1. Make a new canvas, we used 600*480 px here, but the size is of course optional.

2. Select the Gradient Tool, using two shades of blue (see below), fill your canvas, so that the darker colour will be on top.

3. Take a photo of a girl. Traditionally I am using Becca‘s photo from her Deviant Art account, but you can replace her with any semi-sitting figure of your choice. Crop the figure and paste her unto your canvas. In needed, resize her so that she will fit in.

4. To get rid of the visible crappy cropping, and to give the girl more emphasis, add blueish glow to her by going to Layer >> Layer Styles >> Outer Glow and applying the following settings:

This is what you would get:

5. Make a new Layer. Make sure your primarily and secondary colours are black and white. Go to Filter >> Render >> Clouds

And, if needed apply the clouds effect a several times to achieve the desired randomly “clouded” effect.

6. Reduce the opacity of the layer to semi-visible.

7. Press Ctrl+T for free transform, and then right mouse click and “Scew”. Drag the left corner of the clouds layer, as shown on the illustration below:

Press “Enter” when you are done, then Ctrl + D to deselect the layer.

8. Duplicate the clouds layer. Select the upper layer and go to Edit >> Transform >> Flip Horizontal.

9. Select the girl’s layer from layers panel and drag it to the top, so that it would be your utmost upper layer.

Remember to remove the parts where layers turn to be on top of one another.

10. Take a photo of a lake with water circles. We used this one from Digital Free Photo, but again – this is optional.

Paste the layer unto your composition, so that the circles in the water will be “around” the girls or your main figure.

11. Using the Eraser Tool, remove the lower part of the girl’s layer, so create the illusion as if she is really sitting inside the water and the water circles are “from” her.

12. Set lake’s layer blending options to Luminosity.

13. Drag the Layers of the clouds on top of the water later and using eraser tool with soft edge (100px) remove the sharp parts, so that only the “steaming” clouds will remain, no edges.

14. Now to the hard bit – creating the plasma cycles.
Make a new layer (this is important) and place it on top of all the others.

15 Using the Elliptical Marquee tool, draw and ellipse. While the ellipse on the new layer is selected, Right-mouse-click and choose “stroke”. Apply the settlings below for the stroke effect:

16. Press Ctrl + T to free transform, and then right-mouse-click >> Prospective. Try to distort the round layer you have to it would look like the line is surrounding or flowing around the girl.

17. Using the Eraser tool with big soft edge, remove the “farther” part of the round, behind her head, like this:

18. While this layer is selected, go to Layer >> Layer styles >> Outter glow and apply the following glow settlings:

19. Duplicate the layer a several times and each time transform the round using the prospective settlings, so that the circles chaotically surround the main figure’s body.

20. Remember to leave the “front” part of the circle visible and erase the “back” part of it. This is more or less what you should have by now:

21. Flatten the Layer.
22. Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Levels and apply the following settlings to give the image an overall bluish hue:

23. Duplicate the layer.
24. While the upper layer is selected (and your background colour in the palette is set to white), go to Filter >> Distort >> Diffuse Glow and apply these glow settings.

25. Reduce the opacity of the “glowing layer” to 20% (or less, depends on your image).
26. Flatten the layer again to merge both layers into one.

27. Using some star brushes (download free on deviant Art resources page), apply the stars chaotically around and allover the glowing cycles.

28. Select the background layer (the artwork, not the stars) and to to Renters >> Lightening effect, apply the following spot light effect twice.

29. Get back to Stars layer, and go to Layer >> Layer Styles >> Outer Glow, and add the following glow using white #ffffff colour.

30. Duplicate the stars layer.
31. Go to Filter >> Blur >> Radial Blur and apply these settings.

You may choose to reduce the opacity of this layer if you feel the rounded blurred effect is too strong. That’s it, your artwork is ready:

Download my poorly cropped Render:

** More Fantasy Art Tutorials by Lorelei ***

__________________
My Photoshop Wish Blog

–>If you want get this effect instantly, see Photoshop actions offer. These actions can easily tune up your photos, they do the all work for you.

