Floral and Ornate patterns are very popular in the design world, their vintage yet elegant and modern feel makes them perfect to use for so many different projects.

To make your life easier, we’ve collected over 60 brush sets, in total including over 1,000 single brushes! What are you favorites sets? We’d love to know!

Flower Petals

by Brush This (12 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by SummerAIR (9 Brushes)

Floral Brushes 2

by Yana Stock (20 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by Hawksmont (9 Brushes)

Flower Brushes

by Xnienke (5 Brushes)

Flower Brushes

by Danny Hinde (12 Brushes)

Ultra Leaf Brushes

by Snap 2 Objects (32 Brushes)

Garden Plants

by Photoshop Free Brushes (12 Brushes)

Abstract Flowers

by Web Designer Lab (10 Brushes)

Floral Deco Brushes 2

by Ro-Stock (20 Brushes)

Flower Brushes

by Cozy Comfy Couch (8 Brushes)

Only Lonely

by Desperate Deceit (87 Brushes)

Artistic Floral

by Hottiee (6 Brushes)

In Bloom

by Sleep Walker Fish (19 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by Miss Fairy Taled (2 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by Soul DJ (12 Brushes)

Brushes Pack 1

by Atenaispd (15 Brushes)

Grunge and Smooth Floral Brushes

by Keep Waiting (67 Brushes)

Floral Swirl Brushes

by Aka Joe (20 Brushes)

Floral Ornaments

by Lileya (16 Brushes)

Floral Photoshop Brushes

by Lileya (5 Brushes)

Floral Brushes Pack 1

by Elena Sham (14 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by Murderdoll (10 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by Solenero (9 Brushes)

Suddenly Spring

by Gvalkyie (10 Brushes)

Sleepless

by Sleepwalker Fish (20 Brushes)

Trad Oriental Flower Brushes

by Photoshop Addict (10 Brushes)

Floral Brushes

by GM Para (5 Brushes)

Floral Deco Brushes

by Ro Stock (19 Brushes)

Floral Swirls

by Szuia (12 Brushes)

Fantasy Floral Brushes 1

by Graphic Identity (4 Brushes)

Fantasy Floral Brushes 2

by Graphic Identity (3 Brushes)

Fantasy Floral Brushes 3

by Graphic Identity (3 Brushes)

Fantasy Floral Brushes 4

by Graphic Identity (3 Brushes)

Fantasy Floral Brushes 5

by Graphic Identity (3 Brushes)

Flower Brushes

by Redhead Stock (29 Brushes)

Flower Brush Set 1

by Gvalkyrie (20 Brushes)

Flower Frames

by Generosa (5 Brushes)

Flower Sketches Brushes

by Redhead Stock (36 Brushes)

Flower Brushes

by Man Upstairs (15 Brushes)

Hand-Drawn Ornaments

by Bianca Yvonne (7 Brushes)

February Swirls

by Pixels & Ice Cream (11 Brushes)

Hand Drawn Floral Patterns

by Room122 (8 Brushes)

Vintage Floral Illustration

by Streetcar Circus (14 Brushes)

Flowers First

by Pixels & Ice Cream (5 Brushes)

Leaves and Foliage

by Obsidian Dawn (36 Brushes)

Paisley Brush

by Obsidian Dawn (37 Brushes)

Flowers and Petals

by Diego Botello (22 Brushes)

Flower Prints

by Lonely Lass (5 Brushes)

Messy Flora

by Angelina Resource (20 Brushes)

Jakandara

by Lady Oscar (17 Brushes)

Flowers Mega Pack

by Hawks Mont (28 Brushes)

Barbarja Floral 01

by Barbarja (15 Brushes)

Get more Brushes…

In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to draw an Anime Style character. To start, we’ll rely on basic shapes and the Brush Tool. Also, you’ll learn one of my personal techniques I call “The Front Mirror” which I use for almost any of my animation projects. This technique will save you lots of time, and will help you to draw many characters for your projects in a very fast way.

I will show you how to draw everything using the “Line-by-Line” system and I’ll do my best to describe what every line will present.
I hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial and make use of some of Anime industry secrets I’m about to reveal!

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4 v11.0
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes or less

Preparations

Lets make some basic tweaks before we start drawing the head. Make sure the following options are Enabled under the View menu:

• Show > Guides
• Snap
• Snap to > Guides, Layers, Document Bounds.

Step 1

Use the ruler to create two guides in the center of the document, a horizontal and vertical one. Use the center of the document to create a circle (it will snap to the guides). Make sure that the circle’s stroke size is 1px with 0% Fill Opacity.

The size of the circle shown below is 300px by 300px. After creating the circle you can use the Transform tool (Command+T) and manually enter 300px by 300px, and then apply.

Step 2

The next line will present the side of our character’s head. Select the Line Tool, make sure the Weight is set at 1px. From the middle left side of the circle, draw a line from 1 point to the the 2nd point, as shown below:

Step 3

Now we are going to make a “freehand” line. (This will be the lower jaw / chin) don’t be afraid to use the brush tool. It’s always good practice to get used to drawing your own shapes and lines without depending on photoshop shape tools. Select the Brush Tool, Make sure it’s on 1px, and follow the points from the end of the last straight line, to the right. Do it smoothly and pass the center guide by a bit.

You can do the exact same thing using the Pen Tool, but the reason I made this tutorial is to teach you how to train yourself. I highly recommend you use the Brush Tool when you draw your characters, but you can choose whatever you feel more comfortable with. There are no rules for being creative!

Tip: Zoom in 200% to draw the 1px lines, I do it all the time because it’s easier to draw and control thin lines.

Step 4

Drawing the Ear is very simple, just follow the points shown bellow:

Tip: Use the straight line we created in Step 2 as a base for the start of the ear, Use 200% Zoom for best control.

Step 5

Continue with the Ear, closing the basic shape. Follow the the points shown bellow. It’s easier to see what we are drawing by disabling the guides (Command +

Step 6

Draw a parallel line to the upper line, Then add a smaller line from the end of it in about 35 or 40 degrees. Follow the points shown below.

Step 7

The last step in finishing the ear is very cool because it reminds of two letters: L and C.

From the last line we drew, start to draw the L shape until it touches the side of the head (that line from step #2 again). The same goes for the C shape, it looks like a wide letter C.

Step 8

Let’s draw the neck now. Before you start drawing though, enable guides again (Command + .
From the middle of the lower jaw line (Step 3), draw a line that goes down and curve it a bit to the left. Similar to what we did in Step 3, draw another line from the end of this line to the right and pass the center guide a bit.

Tip: It’s always a good thing to remember shapes as letters or other symbols. It will make your brain memorize how to draw specific shapes in the future.

Step 9

Drawing the shoulder is just a simple curved free line from the middle point of the neck, that goes down to the left.

Step 10

So far we’ve created the basic shape of our half-character. Cool . In the next step, we are about to continue the technique I call The Front Mirror, and believe it or not, I use it a lot in my projects. Why Front Mirror? Simply because it works best for front (and back) view of characters, as well as other designs, not only heads but almost anything you’ll create. I got started on this technique when some of my clients needed a reference to create 3D Models, and even before that to develop character sheets for 2D animated projects. (I may teach this in a future tutorial).

Step 11

Welcome to the clean up phase! While creating the very first shape in Step 1, we created a full circle but all we need is a specific part of it. Zoom in to 200% then select the layer with the circle and convert it to raster:

• Right Click on the layer > Convert to Smart Object
• Right Click on the layer > Rasterize Layer

Pan the view where the circle and the line that creates the side of the head clash (Step 2). You can either use the Eraser or the Lasso Tool to get rid of the bottom part of the circle. Take your time to do it slowly until the line and the rest of the circle looks like they are united as one shape.

Step 12

Now we will merge all the current layers we already have into a single outline. Now that we have only one outline, we will select the right side of the document. Zoom out to 100%, select the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and use the guides to make a selection. Delete the extra portions. You should have something similar to the screenshot below.

Step 13

Select the layer with the cleaned up half character, and duplicate it (Command + J). Flip it horizontally. The flipped layer may appear on the wrong place and it looks weird, but that’s easy to fix so just drag it to the right side until it snaps exactly to the center of the document (thanks to the guides).

Step 14

It’s time to make the face. Let’s start with the eyes. In Anime (and Manga) style, There are so many different kinds of eyes and hair styles, so we won’t get stuck on this. We will focus on a specific eye style that I made for this specific style of drawing. Zoom in at 200% and choose the Brush Tool (B) with a 4px diameter. Draw the bottom eyelash. Start to draw a line from the right to left, but finish the line with a gentle thin line as the tip (look carefully on point 2).

