Erica Larson mixes backgrounds, textures, and photos to create a fashion collage in Adobe Photoshop.

Graphic artist Erica Larson dreams up inspired designs every day as an associate creative director on the Adobe Studio team.

This sample file has Adobe Stock images you can use to practice what you learn in this tutorial. If you want to use the sample file beyond this tutorial, you can purchase a license onAdobe Stock . Check out the ReadMe file in the folder for the terms that apply to your use of this sample file.

To start the project, Larson dragged the foil texture image from her computer onto the red background. Then she dragged a corner handle to resize as necessary, held the cursor just outside a corner handle, and dragged to rotate it. Finally, she pressed Enter or Return to place it.

Next, Larson dragged the image of the model from her computer on top of the foil texture. She wanted to separate the model from the original background, so she chose the Quick Selection tool then clicked Select Subject. Once the marching ants appeared to mark the selection, she clicked Select and Mask.

Larson chose the Quick Select tool, set it to Subtract in the Select and Mask workspace, and painted over the unwanted areas of the background.

Painting with the Refine Edge brush in the Select and Mask workspace allowed Larson to remove the background around the fuzzy areas on the edges of the model’s hair and sweater. She then chose Output to Selection at the bottom of the Select and Mask Properties panel, and clicked OK.

Larson clicked the Add Layer Mask button on the Layers panel to turn the selection of the model into a mask where it could be modified without affecting the original image.

Before she created a stylistic shadow, Larson right-clicked on the layer mask and selected Add Mask to Selection.

Then she chose Select > Modify > Smooth and set the Sample Radius to 10 px.

Larson filled the selection by adding a Solid Color adjustment layer from the bottom of the Layers Panel and selecting white from the Color Picker.

She used the Move (V) tool to offset the white selection, then used Control + [ (Windows) or Command + [ (macOS) on her keyboard to move the white fill layer down in the layer stack so it appeared behind the model.

Larson clicked the mask on the color fill layer then used the Brush (B) tool to paint with black over the areas of the drop shadow that needed to be cleaned up.

To prep the cutout effect, she selected the model layer, then used the Quick Selection tool to brush over the body to select it.

With the body selected, Larson applied a Solid Color adjustment layer and used the Eyedropper tool to select the red behind the model so the new selection would blend with the background. She then clicked the mask on the color fill layer, chose the Brush tool, set it to white, and brushed along the edges to clean up the silhouette.

Mix textures and images by accentuating the composition with selections and adjustment layers to create your own style.

Note: Project files included with this tutorial are for practice purposes only.