In Greek mythology, the centaurs were a fierce race of creatures, a fusion of human and horse. Centaurs, according to Greek mythology, were said to be the offspring of Ixion, son of Ares, and a cloud. These strange creatures had the head arms and chest of a man but the legs and lower half of a horse.

These Man-Horse beasts lived in Thessaly, fed on meat and were given to riotous revelries. They came to symbolize the dark, unruly forces of nature. They were usually depicted as drunken followers of Dionysus, except for Cheiron who was the tutor to several heroes…

In this tutorial you will learn some basic extraction techniques. How to use blend modes and masks to create deep atmospheric effects. I will also show you how two meld two creatures together to make a mythical half man half horse Centaur.

Download Tutorial Files : Centaur Tutorial Files (1339)

Step 1

First of all we are going to cut out the elements we are going to use for the main composition. Open ‘horse-23434-12.jpg’ and grab the pen tool ( P ). Being as careful as you can, slowly plot a path around the horse.

When you get the head of the horse don’t worry too much about being neat, this part of the horse will be masked out later on.

Step 2

Right click in the middle of the path and select Make Selection. With a selection around horse, Cut the horse ( CTRL + X ) and create a new Document for our main composition. Any size will do as long as we have enough space to play around in. Mine was 25cm x 25cm. Paste the horse on to the new canvas ( CRTL – V ).

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