Previously I published a tutorial called “Create Beautiful Surreal Photo Effect via Cloud, Star and Vexel Hair in Photoshop” and received a number of emails about the vexel hair part, which requires extensive use of Pen Tool. As a result, I decided to create a new tutorial showing more details about it, but with a different effect which you can use in a wider range of occasions (such as Photoshop retouch, web graphics and so on).

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

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OK let’s get started!

No stock image is required for this tutorial.

Step 1

Create a new document size 800px * 800px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer on top of the background layer, press the “P” key to choose the Pen Tool, draw a work path as shown below:

If you’re a beginner, you may not get the curve in one go – it doesn’s matter, you can hold down the Alt key and left-click to drag the corner point to adjust its shape:

Press “B” key to select the brush tool, choose a 1px hard brush, as shown below:

Choose a colour from the colour picker (I use a light pick colour here):

Press “P” key again, then right-click on the path, choose “Stroke Path”:

Choose “Brush” from the drop down box, and make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” option, then press “OK”:

and here ist effect after the path stroke:

Step 2

Use the Same Process as described above, create another 3 lines. Make sure you:

• Put each line on a seperate layer
• Adjust the brush size to be 2px, 3px, 4px respectively
• Adjust the layer opacity to be 80%, 60% and 40%

Details please refer to the screenshots below:

Adjust the positions of the lines (move them slighly left and right against each other), And here is the effect so far: (4 lines on 4 layers)

Step 3

Make a folder called “lines” and put those four layers into it. Duplicate this folder once and merge the duplicated layers, reduce the opacity of the merged layer to around 70% and move it slightly left to create a bit of depth for the image:

Then keep duplicated the merge layer to add more lines to the image:

Now you will want to add some colour variety into it. Instead of picking a new colour and go through the stroke process, you can simply add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the merged line layer: (make sure you tick the “Use Previous Layer as clipping mask” option when adding it)

and adjust the hue and use a colour you like:

Keeping add more colour onto it. You can use the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T) to the line layers you added to adjust their angle:

Also resize the layer when you see fit:

Step 4

Now we also want to add a few grey lines into the image. To do this, simply go to image > adjustments > desaturate (or Shift + Ctrl + U) to desaturate a merged line layer:

Blend those grey lins into the image, as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 5

We’re almost done. Now merge those lines layer we made, then duplicate, rotate them around the canvas:

We can add some dots around the lines to decorate it a bit. To do this, create a new brush with the settings shown below: (press f5 to bring up the brush window)

Tick “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” option.

Use the brush we just made, paint some dots around the image on a new layer, as shown below:

We can also paint some random lins around to spice up the image a bit: (Use a 1px hard brush and simply paint away!)

Once you’ve done the painting, go to filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and sharpen this dots layer a bit. (You will see the dots become brighter)

Here is the overall effect:

You may want to alter the colour balance or use a different colour scheme.Totally up to you :)

Here is an alternative version I made: (click to enlarge)

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

Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can use Warp tool plus to create great looking abstract shapes to decorate your design. The steps are really simple and the effect can be used in a wide range of occasions, have a try :)

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

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OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 900px * 790px, fill the background layer with black color.

Create a new layer called “custom shape” and grab the Ellipse Tool from the toolbox:

On the toolbox, set style to “none”, and color to be “white”: (you can use a different colour if you wish)

Draw a shape as shown below:

Now we want to add some shadow to it to create some depth. Apply the following Inner Shadow Settings to this layer:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 2

On this layer, hit Ctrl + T and right-click, choose “Warp”:

Then click and drag the edge of the shape:

Now use your creativity, experiment with all sorts of warping options – Go Wild!

Here are a few examples:

Step 3

Apart from using the Shape Tool, we can also use the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee too with brush tool to the create shape, then warp them.

