In this tutorial, I will show you how to create an impossible 3D objects and 3D optical illusions using any 3D application and a bit of Photoshop. It’s kind of tricky tutorial because impossible objects doesn’t actually exist and we’ll have to use unconventional methods to create them! So, let’s get started!

Optical Illusions

Here are some examples of optical illusions. We’re going to create all of them. To begin with I’d like to tell you that it’s impossible to create an impossible object using 3D application (well, unless you’re working using real world settings and real perspectives, otherwise you can create anything). They doesn’t exist in real world, too. You can only fake the perspective and create a 2D illusion of a three-dimensional object. So, let’s see how it’s done on a few examples.

Step 1 – First Impossible Object

You can use your favourite 3D application for this tutorial. I believe that all of them will work well here. I used 3ds Max. First, create a three long boxes. Each one should have 1000×200mm. Place them like on the image below.

Step 2

Move your view like me and create a camera (Ctrl/CMD + C).

Step 3

Select your newly created camera and go to its settings. We have to turn on ‘Orthographic Projection’. Original perspective won’t work because it’s close to real one. It’s just hard to create an impossible object using standard perspective. Of course, it’s possible to use it but it would require cubes in different sizes and different distances between them. It’s much easier to use orthographic projection.

Step 4

Select the target of your camera and change your view to Camera01 (press C on your keyboard). Now you’ll have to move your target very precisely until you get something like on the image below.

Step 5 – Impossible Object Render

Render your scene twice. First with everything like on the first image above and then delete a part of the cuboid that’s the closest to the camera (see the second image). Afterwards move both your renders to the Photoshop. Put each render and alpha map on top of each other and use an inverted alpha map (image below shows normal alpha map) to get rid of a part of SECOND render. Once you do it you’re done with this object!

Step 5 – Second Impossible Object

It works pretty much the same for the second optical illusion. It only seems that this one is a bit more complicated but in fact it’s not. The boxes are cubes with 200mm edge. Gaps in between them have 100mm. Once you create them establish your camera like me. Follow the previous step to render it and then create an illusion from two renders.

Step 6 – Third Impossible Object

This one is the most advanced although it works almost the same way with this exception that here you’ll have to use less stairs on two sides. If you used the same number everywhere you would have to place your camera over everything and that won’t create this kind of effect. Each stair has 300mm x 300mm x 50mm. This time you won’t have to render it twice.

Conclusion

Good luck with creating your own impossible shapes. Here are some other examples taken from Technion website. Can you recreate them?

And again here are my examples:

In today’s showcase we’d like to show you some of the best fire and flame inspirational illustrations. You will find here almost everything related to fire including phoenixes, lava rivers, blazes etc. We hope you’ll like it and find it useful!

As usually most of these images are digital paintings but you will also find here some photomanipulations and other types of artworks. Of course, there are also links to the artists’ webpages so make sure you visit their profiles and galleries for more! They have even more amazing pieces of artwork there. So, finally below you can find a showcase of 42 hot fire and flames illustrations. Let us know which one do you appreciate most!

42 Hot Fire and Flames Illustrations

shadow-light13

chymere

freaky665

eic

ShadowUmbre

Noldofinve

sakimichan

DesignSpartan

Daelyth

alexiuss

alexiuss

Saimain

MindStep

mceric

Radojavor

exileddelusion

Amuletz

Varges

alexandrabirchmore

kir-tat

Twelfth

ladyofdragons

Daina-Lockie

Red-IzaK

Keun-chul

traxyn

souls-poison

Scarlet-Fog

dolphy

algy

checkered-fadora

nooblar

ShadowUmbre

Eeren

garun

kuschelirmel

tomer666

Spell

VegasMike

Phanox

DeadRedneck

roger-that007

In this tutorial, I’m going to guide you through the process of creating a grunge print-ready business card using Photoshop. If you need one you can now easily create it with my tutorial but let’s first start with some information on how should a good business card look like. Let’s start!

Business Card Preview

Here’s the business card that we’re going to create. It’s simple and readable. I prefer pure black business cards with white text (and maybe a logo in color as well as some simple patterns or ornaments in the background to diversify it) but here I’m going to show you how to create a grunge style business card.

