In this article we will take a look at the work of Mike Lim. Lim is a concept artist who has worked for several well-known clients including Mythic Entertainment, Blizzard, and more. His artwork is full of scary monsters, dwarfs, knights, and even a skull or two. Let’s take a look!

Mass Effect 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur Promo

Hero’s Call

Black Fire Pass

Nicodemus

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Omens of War

Skaven Master Moulder

Dark Sun

Signs of Faith

A Deadly Encounter

The Edge of Night

Poised

Dwarf Slayer

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

I’m incredibly excited to let you know about a series of live Photoshop workshops we have planned over the next few months, in conjunction with Martin Perhiniak. They’ll be taking place in London, UK, and it’s a great chance to take your Photoshop training to the next level! Read on to find out more, and book your place…

Professional Face-to-Face Training

Martin Perhiniak is one of our most popular authors on Psdtuts+, a Certified Adobe Design Master and Instructor, and an incredibly talented teacher. Martin has worked with companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures, Mattel, and DC Comics. He will be running a series of Tuts+ Live Workshops over the next three months, giving you the chance to become a Photoshop expert.

The workshops are taking place in London, UK, in a state of the art learning environment (here’s a video of the training centre), and over each two-day course you’ll learn everything you need to know about a particular area of Photoshop. We’ll even provide an iMac, second screen, and a tablet for you to use during the course!

It’s an amazing opportunity to take your Photoshop career to the next level, learning skills that will make you a better creative professional. If you’re wanting to take the first step into being a full-time Photoshop professional, these workshops are the perfect start.

Dates, Prices, and Topics

Digital Art

Have you ever imagined yourself working on blockbuster movies or computer games? Designing characters, monsters, weapons, cities, castles, spaceships and planets? In this intense but fun two-day workshop, you can learn all the techniques used by professional digital artists. Topics covered will be:

• Digital art basics & theory
• Brushes
• Finding and using references & inspiration
• Using a tablet
• Digital sketching and painting techniques
• Portraits and dynamic character poses
• Concept art projects
• Vehicle, character, monster, weapon, and environment design
• Matte painting projects
• Futuristic and fantasy cityscape

You’ll need a basic understanding of Photoshop for this course. If you are not confident, you can prepare for the course by watching Martin’s Photoshop Basix series!

Graphic Design

Have you ever wanted to learn all the best practices used by a professional graphic designer? This is the best place and time for you to do that. You can learn everything you need to know through real life design examples, which makes the training extremely useful and exciting. Topics covered will be:

• Logo design workflow and project
• Brochure design workflow and project
• Poster design workflow and project
• Product packaging design workflow and project
• Identity design workflow and project
• Album cover design workflow and project

You’ll need a basic understanding of Photoshop for this course. If you are not confident, you can prepare for the course by watching Martin’s Photoshop Basix series!

Photo Retouching

In this two-day course, you’ll learn all the most advanced retouch skills you need for professional work in several fields in the industry. The techniques we cover in this special course are used by high-end fashion photo retouchers, digital artists, professional photographers and graphic designers. Topics covered will be:

• High-end portrait retouch
• Skin softening, and changing hair and eye colour
• Modifying facial and body features
• Artistic portrait effects
• Removing unwanted elements
• Extending photos for better composition
• Professional sharpening and noise-reduction
• Creating the perfect group shot
• Photo montage techniques
• HDR techniques
• Adding colour to black and white photographs
• Vintage and colour pop effects
• Restoring old photographs & cleaning up backgrounds
• Working with Camera RAW files
• Retouching landscape photographs
• Professional fashion/wedding shoot retouch and montage project

You’ll need a basic understanding of Photoshop for this course. If you are not confident, you can prepare for the course by watching Martin’s Photoshop Basix series!

Have Your Say & Win!

While our first set of workshops are taking place in London, we’d love to have your thoughts on how we can continue this project. Let us know where you think other live workshops should be held, if you’d like to participate in an online workshop, and what topics you think we should cover:

Take our thirty second survey

We’ll pick a random respondent to win a three month Tuts+ Premium membership on Friday 31st May!

Filters are a powerful tool in Photoshop to help you apply quick effects to your images. The Oil Paint filter in Photoshop CS6 will give any image a painted look. In this tutorial, we will introduce you to this new filter. Let’s get started!

In this tutorial we will explain how to create a metallic copper text effect using layer styles in Photoshop. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Concrete Bunker Texture
• Argel Font
• Palace Balls Picture

Step 1

Create a new file. Set Width and Height to 700 px and the resolution to 72 PPI. Name: Angel text

Step 2

Fill the canvas with the Concrete Bunker texture.

Step 3

Marge the concrete bunker texture to the background.

Step 4

Go to menu > Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > use the values as shown below.

Step 5

Apply Sharpen twice: Go to menu > Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. Add Noise: Go to menu > Filter > Noise > Add Noise > use the values as shown in the pop-up, in the left side of the image below. Create a new empty layer over the background; fill it with color code #252829. Apply Blend mode "Color" as shown in the menu, in the right side of the image below. Finally merge it to the background (Command/Ctrl+E).

Step 6

Type the word “Angel” using the “Argel Font”, font size 310 pt, tracking 0. Select the letter “A” and set tracking to 40. All values as shown in the image below.

Step 7

Using the "Move Tool", select the text and background layer, then click the align commands: "Align Horizontal Center" and "Align Vertical Center" on the top menu to center it.

Step 8

Apply a Layer Style on the text layer (right click over the layer > Blending Options). Set Blending Options step by step as shown in the image below and click ok.

Note: to edit the Gloss Contour in the Bevel and Emboss step: click the contour thumbnail to open the Contour Editor pop-up > click in the contour mesh to add points and enter values for Input and Output.

Step 9

Copy the image “Palace Balls” from the browser, paste it over the text layer “Angel” and rename the image layer to “Reflection01.” Using the "Move Tool," select "Reflection01" image layer and background layer, then click the align commands: "Align Bottom Edges" and "Align Left Edges" on the top menu, as shown in the image below.

Step 10

Select “Reflection01″ image layer and using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool”, right click over the picture and choose “Free Transform”. Then lock the proportions with the loop icon “Maintain Aspect Ratio” on the top menu, as shown in the image below and reduce Width and Height to 70%, set Horizontal Position to 1099.2 px and set Vertical Position to -7.8 px and press enter.

Step 11

Apply a Layer Style on “Reflection01″ image layer (right click over the layer > Blending Options) and apply Gradient Overlay values as shown below and click ok, to get a metal copper tone.

Step 12

Apply Sharpen thrice: Go to menu > Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen (remember repeat this step three times).

Step 13

Reduce Noise: Go to menu > Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise. Using the values as shown below.

Step 14

Duplicate layer “Reflection01″ and rename to “Reflection02.” After renaming it apply: Blend mode to Lighten and Opacity to 50% as shown below.

Step 15

To achieve a stunning reflection effect, select “Reflection02″ image layer and using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool”, right click over the picture and choose: Free Transform > Flip Horizontal > and reduce Width to -90% and Height to 90%, set Horizontal Position to 513 px and set Vertical Position to 108 px as shown below and press enter.

Step 16

Select the two image layers and go to menu > Layer > Create Clipping Mask. To put the reflections inside the layer font. Finally, select the two image and text layers to link them by clicking over the "Link Layers" icon at the bottom of the layers palette. To have the final text effect linked.

Final Image