Keetee

If you’re not familiar with Girl Talk, he’s this guy who does crazy-smooth, highly danceable mashups. (You can listen to a playlist of Girl Talk on Muzakbox.) Whenever I’m looking the fella up I always come across this picture:

I decided to try my hand at making something similar. This was a quick one, but I hope it’ll give an idea of what steps one can take to achieve this type of effect.

Final Image Preview

Preparation

1. Still Time by Larabie Fonts
2. A straight-on photo of a face

I recommend working large. We’ll be doing some rasterized text warping that won’t be noticeable when sized down.

Process

I start by cropping down a photo of my face just above the eyes and right below the mouth. (I decided to skip clean-up because the reference image has a lot of detail in the skin—but due to the light differences, I would smooth the skin if I were to do this again.) Duplicate this original layer for future use.

Insert your text. I used the font Still Time by Larabie Fonts. Transform so that it expands across the face.

Set the fill of your text layer to 0%, then open Blending Options.

Check Color Overlay and go to its options. Select Blend Mode: Darken and a bright color.

Check Drop Shadow and go to its options. Select Blend Mode: Darken, Opacity: 100%, Distance: 0, Spread: 0, Size: 5px. Choose the same color as you did in Color Overlay, then make it 40% darker (check the percentage under “B” in the color selection dialog.)

Rasterize your text (right click » Rasterize Type).

The next step is to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select parts of the letters, then warp them (Edit » Transform » Warp). I wish I had taken a few more process shots of how this is done, but the idea is just to grab parts of the letters and make them less rigid—more fluid with the shape of the face. Here’s how mine came out:

Next, add some flair to the text. I actually used a drawing tablet to paint in the splashes and tapering, but this can be done with a patient mouse too. I didn’t spend too much time on this, but it’s probably the trickiest part… just do your best, mess around, and see what shakes out!

Let’s add some depth to the text. Duplicate your original face layer and bring it to the top. Go to Image » Adjustments » Channel Mixer. In the dialog box, check Monochrome and adjust the sliders (for skin, adding red is usually the easiest) so that you have an amount of shading similar to below.

Set the layer to Multiply. This darkens up those areas we didn’t blow out until they were white. (This is where I started wishing I’d cleaned up the skin!)

This is an optional step—its usefulness depends on your original photo. That last step made my eyes really dark, so this is how I brought the color back up. Duplicate the original face again and bring it to the top. Go to Window » Masks » Add Layer Mask. Select the Layer Mask and fill with black, then take a white brush and paint over the irises of the eyes so that the original color shows through.

The text still looked flat to me, so I decided to try another approach with highlighting instead of shading. This tutorial was a bit of an experimental procedure, so you should feel free to mess around on your own as well!

Select all and go to Edit » Copy Merged. Paste.

Duplicate your original face layer again and bring it on top. In Tools, make your background color white. Go to Filter » Distort » Diffuse Glow. (You may need to go to Show All Menu Items under Distort first.) Graininess: 0, Glow: 1, Clear: 10-12.

Set the layer opacity to 25% and the Blending Mode to Vivid Light.

The last thing is “detail” steps. These were photo-specific for me, so try to spot any last touches you can add to yours and work accordingly. I noticed that my eyes were a little blue from my contacts, so after flattening I went to Image » Adjustments » Selective Color and pulled down the Blues. I also used the Burn tool to refine some of the shading.

Final Image

Before I called it quits, I dusted some pink lighting around my cheeks and in my eyes with a soft brush and set the Blend Mode to Vivid Light and 25% opacity.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a rush job—if I were to do it again, I’d work on enhancing the lighting on the lips, clean up that bothersome skin, or maybe just select a better photo altogether. Despite that, I think this tutorial shows a lot about layering and hope you find it useful!