Business Card Dimensions

A standard business card measurement is 3.5 x 2 inches (8.9cm x 5.1cm). There are also some other sizes for different countries but this one is probably the most common one. We will use a bit larger canvas to create it because we need a bleed. The bleed is some extra pixels beyond the original size of the card. We’ll need it because when card is cut it will have exactly 89mm x 51mm. Its edges may remain colored differently (due to imperfect cutting) so to avoid that we’re adding the bleed. The bleed has usually 0.0625 inches.

Step 1

Open up the Photoshop and create a new document with dimensions set to 3.625 x 2.125 inches (3.5 x 2 inches + 0.0625 inches bleed for each edge) and 300 dpi (since it’s for print).

Step 2

Fill the background layer with black using Paint Bucket Tool (G). Go to ‘View -> New Guide…’ and create two guides in the middle of the image (type in 50%). Click in the middle of the image using ‘Horizontal Type Tool (T)’ and type in your name, name of your company or your website address. I used ‘Chubby Cheeks’ as the font. I made it 12 pt. Tagline was created using ‘Myriad Pro’ font and grey color (#888888). Select each layer from this step and group them together. Hide the group.

Business Card Information

Now, it’s time for the front side. The most common information to include here are:

• Name and surname
• Who are you?
• Your email address
• Your telephone number
• Your website address (optional)
• Your address (optional)
• Short information about you or about your company (optional)

Step 3

So, create a new layer and use ‘Horizontal Type Tool (T)’ to type in any information you consider necessary for your business card. I used five information for this example. I used free font called ‘Eras Light ITC’ for the details and ‘Trebuchet MS’ for my name. I also placed a small ForCG logo in the top-right corner of the card.

Step 4

Add some really soft grey gradient beneath the text layers using ‘Gradient Tool (G)’. I used #e0e0e0 and #f6f6f6 for colors.

Step 5

Finally download some free brushes from Bittbox:

• Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes
• Free Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brushes
• Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes Set II

I used them on separate layers with color set to black. After that I changed layer blending modes to ‘Soft Light’ or ‘Overlay’. There are also three brush marks in color. They have ‘Fill’ set to 0% and ‘Color Overlay’ turned on inside layer styles. I ended up with this:

Conclusion

That’s all for now. I hope you learned something new and useful about business cards and I hope you like your newly created one!

Many talented artists have tried to paint jungles, rainforests and casual forests so far. Today we’re showcasing the most amazing jungle, forest and rainforest artworks that were created by top CG artists. They are here to inspire you. Bookmark them and you won’t have to look for this kind of artworks in the future. You have this unique collection of stunning artworks in one place on ForCG.

Most of these images are digital paintings but you will find here also other types of works. I have also added some links to the artists’ portfolios so make sure you visit their profiles. They have even more amazing pieces of artwork there. So, below you can find a showcase of 50 amazing jungle and forest artworks that you will surely like! Let me know which one do you appreciate most!

50 Amazing Jungle, Forest and Rainforest Artworks

kerembeyit

The-Hand

weiweihua

Silvery

Avatar Movie

oz-haver

Ketka

Kuang Hong

noah-kh

tobiee

Lillucyka

AndreeWallin

ATArts

I-NetGraFX

Tanqexe

tgw-Raptor

gregmks

molybdenumgp03

sbe

radoxist

nachoyague

godofwar

artozi

thundercake

00AngelicDevil00

casio222

CaptainBoneDaddy

jameli

Georgiev

ushio18

frankhong

Hideyoshi

Bandea

nathie

Minnhagen

sketchling

lorilis

Blinck

frozenstocks

PE-Travers

MaxD-Art

nathie

TomLenz

kakotomirai

AlectorFencer

alexiuss

yty2000

P3xelArt

In this tutorial, I’d like to show you how to create a brilliant steampunk style digital painting with symmetrical composition and dark, obscure atmosphere. You will learn a few useful tricks and methods for creating digital paintings in Photoshop.

