Join me in this tutorial series as I show you how I made this chic retro-style poster by editing flower photos and text.

You can make this kind of poster even if you can’t draw that well! I edited the text and photos using Clip Studio Paint.

If you learn how to use these features, you can create your own themed letters or celebration cards.

This article gives a detailed step-by-step of how I made this poster by clipping and editing photos of flowers and adding a grunge effect to the text.

 

▼ This is my finished poster.

 

・Artist Profile: Nokia Inoue

I’m an illustrator and designer. I’ve published several tutorial books related to graphic software and handmade art.

Note: All of Nokia Inoue’s books are published in Japanese only.

 

[1] Creating a canvas

I’ll create a new A4 size canvas.

 

Because the poster will be printed, I’ll add 3 mm of extra space to each side so that it comes to 216 mm x 303 mm.

You can also set a [Binding (finish) size] in the [Manga draft settings] so that you can easily see the parts that will be cut off as you work.

 

In the [File] > [New] dialog box, I set the [Use of work] at the top to [Show all comic settings] (blue icon). I then use the following settings for my canvas.

(1) Choose [A4 color (350dpi)] from the presets and set the unit to mm.

(2) I set it to 216 mm width, 303 mm height, and 350 dpi resolution. I change the expression color to “Color”.

(3) I check that the binding (cropped border) size in [Manga draft settings] is set to [A4].

(4) I don’t use a default margin, so I set the margin width to 0 mm.

 

[2] Adding a texture

In order to give the canvas a traditional paper effect, I’ll add a paper texture to the canvas.

 

(1) I go to the [File] menu > [Import] > [Image] and import a texture image that I had already prepared. For this poster, I’m using this light brown textured image.

If the imported image doesn’t fit the canvas, go to the [Tool property] palette and change the [Adjust position] setting from [Free position] to [Canvas]. This will adjust the image to the size of the canvas.

You can also select the image with the [Object] tool, and adjust the size freely using the green handles at each corner of the image.

 

I go to the [Layer] menu > [New Correction Layer] > [Tone Curve] and adjust the tone curve.

I changed the curve as in the following image to make the image a little brighter.

After adjusting the curve, I click OK to create a new tonal correction layer that I rename “Tone Curve 1”.

All layers underneath this will be affected by the adjusted tone curve.

 

Note: Read the following article to learn more about tonal correction layers.

 

[3] Cropping flower photos

Next, I gather some flower photos that I’ll use to make a collage for the background of the poster.

I collected these 11 photos.

 

Note:

If you take your own photos, try placing a plain sheet of paper behind the object so that it will be easier to crop later.

Of course, make sure that the focus is sharp and that the photo isn’t blurred. If you take photos outside, avoid days that are very windy or sunny.

 

 

You can import photos into Clip Studio Paint by dragging them directly onto the canvas or using the [File] menu > [Open] to select and import. The images are imported to a new canvas, not the canvas I made earlier.

 

(1) I roughly cut out the shape of the flower.

With the [Selection] tool > [Lasso], I draw around the flower and then select the [Clear Outside Selection] icon on the selection launcher.

 

(2) Next, I use the [Auto select] tool to cut around the outline of the petals.

I use different settings depending on the photo, but when there is a strong contrast between the flower and the background, I turn off [Follow adjacent pixel] and then adjust the [Color margin] and [Area scaling] options to select the right areas.

 

In this case, I set [Color margin] to 50 and used [Clear Outside Selection] to get the following effect.

 

(3) Finally, I erase any remaining parts of the background using the [Eraser] tool.

Some of the flowers have a light blue background that I want to use to add some extra flavor to the flyer, so I cut out these flowers very roughly.

 

(4) I cut out all my flowers in the same way.

 

Note:

If you don’t want to spend time cutting out your images, it can be helpful to buy ready-to-use images.

▲ This is a Japanese example, but try you can easily find stock photos online or in stores.

 

[4] Importing the trimmed images onto my canvas

Next I’ll place all my trimmed flower images onto the canvas I made earlier.

 

(1) On the canvas with the flower, I go to the [Selection] menu > [Select All] (shortcut: Ctrl + A) to select everything on the layer, then go to the [Edit] menu > [Copy] (shortcut: Ctrl + C).

 

(2) I go back to the canvas for the poster and paste the image from the [Edit] menu > [Paste] (shortcut: Ctrl + V).

I repeat this until all the flowers are pasted on the canvas.

 

▼ This is how it looks with all of the flowers. Each image is imported onto its own layer.

 

Note:

In this lesson, I’ll show you the steps of importing and editing the images as separate lessons. However, when you’re actually designing a poster, it’s often easier to import and edit a few images at a time before adding the next batch of images.

 

In the next part, I’ll show you how I edited the photos for my poster background.