For another contribution on Design Instruct, I wrote for them a Photoshop tutorial on "How to Create an Elegant Photography Web Layout". In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to create a beautiful web page design that is dark-themed and perfect for a web portfolio that is centered around photographs. It’s a pretty simple tutorial that aims to illustrate some great techniques to adapt into your current web design workflow.

Let log on to Design Instruct to check out the tutorial!

For my very first contribution to Design Instruct, I’ve written for them this tutorial on How to Make a Worn Vintage Beach Ad in Photoshop. In this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a worn out, low-saturation-colored vintage beach ad in Photoshop. We’ll use some beginner to intermediate level techniques such as the usage of brushes, editing colors, using filters, masking and a whole lot more!

Let us now head over to Design Instruct to check out the tutorial!

In the end of this tutorial, you may want to save the final output in transparent PNG or ICO formats to use them on your websites or applications.

Final Product:

Materials Needed:
Coffee Stains Brush Set by Photoshopranger
Lost and Taken’s Stained Paper Texture (Texture #3)
Dafont’s Cloister Black Font

1. Create a new layer in Photoshop with dimension 250×250.

2. With the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), draw a rectangular selection and fill it with the color #7f785e using the Gradient Tool (G).

3. On the topmost part of our rectangle, use the Polygon Lasso Tool (L), draw an irregular selection. This will add a jagged look on the top area of our newspaper.
After drawing the selection, hit on the Delete key.

4. Using the Blending Options tool, add a Drop Shadow to the rectangle with these settings.

5. Create a new empty layer. Select both this empty layer and our rectangle layer. Right click and hit on Merge Layers. This will flatten our layer along with its Blending Options settings. Using the Burn Tool (O) set to an ordinary rounded brush, slight burn some of the edges of our rectangle.

6. Open up the 3rd Paper Texture we downloaded from Lost and Taken in Photoshop. Resize the texture small and place it over our rectangle. Set this layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay. With the texture layer active, CTRL/CMD + Click our rectangle. This will create a selection on our texture with the same size as our rectangle. Click on the Mask icon.

7. Create a new layer. Again, CTRL/CMD + Click our rectangle to create a rectangular selection on our new layer. Using the Gradient Tool (G), add a gradient on our new layer. Make sure the gradient goes from color #6c5d3c to transparent. This will add a bit more depth to our newspaper.

8. Load the Coffee Stain brushes we just downloaded into Photoshop. Using the Brush Tool (B), randomly select any brush from the set and add some little stains on our newspaper. Make sure our Foreground color is set to a dark brown color like #332a15 and Background color set to #62460a.

9. Using the Type Tool (T), set the font to Cloister Black and color to #000000. Add the title of the newspaper. Set this layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay.

10. Now, we will be adding the divisions on our newspaper. Using the Pencil Tool (B), set its size to 1px. Draw a horizontal line under our title. Don’t forget to hold down the Shift key while doing this to make sure we make a straight line. For the bottom horizontal line, set the Pencil Tool’s size to 2px. Set this layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay.

11. You may also want to add vertical line divisions.

12. Now, for the final touches, let us add photos and text to our newspaper to make it look more realistic!

You may also want to duplicate the newspaper icon and rotate the bottom one to make it look like there are two newspapers.

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Since the launch of my site, I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback for the scribbles-style being used for my navigation. Now, if you would like to add some scribbles to your designs, I’ve created 12 Hi-Resolution Scribbles Photoshop Brushes! These are perfect for your designs most especially if you have grunge, paper or hand-drawn themed ones.

These brushes are free to use for your personal and commercial projects but may not be sold or redistributed in any way. A link back to Dawghouse Design Studio is much appreciated.

Download the Hi-Resolution Scribbles Brush Set

In this easy, step-by-step Photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to craft a Realistic Vintage Postage Stamp. This is a pretty simple tutorial making use of basic to intermediate Photoshop techniques and features such as masking, creating your own custom brush, configuring brush presets and color adjustments.

