Turn a Photo into a Three-Layer Stencil Poster

1. Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog set Width to 1500 and Height to 2000, leave the background white and click Create. That's an 18 × 24 poster shape.
2. Double-click Layer 1 in the Layers panel and rename it Concrete.
3. Set the foreground colour to #8E8B84 and choose Edit → Fill.
4. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, set Amount to 14, choose Mono and Gaussian, and click Apply.

Concrete poured against wooden boards picks up the grain of the wood in long horizontal streaks.

1. Click Add Layer and name the layer Board Grain.
2. Fill it with mid grey #808080.
3. Run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 60, Mono and Uniform.
4. Run Filter → Motion Blur… with Angle 0 and Distance 90. The speckles smear into horizontal streaks.
5. Set the layer's blend mode to Overlay and its opacity to 40%.

Overlay ignores mid grey, so only the light and dark streaks show.

Real concrete has little air bubbles, called bugholes, trapped in its surface.

1. Add a layer called Pores and fill it with white.
2. Run Add Noise at Amount 100 with Mono and Uniform, then Filter → Gaussian Blur… with a Radius of 3. The blur clumps the noise into soft blotches.
3. Run Filter → Threshold…. Turn on Preview and drag Level down until only sparse dark specks are left, mostly a few pixels across. That was around 230 here.
4. Set the layer to Multiply at 50%.

1. Add a layer called Mottle.
2. Run Filter → Clouds… with Scale 14.
3. Set it to Soft Light at 12%.

Keep this faint. At higher opacity the clouds look like fog or camouflage instead of concrete.

Board-formed walls show a joint wherever two boards met, and a stronger seam at each panel edge.

1. Add a layer called Seams and pick the Pencil.
2. Set Size to 3 and the colour to #5B5852. Click once on the left edge of the canvas at y 720, then hold Shift and click on the right edge at the same height. Shift-click draws a straight line from the last click. Do the same at y 1280, and draw one vertical seam down the middle at x 750.
3. Set Size to 2 and the colour to #B4B0A7, and draw the same three lines again 3 px lower (or 3 px to the right for the vertical one). The pale line under each dark one reads as a lit edge.
4. Zoom in and watch the Y readout in the status bar while you do that, because 3 px is only about one screen pixel at fit-to-screen zoom.
5. Add a layer called Board Joints. With the Pencil at size 2 in #6E6A63, draw one line across the wall at y 45.
6. Turn that line into a repeating tile. With the Rectangular Marquee, select a 90 × 90 px square from the top-left corner of the canvas, so the line runs through its middle. Choose Edit → Define Pattern.
7. Press Cmd+A to select the whole canvas, choose Edit → Fill with Pattern… and click Apply. The line repeats every 90 px down the wall. Deselect and set the layer to 22%.

The steel ties that hold the formwork together leave neat round holes in rows.

1. Add a layer called Tie Holes.
2. Choose View → Show Grid. Make sure Snap is ticked in the options bar, so the selection corners land on the 16 px grid lines and every hole comes out the same size.
3. Pick the Elliptical Marquee and drag a small circle about 32 px across (two grid squares), centred about 125 px in from the left edge at y 440.
4. Hold Shift and drag five more circles: one at the same height 125 px in from the right edge, then a pair at y 1000 and a pair at y 1560. Shift adds each one to the selection. The big box around them is the selection's transform box. Leave it alone.

1. Fill the selection with #34322E and deselect.
2. Choose View → Show Grid again to hide the grid.
3. Open the effects drawer for Tie Holes:

• Tick Drop Shadow and set Offset X 0, Offset Y 3, Blur 2, Opacity 55 and the colour #CFCBC2. A pale "shadow" below the hole reads as light catching its lower lip.
• Tick Inner Glow and set Size 7, Opacity 75 and the colour #111111, which darkens the inside rim.

Rain carries rust and grime out of the ties and down the wall.

1. Add a layer called Stains.
2. Pick the Brush and set Size 44, Hardness 0 and Opacity 22. Set the colour to #4F4C46.
3. From just under each tie hole, drag down about 340 px with a little wobble.
4. Set the layer to Multiply, and put the brush Opacity back to 100.

1. Click Stains in the Layers panel. Click the top ruler at 750 to drop a vertical guide down the centre of the poster.
2. Click the left ruler at 800 (the middle of the diamond sign) and at 1630 (the middle of the plaque under it).

1. With Stains still selected, click New Group in the Layers panel and name the group Sign. Then click Add Layer and name the layer Post.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, select a 70 px-wide strip centred on the vertical guide, from y 900 down to the bottom edge. Fill it with #6D6A64.
3. Select a 6 px strip just inside the post's left edge and fill it with #8A8780 as a highlight. Deselect.

