Full Wallpaper Tutorial

This is my first wallpaper tutorial, so please bare with me lol. We will be making this wallpaper. You don't need basic knowlege, but it would help. I will try to explain it as well as possible. If you have any questions on it or anything, please e-mail me at heidi@comforting-lie.com. I would also love to know what you guys think of this tutorial.

Beginning/Caps

First I open a 1024x768px whote canvas. You can reduse the size after, I always make mine bigger and if ever Ii need it smaller the quality will still be the same. I then fill my canvas with a light grey, #C6C1C1. I then open my pictures, for this piece Ii used 3 pictures, which Ii got at Kristen-b.net. They were already high quality images so Ii didnt have to do anything to them. If your pictures aren't high quality, you can go to filter>noise>median and set it to around 1 or 2, depending on your image. Now place you images where you would like on your canvas. This is what Ii have:



Blending & More

So the 2 images on the right are overlapping, so im gonna blend them together.To do so, you must add a vectors mask, it's at the bottom of your layers pallet, it's like a square grey square with a white circle in it. Make sure you forground color is black and background color is white (D). I dont want them to be too much blended. So i take a soft brush and set the opacity to around 60% and then brush over the overlapping image. Make sure part of the overlapping image is still there. Im not sure if that made sense lol. I then took the rectangle marquee tool (M). I then made a new layer under all the image layers. I made a recagle under the image and filled it with #6B1A18. I then duplicated that layer and select it (Ctrl+A) and went to edit>fill and filled it with a pattern -can't remember where i got it - Ii set it to soft light. This is how my piece looks like now :



Gardient Maps

Now for the coloring Ii will use gradients. I think it's a great way to add color to your piece. Go to the bottom of your layers pallet and select this white/black moon and select Gradient Map. There will be a box that appears, click on the color bar thing and another box will pop up. Then click on load and select the gradient. First gradient Ii used is from Nikki's first set, which you can download here along with all her other gradients.The name of the gradient I used is misplacedgradient3, here's a cap, Ii circled the one it is. I set it to Darken at 40%. Next texture is from the same set, this one is called misplacedgradient9, here's a cap. I set this one to Multiply at 40%. Third gradient is from Blacklagoon, it's the first set. The gradient kind of goes from a green to beige, here's a cap. I then set it to Soft Light at 70%. For the last gradient I took it again from Nikki's first set, this one is called misplacedgradient5, here's the cap. I set it to Soft Light at 20%. Thats all for the gradients, my piece now looks like this :



Brushes

I like to add brushes to pieces, I think it completes the piece. I Didn't use very many for this one, I only used 2 brushes. The first one I took from Aprilsky, I took her dotted brush. If it doesnt work for you you can always take the image pack, and open it in photoshop and go to edit>define brush. I took the 6 brush from that set, I used the color #4B1413. I made a new layer under the images but above the pattern layer. I kinda of placed it to the right inbetween the two blended images. Second brush is from Aprilsky again, Ii took her a brush from her 4 set, Smudge. I took the 4 brush and I took the color #331F0D. I then made a new layer ontop of the other brush layer. I put the brush at 2 places, one at the right top corner of the left image, and second Ii placed it at the bottom left corner of the pice. I blew the brush up to 486px. My piece now looks like this :



Textures

For this piece i used 2 textures. The first texture Ii used is this, from J.j's site More Adventurous. I put it under the image layers but over the brush layer. I set it to Normal at 40%. I then made sure my texture layer was selected and then Ii went to filters>noise>median and put it to 3. Second texture is this from J.j once again. I put this texture over the first one and set it to Soft Light at 100%. You may need to play around with the settings depending on the way you want it to look or what you came up with. My piece now looks like this :



Filters

I don't like using to many filters because I think it kind of ruins the piece, but that's just my opinion. Anyways, first we will flatten our piece, (layer>flatten image). First Ii did something I learned from Wendy, go to filter>stylize>find edges. After go to edit>fade and set it around 12-15 and set it to Darken. Now duplicate your base and go to filter>sharpen>sharpen, then go to filter>noise>median and put it to 1. Now go to filters>artistic>paint daubs and put it to 3. The go to edit>fade and set it to around 30%. Flatten your piece again, layer>flatten image. My piece now looks like this :



Text

I always like to add text to my pieces, most of the times I use song lyrics. Sometimes i will use quotes from that scene, but for this piece i will use a song. I chose the song "Photograph" by Nickleback. I first to the word "Photograph" with the font Arial, the color I used is, #59474C and I set it to 50pt in all caps and in bold. I then highlighted the word and went to the character place and set the distance between the letters to 200. I placed it at the bottom of my piece. I then rasterized the type layer, (layer>rasterize>type). I then cut a little through the middle. I set it to Soft Light at 100%.I then selected it (layer>load selection). I then made a new layer on top of the text layer, and i went to edit>stroke. I box will pop up and the color I used is #4B3E42, make sure that outside is checked and put it to 1px, then click ok. I then took a quote "Picture Perfect" with the font Arial Narrow in #3B2229Ii put it to 12pt. I placed it in the middle of the word "Photograph". I set this to Soft Light at 100%. I then made a new layer on top of everything and just make a simple line from the end of "Picture Perfect" and the same for the beginning of it. Then flatten it (layer>flatten image).

Border

I usually always add a border to my piece, I find it gives a finishing touch to it. Double click on your base, a window will pop up and select ok, this was just to unlock your layer. Now at the bottom of your layers pallete select the circle with and "f" kinda thing, and click stroke. A window will pop up and I chose the color #422828, leave the size at 3, and chane it to inside, then select ok. Now flatten your piece (layer>flatten image). And you are done ! This is my final product :



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