 or -2.

 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 11

Find appropriate texture for paper. This is texture I have in my stock images storage.
 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 12

Paste it in new layer above layer with paper…
 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 13

… and Create Clipping Mask (Ctrl-Shift-G), from Layer menu.
 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 14

Scan the sketch, paste it into new layer right after layer with paper texture.
 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 15

Set layer mode to Multiply, then Transform (Ctrl-T) as needed – resize and rotate.
 
Sketchbook wallpapers - making of - Step 16

Finally, Create Clipping Mask again (Ctrl-Shift-G or from Layer menu).

That’s all!

 

Author: Vlad Gerasimov
URL:    http://www.vladstudio.com

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