This is a preview of the final effect..

Step 1

Create a new document 1440×900 px and fill the background with a radial gradient white pink (#FFFFFF- #FFE0FC).

Step 2

Paste this picture of a flying crane into a new layer named “Crane”, resize it and extract it from its background.

Step 3

Download macbadshoes’ watercolor brushes. Select one of the brushes of the set and paint a pink or violet shape (#D1A7CD) into a new layer named “Watercolor 1″, then put “Watercolor1″ layer above all the others and change its Blend Mode to Color Burn.

Step 4

Use an “S” shaped brush to paint a large watercolor pink (#EFB9EB) background. Paint this into a new layer named “Watercolor 2″ this time and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 5

Next, on Brushes palette, select the Dry brushes set, and select any of them. Over Brush options, change the size to 79px, Blend mode to Overlay, and both Opacity and Flow to 30%. Then just paint over “Crane” layer here and there using several colors. Paint the shapes randomly.

Step 6

Select “Crane” layer, then go to Filters > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Dry Brush, set the values shown below and see how it looks.

Step 7

As a final watercolor detail, by using another “S” shaped watercolor brush, draw some soft pink shapes on the background.

Step 8

Add your desired text, I’m using Scriptina and Eras Light ITC.

Step 9

Finally add a texture. I’m using this paper texture form stockxchng. Paste it into a new layer above all the other and change its Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 75%.

Conclusion

And that’s it, a simple and fun way to turn any picture into watercolor, try your own!.

Author:Alvaro Guzman

::GFXZoOM::source:designreviver.com::

• Napoleon on his Throne – Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
• Male Lion – Trisha Shears
• Potted Plant – G& A Scholiers
• Potted Flower – G& A Scholiers
• Palm – Milenable
• Crown – Ikiwaner
• Cow Skull – Petr Kovar
• Human Skull – Alicia Solario
• Snake – Trine de Folie

Step 1: Open the Napoleon image & Crop it

First of all open the painting of Napoleon. It is a famous painting done in 1806 and it can be used as it’s copyright has expired and it is now in the public domain. It was found it on Wikimedia Commons which is a good site for such images.

Use the Crop Tool (C) to crop the steps off the bottom of the image to improve the compostion and bring more attention to the head.

Step 2: Add Lions Head

Import the image “Male Lion”. Using Free Transform (Ctrl +T) resize the image and rotate it slighty so that it fits well on the body

Step 3: Blend lion head into body

Add a layermask to the layer with the lion’s head either by Layer > Layer Mask > Reval All or by clicking on the Add layer mask icon on the Layers window. You can paint in greyscale in the layer mask. Using a black brush hides the image at the corresponding position on the layer while a white brush will reveal it. Different shades of grey can be used for different opacities. Use a Soft Black Brush around the lions head on the layer mask to hide the surrounding scenery. You can use the ] to increase brush size and [ to decrease brush size.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the lion head.

Then sharpen the image by using Filter >Sharpen > Sharpen to get the lions head the same sharpness as the background

A lions head is bigger than a human head so it will cause more of shadow on the body. The lion stock already has a prominent shadow with a clear path on it to follow. Use the Polygonal Lasso to select an area below the head where the shadow is likely to fall. Use a soft brush in the Eraser tool to erase parts of the shadow to make it more realistic. Set the layer to Soft Light and turn down the Opacity to 50%

Step 4: Making the throne more jungle

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N). Outline the edge of the throne using the Pen Tool (P) ( make sure the pen tool is in path mode). Right click on path and select make selection…and fill selection with a green colour. Use the eraser to get rid of areas of green which are blocking objects which would be infront of the throne. Set layer to Color mode.

Right click the above layer and select blending options. The settings used are in the image below. The patterns used are photoshop defaults under the texture fill category.

Step 5: Add vegetation on the throne

We are going to add more vegetation around the throne to make it look more jungle. Firstly add some flowers to the greenery on the throne to make it look more regal. To do this select select the greenry by Ctrl + left click on the layer containing it. On a new layer brush on some flowers using a 3px round brush on 30% opacity to brush in the flowers, the brush settings are shown below. Play around with the colour and opacity of the brush to get different shades of flowers.

