Introduction

I got the inspiration for this tutorial from Diego Bellorin, a talented designer. You can check out his images here. Look below to see what we are going to make now.

Step 1

Create a new document with dimensions; 2000×2500px then create a new layer and make sure the foreground color is set to black. First select the brush tool and change it to a 2px hard brush. Next select the ellipse tool and in the main toolbar there are three buttons on the left, press the one in the middle which will say paths if you hover over it. Now what you have to do is to draw a few circles or ellipses next to each other, this is the basis for our spirograph pattern. Below you can see what my paths looked like.

Step 2

Now select the brush tool then just hit Return and this will stroke the path with the brush you selected earlier. Now change the opacity of this layer to 50%.

Step 3

Now the complicated bit, we are going to make an action to turn this into a spirograph pattern, specifically the action is going to duplicate the layer then move the pivot point then rotate the layer slightly. So first open the actions panel by going Window>Actions or hitting Alt+F9. Now create a new action, thats the button in the actions panel that is the same as the new layer button in the layers panel. After you’ve hit ok the action will start recording automatically so you have to do exactly what I say now. Right click and duplicate the layer with the circles in it then hit Ctrl+T to enter free transform mode then first move the pivot point, thats the point in the middle of the bounding box, I’ve shown an image below of what it should look like after you have moved the pivot point. Now rotate the layer slightly until it looks like the second image below then hit Return. Now click the stop button in the actions panel.

Step 4

With the newer circle layer selected, all you have to do is to keep clicking the play button in the actions panel until you have something that resembles the image below. Next select all the layers that make up this pattern, so every layer except the background layer then hit Ctrl+E to merge them into one layer. You probably want this in the middle like mine so select this merged layer and select the background layer then select the move tool and in the main toolbar there are some alignment buttons, click the align horizontal centers one. You can also move it up and down at this point.

Step 5

Duplicate this layer then hit Ctrl+T again and this time just rotate the layer slightly then change the opacity of this layer to 50% and you should have something like below.

Step 6

We’re going to make it even more interesting now by distorting it a bit, duplicate this newer layer then go Filter>Liquify and witha suitably sized brush, brush away at the outer edge of the pattern, there isn’t any more I can here, just make it look like the image shown below.

Step 7

okay now create a new layer then change the brush diameter to 20px then using exactly the same technique as we did in step one, create a circle and stroke it. You’ll want to create about three of these in different sizes in different layers so that you have something similar to below.

Step 8

In the layers panel change the opacity of these three layers to 60% and the fill to 0%, this will make the circles disappear so right click on one of the layers and go to blending options and add the a color overlay and a gradient overlay using the settings shown below. After that right click on this layer and select copy layer style then right click on the other circle layers and paste this layer style, you should now have something similar to the bottom image.

Step 9

Okay, now this step will take a bit of time what you have to do is select these three layers then duplicate them so you now have six layers with rainbow circles now select the move tool and move these new layers around. Now do this maybe seven more times, it’s up to you so whatever you think looks good. I’ve shown what mine looks like below.

Step 10

Now select all these rainbow circle layers then hit Ctrl+E to merge them (if you have experience with smart objects then convert it to a smart object instead of merging, thats what I did). Now go into the blending options for this layer and add a color overlay using the settings below.

Step 11

I felt the these circles were a bit too light so duplicate the layer then lower the opacity of the duplicated layer to 80%.

Step 12

Now its time to add some text to make it look more like a poster, it doesn’t matter what you type the text will make the image look better. I recomend Helvetica font for this kind of thing, if you don’t own helvetica then use a similar sans-serif font. Use a gray color, I used #404040. You can mess around with the placement of the text until it looks good, I also added another circle, you should be an expert at creating these now though.

Step 13

Now as a wee finishing touch create a new layer then go Image>Apply Image, now with the rectanglur marquee tool drag a selection holding Shift to make a square (make the selection over a colorful bit). Now go Select>Inverse then hit Delete. You should be left with a square of the picture, you can scalee this down by going into free transform mode (Ctrl+T). I also added a thin grey stroke within the layer styles to give it a border but this is optional. Take a look at the finished image below.