The most important is first step, it is a base of HDR Photoshop effect. Use command image > adjustment > shadow/highlight and set up values: shadows amount: 50%, tonal width 45%, radius 44px; High-light amount 67%, tonal width 65%, radius 46px;

Duplicate layer “base” and set up its layer interaction to Color Dodge. This interaction gives picture strong colors and cause that light areas turn into pure white. In next step it will be repaired by another layer interaction.

Do the same thing as in the second step, but layer interaction is set up to Linear Burn now. You can see big black area in picture, it has to be eliminated. Set up foreground color to black and use command select > color range, tick off invert option (we want everything except black parts), fuzziness should be set to around 100. Now click on red marked icon, new layer mask will be added and black will dissapear. There are some ugly artifacts in the picture, to remove them, click on layer mask and use Gaussian blur filter.

Fourth step is easy, it profits from third step. Just duplicate layer “linear Burn”, set its interaction to Overlay, select layer mask and pres ctrl+i (invert). This interaction darkens too much light shadows and raises contrast. As you can see in this HDR Photoshop tutorial, Layers and its interactions is very powerful tool.

Now it’s time to adjust picture look, try to experiment with layer opacity. Optimal values are about 40% for layer “Overlay” and 55% for layer “Linear Burn”. Whole HDR Photoshop tutorial is based on experimentation.

Set up foreground color to white and use command select > color range with fuzziness set up around 100. “Crawling ants” will appear around light areas. Duplicate “base” layer and move it up, then click on icon add layer mask. Select layer mask and soften it by Gaussian blur filter.

The last step colorize picture into red tones. Click on red marked icon and select from menu gradient map. This layer adjustment tools modify image colors according to defined gradient. There is a model gradient at the right border of picture. Load selection from layer mask of layer “light”, invert it (select > invert) and click on add layer mask icon. Set up interaction of layer “colorize” to hard light and finally set opacity to 72%.

I use some other adjustmenst to achieve HDR look. For example I fill white areas by photoshop generated clouds – filter > render clouds. If you have a question, feel free to ask in forum below.

You needn’t do manually all this steps again and again, much easier is to use HDR Photoshop action, which do the all work for you.
See Photoshop actions offer

Another photos adjusted in the same way:

Copy from PSDTUTS

A few days ago, I decided to make a special present for my girlfriend. I also thought this technique could be used by others that have the same plan, so here it goes. I will teach you some nice techniques that could improve your experience and also help you make a great gift.

Step 1

First of all, create a new document and fill it with black.

Step 2

Now import your 3D text and position it as you want. For making this text, I used Xara 3D. It is a very simple program that you can use. Next add some shadows to each letter.

Step 3

The thing I want to achieve here is to make some kind of colorful clouds behind the text. This technique is also known as “nebula,” so it is most likely that you will know about this effect.

To do this we will use the Brush Tool first with a Hardness set to 0%. Make a new layer, and chose a blue color and paint behind the text.

Step 4

On the same layer, paint a red color over sections of the blue. Experiment to find the outcome you like best.

Step 5

Now use a yellow color and do the same as above.

Step 6

Now paint a white area as above.

Step 7

We will make it blurry now. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius as you like.

Step 8

Now we need to make it look dustier. Create a new layer and fill it with black.

1. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds
2. Set its blending mode to Overlay
3. Duplicate the layer

Step 9

I want to give the text faces a light neon look. For this we must select each letter face. Use the Pen Tool for this.

Step 10

Make a new layer over the L letter and call it L face:

1. Press Ctrl-Enter (Command+Return on a Mac)
2. Fill the selection with any light color
3. Follow the settings below to add the effect to the letters.

Step 11

Now use the Dodge Tool, set the Exposure to 55%, and make the face of the letters lighter by brushing over them.

Step 12

Duplicate L face layer, remove the Effects and set it to Overlay.

Step 13

Use the same technique for all the other letters and don’t forget to put each letter face over its letter so that you will keep the composition as you first put it together.

Step 14

Now I want to make a background. Go to the bottom of the layer list and make a new layer over the background layer.

Step 15

Select a dark pink color for the foreground and black for the background. Use the radial gradient:

Step 16

Use the Gradient Tool and make something like this:

Step 17

I don’t want to see the clouds on that pink, so I will mask it using the Mask Tool.

