In culinary arts, one of the first things you’ll learn is mise en place. Or getting everything ready before you begin. Here we’ll get a few things sorted out before diving into how to create an NFT step by step. First, you’ll need to open your image editing software and create a new document.
To create a new document select File/New.
Choose the image size and resolution you wish to work with. Any size is fine. For this document I am working in 3024 x 4032 pixels because that was the resolution of the original format and I liked the rectangular shape.
Select from preset templates or create a custom size.
In your image editing software you’ll be faced with a completely new document. This will be your blank canvas and starting point.
Your blank canvas awaits.
Hopefully you have an idea in mind. I chose a rose as it is a really interesting flower with several meanings and interpretations. Those interpretations were interesting to me which is what led me to further investigate their meaning.
Using original photos can be fun.
Because I chose a collage style of art and was only going to use the rose. I knew I was going to need to isolate it from the background. A good rule of thumb is to always duplicate your original layer. If you make a mistake you can delete the layer you’re working on and create a new copy. In order to isolate the rose I used the pen tool to create a path around it.
The pen is a might tool.
With the pen tool I begin to trace around the rose in order to begin making the shape for the final layer mask. There are a few ways to do this. I prefer the pen tool because of its accuracy.
The pen tool allows for precise lines.
Once I made it all the way around the rose and had the shape I wanted in order to convert the path into a selection I right clicked on the path in the canvas and selected `Make Selection` from the dropdown menu. You can access the `Make Selection` from the edit menu as well.
Clicking on the path exposes a quick menu.
Before making a selection you will be faced with a modal overlay that has a few options. The main one you’ll ever really mess with is going to be the `Feather Radius`. This feathers the edge of your selection making it “softer”. Meaning if it was set to 0 then the edge would be hard. One or above smooths out the edge and creates a “blend”. Try it out and see what’s what.
Feathering a selection eases the edges.
Voila. A new selection was made. Friendly tip, as a confirmation you’ll see the marching ants around the shape you just traced if you did it correctly.
Once a selection is made, ants will march around your object.
Creating selections allows you to do a whole bunch of really cool things in imaging software. For this specific project it allowed me to create an isolation of an object. With the mask I created I was able to erase the background. I did that by inverting the selection which selected everything around the shape. From there I deleted the contents of the selection and was left with an isolated rose ready for use.
Trimmed and ready for use.
Creating the art
Now that the rose was isolated I was free to begin experimenting. Since I had a direction in mind I was able to dive right in and start workthing through ideas. For this particular style of work I knew I was going to follow specific constraints. As part of the creative process I needed a base layer to work from. Therefore I ended up desaturating the rose and removing all color. Effectively making it black and white.
Different styles can be created with layering.
To get the final rose I used several different methods I was taught when working in the printing and publishing industries. In order to get black and white images to reproduce correctly, not build up ink on the rollers and look crisp on all types of paper adjustments to the objects levels and curves can help reduce the midtones, kind of like equalization in audio mixing.
Levels, brightness, contrast and more are under the Image menu.
In order to access the levels or image adjustments have a layer selected and navigate to Image/Adjustments. Depending upon what you select you’ll be faced with a dialog box of options. Here’s what Levels looks like.
Play around with the settings to find what you like.
I’m not going to go in depth as to what I did or the exact adjustments I made. There’s many tutorials on how to adjust levels, curves, brightness, contrast, hue and saturation. I will say that I used a conjunction of all in order to create the finalized colorless rose before treating it with color. I also used a combination of layering and layer opacity settings to create the right blend. For this particular piece what I was trying to achieve was stark contrast between white and black while retaining an even stone like texture.
Layering blending options are great for adding interesting touches.
Now that the rose was ready and prepared I could begin working through the rest of the concept. For this particular project I was using a script created by another NFT creator named HashLips. The script that was created is a type of generative art that uses randomness as it’s automation system. With this particular script I knew that it was going to compile a final image from a collection of images that I output and stored in the corresponding directories. Therefore I wanted to start working through those layers and building the base.
The theme for this collection was the orange rose. In looking up the meaning of the orange rose I found it was linked to passion. Digging deeper into the meaning of the word passion I saw that by definition it meant suffering, enduring.
Adding the first layer of 6.
Because the script would be layering files on top of one another to compose the final image I started with layering backgrounds and applying a gradient overlay. Adding the overlay and messing with blend modes let me create depth to my base colors which creates an interesting blend in the overall compositions.
A gradient overlay with a layer blend mode can add some excitement.
This process was repeated six times creating different background layers. I chose the number six as an underlying concept. In all of my art I reference my own spiritual and personal beliefs. The number six, in some cases, is said to represent problem solving and the need for balance.
That is a true reflection between suffering and enduring a passion. In moving forward with my creative process I continued by making a focal point. Since I already wanted the rose in the center I decided to draw a sphere around it by selecting the ellipse tool. Holding shift to force equal constraints I then drew the circle.
Creating a focal point helps focus a viewers attention.
There we have it. The very beginning of our composition. As I mentioned earlier the number six was an important part of this project. Outside of it’s references it established a set of constraints used in setting up layers and limiting color range. Because of this I established a set of six shades of orange I wanted to use. Those six colors would be the backbone for each layer. Added depth was made with an inner shadow. What this did was create the feeling of a recession in the center of the canvas.
Additional depth can be created with simple inner shadows.
Finally to round out the background of my composition I created a texture layer. Something I was taught early on in design school was that by adding depth and texture you can make something simple much more interesting. I duplicated the rose layers, flattened them into one single object and created random overlapping juxtapositions. With the layer blend mode set to `Color Dodge` I was able to create a vibrant textured pattern helping to add more visual interest.
Adding texture can make something simple more complex.
With the background in place I began moving on with adding in the rose. Since all of the hard stuff was taken care of earlier, doing so was as easy as turning on the layer group that we used earlier to isolate our rose.
Now that the background is done it’s time for the rose.
The next few steps were relatively simple. Since the rose was already isolated, a shape existed. Color constraints forced the same color overlays to the rose. Another thing I did was set the roses drop shadow layer blend mode to `Multiply` as I knew the black would react nicely with the oranges.
Layer masks made it easy to apply color directly to the rose.
At this point all the layers were created. And all the colors, styles and treatments were checked for compatibility with one another. Here’s a look at the final piece.
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