How to Create Pop Art in Photoshop

Pop Art is an artistic and cultural phenomenon that began in Britain in the 1950s, spread to America in the 1960s and became one of the major art movements of the 20th century. Some notable pop artists include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and David Hockney. Pop artists were concerned with the images of mass media: advertising, comic books and consumer products like soup cans, road signs and album covers. If you are a Pop Art fan and you've mastered the intricacies of Photoshop, it's fun to create your own Pop Art images with this popular image-editing software.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Photoshop

Create Pop Art in Photoshop

1. Open your image in Photoshop.

2. Hold down the Alt/Opt key and drag the original image layer to the "Create a new layer" icon. Name the new layer "Portrait."

3. Click the eye on the background layer to turn it off. Use selection tools like the Magic Wand and Color Range to roughly select and delete the background pixels from the new layer. Add a new, colorful layer below the working layer.

4. Create a high-contrast image. Make sure that the Portrait layer is active (the eye is visible) and then select "Image," "Adjustment," and "Threshold." Move the slider so that the image contains only enough shadow to show basic shapes.

5. Select each part of the image that you wish to paint, and use Alt/Opt + Ctrl/Cmd + J to copy the selection into its own layer.

6. Name each new layer, set the blending mode (in the layer's palette) to Multiply and click "OK."

7. Click on each item's layer in the Layers palette. For each one, Ctrl/Cmd + click the thumbnail so that only the non-transparent pixels are selected. Under the Edit menu, choose "Fill." Even if the Fill dialog's Use drop-down shows "Color," select it again. That prompts the Color Picker.

8. Select a color (primary colors rule in Pop Art) and click "OK" twice.

9. Change the Color Overlay's blending mode to "Color" in the Layer Style dialog box. Pick a color and click "OK."

10. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each item you want to color and you will have a completed Pop Art image.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use almost any photograph to create a Pop Art image in Photoshop, but those with strong edges work best.
• If you want to have your Photoshop image printed professionally at a print shop, be sure to change the resolution to 300 dpi and the color mode to CMYK.