Now grab the Elliptical Marquee tool to draw a selection on a new layer:

While the selection is active, grab a soft white brush and paint to the spot as shown below:

Again, you can experiment with the warp tool with this shape:

One thing you should notice is that the mouse cursor changes its shape into a solid black arrow when dragging is enabled:

Step 4

No doubt so far you will have a bunch of custom shapes after all those warping done previously. Combine them together and form any shapes you like. I did the following shape:

Now let’s add a globe to the image. Create a new layer called “globe” and draw a white circle as shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this layer:

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Now let’s add a hole on the globe. Create a new layer on top of the globe layer, then draw a black hole as shown below: (with shape tool)

Apply the following layer blending mode to this layer:

Inner Glow

Stroke

Here is the effect so far:

Add another hole of the left side by duplicating the one on the right, made sure you resize/distort it to the fit the shape of the globe:

Create a new layer on top of the globe layer, grab a soft white brush and do a single-click on the spot below, set the layer blending mode to “overlay”:

Now we’re done with one globe, for more effect depth, we can produce two more globe simply by duplicating all the previous globe layers (or you can group them together first, then duplicate the group):

Make sure you resize each globe so they vary in size.

Step 5

We’re nearly done! For some extra effects, I decided to add a black and white gradient fill layer on top of the background layer for some contrast:

Also we can add some highlights by using a soft white brush, and paint to the following spots:

Now flatten the image, duplicate the background layer ocean and go to Filter > Noise > Median and apply the following settings:

Drop the opacity of this medium layer to around 60% – as you can see, the image becomes a bit softer and have a dreamy effect:

Optionally, you can render some cloud on the image to create extra effect:

Finally, create a new layer called “colour overlay” and set the blending mode to “overlay”, opacity around 80%, grab a soft brush and paint some colour of your choice on it.

Here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it interesting and inspirational. Until next time, have a nice day!

In the tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to Create an Awesome 3D Text Effect with Abstract Brush Decoration in Photoshop. This is an intermediate tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try :)

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

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You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Any Grunge Brushset

Font

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 740px * 1050px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer called “texture” and paint some grunge texture onto it:

Duplicate this texture layer once, resize it as shown below:

Erase the corners of the duplicated layer with a big soft brush:

you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now let’s add a big 3D text onto it. If you have illustrator, use it to render a 3D text. If not, you can download this PSD file and use it for this tutorial.

Place the text to the position shown below, name the layer as “big text”:

Apply the following layer blending option to it:

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

you will have the following effect:

Add the following mask to this big text layer:

you will have the following effect:

Also create a new clipping mask layer, grab a big soft white brush to add a highlight to the top-left corner of the big text:

Step 3

Create a layer called “cloud” under the big text layer, use either cloud brush or rendered cloud, to the positions shown below:

Also add a highlight layer with a big soft white brush from the top-left corner:

I also decided to add a bit of splashing effect to the text. So grab a 1px hard brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Use this brush and paint some dots to the positions shown below:

You can also add a ray of light on top of the big text to spice things up. To do this, use a soft white brush to do a single-click, then distort it as shown below:

Warp it after the distortion, try to bend the bottom to create a curvy shape:

Position this light on the top right corner of the big text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some variety to the text. Duplicate the big text layer once, cancel the color overlay blending option, resize and position it as shown below:

Add a dark light for the text, painted it with a black soft brush to the position shown below:

Carefully painting some shadow under the text, with a soft black brush:

Duplicate the big text layer once more, resize it and position the layer to the top-left, as shown below:

Add a highlight layer with a soft white brush (single-click to the position shown below):

Carefully paint some shadow under the text, same as the previous step:

Create a new layer called “big text shadow” on top of all previous layer, and grab a big soft brush with black colour, paint some shadow to the bottom of the text, as shown below”

you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make another custom brushset. Create a new document sized 40px * 100px, add a new layer and fill it with black colour, hit Ctrl + A and select this new layer:

Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and create a new brushset:

Then apply the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing”, “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer just below the original text layer, and start painting. (try different brush size as you go, apply the following smart sharpen filter once you’re done painting)

you will have the following effect:

You can see we also have some see-through effect on the text, because of the layer mask on the big text layer we added earlier:

Step 6

OK we’re almost done. For some final touchups, I added two image adjustment layers on top:

Curves

Color Balance

Layer Mask of Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following effect:

For add some motions into the images, we can flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

Change the layer blending mode of this blur layer to “Screen” and layer opacity to around 60%, then add the following layer mask on it:

Here is the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Awesome Freestyle Artwork via Mixing Shapes and Dirt Texture in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

Alogn the way, I will show some retouch techniques, the use custom brush and the make of some nice abstract lines and shapes, plus lighting effect skills.

