Frankenstein's Monster

Learn how to order and combine layers to create a new composition.

Go to google and search for the body parts you will use. Make sure, when you are searching for images that you are looking for LARGE (resolution) photos. Click on the thumbnail to bring up the full size and hold CTRL and choose SAVE IMAGE AS to save to your files.

Choose NEW DOCUMENT or FILE>NEW to create a new blank ‘paper’ to work on. Choose PRINT, LETTER and give your document a name at the top.
Open your body parts. Using the selection tools, select the areas of the images you want and use the move tool to drag your selections onto your new document.
To resize or rotate, make sure the AUTO SELECT and TRANSFORMATION CONTROLS are clicked in the OPTIONS bar when you have the MOVE TOOL selected.
If at any time you make a mistake or don’t like what you’ve done you can use CTRL Z to go back or locate the HISTORY panel and go back in your history.
Select more than you need. You can always erase if you’ve taken too much but it’s much harder to go back if there is a part you missed.
To move items in front of and in back of each other you can rearrange the layers in the layers panel.
Keep going until you have 10 body parts or details added to your figure.
If at any time you need to save or stop working be sure SAVE YOUR WORK!
Once your monster is complete we will be combining the layers that you used to put him together. BEFORE you move onto the next step make sure that you have cleaned up all your selections and ordered the layers (moved things in front or back of each other) in the way that you want them. Watch the video above for more details on how to assemble your body.

PART 2: Adding the Background and Shadow

Turn off the visibility of the background layer by clicking on the eye icon in the layers panel. Select all your other layers by holding SHIFT and clicking on the top layer in the layer panel and then the bottom layer. DO NOT include the background layer (white paper). You can also use the move tool to click and drag a box around all the layers of your monster.
Go to LAYER>MERGE LAYERS to combine the body into one layer.
While on the body layer, go to the FX icon at the bottom of the layers panel and apply a drop shadow. Click on the word DROP SHADOW to increase the opacity to dark black.
Go to LAYER>LAYER STYLE>CREATE LAYER to separate the shadow from the body.
Making sure that they shadow copy is highlighted, grab your MOVE TOOLand click on the square in the bottom center of the transformation box. HOLD SHIFT to unconstrain proportions slide up. This will squash your shadow on the ground.
Shadows aren’t pure black so now you must lower the OPACITY of the shadow copy in the layers panel. You can also add a blur to the edges of the shadow by going to FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR.
Now you are ready to include a background. Jump over to Google and find a background that will give your monster somewhere to stand. There must be some kind of ‘ground’ level in the background. If you want to get fancy you can even combine a few pieces of background to create a new crazy place for this character to be.
Once your body is assembled and you have a background and shadow you’ve completed the project! Consider adding a filter or adjusting colors under IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS to really pull the whole piece together.