Conclusion

Thats us done, pretty nice result eh? If you’re interested in actions in Photoshop then I wrote another tutorial using them in a similar way, check it out here. Hope you enjoyed this and learned something new, make sure to add your own images to the PSDlearning Flickr group for a chance to be a featured artist.

Introduction

I got the idea for this tutorial from a font preview image here. Check out what we’ll be learning to make below.

Step 1

Create a new document with dimensions; 1280×1020px and a resolution of 72px/in. Create a new layer. Change the foreground color to black then go Edit>Fill and fill it with the foreground color, a quicker way to do this is to hit alt+backspace. Paste your image into the document, the one I used can be found here. Select the move tool then move this layer so you have it looking like the image below.

Step 2

In the layer panel click the adjustment layers button and select black & white, now just change the red value to 150% and leave the rest. Now add another adjustment layer, this time the invert one. Now you should have something that resembles the image below, notice how the smoke looks a bit nicer.

Step 3

Select the two adjustment layers and the smoke layer by holding Ctrl and clicking on them in the layers panel. Now right click on one of the selected layers then select convert to smart object, or if that option isn’t there then just select merge layers. The advantage of using smart objects over just merging is that you could go back and edit the smoke here or the black & white values but I think only CS3 and up support smart objects. Select the text tool then change the font to a block style font, the one I used can be downloaded here, and a size of about 100pt. Now type your text, here I wrote a quick quote I remembered and used the color white. Move this layer so that your image resembles the one shown below.

Step 4

Hold Ctrl and click on the text layer to make a selection, then selct the smoke layer. Now add a layer mask to this layer by clicking the layer mask button in the layers panel. Hit Ctr+D to remove the selection then hide the text layer.

Step 5

Right click on the smoke layer in the layer panel and select duplicate layer, you can also just hit Ctrl+J to duplicate a layer, its a bit quicker. Select the layer mask on the new smoke layer and invert it by hitting Ctrl+I. You’ll notice you’re image looks like it did a few steps back but we’ll sort that out.

Step 6

Select the new smoke layer then make a layer group by clicking the wee folder icon in layers panel then drag the newer smoke layer onto the layer group to put it inside then change the blend mode of the layer group to screen in the layers panel. Now add a layer mask to this layer group by clicking the layer mask button in the layers panel. Select the brush tool then right click in the document to open the brush settings panel, you can access this from the main toolbar but this way is faster. Change the brush to a soft round brush with a diameter of about 240px but you may have to keep changing the diameter. Change the foreground color to black then select the layer mask you just made. Select the brush tool then put on some brush strokes over the text and you”l notice this will get rid of the smoke around the text, you do still want to keep some of the smoke flowing into the text so try experimenting by changing the opacity of the brush in the main toolbar. If you got rid of a bit too much smoke then just change the foreground color to white and brush then this will unhide the smoke. Keep at it until you have something similar to the image below.

Step 7

Now add a curves adjustment layer at the very top of the layer stack then change the channel in this box to red and click and drag on parts of the curve until you get something similar. Feel free to experiment with the other channels, I just used red as an example.

Step 8

You’ll notice that a few of the words might be impossible to read so if this is the case then you can lighten the background a bit. Remember that layer we created in the first step and filled black well select that and lower the opacity, this will lighten the background a bit, you shouldn’t need to lower it a lot, I think I put it to 98% but I quite liked it being almost unreadable.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve learned a few new techniques that you can apply to some projects. A good idea would be to go back and repeat this tutorial but use a totally different image, not a smoke one. Let me know how you get get on.

Create a bright retro grunge vector illustration

Retro pop style wallpaper

Space helmeted future retro illustration

Retro rainbow curves

Retro text

Retro comic book effect

Retro grunge poster

3D retro strip

Retro future poster

Cool retro curves

Favorite Images

Here are the images that really stood out to me, great work here! If you didn’t make the cut don’t worry I’ll be doing another roundup soon enough so keep at it.

