Create postcard printing layouts with free templates found online at Next Day Flyers.

Along the way, we will cover the following topics in order to reach our final drawing effect:

1. How the idea is formed
2. Rough Sketch
3. Developing Sketch
4. Blocking-in Colours
5. Adding more Colours
6. Adding Extra Details
7. Finalising and clean up

This tutorial is rendered exclusively for PSD Vault by Cam Sykes from howtodigitalpaint.com, who is an great illustrator based in Sydney, Australia.

Here is a preview of the final drawing result: (click to enlarge)

Tutorial PSD and Video File Download

Along the way, we will practice some basic drawing skills and adding light effect onto the elements, as well as the use of Pen Tool, layer blending mode and selection techniques.

Club flyer printing is a great way to market and spread the word about upcoming events.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful :) Till next time, have a great day!

In this post, I will showcase 11 Fantastic Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials that I have in my bookmarks over the years -they helped me a lot and are definitely worth reading. Hopefully this collection would help some of you to understand the skills behind creating nice user interface and icon in Photoshop.

Sticker printing can be a unique promotional tool, give it a try for your next design job.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Create a Custom Mac OSX Style Ring Binder Address Book Icon

Create a Glossy Volt Icon in Photoshop

How To Design a Realistic Takeout Coffee

Shiny Lock Icon Design Tutorial

How to Draw a Classic Electric Guitar in Photoshop

How to Create a Highly Detailed Hi-Tech Power Button

Radar Icon in Photoshop

Create a 3D Industrial-style Download Icon in Photoshop

How to Create a Replacement iTunes 10 Icon

The Oxygen Orb – Icon Design in Photoshop

That’s it for this list! Hope you enjoy those tutorials and find them useful. Till next time, have a great day!

Along the way, I will show you how you can combine the liquify filter with nebula texture and cloud to render some very interesting effect :)

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 70+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need to the following stock:

Nebula Texture – by =Moonchilde-Stock

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 1080px, filter the background with a dark grey color, and draw a base circle on a new layer:

Use Lasso Tool with around 30px feather to draw a selection, set the foreground colour to dark purple, and render some cloud into it:

Compress this cloud layer to a very thin strip, then warp it as shown below:

Apply the Twirl filter to make it look like a half circle:

Erase the unnecessary bits and attach it to the base circle:

Duplicate this layer a few times, rotate and resize them until they form a full circle shape roughly, then fill the background layer with black colour:

Step 2

Load the nebula texture into Photoshop, use Lasso Tool with 30px feather to select a portion:

Copy and paste into onto our image, warp it according to the base circle:

Bring up the liquify filter (Shift + Ctrl + X) and use the following settings:

Apply it to the position shown below:

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this nebula layer a few times, resize them and put them around the circle as shown below:

When you duplicate the nebula layer, make sure you adjust the layer opacity for each duplicate layer for some image depth:

and here is the effect so far:

Note: make sure you use a soft eraser to get rid of the rough edges when necessary:

Step 3

Now we’re getting into the liquify filter + cloud effect. Again we draw a selection with Lasso Tool (30px feather), render some cloud inside it, hit Ctrl + L and apply the following Levels settings to it:

Apply the liquify filter to this cloud as shown below: (you’re free to use whatever tip size you wish)

and you will have similar effect to this:

Attach this layer to the circle, also duplicate a  few times and scatter them around the canvas:

Step 4

Now we can put all those layers we made into a group, then duplicate this group twice, resize them and move them to the positions shown below.

You should also merge the layers under the duplicated group together, and lower their layer opacity:

Optionally, you can paint some stars/dots around the circle. You can find lots of star brushes around the net:

Step 5

I decided to use some alternative colour scheme for this image. So I go ahead and added the following three adjustment layers:

Black and White:

Curves:

Color Balance:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

We’re almost done! To adjust the final effect, I flatten the image and duplicate the background, then apply the following Reduce Noise filter:

Then use the dodge and burn tool to add some highlights and shadows around the image, as shown below:

and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it! I hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

Along the way, we will render some cloud, then apply the twirl filter to turn it into a planetary ring. We will also make a simple planet with some lighting effect.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 70+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

No stock image is required for this tutorial – although you may need some star and debris brushset.

