Cutout Paper Style - Photoshop Tutorials

It is been quite a long time since the last time I posted a tutorial. I haven't for some reason stopped. I used to do this every week, it was part of my routine but little by little I stopped doing. I remember never having too much of a hard time to come up with something but without using it, I definitely lost it. Now I am trying to create a routine again and write a few tutorials per month. Nothing fancy, just things I'd like to try and for this first one, I decided to try a little sort of cutout effect using Photoshop.

Take 10: Impulsive by Erik Johansson

When you’re open to possibility, a challenge is always good—you learn something whether you succeed or fail. That was Erik Johansson’s perspective when we asked him to tackle a new challenge we’re calling “Take 10”: We give an artist one word and 10 digital images, and he or she must combine them into a new piece that represents the word. Johansson’s word was impulsive, and we think his response to the challenge was a success.

Beautiful Backgrounds

The best way, and probably the only way to learn is by practicing. As my dad always said, nobody was born knowing how to do things, there's always the need to practice, learn from mistakes and evolve. Iryna Korshak gives a great example with a set of beautiful backgrounds she put together while practicing her texture skills in Photoshop.

Boxes

Peter Tarka is a designer and illustrator from Warsaw, Poland. He has been featured in several digital publications, even listed at the Photoshop’s 25 Under 25. His talented is visible especially on projects like the Boxes, in which he mixes 3D, Photoshop and abstracted ideas to create quite inspiring artworks. For more information about Peter check out his Behance profile at https://www.behance.net/trk

ABDZ 07 Playing with Shades - Photoshop Tutorial

Back to my image a week after a short vacation, much needed. I have also been spending my time with the new Abduzeedo which is looking much sleeker and soon will be going live. This week I decided to recreate an effect I saw a couple of weeks ago and I saved the screenshot because I thought it would be awesome to know how to do it. After a few tries I think I got a good result, at least worth sharing with you guys. Step 1 Starting with the simple path of the Abduzeedo logo in Illustrator.

ABDZ 06 Strokes and Paths - Photoshop Tutorial

Week 6 and here we go again. This morning while I was looking for some references or inspiration on what to do I saw a post on Instagram from the Street League, it's the league of street skateboarders. I loved the logo and decided to try to create something with the same style in Illustrator to learn how to do that. After that I just went to Photoshop to add some flare. Below you can see the behind the scenes on how I achieved this effect. Step 1 I started in Illustrator with 3 circles with 1pt for the stroke.

Playing with Fire - Photoshop Tutorials

Week five and another image is done. This time I went back in time and attempted a recreation of those crazy light effects I used to do in Photoshop back in 2006-2009. The main reason I wanted to do this was that I found out that with the new version of Photoshop we can now apply multiple layer styles, like multiple gradients, shadows, and inner shadows. That is something I always wanted to have and it's finally here. It saves so much time and also adds so much more power to one of my favorite features in Photoshop.

Windows 10 Wallpaper - Photoshop Tutorial

Another week and another image to be done and of course another Photoshop tutorial. The most difficult part is finding the inspiration point, this time, however, I knew exactly what my mission would be. This week's image is my attempt at recreating the beautiful Windows 10 wallpaper created by GMUNK. In no way or form am I trying to take credit that this is my design, I just wanted to see if it was possible to create something similar just in Photoshop. The result you can see after the break. I am very happy with the outcome and I will share a little step-by-step on how I did it.

More Lines - Illustrator and Photoshop Tutorials

Let's go again. Third week and third image. I am taking my Sunday night to try to come up with something. I had forgotten how hard it is to start a new image from scratch. I must start paying more attention to movies and books so I can have more inspiration. For this week I tried to recreate a really cool shape I saw on Pinterest sometime ago that was about some hipster badges. I thought it was a great exercise and way to lose myself a bit more. I hope you enjoy it. Step 1 I started in Illustrator. With the Star Tool create a 4 sides star.

ABDZ 002: Playing with Strokes Illustrator Tutorial

The second week of my little project of trying to create an image per week. This time I got inspired by simple vector illustrations I saw that had lines creating the logo. I've done something like this in the past but never with the style that I played with this week, completely out of my comfort zone. Below you can see the little step by step of this image done in Illustrator and Photoshop. Step 1 I started with the Abduzeedo logo in a simple line.

ABDZ 001 - Illustrator and Photoshop Tutorial

In the past year, I stopped writing tutorials and the main reason was that I thought they weren't relevant anymore given the copious amount of great websites out there. Also, I believe the audience of the blog has already matured and focused more on other areas of the design process such as ideations and the process itself. The tools, as I always tried to emphasize, is the least important part of the process, but it's important to have command of them. As a good craftsman, knowing the best tool for each trade will save you a lot of time.

Flowerful Portraits by Marcelo Monreal

Marcelo Monreal is an artist from Santa Catarina, Brazil who created a completely new style of portrait where he manipulates the faces and fill them out with flowers. The result is totally incredible, check them out! For more from Marcelo Monreal visit facebook.com/marcelomonrealartist and https://instagram.com/marcelomonreal.

Adobe Cannes Lions

Adam Spizak never ceases to impress us with his incredible and inspiring work. Today we share the illustration he created for Adobe Cannes Lions to celebrate Photoshop's 25th anniversary. As usual the composition is full of details mixing light effects, 3D and a lot of style.

80s Artwork Photoshop Tutorial

This weekend I took 30 minutes of my time to watch Kung Fury. What a masterpiece! It's a true homage to the 80s actions movies full of the cliche styles that made that era the most creative and visually rich in my opinion. After watching the movie I had to go back and dust off my Photoshop skills to create something inspired by that. The movie is full of references and of course the computer glowing grid effect which happened to inspire this tutorial.

Astro Metal Front

As a fan of sci-fi and the space subject it is always awesome to see other designers sharing the same love. For this post I would like to feature the work created by Flavio Montiel using Cinema 4D and Photoshop. The project is titled Astro Metal Front and as you can see it's beautiful. For more information about Flavio Montiel check out http://www.flaviomontiel.com

Illustrator vs Photoshop

Indian designer M.A. Kather created a project about the differences in illustrator and Photoshop explained in minimalistic visual design. What's your favorite? For more from M.A. Kather visit behance.net/kather_bfa.

Playing with Lines Photoshop Tutorial

The last tutorial I wrote was back in January; it's been quite a long time and boy I missed it. I have been trying to organize myself to start playing more with not only Photoshop and Illustrator but also Sketch and other tools so I can share some new things with you. It's always a challenge due to my day to day job, but it makes me feel so good when I finish something that went from my head to the final design in a concise period. Quite refreshing.

Insects

We have been posting a lot about UI, UX and mobile design if you noticed, one of the reasons is because we believe that is a very important area of design and in particular, one that has a lot of opportunities.

Batman - Why Do We Fall

My favorite super hero is Batman and it's because he doesn't have any super powers besides super amount of money but the idea is much more realistic than other super heros. The Dark Knight trilogy was a great example of beautiful movies without super fantastic powers. Anyway, the reason I said that is because I want to share this really cool project by Adam Spizak titled Batman - Why Do We Fall.

Longer Than Life

Today we bring to you another great post about photo manipulation, it's a beautiful advertising piece created by Mladen Penev and Clemens Franke. The composition is mixes a woman's arm with flower petals and the other version with smoke. It's good to see a bit of the behind the scenes as well, like the way they took the photos, the make up and etc... For more information check out http://www.mladenpenev.net/ and https://www.behance.net/Clemens_Franke