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

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

Model

Dirt Brush

Step 1

Create a new doucment sized 880px * 1200px, leave the background color as White. Create a new layer called “texture”, load the dirt brush into Photoshop and use it to paint some texture on it: (set the brush opacity to around 40%)

One thing you need to remember is when you paint this texture layer, try to use a combination of different brushes in the set, and experiement with different brush sizes as you go:

Once you finish the painting, duplicate this texture layer once and use the free transform tool to perspective it as shown below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this layer to around 50%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Load the model image into Photoshop, cut out the girl and paste it onto our canvas, name this new layer as “Model”:

Add the following two adjustment layer to the model layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels:

Layer mask on levels adjustment layer:

Curves:

Layer mask on Curves adjustment layer:

Add a new clipping mask layer for the model layer, grab a soft white brush and paint to the areas as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this new clipping mask layer to “Soft Light”, and you will have the following effect:

I feel the hair of the model need to brighten up a bit, so I created aonther clipping mask layer and used a small white brush with 60% – 70% hardness to paint some white lines on the hair:

Change the blending mode to “Overlay” for this hair painting layer, reduce the layer opacity to around 80%, you will have the following effect:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 3

Create a new layer called “Curvy Line” and use the Pen Tool to draw a path as shown below:

Choose a 13px, 100% hardness brush:

Stroke the Path with this brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the curvy line layer a few times, resize and rotate those layers, and position them as shown below:

Step 4

Now let’s get on with the curvy line creation. For tutorial purpose, I made a new document in Photoshop.

Create a new layer and use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a seletion as shown below:

Fill the selection with a colour of your choice:

hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the rectangle, choose “Distort”:

Then Hold the Alt key and Drag the bottm right corner of the rectangle to distort it as shown below:

Then duplicate this layer a few times, rotate and resize each layer as shown below: (use colour balance and hue adjustment tool for colour variation)

Then merge the duplicated layer together:

Hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the shapes, choose “Warp” option:

Warp the shapes as shown below:

That’s it, you can use those warped shapes in your image. You can choose you own colour and size, no need to following the exact colour in my image:

Apply the shapes in different location will add depths and variety for your image:

Step 5

This step is optional. I personally feel like adding a bit more depth and variety to the image by have a “shadow” copy of the girl on the canvas somewhere.

Create a new layer called “Girl Shadow” just below the model layer, then load the selection of the model layer and fill the selection with Gray colour:

Resize this layer to a very small scale, flip it horizontally and position it as shown below: (erase the top right part of the girl so it blends into the background)

I added a new layer called “shadow” with “Soft light” blending mode, and use a soft black brush to paint some shadow on the foot area:

Optional: add some more abstract lines around the canvas with Pen Tool Strokes for more variety:

Now we can add some overall shadows and highlights on the image by create a new layer on top of all previous layers, use a soft brush with black or white colour, painting on the new layer as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now we can apply some final touches to the image. Flatten the image (save a layered copy before you do so), then duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to the duplicated layer:

We can also add some lighting effect to the image by duplicate the background layer once more, and apply the Angled Strokes filter to it, with the settings below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this angled strokes layer to around 40%, you will see now we have some really nice lighting effect as shown below:

On left leg:

Around the chest area:

I also add a color balance adjustment layer to image with the following settings:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

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

Alternative Light Version:

PSD File Download

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OK let’s get started!

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

Girl

Some Grunge Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background with a light grey colour, and some random lighting and grungy texture on it as shown below:

Load the “girl” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the girl from the rest of the image, place her to the lower left side of the canvas:

To bring out some light on the girl image, add the folloing two adjustment layers onto it (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Now create new layer, and random paint some abstract textures around the girl:

Now apply a layer mask on this abstract painting layer. On the layer mask, use a mixture of grungy, halftone, and hard circle brush, as shown below:

Now let’s add some light strips. Create a new layer and grab a soft round brush, do a single click on the top edge of the canvas:

Compress it down as shown below:

Rotate this light strip as shown below:

Duplicate this light strip layer a few times, scatter them around the girl for more effect:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

I decided to turn this image into a darker version (just my personal taste), so I went ahead and add the following two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Levels

Add the following layer mask on the Levels adjustment layer: (as you can see, I apply some light grungy texture, plus some hard circle brush on where the girl is)

Curves

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now we can practice some Pen Tool techniques. Create a new layer and draw a work path as shown below:

Right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path” with a 9px hard circle brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

Now you will have a curvy line, you can use free transform to distort, rotate it for more variety:

In the mean time, you can try a softer and bigger brush for stroking the path, also scatter the duplicated curvy lines around for more effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make a custom brush for adding some little particle effect. Create a new file called “brush” (size 200px * 200px) and use a the Pen Tool to draw a shape like this:

Right-click on the shape and choose “Fill Path …”:

Fill it with black colour:

Now make the background layer transparent: (after you fill the shape with black colour)

Now go to “Edit > Define Brush Preset…”:

Save this brushset, then bring up the brush presets (F5) and apply the following settings:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the Airbrush, Smoothing, Protect Texture options. Then try and do some random painting on the canvas (create a new layer first) and test out the effect:

Combine the Free Transform tool, distort, rotate and warp the particles for extra effects:

Apply the particles random on the canvas as shown below: (you can also adjust the brush size, flow and opacity as you go)

Step 6

OK let’s do some final tune-ups. I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter on the duplicated layer:

Color Balance

Layer Mask on the Color Balance Adjustment Layer:

Levels

and here is the effect you’ll have:

The main part of the tutorial concludes here, however you can still experiment different colour balance settings, filter effect and so on:

a light version:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool-looking, awsome glowing edge text effect in Photoshop. Have a try!

Along the way, we will practice the use of Pen tool, layer blending options, texture painting and some image adjustments in Photoshop.

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

alternative version with cloud and more lighting effect:

PSD File Download

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No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1300px * 780px, fill the background with black and create a new layer called “texture”, grab some grungy brushsets from the sites such as qbrushes.net or brusheezy.com, paint some texture on it:

After you’ve done the painting, hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click on the texture, choose “perspective” and narrow the top border the texture:

After you perspective the texture, scale the texture down as shown below:

Use a big soft brush to erase the edges of the texture so it blends into the background:

Duplicate this texture layer, resize it to a smaller piece, rotate and position the duplicated layer as shown below:

Duplicate the grungy texture layer once more, this time position it to the right:

Step 2

Now type some texts on the canvas. You can use any text you like, the one I used for this tut can be downloaded here.

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Stroke

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we’re onto creating the level effect for the text. We can do this by simple duplicated the original text layer twice, adjust the layer opacity of each text layer according to the settings below:

Move each layer a bit away from each other:

and this is the overall effect so far:

Now we will add the glowing edge effect for the text layer. To do this, load the selection of the text layer (any one of the three):

Click on the Rectangular Marquee tool (or press “M” key):

then right-click inside the selection, choose “make work path”:

set tolerance to “2.0″ pixels:

and you will have the following work path created around the text:

click the Pen tool symbol from the toolbox, right-click on the work path and choose “stroke path”:

Use the following 5px hard round brush:

and with “Simulate Pressure” setting enabled:

Stroke the work path. You will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some lights on the bottom of the text so it blends better with the texture. To do this, create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “light” and grab a big soft brush, do a single-click as shown below:

Compress this light layer and move it the bottom of the text:

Use Warp tool to adjust the light, in order to fit the curve of the texture:

Step 5

Now let’s add some shadow for the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “shadow”, load the selection of the one of the text layer, fill the selection with black colour:

Hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click, choose “Flip Vertical”:

Perspective this shadow layer as shown below:

Apply the following Gaussion Blur settings to it:

Move the shadow layer down and change its blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now create a new layer on top of all previous layer, name it “Abstract line” and grab the Pen Tool, draw a random path as shown below:

If you feel like some adjustments, you can hold “Ctrl” key and drag the anchor points to change the path:

Stroke the path using the same settings as previous step: (5px hard round brush, simulate pressure)

Now add a layer mask on this abstract line layer to hide some portion of the lines behind the text:

(Hint: to quickly add this mask, load the selection of the top-most text layer, then click on the layer mask, and go to Edit > Clear to clear out the text portion)

You can see by adding this layer mask we can hide the parts of the abstract line:

You can also duplicate this abstract line layer a few times for more effect (disable the layer mask for the duplicated layers, and resize those layers for depth)

Step 7

OK we’re nearly done. To finish up this effect, we can add a few adjustment layer to fine-tune the color and lighting contrast.

I added the following adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Color Balance

Curves

and here is the final effect for this tutorial:

I also made an alternative version with cloud and extra lights added to it: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

After some thoughts about future articles/tutorials on PSD Vault, I decided to start a new series: Mini PS tutorial. In this series, I will include some very simple Photoshop tutorials designed for Photoshop beginners. The aim of those mini-tutorials are simple: to familiarise you with a variety of Photoshop tools and show you how to combine them to produce great effect for your design.

