So you want to create an unique character, but you have a few people in mind that you want to combine; what do you do? Photomash! This requires digital media, so have your photo-editing software open and tablet or mice ready!

What is Photomashing? Well, it’s simple. Photomashing is where you take several pictures and take bits and pieces from each photo to create another photo. So let’s say you want to create an unique Asian character/face, but you want to make a character using existing images, Photomashing will be helpful to you. I’m going to show you how to Photomash a face using parts from some of my favorite singers—Ayumi Hamasaki, Như Quỳnh, Trish Thuy Trang, and although not a singer, Guo Jingjing who was one of my favorite Olympians during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Here is an image of all four girls together:

I’m going to using Ayumi as my base face because she is the most forward facing. I’ve expanded her image to fit into my clipboard as shown.

Now I’m going to figure out what features I want to save and whose features I want to use. For this example, I’m going to use Như Quỳnh’s nose, Trish’s eyes, and Jingjing’s lips, while keeping Ayumi as my base. Let’s start mashing!

I’m going to do the nose first. Go to the image you’re going to use the nose for. Click on your marquee tool and highlight the nose. Then cut the nose from the image. NOTE: If your image is

not straight, straighten it by clicking the image and grabbing the corner to rotate the image.

Next, go to you base image and paste the nose onto a new layer. Move the nose to place you feel appropriate. Use the eraser and blur tool to smooth out the edges. Don’t worry if your skin tones don’t match, the Photomash is just a guideline for you. Besides, Dr. Frankenstein used mish-mashed body parts and look at how cool that monster looked.

Now that you have the nose, we’re going to steal someone’s eyes! “OH MY GAWD! I’M BLIND!” We’re not really stealing someone’s eyes, but it’s a funny image. Go to the image whose eyes you want and use your marquee tool to select the eyes; cut and paste onto your base image. Now adjust the eyes to where you want them. Again, use the eraser and blur tool to smooth out rough edges.

Now go to the image you want to take the lips from. Again, use the marquee tool and select your lips; cut and paste onto your base image. Adjust the lips to your desire look.

Wow! Now your created face should look way different then the face you started out with! Awesome, huh? You’ve now created a new character, even if it looks great or freaky (like how mine looks!). Look at you, you’ve just Photomashed your first image! Congratulations! But, of course, this was just the first step! Watch for the second version of this post where I show you how to draw the image you just created, hopefully, making it look better.

Don’t you just hate cliffhangers!?

Love always!

Marisol

Tags: edit, edited photo, manipulation, photomanipulation, photomash, Photoshop, photoshopped, picture