Photoshop: Pop Art #1

Today we're going to be creating a Pop Art picture; something that would have been popular on album art in the 80's or on T-shirts from the 2000's.  :)

To begin with, choose a picture with distinct lines to make it easier to erase out the background.

• Make a copy of the picture layer.
• Between the two picture layers, insert a new layer and fill it with a bright color.
• Erase the background (everything but the subject) on the top layer.  You should see the color coming through behind your subject.
• Perform a Threshold: IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > THRESHOLD
• FILTER > BLUR > GAUSSIAN BLUR (just smoothing a little)
• Right-click on your top layer (the picture you just blurred) and do a DUPLICATE LAYER and then under "Document" choose "New", giving it a name like "Temp"
• Convert your new document to Gray-Scale: IMAGE > MODE> GRAYSCALE (just to remove any color variation)
• Convert your document to a bitmap: IMAGE > MODE > BITMAP 
• Flatten Layers
• Halftone Screen
• Round
• Frequency (Start with 30 but play with this setting for a better effect)
• Go back to Grayscale: IMAGE > MODE > GRAYSCALE
• Size Ratio: 1
• Back to Color: IMAGE > MODE > RGB COLOR
• Right-Click the Layer then Duplicate Layer 
• Document: Choose the original document
• Go back to your original document where you can see your black & white on top of the other layers.
• Hold the ALT button while hovering between the top two layers and click on the "double bubble" to connect the two layers.
• Try this with a few different pictures to see how the process works.

Done by Adriana French

Here are some interesting Pop Art backgrounds you can try out: