The Making of "Heavy Heroes"

Step 7

Now that the shape has been drawn, with the Dodge and Burn Tool, review the areas where you think need to be darker or clearer, this will give even more volume to the shape, but be careful, this tool can produce over saturation and can damage the natural color, so it’s better to only add small retouches.

Also It is important to remember that is not necessary to oversaturate the black or the white, but bring a good balance in the tone, in this way we will always give a more natural look to the paint.

Step 8

For the most geometric parts or curves, like the claws, the marks on the waist and other details, use the Pen Tool to help make selections in order to paint within the lines.

Step 9

Once Steps 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 are done, repeat the same process on each one of them, until you have all the characters complete with their respective volume and shape (remember that each character is going to be in a different group)

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3. Create the Restaurant

Step 1

Taking into account that the background will be unfocused, try not to pay too much attention to the details, so you’ll only paint the flat colors and shapes.

Also to save some time paint only one half of the restaurant, and then duplicate it.

Step 2

With a Default Brush, in a New Layer in Overlay Mode, paint a little bit of a texture and lines on the wall.

Step 3

Then, in another Layer with any Default Brush, paint some shapes to create an illusion of depth in the windows, nothing very detailed only shapes that give the appearance that there is something behind them, and also paint some other details on the restaurant like the bushes, doors, sign, etc.

Step 4

Once this is done, in a New Layer, paint the lamps because they will be the light points, so with a Round soft Brush, and a white color with a slight yellow tone, I’ll paint the light under the lamps in a New Layer, first a wide light, and after, a strong light less faded, shedding its intensity from beginning to end, and so repeat this in each lamp.

Step 5

For the texture on the floor, in a New Layer, use a Hard Round Brush, and just alter a bit its characteristics, to give it greater depth, and start painting gray patches of black and white, to create something that is close to the look of real pavement.

Step 6

Once this is done, use the Clone Stamp Tool to duplicate it several times, to create an area large enough to cover the whole floor shape.

Step 7

With the Magic Wand select the gray area of the floor, (painted in the beginning of the illustration) and once you have select the shape, select the layer you just created for texture and press CMD/CTRL + C and then CMD/CTRL + V, with this you will have the form of the floor.

Step 8

For the text, select any font that you like, write the text,“BUFFET” and then select the Layer > Right Click > Rasterize Text, after doing this, double click on the layer to activate the Layer Style Dialogue, and give it a pink glow.

Step 9

The text “ALL YOU CAN EAT!” below, will serve only as a base, so in a New Layer, cover it with points of color, simulating small areas of light, and later, apply the same layer glow effect with another color, then delete the text below.

Step 10

Once this is done, in the same layer of the text, “BUFFET”, create with the Pen Tool the outline of some sea food figures, then – Stroke Path > Make Selection, and the light of the general layer would be automatically applied.

Step 11

Now that we have finished the background, select all the layers and then Right Click > Convert to Smart Object, then go to Menu > Filters Effects > Gaussian Blur – 8.4 pixels, and that is it for now.

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4. Add Texture to Characters

Step 1

In a New Layer, create a brush to give some texture to the costumes of the characters, nothing too extravagant, you want to keep the style simple.

Do so with the Circle Marquee Tool, create a circle and fill it with rows of points, you don’t have to be exact, it only has to give the result that you’re looking for, now that you have this figure, go to Menu >Edit > Define Brush Preset > Name it.

Step 2

Once this is done, select the color white, put the layer in Overlay Mode and start painting over the costumes of the characters, until you are satisfied with the result.

For Beast, use a Default Brush and alter its configuration, put the layer in Overlay Mode and follow the same process as before.

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5. Add Shadows

Step 1

Create a New Layer, select a Dark Gray color and put the layer in Multiply Mode, once this is done start painting all the shadows with a soft Round Brush.

To know where to place the shadows, only check where the light hits and then place the shadows on the opposite side, you do not have to be extremely accurate, it only has to work, (Repeat this with all the characters).

Step 2

Then select each character group, duplicate it by pressing Alt and hold it while you move the layer up, and then Right Click > Convert to Smart Object > Double Click > Color Overlay: gray color.

Step 3

Select the layer and put it in Multiply Mode on top of all the character layers, lower the Opacity to 72% and with the soft Edge Eraser Tool, erase the upper parts of the character, as if they have a light above them, this will give even more volume to the illustration.

Step 4

For the shadows on the floor, make a New Layer, use the Pen Tool to make the shape and paint it with a gray color, then Right Click > Make Selection, put the layer in Multiply Mode, and blur the edges with the Blur Tool.

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6. Add Lights

To create these reflector type lights, use a Round soft Brush set to white and paint a vertical line, blur the top, change the angle, then duplicate them and place them in the opposite position from each other, to create an ‘x’ along with the entire composition.

Step 1

For the pink light, which comes from the shiny sign, select the part of the character that you want to put the lights on, then duplicate the layer, make it in this case a pink color, Double Click on the layer and apply a Color Overlay using Layer Styles, then erase a soft Round Eraser Tool to leave only the contour and give the appearance of light, (you can do it too by painting all the contours of the character with a soft Round Brush).

Step 2

In a New Layer > Color Dodge mode > Opacity 30%, use the same pink color to give a violet tone on the characters and generate greater integration with the environment. (Only apply in parts closer to the sign)

Step 3

For the lights reflected from the restaurant, do the same, only this time in the lower part of the characters, and in the opposite part of sign.

Step 4

With a white color and a round soft Brush in a New Layer, paint very gently the edge of the bottom of the characters, since they are receiving a very intense light from the back.

Step 5

And for the light coming from Cyclop’s glasses, paint with a soft Round Brush a red thin line, with the center light pink and blurry edges.

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7. Add Final Color

One of the points that are essential in any illustration is the atmosphere that the colors transmit, which you can establish from the beginning of the painting or at the end of it, in this illustration we will do this at the end. Create a New Layer > Hue Mode > Opacity: 32% and fill with a brown color.

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8. Sky

Step 1

In a New Layer with a soft Round Brush paint a horizontal stroke of purple, pink and blue colors, then go to Filters > Blur Motion: Angle 9 – distance 872 px.

Step 2

Likewise, paint some stars in a New Layer, also with a soft Round Brush in order to give more depth.

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9. Food Illustration

Step 1

For the food, repeat the STEP-that we used in the characters and the restaurant, default Round Brushes, solid base colors, shading, trace and cut, and dodge and burn, until you get the desired result (each one in a different layer).

Step 2

And for the smoke, in a New Layer use a soft Round Brush with white color to paint some soft strokes to the shape of smoke that seems correct to you.

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10. Final Details

Now we will add some food to their faces.

Step 1

Create a New Layer on a white background and create a shape similar to below. You can also find a nice set of splatter brush online. Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset > Name it.

Step 2

Once you have created the brush, change its properties and put the layer in Overlay mode.

Step 3

Start painting stains, but only a bit, without exaggeration, just to give them the dirty appearance that we’re looking for.

Step 4

And then paint each one of the final details in a New Layer with a Hard Round Brush.

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Conclusion

In this tutorial, we showed you how to create a humorous X-Men-themed illustration in Photoshop using several techniques. First, we showed how to sketch your artwork and block in your colors. We then showed you how to polish your artwork by making effective use of selections, vector tools, and even layer styles. We hope you learned something from this tutorial and can use these techniques to help improve your own artwork.