Final Digital Painting

Document settings

Let us start with document that has dimensions like A4 sheet of paper (3508×2480 pixels) and 300 dpi. The color format is RGB. I have changed my work’s size two times during painting, so in the end it had 3000×1996 pixels. Ability to change painting’s size is one of the huge advantages of digital painting so feel free to do it when necessary but it would be good if you could end up with original A4 size.

Sketching

Usually I am starting my works by making a few quick sketches on a paper or using a graphic tablet (it takes me 10-15mins) . In this case I have used tablet. For sketches I am using basic brushes, usually rounded ones. It is worth to make a few sketches to find correct composition that you like. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t draw too many details in the beginning. Sketch is used to arrange the painting and stimulate imagination. Also, I’m not able to tell you WHAT to draw but HOW to draw so use your imagination and think of some symmetrical scene or try to recreate mine one. Use your Brush Tool (B) and different shades of grey. Here’s a quick sketch:

The Idea

Now it is time to specify your idea. Once you create your sketch you should have clearer idea on how should it look like in the end but most likely it is not as clear as necessary. There are a few ways to start this stage. You can colorize all your work at once or keep working with your sketch and then add colors by stages. In this case I’ll use the second method because I want my ilustration to be rich in various details and I don’t want to lose anything. At this point you can really have fun and make experiments with colors and layers blending modes to find some good atmosphere for your work. Keep adding more and more details and then colorize everything with different colors. For coloring I usually use soft round brush, with big size but low opacity (it was set to 40%).

Symmetry Fix

If your illustration should be symmertical, you can split your work into two pieces, copy one of them and use ‘Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal’ to flip the copy. After that you’ll have to flat layers by going to ‘Layer>Flatten’. By doing that you can be sure that your work is perfectly symmetrical. Make sure that there is no empty space between these two halves.

Sketch Details

At this point you should have only a rough, symmetrical sketch with some colors to specify the atmosphere of the scene. Now I usually increase colors that should be stronger than the others and look for shape of individual elements. Look at the screenshots below to see what I’m talking about. I increased the contrast, used brighter colors, painted some little details and the entire painting has instantly changes dramatically. Stronger colors and little details gives amazing results. That little changes can really make your work pop but you have to slowly paint them one by one. You can flip your work horizontally sometimes to easier catch some mistakes or get a new idea (which isn’t as much important if you’re working with symmetrical piece of artwork but it helps also here). It gives you some kind of a fresh and new look.

Light Sources

I decided to make a few changes in the lower part of my image to cover more floor and increase space. I have also inserted some kind of blinds on the upper window to decrease amount of light coming inside – illustration was meant to be dark. I was focusing more on light source in the middle of the image.

Details

Once you’ve done all that you can finally start adding more and more little details. It’s not hard but it’s time-consuming. I suggest to spend enough time on that because it really pays off then. Keep improving ornaments and pipes until you are absolutely happy with everything. Notice that I removed the old scuplture and replaced it with something else (that’s what I mean – you have to take care of every single element of your work once more). The new sculpture is much more detailed but I had to delete pipes behind its back. I still don’t have any idea on how should a character sitting in front of the keyboard look like. I decided to leave it for now. If you have a problem with some element of your work during the painting it is sometimes better to leave it for a little while and wait for some idea that should eventually come to you mind (but keep drawing/painting other elements). After all the improvements I suggest to work on lights again. Light in painting process is something very important. It creates an atmospheare and makes your work richer. While you are working with lights you have to remember that different materials reflect light differently. Change color tone accordingly. You have probably already noticed that I iterate a few times doing the same things but each time I’m adding more and more details.

More Details

When priorities like light and colors are set we can focus on details. Let’s add more flares and textures (I was adding some textures all the time but you can start doing that right now instead of just using brushes). We’ve got all of the most important elements done. Less important elements should be pushed to the background (by darkening them). I spend much time on in this stage laying with various textures and brushes.

Main Character

I decided to change position of the main character. Show a little bit of his face and turn him the the right. It makes the character look like he’s more in the foreground. It makes all the work more dynamic and interesting.

Final Touches

In the end I have added a grunge texture to the illustration, and erased it where it wasn’t nesessery. For texture I have used mix layer blending mode. After that it’s time for the last details and corrections.

