Design Layered Rock Text Effect with Natural Elements in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this layered text effect with natural textures in Photoshop. This effect might look a little bit complex but it really is quite simple to create. Have a try!

We will practice basic selection techniques with quick selection tool, manipulate the selection with free transform tool, and we will be using a few brush tools to touch up our image.

The PSD file of this tutorial is available to buy on PSD Vault Shop, or via the PSD Vault VIP members area.

This is a beginner to intermediate level tutorial.

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in Photoshop CC – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

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:

Rock

Tree

Bird

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 1198px with white background. Use the Gradient Fill Tool (set to Radial Gradient) to fill the background layer as shown below:

Use any font you like, type a big letter in the centre of the canvas. We will use this as a guide for our rock textures which will be added in the next step.

Step 2

We will be adding rock textures for our text in this step. Load the rock image into Photoshop and use the quick selection tool to select the following portion:

Copy and paste the selection to our document and cover the text as shown below: (use the free transform tool to adjust its size)

Grab the eraser tool and choose the chalk brush as shown below as the eraser’st tip shape:

Work through the edge of the rock texture and remove the following portion:

Repeat the above process and add more rock texture over onto our text:

We can add some smaller rocks to create a particle effect:

Hide the original text layer and leave only the rock textures, and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

We will add some tree leaves texture onto our text in this step. Load the tree image into Photoshop and select a portion of its leaves:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, place the layer behind the rock layer:

Add a few more leaves texture to the left as shown below:

And we can add some more leaves texture OVER the rocks as shown below:

Step 4

We will add few more natural elements into our design. We can select the whole tree as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, re-size and place it to the following location: (rotate the tree slightly to the right)

Load the bird image into Photoshop and select the bird:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, re-size and place it at the following position:

Step 5

We’re almost done! For final touch-ups, we can add some cloud and abstract brush patterns to our image, you should be able to find lots of those brushes over the internet:

We can flatten the image, and use the Burn tool to darken some parts of the text, to add more depth:

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

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy going through it and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!