Step 6: Add vegetation around the the throne

Open the image “Potted Plant”in a new document. Use select > colour range to select the white in the image. Adjust the fuzziness so that as much white is selected without much of the plant being selected. Ctrl + Shift + I to selected inverse. Add a layer mask, this will mask out the white part of the image. The pot part of the image is not needed so using a black brush on the layer mask hide the pot and the shadow of the plant. Then drag the layer into the main document and resize it using Free Transform (Ctrl +T),

If there is a white line around the leaves select the layer mask (Ctrl + left click ), select inverse (Ctrl + Shift + I) and feather (Ctrl + Alt + D) by 2 pixels. Delete this selection to get rid of any excess white lines around the leaves.

Repeat the above steps with the “Potted Flower” and the “Palm” stock.

Step 7: Arranging and blending the vegetation

The palm leaves are going to be above the throne while flowers are going to rest at the feet of the throne with the leafy plant standing behind the flowers. Arrange the plants into their respective positions making sure the flower layer is above the plant layer.

Duplicate the layers with the vegetation to build up the thickness of the vegetation. Use the black brush on the layer mask as needed to make sure the duplicates blend well with the originals.

After achieving the right thickness and distribution of the different vegetation merge all layers of the same type of vegetation for ease of use. This can be done by selecting all the layers using Ctrl + Left Click and right clicking on the layer and selecting Merge layers.

Play around with Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation to make the colours of the vegetation blend a bit more. The leafy plant and the palm leaves will need to be desaturated slighty as well as made a little darker as they are more in the background of the image.

Erase parts of the vegetation that are blocking objects that would be infront of them in the image.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the vegetation.

Step 8: Add a Crown

Theres no king without a crown. Import the “Crown” image to a layer above the lions head and using the Pen Tool (P) select the black area and get rid of it. Using the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) resize the crown to an appropriate size.

Make the crown fit the lions head using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) and Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp) Tools

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the crown.

Step 9: Add some skulls

As the King the lion is dominant over man and beast and to symbolise this we are going to add the skull of a man and the skull of an animal either side of the throne. A cow’s skull will be placed on the golden pedestal on the lions left. Cover the globe that is there with the surrounding red cloth using the Clone Stamp Tool.

Import the “Cow Skull.” Remove the white background of the skull using the Pen Tool (P) and use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size.

Make the skull fit on the pedestal using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) & Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp)Tools

Using Image>Adjustments >Brightness/Contrast… reduce the brightness and the contrast of the skull.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the skull

Step 10: Add the human skull.

A human skull will be placed on the golden pedestal on the lions right. The globe only needs to be partially covered as globe can be used as reference for the lighting on the skull. Cover the edge of the globe surrounding red cloak using the Clone Stamp Tool. Cover only part of globe that the skull wouldn’t be infront of.

Import the “Human Skull” image. Remove the white background of the skull using the Pen Tool (P). Use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size .

Make the skull fit the pedestal using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) & Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp)Tools just like in the previous step

Using Image>Adjustments >Brightness/Contrast… reduce the brightness and but increase contrast of the skull. And using Image>Adjustments >Hue/Saturation reduce some saturation of the skull.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the skull

Use a soft black brush of low opacity to shade the edge of the cloak and to make the skulls shadow.

Step 11: Add an advisor for the king.

Import the “Snake” image.

Remove the white background of the snake using the Pen Tool (P). Use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size . The intention is to make the snake twirl around the lions cane.

Copy and paste the straight part of the snake on to a new layer. Arrange it using the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to move it and rotate it so that the snake starts to look as if it is wrapped around the cane. Duplicate the straight part of the snake till the snake starts to look as if it is wrapped around the length of the cane and is dissapearing into the kings cloak.

Use a soft round eraser to smooth the harsh edges of the duplicate so that the parts of the snake starts blending into each other.

Once all the different duplicates are blended together merge them into a single layer.

Using the eraser remove parts of the snake which would be behind the cane.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the snake.

Step 12: Adjusting the base image

Lions are thought of as being very strong animals so we are going to make the body parts of the king larger. For this we will be editing the intial layer (make sure to duplicate the first layer as an insurance). Use the Bloat Tool (B) in the Liquidify Filter (Shift + Ctrl + X) on the intial layer to make the large muscle areas of the body even larger.

Use Dodge & Burn to even out the lighting on the base layer.