Conclusion

That is all. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what do you think about my work below!

There are plenty of amazing castles around the world and there are also many beautiful castle artworks created by talented artists who surely love these stunning buildings. I tried to pick some of the most beautiful fantasy castle artworks for this post and hopefully you will like them all.

Most of these images are digital paintings but there are also a few created using 3D applications. Some of the artists listed here have even more great pieces of artwork and I’ve also provided links to their websites so don’t forget to check them out. So, below we present a showcase of 35 stunning fantasy castle artworks that will blow your mind! Which one is your favourite?

Stunning Fantasy Castle Artworks

Fstarno

Matt Allsop

Jaecheol Park (Paper Blue)

Gaius31duke

Raphael Lacoste

Marc Simonetti

Tomasz Maronski

Adrian Baluta

Gaston Nicolas Alanis

Luches

Tobias Trebeljahr

Gregmks

Hillfreak

devils-horizon

MarieCrazyDove

Astalo

CassiopeiaArt

Tiziano Fioriti

Andreas Rocha

Prasa

arsenixc

This tutorial, will show you how to create a brilliant magic tree illustration. We will use some untypical and unique techniques to achieve this kind of effect so you’ll learn a different approach to creating abstract things. Let’s start!

Magic Tree Illustration

Here is what you are going to create.

Step 1: 3ds Max Plug-in

First we will use 3ds Max and then Adobe Photoshop for this tutorial. In order to complete this tutorial you will need a plug-in for 3ds Max called Glu3D or similar plug-in. It has a demo version available on 3DAliens website so you may use it or you may create a mesh that looks like a fluid yourself. Open up 3ds Max. Go to ‘Create Tab -> Geometry -> glu3D pouring system’ and choose glu3D.

Step 2: Calculating the Scene

Don’t change anything and calculate the scene (select ‘glu3D text’ and hit ‘GO!’).

Step 3: Surface

Afterwards turn on glu3D toolbar and hit ‘Build surface’ and then ‘Hide/Show mesh surface in viewport and render’. Delete the bowl.

Step 4

Take a look at the glu3D settings for your mesh. Increase level of detail, drop size and decrease your drop size. Add a modifier called ‘TurboSmooth’ to your mesh. It should instantly start to resemble a branch of my tree from the final image.

Step 5

Go to material editor (M) and select a standard material. Use ‘Swirl’ for diffuse channel. Apply this material to your fluid and try to render it. Most likely it won’t look like mine one so try to play with the settings visible on screenshot below inside ‘Swirl’.

Step 6

Take a look at my examples. Your goal is to make it look like the second one. It’s all about playing with the settings I mentioned about above. I’m unable to specify them exactly because you’ll simulation will be different anyway. I used quite high level of detail (like 14) and 3 or 4 iretations for TurboSmooth. Then I was moving time slider back and forth to capture a good moment. I didn’t have to change anything inside ‘Swirl’ for most renders because it looked fine already.

Step 7: Moving to Photoshop

Go to Photoshop and create a new document with dimensions set to 1680 x 1050px. Fill the background layer with black using ‘Paint Bucket Tool (G)’. Move your renders to the Photoshop and use their alpha masks to get rid of their background. If you have some photo of a tree then you may use here. Otherwise go to any stock website and download one. My comes from cgtextures.com (browse their nature category). Place your tree in the middle of the image and get rid of its background if it has it. Also descrease its size a bit (Ctrl/CMD + T).

Step 8

Start placing your renders beneath the crown of a tree. Again, also here I can’t provide you a good solution on how to do it because your renders are different than mine ones. Just use your imagination.

Step 9

To recolor your objects simply go to ‘Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Hue/Saturation…’ and use any colors you like.

Step 10

Use your brush tool with colors set to light yellow and dark green or blue to paint something like on the image below. I also used some grunge textures in the background with very low opacity. Paint each part of your background on a separate layer and use gaussian blur to make them smoother.

Step 11

After that paint a few little dots near the tree and try to adjust your image using adjustment layers if you consider it necessary. You may also add in some other elements that I didn’t mention about like clouds or fruits on a tree.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! Please comment it below.

