Design a Refreshing Natural Text Effect with Leaves and Wood Texture in Photoshop

Posted on January 31st, 2009 under Text Effects, it has 38 Comments and 32,855 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the process I used to design this refreshing, cool-looking natural text effect in Photoshop. I was having a walk in the nearby park and suddenly had this thought coming into my mind :)

Along the way, we will be using techniques such as layer blending options, image adjustments tool and some simple selection tools. You will see how easy it is to transform an average texture image into something unique by using Photoshop. Have a go!

Here is my final result of this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 x 600 px, fill the background layer with Black colour. Choose a font you like (I used this font from urbanfonts.com) and type some texts onto the background layer.

This will automatically create a new layer on top of the background layer, name it “text” and position it in the centre of the canvas as shown below:

Rasterise the text once you’re satisfy with its size and position.

Step 2

On “text” layer, apply the following Layer Blending options:

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Please note there is no need for applying the Gradient Overlay.

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 3

Still on the “Text” layer, load the selection of the text by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the thumbnail image of “Text” layer on the layer palette:

Then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the image by 15px, then go to Select > Modify > Feather and apply a 15px feather to the selection.

The selection should now look like this:

Step 4

Download a copy of this grass texture and load it into Photoshop. This image is of my own stock and you can use it wherever you want.

Go back to our own document and drag the selection onto our the grass texture:

Copy and paste the selection back to the our document and name the newly-created layer “Grass”. The effect so far will look like this:

Step 5

Change the layer blending option to “Grass” layer to “Hard Light”, hit Ctrl + L and apply the following level adjustments:

The effect so far will look like this:

Optional: if you would like to add more leaves and grass onto it, you may duplicate this grass layer a couple of times, and keep its blending option to “Hard Light”.

Once you’re happy with the grass texture, grab the Eraser Toll with a soft round brush (set the opacity and flow to 50%), gently erase the area where the text sits beneath so the texts can be revealed and become clearer:

Step 6

Ok now we can add some wooden texture for text so it look a bit more natural.

Download a copy of this wooden texture and load it into Photoshop. Go back to our own document and use the Lasso Tool (40px feather) and draw a selection underneath the text as shown below:

Again we drag the selection onto the wooden texture, copy a random portion and paste back to our text document and name the newly created layer “Wood”. Drag this layer below all previous layer and just above the background layer.

The effect is shown below:

Step 7

On the “Wood” layer, apply the following Black and White image adjustments (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B) and apply the following settings:

Duplicate the “Wood” layer once and go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Accented Edges, apply the following settings on the duplicated layer:

Change the layer blending option of the duplicated wood layer to “Overlay” and duplicate it a couple of times more, you will see this adds a glowing effect to the wood texture:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 8

To add some depth the text effect, we can do a multi-select of all layers (hold down Shift key and left-click the top and bottom once respectively)

Then hit Ctrl + T and use the free transform tool and distort the text until you reach the effect shown below:

For final touchup, you can create a new layer called “cloud” and again use the Lasso Tool to draw a selection, fill the selection with Black and render some cloud in there:

And apply the following Level Adjustments (Ctrl + L) to the “Cloud” layer:

Then apply the following Curve Adjustments (Ctrl + M) settings:

Then put the “Cloud” layer just above the “Wood Copy 2″ layer, change the blending option to “Screen” and you will have the following resulting effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

If you have any questions, simply drop me a line below.

Cheers and have a nice day!

psaddict Says:
Added to http://www.psaddict.com
mccoy Says:
i’m using photoshop CS2, but I can’t find the “Black and White image adjustments “
LOGO DESIGN GURU Says:
Great tut. I love the way this looks and it can work for a lot of things. Thanks for the tips.
omar Says:
Thank you a good lesson
Blue Buffalo Says:
Very cool – I like the techniques that you used to get this effect. Thanks for posting.
apa Says:
step no. 2, tough!
Brad Says:
Hey!. Design a Refreshing Natural Text Effect with Leaves and Wood Texture in Photoshop was very well written.
Nick Says:
Awesome effect. Very useful for some projects!
admin Says:
Thank you Nick!!
admin kamuti Says:
not well explained.. example in step 4. after you copy and paste, mine is i just feathered it just to look like urs.. hehehe. and how did the text blended in the leaves after you use hard light in the grass layer.. but all in all i appreciated ur work.. very nice.. cn u make a tutorials about 3d text blending in a rock. ty… ^^
Business Cards Says:
Nice one, I really like what you did with the grass! And the effect works well with the font you used. Another wonderful tutorial, two thumbs up!
Palacid Says:
step 4 is so hard T__T
iulian Says:
I don’t understund the step 4 :-s

Congratz for you’r tuto.
Dentre Says:
Awsome tutorial well writen and easy to follow. Got only 1 question, what do i do wrong when i cant brush stroke in step 7?
Alex Says:
Step 2 isnt good, You dont show the contour and you dont show the gradient..
admin Says:
@Alex: with step 2 there is no need for gradient. I will correct this right now. really sorry for the misleading bit…
huwaw69 Says:
Wow awesome nature effect, the text is really great…
Chetan Madaan Says:
This works amazing!
Chetan Madaan Says:
Nice guys!
Ermal Says:
How did u drag the selection in texture layer???
In which way did u do that??????
Because i can’t drag the selection i can drag only the text but without the selection????
Ermal Says:
Pleas can u help me with step 4?????!!!!!!!!
what kind of technique did u use to do that???????
James Says:
@Ermal: with step 4, to drag the selection you will need first choose the rectangular marquee tool, and move you mouse over the selection, click and hold, then drag the selection over to the texture image. hope this helps
adhan Says:
nice concept i like it
StNx Says:
hello good tut , but i dont understand this part “Still on the “Text” layer, load the selection of the text by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the thumbnail image of “Text” layer on the layer palette:” maybe u can make a picture pls :) ty
StNx Says:
Ok now i dont understand how do i put the grass picture in my text how do i do that?
Rusty Says:
Like most others I am having problems with step #4. When I drag the selection to the grass texture, once there, it turns white. Anybody have any ideas????

It’s a neat tutorial, if I only understood most of it. I am just learning CS3 and it hasn’t been easy!
PSDDude Says:
Nice tutorial! Lots of interesting effects! I have tried to make a rustic text myself but it is not as cool as yours :)
http://psd-dude.com/tutorials/photoshop.aspx?t=wood-and-grass-text
Alyn Says:
@ How did u drag the selection in texture layer???
In which way did u do that??????
Because i can’t drag the selection i can drag only the text but without the selection????

i figured out how to do this:
1. drag the text layer just as it is to the grass picture
2. CTRL+click on the text layer from the layers panel
3. go to Select->Modify->Expand and put 15 pixels
4. go to Select->Modify->Feather and put 15 pixels
5. click on background layer and then hold CTRL and drag the selection back to your layer.

This is how i figured out and worked for me!

Hope it helps. cheers
banques Says:
Thanks to share it