The effect are mostly abstract, and you can apply them to a wide range of design works you might have, to spice things up :)

In this first volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, I will show you the steps I took to create this Simple Abstract Shining Wave Line in Photoshop in just 5 steps. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be creating:

Alternative version:

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No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 470px * 330px, fill the background with black color. Create a new layer called “baseline” and grab a big white brush with 0% hardness, do a single-click on this new layer:

Hit Ctrl + T and enable the free tranform tool:

Compress this dot with the free transform tool, make sure you hold the “Alt” key while drag the top edge:

Reduce the layer opacity of this baseline layer to around 60%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Duplicate this baseline layer once. On the duplicated layer, again we use the free-tranform tool to scale it to a smaller size, and position it to the place as shown below:

Grab a smaller soft white brush, and do a few single-clicks along the baseline for some variety:

Step 3

Ok let’s make a new brushset. Hit “F5″ and bring up the brush window, apply the following brush presets:

Shape Dynamics

Other dynamics:

Make sure to tick the “airbrush”, “smoothing” and “protect texture” settings. Save the brushset if you wish.

Then use the Pen Tool, draw a work path as shown below:

Hit “Ctrl + Shift + N” and create a new layer called “abstract lines”, right-click and choose “Stroke Path”:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” on the new window:

and here is the effect you will have:

Step 4

On this abstract line layer, apply the following “Motion Blur” settings:

Hit “Ctrl + F” and re-apply this blur effect a few more times, and you will have following effect:

Use the free transform tool to scale it as shown below:

For variety, we can duplicate this abstract line layer a few more times, and scatter them around the baseline:

We can also add some highlights to the abstract line by duplicate the baseline layer a few times, and drag the duplicated layers to the top, resize each of them to smaller sizes and rotate them 90 degree clockwise: (increase the opacity to around 90% for the duplicated layers)

Step 5

To fine-tune the image, we can add the following adjustment layers to the image:

Curves

Color Balance

Levels

To add some particle effect around the lines, we can use the smart sharpen filter: (settings shown below, make sure you flatten the layers first)

and this is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

You can also experiment different colour scheme, here is an alternative version for this tutorial:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show the steps I took to create this awesome grungy style artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop.  Have a try!

Along the way, I will show you some paint techniques I used to make the hair and the surrounding grungy textures. We also will be using Pen Tool a lot in this tutorial, so if you’re not family with it, check out this post.

Here is 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 the following stocks:

Grungy Brushsets (Pick some from the list)

Model

Step 1

Create a new document sized 700px * 950px, use the grungy brushsets from the list and paint some texture around the edges of the canvas, as shown below: (when you paint the texture, make sure you adjust the flow and opacity, and don’t just use one brush for the entire canvas)

Create a new layer and grab another grungy brush, this time with a bigger brush size but a lower opacity, fill the centre portion of the canvas:

Step 2

Load the “model” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the model using whatever method you prefer (I found the quick selection tool here is probably the quickest).

As you can see this model has short hair, which is nice but personally I think it would be better with long hair in this occasion. So i decide to extend her hair (which I will show you in step 3) and also add some textures around her to blend her body with the surroundings.

I erase the outer portion of her hair with a soft brush:

I also added some grungy texture on the bottom of the model for support:

and some white texture around the model:

plus some dark texture around the violin and her arms:

The important thing to remeber here is when you paint the textures, make use of the size, opacity and flow settings for the brush – this way you can create more depth to the image and add variety.

I added some hair on the shoulder with a 3px, 75% hardness brush with a dark grey color:

Also I paint some more hair on top to form a head shape:

Step 3

Now we can get to the fun part of the tutorial – the hair creation :)

Grab the Pen tool and create a path like this:

Stroke the Path with the brush settings as shown below: (make sure you tick “simulate pressure” setting when you stroke)

you will have the following hair-like effect:

duplicate it and make them into a bunch (around 10-12 of them), then group all those hair into one folder, name this folder as “hair group”:

Put the bunch onto the model’s shoulder part:

Keep adding more hair by duplicate the “hair group” a few more times:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now let’s add some abstract lines around the model. I created a brush with the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Also tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer below the model layer called “abstract lines”, and use the brush to paint some dots as shown below:

Apply the following motion blur settingss to it:

then Warp it as shown below:

Once you finish the warping, duplicate it a few times and put them to the positions as shown below: (you can flip, resize them as you see fit)

Step 5

Now we can add another layer of hair to the model for some variation and depth. Use the same method as the previous described, but choose a lighter colour (grey) this time, make some hair as shown below: (don’t forget to group them once you make around 10 of them)

Duplicate the hair group a few more times to add more lighter colour layer:

To blend the two hair layers together I added a new layer on top of all layers and use a soft round white brush to paint a layer of light to the position as shown below: (set blending mode to “Screen” and drop the layer opacity to 60%)

I added the following two adjustment layers to fine-tune the image a bit:

Curves

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

Color Balance (set blending mode to “soft light”)

I also Smart Sharpen the image a bit and add some lighting around model, and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learnt something new :) of course you can further enhance the final effect by adding more objects and textures, but that’s totally up to you.

Also if you have any question about this tut, drop me a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Until next time, have a nice day!

Along the way, you will learn the method used to create lighting effect, bokeh, image adjustments, plus an rather interesting way of creating those little flying/falling light particles :)

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

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Ok let’s get started!

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

A Bold Font (You can choose any one from the list)

Abstract Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 550px *600px, grab the Gradient Tool from the toolbox and fill the background as shown below:

As you can see this gradient color is different from the final effect color – this is because initially I thought it would be better to use a dark gradient fill in the beginning, just for experimental purpose. I can always change the colour later on with image adjustments.

Grab the type tool and type a big text (using a font you downloaded from the list) on the centre of the canvas, name this text layer as “mother text”, reduce its opacity to 40%:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Type another smaller size letter on the canvas, name this type layer as “child text”, drop its opacity to around 30%, use the free transform tool to rotate it a bit so it looks like falling from the top:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop shadow

Gradient Overlay

Then duplicate this child text layer a few times, rotate each duplicated layer and scatter them around the mother text:

Step 3

Now let’s add some fancy lighting effect for the text. Create a new layer named “light strip bottom” below the mother text layer, use a soft white brush to do a single click on the top of the canvas:

Compress this layer to a very thin strip with the free trasform tool (scale):

Move this strip to this bottom of the text, and change the blending mode to “soft light”:

Now let’s add some highlights for the text. To do this, create a new layer on top of the “light strip bottom” layer, name it “highlight” and use a soft round white brush to do a single click as shown below:

Compress it to a thin size:

Move it over the bottom light strip and change the blending mode to “overlay”:

You will have the following effect: (you can duplicate this highlight layer a few more times for deeper effect)

Use the same method as the highlight layer creation (apart from the compression), add a few more lighting source around the text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some bokeh to the text. Thanks to the dynamic brush function in Photoshop, it’s really simple to make the bokeh effect.

So grab a round white brush with 80% hardness, apply the following dynamic brush settings to it:

Shape dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

and tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” option.

Use this brush we just made to paint some bokeh around the text, make sure you adjust the brush size along the way:

As you can see, I used smaller bokeh on the top for more depth:

Step 5

Now let’s add some flying/falling light particles to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, name it as “particles”, grab a small round white brush, do a single click anywhere on the canvas:

Use the Warp Tool to warp this dot as shown below:

You may have to warp it twice for a more curvy shape:

Once you finish the warping, simply duplicate this particle layer and scatter them around the text: (experiment with blending mode as you duplicate them, try “soft light”, “overlay”, and “normal” mixing together. Also adjust the layer opacity for each layer so that they look different and as a result the image can have more depth)

Optional: for add some elegance to the text, you can duplicate the “light strip bottom” layer and resize and rotate it, and place the smaller strip on the bottom of the text:

Step 6

Now we can add some abstract texture onto the texture. Create a new layer called “texture” above the background layer, use the abstract brushset we downloaded and paint to the positions as shown below:

OK, we’re pretty much done. For some fine-tuning, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layer:

Color Balance

Curves

Optionally, you can also flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and add the following “accented edge” (Filter > Brush strokes > Accented edge) filter effect to it:

This will create some blurry and melting effec to the text:

Add the following layer mask to the duplicated layer so it doesn’t look blurry for the whole canvas:

Smart sharpen the flattened background layer a bit, and here the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learn something new :)

Until next time, have a great day!

