Create an Ancient Typography with Dry Soil Texture and Floral Brushset in Photoshop

Posted on May 4th, 2009 under Text Effects, it has 72 Comments and 44,409 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool, ancient-style typography using dry soil texture and floral brushset in Photoshop. I will also share with you the technique I learnt for creating some really cool light strips for your image.

Along the way, we will be using a lot of layer blending technqiues, musking, image adjustment tools and adjustment layers, plus the gradient tool and blur tool. This is an intermediate tutorial so beginners may find it a bit tricky. Well, never hurt to have a try!

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

Let’s get started!

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

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000 * 800 px with white background. Create a new layer called “radial gradient” and grab the Gradient Tool (G) and select the radial gradient fill option, fill this layer as shown below:

1-fill

Step 2

On top of the “Radial Gradient” layer, use the font we have just downloaded, type some text onto it. ( I only typed a letter “A” however you may type whatever text you want)

2-type

Apply the following layer blending option to this layer:

Drop Shadow

2-drop-shadow

Inner Glow

2-inner-glow

Bevel and Emboss

2-bevel

Color Overlay

2-colour-overlay

Gradient Overlay

2-grad

And you will have the following effect:

2-effect

Step 3

Load the selection of the text layer by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the layer thumbnail image on the layer palette:

3-left-click

3-load

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the Refine Edge Tool, apply the following settings:

refine-edge

Load the “Dry Soil” texture into Photoshop and drag the selection of the text layer (To do this, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, move your mouse over the selection, left-click and hold to drag):

3-copy

Copy and paste the selection back to our document, you will have the following effect:

3-effect-1

Name this newly-created layer as “dry soil texture” and change its blending mode to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

3-effect

Step 4

On top of the “dry soil texture” layer, add the following adjustment layers with the respective settings (make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option for all adjustment layers)

Curves

4-curves

Levels

4-levels

Color Balance

4-colour-bal

4-colour-bal-2

Bright and Contrast

4-bright

Black and white

4-bw

And you will have the following effect:

4-effect

Step 5

Now I would like to show you an interesting method to add light stripes to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, grab the rectangular marquee tool to draw a selection as below:

5-rect

Then grab a big soft brush with white colour (I used 800px) and do a few clicks in the following postition, while maintaining the selection:

5-brush

Then resize, rotate the selection until it reaches the effect as shown below:

5-effect

Name this layer as “light strips” and duplicate it a couple of times, move the duplicated layers as shown below:

5-position

Merge the duplicated layers and again make several duplication of the merged layer, move them around to the desired position:

5-effect-2

When you’re happy with the position, merge all those light strips layers and use the Eraser Tool with a soft round brush to erase the bit where covers the text:

5-effect-3

Step 6

To add some more decoration to the text, we can use the two brushsets we downloaded and simply do some painting :)

Create a new layer just above the “Radial Light” layer, use the Cloud Brushes to paint some clouds on the bottom part of the canvas:

6-cloud

Create another layer on top of the cloud layer, use the Floral Brushes to add some nice floral swirls around the text:

6-floral

Step 7

To add some final touches, add two more adjustment layers on top of all other layers: (Don’t tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” this time)

Curves

7-curves

Use the following vector musk on Curves Adjusment layer:

7-curves-musk

Levels

7-levels

Use the following vector musk on Levels Adjusment layer:

7-levels-musk

Colour Balance

7-col-bal-2

7-col-bal-1

Use the following vector musk on Color Balance Adjusment layer:

7-col-bal-musk

And you will have the following final effect:

floral-text-final

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance this image by adding some more effect, textures and filters.

Here is my final version for this tutorial: (Added some radial blur, adjusted contrast) – click to enlarge:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

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72 Comments

dragyn Says:
I cannot wait to try this out.
thanks so much
Tony Says:
Awesome.
joyoge designers' bookmark Says:
very nice typography effect thanks for tutorial..
ricardoFx Says:
good work @james, congratz.
AMQ Says:
For the last colour balance adjustment, you posted pictures of the same thing, both showing the values for shadows, was one of them suppose to be Midtones? thanks
ewink Says:
II am speechLess dude,,,,