Step 15

Start to draw a gentle line from the left to right. While drawing the line, remember to start with low pressure. The same applies to ending the tip. Try to draw the tips thinner than the middle line.

Step 16

Finish the upper eyelash, Add the final tiny tip.

Step 17

There are many ways to creating the iris. I used to draw it with the brush, but you can just do it using the Circle Tool with 4px. In the example below, I used the circle tool in red so you can see where to place it. You should make it in the same color of the eyelashes which is black.

Step 18

Delete the upper part of the circle that overlaps as shown below.

Step 19

Select the brush tool (B) and draw a straight line in the middle of the circle.

Step 20

While drawing the eyebrow, it doesn’t matter where you start. The important thing is to make it start and end with thin lines for a nice and gentle tip.

Step 21

Flatten all the parts of the eye, including the eyebrow and duplicate it. Flip it horizontally and move it to the right place in case it’s a bit offside.

Step 22

So far, everything we’ve done is perfectly symmetrical. This is nice if we want to create a robot or machine-type character. But in our case, we need to break the symmetry to give our character a more organic feel. The easiest way to do it is to start with the mouth, then add more parts to complete our job.

Draw the upper lip of the mouth using the Brush tool (B) at 4px. First, disable the Guides (Command + . Then start to draw a wavy shape and try to make an upper curve at the middle of this line. It doesn’t need to be perfect because we want it to be twisted just a bit.

Step 23

Draw and connect the lower lip with the upper lip. Start from the left, try to make the character’s mouth smile in a sick, twisted way. This is not going to be a “mama’s little boy”

Step 24

Drawing the teeth may look complicated but if you’ll follow this you’ll get the idea. Change the brush size to 1px. Start to draw the letter L. From the upper lip down to the right a bit, make sure it’s not exactly straight.

Step 25

Draw 2 tiny lines to what we’ve done already, follow the screenshot below.

Continue Learning…

Welcome to the fifth and last tutorial in the “Creating a Set of Digital Painting Icons” series. We will end with an icon that depicts both a tool and a typical application of digital painting: a large display with a finished matte painting.

The screen will be drawn in a few easy steps using familiar Photoshop tools. We will then employ techniques and workflows utilized by professional matte painters to create a finished cityscape. Far from being an exercise on matte painting, this tutorial nonetheless gives us a peek into this fascinating branch of digital arts.

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Tutorial and Series Details

Below are the five icons we are creating in this series.

Take a look at the icon we’ll be creating in this tutorial, which is a large LED display with a finished cityscape matte painting on screen.

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS2 and later
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours

Step 1

Today’s operating systems give us the chance to work on big icons. Open a new document and set the canvas to 512px by 512px. Set the foreground color to light gray. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) from the toolbar, make sure the Radius is set to 10px, and draw a 480px by 300px rectangle at the center of the canvas. This will be the outer frame of the display.

Step 2

Select the frame’s pixels by Command-clicking the thumbnail in the Layers palette. From the Select menu choose Modify > Contract and enter 2 pixels (2a). Fill the selection with black on a new layer. This is the glass that covers the LCD panel (2b).

Step 3

Command-click the glass and contract the selection by 1 pixel (3a). Fill the selection with a white-to-black vertical gradient on a new layer, which we’ll call “reflection” (3b). Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and make a trapezoidal selection around the right half of the display (3c). Apply it as a mask to the “reflection” layer, which should be set to the Screen blending mode and 20% Opacity (3d).

Step 4

Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) create a new layer above the “glass” and below the “reflection” and fill it with a placeholder color, for example light blue (4a). Name it “screen.” Add a pinhole webcam at the top of the screen and a logo of your choice at the bottom. Let’s make the logo glow, too (4b and 4c).

Step 5

Now we need to draw the support. Draw a light gray rounded rectangle just like we created the frame at the beginning (5a). Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A) from the toolbar. Select the top points and nudge them toward the center, tapering the support (5b). Add a vertical Gradient Overlay style to simulate the shadow cast by the display and the curvature of the support. Refer to images 5c and 5d for the settings. The result (5e) looks good but of course we need to add some thickness to the support.

Step 6

Duplicate the “support” layer. Move the copy below it and name it “support thickness” (6a). Add a Gradient Overlay style to shade the rounded corners (6b, 6c). The support is complete (6d).

Step 7

To finish the display we need to draw the shadow it casts on the ideal floor beneath it. Create a horizontal black ellipse (7a) and set it to Multiply, 50% Opacity (7b). Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter 10 pixels (7c). An Opacity of 50% is a good value to start with, but in this case the shadow is too strong so let’s reduce it to 20% (7d). Now choose the Blur Tool from the toolbar and soften the edges of the shadow with multiple strokes until it resembles image 7e. The display is now finished.

Step 8

Create a layer group called “PAINTING” (8a). I use lowercase for layer names and uppercase for group names. It makes them easy to distinguish when the layer stack becomes long. Command-click the “screen” (8b) and add this selection as a mask to the layer group (8c). This way we ensure our matte painting won’t bleed over the glass.

Step 9

We will now create a very basic matte painting that features a cityscape on a shoreline set at dusk. Let’s start. Place the “screen” layer inside the “PAINTING” group and rename it “background” (9a). Using a Gradient Overlay (9b, 9c) we transform the placeholder blue into a complex gradient that represents the sky at dusk. For the sake of an icon we don’t need to be extremely accurate. We have quite a few colors, though, top to bottom: dark blue, blue, light hazy blue for the horizon, purple for the setting sun and a deep blue for the sea (9d).

Step 10

In order to draw the buildings that make up the cityscape we need perspective guides. Using the Line Tool (U) and a bright green color, draw a series of perspective lines, all converging to a focus point on the left. Make sure the point lies on the horizon (10a). Group the lines.

Next draw a series of parallel horizontal lines, using a contrasting color like red (10b). Group the red lines too. Now hit Command + T to invoke Free Transform, right-click on the canvas and choose Perspective. Modify the lines’ perspective so they converge to a focus point on the horizon, far to the right outside the screen (10c). Our perspective grid is now ready. Group the green and red lines together and reduce their Opacity to 30% to make them barely visible (10d).

Step 11

Pick a dark blue color. On a new layer, paint the shoreline using the Brush Tool (B) set to 100% hardness. Fill the layer up to the horizon and make sure the top is flat and horizontal. Hold down Shift to paint perfectly horizontal or vertical strokes (11a).

Now comes the fun part! Create a new layer. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) make multiple selections and fill them with the same dark blue from the shoreline. Try to create organic groups of taller and shorter skyscrapers (11b). Throw in some lowrises for variety. Continue the process until you’re satisfied with your cityscape.

Step 12

The buildings need to be adapted to the perspective grid. Specifically, their tops have to be cut off along the perspective lines. Do that by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to select and erase the extra pixels (12a). When you’re finished you will see how the city slowly takes shape (12b). My composition admittedly is not so good, I hope you did better!

The key here is to have a couple of tall buildings up front and enough variation in order to avoid regular patterns as the buildings recede toward the horizon. The beauty of this method is that it’s so easy and quick to build the cityscape that it’s no trouble to start from scratch until you like what you see. Let’s push forward.

Step 13

The buildings are lit from the front. This means that we have to paint the front facades with the purply-orange light of dusk (13a). Do this on a separate layer masked with the “buildings” layer. Alt-click between them (13b). Make sure you blur the base of the frontlit facades so they fade out into the lower levels of the city (13c).

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial, we’ll use the Layer Mask Tool and Liquify filter to "melt" the camera. I recommend you work with a tablet for this one (it makes your work easier), but if you don’t have one it is also possible to go through this tutorial. Let’s start!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 2 – 2.5h

Step 1

Open the camera file by bennorz, double-click on the layer to unlock it and create a new one beneath. Fill the new layer with a red (#ff0000) color. Now you have a red background beneath the camera layer and it makes it easy to see borders of the object when masking. It is not necessary to use red, but it is better to use a color which is not in the object.

Apply a layer mask to the camera layer. Be sure to have it selected when masking.

Step 2

Masking is the non-destructive way of removing parts of the image especially the background. That’s because erasing is done on the mask not on the image so you can create a mask and then delete it and the image stays untouched. Other great things of masks are that you can use a variety of tools to create it such as the Pen Tool or brush.

This time we will use the brush technique. Select the Brush Tool and set its Hardness to 93% – a mostly hard brush creates better borders on objects. Now we are ready to start masking.

Step 3

You can start whenever you want in the image, just bear in mind that if you use a "Black color" the brush will start erasing the image and if you use a "White color" or eraser (E) the image will start appearing back.