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

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

Rock

Waterfall

Tree 1

Tree 2

Hawk

Step 1

Create a new document sized 900px * 800px, leave the background colour as white.

The way I intended for this artwork is somehow the overall shape would resemble a number “1″ shape. So Firstly I create a 3D text model using Illustrator (I won’t demonstate the steps to create this 3D effect as it’s irrelevant to this Photoshop tutorial) to use as a model for this abstract effect.

You can download a copy of this image and paste it on your canvas, by clicking the image below:

Of course the final effect won’t include this 3D text, however it gives a good starting point for the abstract effect I’m going to make.

Load the “Rock” texture into Photoshop, grab the Quick Selection tool and select a random piece of rock according to the settings below:

Important: Tick the “Auto-Enhance” option on the top toolbar for the Quick Selection Tool, this will help improving the edges of the selection.

Select Random Rock Pieces from this rock stock image:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize, rotate and fit it onto any position you like on the text:

Select another different piece from the rock texture using the quick selection tool:

Paste it onto the canvas, and after you paste it, make sure you use a soft eraser to get rid of any edge roughness, so as to blend it with the background and other rock texture.

Hint: Use the Chalk brush (comes with Photoshop by default), with a 40% flow and opacity to erase the edges. You will find it quite effective in situation like this.

Repeat the select, copy and paste routine, make sure you select a different piece of the rock texture each time, until you cover the whole 3D text as shown below: (Erase the edges with soft brushes along the way)

Also use the dodge and burn tool to darken and lighten some areas of the rocky texture so we have some lighting dynamics and increase the depth of the image:

Please note that the above screenshots only provide an indicative guide, you will need to experience the effect yourself as the textures may differ from mine to yours.

Step 2

Load the “Waterfall” stock image into Photoshop, use whatever selection method you prefer to cutout the waterfall portion, copy and paste it on our document, name this layer as “waterfall”, resize and fit it to the portion as shown below

use soft brush to erase the edges of the waterfall so it blends with the rock and the background:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top of the waterfall layer: (make sure to select “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Duplicate the waterfall layer once, flip it horizontally and put it to the lower position as shown below:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top of the waterfall layer: (make sure to select “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

We can also do some tiny adjustments for the overall effect. So add the following two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Vibrance

Curves

Here is the effect so far:

We can now hide the original 3D text layer cos we won’t be needing it anymore.

Step 3

Load the “Tree 1″ texture into Photoshop. Cut the tree portion of the image with Channel Masking technique (if you’re not familar with this technique, please refer to Step 3 of this post for detailed explanation) and paste it onto our document. Name this new layer as “tree 1″, resize it to a small size and fit it on top of the rocks:

Make sure you erase the edges of the tree layer as depicted below:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer (make sure to select “use previous layer as clipping mask” option) on top of the tree layer to bring out some extra lights:

We can also add some grass texture on to the bottom of the tree for more details. So grab the lasso tool with a 40px feather to select a piece of the grass from the tree  stock image:

Copy and paste it onto our document and put the new layer below the Tree layer, resize it to fit the size of the rock base, change the blending mode to “overlay”, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

I feel like adding more tree images on the rocks for more details. So load the “Tree 2″ texture into Photoshop. Use the same channel masking technique to cut out the tree from the stock image, paste it onto our document, into the the following positions:

Top Left

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top: (make sure to select “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Bottom Right:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top: (make sure to select “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Step 5

Load the “Hawk” image into Photoshop, cut out the hawk and paste it onto our document, resize it to a very small size:

To add some motion for the hawk, duplicate this new hawk layer once, apply the following motion blur settings to the duplicated layer:

Change the blending mode the duplicated layer to “Hard Light”, drop the opacity to 30%:

Adding more details, we can also put aonther hawk on the left side of the rock:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 6

Ok we’re almost done! For some final adjustments, I added the following two things:

• Lens flare – not a popular option in Photoshop, but in this occasion I think it brings extra effect and color into the image
• Cloud texture – for the surrounding environment

To add the lens flare effect, we can create a new layer on top of all previous layers, fill the new layer with black color, then apply the following Lens Flare settings:

You will have the following effect:

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

You can move, duplicate this Lens Flare layer for more effect:

For the cloud texture, you can either use cloud brushsets or stock image to achieve it. I painted some cloud on the top and bottom of the canvas:

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

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learn something new!