Step 18

The image is almost finished. Now what we need to do is make some of the clouds and dust go over the letters so that they look more realistic. To do this you need to copy the clouds and dust layers and move them on top of all the layers.

Step 19

Merge them together and mask or delete some of it. As you can see in the example, I have masked most of it because I am going to make a smaller cloud and use it for this effect. I used Linear Light for the Blending Mode.

Step 20

Now I will explain how to make some really nice tentacles that you could use with this effect.

Make a new layer and call it “Green” because green is the color we will use here. Select a green color in the foreground (31b14a), and using the Pen Tool draw a path that you would like the tentacle to follow.

Step 21

Select the Brush Tool and make sure you select a small brush size. I chose 1 pixel. Use these settings to make the brush, and use a Pen Pressure effect.

Step 22

Now select the Pen Tool again, right-click (Option or Alt-Click on a Mac) and select Stroke Path.

Before you hit Ok on the screen that appears, make sure you check the Simulate Pressure.

This is what you should get:

Step 23

Now using the same path, you need to make some more strokes but this time modify the shape of the path a little and use different tones.

Something like this:

Step 24

Do the exact steps all over again at least 8 or 10 times starting from Step 20. But don’t forget to use different tones of green and also modify the shape of the path.

When you are finished, you should get something like this:

Step 25

Now use the brush tool and simply draw over your path. Don’t worry, you don’t need to follow the path exactly. I use a tablet and this gives me more precision but this is not needed.

Next, using the brush tool do something like this:

Step 26

Now use these settings to make it shiny:

Step 27

In the end, mask the part of the tentacle behind the text.

Step 28

Make more tentacles using different colors and different shapes.

Here is my result:

Conclusion

In the end, you can add some more clouds or change the background with a nice texture or other color.

Happy Valentines!

The tutorial is divided into 5 main areas:

• Preparing the background and drawing the basic shape (step 1 and 2)
• Filling the shape with gradients and layer styles (step 3 to 6)
• Adding a highlight (step 7)
• Adding a shadow (step 8)
• Adding distortions (step 9)

Note: Photoshop tutorial is spread over two pages. Click on 2 (top or bottom) to go to the second page.

Click on the foreground color in the tool bar marked with red in this screenshot:

In the Color Picker window that opens you enter the value D6D3C0 in the area marked with A:

Grab the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the selection with this color.
Press Ctrl +D (Command + D on the Mac) to get rid of the selection. You can also use the menu to do this: Select/Deselect.

Go to the layers palette and click on the Add a Layer Style icon and select Inner Shadow and use the settings shown here (watch out: the color white is selected):

The result should look like this:

Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .Clip this layer with the layer underneath by pressing Ctrl + G (Command + G on the Mac) or Ctrl + Alt + G (Command + Option + G on the Mac) if you use Photoshop CS2.

A clipping layer only affects the layer underneath. You’ll see soon what I mean.

Change the background color in the tool bar and use the following color: 65645F. We’re now going to draw a gradient using the current fore- and background colors. Select the Gradient Tool in the toolbar (if it’s not visible, then look under the Paint Bucket tool ).

Take a short look at the next screenshot. Make sure that a linear gradient (B) is selected in the options bar at the top and that the option Reverse (C) is selected. (mode should be normal, opacity 100%, dither and transparency should be both selected, but in most cases they’re probably already having the right values)

If you don’t see a gradient that uses your colors at A which should look like this , then double click on the gradient in the options bar (A) and select the gradient from the list (most likely the first one) and click OK.

Start in the middle where you see the red dot and end where you see the blue dot (Just before the area where the main color is getting lighter).

The result should look like this:

Press the letter D on your keyboard, which makes the foreground color black, the background color white:

Add a Layer Mask to this layer by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon . Don’t you worry if it switches the fore- and background color when you do this, this is normal behavior. Note: If the fore- and background colors look like this after you added the mask, then everything is ok. If they are switched, then just click on the double arrow points icon to correct this.The Gradient Tool is still active, but this time we need a Radial Gradient. Select the Radial Gradient in the options bar (the one beside the linear gradient (marked B in our previous screenshot of the options bar))

With the layer mask still active (It will have a double border), create a radial gradient by starting in the middle and stopping at the outher edge of our circular shape.