So mask everything except the camera – just paint around the camera, zoom in and out and resize the brush to get the adequate effect. Pay more attention to corners – the most critical ones are shown in white circles below. Here you should be most precise. It may take you some time practicing before you are used to it.

Step 4

Create a new document that is 1600 px wide and 1200 px high at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch and fill the "Background" layer with a gray (#dfdfdf) color. Put the masked camera image into this document. If you have the document with the camera still open, then you can just drag it with the Move Tool (V). It will create a new layer with the camera in the workspace. There is still the mask which we won’t need to edit so right-click on it and choose Rasterize Layer.

Step 5

Now we have the camera ready. So duplicate the layer, then resize it as shown below.

Step 6

Now it’s time for the Liquify filter. You can find it in Filter > Liquify filter (Shift+ Command + X). Then just drag parts of the camera image the way the arrows show. Bear in mind that the camera is laying on the plane and the effect should have a little perspective so you have to play with the technique a little bit to get adequate results.

Step 7

Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and set the Hardness to 0%, then select the “camera” layer, not the melted one. Now erase it to almost fit the melted copy. Then select both layers, the not melted and the melted ones, then merge them. You can merge layers by selecting them and press Command + E.

Step 8

Now open the Liquify filter and polish the melting effect on the merged image. Then duplicate the layer and move it to the bottom, just above the background layer. Then go to Edit Menu > Transform > Flip Vertical, and adjust the position of the result.

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial, we’ll explore the Adobe Illustrator Appearance panel and learn to create objects that look like groups of many shapes, but consist of only one shape with multiple fills applied, with no brushes used. We’ll dive really deep into the the Appearance panel and unlock its secrets. Illustrator enthusiasts will love this detailed tutorial!

Final Image Preview

Below are the images we’ll be creating in this tutorial using the Appearance panel. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3/CS4
• Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 60 minutes

Introduction

The more you explore Adobe Illustrator, the more you’ll learn about it’s magic and get fascinated by it’s secrets. I oftentimes like to make up vector challenges for myself, and this time I wanted to create a flower in Illustrator with only one shape, using no brushes. That is a moment when the Appearance panel is everything – the perfect tool for managing your complex object. Today we will learn the magic of the Appearance panel, the ways to use it and its advantages, and then we’ll create several objects with it’s help to practice the skills.

Theoretical Part

Let’s start with theory, so that even beginners understand the secrets of multiple items and the Appearance panel.

1 – Where is the Appearance Panel?

The Appearance panel was introduced in the 9th version of Illustrator, and it was a very creative and smart developers’ decision to add this tool. It brought object modifications to the next level, opening new horizons for vector designers.

I suggest that you open up the Appearance panel to be able to access it at any moment. To bring it up, go to Window > Appearance, or press Shift + F6. You’ll see an ordinary Illustrator panel that looks rather simple, but you can’t even imagine what is hidden in it!

2 – What Appearance Means?

The Appearance panel is a place where all modifications of a particular object are listed and made. Actually, it applies not only to shapes, but to text, groups of objects, entire layers and so on. Therefore, any object on your artboard has some appearance, and it can be viewed in this panel. To access it, select the object and then go to the Appearance panel – and you’ll see it as a list of elements. Perhaps, you’ll see only stroke, fill, and default opacity shown there, if no other changes were made.

Important Note: Make sure an object is selected when you access the Appearance palette. When nothing is selected, this panel shows elements of the last selected objects, but nothing happens when you edit it.

3 – What is Shown There?

Of course, when I said “all modifications” are shown in the Appearance panel, I did not mean actually all of them. It is not similar with the History panel in Photoshop, so most of the actions you apply to the object are not listed there. Only modifications that alter the object appearance are written – that is why it is called Appearance (more like layer styles in Photoshop). Therefore, when you move the object, transform it with any transform tool, cut it, edit points, and so on – these actions have nothing to do with this palette. On the other hand, anything related to the object’s fill, stroke, opacity, blending mode, brushes or effects applied will always show in the Appearance panel.

4 – Appearance Possibilities

When the targeted object is selected, you see its fill, stroke, and its general opacity in the Appearance panel. However, you are able to add more fills or strokes to it (I’m not sure how many, but I’ve added up to 30 easily). Here is the biggest secret – multiple fills and strokes are very powerful! There are several ways of adding them in the Appearance panel:

1. Select either fill or stroke in a stack (depending on what you want to add) and press the small Duplicate Item icon. This way the copy will appear on top of the original, inheriting all of its parameters (type, color, opacity, mode, brushes, and effects).
2. Select either fill or stroke in a list and drag this element onto the Duplicate Item icon. Also you can choose Duplicate Item in the fly-out menu. These are equivalent to the previous method.
3. Go to the panel fly-out menu and choose Add New Fill or Add New Stroke, then a new fill or stroke will appear on top of all the other elements, and it will have no effects or brushes applied to it (however, it will inherit the color and type of the last chosen fill or stroke). If an item is selected in the stack, the new one will be added on top of the selected one.

This way, you can add many fills and strokes to any selected object. This also applies to other items in this panel, like live effects. It may not sound inspiring at the beginning, but consider this: there are two types of strokes (color and pattern) and three types of fills (color, gradient, and pattern), now multiply it by sixteen blending modes, one-hundred opacity levels, countless variety of stroke width and types (also plenty of effects) – and you’re starting to understand how many things that can be done with this panel!

5 – Changing Items

When you add a few more fills or strokes to an object, you can then alter their color and type by choosing the particular element from the list in the Appearance panel, then pick the color, gradient, or pattern in the Swatches panel.

For strokes you can change the width and type in the Strokes panel (Command + F10). Users who use the Illustrator CS4 version may pick the color or change the stroke width right in the Appearance panel, which is handy.

Of course, try altering opacity and blending modes of any item in the Transparency panel (Shift + Command + F10). To delete an item, simply drag it to the Trash icon. All the items in the Appearance panel are handled individually – only you can’t move or transform them separately with the usual tools.

6 – More Advantages

You can’t just take any particular fill or stroke and edit its points or transform it, because it is not a separate object but a part of the object appearance. However, there are ways of altering the shape of any item in the Appearance panel.

The Effects menu gives you enough amazing options for dressing object fills and strokes the way you like – either together, or separately. You can move and rotate the item using the Transform effect, turn it into another figure with Convert to Shape effect, offset the path applying the Offset Path effect, and many more great effects, such as: shadow, glow, and Photoshop filters like blur or texturizer. You have to try them to realize their power. Once applied to the item, effects are shown in the Appearance panel with the FX symbol.

7 – Order of Items

Another great thing about the Appearance panel is the possibility to change the order of items for any object. You can easily drag one element up or down in the stack to achieve the needed result. Moreover, you can do it with effects too. When the effect is applied to the entire object, it is positioned on a separate level in the Appearance panel. Still, you can drag it on any item to use it on particular fill or stroke.

Sometimes changing the order of items in the Appearance panel will result in a completely different outcome. In Illustrator CS4 version you also may hide items by clicking an eye icon on the left of it. I recommend you to visit this brilliant Vectortuts+ tutorial that explains a lot about the Appearance panel and the order of elements in it: Using Effects to Create a Cool Design.

8 – Where We Can Use It

Multiple strokes and fills, as well as other items in the Appearance panel, may appear very helpful and save plenty of time. You can use advantages of the Appearance panel in cases where several elements of similar shapes must be positioned on top of each other by simply adding a few additional fills with different parameters, rather then creating several separate object.

You can also use it to create multiple strokes on a single editable path rather then using a few copies of the same path. Also,the Appearance panel is great for creating evenly distributed copies of objects or it’s parts (fill or stroke) with the powerful Transform effect.

It is possible to create elements that are masked with the top items so that the background shows through, just like an opacity mask, with multiple fills or strokes only. You can even try using the Appearance for more complex objects, where every item has a different shape – in this case you’ll need to apply certain effects to achieve the result.

9 – Where We Can’t Use It

Unfortunately, although Appearance panel is very powerful, it has certain limitations, and not everything is possible to create with it on one object. By default, every fill and stroke added in the panel has exactly the same shape that the original object has. So, it may sometimes be hard to change the shape of items if you need to.

You can’t use Appearance panel to create elements with really different shape, as it’s not easy to present it with multiple fills on one object (but you can use it if you need a rectangle or ellipse, with the help of the Convert To Shape effect.

It’s impossible to make one object that consists of several elements of drastically different point amounts and type – as we can’t edit points of fills in the Appearance panel.

Also it may not be easy to create many elements positioned too far from each other or too randomly scattered. For all those situations it is better to create different objects, rather than trying to fit various elements in one object via the Appearance panel.

