[thanks Erika for subtitles!] In this beautiful rainy day, we’re gonna try a new hobby, not the jigsaw puzzles, but digital mosaics. This, will take you a lot of time anyway, because it isn’t just an effect made with a pair of filters. It’s a technique that will require a lot of time, you a lot of practice, but not necessary you must know how to draw. You can do this also with a mouse, because it doesn’t need much precision. Less precise will be probably more realistic. Obviously it fits better with warm colored pics, with simple figures or anyway with ‘rocks colors’. No electric blue, for example. and with a lot of contrast, because the high contrast allows us to do a job that’s really like a real mosaic. But really, it can be used for any photos, in fact I tried with a digital painting of Elsa, and the result was really nice. This is the pic that I used for a test, that I neither completed, because part of the beauty of this technique is that even if it stay incomplete it doesn’t annoy, it reminds a real mosaic. So we’ve an excuse to be lazy.. I choose a facebook timeline dimensions because they are smaller, for a long work small pic are easier. The techinique is easy, so I can do it more quickly if it’s small. The image that I choose is a dinosaur, a dinossaur mossaic. The first thing that we need is a background like this, I looked for it on google. You can look for “ground texture” or “gravel texture”… You should look for a texture that’s grainy but flat. Because you’ve to think about it like the basis of a mosaic, such as a floor.. The color of the background depends on the pic you have selected For this leopard the ground that I choose is light gray, in order to make it matching with its coat. You can choose a color that fits with your pic, or much more darker or lighter of your pic, to increase the contrast. Depends on the effect you want. First, I delete all the layer I don’t need. We will have a layer with a ground, that you can name by clicking on it, and the layer with our subject. Ve-lo-ci-ra.ptor.. But you can use anything you like. People, landscapes. For the background I use the gray/blue took from the velociraptor, so I add a new layer and with the bucket i click on it to fill the color, and i give it, for example an effect like “multiply”, with opacity as 50% or less. Then I need a copy of my dinosaur pic that I’ll use like trace, so I copy it. This second one will be the one I’ll work with. I’m going to apply on it a mask: the white represents the showed parts of the pic, the black will become invisible. I click on the mask and with a black Bucket tool I fill it. Now, as you can see, if I hide the layer below, velociraptor is ‘hidden’. Move the trace layer up or down, depending how you work better, and I set it on 50% to see it but not completely. I take the Lasso: our skill consists in creating small tiles with lasso over our pic. The tiles must follow the pic, because otherwise we could just use a random tiled mask, but this wouldn’t fit the image. that’s why usually Photoshop ‘mosaic’ filters sucks, becuase they’re just random. Even like the pixel mosaic. It’s a mosaic like me it’s a greek statue. Real mosaics tend to follow the image: in fact they define the base line tracing hair, faces, more little pieces for the eyes, etc and then they fill the other parts with lines of tiles, or decorative shapes such as circles.. When you have done some tiles, you can took the Bucket and fill the selection in the mask with white color. In fact if we hide the layer below we can see the tiles, but they are bidimensional.. So, when you have done the first tiles, you can right click in the layers window and choose ‘layer style’, and then add a very subtle shadow, even just 1 pixel large. Then choose the effect Bevel and Emboss, and then Inner bevel. I choose a low depth, set the black to zero, and I modify only the light. A very light light. As you see in the pieces there are a little parts of other colors, while it would be better they’re composed by a single one. For a moment I drag the mask, and I apply a Gaussian blur that to hide some details, without exaggerating. Re-drag the mask on it. And now I proceed selecting tiles, fill them with the white Bucket. That’s why this doesn’t need a graphic tablet.. To make them like this you can use a mouse. It’s just slower to do. For the tiles shape, you can even follow the guidelines of the ground, its little rocks shapes.. And then fill with pieces pieces pieces. Personally I’m following the shapes made by the dinosaur light.. Occasionally, we can fill with white and decrease the zoom to see the result, and if one dowels have two colors.. it isn’t bad, it can be a rock gradient. With its original size it’s pretty nice.. Mosaics were made by glass or other kind of materials that had more flat colors.. but our will be made with stones. I decided. Now I skip the boring part making it speedy.. You have to remember that, you don’t have to complete the mosaic, you can complete the principal subject and leave pick of the ground. So! Our technique is finished, obviously you can change image color, making the pic warmer.. But in the leopard sample, the colors are cold but still fit with rocks. So you can choose the color that you think more good for a mosaic, but the pic, even without this adjustments is good. Plus you can color some tiles, even if you’re not skilled in drawing, to underline some lines or pieces. Such as the light of the eye.. Hope you like this video, and if you’re going to try this technique, please share your finished work on my Facebook page! Delirium post tutorial – YouTube is evil and doesn’t share my videos.. So please, copy-paste my videos on Facebook if you think they worth.. Once a girl shared 3 of my videos and in 10 minutes I had 2 more fans- Whoa! Wof-wof-wof.. I’ve to stop the dog before she eats someone.. So.. let me know if you liked it. See you next video! As usual I’ll leave here some other links.. Bye!