By this time we should you have something like this:

We’re now going to duplicate our Layer 1.
Click on its icon in the layers palette, hold down the mouse button and drag (A) the layer to the Create a new layer icon and release the mouse button.The next step is to move this duplicate (that has now become the layer with name Layer 1) to the top of our layers palette; click on Layer 1 and drag (B) it all the way up until you notice a dark black line appearing above the top layer. At that moment release the mouse button.

Warning for Photoshop CS2 users only : it turns out that Photoshop CS2 changes Layer 2 back to a normal layer, one that is not clipped, when we duplicate Layer 1. To correct that make sure Layer 2 is active and press Ctrl + Alt + G (Command + Option + G on the Mac). Again, this should only be done in Photoshop CS2.

Make sure that Layer on (our new top layer) is active (you will notice the in front of it).

Set the Fill of this layer to 0% (A) and then double click on the Layer Style icon (B) to modify the Layer Style of this layer:

Use the following effects settings for the layer style. Make sure that all settings are exactly the same, including color or blending mode settings.

Inner Shadow
(pay special attention to the option Use Global Light, because it’s not selected!)

Inner Glow

After this our image should look something like this:

Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .Select the Brush Tool in the tool bar.
Click on the area of the options bar that I’ve marked in red and select a 150px brush, with a hardness of 0%, which is the softest brush you can use.

Set the foreground color to white.
Click once with this brush exactly in the middle of this new layer (Layer 3). Now go to the menu and select Filter/Effects/Gaussian Blur… and select a radius of 25 and click OK.

Note: because we’ve blurred the white dot, white pixels might appear outside the area that we have defined as our glass ball, so we have to get rid of it. It’s quite simple and we’re going to use a little ‘trick’ for that.

With the top layer (Layer 3) still active we Ctrl + click (Command + click on the Mac) on the thumbnail of the layer underneath this layer (Layer 1) which will load it’s shape (the ball) as a selection and all we have to do now is to click on the Add Layer Mask icon and we’ve got rid of all white pixels outside our glass ball.

Now change the opacity of this layer to 30%. This screenshot also shows how your layer palette should look like at this moment:

7. Create a highlight

Add a new layer in Photoshop by clicking on the Create a new layer icon and that’s going to be Layer 4.Select the Brush Tool and use a hard brush (hardness is 100%) with a size of 20. Change the foreground color to white (or a very slight yellow (close to indoor light) using a value of FFFFE8).

Place the highlight in the location shown here:

Go to the menu and select Effects/Blur/Gaussian Blur… and select a small radius of .5 and click OK.
Go to the layers palette and click on the Add a Layer Style icon to add a layer style and select the Outer Glow effect and use the settings shown here:

First make the Layer 1 copy (the one above the background layer) the active layer by clicking on it; a will appear in front of it.Now set the Fill of this layer to 25%

You’ll notice that by doing that, that we’re are getting closer to the final result:

If the bottom is too bright (marked with the arrow), then just select the Layer Style of Layer 1 copy and lower the opacity of the Inner Shadow effect (or increase it if that’s what you prefer).

We now click on the background layer with the newspaper image on it, to make it active.
Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .

With this layer (Layer 5) active we click on Ctrl + click (Command + click) on the thumbnail of the layer above (the one with glass ball, Layer 1 copy). The result is a selection in layer 5 that is based on this glass ball.

Press the letter D on your keyboard, which makes the foreground color black, the background color white

We’re now going to draw a gradient using the current foreground color (black) in combination with transparency. Select the Gradient Tool in the toolbar (if in it’s not visible, then look under the Paint Bucket tool ).Make sure that a Radial Gradient (B) is selected in the options bar at the top and that the option Reverse (C) is selected.

If you don’t see a gradient in your options bar ( A), that looks like one going from transparency to black, then double click on the gradient in the options bar (A) and select the gradient from the list (the one right beside D) and click OK.Draw the gradient by starting in the middle of your selection and end at the edge of this same selection.

