How to Create an Angel in Photoshop

I used this image I found while browsing Google images for the keyword jump. Click the Image for the source picture.
Open the image in Photoshop and keep the image size the same for now.

Step 1. Begin using the Magnetic Lasso tool to outline the jumper. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try not to chop off any limbs, fingers or toes!

Once Selected Copy and Paste the Jumper in a new layer and try to clean up the edges to the best of your ability.

You will notice that it would take a lot of patience to remove all the blue from the hair and remaining areas around his body. So we are going to go to the top menu to SELECT then COLOR RANGE.

Use the color picker to select the blue color range between the hair. You will notice in the black color range box that there are little specks of white. This white is the blue that you selected in the image.

Once you Select OK you will notice that all the remaining blue is now selected. Hit the Delete Key and Your image will appear clean and cut!

Increase the Canvas Size of the Image by 10 inches, this way the wings will not get cut off when we add them.

Lets Refine the edge a bit using these settings found under SELECT and REFINE EDGE. Feather 2px and shift edge +40% hit OK and then Press Delete. Voila!

OK so we have our diver jumper man all cut out and cleaned up, now comes the fun part! Lets get the wings set up. I got the wings from searching wing or wings in Google images. To use these wings just click on the Image to get the Link.

Use the Magic Selection tool to remove the white background. Then copy the layer to your Jumper/Diver file.

Scale the wing to fit like the image above. I also trimmed a bit of the wing with the eraser tool. That is wing number 1. Now we need to duplicate this layer to make the 2nd wing.

So now that we have the second wing we need to give the wing the appearance of it coming at you. So select Edit , Transform and Distort to play with the wings perspective.

This is what the second Wing should look like after playing with Distort and Perspective Tools

So now we have a Pretty cool looking angel in a bathing suit... Lets try and fix this and add something a bit more medieval? or Angel like rather than a wet bathing suit. Click the Image to get a link to a Leather Skirt I found online through Google images

Do your best to Remove all of the background from the skirt. Then move the layer into your Diver/Jumper file

Scale the Skirt by lining up the waist area appropriately

Play with the perspective and use the warp tool to wrap around the waist area of the figure.

You'll notice the bathing suit is still showing through the skirt so use the clone tool and eraser to extend the leg all the way up and use the burn tool to add shadow.

Now Line up the wings to the Divers Back.

Now we are going to bring the layers together by incorporating a few tweaks in the layers.

Wings and Figure -
Adjust the levels = Input should read 0 , 0.47 , 164
Vibrance should be -60

Skirt -
adjust the curves - Output should be 28 and input 67

You may want to add some more shadows using the paintbrush tool or burn tool to give the Angel more depth. I burn the skin near the wings to look like they are part of his body. I also add shading near the skirt so the wings give off a shadow. Play around and have fun with it.

Create a Gradient Map in a new Layer and Set the Layer Style to Overlay at 75% Opacity

Play Around with different Backgrounds using clipping masks to get various effects. I used clouds, a night sky and an underwater shot with some noise distortion in the end to get my final results.

Hope you Enjoyed this tutorial! Pass it along and give www.Bri-Idea.com - Long Island Web Design / Graphic Design a shout!