If we were to say Marilyn to you, what would you be thinking? Monroe? Manson?

Well, you would be thinking about the most inspired use of facial imagery. Anybody in advertising will tell you that the most effective sales tool around is the face. A face can sell you anything. Any product, any idea. And the most striking faces become icons in their own right.

With Adobe Photoshop, we can see the possibilities for facial stylization explode. This book looks at how to develop an image to get it right, and how to make these mugshots genuinely memorable.

Some of the most exciting designers around have gathered to work their magic on this tightly focused canvas, working from a number of different starting points. Whether it's a perfect gloss you're after, or an abstract form of iconography, Photoshop has a collection of subtle and powerful tricks up its sleeve, and this book coaxes them into the open.

This is a full color inspirations title, aimed at showing professionals and home users alike how to access the multiplicity of techniques available in Adobe Photoshop. By using such a familiar model as the human face, the effectiveness and originality of these techniques is thrown into sharp relief.

The book employs versions of Photoshop up to the release of version 7, although the techniques shown will be compatible with previous releases of the software.

Each chapter contains multiple examples of how to treat a face in Photoshop, and an in-depth explanation of technique from the designer.