Final Product:

Materials Needed:

Grunge Brushes 8 Brush Set
Scratch Texture Brushes
Postage Photoshop Brushes

Truck Photo from SXC.hu (Optional)
Constantia typeface (Optional)

1. Launch Photoshop and create a new document with dimensions 489×312. Document size can change depending on how large or small you would like the final product to be.

2. Choose a background for the first layer. Here, I have used an old paper background to match the stamps.

3. On a new layer, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to draw a rectangular selection as shown on the image below.

4. Fill the selection with a white background using the Gradient Tool (G).

5. Now, let us create the sides of the stamp. We will be creating our own brush. Let us first set aside our document and create a new document with dimensions 151×149. Using the Pen Tool (P), draw a shape as shown on the photo below.

Note: Make sure you hold down the ALT/Option key on each Anchor Point to have more control on the shape we are trying to draw. For the areas wherein we need to draw a straight line, don’t forget to hold down the ALT/Option and Shift keys.

6. Right click outside the shape we just created at hit on Make Selection. One we have a selection, fill it with the color black using the Paint Bucket Tool (G).

7. Let us now convert the shape into a brush by hitting on Edit > Define Brush Preset. Name this new brush ‘stamp’ and hit OK.

8. Let us now create the jagged sides of our stamp by using the Eraser Tool (E). Select the brush we just created, open the Brush Presets panel by hitting on Window > Brushes or F5 and apply these settings.

9. Run our eraser over the top portion first to create the jagged edges on the top area of our stamp. Don’t forget to hold down the Shift Key to create a straight line. We should now have something like this.

10. To create the jagged edges on the left, right and bottom sides, don’t think we have to rotate the stamp or the canvas itself. On the Brush Presets panel, notice that crosshair on the right side. Move your cursor over the crosshair and notice that when you click and drag on that little arrow on the crosshair, you can actually move the angle of the brush.

The little window at the bottom of the Brush Presets panel also serves as a guide to show us how the brush looks like with the chosen angle.

11. Move our eraser over to the left, right and bottom sides of the stamp to create jagged edges around our stamp.

12. Let us apply a slight gradient to our stamp to give it a hint of vintage. Use the settings below. Use the color #f0e6d1 for the top and #f2eee4 for the bottom.

Also, using one of the grunge brushes we downloaded, add some slight hints of grunge over our stamp. We should now have something like this:

13. Open the truck photo we downloaded in Photoshop. Drag it to our document. Draw a selection over it and make sure it is smaller than the size of our stamp.

14. Hit the Mask icon.

We should now have something like this:

15. Using our Brush Tool (B), select from any of the scratch brushes we downloaded. Make sure that from the Layers panel, the mask is being selected and that the Foreground Color is set to #000000. Hit on the car image.

16. Let us adjust the color of our image to give it a more vintage look. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation and apply these settings.

17. Let us edit the image a little more to finalize giving it a vintage look. Create a new layer over our image. Make a selection and make sure that only the image is selected. With the use of the Paint Bucket Tool (G), fill the selection with the color #9e6b30.

18. Change this layer’s Blend Mode to Soft Light and change its Opacity to 85%. Deselect the selection by hitting on CTRL/CMD + D.

19. Let us now add some text to our stamp. For this tutorial, I have used the typeface named Constantia but you may use any typeface you wish.

20. Now for the finishing touches to make sure our stamp would look old and used! Using any of the stamp brush sets we downloaded and with Foreground Color Set to #000000 and Brush Opacity set to around 43%, let us add some stamp marks to our stamp.

21. With the stamp layer active, CTRL/CMD + click the stamp (the white one) layer. Hit on the Mask icon as shown on Step 14.

Yes! We now have a real-looking vintage postage stamp! Hope you learned a thing or two from this tutorial!