We’re now going to transform this selection in an elliptical shape by using the transform tool. Go in the menu to Edit/Free transform or press Ctrl + T (Command + T on the Mac). A rectangular box with 8 handles will appear.
Now pull the upper center handle downward (see A) until you have a shape that looks like the one in B.
Now press enter on your keyboard to complete the transformation and press Ctrl +D (Command + D on the Mac) to get rid of the selection. You can also use the menu to remove the selection: Select/Deselect.

We now have to move this shadow to the right (B). Be aware that the arrow only marks the direction, not the distance.
Select the Move Tool in your tool bar.
To move the selection, click on the shape and while holding the mouse button move the shape in place. Have a look at screenshot C to see where you should place this shadow. If your shadow seems to jump while you try to move it, then go to the menu and select view and make sure that Snap is turned off:

Now change the opacity of this layer to 50%. In the menu we select Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur... and select a radius of 2 and click OK. On the right you can see how the layers palette should look like after you’ve done all steps (in this screenshot I marked the color of the shadow layer with yellow).

In this last step we’re going to deform the image inside the glass ball. Make sure that our shadow layer (Layer 5) is still active and Ctrl + click (Command + click) on the thumbnail of the layer above (the one with glass ball, Layer 1 copy). The result is a selection in layer 5 that is based on this glass ball (like we did in step 8).Now got to the menu and select Filter/Distort/Spherize…
Select for Amount the value 100% and make sure that Normal is selected for Mode. Click OK.
The shadow is now deformed.

Make the background layer active and press Ctrl + F (Command + F on the Mac).
Note: Ctrl + F will always apply the filter that was used previously, in our case Spherize.

That was our final step and this is the result:

In this update we’re going to improve the highlight. Click on Layer 4 that contains our highlight to make it active.
We are now going to transform the highlight by pressing Ctrl + T (command + T on the Mac) and entering a value of 65% for Horizontal Scale (A) and a value of 45 for Rotation (B) and press enter twice:

This makes the highlight look more like an actual part of the ball:

It’s important to know that you have to select a background with colors that are not the total opposite of the colors we selected in the beginning of our tutorial when you want to use this technique.

You can make the ball even more realistic by adding more highlights or reflections. For the purpose of this tutorial I’ve kept it simple by adding just one single highlight.

Also be aware that once you deform the shadow or inside of the ball that you’re not able to move the ball, since both deformations are of course in a way “connected” to the background. So make sure that the glass ball is in the right place, before you start with the deformations. Make sure that your background is not to plain. A real glass ball doesn’t look cool either on white piece of paper in front of a white wall. Always try to use the environment to strengthen the effects you’re using to make the result look more realistic.

Note: Several people have commented saying that the background inside the ball should be upside down. These people are wrong, because that’s only the case with solid glass balls, this tutorial however is about a hollow glass ball and inside a hollow glass ball the background is not upside down. You can double check that by looked at a glass christmas ball.

This whole tutorial should be seen as a step in the right direction.

Another tutorial.. Simple and fast..

STEP 1= open a new document 1000 px / 1000 px and fill it with black

STEP 2= create a new layer (put it in the top) and fill it with white

STEP 3= go to filter >> render >> fibers and apply the following settings

STEP 4= go to filter >> blur >> motion blur and apply the following settings

STEP 5= apply a gradient overlay layer style with the following settings (remember to set the effect to overlay like shown in the box)

STEP 6= convert the layer to a Smart Object and duplicate the layer; set the layer to Overlay and go to filter >> other >> high pass and apply a radius of 10 pixels

STEP 6= set the black background layer as invisible and merge visible (shift+ctrl+E); than resize the merged layer as shown in the picture

STEP 7= free transform the merged layer rotating it of 45 degree and stretching it to the corners

STEP 8= go to image >> adjustments >> levels and apply this settings

FINISH= apply any effects you want to personalize your image

Announcing the first tutorial of a new series!
Together, with a pinch of this and a dash of that, we’ll figure out how to create this cool effect in just 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 normal, everyday Photoshop
1 set of real 3D text.
1 large black canvas (1600×1200px)

Step 1: First, we’ll need something written in 3D. We have two possible variations:

If you prefer a bit of Mac spice, use the command “Extrude and Bevel” in illustrator. This tutorial from PSDUTS may help you through it.

If you swing more toward a Windows flavor, Xara3D is another. If you don’t have Xara 3D, have no fear. We always come prepared: click on the thumbnail below to download a sample.