Step 13: Overall adjustments

Select the uppermost layer and then create a new Adjustment Layer by Layer >New Adjustment Layer > Black & White. Play around with the dials for the different colours until the black and white preview is balanced brightness wise. then set the adjustment layer to Luminosity and the Opacity to 50%

Create a new layer above the adjustment layer (Shift + Ctrl + N). Do Ctrl + A to select all the canvas and (Shift + Ctrl + C) to copy merged. Paste this into the new layer you have created using Ctrl + V.

As the final step use the Reduce Noise Filter (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise) on the copy merged layer to make the image smoother and more like a painting. Play around with the settings to get the feeling that you desire but make sure the Strength is very high (7-9) and the Preserve Details very low (1-10%)

Final Result

Download the PSD

::GFXZoOM::source:tutorial9.net::

[If you’d like to download the image used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, click here. We’ve also included a before and after for you to compare the results. All files are for practice purposes only.]

1 OPEN THE IMAGE TO BE SHARPENED
Let’s start things off with a photograph that requires sharpening. I captured this image with a Leica D-Lux 3 out the window of my car. In the course of touring the back roads of South Dakota’s Black Forest, we were suddenly surrounded by a few hundred mostly peaceful bison, and this guy in particular was close enough to touch (were I endowed with really stretchy Mr. Fantastic arms). The resulting image is soft with striated noise patterns and wandering colors. If I just set about sharpening him, I’d bring out the bad detail along with the good. Fortunately, smart objects provide a more selective if somewhat laborious approach.

Photo Credit: ©DEKE MCCLELLAND

2 CONVERT LAYER TO A SMART OBJECT
Photoshop provides a handful of commands that convert an image to a smart object. But for my money, the most convenient method is to click the little doodad in the top-right corner of the Layers panel and choose Convert to Smart Object. (It works for multilayer images, too.) Go ahead and rename the new layer something meaningful like “Bison.” Now your converted and named image is ready to receive nondestructive smart filters.

3 APPLY SMART SHARPEN
To sharpen the creature, choose Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen. Then set the Amount to 350%, Radius to 4.0 pixels, and Remove to Lens Blur. After clicking OK, double-click the tiny slider icon to the right of the words “Smart Sharpen” in the Layers panel and change the Mode setting to Luminosity. This focuses the attention on the detail in the image rather than exaggerating the discrepancies between color channels—always a good idea when sharpening. Leave the Opacity set to 100% and click OK. Tip: Delete the empty filter mask because it just takes up room. When you do need a mask, it’s easier to create it on the fly, as you’ll soon see.

4 SMOOTH COLOR WITH MEDIAN
Sharpening did my bison some good, but it also brought out anomalous color patches in the fur. What’s needed is a generous pass of the Median filter. Choose Filter>Noise>Median, raise the Radius to a hefty 50 pixels, and click OK. As a rule, smoothing should be applied before sharpening so drag the Median filter below Smart Sharpen in the Layers panel. Double-click the slider icon to the right of “Median” in the Layers panel. (Photoshop warns you that you won’t be able to preview the effects.) Change the Mode to Color to smooth over the considerable coloring problems, and click OK to render the smoothing and sharpening effects together.

5 FIND BEST CHANNEL TO USE FOR MASK
Smoothing out the color works nicely inside the bizarrely (and inaccurately) multicolored bison, but it eliminates all hint of color in the background. What’s needed is a filter mask that exposes the bison and protects the grass. Turn off the Eye icon in front of the words “Smart Filters” in the Layers panel to restore the original image, which we’ll need to build a mask. Click the Channels tab and click the various channels to find the one with the highest degree of contrast between foreground and background. For most people and mammal shots, this is going to be Red.

6 EXAGGERATE CONTRAST IN CHANNEL
Duplicate the Red channel by dragging it onto the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the panel. Double-click the name (in our case, Red copy) and call it “Mask.” When the mask is complete, the bison should be white and the background black. So press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the colors. Next we need to exaggerate the contrast. Choose Image>Adjustments>Levels. Raise the black point value to 70 and lower the white point value to 190 to draw out the bison from its background. Click OK to complete the effect.

7 LOAD THE MASK AS A SELECTION
Your mask isn’t going to win any awards for accuracy. And if you have some extra time on your hands, you could finesse it using the Dodge and Burn tools or the like. But this quick-and-dirty mask nicely highlights the areas of major color drift and fur detail, making it good enough for our purposes. To load the mask, press the Command key (PC: Ctrl) and click the Mask thumbnail in the Channels panel. Now you’re ready to apply the mask to the filters.