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Another important resource for designers are Photoshop brushes. Brushes not only contribute in beautifying our designs but they also save us a lot of time to come up with some of our desired effects as opposed to having to recreate these effects from scratch. I’ve created 16 Hi-Resolution Paint Strokes & Spatters Brushes for the readers of Dawghouse Design Studio. This is actually the first brush set I’ve created so watch out for more brush set giveaways in the future!

These brushes are free to use for your personal and commercial projects but may not be sold or redistributed in any way. A link back to Dawghouse Design Studio is much appreciated.

Download the Hi-Resolution Paint Strokes & Spatters Brush Set

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn to create a type similar to this movie’s title treatment. In this basic Typography tutorial, there will be no need for us to download extra brushes, tools or plugins as we will be using the most basic Photoshop tools and techniques and its default brushes.

This is going to be our final product:

1. Create a new document in Photoshop, File > New (CTRL/CMD + N). Set the dimensions to 617 x 400. If you intend this to be a large poster, you may want to consider increasing the document size.

2. On a new layer, using the Type Tool (T), set the font to Times New Roman and color to #f5c160. Set the Horizontal Scale to 105% and Vertical Scale to 97%.

3. Rasterize the type by right clicking on its layer > Rasterize Type. Now let’s add some noise to our text by hitting on Filter > Add Noise. Set the Noise amount to 12.5%, Distribution to Uniform and Monochromatic unchecked.

We should now have something like this:

4. Now let us add some styling to our text by hitting on Blending Option > Bevel and Emboss and apply these settings.

Make sure the Bevel and Emboss settings are set to Style = Emboss, Technique = Chisel Soft, Depth = 1000%, Size = 1, Gloss Contour = Gaussian, Highlight Mode Color = #4b1912 (Opacity = 0%) and Shadow Mode Color = #7e3218 (Opacity = 52%).

We should now have something like this:

5. Now we will be adding those sharp lines around the logo. Create a new layer under our text. Using the Pencil Tool (B) set to 1px, draw a vertical line somewhere on the Letter N.

6. Using an ordinary feathered Eraser, slightly erase off the tip of the line.

7. Select the Eraser Tool (E). Load one of the default Photoshop brushes named Dry Media Brush Set. Use any of the rough rectangular ones.

8. Using the Eraser Tool (E), slightly erase off some areas of the vertical line we created.

9. Hit on Blending Option > Stroke and apply these Stroke settings to our vertical line. Make sure the stroke color is set to #963522.

We should now have something like this:

10. Draw more vertical and horizontal lines on each of our letters and apply the same steps as 7 to 9.

We have now successfully created a title treatment similar to that of the movie, New Moon! I hope you’ve learned some basic tips and tricks from this tutorial. You may want to try it again using your name this time!

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In this Photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to create a real-looking, worn-out movie ticket. It’s a pretty simple Photoshop tutorial involving some basic procedures which I’m sure will be very helpful especially for anyone with beginner skills.

This is going to be our final product:

Materials Needed:

Grunge Brushes
Light Grunge Textures by Bittbox
Green Creased Colored Paper

1. Create a new document in Photoshop with dimension 400 x 300.

2. There are many wood textures available for download from resource sites. Choose which one you like best and drag in onto our document.

3. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), draw a rectangle.

4. Using the Gradient Tool (G), fill our rectangular selection with #dd9800 to #a97200. Make sure it is set to Linear Gradient.

5. Again using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), draw a circle and fill it with any color. Duplicate the circle 3 times and place it across all 4 corners of our rectangle. Merge all 4 circles.

6. Hit on CTRL/CMD + Click to select the 4 circles. Hide the layer where they’re in and go back to our rectangle layer. Hit on Delete and we should now have something like this.

7. Now we will be creating the perforation on the left and right sides of the ticket. Hit on the Eraser Tool(E). From the Brushes panel, choose a regular brush from the default set of brushes. Make sure it’s not feathered. Open the Brush Presets panel (F5) and apply these Settings.

8. Erase off the sides of the ticket by running down the eraser from the top and bottom. Don’t forget to press and hold the Shift key while doing this to make a straight line.