Step 2: Place the 3D text and rename it as “3D Text”. Then, with the Magic Wand Tool select the face of the letters and cut that part as you can see from the screnshoots below.

Step 3: With me so far? Now comes the fun part. Make two copies of this layer, one for backup (”3D Text Copy”) and another one (”3D Text Blur”). Set the backup copy aside to cool for a bit (aka, Hide). Leave the other two layers (“3D Text” and “3D Text Blur”) on the fire and easily accessible. Turn down the heat a bit on “3D Text Blur”; let it simmer for a while and come back to it later.

Step 4: Next, create a new layer group, rename it “Effects”, and change the blending option of this group to “Color Dodge”. Now, being careful not to disturb the other layers, reach inside this new layer group and, with a flick of the wrist, create a new layer, applying the filter “Clouds” (Filter -> Render -> Clouds) to give it that nice, puffy consistency that we’ve all come to know and love.

Step 5: Dropping just below that group in your palette, create another group, this one named “Colors”. Remember that little wrist-flick technique from Step 4? Didn’t get it quite to your satisfaction the first time? Well, we’re going to give it a go again. As before, within this new group you’ll need to create a new layer; add a sprinkle of pink, and with the gradient tool (in Radial Mode) draw a soft edge glow. After that, set the layer blending mode to the “Low” mixer setting, or “Soft Light”.

At this point, you might see a strange pink cloud, but don’t worry. All part of the plan.

Step 6: Repeat the previous step with two other bright colors, but placed differently.

Step 7: Now, for the “secret ingredient.”
Do you remember the “3D Text Blur” we set aside way back in Step 3?
Well, it’s been simmering long enough! Select it now and apply a Gaussian Blur of 13 pixel radius (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur)

Step 8: Now the creative part. Add a new layer in the “Effects” group, immediately above the “Clouds”. Download a cool brush from DeviantArt and use white to trace around the inside face of each the letters.

Step 9: Still with me? We’re almost there! Carefully slide yet another new layer between the two groups (“Effects” and “Clouds”).
Reach for your trusty Gradient Tool (this time in Linear Mode), choose White and, holding down the Shift key, drag the Gradient tool from the outside edges of the canvas to the middle of the image.
Set your blending mode to “Saturation” and see what happens…

Step 10: Ready for another layer? We’ll need a new one in the “Effects” group; name it “Abstract Lights”.

Step 11: Then ctrl-click (command-click for you Mac lovers) the “3D Text” layer icon in the layer’s palette and paint inside the new selection with a custom abstract brush as we did in Step 8 (remember, use WHITE).

Step 12: You’ve made it. The final step. The icing on all of these layers. Create…one…last…layer above the “White” layer we just did.

Use a nice LARGE custom brush, like this, and draw a single Cloud above the text. Apply a Motion Blur (Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur) with an Angle of “-11? and a distance of “200? pixels.
Change the Opacity to “30%” and apply a gradient overlay with the following settings:

Voila!

There you have it. A quick, easy way to spruce up any old 3D text into something to set anyone’s mouth watering. Serve hot or cold to your friends, and watch ‘em drool…

Enjoy!

For a bit of a twist—if you’re feeling a bit adventurous–above all the layers, try new custom brushes (like smoke) and repeat the last step to apply cool lights. Experimenting can be fun!

Here’s another example from my portfolio.

Tutorial by Francesco Mugnai.

Text by Francesco Mugnai & Marc Westenburg

Ever wanted to make text out of grass? Well with Photoshop you can. In this tutorial we’ll create a rather cool-looking grass-text effect using a photo of grass, the Pen Tool and a bit of patience.

This is the first of a five-part set of tutorials where we’ll use Photoshop to make text out of all sorts of things. So let’s get ready to Photoshop!

The End Effect

I like to begin tutorials by showing where we’re going. So without further ado, here is the final grass-text image click to see the full 1920px x 1200px size.

Part 1—The Background

This tutorial is made up of three parts—the background, the text itself, and some final extra effects. So first of all we’re going to make a background. To do this we create a new document in Photoshop. I made mine 1920 x 1200 because I want this image to sit on my laptop background.