The image below shows fills with different shapes, point types, and scattered to randomly, which demonstrates these problems.

10 – Saving Effects

There is one more advantage of the Appearance panel that I love to use very often. Imagine you create a complex object, add many fills and strokes, apply effects and brushes, adjust opacity and blending – and the work is finally done. You then want to try this combination of items on other objects, while not spending so much time for modifications again.

There is a simple way to save the combination of all items in Appearance panel to apply to any other object. Simply select the object, open the Graphic Styles panel (Shift + F5) and press New icon. The Appearance will be saved as a graphic style (similar to Photoshop layer styles), you can name it and apply it to selected shapes.

Practical Part

If you read the explanation above carefully, you understand how invaluable the Appearance panel is for making work in Illustrator easier and more fun. Let’s apply the knowledge we gained by putting it into practice.

We’ll create five objects with the help of multiple fills in the Appearance panel, from the easiest to the more complex. We will be using the Appearance panel all the time, so make sure it is open in your document (Shift + F6).

We’ll implement primarily fills and effects today. In this tutorial we’ll use very few strokes and won’t be using brushes – multiple strokes were explained in the tutorial How to Create Roads and Rail Tracks on a Path, while brushes are so amazing that they will need a separate tutorial to cover in depth.

11 – The Sun: Beginning

Let’s create a new document in Adobe Illustrator – I made it 1200 px by 800 px in RGB mode, though you can choose other parameters. We’ll start from the easiest object – the sun. Create a circle (L) 100 px by 100 px, give it no stroke and a subtle yellow-to-orange radial gradient fill.

12 – The Sun: Adding Rays

Now, while the circle is selected, open the Appearance panel (Shift + F6) and add one more fill. We want to add rays to the sun, so we’ll apply the Pucker effect. But the only problem is that this effect will create rays depending on amount of points in the shape.

We have only four points – not enough for sun rays. So go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points, this command adds four more points. Now we can choose the bottom fill and go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat, and move the slider to the left about 130% – the rays are ready.

13 – The Sun: Adding a Hole

Although the sun looks nice already, I decided to add one more element to it – it is not necessary, but it gives a creative detail to the object. Honestly, the real reason I add this step is because I want you to learn one trick with the Transparency panel.

We will make a hole in the sun, so that the background is visible. Select the sun and add one more fill on top. It’s color does not matter, so I changed it to black. Now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, and reduce both the horizontal and vertical scale to 50%. You’ll have something similar to the image below – not very pretty, but be patient.

14 – The Sun: Finalizing

Now, with top black fill chosen, open the Transparency panel (Shift + Command + F10) and reduce its Opacity to 0%. It will become invisible. Go back to the Appearance panel, and choose the topmost line that says Path, and back in the Transparency panel check the Knockout group option. The top black fill will knock out all the bottom fills, and the background will show through!

This Transparency panel option works for groups where objects with 0% Opacity serve as masks, although this trick affects separate objects as well. I also altered the main fill (second) moving the yellow gradient slider to the right to make the transition faster.

The sun is ready! All its elements are actually Appearance items, while the shape remains a simple circle. We applied three fills to this shape, one effect, and Transparency options. You can check it in outline mode (Command + Y). Now you may want to save this combination of effects as a graphic style – name it “sun.”

15 – Clouds: Main Shape

Let’s move to another object – the clouds. First, we’ll create the basic cloud shape with the Ellipse Tool (L). Create several ellipses so that they form the image we need. Don’t make them big – my resulted cloud was 180 px by 90 px.

Now unite ellipses into a single path by pressing the Add button in the Pathfinder panel, press Expand (or simply Alt-press the Add button to unite and the Expand with one click). Change the fill color to a light blue (#AFEBF9) and the stroke to a vivid blue (#57E0FF) at 1 pt wide.

16 – Clouds: Volume

Now we’ll use a simple trick to add dimension to the cloud. Add one more fill in the Appearance panel and change it to a default white-to-black gradient. Change the gradient angle either in the Gradient panel (Command + F9) or with the Gradient Tool (G) to -90 (from top to bottom). Now go to the Transparency panel and change the fill blending mode to Overlay.

17 – Clouds: Softening

To make the cloud more cloudy, let’s soften it’s edges. With the shape selected, choose the topmost line in the Appearance panel saying Path (make sure the effect applies to the entire shape, rather than to any one particular fill) and go to Effects > Stylize > Feather, and enter 10 pt. Now the effect appears in the bottom of the Appearance panel, and you can change the settings any moment. The cloud looks much better now.

18 – Clouds: Duplicating

I’ve mentioned before in the Theoretical section that we can make copies with the Appearance panel. Let’s duplicate the cloud. Again, with the entire shape selected (topmost Path line in the Appearance panel), go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, and change the Horizontal Move to -60 pt, and Vertical Move to 30 pt. Check Preview and enter 1 for the number of copies. If you like the outcome, apply the effect.

19 – Clouds: More Copies

We could make more copies in the last step transform effect, but they would look too evenly distributed. We better apply one more effect to create more clouds.

Again, with the entire shape selected go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform (in the prompt window click Apply New Effect). This time, change the Horizontal Move to 70 pt and Vertical Move to 30 pt. Also enter 1 for copies, and reduce both the Vertical and Horizontal Scale to 90%. If you are happy with result, apply the effect.

The clouds are ready! They are nice and soft, and there are several copies, while the shape remains simple. All the effects we see are just magic tricks of the Appearance panel. Here we used two fills, one stroke, and several effects. You can save it as graphic style to apply to other shapes later – name it “clouds.”

20 – Daisy: Beginning

We’ll proceed with creating another object – let’s make a daisy. Create a circle (L) 40 px by 40 px. Fill it with a blue radial gradient going from a lighter (#00A6E0) to darker shade (#345197) of blue.

Now select the fill in the Appearance panel and go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, here enter 60% for the Vertical Scale and 145% for the Horizontal Scale. Leave the other sliders intact, but make sure to choose the middle-bottom point in the little proxy on the right to assign the point of transformation. Apply the effect and the petal is ready!

21 – Daisy: Petals

Again, with the only fill selected, go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, choose Apply New Effect. Here enter 100% for both the Vertical and Horizontal Scale, leave the middle-bottom point in the proxy, and type 45 for the angle. For the number of copies enter 7 and apply the effect. Now we have eight petals for our daisy.

22 – Daisy: More Petals

Now we’ll make another row of petals. Duplicate the only fill we have in the Appearance panel – you’ll get two of the same fills. Choose the bottom copy and double-click the top Transform effect line. We’ll edit it so that these petals are visible under top ones.

Change the Vertical Scale to 80% and Horizontal Scale to 180%, now you’ll see the bottom petals. Still, they are not positioned properly, so let’s rotate them. With the bottom fill selected, again go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, choose Apply new effect. The only parameter we need here is Angle – change it to 22,5, while the number of copies we need is 0, and transformation point we need now is central. Apply the effect and see the result.

23 – Daisy: Center

Now, add new fill using the fly-out of the Appearance panel. This way the new fill will be added with no effects, as when you copy the existing one. Apply a yellow-to-orange gradient to it.

Now again go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, you only need to move it a bit down, so change Vertical Move to -20pt and apply (enter 0 for copies and central point for proxy). Now add a subtle shadow to this fill (Effect > Stylize > Drop shadow), use orange for the color and change X and Y shift to 1 pt.

24 – Daisy: Texture

To complete the central part of the daisy, duplicate the top yellow fill and change the fill from gradient to pattern texture – I chose the Mezzotint pattern (Window > Swatches Libraries > Patterns > Basic graphics > Textures). You can try other pattern from this library – the only demand we have is we need a random texture here.

Now simply change blending mode of the texture fill to Overlay in the Transparency panel – and you’ll have nice textured surface. Just keep in mind that the pattern fills are as powerful as other items in the Appearance panel.

25 – Daisy: Finalizing

You probably noticed that the new texture fill has drop a shadow effect left from duplicating. We don’t need it here, but don’t delete it. Take the drop shadow line on the top pattern fill and drag it down to the first blue fill. This way we just moved the effect from one item to another.

Now double-click it and just change the shadow color from orange to blue. Now duplicate it by dragging it to the New button in the Appearance panel. Drag it down to the bottom blue fill. Now all the items cast a subtle shadow.

The daisy is completed! It looks like a complex group of many objects, while it consists of a single shape – all the elements are made with Appearance panel. We applied four fills, including a pattern fill, and various effects to it. Again, save the object as a graphic style to use it later (but mind the size of the objects when applying it).

