A Zombie Army Via Adobe Photoshop: It's Crafty

New to Adobe Photoshop?  Me too! I purchased the Adobe CS4 bundle a few years ago and it included Photoshop.  It was on my list of things to do to learn an image editor in detail, so Photoshop became that editor.  I liked the fact that it's a tool of choice for professionals and hey, I already owned it!  I'm still learning, but finally I have something I can share.  It's part of my learning process.  Thanks for reading!

This post will take an image that has a zombie repeated five times.  We will erase all but one of those images, duplicate it three more times and put the images into a different configuration that uses only four copies of the zombie.  The short story for the curious is that I'm getting ready to stitch out zombie patches for a BSA patrol, and the five-zombie combination is too big for the embroidery hoop.

A photo is better than a thousand words, so it is presented as a series of photos with captions. These steps take you along a slightly less efficient route.  If you already know how to use a magnetic lasso, you may bypass those steps.

Aside from the usual eyedropper to sample color, paintbucket to apply color, eraser tool for erasing... there are...

Magnetic Lasso - Used to define an area to be selected and operated upon.  Helpful if you want to hug the border of a color change.

Magic Eraser - Great for getting rid of entire areas of contiguous color without any residue.

Layers - Layers are like transparencies.  Images printed on them can be stacked on top of each other and the result is a combination of all of the smaller images.  If you want to edit the image on a layer, you must first select it.

Note: The exercise in this post requires Adobe Photoshop. If you don't have Adobe Photoshop, read "Buying Adobe Photoshop or Creative Suite Bundle" below. 

Before you start, you will need an image to edit.  I am deleting zombies, but you can be deleting anything.  I encourage you to make this walkthrough your own by using your own artwork or photographs.  If you don't have your own artwork, please feel free to save the 5-up image and play with it.  I am not able to extend rights to reproduction of the artwork.  By using this artwork for your practise you are confirming that you will not use it for any other purposes.

Many thanks to artist Don Schmidt who allowed the use of his work in this post.  Don is a Handmade Penguin artist who goes by the creative name Bujinkomix.  You may have seen him (among other places) at the Long Beach Comicon in October, at Lowell Elementary School Summer Camp Fairs, or at BSA Pack 007 meetings.

My thanks to friend and co-worker Yumei Qiu, who helped me jump over some of my early Photoshop hurdles.

If you find any sequence errors or omissions of steps in the photo instructions, please do not hesitate to comment.

A Suggestion for Using This Post

A good way to use this post is to open it in a browser window just shy of fully in the background, then open Photoshop in the foreground.  Adjust the browser window so that the top left corner is at the top left of the screen.  Adjust photoshop so that it takes up most of the screen, but not all, and place it in the lower right of the display.  This placement will let you go back and forth easily, so that you don't have to look for the window before you open it. 

Click on the first image and read the step, then click on the Photoshop application and perform the step. 

Buying Adobe Photoshop or Creative Suite Bundle

If you don't have Adobe Photoshop, you may download a trial version at the Adobe download site.  If you decide to buy, it's $399 for Photoshop alone.  If you want the creative suite, it's a whopping $1,899 at the Adobe site.  One of my mantras is "Never pay full price."  Shop around, check Amazon!  Google or Yahoo! it!  Are you an educator or student?  Definitely go for the student version!  It should come in at a substantially lower price.

This post in Video form.

I will be re-publishing this post in video form.

If you are interested in knowing when that and other creative tips and how-tos are published, check back here, or subscribe to YouTube channel Squigglemom.