Sign posts are perforated all the way down. Make one hole, turn it into a pattern, then tile it.

1. Add a layer called Post Holes. With the Brush at Hardness 100 and Size 12, click once on the centre guide at 750, 1410 in #202224.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, select a 40 × 60 px box from 720, 1380 to 760, 1440, with the hole inside it. Choose Edit → Define Pattern.
3. Select a 40 px-wide column over the post from 720, 1380 down to the bottom edge. Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick the new hole pattern and click Apply. Deselect.

The pattern tiles from the canvas's top-left corner. The tile you defined starts on a multiple of 40 and of 60, so the copies land exactly in line with the first hole, one every 60 px.

1. Add a layer called Overspray and leave it empty for now. Then add a layer called Diamond.
2. Pick the Shape tool. Set Shape to Rectangle, Output to Pixels and Corner Radius to 40. Click the Fill swatch and type F2C230. If Stroke shows a colour, click it and choose Remove stroke.
3. Click once where the guides cross at 750, 800 without dragging. The Shape Size dialog opens. Enter 848 for both Width and Height and click Create.

The shape is centred on the click. 848 px is chosen so that once it's turned 45° the diamond is 1200 px from point to point.

1. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag a box just around the square.
2. Pick the Move tool. Rotation handles are the round dots just outside each corner of the box.
3. Hold Cmd and drag the top-left rotation handle clockwise. Cmd snaps the angle to 15° steps, so stop when it clicks to 45°.
4. Press Cmd+D to commit.

A warning sign has a thin black border set in from its edge.

1. Switch to the Rectangular Marquee so the Move tool's handles go away. Hold Cmd and click the Diamond thumbnail to select its shape.
2. Choose Select → Shrink…, enter 18 and apply.
3. Add a layer called Diamond Border and fill it with #161616.
4. Shrink the selection again by 16. Now the whole shrunken diamond is black with marching ants inset in it. Press Delete to clear the middle, and deselect.

That leaves a 16 px black ring with an 18 px yellow rim outside it.

1. Add a layer called Plaque. Pick the Shape tool, set Corner Radius to 30, and click on the centre guide at 750, 1630. Make it 720 wide and 196 tall.
2. Cmd-click the Plaque thumbnail and shrink the selection by 12. Add a layer called Plaque Border, fill it with #161616, shrink by 10, press Delete and deselect.

When you spray through a stencil, some paint always drifts under the edge.

1. Click the Overspray layer, which sits under the diamond.
2. Pick the Spray tool. Set Size 110, Density 30, Opacity 70 and Softness 80, and the colour to #F2C230.
3. Drag slowly around the outside of the diamond, keeping the cursor just beyond its edge, then do the same around the plaque.

Perfectly crisp edges look like vector art, not paint.

1. Select Diamond and run Add Noise at Amount 7 with Mono and Uniform. Do the same on Plaque.
2. Run Gaussian Blur with Radius 1 on each of Post, Post Holes, Diamond, Diamond Border, Plaque and Plaque Border.
3. Give Diamond and Plaque an Outer Glow with Size 18, Opacity 30 and colour #F2C200.
4. Click Overspray again. Pick the Brush at Size 170, Hardness 0 and Opacity 14 in #F2C200. Sweep a few soft strokes along the left side of the diamond, over its top tip and along the left end of the plaque. Uneven haze looks hand-sprayed.
5. Put the brush back to Opacity 100 and Hardness 100.

1. Click the arrow on the Sign group row to collapse it, then click the Sign row. Click New Group and name it Lynx. With the group collapsed, the new group lands next to Sign instead of inside it.
2. Open the lynx photo in another tab, copy the image, and press Cmd+V in Lopsy.
3. A photo larger than the canvas is shrunk to fit, so it lands across the full width. Rename the new layer Photo.

The fitted photo is too small. The lynx's head should nearly fill the diamond.

1. The paste is already selected and the Move tool is active. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right corner handle down and to the right until the box's right edge reaches 1920 on the top ruler. That's the photo's original size. Cmd keeps the proportions.
2. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Part of the photo now hangs off the canvas. That's fine, because Lopsy keeps those pixels.

The photo now covers the sign, so make it see-through while you place it.

1. Set the Photo layer's opacity to 50%.
2. Drag the photo with the Move tool until the lynx's nose is just left of the centre guide, at about 728, 930. Its ruff is fuller on the right, so setting the nose a little left centres the head in the diamond. The ear tufts should poke out past the diamond's top edges.
3. Set the opacity back to 100%.

A stencil can't hold every hair. Flatten the colour first, then smooth the detail.