26 – Ladybug: Basic Shape

It’s time for a more challenging object – we’ll make a lady-bug now. Create an ellipse (L) 120 pt by 100 pt. Please, make it this exact size, as all future modifications will be based on it.

Leave the stroke 1 pt black, and change the fill color to red (#E21B25). Select the red fill in the Appearance panel, and add some inner shadow by going to Effects > Stylize > Inner Glow. Here change the color to red, Opacity to 50%, and Blur to 12 pt.

Add a new fill in the Appearance panel and change it to a white-to-black radial gradient. Now in the Transparency panel change its blending mode to Overlay to make the lighting.

27 – Ladybug: Adding Wings

Now we need wings – or, the border between them. We need a thin black path in the middle of the ellipse. Although it seems impossible, we’ll create this with effects.

Add new fill with no effects and black for the color color on top of the stack in the Appearance panel. Now go to Effects > Convert to shape > Rectangle. Here we can turn any shape into rectangle – what we need is a very thin (2pt) and 120 pt long rectangle. We can enter absolute dimensions (120 x 2 pt), but this way later, when the ladybug is saved as a graphic style and applied to another shape, this fill may not fit the shape if it has different size.

So I suggest that you enter a relative rectangle size: 0 pt extra for width and -49 pt extra for height. Finally, apply Effects > Warp > Arc to this fill, and reduce the bend to 15%.

28 – Ladybug: Making the Head

To add the head, create a new black fill in the Appearance panel without any effects. Now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, and reduce the new fill and move it so that it looks like a head: reduce the Horizontal Scale to 40%, Vertical Scale to 45%, and enter 50 pt for the Horizontal Move. The head is ready, the only thing we need to do is drag this fill from the top of stack to its bottom in the Appearance panel.

29 – Ladybug: Creating the Legs

The more difficult part of this object is its legs – it’s rather hard to create with fills. You can add six black fills, convert them to thin rectangles, and then transform separately. But I think this approach is very long, and I offer you a more creative method. We’ll use only one additional stroke for it – although I promised to use multiple fills only, I think you’ll forgive me this exception when you see this fun technique.

Add one black stroke to the object in Appearance panel. Now in the Stroke panel (Command + F10) adjust some parameters: change the width to 20 pt, make sure the Butt Cap icon is chosen, select Align Stroke to Outside icon, and check Dashed Line. Here, assign the following order: 2 pt stroke – 56 pt gap. Voila! The dashed stroke turned to six legs. However, if you have a different size of initial ellipse, you’ll have to choose the exact gap size yourself.

30 – Ladybug: Adding Dots and Finalizing

We’ve come to the most challenging element of the ladybug – the dots. Of course, we can create them by duplicating the head, fill six times and then transforming every dot manually to position them onto it’s body. But, again, I found a more clever way of adding dots that you might like. We will need just one more stroke for it – as long as we already used one.

Add one more black stroke to the object in the Appearance panel. Now uncheck the Dashed option in the Stroke panel for a minute, leave it 20 pt wide, but choose the Align Stroke to Center icon.

Now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform, and reduce both the Horizontal and Vertical Scale to 65%. Go back to the Stroke panel, and check Dashed Line again. Here enter 1 pt for stroke and 37 pt for the gap. Finally, change the cap option to Round Cap – and the stroke turns to six nice dots! Again, this numbers work if the initial ellipse size is 120 pt by 100 pt, or you’ll have to choose the gap size manually.

The ladybug is ready – the only thing left here is to add a drop shadow to the entire object (dark red color and 50% for Opacity). It was not easy to make this object, and you can save the effects as a graphic style now. The object still remains a simple ellipse – check it in the outline mode (Command + Y). For this object, we used four fills and three strokes, and numerous effects.

31 – Rose: Beginning

Now we came to the last and most complex object in this series – the rose. Create the base for it – an ellipse 80 pt by 65 pt (please note, that all effects will be based on this size).

Make it no stroke and give it a pink radial gradient fill that goes from lighter pink (#E23770) to a darker shade (#BA0053). Now go to the Appearance panel and apply a Transform effect to make 4 copies of this petal, entering 72 for angle and choosing middle-bottom point in the proxy.

32 – Rose: Adding More Petals

Duplicate the fill by dragging it to the New icon in the Appearance panel, now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform to apply a new transformation. Enter 85% for both Horizontal and Vertical Scale to reduce the petals, and insert 30 for Angle to rotate them. Make sure the center point is chosen in the proxy and apply.

Now to add even more petals, again duplicate the top fill in the Appearance panel, click the small arrow to show the effects applied to it, and double-click the bottom Transform effect. Change the transformation settings: enter 85% for both Horizontal and Vertical Scale to reduce the petals, and insert 30 for the Angle to rotate them. Make sure the center point is chosen in the proxy and apply.

33 – Rose: Center

To create the central part of the rose, add a new fill to it through the Appearance panel flyout menu. Change the gradient to yellow-to-orange, now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform and reduce the Horizontal Scale to 50% and Vertical Scale to 60%, now change the Vertical Move to -30 pt, and apply. The fill will be scaled down and positioned in the center. Now go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Roughen, then enter 5% and Relative for Size, 10 for Detail, and Smooth for Points.

Now duplicate the top yellow fill and change the transform settings by double-clicking it in the Appearance panel. Change the Horizontal Scale to 30% and Vertical Scale to 40%, also change the direction of the colors in the gradient by dragging the yellow slider and holding Alt to the orange one, so that they change position. I’m not sure if a rose can have such a center, but in my fantasy it surely can.

34 – Rose: Creating the Stem

Add a new fill to the rose via the Appearance fly-out menu, and make it green. Now go to Effects > Convert to Shape > Rectangle, this time choose Absolute for the size at 4 pt Horizontally and 250 pt Vertically.

Now go to Transform effect and change only the Vertical Move to -200pt and apply. The last effect for the stem is Effects > Distort & Transform > Zigzag, then enter 2 pt for Size, check Absolute, enter 4 Ridges per segment, and choose Smooth Points. Lastly, drag the stem to the bottom of the stack in the Appearance panel.

35 – Rose: Making the Leaf

Let’s finish the flower with a leaf. Add a new fill to the rose, no matter where exactly. It may be on the bottom or on the top of the stack. Change it’s color to green, a little lighter shade than the stem.

Now transform it this way (of course, by going to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform). Now enter 60% for Vertical Scale, insert 30 pt for Horizontal Move, -150 pt for Vertical Move, and enter 40 for the angle. Now this fill reminds me of leaf, if your initial object size was exactly like mine.

36 – Rose: Modifying the Leaf

With the last green fill chosen, go to Effects > Warp > Flag, choose Horizontal, and enter -20% for Bend to distort the leaf. Now in order to add dimension, apply some inner shadow: go to Effects > Stylize > Inner Glow, and change Opacity to 50%. Set the color to dark green and Blur to 10 pt. You can copy this fill now to add more leaves – only with edit Transform effect applied to it (Angle, Scale, and Move).

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to easily create a successful piece of cityscape concept art. We’ll be using a very basic 3D scene as a foundation for the piece, then taking it into Photoshop for some creative photo manipulation of reference photos, basic painting and adjustments. Let’s create this urban scene!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details and Requirements

• 3D Program: Any application capable of rendering a daylight system will do. I used Maya in this tutorial.
• Lots of reference photos: This will be covered in the steps below.
• Photoshop, and an Intermediate understanding of its tools and terms.
• Graphics Tablet: Not essential, but very useful.
• Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 8-10 hours

The Brief

The brief, in my case, was to create a historical street scene from anywhere in the world before 1914. It wasn’t to be a particular street, but the concept had to serve the purpose of seeming as though it could be a real street in the time and place I chose, to have a sense of architecture and light, and overall atmosphere.

Obviously you can do anything you want for your projects, but for the sake of the tutorial let’s roll with my choice, which was Glasgow (Scotland) in 1900.

Step 1

The first thing to do is to gather lots of visual reference. Just because you’re doing Glasgow in 1900 doesn’t mean you should only be searching for photos or paintings of Glasgow in 1900.

You should be looking at the work of traditional painting masters, contemporary painters and concept artists, photographers, sculptors, arch-vis studios, etc. This will get you thinking about color, composition, lighting, and so on. All of this can be found online, in books, television, newspapers & magazines, and generally just about anywhere. If something inspires you, retain it somehow! I could sit here boring you with lists of incredible work you should look at, but that would take up a whole article in itself…

I can’t emphasize enough how important reference material is, because without it, you’re working blindly. And more often than not, the work you make up in your head will be ten times weaker than work produced with well used reference. Just about any successful concept artist will tell you this.