8 OPEN THE IMAGE TO BE SHARPENED
Click the RGB thumbnail in the Channels panel to return to the color composite image. Then click the Layers tab to return to the Layers panel. Turn on the Eye icon in front of the words “Smart Filters.” Then Control-click (PC: Right-click) “Smart Filters” and choose Add Filter Mask. Photoshop limits the Median and Smart Sharpen effects to the interior of the bison and protects the prairie grass in the background.

9 DELETE UNUSED CHANNEL
One of the great things about smart objects is that they make efficient use of file size. This particular image was 15.4 MB flat and 15.4 MB after the addition of the two nondestructive smart filters. It’s only when you start adding masks that the file size balloons. We have two masks, one alpha channel and the other a filter mask, so the file size has grown to 25.7 MB. The two masks are identical, so there’s no reason to keep them both. Go to the Channels panel and drag the Mask channel (not the italicized Filter Mask item) to the Trash. The file size drops to 20.5 MB.

10 OPEN SMART OBJECT IN NEW WINDOW
I’m glad to have brought back the colors in the grass. But I’m not so keen on limiting the sharpening effect to the animal. Plus we need to address the horizontal noise patterns at work in the shadow detail. This means applying a couple more filters, neither of which benefit from the existing filter mask. The solution is to create a nested smart object—a smart object inside a smart object—to accommodate the unmasked filters. Back inside the Layers panel, double-click on the Bison smart object thumbnail to open it in a new window (presumably called Layer 01.psb after the temporary file Photoshop creates to accommodate the smart object).

11 CONVERT SMART OBJECT TO SMART OBJECT
You’ll see the original, unedited version of the photograph on a standard Background layer, with all pixels available for editing. Bring up the Layers panel menu and once again choose Convert to Smart Object. Then rename the layer “You’re in the SO!” This way you’ll know where you are if you accidentally enter the smart object. While this adds to the complexity of the file, quite amazingly, it adds nothing to the file size. In fact, the Adobe engineers I talked to endorse this technique and told me there is currently no limit to how deeply you can nest smart objects.

12 APPLY REDUCE NOISE
To downplay the striated noise pattern, choose Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Then change the Strength value to 8, Preserve Details to 20%, Reduce Color Noise to 15%, and Sharpen Details to 0%, all of which conspire to smooth away most of the noise without altogether ruining the good detail. Make sure the Remove JPEG Artifact checkbox is turned off and then click OK to apply the filter.

13 APPLY HIGH PASS FOR EDGE CONTRAST
You don’t need the filter mask so drag it to the Trash in the Layers panel. Next we want to add a little bit of edge contrast, in part to sharpen the prairie grass but also to generally enhance the image detail. Choose Filter>Other>High Pass, set the Radius value to 20 pixels, and click OK. Double-click the tiny slider icon to the right of the words High Pass in the Layers panel. Drop out the grays by changing the Mode setting to Soft Light. Then reduce the Opacity value to 50% and click OK. The result is just enough sharpness to offset the effects of the Reduce Noise filter.

14 ENJOY THE RESULTS AND FLEXIBILITY
Close and save the nested smart object. Moments later, you’ll see the meticulously sharpened result thanks to a combination of four filters working nondestructively aided by two smart objects, one nested inside the other. It takes some effort to sharpen an image with this degree of control and accuracy, but the results are worth the effort. And you can modify the filter settings without fear of harming the quality of the image. Smart objects aren’t perfect, but with some planning and slightly more patience, you can establish flexible compositions that permit you to apply filters and adjust their order and settings in any way you see fit.

::GFXZoOM::source:layersmagazine.com::

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create the Iron Man screen interface, I don’t even know if I can call it that way . We will use Illustrator to create some vectors and Photoshop to put everything together.

Step 1

Create a new document and fill the background layer with black. I used 1920×1200 pixels for the size.

Step 2

Now let’s use a photo. I’m using a photo of Paulo, one of our writers here on abduzeedo, he’s an ironman fan and asked me to use his picture.

