Author: James Qu

Welcome to the 16th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run regularly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really great-looking, abstract style text effect by using custom brushset (which we will be making one of our own) with dynamics, plus adding artistic effect with Photoshop filters. It’s a simple tutorial however the end result looks great, have a try!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really awesome looking, dark flaming hell scene in Photoshop, inspired by the Dante’s Inferno game artworks. This tutorial is designed for intermediate to advance Photoshop users so some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try!

Along the way, we will be using tons of layer blending techniques, filter effects, image adjustments, and various tools from the toolbox. You will learn how to combine those techniques into one and make awesome looking artwork in Photoshop.

In this post, I will show you 35 amazingly beautiful, ultra-creative Photo Manipulated wallpaper I collected and stored in my browser favourites. They’re some of the best ones I have come across and I have to say the skills used in making those wallpaper are simply first-class. Really Really good.

Hope you enjoy them and make your desktop a vibrant place :)

Please click on individual photo to download them from their original sources.

I guess this is the ultimate issue every designer (no matter whether you’re a freelancer or not) will have to face eventually – to deal with the time when your creative awesomeness, once your greatest asset, disappears into the thin air without a trace.

You may sit in front of your computer and try your best to regain your power, but you find no matter what you do, you just can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel. And if your project/assignment deadline is something like, umm, tomorrow… well, that’s it mate. End of story.

This brings us back to this question: How to Deal With Creativity Dry Up? What Would You Do if Lacking of Inspiration? What’s YOUR best way of regaining creativity?

In this tutorial, I will show you the process I took to create this rather cute, unique Style “Play” Button in Photoshop. It’s a simple (aimed for PS beginners) but fun tutorial, have a try :)

The primary goal for this tut is to show you the functionalities behind the draw tools, selection tool and the use of layer blending options. I also added my own design ideas to make this play button a bit unique. Hope you enjoy it!

Time to offer my dear PSD Vault reader some freebies again! This time, I made a sparkling, watercolour-styled Hot Girl wallpaper to spice up your desktop and iPhone (if you have one) !

Recently I have been experimenting some filter effects and custom brush effects in Photoshop and this is what I came up with. I though perhaps mixing those two techniques would probably produce some nice effect, and I have fairly pleased with the result.

Any that’s enough talk, hope you enjoy this wallpaper!

In my opinion, drawing effect has always been a vital part of Photoshop. The various tools and filters available in Photoshop provides designers pretty much endless possibility of creating realistic drawing effect. The good thing is to create those effect is not that difficult and everyone can do it – providing you put in some effort practicing :)

In this post, I will showcase you 10 excellent Photoshop Tutorials that I think can give you a boost to your drawing skills. I have personally tried out them in the past and I think the quality of them are quite good, and should give you lot of tips and tricks into the Photoshop drawing world.

For your convenience, I categorise those tutorials into three difficulty levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Welcome to the 14th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run regularly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

Note:

Fractual Artworks, “is a complex graphical representation of a relatively simple mathematical formula. They are generated pixel-by-pixel, according to colors corresponding to parameters defined for a given formula.” (source)

I personally quite enjoy those works because I feel the details of those work are simply amazing and you can just sense the huge amount of effect designers put into making them.

In this post, I will show you 20 absolutely stunning, probably the most beautiful Fractal artworks you will ever see, collected from deviantArt.com gallery. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do and find them inspirationl!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this gloomy-looking text effect by using the amazing cloud filter in Photoshop. Have a try :)

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you the use of the cloud filter to create various effect, such as light and shadow, as a result bringing more depth to your text effect.

I personally love the cloud filter and I think it’s so versatile and you can use it to generate amazing effect and spice up your design. The trick is how you apply it and what other options do you use to combine it with (such as selection tools, other filter effects, or layer blending mode).

Welcome to another interview here on PSD Vault! This time we have Mhark De Guzman, an awesome graphic designer I came arcoss while browsing on Flickr. I was really amazed about the design of the works and the creativity behind them, not to mention the awesome effects in those works.

Hence I sought to have a chat with him about a series of questions I have in mind and sent him a Flickr mail – and thought I would share his answers to my questions with the reader of PSD Vault.

Hope you enjoy this interview and if you like to check out more of Mhark’s work, visist him on his Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32188606@N03/!

In this tutorial, I will show you how simple it is to create effective call-to-action button that will surely attract visitor’s attention, plus a super quick way to create this trendy Embossing text effect in Photoshop. Very easy tutorial, have a try!

For those who haven’t yet came across the idea of “Call-to-Action” button – basically they’re buttons that you would want all your users to click on when they land on your page. Usually they’ll be a link to a download, signup or sale. By making those buttons easy to easy and click on, you increase the likelyhood that user will notice the button, then follow up with relevant actions.

As for embossing text, they’re everywhere now on the web, and I personally quite like this particular effect :)

Recently I was invited by Andrew from My Ink Blog to write a guest post and here is what I came up with – A surreal, ancient Fantasy Scene made in Photoshop. (I personally always love fantasy style!) My Ink Blog is a site that always enjoy hopping onto and I’m really happy that I was given an opportunity to be a small part of it :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this work. We will take several real world objects and seamlessly blend them together to form this artwork. We will also use a number of Photoshop brushes to spice up the effect. The techniquses involved in this tutorial include layer blending, image adjustments, filter effects, custom brush tools, adding layer mask, etc.

This is a 10 steps tutorial, very simple, yet the effect is good. Have a try!

Welcome to the 14th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

I remembered when I first started learning Photoshop many years ago, there were many features I never knew how to use, or just don’t bother use them at all. Well, I was wrong, and I have since realised everything has their uses and they’re there for a purpose :)

In this tutorial, I will show you 5 Highly Applicable, Yet Easily Ignored Features in Photoshop – and How to Best Use Them. Hopefully they’re of use to you as a starter, thus make your life as a photoshopper a bit easier right from the beginning.

Meanwhile, I guess even if you’re an experienced Photoshopper already, it nevers hurt to have a read :) Perhaps you’d like to share some tips and tricks too? Just drop me a comment below :)

Cloud Texture is always one of the most likable texture amongst the designers. I personally love them because I can use them for a wide range of occasions and add extra effect to the design. Last weekend we had a bit of storm here and I took some photos of the storm cloud, just before the rain came. Thought I would share them with you guys :)

In this texture pack, I bundled 4 High Resolution Storm Cloud Textures, free for personal or commercial use. Hopefully you will enjoy them and find them useful!

I collect wallpaper for my computer all the time as a hobby, and I do use them as a source for inspiration. Recently I discoverd a great new site called Wallpaperart.org, where they collect a set of high quality wallpaper from designers around the world – and the great thing about this site is they not only collect wallpaper, but also to interview the author/designers who made them. What a great combination! You get to download the wallpaper, plus reading into the info those great designers share!

In this post, I will showcase you 5 (Really) Amazing Collection of Wallpaper + Designer Interviews from Wallpaperart.org. Hope you enjoy them and find them inspirational. For more, hop onto their website and take a look yourself :)