1. Choose Filter → Desaturate. This lynx is nearly grey already, but with a colour photo this step matters.
2. Run Filter → Surface Blur… with Radius 14 and Threshold 34. Surface Blur smooths soft areas but keeps strong edges. At this zoom the change is subtle, but it's what keeps the plates from breaking into specks later.

1. Pick the Lasso. Start at the tip of the left ear tuft and hold the mouse button down for the whole loop.
2. Go over the left ear, across the top of the head and over the right ear and its tuft.
3. Go down the right cheek to the bottom edge of the photo, along the bottom, and back up the left cheek to where you started, then release.
4. Along the cheeks and ruff, zigzag outwards every 20 px or so to follow the tufts of fur. A smooth line here looks like a cut-out. Zoom in for this part if you need to.
5. Choose Select → Inverse, press Delete and deselect.

The ears should break out of the top of the sign, but the chest should stay inside the border. Build that shape from the diamond itself.

1. Expand the Sign group. Pick the Rectangular Marquee, then Cmd-click the Diamond thumbnail.
2. Choose Select → Shrink… and enter 34. That's 18 + 16, so the selection now runs along the inside edge of the black ring.
3. Choose Select → Inverse to select everything outside the ring.
4. Hold Shift and Alt and drag a marquee from the left edge on the y 800 guide to past the bottom-right corner of the canvas. Shift+Alt keeps only the overlap, so you're left with the area outside the ring below its widest point.
5. Collapse Sign, click Photo, press Delete and deselect.

The lightest plate is the whole silhouette.

1. Cmd-click the Photo thumbnail to select the lynx's shape.
2. Click Add Layer, name it Cream Plate, fill it with #EFE6D2 and deselect.

1. Click the eye on Cream Plate to hide it for now.
2. Select Photo and choose Layer → Duplicate Layer. Rename the copy Teal Threshold.
3. Run Filter → Threshold… with Level 144. Everything darker than that turns black.
4. Run Gaussian Blur at Radius 3, then Threshold again at Level 128. Blurring and re-thresholding rounds the jagged edges into shapes you could actually cut with a knife.

1. Pick the Magic Wand. Set Tolerance to 12 and untick Contiguous, so one click selects every matching pixel on the layer.
2. Click any solid black area of the lynx.
3. Show Cream Plate again and click its row. Add a layer called Teal Plate, fill it with #1E6A66 and deselect.
4. Delete the Teal Threshold layer with the bin icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Repeat the last two steps for the shadows.

1. Hide Cream Plate and Teal Plate.
2. Click Photo, choose Layer → Duplicate Layer, and name the copy Black Threshold.
3. Run Threshold at Level 99, Gaussian Blur at 3, then Threshold at 128.
4. Click a black area with the Magic Wand.
5. Show both plates again. Click Teal Plate and add a layer called Black Plate above it. Fill it with #161616, deselect, and delete Black Threshold.

1. Hide the Photo layer.
2. Where the darker plates reach the edge of the silhouette, the threshold blur stops them a pixel or two short, which leaves a thin cream rim outlining the head. Trim it:

• Cmd-click the Cream Plate thumbnail and Shrink the selection by 3.
• Choose Select → Inverse, click Cream Plate and press Delete.
• Deselect.

The plates are now stacked lightest at the bottom and darkest on top, the same order you'd spray real ones.

Hand-held stencils never line up perfectly. Click Teal Plate, pick the Move tool, and press Right five times and Down three times. Each arrow press moves the layer by 1 px.

1. Collapse Lynx and expand Sign, then click Plaque Border. The text layer will be created right above it, inside the group.
2. Set the foreground colour to #161616. Pick the Text tool, then choose Allerta Stencil as the font, set Size to 116 and Align to Center.
3. Click on the centre guide just above the middle of the plaque, type LYNX XING and press Tab to commit.
4. With the Move tool, use the arrow keys to nudge the text until it sits on the y 1630 guide. The gaps above and below the letters should match. At the sides you should have about 45 px between the letters and the black border. If the side gaps are much smaller, lower the Size.

1. Collapse Sign and click Stains, so the tagline sits on the wall under the sign.
2. Set the foreground colour to #C8402A. Pick the Text tool, choose Black Ops One, set Size to 88 and Align to Left.
3. Click in the top-left corner, near 80, 70. Type THEY'RE, press Enter, type BACK. and press Tab.
4. Open the Text panel from the right-hand rail and set Line height to 1.05 to pull the two lines together.

1. Pick the Move tool. Handles appear around the text's box.
2. Drag the rotation handle outside its top-left corner a little anticlockwise (towards the lower left), about 4°. The text stays live and editable.
3. Press Cmd+D to commit.