Step 3 – Digital Make Up

Create a new folder on the Layer Palette and rename it to Face. Then move the photo layer to this new folder. After that select the folder again and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Now with the Brush Tool (B) paint with Black to hide the areas we don’t need.

Step 4

Duplicate the layer and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 6 pixels for the Radius. Actually this step is from the Really Cool Digital Make Up tutorial. But as you can see I added more things to it, there are some areas burned for example. To do that, select the Burn Tool(O) and paint some areas we want to be darker. Use the image below for reference. Also use the Dodge Tool(O) to make some areas lighter.

Step 5

With the Eraser Tool (E) delete the areas we want to keep them sharp and crisp, like the eyes, beard, hair. Basicaly just leave the skin areas.

Step 6

Duplicate the original photo, not the blurry one and go to Filter>Other>High Pass. Again this is from another tutorial I wrote, the How to Enhance Your Images in Photoshop (http://abduzeedo.com/photoshop-video-tutorial-experiment-1). Change the Blend Mode of this layer to Hard Light. Again you can use the Eraser Tool to delete some areas like the image below.

Step 7

Select the first layer, the one with the original photo and then with the Dodge Tool (O) paint the eyes to make them much brighter. Also with the Burn Tool(0) make othe areas even darker. You can use these 2 tools on the other layers as well.

Step 8

Go to Image>Adjustment>Hue/Saturation. Make the image darker and less saturated. I used -3 for the Hue, -32 for the Saturation, and -38 for the Lightness.

Step 9 (Illustrator)

I used Illustrator to create the interface elements, but you can use any tool or even Photoshop. But for me Illustrator was easier and more agile for the whole process. Anyway, create to ellipses with the Ellipse Tool (L). Then use the Blend Tool (W) to create more copies of the circles.

Step 10

Go to Object>Expand and expand the Blend. Then go to Object>Ungroup. You will be able to edit each circle now. With the Direct Selection Tool (A), select some segments of the circle and delete them. Use the Pen Tool (P) to add more Anchor Points. Use the image below for reference.

Step 11

Create more elements, use the Line Segment Tool (\) and the Polar Grid Tool to add more elements.

Step 12

Keep adding elements, like arrows using the Polygon and Star Tool. Also create different shapes, you can even add texts or numbers.

Step 13

Create more circles too, this time however rescale them to give the idea that they are coming from a different angle, then just repeat the previous steps to create more elements and delete some segments. Use the image below for reference.

Step 14

Back to Photoshop, what you will have to do is copy and paste the elements from Illustrator to Photoshop. But you will have to do that for each object instead copy and paste all at once. So copy the first circle segment and paste it as Smart Object. Then let’s apply some Layer Styles. Reduce the Layer Opacity to 30% and select Color Overlay. Use a nice cyan color, the one I used was #00eaff.

Step 14

For each element apply a Gaussian Blur. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use different values for each element. But try to add more blur to the bigger ones.

Step 15

For some elements change the Color Overlay to green like the one on the image below. That will create a nicer effect than just one color. Also keep pasting the elements from Illustrator to Photoshop.

Step 16

Group the elements you pasted in Photoshop and rename the group to Left Eye. Duplicate this group and go to Layer>Merge Group. You will have one layer with all objects. This layer has to be on top of the “Left eye” group. Then group this element layer, it will be inside a folder. Change the folder’s Blend Mode to Color Dodge and apply a Layer Style to the layer. Change the Opacity to 70% and select the Color Overlay. Use white for the color. That will create a nice light effect and keep the colors.

Step 17

Here I added more elements from Illustrator, this time I used a red for the color. I just repeated the previous steps, paste it, apply the layer style with 30% opacity and Color Overlay, then I add the Gaussian Blur. Also I duplicated the layer and grouped it, change the Blend Mode of this new folder to Color Dodge and changed the Color Overlay of the duplicated layer to White and the opacity to 70%. Again that is just to create a sort of glow to the objects.

Step 18

Here I just added the other elements I had created in Illustrator. Always repeate the previous steps to create the same effect to all objects.

Step 19

Create a new layer on top of the other layers. Then select the Gradient Tool(G) and click on the gradient colors to open the Gradient Editor (1). Change the colors to Black and White and the Gradient Type to Noise (2). Then change the Roughness to 100% and select Restict Colors and Add Transparency. After that choose the Angle Gradient (3) and just fill the layer with the gradient you created. Start it from the left eye, right in the middle of the eye (4).

