1. Metal Insect Project Directions: Create a metal insect out of various metal pieces. Choose pieces of metal from objects such as a watch, a car, an engine block, etc. Duplicate a selected piece, multiple times, to add depth and interest (ex. the thorax). You may use one realistic image to add interest to the image, but the focus is on the metal insect not the background. Create a working document that is 9” x 12” (or 12” x 9”) at a resolution of 150. Choose an insect Add pieces above the insect on separate layers: Note you can duplicate the insect layer, bring it to the top and reduce the opacity to 20-30% (or turn the visibility on and off)

2. Choose Parts

3. Adding the Parts Think about the color and composition. Make it look natural

4. Continue to add parts. Think of the piece as a puzzle. Also, add texture to the pieces so they are not as shiny. Ctrl click on the thumbnail piece, go to a texture image file. Select the texture and Ctrl-C to copy. Go back to your working file and make sure the piece is still selected paste into the texture. Shift Ctrl-V

5. Add shadows and depth by using the burn tool and/or paint brush tool (B). Build up shadows gradually.  When using the burn tool you need to be on the layer below an object ( ex. A quarter on top of another. You would burn the bottom quarter to give the appearance of a shadow.  When using the brush tool, make sure you create a new layer to add the brush/shadow. This way you can blur it and change that layer image to multiply. Also, if you don’t like it you can delete that singular layer.

6. Be creative and add mouthparts, individual parts of the leg etc. Create a hatch in the body. Use the pen tool to create a shape in the body (or use a vector shape)

7. Make a selection using this shape and copy and paste the bee’s back to make a separate hatch piece laying off to the side. Use the distort transform tool (Edit | Transform | Distort) to warp the hatch slightly so that the angle looks natural. Create some shadows on a layer underneath. Paste more gears into the piece.

8. Again add shadows and detail. Example a side gear

9. Adjusting the final piece with lightening adjustments. To blend the colors and light a little better, add a Gradient Map adjustment layer. Set the layer’s blend mode to opacity, and used the following gradient. EXAMPLE ONLY.