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 :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Trasparent Text Effect, mixing with Fresh Grass Texture and Cloud Brushset. You can use the text effect in a wide range of occasions – such as website header background, part of a natural themed design, etc.

Along the way, I would like to show you my use of brushsets and the way I use them to draw background textures, then mixing the background texture with real-world object.

Some steps of this tutorial require the use of features available on CS4, but I guess there is always alternative way you can use, although the end effect may differ slightly.

Have a try :)

In my opinion, landscape photo manipulation is probably one of the most interesting, however difficult to master Photoshop technique – especially identifying the light source, how to best merge a few stock images together, etc.

In this post, I will showcase 25 Absolutely Magnificant Landscape Scenary Photo Manipulation + 5 Great PS Tutorials Showing How to Make Them. Those images are hand-picked by me from deviantArt.com and I personally enjoy them very much. The tutorials are also part of my browers favourites and I hope they’re useful to you when it comes to produce great scenary photo manipulations.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

In this post, I will show you 5 Useful Little Photoshop Tricks to Bring Out That bit of Extra Elegance for Your Design.

Lately I have seen a lot of effect done in a style that utilises a lot of shattered, distorted effect, particularly on Human body elements. This really fascinates me because I feel those artworks are simply full mystery. They may look really odd and of course SURREAL, even dark sometimes, however they can convey very strong and powerful emotion to viewers. If used well, those shattering effect can give your design a real boost.

In this post, I will show you a collection of 25 Weird, Yet Powerful Art of The Shattered, Disintegrated and Distorted Human Elements from deviantArt and Flickr. Hope you enjoy them! Let me know your thoughts :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the design processes I used to make this Rather Interesting, Wavy and Curving Abstract Shape Effect in Photoshop.

I was just playing around with the Photoshop the other day and discovered this funny effect by accident, thought it looks good and perhaps can be added to some of the photo effect you’re creating, or use it as some sorts of website background.

Along the way, we will be using the brush tool, filter effects, layer blending and some image adjustments. The steps of this tutorial is extremely simple and will be suitable for a PS beginner. Have a try!

Welcome to the 13th 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!

Ability to produce spotless, great-looking photo effect is something that every Photoshopper strives to achieve. We all know Photoshop is designed to help us make photo/image look great, however, because Photoshop itself is such as large-scale, complicated software, sometimes it’s difficult for beginners or even intermediate users to find the function and option they need to make such effect.That’s why many tutorials have been created to help overcoming this difficulty.

In this post, I will show you my collection of 11 Fascinating and Educational Tutorials Teaching You How to Produce Better Photo Effects. Those are tutorial that I came across months or even years ago, and until now they still reside in my firefox bookmarks. It’s a small collection, however I’m sure you will find pretty much everything you need to make great looking photos, based on the techniques outlined in each tutorial.

Hope you enjoy them and learn lots :)

In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in designing and creating this really cool, Geometric Shaped Typography with Grungy Background in Photoshop. This is a simple tutorial yet the effect looks awesome, have a try!

Along the way, I will also give you some tricks that you can use for creating awesome lighting and smoky effect to spice up your design.

The techniques involved in creating this typo include layer blending, filter effects, image adjustments and custom brushsets. Hope you enjoy it!

Abstract Effect, is basically design that does not have any specific purpose or meaning. I always enjoy them mainly because I feel they’re the ones that really give me maximum freedom, and particularly useful when it comes to adding some final touch-ups for any other type of design.

In this post, I will showcase 8 Elegant, Really Cool Abstract Photoshop Tutorials to boost your creativity and beautify your design. I personally have tried all these and I think they’re really well written and practical. Those effect can be applied to a wide range of works, including photo effect, web graphics and any other designs.

Try them out, and see if you can master them all :)

Welcome to the 12th 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.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes involved in creating this beautiful, fantasy-styled surreal ancient ruin and coastal island scenary in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy it!

Along the way, we will go through a variety of technqiues such as layer blending, image adjustments, a bit of matte painting skills and filter effects. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky.

Practices always make thing easier for the future, so go ahead and have a try :) Oh by the way, the server migration is now complete, everything should be back to normal now!