With the layer filled with the color rays, go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 6 pixels for the Radius. After that just apply the layer style you used for the other elements, adding a color overlay. But for this layer reduce the opacity to 70%. Also with the Eraser Tool (E), erase the are close to the eye (5). Use the image below for reference.

Conclusion

Now just add some black bars to make it looks like a wide screen video and your logo. It’s a very nice effect inspired by the Iron Man movie and the cool thing for me is that I was looking for some cool ideas for tutorials then watching that movie was very good because it had lots of great effects like when that Jericho bomb explodes for example.

Anwyay, I hope you have enjoyed the this tutorial and learned something from it. It’s just a very quick overview and probably there are different ways to do that.

Click on the image for Full Preview

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial.

::GFXZoOM |source:abduzeedo.com::

We’ll be creating most of the design in Adobe Photoshop, so let’s say this is just a Photoshop tutorial!

Our Result

This is what I came up with, and hopefully what you’ll be able to design from following this tutorial:

Step 1

Step one is setting up the canvas. Select ‘international paper’ in your new file menu, then select A4. However, you can use whatever settings you want, so feel free to use something else. Here’s a screenshot of what I”ll be using:

CMYK/RGB color mode will be depending on if you’re getting it printed or if it’s just for practice. You’ll probably have more control over the colors though if you use RGB as the color mode.

Fill the background with a nice radial gradient.

Colors used for this gradient were #f9ae1a and #a42b21.

If you want, you can set up some rulers in the center of your document so you know where to place all of your elements later on. Hit CTRL+R to enable rulers, then drag two lines over our document. If you don’t want to see these lines while you’re working, hit CTRL+H.

Step 1.2

This is an optional step, it’s regarding the rulers that you saw in the above screenshot (where I added the gradient in). If you’re a newbie with Photoshop, my guess is you won’t know how to place the rulers in the center of the document. My usual method for accomplishing this, is the following:

1. Start by getting out the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).
2. Now, set the settings near the top of Photoshop to Fixed Size.
3. Set the width to 50% and height to 50%.
4. Place this 50% selection in the top left of your canvas area.
5. Drag a ruler onto your canvas and hopefully it will snap to your half selection.
6. We’re done. If you were unable to complete this successfully, I wouldn’t worry about it!

OK, time to move on.

Step 2

Now you need to get some stock photos/elements. Start by going over to stock.xchng (sign up for an account, if you don’t have one), then download a stock or two, preferably of a speaker or something similar. I’m using these two stocks to start off with: Speakers 2, Speakers 5.

Step 3

Open up your stock photos and cut out the white from around the objects, like what I’ve done here:

Note: Use the Pen Tool, take your time to go all the way around the object, and it doesn’t matter if your path is in the inside of your shape slightly, either. After you’ve made the paths you should make a selection and delete the white.

After you’ve cut out both/all of your stock photos, copy them to your other document and position them accordingly. Before you start transforming or editing your stocks though, you should first right-click them in the layers palette and convert them to smart objects.

Converting them to smart objects will allow you to edit them freely later without losing the image quality.

Lookin’ good!

Step 4

Now we need some cool elements. For this you can either use Photoshop brushes or vectors, but most brushes most likely won’t be big enough for the size we’re working with. You can either create your own, download some for free, or buy some for a couple of bucks (credits). Remember what I said above regarding Vecteezy and Vector Stock.

Let’s start with something simple. Start up Illustrator, create a new document then enable the grid (and snap to grid).

Using the Rectangle Tool I want you to create a few small, different colored rectangles just like this:

Note: It shouldn’t matter what size the rectangles are, just go with the grid. Select all of your newly-created shapes and drag them into the Brushes palette. Select New Art Brush.

Alright, now we have a simple brush. Create a bit of a wavy path and apply your new brush to it. If any the edges of the brush look a little dodgy in some areas, don’t worry about it, we can conceal that later!

Select your path and copy it over to Photoshop. Resize/rotate and position to your liking.

Not bad!

Step 5

Over at Vecteezy I found a nice free sample pack called BySkell Free Samples. Open this in Illustrator and take a few pieces from it and place them in your Photoshop document. I started by just using the splatter.

Place it accordingly then fill it with black (as it was grey to start with). If you think some parts of the splatter get in the way, take an eraser to it.