IPhone version is available. Download all the files below.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create an animation that is sensitive to your audio track! We’ll create particles that will move according to the music. We’re going to use Adobe After Effects to achieve that kind of effect. Check out how it’s done!

Note: In order to complete this tutorial you’ll need Trapcode Form plugin for Adobe After Effects.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Pelt Mapping inside of 3ds Max and ZBrush. It’s very useful feature that will allow you to map objects easily and precisely! It’s definitely worth learning this technique. Let’s see why it’s so great!

Pelt Mapping

Pelt mapping is a very useful method of mapping untypical objects (like organic models, rocks, trees etc.) that are difficult to map in a standard way. It allows you to ’stretch your object’ on a plane and make it 2D. Then you can use other tools like ZBrush to create a great texture that perfectly fits your object. I’m going to use some simplier object here which is just a table. For your convenience I’m going to start with modeling process because that’s also important. Not every object will work here. You’ll always have to add a few more polygons for the simpliest objects in order to have them smoother inside of ZBrush. Take a look at my table which is already mapped.

Step 1

To begin with open up 3ds Max and create a box with dimensions like 22 for length, 24 for width and 1,5 for height. Add three lenght, three width and two height segments. Convert it to Editable Poly by right-clicking on it and going to Convert To: and selecting Editable Poly.

Step 2

Press 4 to enter Polygon sub-level of Editable Poly. Select corner polygons and use Inset on them with Amount like 3.

Step 3

Start extruding polygons that are meant to be legs of your table until you create something like this on images below.

Step 4

Now try to select all the edges that are borders of your object. Don’t select any edges inside because we want it to be a little bit chamfered only outside! Use Chamfer on edges you’ve just selected with amount of 0,1. We have to do it because we want to have more control over stroking polygons while increasing thier number inside ZBrush and don’t want to lose original shape what could make our texture doesn’t match with object when we’ll be back to 3ds Max.

Step 5

To check if you’d selected correct polygons you can select Nurms Subdivision. If it still does look correct it means you’ve done that correctly. Don’t forget to deselect it.

Step 6

Add a modifier called UVW Unwrap.

Step 7

Go to its sub-level called Face and select all the polygons that build leg of your table. Now choose Point to Point Seam and draw a line like mine.

Note:

• You can turn off Ignore Backfacing to select polys easier and on both sides at the same time.

Step 8

Once you finish drawing press Pelt. Notice that there’s a new option available down in the menu called Edit Pelt Map. Turn it on and press Simulate Pelt Pulling a few times. This will make your mesh stretched. You can see what’s going on in Edit UVWs window.

Note:

• In case the lines are overlapping you should first grab red points, scale them up a little using scale tool and simply redo Simulate Pelt Pulling a few times again
• If your lines are still overlapping make sure you’ve deselected Select Element option and you can grab some vertices and move them slightly
• In the event it still doesn’t work you have to draw other route to pelt it because one you’ve selected seems to be incorrect. In this particular case it will work fine.

Step 9

Now your mesh is stretched also in Edit… window.

Step 10

Do the same with the other legs. To stretch table top select all the polygons and again draw a line similar to mine. We can’t close it because if we would do it it will divide our mesh into two parts. Doing it it’s usually good to imagine that you’re cutting your object with knife and blue lines are places where will the hole be. Again use Pelt then Edit Pelt Map and finally Simulate Pelt Pulling a few times. Scale up red vertices if you need to and make sure your lines aren’t overlapping. When you are done close that window.

Step 11

Open up Edit… window again and place all your objects separately in the square with the thick black borders (actually they are dark blue but seem to be black). You can use tools like Move, Scale and Rotate if something doesn’t match.

Step 12

Now all mapping informations are assigned to this object so we can export it to ZBrush and paint that there not losing anything. Go to File -> Export… and export your object as a *.OBJ file.

Step 13 – Inside of ZBrush

Import your *.obj file using Import an OBJ file function inside ZBrush. Now follow my screenshot to select correct ZBrush options. First click on Edit (1). After that choose Fast Shader 5 (2) material from the list to the left. Select MRGB insted of RGB and deselect Zadd. Increase number of polygons by going to Geometry -> Divide. We need them more to paint on that additional geometry. Last thing is to go to Texture and enable Colorize.