Another great way to gather visual reference, is of course to capture it yourself! Below for example, are a couple of photographs from a batch I took in London.

Step 2

Beyond the general inspirational type of reference, it’s a good idea to gather the more practical and useful type of reference material. By this, I mean actually photos of Glasgow in 1900 we can use to help build our scene in the later stages.

In my case, I found an incredible resource through the AMICA Library, which is a free service for searching all sorts of arts from all sorts of periods, but you have to pay a premium to access the full resolution images.

Here, you’ll see that I came across images from a fantastic book by photographer Thomas Annan called "The Old Streets and Closes of Glasgow," from 1900. It is these images precisely that we’ll eventually cut up and manipulate in order to add texture to our scene. You can find the images <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yha9eg9" title="Linkification: http://tinyurl.com/yha9eg9” target=”_blank”>here.

Step 3

Once you have all your reference images and are roughly sure what sort of image you’d like to create, it’s a good idea to do lots of thumbnail sketches. You can use a pencil or paint directly into Photoshop. These thumbnails were painted using some of Photoshop’s default brushes set to pen opacity, but I’ll go into brushes a little later on.

For this you should work quite small, and spend the smallest amount of time on each one. Speed is key! If I can remember correctly, these were drawn in between 30 seconds and two minutes. This way you really have to figure out the composition and main idea of the image rather than getting caught up in the details.

Don’t be scared to do this step. I’m not a great painter, but you can see in some of the thumbnails below that they are simple yet complex enough to convey the idea for a scene.

Step 4

Now we’ll actually start working on our final piece. Open up Maya (or the program of your choice), then create a polygon Plane. Make it quite large, so it can act as our floor.

Step 5

Next, create a cube on top of your plane, this will be the template for our other buildings.

Once it’s created, press the Insert key. This will turn your manipulator into a slightly different icon, and will allow you to move just the pivot point of your object. In a side view, move the pivot point to the bottom of your cube (you can change viewports by pressing the spacebar whilst hovering the mouse over a viewport to maximize it or zoom out to 4-panel view). This will mean when you scale it, that it won’t really scale below the floor, but instead it will grow outwards from the bottom.

Once that’s done, press the Insert key again to get out of pivot point edit mode.

Step 6

Once you have your basic cube setup, you’ll need to start placing duplicates around the scene to create the street.

To do this, select the cube and press Command + D to duplicate it, the W key to move it, and the R key to scale it. Do this enough times until you have something like the image below.

Don’t try and align things perfectly, the charm of these kinds of streets is the chaotic asymmetry and variation.

Step 7

Now that we have a basic street setup, we’ll create a simple daylight system. Open up the render settings and under the Render Using drop-down, choose Mental Ray. Then, under the Quality tab, choose the Quality Preset called "Preview: Final Gather."

Step 8

Still in the Render Settings window, go to the Indirect Lighting tab, and next to Physical Sun and Sky, press the Create button.

Step 9

The daylight system actually created a Directional light to act as the sun. This light may be hard to find by eye, so go to Window > Outliner. In there, you can see a list of all the elements in your scene. Scroll down until you see something called “sunDirection,” then use the move and scale tools to place it somewhere a little easier to see and manipulate.

Note that these types of lights don’t change according to their size or position, only the rotation will affect the appearance of light.

So, to manipulate the light, press the number 7 on your keyboard, which activates the light preview mode in your viewport, and rotate the sun light until you are happy with it. Don’t be scared to experiment with this and produce a few test renders. I wanted my sky to be coming almost against the camera, so I positioned it similar to what you can see below.

Step 10

We’re going to make our camera slightly more interesting by giving it a wide-angle view. In your viewport, click on View > Select Camera.

If your Attribute Editor isn’t already up, press Command + A. Then, under Camera Attributes, type 18 in the Focal Length parameter.

Step 11

When you’re happy with your angle, go to the Render Settings once again, and under the Common tab you can change the size of your render output. In my case, I was working with A4 size, so I put those dimensions in, but feel free to choose your own.

Then under the Render menu, press Render Current Frame. You should end up with something similar to the image below!

In the Render View, press File > Save Image. Save it as a nice, high-quality Targa file.

Then, create a new Photoshop document (again, A4 size in my case) and paste your rendered image in it.

Step 12

This is where it gets fun!

Start by opening up your reference photos, and thinking about which pieces of the photos can go where. You can then start by using the Polygonal Lasso tool to make selections around rectangular patches of your reference images that vaguely resemble the angle at which you want to paste them over your render. Once a selection is made, Command + C to copy and Command + V to paste on your document with the rendered image.

At this point, don’t worry too much about scaling up small reference images, it will hardly be noticeable in your final result. Once you have a patch of buildings pasted in to your scene, press Command + T to Free Transform, and use Command+click & drag on the corners of your sample images to manipulate their perspective roughly into place. Set the blending mode to Overlay, Multiply or whatever else works best. You can also play around with opacity.

Again, don’t feel the need to be very precise. It doesn’t matter all that much if some of the perspective appears to be wrong, it’s a very loose concept, and the images are only there to establish an idea of architecture and surface texture. These mistakes will be covered up in the later stages anyhow.

One thing you should be very cautious about is scale! Try and picture a human standing in the street (paste one in, if it helps!) and work out if there is anything too unrealistic compared to the person in scale.

This is a very organic process, I can’t tell you exactly where to paste each image, but I hope you get the idea of the process!

Step 13

The next step is where a graphics tablet really comes in handy. That’s because we’ll be doing some actual painting! The custom brushes I use 99% of the time are the "MyBroosh" and "Oil Pastel Large 3," which are included in the free brush pack kindly provided by artist Daarken on his website. You can find the brushes in his fantastic Tutorials section.

Step 14

Don’t be put off if you haven’t had any previous digital painting experience. We’re not painting a whole scene, but rather just adding bits of detail and tone to blend the photo elements together.

Make sure you work in new layers when doing things like painting, so that you can always delete all your brush strokes without damaging the material underneath.

As you can see below, you just need to add random tone and detail all over your scene, without being too precise. Just remember to consider the light source, so that you add highlights and shadows in the right places. On the second image below, you can see just the painting layer pasted over red, so that you can see the black and white strokes. I hope you can see just how messy you can be with this!

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial, we’ll create a textured site layout by layering multiple images. Creating highly-textured web design layouts is easier than you may think. You can learn to build image intensive designs rapidly. For intermediate Photoshop designers creating this design will take less than an hour, and you’ll learn some professional tips along the way. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 60 minutes

Take a look at the site design we’ll be creating below.

Materials Needed

• Download grunge texture
• Download wood seamless texture
• Flower stock image (included in the Psd Plus source files)
• Leaf stock image: (included in the Psd Plus source files)

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

In this tutorial we’ll use some stock images to create a highly-textured web layout. Let’s start by creating a new document with the following size: 1000 pixels by 1000 pixels.

Step 2

Now go ahead and download the seamless wood texture from Grafplus.com. Here you can find the download link: Download wood seamless texture. Open the “texture-small.jpg” in Photoshop and then go to Edit > Define pattern. Choose a name for your pattern and click OK. You can now close the image with the wood texture.

Step 3

Select the “background” layer and press on Command + J. This shortcut will duplicate the “background” layer. Select this new layer and from the top menu select Layer > Layer Style > Pattern Overlay… Use the pattern you created a few seconds ago.

Step 4

Use the Rectangle Tool to create some vertical bars with different colors/

Step 5

Select all these shapes in the layer palette by holding down the Command key and with your mouse click on each layer). In this way you will select all the shapes.

Step 6

When you have all shapes selected press on Command + E (this shortcut will merge all the layers into a single one). Change the blending mode to Color Dodge, and the Opacity value to between 40% and 50%.

Step 7

Now it is time to add another great stock image. Visit grafplus one more time and download the following image: grunge texture. Place this image in your document at the top. Go to File > Place, and select this nice grunge texture.

Step 8

Be sure you have this layer selected and then apply a simple drop shadow. Layer > Layer styles > Drop Shadow.

Step 9

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection as shown.

Step 10

Be sure you have the layer with the grunge texture selected, and then press Command + J (this shortcut will create a new layer via cut). Select the new layer and rotate the layer 180 Degrees (Edit > Transform > Rotate 180. Place this new layer on top of the layout with the Move tool. Go ahead and add your logo now as well. For this tutorial I’m using the text: “PSDtuts+.”

Step 11

Change the blending mode for the text logo to Color Burn.

Step 12

Use the same technique to cut some buttons and a footer. Here you can see the result.