We start by drawing a Radial Gradient with the Gradient Tool (G) going from a light yellow-green (#adbf41) to a mid-range green (#328a26). I wonder if I’ve ever written a tutorial that doesn’t start with a radial gradient.

Step 2

Now for this image we want to create a really textured background, faintly resembling paper. So the first thing we need is … a paper texture!

Happily you can grab some really awesome grungy paper textures from Bittbox and they are nice and large too, which is good because this is a huge canvas.

So I can’t remember which texture I used first, but grab one, desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and stretch it over the top to fit the canvas.

Step 3

Now we set the layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity to blend the texture with our nice green background.

Step 4

Now to get a really distressed look, I then copied this layer, spun it around 180′ and set it to 20%. Then I brought in a few more layers of paper texture (using different textures, mostly from Bittbox) and set them all to faint overlays, one on top of the other.

This was partly for the extra distress, but also because I realised that the textures looked a bit grainy and not small and sharp. So by combining extra textures and then fading it all back, I can get a nicer, sharper overall look.

Anyhow as you can see in the screenshot there are six layers here. Don’t forget if you are a Plus member you can download the PSD file for this tutorial and take a look in there yourself!

Step 5

Now I duplicated the original background gradient, placed the duplicate layer above all the textures and set it to 40% Opacity—this tones back the texture so it’s not quite so grungy!

Step 6

Now we create a new layer over the top and using a large, soft, black brush, add some black to the edges. It’s worth toning back the opacity to about 30% and Overlay. You can then duplicate the layer and run a heavy Gaussian Blur over it (set to about 32px). That way the edges really soften out.

Step 7

OK, we now have a nice background!

Part 2—Grass Text!

OK, we are now ready to make some grass text. To do that, we’re going to need some nice pretty grass to cut. After a lot of searching, I finally found this lovely photo on Flickr of grass.

So download the image at full-size and copy it on to your canvas.

Step 9

Next we need some type. So select a font you want to cut out with. I chose Swiss 924BT, which is fat and condensed type. I thought it looked nice and grand. And I’ve written the text “EARTH”. That’s because I’m making five of these wallpapers—earth, water, fire, air, spirit … it’s like that cartoon I used to watch as a kid, Captain Planet!

Anyways, so just set your text out in white and set it to Overlay and like 50% Opacity. This layer won’t actually show in the end, it’s just a guide layer.

Step 10

OK, so here’s the text on top of the grass we got earlier.

Now a bit of planning! To make text out of grass, it’s not going to be enough just to stencil out the grass. Rather we need it to look all rough, with bits of grass sticking out the edges. To do that, we’re going to use the letter shapes as a rough guide and then trace roughly around them and periodically jut out to trace around blades of grass.

I’ll warn you now, it’s very tiresome!

Step 11

OK, so here we are tracing. You should use the Pen Tool (P) and frankly, if you’re not handy with it before you start, you will be by the end!

Notice how in the parts where my path juts out, it sort of follows individual blades of grass. That way when you have the final cut-out they will look like pieces of grass sticking out.

Step 12

When you’ve finished your path, it’s best to save it in the Paths Palette. You can do this by switching to that palette and then clicking the little down arrow and choosing Save Path. That way if you need the path again later, you can grab it.

Anyhow, double-click the path to get the selection and go back to your grass layer. Duplicate the grass layer so you still have more grass for the other letters, then invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and cut away the excess grass. In the screenshot I’ve faded back the duplicate grass layer so you can see the cut out “E” part.

Step 13

OK, so here we have our “E” on the final bakcground. As you can see, it looks only slightly better than if we’d just used the letter to stencil out the grass without bothering to trace. But that’s OK, what it needs is a bit more depth. After all, if that letter was really sitting there, we should see some shadow and sides to it.

Step 14

First of all though, we’ll add some layer styling to give it a bit more of a three dimensional look. The styles are shown below.