There are some other nice elements in that free sample pack, so feel free to use whatever you need to make your design look great.

Above: After adding in the vector tree, change it’s color to white.

Above: Grunge element added. After copying it to your Photoshop document, rotate/resize it and position it at the top. Then simply change the layer mode to Multiply and lower the opacity to around 30-40%.

Step 6

Let’s add a few simple adjustments/details. Start by applying a bit of an Outer Glow to both of our speaker stock layers.

You may also like to experiment with other layer styles on some of your other layers. I added a similar layer style (as above) to the tree layer, except I lowered the opacity slightly and made it a bit larger.

Get creative!

Step 7

Add a little texture. Check out HighResolutionTextures for some nice texture packs. Select a texture, place it over your canvas and mess with layer modes, opacities and level adjustments (for the texture itself).

The last thing to add would be the text. Sometimes this takes a while to get right, just go through your font collection and find the right font combination.

The font used in the above image is called “Kozuka Gothic Pro,” and I believe it’s a commercial font (may come with Photoshop).

I think the design could do with some more floral elements or something like that, so I recommend you search the web and try a heap of different things

::GFXZoOM |source:designblurb.com::

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to easily create digital abstract smoke using both Illustrator and Photoshop. One of the best things about this technique is that it’s very customizable and you can do it pretty quickly.

As I said before, we will use Illustrator a bit, but actually you can use whatever vector software you have. The only requirement is that it have a similar tool to the Blend Tool in Illustrator.

Step 1

Open Illustrator, and using the Pen Tool (shortcut: P), draw two different curved lines, try to make them cross each other like the ones below. Those will be the shape of our smoke. After that, do the same thing again and draw two more lines. From those two pairs of lines, select one pair, and set the stroke color of the first line white and the other with dark gray(70%). Repeat the same thing on the other pair of lines but invert the colors. The reason we do this is because when we import those shapes in Photoshop we will be able to tweak the colors with a lot more ease.

Step 2

Using the Blend Tool, click on the edge of the white line and then click on the edge of the gray line. It will create a line between the two lines. With the Blend Tool selected, go to Object>Blend>Blend Options. There, change the Spacing to Specified Steps and put 200 steps. Repeat the same procedure on the other pair of lines we have.

Step 3

Now it’s all Photoshop from here. Copy the first blend and paste it in to Photoshop as a Smart Object. Repeat that for the second layer. We choose to paste as Smart Objects because you can scale and re-scale without losing quality. This happens because they remain vectors rather than becoming bitmap graphics. Besides that we can edit the vectors again, and if you are using the CS3 version it’s possible to apply all filters in a non-destructive mode as well. That means if you apply any filter you will be able to change their parameters anytime or even delete the filter effect returning to the original image. This is not dissimilar to Layer Styles except now with filters.

Step 4

Here I just organize my layers using folders. Set the blending mode to Multiply for both folders: Shape 1 and 2. After that apply a Gaussian Blur with a radius of 1 pixels in both layers: Smoke 1 and 2.

Step 5

Duplicate both layers inside of each folder. So you will have Smoke 1, Smoke 1 Copy, Smoke 2, and Smoke 2 Copy. Change the Blending mode of the Smoke 1 Copy and Smoke 2 Copy to Overlay

Step 6

Now we are going to change the color from that grayish tone to a blueish one by creating a new fill or adjustment layer and choosing Hue/Saturation. Put that layer on top of the others and double-click on the layer to edit the Hue/Saturation parameters.

Step 7

Duplicate the Smoke 1 layer and Rasterize it. Then put it on the top of the other layer, even above the adjustment layer. After that change its blending mode to Color Dodge and apply a Gaussian Blur with the radius of 25 pixels. You will get a light blue color like a glow.

Step 8

Now we have the basics. We could stop here and have a great effect already, but let’s take it to the next level. It’s time to add some extra wafts. First fade Smoke 1 back to about 50% so it’s a little softer. Then duplicate the Smoke 1 group and fade right back to 20%. Select the group and add a Layer mask. Then using a White to Black radial gradient, mask it out as it gets to the right side so the smoke is fading off into nothing.