1. Click Stains first. With a text layer selected, changing the font or size restyles that layer, so this keeps the tagline safe. It also puts the footer on the wall, under the tagline.
2. Set the foreground colour to #EFE6D2. With the Text tool, choose Black Ops One at Size 34.
3. Click at 90, 1835 and type WILDLIFE CORRIDOR 7. Press Enter, type SLOW DOWN AFTER DUSK and press Tab.

Its left edge sits about 90 px in from the edge of the canvas, roughly in line with the tagline above.

Street artists sign with a quick freehand tag, not a font.

1. Click Stains and add a layer called Tag. Pick the Brush, set Hardness 70 and Size 12, and use #C8402A.
2. In the bottom-right corner, write an L in one stroke and an X in two. Keep the right side about 90 px from the canvas edge, so it mirrors the footer's margin.
3. Add a layer called Tag Swoosh, drop the brush to size 9, and drag a slightly curved underline under the letters. Keeping it on its own layer means you can redraw the swoosh without touching the letters.
4. Give Tag an Outer Glow with Size 6, Opacity 30 and colour #C8402A for a hint of overspray.

1. Click Tag Swoosh, then Shift-click Tag so both rows are highlighted.
2. Pick the Move tool. One box now frames both layers.
3. Drag a rotation handle about 6° anticlockwise, then press Cmd+D.

1. Click Tag Swoosh and add a layer called Paw Prints.
2. Pick the Brush at Hardness 100 in #161616. Work near 1290, 155 in the top-right corner.
3. Heel pad: click once at size 28. Then click at size 20 just below it on each side, and once at size 22 at the bottom middle. That makes the three lobes of a cat's heel pad.
4. Toes: above the pad, click four times at size 14 in a gentle arc. Then click once at size 10 just below each toe, towards the pad, to make it a teardrop.

The whole print is about 60 px tall.

The trail should walk down the wall towards the lynx's right ear.

1. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag a square around the print.
2. Pick the Move tool. Hold Cmd and drag a rotation handle anticlockwise until the toes point down and to the left. Cmd snaps to 15° steps, so stop at 135°.
3. Press Cmd+D.

You want four prints in all: the one you drew, one above and to the right of it near the top-right corner, and two below it heading for the lynx's right ear. Alternate them left and right of the line, like real footsteps.

1. Marquee around the print, press Cmd+C and then Cmd+V. The copy lands in place on a new layer.
2. Drag the copy with the Move tool to its spot. Marquee around it and turn it about 10° either way, so the prints don't look stamped. Press Cmd+D, then Cmd+E to merge it down into Paw Prints.
3. Repeat for the other two copies. Keep the top print about 90 px from the right edge.
4. Run Gaussian Blur at 1, then set Paw Prints to Multiply at 90%.
5. Click Add Mask, then click the mask thumbnail on the new Mask row to edit it.
6. Pick the Gradient tool, set the type to Linear and click Advanced…. Click the left stop under the gradient bar and type 6E6E6E in the hex field, then click the right stop and type FFFFFF. Click Done, then drag from the top-right corner down to the print nearest the ear.
7. Click the Paw Prints name to stop editing the mask.

The oldest prints fade out, as if the lynx has been walking towards you.

Too much paint on a stencil runs. You'll make three drips, about 200, 90 and 140 px long. Each one starts wide, narrows as it runs, and ends in a bulb.

1. Expand Lynx, click Black Plate, and add a layer called Drips. Use the Brush at Hardness 100 in #161616.
2. Find a spot where the black plate touches the bottom of the cut-out, just inside the border. Click there at Size 11.
3. Make four evenly spaced Shift-clicks straight down to the drip's full length. Step the brush size down before each one: 9, 7, 5, 4.
4. At the end, click once at size 5 and once at size 7 just below it for the bulb.
5. Repeat for the other two drips.

1. Give Black Plate an Outer Glow with Size 10, Opacity 35 and colour #161616.
2. Give Teal Plate an Outer Glow with Size 8, Opacity 25 and colour #1E6A66.

1. Collapse Lynx, click the THEY'RE BACK. layer and add a layer called Red Drips above it.
2. In #C8402A, make four drips from the bottoms of the letters in BACK. (the B, the A, the C and the K), using the same stepped technique. Start at size 12 where the drip leaves the letter and finish at 4.
3. Vary the lengths: about 60, 140, 90 and 220 px.

1. With Lynx still collapsed, click its row and add a layer called Grit. It lands above both groups.
2. Fill it with #808080 and run Add Noise at Amount 45 with Mono and Gaussian.
3. Set it to Overlay at 35%.

The fine noise sits over everything, so the paint, the sign and the wall share the same grain.

Save your work with File → Save Project, and use File → Quick Export PNG to get the finished poster.