Layer Style

Here’s the first set of layer styles…

Step 15

Now duplicate that layer, then clear the layer style off the duplicate, so we can add some more styles. This time add the styles shown below…

Layer Style

Here’s the second set of layer styles… (Note that it’s 51% Opacity so it’ll blend in with the previous layer)

Step 16

So this was all just experimental, and it kinda looks OK, but obviously has a long way to go. Now we’ll add some shadow. For that we’ll use a technique that I demonstrated in a previous tutorial, Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

The idea is to make a three dimensional look. So Ctrl-click the grass layer and then in a new layer below, fill it with black. Then press the down arrow once and the right arrow once and fill it again, then repeat over and over until you get an effect like that shown. I think that was about 15 steps of filling.

Step 17

Now we run a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur on our shadow with a 45′ angle and a distance of about 30. Then set the text to a low opacity of about 50%. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 18

Now move the shadow layer down and to the right and magic happens! All of a sudden it looks like the letter is casting a shadow. Pretty neat!

Step 19

Now I duplicated this layer three times. Each time I erased a bit of it away so that as the shadow is closer to the text it gets darker. I set these layers to Multiply.

Step 20

So this text is looking pretty cool, but for that extra bit of depth we should add some bits of grass in the background/shadow area. Rather than cutting out more grass, we can just use this current letter transformed about so that it’s not obvious that we’re hacking it together.

So as you can see below I created a few pieces of grass. They are just cut up bits of our main letter.

Step 21

Now by moving those pieces into the shadow areas, we can make it look like there is grass sticking out and it’s a real 3D object made from grass!

Because these new grass bits are in shadow, you might want to use the Burn Tool (O) to darken them appropriately.

Step 22

So yay, one letter down … four to go! Good thing we didn’t choose a long word like erm I don’t know … laborious!

Step 23

Using the exact same technique … here is the A;

Step 24

and the R and T … you get the picture.

Step 25

And finally, the whole word! The only extra thing I did here was to move the letters apart a little. Each letter is in its own Layer Group which makes moving it around much easier.

Part 3—The Finish!

Now nice as it’s looking, our text is a little lonely and monotonous. So in this last section we’ll add a few more elements to the design. Note we don’t want to overdo it, though, because I want this to be a desktop background, so space it is important (for all my icons!).

So first up, let’s add some extra text. Here I’ve placed a nice quote about the earth and unity taken from the Baha’i faith (that’s my religion!). I love quotes, because it means we get three parts to decorate—the quote, the quotation marks and the source.

The text is in a variation of Swiss which is thinner, but still condensed. Using multiple fonts from the same family (heavy, light, etc) is a good, safe bet for keeping your type looking coherent.

So here I’ve set the quote to Overlay and 50%, then duplicated the text and set it to Screen and 50%. Then I’ve added quotation marks in the same Swiss font, but made them extra large and a bright shade of green. Finally, the source of the quote is in teeny letters and centered vertically. And, of course, the whole quote has been measured out so it’s exactly the length of the main “EARTH” text.

Step 27

Next we’ll add a bit of a highlight to the scene. To do this, create a new layer above all the rest, and using the Gradient Tool (G), draw a gradient of white -> transparent towards the top left. Then set this layer to Soft Light and 50%. This will turn it into a nice subtle bit of lighting.

Step 28

Now we’ll add two eye-catching elements to offset all the green. These will be a brilliant blue butterfly and a little red ladybug. I used the excellent everystockphoto Web site that searches a ton of free stock Web sites for you to find two awesome images to use: Ladybug | Butterfly

Step 29

Placing the images is pretty easy. First the butterfly. We just open up the image in Photoshop, use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select all the white area, then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by 1px to make sure we’ve got it all. Then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection and copy the butterfly over to our main canvas.

The ladybug I selected needs to be cut out of it’s image. To do that I used the Pen Tool (P) and traced around the little guy and then just cut him out that way.

Step 30

So here are our two extras. As you can see, the lady bug looks a bit weird actually because I did a quick’n'dirty job of cutting him out. But that’s OK because he’s going to be tiny so you won’t be able to see the details anyway.

So paste them in and then shrink them down and place them appropriately. It’s best if they aren’t close together, because that way they’ll balance each other.

I added a drop shadow to each. With the ladybug it’s a very close shadow because he’s small and walking on the grass. With the butterfly, I set the distance to about 10px because he’s hovering in the air and therefore the shadow lands a little ways away.

Finished!

And there we have it, one neat little composition featuring text made out of grass! (Click for the full-size version)