Andy Warhol | Photoshop Effect
This is a great print for your bedroom wall & a fun project to do.
Step one:
pick your photo. Preferably a portrait of some sort. I have chosen a portrait of Oliver, the photograph was taken by Louise Olivier and this is her dog:)

Step two:
Opening the photo in Photoshop I first need to remove the background. I used the selection marquee tool and drew a rough selection around Oliver. It was neat, but not neat enough to remove the background without leaving some pieces here and there. These pieces are actually needed for the artistic effect to work properly.
With my selection done I click Ctrl+C to copy the piece I have selected. Then straight away Ctrl+V to paste the selection onto a new layer.
You can now click on your old layer and select Ctrl+A and then delete to clean it up.
Step three:
Colour your background some ridiculous bright colour. I chose a grass green colour. Use the paint bucket tool and fill in the whole layer.
Step four:
Turn your portrait to a black and white print.
1. Image > Adjustment > Desaturate.
2. Filter > Artistic > Film Grain.
You can play around with the three sliders in the film grain option until you have the right effect.
3. Image > Adjustment > Levels – drag the two outer tabs (black and white) closer to the middle to increase the contrast in your image.
Step Five:
Make a new layer above your head cut-out. Layer > New > Layer.
You can drag it to sit above your head layer if it didn’t appear there automatically. This layer is going to be the colour of the face.
Make a rough selection around the area of the face (if your person is wearing a t-shirt leave that area out for now) and with your new layer selected – use your paint bucket to colour in the selected area you have just drawn. You can then draw another selection around the shirt or other section of your portrait that you want a different colour and repeat. (maybe you want their hair to be a different colour to the face)
Now set this layers blending mode to Multiply. (Blending mode can be found in a tab just above your layers menu – it is set to normal by default)
You can then drop the opacity (also found just above the layers tab) to around 70-80% to reveal your face layer a little more clearly.
Step six:
You now have a colour background, a print style face and a colour layer for the face.
Select your bottom layer – right click it and say “Merge visible”
This creates one solid layer holding your colourful Andy Warhol block.
Step seven:
Increase your canvas size to hold more blocks.
Image > Canvas Size.
Lets say your existing canvas size is 5cm by 6cm. This is the size of one block. I wanted to increase my canvas to hold 9blocks. So 5 X 9 = (height) and 6 X 9 = (width)
Increase your canvas depending on how many blocks you want in your Warhol print.
Before you click OK click on the top arrow in the little diagram indicating that you want to lock the current print into the top corner and increase the canvas from there. Then click OK.
Step eight:
Using your square selection tool – draw a neat square around the colourful block of box number one – not around the whole canvas – just around you portrait. Then Ctrl+C (copy) and then Ctrl+V (paste).
You will notice that another colourful block of your portrait will appear in a new layer above your existing layer. Click Ctrl+V 9 more times (or how ever many blocks you want in your print) and you will see 9 more layers appearing each with their own block.
Now click on the first new layer that appeared and with your move tool selected – move the block to sit neatly next to your original block along the top of your canvas. Then select your next layer and move that block as well until all of your blocks in each layer are laid out neatly lined up next to and beneath each other creating your print layout.
Step nine:
Colouring your blocks.
Go back to your first new layer. With the layer selected click Image > Adjustments > Hue&Saturation.
Using only the top slider bar – move it along to achieve your desired colour for that block. Click OK and repeat the process for each layer.
When you are happy with all of the colours go to your bottom layer – right click and say “Merge All”
There you have it! Your very own Andy Warhol Print!!
















dis is cool
andy’s style is different an unique, but out of date,
I couldn’t disagree more. Andy is a timeless artist that made a huge impact on Art
I agree with Catherine!