Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

Well if you’re a movie buff of any bearing you would be aware of the looming release of ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. You would also definitely have seen some of legendary poster artistDrew Struzan‘s work (bow). His art for this latest movie is classic Jones, classic action adventure, it’s brilliant. Hell, everyone should have their own Indy Poster. In homage to Struzan, let’s do it.

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A quick analysis of a few movie posters – you’ll notice a trend in either warm or cool gradient backgrounds with one highlight.

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For this tutorial you’ll need:

• One skull or suitable spooky image
• One Aztec/Mayan type carving
• One hero shot, preferably backlit (of course yourself!)
• Shots of rocks, walls, trees, steps for a backdrop
• The SF Fedora Font set (get it here)

A standard movie poster is 27 x 40″ (68.6 x 101.6cm) with about 150ppi (pixels per inch) but that’s a big file so choose a size that suits.

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The Background

We’ll start with a gradient of warm color. Bring up the gradient editor and add color points as shown, then apply.

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Drop in and clearcut the skull, then use the EDIT>TRANSFORM>WARP tool to distort the image to a suitably scary state. DESATURATE to lose the color. I applied a PLASTIC WRAP filter to give it some sheen.

SKULL COLOUR – We’ll place the skull large at the top, and add a layer style by double clicking the skull layer in the layers tab. We’ll give it a COLOR OVERLAY (we’ll use a lot of these) setting the color to a bright orange and using a vivid light blend mode.

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SKULL SHADOW – Duplicate the skull layer and erase all but the areas you want deep shadow. The eye sockets in this case. Then adjust the layer style to a deep brown with a COLOR BURN
blend mode

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SKULL HIGHLIGHT – Duplicate the original skull layer again, remove the layer styles and crank the contrast right up to get a few strong whites for highlights. Set the layer blend mode
to SCREEN. This will give the teeth some punch.

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Now we’ll flatten the image and apply a little DRY BRUSH filter and some NOISE to give it a painterly gritty effect.

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Ok that’s the background. Now a backdrop to frame our ‘hero’. Drop in some background rock or tree life, and DESATURATE. Apply plenty of contrast for deep highlights. Now apply another COLOR OVERLAY layer style using a deep brown color and linear light mode. Set the layer mode to SCREEN.

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Now DUPLICATE the layer, remove the styles and set the layer mode to HARD LIGHT. A little DRY BRUSH can’t hurt either. Erase the edges a little to blend with the background.

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Now let’s add some steps for our hero to stand on – another greyscale image with a COLOR OVERLAY layer style. This time set to SOFT LIGHT mode and a light brown color. We set the layer mode to LUMINOSITY on this one. As you might be starting to guess, there is experimentation here. Play. Learn. Enjoy.

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Now we pick up speed. We take our Aztec carving, color it rich blue using the HUE/SATURATION tool, hollow it out using the eraser tool and place it at the base. Then we create a new layer and paint over it with black (with some opacity) so it’s subtle.

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The hero Now we’re ready for our hero. Create a new layer and airbrush in a white glow to sit behind the character. This is our focal point. Now add a layer style to this and use an OUTER GLOW with a yellow color. Glow on glow. Now we’ll paste in our character (handsome fellow…) To give it some inky grunt, I like to apply UNSHARP MASK with a high radius. Adjust LEVELS to a point you’re happy with, where the hero looks a part of the scene.

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Now DUPLICATE the hero layer. Set the new layers mode to LUMINOSITY, and then apply a layer effect. In this case we want threeeffects to ‘style like Struzan’.

Outer Glow – This will give the character an ink-like outline. Set this to a very dark brown, blend mode to OVERLAY, a little SPREAD and a little NOISE until you get a rough brown outline

Color Overlay – This will give the character the same tone as the rest of the image. Set blend mode to OVERLAY and choose a soft brown to blend the character with the scene.

Stroke – this will mimic the halo outline of a backlight. Set color to white, blend mode to OVERLAY, position to CENTER.

Now to give the character a painterly feel, apply a little DRY BRUSH filter, excluding the face with a feather selection. A little NOISE and UNSHARP MASK perhaps for good measure.