Spiritual Growth - Enlightening Photoshop Tutorial

Before we get started you'll need to gather up a few pieces below:

Photoshop Brushes:

Clouds - download

Vector Packs:

Tree Silhouettes - download

Going Green With Leaves - download

Images:

Monk - download

Mountains - download

Step 1

Open the picture of the monk in Photoshop which will be set as the "Background". I changed the height to 17 inches and with proportions constrained it makes the width 12.173 inches. I set the resolution to 300 pixels/inch.

Step 2

With the Pen Tool create multiple paths around the monks skin.

Right-click on one of the paths and choose "Make Selection". Press Ctrl+J to copy the multiple selections to a new layer and name the layer "monk".

Step 3

With the Pen Tool selected, create paths around the bench, the monks robe, his sandals and his walking stick, as we did in the previous step around the monks skin. Again, right click on the path and choose "Make Selection". Press Ctrl+J to copy the multiple selections to a new layer and name it "monks belongings". Drag this layer to the top of the layer order.

Step 4

Create a new layer above the "Background" layer, name it "tree placement contrast", and fill the entire layer with black. Open both the "BB_trees" and "Leaves" vector packs in Illustrator.

Above the "monk" layer we'll need to copy several tree vectors from Illustrator and paste them into Photoshop as "Smart Objects".

Place the first image so that it appears to run along the monks spine towards his head. Scale this image up in size since the trunks of this tree image will be the main ones and need to be the largest.
Change the name of the layer to "main trunk".

Continue to copy and paste more branches from Illustrator into Photoshop, in the same way over the upper body, placing each new layer of branches below the previous one. Arrange the positioning and adjust the size so each new branch appears to be growing from the previous one.

Step 5

Repeat the same process of copying and pasting from Illustrator into Photoshop, this time with the leaves. Try to choose leaves that look similar, place the leaf layers above the "main trunk" layer. The placement of the layers in the manner described is meant to avoid or minimize the need to move layers around later to achieve the look we want. Though it's not necessary, but for the sake of consistency, I changed the fill on the leaves in Illustrator to black before copying them.

Position and scale the leaves so that they flow with the direction the branches appear to be growing. Place the larger leaves towards the "main trunk" and have them decrease in size the further away they get, as seen below.

After placing a couple of dozen leaves, the result I got, can be seen below. Create a folder, name it "Upper body growth" and place all the vector layers inside.

Step 6

Next we need to copy and paste a few more branches from Illustrator, this time placing them over the feet and positioning them so they appear to be growing downward to mimic roots. Create a new folder and name it "Lower body growth" and place the vector layers which cover the feet inside.

Step 7

This step will require a lot of patience and copying of the "monk" layer. Select the "monk" layer and press Ctrl+J to copy it. Move the copied layer beneath one of the vector images. With the copied image still selected, Ctrl+click on the vector image to create a selection. Once you have a selection press the mask icon to create a layer mask. Turn the visibility of the vector layer off.

Take a deep breath! Repeat this process for each of the vector images that you placed over the monks body. The result I got when finished with this enormous step is below.

Step 8

Next we need to create some depth amongst the images with vector masks by adding a drop shadow. Pick any image you'd like to start with. Click the "fx" icon and choose Drop Shadow. Adjust the angle to about 30 degrees, set the Distance to 10 px, set the Spread to 7% and the Size to 18px.

Now instead of having to repeat that for each and every image with a vector mask, just hold "Alt" and click+drag the "fx" icon from the first image to the next.

After applying the drop shadow to each layer this is the result I got.

Step 9

Open the "mountain.jpg" and drag it into the document. Place the layer above the "tree placement contrast" layer and name it "mountain". Press Ctrl+T to select the Transform Tool, scale and position the image at the top of the composition as seen below.

With the "mountain" layer selected press Ctrl+J to copy it. Change the Blend Mode on the copied layer to Multiply and apply a Gaussian Blur with a 20 pixel radius by going to: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Select the "mountain" layer and reduce the Opacity to 80%.

Step 10

Select the "tree placement contrast" layer and apply a layer mask. With a foreground color of black, select the Gradient Tool and draw a linear gradient on the layer mask from the bottom of the canvas to the bottom of the mountain image.

Step 11

Select the "mountain" layer and apply a layer mask. As before in the previous step select the Gradient Tool with the same settings and draw a linear gradient from the bottom of the mountain picture to the top of the canvas. Hold "Alt" and click+drag the layer mask to the "mountain copy" layer to copy the mask.