9. Let us now add a slight Drop Shadow to our ticket to achieve some depth. Go to Blending Options > Drop Shadow and use these Settings.

10. From the Light Grunge Texture Pack we just downloaded from Bittbox, choose 3485558654_cff378930f_b.jpg. Drag this texture and place it over our ticket. Make a selection that is of the same shape as our ticket by hitting on CTRL/CMD + Clicking on the layer with the ticket. Hit on the Mask icon and change the Opacity of out texture to 48%.

11. Create a new Layer. Now we are going to add hints of grunge to our ticket. Using grunge brushes with its colors set to #906a39, add some dirt to our ticket. One of the useful points you need to take note of when designing anything grungy is to just do the clicking randomly and don’t make it obvious that you are using the exact same brushes. The dirt specks must not look like they are just duplicated.

12. Download the Green Colored Paper Texture from one of Dawghouse Design Studio’s freebies. Drag this texture over our ticket and change its Blend Mode to Luminosity. Erase off the rest of the areas of the texture except the part where the intersecting crease is. This will make our ticket look like it’s been folded.

13. On a new layer in a new folder, using the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), create a rounded rectangle over our ticket. Set the Radius to 10px. CTRL/CMD + Click on this layer to make a selection. You can now hide or delete the layer with the rounded rectangle. Name our new folder “Content”.

14. Create a new layer and go to Edit > Stroke. Set the Width to 3px, Location to Inside and Color to #4d3011. Using the same color and the Pencil Tool (B) set to 3px, add two vertical lines opposite each other.

15. Using the Type Tool (T) with color set to #6c1301 and Typeface set to Times New Roman, type some random numbers. This will serve as our ticket number. Hit on Edit > Transform and rotate the number vertically. Add the same number to the right side of the ticket as well.

16. Using the Type Tool (T) once again, type “Admit One” on the center of the ticket. This time, set the color to #000000 and Typeface to Helvetica Bold.

17. Go back our Content folder and make sure its selected. Hit on the Mask icon. Using the Brush Tool (B), randomly mask off some areas of our ticket’s content. You may just use the Eraser Tool (E) but what’s great about the Mask Tool is that you can undo the erasures you have made by unmasking them. When Masking, make sure that the Foreground color is set to #000000 and Background color is set to #ffffff.

We now have a real-looking, worn-out movie ticket! I hope you have learned some tips and tricks from this basic Photoshop tutorial.

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Abstract designs are one of my favorites. They don’t really have to mean anything to everybody but we still find them visually appealing. When designing, one of the most useful resource for designers are Photoshop brushes. As we all know, brushes save us a lot of time to help us come up with some effects that we like as opposed to having to create them from scratch. For this post, I have collected 15+ Amazing and High Quality Abstract Photoshop brush sets. Each set comprises of several brushes and altogether, the sets sum up to more than 130 Amazing Abstract Photoshop Brushes!

Most of these brushes are free to use for both your personal and commercial projects but please recheck with the authors.

Abstract Brushes 12

Euphoria

Ultimate Brush 3

Life

Abstract Brushes 13

Shadows

Sharp

Darius Brushes

Doom Chaos

Abstract Brush II

Abstract Brush Set 2

Abstract Brush Set

Abstract 08

900Kelvin Brushes

MNT Abstract Brushes

Charging

Butterfly

Some months ago, Dawghouse Design Studio has given away a free CSS template called Retrograde. I was very happy as it got a lot of downloads especially when it was converted into a blog template and made available to Blogspot users. Using similar elements as the template, in this step-by-step Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to create a Funky Retro Poster with very easy steps!

Easy Steps to Design A Funky Retro Poster in Photoshop

This will be our final product:

Materials Needed:
On the Groove III photo from iStock (you can use your own stock photo)
Ayosmonika font

1. Open a new document in Photoshop with dimensions 550×600. If you intend this to be a large poster, you may want to consider changing the dimension of the document.