Step 1

Create a new document sized 940px * 700px, fill the background with black colour. Let’s create the Planetary Ring first.

Create a new layer and use the lasso tool (50px feather) to draw a selection, render some cloud in it:

Hit Ctrl + L and apply the following Levels adjustments:

Go to Filter > Distort > Twirl:

and apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + T and perspective the ring as shown below:

Reduce the height a bit and you will have the following effect:

Erase the edges with a a soft eraser, and you have made a simple ring:

Step 2

Now let’s draw a planet on top of the ring layer. Firstly draw a circle on a new layer, then fill the circle with black color and apply the following layer blending options:

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now create a new layer under the planet layer, use the star and debris brush you downloaded, paint some splashing effect around the planet, as shown below:

Now we can create some cloud/nebula effect around the planet. To do this, create a new layer below the planet layer, use a lasso tool (50px feather)to draw a selection, render some cloud inside.

Then apply the Difference cloud filter to it:

Here is the effect after applying the difference cloud filter:

Then Warp the cloud as shown below:

Duplicate this layer a few times and scatter them around the globle, as shown below:

You can also duplicate and drag some nebula layers above the planet layer, position the nebula as shown below: (make sure to set the blending mode of those layers to “screen”)

Here is the effect so far:

Now we can add a bit of backlight for this planet to increase the depth. Create a new layer under the planet layer called “highlight”, grab a soft white brush and do a single-click to the position shown below:

Step 4

Now let’s add some abstract lines to decorate the planet. Once again we can use the Pen Tool to draw a path as shown below:

Choose the 1px hard brush from the brush pane:

Right-click on the path with Pen Tool selected, and choose “Stroke Path”:

Select “Brush” from the drop down box, tick “Simulate Pressure”, click “OK”:

and here is the effect:

Duplicate this line layer a few more times, rotate and resize them then scatter the lines around the planet, as shown below:

Step 5

Ok we’re almost done. Let’s add a few image adjustment layer on top of all previous layers to fine tune the image a bit:

Curves

Mask on Curves adjustment layer:

As you can see, we increased the contrast of the debris on the left so it looks more distinctive:

Colour Balance

and here is the effect after apply those adjustment layers:

and here is the final effect for this tutorial: (I further adjusted the colour and contrast of the image)

That’s it! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful :)

Till next time, have a great day!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 70+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let ‘s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Font

Step 1

Create a document sized 200px * 20opx with white background and 72 dpi (web graphic) – please note that this is the actual size of the button we will be making.

Here I will show you a little trick: hit Ctrl + R to make the rule visible on the top and left edge, click on the ruler and drag a guide to the edges of our canvas, as shown below:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + C and bring up the Resize Canvas window, then apply the following settings:

You will have the following effect (I set the background colour to grey for demonstration purpose):

You can see by doing so, we have the perfect guides setup for a 200px * 200px button, without the need to add and remove guides afterwards:

Step 2

Now let’s perpare a simple background to work on. I perferred  a nice light grey gradient fill. So grab a the Gradient Tool and fill the background layer as shown below:

Create a new layer called “backlight” and grab a big and a small soft round brush, do two single clicks to the position as shown below: (top and centre)

Resize and position this layer as shown below:

Now we have a nice background to work on our button :)

Step 3

Now grab the Rounded Rectangular Tool from the toolbox (press the U key) and apply a 10px feather to it, draw the following according to the guides:

Name this layer as “button bg”, and apply the following blending effect to this layer:

Drop shadow

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s add some highlights and shadows to the button background. Create a new layer under the button bg layer, use the rectangular marquee tool to create a shape like this:

Name this layer as “shadow” and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to it. Make sure you deselect the layer first:

Resize it from the top (Ctrl + T) and reduce the opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer called “Highlight” on top of the button bg layer, set its blending mode to “Overlay”, grab a white soft brush, do a single click as shown below:

Duplicate this layer once and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “Normal”, resize it to a very thin level, position it just above the top edge of the button bg layer, as shown below:

You will have the following effect so far:

Step 5

Now let’s draw a simple envelope onto this button. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer, grab the Rectanglar tool and draw a rectangule as shown below:

