The Reader Tutorial series is a place inside Abduzeedo where the main idea is to let our readers contribute to the site, share their experiences and talent! So feel free to get in touch with us if you have a tut you would like to see here. :)

So check out Máté Tóth's tutorial

In this very easy tutorial we will create a really cool skater poster in our favorite image editor program, Photoshop. My aim with this tutorial is to show you how to find and use awesome free stuff around the net. It's an ideal tutorial for Photoshop newbies. We'll use tons of layers, blending modes, textures and a lot of useful stuff. Check it out!

Sites you'll need:

Free brushes:
Brusheezy - http://www.brusheezy.com/
Brushking - http://www.brushking.eu/

Free textures:
Texture Lovers- http://www.texturelovers.com/

Free stock photos:
Stock xchng- http://www.sxc.hu/

All in one:
deviantART- http://www.deviantart.com/
Bittbox- http://www.bittbox.com/

Ok, if you bookmarked these extremely useful pages, let's start working on the poster...

This will be our final result!

Step 1

First create a new document, with white background. The size should be around 700x1000px.

Step 2

Let's create a stylish background! The main element of it will be a victorian grunge texture. Click here to download it. Extraxt it and open 01.jpeg with photoshop. It's much bigger than our canvas, so resize it. Create a new folder called "background". Create a new layer in that folder and paste the texture. Name the texture "victorian".

Step 3

Now you'll need a grunge texture pack. I downloaded this. Extract your package and open one. (open 03.jpeg if you use the same pack as I do) Resize it and paste into a new layer called "grunge". Set it's bland mode to Multiply. Don't be scared, it should disappear. Now select "victorian" layer and go to Layer> Layer mask> Reveal all. Select the Gradient tool (G) and select Linear gradient. Make the gradient from the bottom of the canvas to it's top. If you want a perfect line, hold down the Shift key.

Step 4

Looks cool, isn't it? And we only used 2 textures so far! Let's make it even better! Download a Rising sun brush pack. Head to brusheezy.com to do that. Here is the link for the brushes. Load it, choose the color #bfb385 pick one of the brushes, and paint it on a new layer called "rising". Go to Layer> Layer mask> Reveal all and do the same mask as we did in Step 3. (Linear gradient from the bottom to the top with white foreground and black background color) Set the layer's blending mode to Soft light.

Step 5

Now we need some nice clouds. Head to brusheezy.com again, and search for cloud brushes. I used this pack. Believe me, it's a pack that every designer must have. Create a new layer in the background folder. Name it "clouds". Select one of the cloud brushes and paint it to the new layer. I suggest you pushing the mouse button twice to make it look stronger. That's it, we have a really stylish grungy background.

Step 6

Here comes the most important step: finding our skater. I found a really cool photo on deviantART by Grape-Stock. Here is the link to it. Grab the Pen tool (P) and put anchor points all over the skater's outline. Don't forget to zoom in to make a nice selection. If you're ready, pick the Path selection tool (A), right-click on your path and select Make selection. If you feel like your path isn't perfect, set 1px for Feather radious. Now you're skater is selected, press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse the selection, this way you'll select everything but the skater. If you don't like using hot keys, go to Select> Inverse to do this. You have to use this technique to delete the background between the skater's legs.

Step 7

Now create a new layer called "skater" above the "background" folder and paste your skater. Place it somewhere around the clouds. If the skater's edges are wrong somewhere, grab a smooth eraser to correct it. Now we have to edit the colors of the skater. Go to Image> Adjustments> Hue/saturation and set the saturation to -50. If you use an other picture, you may need to set it to something else. Now go to Image> Adjustments> Brightness/contrast and set the contrast to 100.

Step 8

OK it looks pretty cool so far. Now we'll add the text to the top. Create a new folder called "text bg.". It have to be placed between the "skater" and the "background" folder. Now we need a lot of paper textures. I got some from DA. Check out this, this and this. You only have to search for "paper texture" on DA or head over to texturelovers.com. It's a brand new site with tons of textures. So open some paper textures with PS and cut out little pieces from them. Then paste the pieces into the "text bg." folder. Don't forget to name the layers. The name should the letter you'll place on it. So if your text will be skate or die, name them s, k, a, t, e and so on. Try to use different paper textures, or always paste different parts of one texture. Move and resize the pieces with the Free transform (Ctrl+T). If you don't like the color of the tone of a paper, go to Image> Adjustments> Color/saturation and set the amounts. To make the paper more realistic, make tears with a default eraser shape shown on the picture below.

Step 9

Wow, it was quite long time to make that. Now it's an easier step. Create a new folder called "text" above "text bg.". We'll put our letters in this folder. Go to dafont.com. This site is one of the best source of free fonts. On the top of the page you can see categories. Choose Fancy> Distorted and download some of them. I suggest you trying this, this, this and this. Now put your letters to your background. try to use as many different fonts as you can. Resize and move them with Free transform (Ctrl+T).

Step 10

Give the text more style. Create a new folder between "text bg." and "text", nad name it text effects. Download webdesignerdepot.com's awesome brush freebie here. It will perfectly fit our design. Pick the color of your fonts and create a new layer in "text effects". Paint with your new brushes behind the letters.

Step 11

Here come the final touches. The next steps depend on you. Go back to brusheezy.com and download some grungy, splatter, punk brushes. It's your choice. In the tutorial I'm using this, this and the previously downloaded pack from webdesignerdepot.com.Paint something behind the skater, that should look cool. Remember to create it on a new layer, placed behind the skater. An other thing you can try is to make a copy of the "skater" layer, place it behund the original one, set it totally black, and apply Gaussian blur on it with 10px of Radius.

Conclusion

I think it was an extremely easy tutorial, so it's an ideal tut for beginners to get to know with layers, blending modes and textures. Here's our very own stylish skater poster:

Wanna make it sick?

Head over to sxc.hu and search for dog photos. use the techniques you learned in this tutorial to select the og's head and replace it with your skater's head.

About the author

My nam is Máté Tóth, a freelancer grahic and web-designer living in Pécs, Hungary. I couldn't live without Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Don't forget to follow me on twitter @MateToth90.

Edited by GisMullr