Click on the screenshot below to enlarge.

A couple of things to note:

• Fast Shader 5 can be replaced with anything that allows you to clearly see the material so I think something bright will be great
• MRGB is a channel enabling you to edit material and not the object itself
• We’ve disabled Zadd because we don’t want to sculpt mesh but only paint on it (you can sculp your objects if you want to)
• Click on screenshot to enlarge

Step 14

You can choose any color (1) you like as well as brush size (2) and rotate, scale or move your object the way you need it using icons I’ve marked as 3. Start with painting table legs.

Step 15

To paint over table top press Shift and rotate your table until it will be exactly straight. We can use masks to mask some parts of our table that we don’t want to paint on. To do it press and hold Ctrl/CMD and choose the size of mask. Once you’ve done that you can paint regions you’ve chosen.

Notes:

• If you lose color you were using press C to get it back
• Obviously you’ll want to paint your object with normal textures. I’m using these stripes to show you how I’m usually doing it and to show you clearly that it works

Step 16

Once you’ve done that let’s create a texture from that by clicking on Col>Txr in Texture table. A new texture should apper to the left but it’s a bit different than the one from 3ds Max.

Step 17

It is flipped vertically so to flip it back go to Texture and find there option named Flip V.

Step 18

Finally we can export it for instance as a *.PSD file by clicking on the texture preview to the left.

Step 21

Go back to 3ds Max and press M to enter Material Editor. Choose any material slot and put a texture as its Diffuse using Bitmap. Select the table and again go to Edit in UVW Unwrap options. It should fit perfectly but in the event it doesn’t you can move some verticles slightly.

Conclusion

Check if your texture works on renders. If so you’ve just completed this tutorial and I hope you’ve learned something new. Please leave your thoughts about my tutorial below. Thank you!

Further reading

• How to use pelt mapping by Kuba Dabrowski
• Pelt mapping tutorial by Neil Blevins

This tutorial, will show you how to create a vintage style zombie T-shirt. I will also give you a few hints on how to start your online T-shirt business and create a profitable source of passive income. This should be really useful for every freelance designer out there! So, let’s start!

Introduction

Most people make their T-shirt designs in applications like Adobe Illustrator, by using templates and creating paths. However, if you want to do something more complicated, especially a design including human figure, it’s easier to start with Photoshop. Of course you can make a very complicated design using paths, but it’s just much easier and less time-consuming to do it in Photoshop. I’m going to show you here how do I usually do it and then share some of my thoughts about T-shirt business and passive income which should bring you some decent money! Here’s what we are going to create:

Document settings

Create a CMYK document – I won’t be printing it myself so it’s just CMYK, 300 dpi, no special settings. Before you create anything, think twice where you’re going to post it or how you’re going to print it, imagine how it’s going to look on an actual T-shirt (or G-strings, Dog T-shirt, Hamster T-shirt) or whatever product you choose. Mine is going to be posted on Spreadshirt so let’s use 2200×3000 pixels for your document.

Sketching

It’s good to start with a very rough sketch of what you want to actually draw, without creating any details yet, just an overall vision of your design. It’s useful especially with drawing humans (or zombies, vampires or…any humanoid creatures ) when you need to pay attention to anatomy. I’m using here graphic tablet but this can be also done with standard mouse. If you start with a neat, bold line at the beginning, at some point it may turn out that you need to erase it, because, for instance, the whole composition looks bad, which may cause frustration and you may end up breaking up random objects in your workplace… Of course, we don’t want that. You don’t have to be obsessive about the anatomy, most people who buy your art don’t even notice when there’s something wrong. Just make sure the character doesn’t look crippled. I didn’t even use any reference images here (like photos, anatomy books), I just made that pose in front of my mirror and drew myself.