Call this layer “envelope” and apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now let’s add a few more stuff onto the envelope to make it look more realistic. Create a new layer called “envelope top” and grab the Polygon Tool from the toolbox:

Apply the following settings: (3 sides)

and draw a triangle as shown below, use the Free Transform tool to fit it onto the envelope:

apply the following layer blending option to it:

Drop shadow

Inner Shadow

Gradient overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this layer once and rename the new duplicated layer to “envelope bottom”, flip it vertically by Ctrl + T and right-click:

Retain all the layer blending option except the stroke option, position this layer as shown below:

Create a layer in between the top and bottom envelope layers, grab a soft round black brush and do a single click in the centre:

here is the effect so far:

Step 7

Now we’re almost done. Finally we can type some texts onto the button – “Contact Me” with font we downloaded, as shown below:

You can here I used a dark red color – the reason I did it is that I’d like to use a bit embossing/sink-in effect here. The trick is to use a slightly darker colour for the font than the background color, so that when we apply the blending effect later on, we will achieve better looking result.

So let’s add the following layer blending options to it:

Inner Shadow

Gradient overlay

Stroke

Also here is a trick – when adding stroke effect to the text, make sure to select a color slightly lighter then the background colour, for the embossing effect.

Here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully you learnt something new and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really cool, Mystical Golden Sphere in Photoshop. The steps are in fact pretty simple and the outcome looks great in my opinion, have a try :)

We will be using some drawing techniques, plus customer brushsets and filter effects along the way, plus I will show you a clever use of Photoshop brush to create special effect around the sphere.

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 70+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Abstract Brushset 1

Abstract Brushset 2

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800 * 800px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer called “bottom light” and use a 250px soft round brush with white colour, do a single click in the centre of the canvas, then resize it  (Ctrl + T) to a very thin shape as shown below:

Grab the eclipse tool (U key) from the toolbox, create a new layer called “sphere” and draw a circle on top of the light, as shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this sphere layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Create a new layer on top of the “sphere” layer and use the eclipse tool to draw another oval shape to the top of the sphere. Name this layer as “highlight top” and change the blending mode to “overlay”, drop the opacity to around 40%.

You will have the following effect:

Duplicate this highlight layer once and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to the duplicated layer:

change the blending mode of this duplicated layer to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Now let’s add some irregular lighting effect to the sphere. Create a new layer just above the sphere layer, use a soft white round brush to so a few single click around the sphere, set the blending mode to “soft light”.

Hint: make sure to paint some light on the bottom of the sphere, this will help adding more depth into the image.

The following effect is what I have so far: (the light strip on the right was done using the free tranform tool + a soft white round brush on a new layer with “normal” blending mode:)

Create a new “Shadow” layer on top of the “bottom light” (first layer) and use the same method as described in step 1 except using black colour instead of white, do a single click and resize it into the thin shape.

Change the blending mode of the shadow layer to “overlay”, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some effect around the sphere to make it look mysterious. Use the abstract brushset 1 we downloaded, choose any one of them and reduce its brush size to a smaller size, paint around the sphere as shown below:

Create another new layer and use the Abstract brushset 2 to paint some patterns on top of the sphere, as shown below:

(Hint: use the Free Tranform tool to distort, warp the new layer to create variations)

Here is what I have so far:

Add a new texture layer just above the background layer, and use the same brushset as we used just now, but this time with its orginal size, paint some patterns on the lower half of the canvas, as shown below:

Make sure you mix different brushset and set the opacity and flow to both around 50%.

Step 5

Now let’s add the golden colour on the sphere. The trick here to add a Color Balance adjustment layer just above the original “Sphere” layer, with the following settings:

and you will have the following effect:

add the following Curves adjustment layer on top of all layers:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now we can do some final touches to the image. Firstly let’s flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and apply the following Radial Blur settings to the duplicated layer:

Change the blending mode to “Screen” and you will have the following effect:

Now we don’t really want to the whole image to be blurred, so we can add a layer mask as shown below to hide some parts:

Also apply the following Smart Sharpen settings to the background layer:

and you will have the following final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance the effect and try out more colour schemes and filter effects, but that’s totally up to you.

Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Until next time, have a great day!