Upside Down
Elena London S

Change
estheticcore

Bird Painted
Speedy Samiro

Malaysian Night
Pro-vidence

Requim
Dgearin

Introduction

This two part tutorial will be showing how to create some really cool elements for a photo-manipulation. We’ll start with an image of a person and use lots of useful techniques to transform it into a really interesting image that will stand out. Below is a preview of what we’ll create over these two parts. Check out part 1 here.

Step 1

We need to remove the right leg so create a new layer and use the same technique we used to remove the arm in part 1. You should be left with something similar to below.

Step 2

Create a new layer then select the clone stamp tool again but shange the brush to a hard one and clone some parts of the leg randomly to give the effect shown below.

Step 3

Now go Filter>Liquify a play around with the liquify controls and dragging until you you get something that looks good. You should now try and blend it into the leg ny either using the erasor tool or with a layer mask.

Step 4

Create a new layer then select the brush tool and choose a hard round brush of about 15px diameter. Now select the pen tool and draw a path that winds round the subject then sstroke it by selecting the brush tool and hitting Return.

Step 5

Now use the liquify tool to distort this line.

Step 6

We want this to wrap around the guys body so use the technique we used in part 1, step 5 to mask this layer.

Step 7

We’re going to add some random lines in now, these are easy, just select the brush tool and choose a 1px hard brush. Set the foreground color to a whiteish color then in a new layer draw some jagged lines freehand. Lower the opacity of this layer to suit.

Step 8

Now do the same in a new layer using a red color similar to that of the trousers.

Step 9

You can now use either the eraser tool or a layer mask, both with a low opacity brush to hide parts of the lines.

Step 10

Another design element which has became popular are thes colored blobs. Create a new layer then select the pen tool and draw a path in the shape of the blob you want then fill it with a color, create a few of these.

Step 11

Now for the highlights create them in a new layer using the same technique but with a fill color of white. Lower the opacity of this layer to around 30%.

Step 12

Now to remove the head, use the same technique as with the arm and leg and don’t worry if it looks messy because we’ll cover it up in a minute.

Step 13

You will nee some cloud brushes now which you can download here. Set the forecround color to white then in a new layer add a cloud, you will then need to use a layer mask or the eraser tool to make the cloud go behind his body. You can alter the opacity of the layer too if need be.

Step 14

Add another cloud to the image then either copy the layer mask from the first cloud or use the eraser tool again to make the cloud appear behind the guy.

Step 15

Now that I’ve shown you all the techniques you can go back in and use them them again to add more elements to the image for example I added another flame style thing to his left ankle and another white swirl round his body which I blurred and added a glow. Other things you can do to this image are to smooth out the top and put in some text. Some more drips and lines will add more depth as well, keep it subtle and keep building it up layer by layer and you will get a good result.

Conclusion

I hope from this tutorial, you’ve learned something new that you’ll be able to take away and apply to your own peices and you’ve also seen that creating impressive peices of art in Photoshop really isn’t that hard if you just build it up layer by layer.

Introduction

This two part tutorial will be showing how to create some really cool elements for a photo-manipulation. We’ll start with an image of a person and use lots of useful techniques to transform it into a really interesting image that will stand out. Below is a preview of what we’ll create over these two parts. When you’re fineshed check out part 2 here.

Step 1

Start by finding an image you want to edit, the one I used can be found here. Open this image in Photoshop and we’ll get to work on it.

Step 2

Create a new layer then select the brush tool and grab a large soft round brush and with the foreground color set to black add some vignetting to the image. This is where you darken the corners and edges of the image to enhance the focal point of the image. Lower the opacity of this layer to about 70%. You should now have an image that resembles the one below.

Step 3

Create a new layer then fill the layer black then go Filter>Render>Lens Flare and place it somewhere in the center of the image. Change the blend mode of this layer to screen then lower the opacity until it looks right, maybe around 70% again. YOu may want to move the lens flare, do this by selecting the move tool and dragging the layer.

