In this tutorial by Adrien de Broglio (the author of Drawing Clouds), you will learn some great Photoshop techniques, such as how to use textures in your designs, how to use the threshold tool, and how to use layer masks – all whilst creating a simple yet effective Superman poster.
Step 1 – New Document
Open Photoshop and create a new document, I’m using 1100x1500px with a Transparent Background.
Step 2 – Fill White
Fill the background layer with white, Edit – Fill – White then rename the layer Background.
Step 3 – Background Texture
In order to make the background we’re going to use two Hand-Dyed Paper textures from a great texture site, Lost & Taken. I used textures number 2 and 15 on their 16 Free Hand-Dyed Paper Textures post. When you’ve downloaded those textures, open the second texture in photoshop and drag it into your document, then use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) to resize it. Rename the layer Paper Texture 1.
Next open the 15.jpg texture in photoshop and drag it in your document, use the Free Transform Tool again to resize it, finally change the blend mode of the layer to Screen and the opacity to 50%, rename the layer Paper Texture 2.
Step 4 – Model
For this step I used a stock image called ‘This Looks Like A Job For…1‘ by ~LL-stock, download it and open it in Photoshop. Don’t drag the image in to your document; we’re going to work on it before we do that. As it’s a jpeg file you need to double click on the layer with the lock and click OK to unlock the layer. Now you have to cut out the man from the background, in order to do that make a selection of the background, you can use the technique you feel most comfortable with – I used the Pen Tool (P). When you’ve made your selection press delete to remove the background.
Once you’ve done this duplicate the original layer. Select the new layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Play a little bit with the value, I used 77, and click OK.
Next go to Select > Color Range and select the white part of the layer we just modified, click OK and delete the selection of white. Rename the first layer to Model Original and change its opacity to 50%. Name the other one Model Black and change the opacity to 90%. Select both layers and drag them into your document, resize them with the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) and place the model in the bottom right corner. Create a new group called Model and place both of your model layers in to it.
Step 5 – City in the Back
To add some details we’re going to put some city buildings in the background. We’re going to use a stock photo called ‘New York‘ by ~odd-objects-stock. Download the image and open it in Photoshop, double click on the layer with the lock like we did earlier, select the layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold, put a value of around 100 in and click OK.
Next drag the city buildings into your document, rename the layer to City Background and leave it on top. Select the Free Transform Tool and downsize the buildings a little bit, then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Finally change the blend mode to Darken, this will hide the white parts of the image. Change the opacity to 45%.
Step 6 – Layer Mask
We now need to hide the part of the building that’s on the model; make a selection of the Model Original layer in the Model group, you can do that by Ctrl+Left Clicking on the Preview thumbnail in the layer box next to the layer or select the Model Original layer and go to Select > Load Selection and click OK. You should now have your selection. Invert it by going to Selection > Invert. Finally go on the City Background layer with your selection still active and create a layer mask, Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Step 7 – Text
For the Text, I used a font called MOD; you can download it at Font Fabric. When you’ve installed the font, select the Text Tool (T) and write anything you want with the MOD font, the colour of the text is not important because we’re going to use a texture to add colour to the font. I chose to write ‘Supercolor’ in black with a size of 150pt, duplicate the text layer and hide the new one – we’ll be using this in a next step.
Step 8 – Text Texture
I used one of the textures we used for the background to put on the text, reopen the 15.jpg file and drag it into your document. Place the texture where you want on the text, making sure it is above your text layer. Create a clipping mask on the texture layer – right click on the layer in the layer box and select Create a Clipping Mask. Rename this layer to Text Texture.
Step 9 – Text Outline
Unhide the duplicated text layer, change the fill options to 0%, the opacity to 55% and add a Stroke layer style to it: Layer > Layer Style > Stroke and enter those parameters.
Move the stroke text to where you want it, rename the layer Supercolor Stroke and place the three text layers into a new group called Text.
Here’s the Final Image with all the layers…
That’s it guys, my first tutorial on CircleboxBlog.com – I hope you liked it!
We would love to see the posters you’ve made using this tutorial, so post a link below so we can take a look! If you have any questions about the tutorial, ask below and we’ll try to help asap!
If you liked the tutorial, both Adrien (Drawing Clouds) and me would really appreciate any tweets!
Worried about your 642-262 exam? Subscribe for testking 640-460, download F50-521 study material and enjoy the great success on time
I cannot believe this is your first tut! Real quality result!
It wasn’t – Adrien’s written quite a few at his own blog at drawingclouds.com… This is his first here
Really interessant tuts and well written!
Nice site. go to my favorites. TNx
Very good tut.thanks
very nice thank you so much
That was one of the best tuts I have done for a long while. I learned quite a lot from it.
Très bien
nice tutorial….
thank you for posting
i’l keep you posted!