So, now once you have your sketch, double-click on the layer and lower its opacity. Then, create a new layer on top of it and start drawing for real. I draw with hard round brush, with only size jitter on. Opacity jitter is turned off – most printers don’t like any opacity jitter, gradients etc. Besides, a detailed realistic illustration doesn’t really look good when you wear it, it’s tacky and you don’t want to look stupid. I wear my own T-shirts, so… I’ll just go for a simple, vintage look.

Adding clipart

It’s better to put each element of your design on a separate layer, of course you don’t always have to do this, but it’s much easier when you want to change something (move, erase or most importantly – change colors). There’s the moon and banners, time for the bats. You don’t have to draw everything yourself, especially when it doesn’t involve any creativity. It just takes a lot of your time and effort. So, I sugest to just paste a free clipart bat here (the bat should be on a transparent background), place it wherever you want to, hold Alt/Option key + Click on it with ‘Move Tool (V)’ selected and drag it. It’s the easiest way to duplicate things. Keep duplicating and modifying bats just by using the ‘Move Tool (V)’ and transform controls. All clipart and resources can be found using Google Graphics, it’s the easiest way. Make sure they’re all free to use (for commercial purposes, too)! I also used some free clipart and some elements of my previous designs for the background, by pasting and modifying them just the same way I did with the bats. It’ easy so I don’t think you’ll have any problems with it.

Finally, you can paste some irregular halftone pattern and place it around the shadows, for more ‘oldschool’ feeling. It’s best to use ‘Clone Stamp Tool (S)’ for that.

Coloring

The image is supposed to be visible on a dark background, so duplicate each layer (hold alt/option key + drag your layer down in the ‘layers’ palette) and fill it with white (using ‘Paint Bucket Tool (G)’). I’m not ready to commit coloristically yet. For the ornaments, bats and banners in the background I’ve added ‘Outer Glow’. Go to layer styles (double-click on a layer) and use the following settings:

Do it just once, then right-click on a layer to copy and paste layer style.
Now for the coloring part – I chose highly saturated colors (they won’t look so bright when printed!) and not many of them. In my case it’s just the matter of taste, but if you decide to print something on your own, remember that adding more colors = higher costs. Now if you don’t want the lightest colour to be white, Instead of colouring everything just create new adjustment layer ‘curves’ on top of it( don’t use layer fills!), double click on the ‘light’ sampler, choose the color you like and click with the sampler on the brightest place in the picture. Voila.

Now create a new layer on top of all layers (except the ‘curves’ layer), set it to ‘Multiply’ and paint all objects that are supposed to be red. Green is a complementary color for red and also the skin color of zombies, so paint your zombie with green (use the same brush settings as for the sketch). For the banners and the background motif, just click on their white fill layer, press Ctrl/CMD+Alt/Option+U and add colours using the ‘Colorize’ option.

Adding text

Now we’re going to add the text. The easiest way to make the text fit my banners is to type it on a path. To do this, make a new layer, choose pen tool and create a path (click where you want the path to start, then click where you want it to end – keep holding the mouse button (or tablet pen) and move it so that you can shape the path) then choose type tool and click on the path (once ‘T’ symbol appear) and you can type. Once you’ve typed anything interesting you can add some effects to the text, like outer glow (the way it’s described above). I added some black outer glow.

Final touch-ups

Create another layer just above the background layer and add some spatters with a custom brush. If you don’t have a spatter brush, create one yourself or google some – make sure they’re free to use for commercial purposes. Just save a brush on your computer and load it inside of Photoshop:

Then again make another layer on the very top and ‘damage’ the image a little bit with your custom grunge brush.

Final T-Shirt Design

Here’s my final T-shirt design:

You can also find it on my Spreadshirt page where I’m selling my designs. I’m really dissatisfied with Spreadshirt though. Their previews are always blurred, you can’t get better view on the design you want to buy and the shop layout is far from being user-friendly. I’m rather thinking of moving to Zazzle or RedBubble (they are both markets where you can sell your works). So, before you open your online T-shirt business, think about the things I listed above. They’re importaint from the buyer’s point of view. Selling T-shirts online will increase your passive income considerably and is basically easy. Actually, after a few this could bring you quite a lot money!

I hope this was helpful! Please, comment my tutorial below and let me know what do you think about my tips. Thanks !