This is awesoMe!!!!
admin Says:
@AMQ: yeah, the other one is midtones :) I uploaded the wrong screenshot, really really sorry about that
admin Says:
Thanks everyone for the support! glad you all enjoyed it!
AMQ Says:
Ok Thanks for the fix, this is a great tutorial! awesome job, keep it up!
Calvin Says:
The white lines wernt very detailed. Im sure lots of people are professionals at this, but coming from a learner, it was very undetailed, other then that it was great, I wish i knew how to do this with multiple letters.
Calvin Says:
I got stuck for hours, and still havent figured out the end, you tell no way of how to add those images to the layer styles.
also i looked up vector musk, and nothing comes up. What is a vector musk, maybe your using a different language? I really cant figure out how to add it, and ive been working on this part for hours.
admin Says:
@Calvin: if you use CS3, a simple way to add a mask to your layer is to click to little circle-inside-rectangle icon down the bottom of the layer palette. After clicking it you will see a mask is added, grab an eraser tool (soft one) and eraser the parts you don’t want on the mask you have just added.

Hope this helps
Joel Says:
thnx a lot man !
I can’t do step5 , what do you mean to resize and rotate it
can you explain more .
Joel
Calvin Says:
@Joel: I had the same problem as you, What you do is use the marquee tool to make a square, then use the white soft brush on it, then deselect with contol+D, then click the move tool, and with that you can transform and rotate. As a suggestion I think its easier to do that once, then duplicate the layer, and keep duplicating. It saves time, and gets each one the same shape, and angle.
Lori Says:
Now that’s some hellofa’ effect. I tried, it got (almost) as good as yours.
Mohd Says:
Thx So Much DUUUUDE !!

i might use it to design a Cover for a college Magazine ..

thx in Advance ..
ahmed Says:
thank you very much , this very good tray to arrive to your design
AntiRipOff Says:
This is a rip-off from http://www.webdesign.org just so you all know, it’s not “admin” who has made this guide
admin Says:
@AntiRipOff: not sure whether you’re a legitimate commentator or else, but if you look like the “Author URL” on the post on webdesign.org, you will see the author URL to be “www.psdvault.com”.

Just to make it clear to everyone: I have given permission to webdesign.org to re-publish my tutorial (providing they link back to psdvault.com, and they are the only one I have ever, or will give permission to.
Black.emperor.scorpion Says:
Got stuck up man! How to load the soil and then use the rectangular marque tool and then how to copy and paste in our document? Actually i got confused in these steps bro. I m learning photoshop and was inspired to do this seeing the quality work that you have presented.
Really awesome work. Wish to see more from you.

Pls help!
pLMztR Says:
Hi ive been following and making exactly all of your tutorials some came out nice and some didnt “still learning” anyway i cant seem to get the curve thingy right the picture is more black instead of white like yours, shud i apply like some blending mode to the curve layers?
huwaw69 Says:
wow this is really a great text effect! i like the way you did to the text is when you put the floral swirls… very attractive
Shanlyn Says:
Hello there! This is a cool tutorial! I had always been wanting to do some nice typography as I see online. Thanks for posting this!

I had done mine here
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/iluvsly/typography.jpg

Hmm. Not as good as yours as this is my first try. And also I’m using ver 7.0 hence I got some problem with certain functions tt may be different from yours.
Oh. May I ask, whenever I try to transform my brushes size, it will become slight blur (esp when increasing). Is there any way to prevent this?

Thanks again! (:
DarkPaIn Says:
i cant do the last steps with the vector masks… can someone explain it for me… cause i tried a lot ot times and still cant make it right..
DarkPaIn Says:
anyone?!
DarkPaIn Says:
here it is… it’s awfull… can someone explain the last steps with the curves, levels and color balance, and btw i apply a layer with a black color caus i cant get the black result only with deleting the places in the vector mask…

http://img30.imageshack.us/my.php?image=68773893.jpg
admin Says:
@DarkPain: this is James and apologise for the delay replying. For the curves, levels and color balance adjustment, if you use PS cs3, you will find all of them under the Menu Layers > New Adjustment layer. With the mask, my screenshot simply gives you an idea which areas are to be hidden.

