Create a Grungy Style Pull-Apart Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create a Grungy Style Artistic Flowing Text Effect in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level Photoshop tutorial and some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try!

Along the way, I will demonstrate some interesting method of using layer mask and liquify filter together, to create unique pull-apart effect to a single letter. We will also heavily use grungy brushsets to add texture and particles around the text.

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

Black Version

Coloured Version

PSD File Download

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

Grunge Brushest

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 670px, fill the background layer with a light yellow colour and the gradient tool, as shown below:

Type a letter on the canvas – the font I used here is called “Felix Titling”, which should come with Photoshop in the default font set in Windows. If you have an apple Mac, feel free to use a different font:

Create a layer under the font layer, use a soft white brush to paint a dot in the centre to create some back lighting:

Step 2

Load the grunge brushset in Photoshop, pick a brush pattern from the set and paint something on the canvas, then use the liquify filter to manipulate the brush until it forms a flowing pattern:

Repeat this brush paint + liquify filter process, add more brush patterns around the text:

Hint: When you apply the liquify filter on the middle part of the text, make sure you warp the brush texture and compress it in the middle, so that later on it will form a “pull-apart” effect when the layer mask is applied on the text layer.

Step 3

Now we want add a layer mask on the original text layer, and use a very small grungy brush to remove some part of the text:

Top left

Bottom

Centre

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

We will add some abstract line from the top right onto the text – grab the Pen Tool and draw a work path as shown below, choose a 30px soft round brush, and stroke the path with it:

Duplicate this line layer twice and add rotate each duplicated layer slightly, then merge all 3 layers together:

You can also use a soft erase to remove the bottom of the lines to create more depth for the image:

Step 5

We’re almost done :) For some final touches, I added some particle/grungy pattern around the text, as shown below:

You can also add some highlights with a soft white brush on the top right and bottom left corner of the letter:

I also added some feather around the text:

and here is the final effect I have: (Click to enlarge)

An alternative coloured version:

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