Step 13

If you want to create a distinct button with another color you have to select the layer with the button you want to make it unique, and then press Command + U to bring up the Hue/ Saturation settings. Check the Colorize checkbox, and move the sliders to the right or left until you’re happy with the result.

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!

Tutorial Details

Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

• Program: Photoshop CS3
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating.

Organizing the Stock Images

The final photo manipulation in the tutorial was created using the following stock-images:

• Ocean Sunset, by flordelys-stock
• Sky by causticstock
• Hamster in Bowl by linepotter-stock
• Shark by krayker
• Flag by dollieflesh-stock
• Pirate Hat by Mizzd-Stock

Step 1

I won’t insist on the easy parts because this is pretty obvious. First, open the two pictures that are going to form our next background and flip them horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontally) and just place them like I did in the image. It’s not necessary to mask anything because the pictures fit just perfect one to the other.

Step 2

Now let’s give this background a dynamic sensation with the Warp Tool (Edit > Transform > Warp).

Step 3

Since the warp tool gives the image a flat look, we need to do some waves so go to Liquify (Filter > Liquify). Use the picture below as a reference for how the waves should look after manipulation with Liquify.

Step 4

Cut out the funny hamster with the Pen Tool and place them in the middle of the ocean.

Step 5

Go to Edit/Color Range and click on the lightest color in the image (the highlight on the glass). Arrange the fuzziness value like in the image below.

Step 6

Click OK on the Color Range dialog box and you will see the selection active. Then make sure you are on the glass layer and click Command + J to create a copy of the highlights from the glass. If you hide the glass layer your selection should look something as in the image below.

Step 7

Hit Command + D to make sure there is nothing selected, and then go on the glass layer and make a duplicate (Command + J) and lower the opacity of the copy layer to around 60% like in the image below. You will see the highlights are now sharp and white like on real glass not transparent and gray.

Step 8

Now we must bring the mouse back. You could use the Pen Tool and cut him out, but there is a faster way and the result is just as good. Bring the original glass layer in front of the highlights layer and glass copy layer. Make a mask and paint with black, leaving the mouse with white. Make sure you don’t go near the mouse with a soft edge brush.

Step 9

Select the three layers (”original glass,” “glass copy,” and “glass highlights”) and hit Command + E to merge the three layers. Then create a mask and mask the lower part of the glass so it looks like it’s underwater. If you are not very satisfied with the result, you can use a low opacity brush and mask some areas on the glass that you think should be more transparent.

Step 10

Add the flag. You will have to change the highlights on the flag pole. Select them like in the image below, hit Command + J and move the highlights to the left of the pole and then paint with a brown color (use the eyedropper on the pole) on the original highlights.

Step 11

Using the brush with a black color, make a shadow like in the image below and lower the opacity to 45%.

Step 12

Cut the pirate hat and arrange the size to fit on the head of the hamster (1). Then on a new layer just under the hat layer, paint some shadow on the head of the hamster using a soft edge and low opacity black brush (2). Then on a new layer in front of the hat layer paint some shadow on the hat, again using a low opacity and soft edge brush (3).

Step 13

In this step we will add the shark to make this image more funny. Cut out the shark’s fin and place it under the “hamster” layer. Cover it on the mask and paint a shadow with black on another layer. Set its opacity to 30-40%.

Step 14

Next cut out the sea behind the ball and place it like I did in the image. This is how the water is seen through a round glass like the ball

Step 15

Now let’s give this image a cool look with some filters and adjustment layers. First go to Adjustment Layers > Curves (Input 91 Output 41), then Erase the middle of the mask.

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In this tutorial we are going to create 3D text and integrate it in a natural environment. We will not use any 3D programs, so all you need is Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create this effect.

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Programs: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Step 1

We are going to open up Adobe Illustrator, (using CMYK as your color settings) to start creating our 3D text.

Type out the word “Escape”, (I am using the font Impact) and change the color to blue (#1A98BB). This color will be easier to work with, and it will roughly be the color we will be using in our final outcome.

Step 2

Typically, we would use the Extrude & Bevel Tool to create a 3D version of our text, but since Illustrator can’t really handle what we want to do, we are going to create it ourselves. (Shown below is what we would get if we used the Bevel & Extrude tool)

Click on your text, and go to Type > Create Outlines. Now copy the text with Command + C and Paste In Place with Command + F. Darken the text using the black slider in your Color window.

Now we are going to shrink the text down and keep it in the same spot at the same time. To do this we are going to click on our dark text and hold down Alt and Shift, then bring one of the corners of the box in.

Step 3

Highlight all of the letters, open up your Pathfinder (Shift + F9). In the Window drop down menu, (if you don’t already have it open) and click the Add to Shape Area icon. Click Expand. This will make the two "Escape" words into one shape.

Step 4

Click on the Pen Tool (P) and where there were corners and now "L" shaped areas, click on the corner anchor to delete it.

Step 5

After you get rid of all the "L" areas you can do Command + F, this should bring back your original text. Once you do that, you may notice that some of the rounded edges don’t look right. To fix these rounded edges, you can delete the original text we just pasted, click on the Pen Tool (P) and delete the points on the curve until you get an angle that looks right.

Step 6

Now we are ready to bring our text into Photoshop. Create a new document (Command + N). We are going to treat this as a cover design, so we are going to change our settings to 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall and the color setting of CMYK. We will change our resolution to 300 dpi, so it will be print quality. Once we open our document we want to Click and Drag guides a half-inch from each edge (using our ruler—Command + R). This will work as our bleed.

Step 7

Go to stock.xchng to get the image we are going to use for our background. Open up the image in Photoshop, we are going to adjust it a little to suit our purposes.

Step 8

Go to Image > Adjustment > Replace Color. Click on the part of the grass area that is the most yellow and use the Hue to adjust it so it has more of a green look. You can also drop down the Saturation to give it more of a realistic look.

Step 9

Drag our photo into the Photoshop document we made, and resize the photo to fit in the area with the Transform Tool (Command + T).

Step 10

For the background, we are going for a more desaturated look, so we are going to open up our Hue/Saturation with Command + U and drop down the saturation to -20.

Step 11

Now we can bring in our text. We are going to bring in the face of the text first, and then the 3D part, so that we can work with each one individually. So Copy and Paste (Command + C, Command + V) each one into our Photoshop document. If you don’t resize the text or zoom in/zoom out of the document at all, both of the text layers should line up perfectly.

Step 12

Now that you have the text and background image in place where you want them, we can start adding in the grass.

Let’s start off by creating a new folder (clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette), we’ll call it "grass", then create a new layer within the folder.

Using the Square Marquee Tool (M), Click and Drag a box around the bottom half of the document, below the photo (make sure there is no white gap in between the photo and the box) so that the photo isn’t selected. Now click on the foreground color and click on the grass in the photo until you find a dark green. Fill the Marquee box we made with that color.

Step 13

Click on the Brush Tool (B) and change the brush to the generic one-blade grass brush that comes with Photoshop. Now click on the Foreground color and then click on the grass on the background photo. Do the same with the Background-color. This should give you two different but similar greens.

Using F5, open up the brush settings and adjust the Hue Jitter, in the Color Dynamics tab to 20%.

Step 14

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder, and start painting from where the background photo ends with a 125px brush. As you move towards the bottom of the document make the brush larger ( ] ), so you end up with about a 200px brush when you get to the bottom. This should be quick so that it leaves holes for the future layers to cover up.

We are going to make this color a little bit darker because this will be under another layer. So go in to the Curves (Command + M) and adjust the Input to 47 and the Output to 55.

Step 15

We are going to repeat step 14, except this time we are going to fill in most of the rest of the holes that we missed the first time around. We don’t need to adjust the Curves on this grass layer.

Step 16

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder. Now to add some highlights to the grass we are going to use our grass Brush (B) with the same color and paint in just a few areas. Go into the Curves again (Command + M) and adjust the input to 58 and the output to 39.

Step 17

We are going to create a new layer (Command + Shift + N), above the lettering, so we can paint on some grass so it looks like it is going in front of the letters.

After you paint the grass in front of the letters create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) and do a light pass of grass, we are going to darken this layer with the Curves (Command + M), adjust the input to 42 and the output to 56.

Step 18

Now that we have our grass finished, we are going to start working on our lettering.

Create a new folder called "text face" and a new folder called "text shadow" put the text face and the text shadow in the corresponding folders.

Now we are going to Command + Click on the text face layer to create a marquee outline around it, create a new layer in the "text face" folder with Command + Shift + N and fill it (Command + Delete) with #EDE6DA.