Your image looks not too bad, maybe just need a bit of fine-tuning with colour contrast :)

Hope this helps
DarkPaIn Says:
heh, thanks, but i dont have the problem to find them in the menu, just when i apply them the image cant get dark, its white… and to get some kind of dark effect i had to apply a new layer under the Text layer and fill it all with black and then on this layer i created a mask and delete some areas.. but i tried again and get this. Looks ok for me.

http://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=darkpain.jpg

Anyway , thanks, u post a great tutorial wich helps me a lot.
photo manipulation Says:
thanks bro, its very usefll for me. thanks for share this tutorial for us :)
http://inoreload.co.cc
lyn Says:
wow.. you have a nice editing.. awesome!
Mandala Says:
In Step 2, you have selected Screen as your Inner Glow blending option. I’m doing this in CS4, and Screen is greyed-out and un-selectable. Why would this be?
Mandala Says:
Likewise, in Step 3, I am asked to change the blending mode of the layer to “Hard Light,” yet I am unable to do this because it is greyed-out and un-selectable.
admin Says:
@Mandala: hi thanks for trying out my tutorial! I would say this is gonna be a version issue. I haven’t got a hand on CS4 yet..
Lakshmi Mareddy Says:
Very Very nice tutorial, and informative as well.. Gave me some ideas:)
nevershine Says:
thanks very much !

I love this ~
Tigerclaw Says:
where must i start at Step 7? please Email me on Rain100@hotmail.com or add me on MSN
Tigerclaw Says:
never mind :D i found it :P
Tigerclaw Says:
hmm.. i dont get the same outcome for some reason, what do i have to do with the Vector musk thing? i dont understand
Greg Says:
Hey there. I’ve got right up to the bit with they vector masks and have no idea what I’m doing now. Please give more details on how to use this whole vector mask thing. Other than that. awesome tutorial and the end result is amazing!
Joa Says:
Im stock at step 7 .. I Really Dont Know, What To Do
If Someone Can Help Me, Please Add My Msn, DkzJoachim@hotmail.com

and this is my result until step 7: http://tinypic.com/r/2r6zedi/3
Amanda Says:
I’m having trouble with the Load “Dry Soil” texture part of this tutorial. I’m using CS3 and I just don’t understand it. Could you help me out?
James Says:
@Amanda: with step 3, you will need to firstly load the selection of the text layer. To do this, simply hold down your Ctrl key, and left click on the thumbnail image of your text layer on your layer palette. Then you can drag the loaded selection to the soil texture.

Hope this helps!
hamid Says:
hi
please help me
i can not find this:
(make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option for all adjustment layers)
u have this text at all of your tut but i cant make it plz help me here or mail me the picture of this section
thanks
hamid Says:
founded :D try to it :d
thanks
hamid Says:
i do all ur settings and i can not make with u in step 4

plz see this for my work in step 4
http://img2.tinypic.info/files/tjx7hznalk61bfwwvem9.jpg
hamid Says:
put psd here i try that again an make bad
hamid Says:
i cant so much do it , im tired for do it
put video tut for each posting if u make tut
hamid Says:
plz put psd effect only for this section:
http://www.psdvault.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/5-effect-500×385.jpg
Rosemary Says:
I’ cant do step 7 , i don’t know which layer you do that step .
I like your tutorial very much ,but I don’t know the last step so I cant
finish it .what a pity!
NoobStEr Says:
I cannot use the Cloud Brushes… it says: Could not load the brushes because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop .. :(
NoobStEr Says:
I’m using Photoshop 7.0 …
Azaz Says:
very nice effect very good, i m very impress to this effect,
plz show more effects
Smashing Buzz Says:
very much helping for creative typography. thanks
Max Says:
I’ve really tried on the last stage, and there seems to be more than one who has not understood the vector Mask section…I actually spent 20 minutes searching for what ‘Vector Musks’ were…arg.

Anyway, you are equally as godly as you are a pain for doing this haha. Please explain the vector masks…I know where to find them – but I don’t know how to use them like you have…would be greatly appreciated ;)

maxchina09@yahoo.co.uk
taryarL Says:
pretty cool :)
thank so much!
MR X Says:
DAVE HAS A SMALL PEN IS
Sandra Vanhooser Says:
Hey, thanks for the tutorial. I am always looking to better my typography skills! Keep them coming. You do great with instructions too! I only got caught up on a couple steps, but figured them out after a while. Thanks again!
gagamo Says:
Woow, I been watching, I been reading your tutorial and it looks fantastic you’re great bro. Thanks for sharing it with all of us… Good bles you man.
MvO-Design Says:
Nice tut man, only the links above from the fonts and brushes aren’t working anymore.

But i searched voor some cloud en floral brushes and i made this tut to only a little bit different. Thanks man for the tut!

C ya