Step 4

The first common element that I’m quickly going to show is the ‘diamond wireframes’, these have been popping up everywhere. First create a new layer then select the line shape tool. Choose a suitable weight, around 2px for this image then on the left side of the main toolbar there is three buttons so push the one on the right, hovering over it should read ‘Fill Pixels’. Now set the foreground color to white, this can be done quickly by hitting ‘D’ then ‘X’. Now just draw lines similar to the ones here, as if your drawing a diamond.

Step 5

Now to have these go behind the subject we are going to mask them. Add a layer mask to this layer by pressing the layer mask button in the layers panel. Now select the layer mask then the brush tool and choose a hard round brush at a medium size, change the foreground color to black then brush over the parts of the diamonds that you dont want seen so here I brushed over his legs.

Step 6

Create a new layer then select the pen tool and those three buttons again, make sure the middle one is pressed this time, this will create paths with the pen tool. Now zoom in on the shoe and using the pen tool draw a path around the shoe and the sock. After you’ve closed the path right click and select ‘Fill Path’ then choose white as the fill color. Lower the opacity of this layer to about 50% just so you can still see the details on the shoe because we need to trace them.

Step 7

Create a new layer, with all these layers make sure you name them and even arrange them into groups or things are going to get complicated. Select the brush tool and choose a 1px hard round brush and set the foreground color to black. Now choose the pen tool and and trace over one of the lines on the shoe then swap to the brush tool and hit Return and this will stroke the path. Change back to the pen tool then hit esc. a couple of times to get rid of the path. Now just repeat this for all the lines and details on the shoe.

Step 8

In a new layer repeat this process for the sock and the laces and you should be left with something like in the image below.

Step 9

Remember the layer we made in step 6 where we filled the shoe white, change the opacity of this layer to 100%. Create a new layer directly above this one and with a hard white brush draw some drips from the shoe, there isn’t really a technique to this, just zoom in loads and try and make it look smooth, I usually just use the brush tool only but if you feel confident you could try using the pen tool.

Step 10

I felt the shoe looked to clean and flat so I downloaded a light brown paper texture, these can be found everywhere so just give it a google. Paste it into your document, the positioning doesn’t matter as long as it covers the shoe. Now Ctrl+click on the shoe layer (the one that we set to 100% in the last step) then select the paper layer and press the layer mask button then hit Ctrl+D get rid of the selection. In the layers panel place the paper layer between the shoe and the lines so above the shoe and the drip but below the lines. Now lower the opacity of this layer to around 30%.

Step 11

We’re going to now try and replace this guys arm with a tripod because I thought it would look cool. Select the clone stamp tool and in the main toolbar set the sample to all layers. Change the brush to a medium soft brush then create a new layer.

Step 12

Now you have to remove the arm by sampling the background the cloning it on top of the arm. Do this by holding Alt and clicking where you want to sample then brushing over that area. Keep doing this until the arm is removed like in the image below.

Step 13

We now need a reference image of a tripod so search the internet until you find a good one tha would fit the arm then past it into the document, I lowered the opacity of this layer so I could position it accurately.

Step 14

Now you have to use exactly the same process as we did for the shoe so first trace round the object and fill it white, you’ll notice that at the top I haven’t followed the reference image, this is because I wanted it to connect to the arm,

Step 15

Again use the same technique to add the lines, I added some extra line and made some bits up to make it look better.

Step 16

Raise the opacity of the filled layer then copy the paper texture and place it over the tripod in the same way as we did with the shoe

Step 17

I added a few drips on the arm, these should be easy for you to work out how to do. Thats us done for part 1 but check out part 2 here. I hope you found this part useful.

Read the Tutorial

Read the Tutorial

Read the Tutorial

Favorite Images

Here are the images that really stood out to me, great work here! If you didn’t make the cut don’t worry I’ll be doing another roundup soon enough so keep at it.

Esoteric
estheticcore

Isla Flotante
Diego Mattei

Lo stress Uccide
uriel.design

Comp_osit_ion
Dgearin

BestGrafiks Design
ironbondio