Step 9

Next duplicate the same fading out smoke layer we made in the last step and rotate it to make it look a bit more random. If you had time you could replicate these layers from the very beginning steps in Illustrator. Your aim should be to have wafts of smoke going away from the main smoke channel. If you want a smoke on white effect, you should stop here.

Step 10

Next create a new layer above all the others and fill it with a gradient going from white (#FFFFFF) to grey-ish blue (#C4CCD0) as shown.

Step 11

Set the new layer’s blending mode to Exclusion. Exclusion (as well as Difference) invert colors from lower layers, which gives us a smoke on dark-grey effect.

Step 12

The coloring is now pretty cool, but it could be even more graceful. Create a new layer above the others and fill it with a linear gradient from #5f4547 to #7096e4 as shown. Once you have the gradient, set the blending mode to Color and 50% Opacity.

Step 13

Finally we add a bit of text to finish off the image. This effect is best when you create it larger than you need at the end, then shrink it down and run the Unsharp Mask filter over it (Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask) to get the curves looking clean and crisp.

Conclusion

Using Illustrator’s Blend Tool gives a lot of flexibility so it’s possible to create all sorts of shapes and blend them, even creating blends with four different shapes. Then in Photoshop with the Smart Objects and Smart Filters we can apply, change, and test all kinds of filters and combinations. It’s all about playing with the tool.

As Bert Monroy always says, I hope you have learned something from here and it’s not the end result but how we got there. Thanks

Sample PSD

Download the PSD for this tutorial

::GFXZoOM |source:tutsplus.com::

Step 1

Create a new document. Double-click on the background layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. Select Gradient Overlay. For the colors, use three colors: pink, blue, and black. Select Radial for the Style.

Step 2

Create a new layer and rename it to”ps clouds.” Make sure that the foreground is white and the background is black. Go to Filters>Render>Clouds. Tip: Hold the “Alt” key to create a stronger effect.

Step 3

To create the clouds we will use the Brush Engine. Create a new Folder and name it “cloud.” Select the Brush Tool and set the brush properties as shown below. The secret is the spacing and the Size Jitter. After that, you can save the brush.

Step 4

We have the brush—now lets create the cloud style. Create three new layers inside the “cloud” folder, and name them “front,” “middle,” and “last.” Double-click on the “front” layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box and select Gradient Overlay, Bevel and Emboss, and Inner Glow. Copy the Layer Style and apply to the other two layers.

Step 5

Using the brush we created, start painting the clouds. Tip: The volume will be created using the layer order, like in the image below.

Step 6

After you’ve painted your cloud, select the folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to Multiply. Group the two layers and rename it to “Cloud 1.”

Step 7

Repeat Steps 4, 5, and 6. It’s not necessary to repeat the Layer Style steps though, just Copy and Paste the Layer Style. Create four clouds and place them like in the image below.

Step 8

Select any cloud folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay. After that duplicate the layer and group the two layers. Rename the group to “clouds back.”

Step 9—Rainbows in Illustrator

In Illustrator select Ellipse Tool (L) and create a circle. Set the Stroke weight to 40px with a purple color.

Step 10

Start adding more strokes to the ellipse, increasing the weight by 40px so there will be a 40px purple, 80px cyan, 120px green, 160px yellow, and 200px red. After that copy the vector and go back to Photoshop.

Step 11

Back in Photoshop, paste the vector and choose Paste as Pixels. After that, using the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the white part of the rainbow and delete it. Then convert it to a Smart Object and group it. Rename the group “rainbow 1.”

Step 12

Place the rainbow between two clouds and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), select the part of the rainbow you want to hide. Then select the group (not the layer), and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection and hide that area.

After that you can duplicate the “rainbow 1″ group in order to create another rainbow.

Step 13

Create four new layers and paste on them the same Layer Style we used for the clouds. Select the Brush Tool and create another brush like the images below. Then create small clouds where the rainbows touch the clouds at the beginning and end of the rainbows.

Step 14

Create a new layer beneath the clouds and rainbows. Fill it with black and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Again select the Brush Tool and create another Brush in order to create the stars.

Step 15

Repeat step 14; however, this time select a circle shape instead of the star. Reduce the size of the brush, and create the rounded stars.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we used mostly the Brush Engine and Layer Styles. It’s amazing what you can do using only those two features! Here we created clouds but by changing some settings, we can create a completely different effect.

::GFXZoOM |source:tutsplus.com::