“Watercolor in graphic design has become very trendy the last couple of years, many websites and incredible designers are using this style and taking it to another level. Even knowing the technique is important in this kind of design, is more about creativity and experimentation. You will learn how to use the Art History Brush and combine it with watercolor custom brushes to create a nice background header image and more. Let’s get it started!”Alvaro Guzman

Here is a link to the written version of the tutorial Create a Watercolor-Themed Website Design with Photoshop and the video version is below.

Watercolor in graphic design has become very trendy the last couple of years, many websites and incredible designers are using this style and taking it to another level. Even knowing the technique is important in this kind of design, is more about creativity and experimentation. You will learn how to use the Art History Brush and combine it with watercolor custom brushes to create a nice background header image and more. Let’s get it started!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 4 hours

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Before Getting Started

This tutorial should not be followed as a step by step guide, many of the steps are descriptions of the creative process involved on the making of this particular design style. Even though this isn’t a basic tutorial, it can be easily followed by any level of Photoshop user, but I’ll skip the explanation of very basic instructions like adding a Guide or creating a Layer mask.

As a full time web designer I have experience dealing with clients which need a design finished in a matter of days or even hours, and when you’re running out of time every minute is precious gold, so I’ll try to give you some time saving tips that will come in handy later.

Not all designers knows CSS, if you’re one of them you must know from the very beginning that you’re designing something that will be sliced and put into pieces; repeating backgrounds, text layers, and large image backgrounds must be perfectly placed into the design to avoid undesired changes.

Imagine What You Want to Achieve

It’s a good practice to start with a sketch or a wireframe in order to have an idea of where to put the elements in the canvas. Here is my rough draft:

For this design I’ll go for a fixed width and center aligned elements. Let’s start designing!

Step 1 – Setting Up the Template

We will download a PSD template from 960 Grid System, open the 12 columns template. This isn’t mandatory, you can start creating a 960px width document and draw some guides on it, but downloading the template will save a couple of minutes. Open it and Save it with any name you want.

You’ll need to expand the image’s width in order to see how your design looks on wider resolutions, for this go to Image > Canvas size and set the width value to 1420 pixels, from the center to the sides. I’m putting all the template’s built-in layers into a folder named "Template."

Step 2 – Main Repeating Background

Find a good paper texture, I’m using this one. This image will repeat all across the page background but it needs some previous editing. Select a square from the paper texture using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, Copy the area and paste it into a new document (You can chose Clipboard from the Preset dropdown). Then, go to Filter > Other > Offset and there change the Horizontal and Vertical values in order to put the borders’ offset close to the center. Next using the Clone Tool fix the hard lines in the middle. Once you have finished the cloning, Select All (Command + A) and copy the edited image on the clipboard.

Step 3 – Set up the Repeating Background

Paste the piece of paper and paste it into the main document. Using the Free Transform Controls paste the right side of the image over the middle Guide and the left side over the first Guide from the left and the Top border matching the top of the document.

Once you’ve perfectly place the first piece of paper, duplicate it and place it to the right, this way you’ll be covering the actual 960px area. Then duplicate the Paper pieces twice to the left and right of the 960px bounds in order to cover the entire canvas surface, then grab the 4 paper layers and duplicate them vertically and place them below the existing ones, do it as many times as needed until you cover all the canvas. Finally put all the Paper layers into a folder named "Background Texture," and if you want it for easier manipulation duplicate it and Merge the Group then hide the original folder.

Step 4 – Header Background

Now let’s add the header’s background, for this I’m using this image of a mountain landscape. Using the Marquee Tool select a wide portion of the image and paste it into the main document and name the layer something like "Landscape."

Now we will give this picture a fake HDR style, that will make it look more like a painting than a photography. Duplicate it and hit Command + I to invert the colors, set the Saturation to -100 in the Hue/Saturation panel (Command + U) and then change its Blending Mode to Overlay. Finally Select both layers "Landscape" and "Landscape copy" into one.

Step 5 – Using the Art History Brush

Now we will use the Art History Brush to make our picture look like a painting, select the Art History Brush by Clicking and holding over the History Brush Tool (Y) in the Tools Panel. To make this wonderful feature work, you will need to create a Snapshot first to work with, for this go to Window > History to show the History Panel, and click over the New Snapshot button at the bottom. Then in the Options Panel, chose any irregular Brush Tip (I’m using a 36px Chalk tip) set Mode to Normal, Opacity to 25% Style Tight Short, Area 25px and Tolerance 0%. Then paint over the "Landscape" layer, you will see how the image turns into a painting fairly easily.

After that, you just need to change the Opacity, Area and Brush Tip values according your needs, e.g. I’m using a larger Brush Tip and increasing its area to paint over the borders.

Step 6 – Watercolor Layer Mask

Create a Layer Mask > Reveal All to the "Landscape" layer, now we will try to merge the image better with the repeating background using some watercolor Brushes. I’m using this Watercolor brushes set by mcbadshoes. Keep this brush set handy since we will use it during the entire process.

Grab any of the brushes, set the foreground color to Black and paint some marks directly over the Layer Mask, which is important. These brushes have different opacities so you can play with them; in case you’re using another brush set, you must change the Brush Opacity and Flow values every time you paint a mark. The idea of this step is to melt down the image’s borders with the paper background, try to place your watercolor marks all across the border with some spots inside the image.

It doesn’t matter if the landscape is out of the template Guides, you can slice the header as a large background image when coding.

Step 7 – Add a Top Gradient

Just to make the coding a little bit more difficult (just kidding) we will add a vertical Gradient Fill Layer (#96AFCE – #FFFFFF) and set its Blend Mode to Linear Burn.

Step 8 – Content Background

Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set the Corner Radius to 15px in the Options panel and draw a rectangle from the second Guide from the left to the penultimate Guide at the Right side. I often use those guides just in case I need to add a drop shadow or some other effect to the background later. In this case we will leave the Rounded Rectangle as is, just changing its Fill value to 35% and adding a 1px Inside Stroke style. Changing the Fill Opacity makes the Layer Effects retain plenty of color so the stroke look really good and you can still allow some watercolor background through the fill. You can name this layer "Content Bg."

It’s important to set every stroke effect Inside the object, adding a stroke outside will increase the element’s dimension and we don’t want that.

Step 9 – Think Like a Coder

Even our translucent background looks pretty good, coding it will be a little bit hard, yet not impossible. It’s easier to code a plain color background than a transparent one, so duplicate the Rounded Rectangle and place the copy above it. Set the Fill to 100% again and hide the Stroke Style. Now add Layer Mask > Hide All to it and fill it with a Linear Black to White gradient in order to hide the top of the new Rounded Rectangle. You can help yourself with a couple of extra Horizontal Guides.

How does it work? This content must be vertically scrollable, so the repeating white background should be easy to expand to the bottom; let’s try it!. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and select the bottom points of the Vector Rectangle, then using the Cursors move the points a few pixels down, it should work fine.

Step 10 – Pages Navigation

Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, add a blue (#3F5060) rectangle at the top of the design, set its Fill value to 50% and add a 1px blue (#3F5060) Stroke layer style to it. Using the Type Tool, type the pages over the navigation background layer, I’m using "Futura Std" typeface this time, but feel free to change it.

Next, paint a small white watercolor mark behind the text as a hover effect and change the selected word’s color into dark blue (#223A54).

Step 11 – Melting Backgrounds

Next rasterize the "Content Bg" layer or convert it into a Smart Object, add a Layer Mask > Reveal All to it and using a black, soft Brush paint some spots over the Layer Mask. This process will melt down the "Content Bg" with the Watercolor landscape giving the design a polished look.

Step 12 – Page Title

Let’s add the Page Title. I’m using the "Futura Std" Typeface. I’m using these colors for the type: #F2F6FC and #E1EDFF. Now for the background, paint a single blue (#112C37) watercolor mark into a layer below the logo layers and change its Blend Mode to Soft Light. It’s a good idea to organize our layers into folders, so we will put all the involved layers into a folder named "Logo."

Step 13 – More Watercolor Marks

In order to increase the visual impact of the background, add more watercolor marks using several colors, place them all across the top border just above the "Landscape" layer. Then change its Blending Mode to Overlay. Finally add a big sky blue (#51D3D3) watercolor mark into a new layer just above "Landscape" and below "Content B.g" Then change its Blend Mode to Overlay as well.

Step 14 – How About Adding an Actual Paintbrush?

Using real life objects in web design is very trendy, we will add an actual paint brush image to our design. Open this picture extract a part of the paint brush and paste it into the main design across the header with its tip close to the watercolor mark created in the previous step. You can use a Layer Mask and a little, soft, black brush to feather the brush tip.

Continue Learning…