2. On the new layer and using a Gradient Tool (G) set to Linear Gradient, create a gradient from colors #a1360a to #1c0832.

3. The next step is to create the half-tone background. Go to our Channels palette and create a new layer and using the Paint Bucket Tool (G), fill it with the color #9e3116. Hit on Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone. Set the Maximum Radius to 20 pixels. Leave the settings for Screen Angles (Degrees) to their default values. You should now have something like this.

4. Using the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the areas that are colored black and Invert the selection by hitting on Select > Ineverse. Go to Edit > Copy or CTRL/CMD + C to copy the selection. Go back to our "Halftone" layer and paste what we just copied by hitting on Edit > Paste or CTRL/CMD + V.

5. Let us now change the color of our "Halftone" layer by hitting on Blending Options > Color Overlay and use the color #db3919.

6. Change Opacity of our "Halftone" layer to 15%.

7. Let us now create our second halftone layer. Create a new layer on top of our "Halftone" layer and using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) once again, fill this layer with the color #9e3116 and hit on Filter > PIxelate > Color Halftone. Use the same settings we have on Step 4.

8. Change the Blending Mode to Difference and the Opacity to 15%. We should now have something like this.

9. Let us now create our retro circles. Using the Ellipse Tool (U), create a circle with color fill #b62f12. Make sure the Shape Layers option is activated. Draw the circle somewhere below the bottom half of the document.

10. Repeat Step 9 three more times and draw the inner circles. For the colors I have used # f67001, # fbcd29 and # acb204. We should now have something like this.

11. Merge or flatten all the 4 circles together in one layer. Duplicate this layer 3 times. Arrange and resize the circles so we would have different placements and varied sizes.

12. Underneath all our circles layers, let us now draw our vertical retro lines. Using the Rectangular Tool (U), draw vertical lines from the top of the document to where our circles are. Use the same colors as we did with the circles on Steps 9and 10.

13. Repeat Step 12 but this time, draw the lines from the circles to the bottom of the document. We should now have something like this.

14. Let us add a photo to our artwork. I used this photo from iStock (http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-293471-on-the-groove-iii.php). Crop out the woman from the entire photo and place it on a layer underneath all our circles and above our retro lines.

15. Now let us add a bit of a hand-painted feel to our model. Duplicate the layer with the photo of a woman. With the topmost layer active, go to Filter > Artistic > Poster Edges and use these settings.

16. Change the Blend Mode of this layer to Overlay and its Opacity to 50%. Add a Drop Shadow to this layer by hitting on Blending Options > Drop Shadow and use these settings.

17. Let us now add hand-drawn outlines to our model. This will give it more of a hand-drawn or hand-painted feel to it. Using the Pencil Tool (P) with its color set to #000000, manually draw outlines around our model. This part is a bit easier to do with the use of a tablet, but if you don’t have one, a mouse will do. We should now have something like this.

18. Notice that the outlines we drew are a bit sharp. Let us unsharpen the outlines a bit by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 0.4 pixels.

19. Notice the color of our model is a bit pale. Let us go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Let us edit its colors a little bit more by going to Image > Adjustments > Levels and use these settings.

20. Below the layer with our model, let us add more retro lines. Repeat Step 12 but this time, draw the retro lines past the top and bottom edges of our document. This prevents the lines to be cut off once we tilt them. Let us tilt our new retro lines a few degrees to the left as shown below. To tilt, go to Edit > Transform > Rotate.

21. Let us now add some texts to our artwork. I’ve used the fonts Ayosmonika and the color #acb204 for the word "Muzik" and Helvetica and the color #b62f12 for the word "life".

22. Let us add a few accents to our artwork. Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool with color set to #b62f12. Also set the Radius to 10pixels. Draw a few drips around our circles.

23. Let us add some more accents by adding some scattered X symbols to our artwork as shown below.

Voila! We now have a funky retro poster! Feel free to add your own little tweaks to your design to give it a funkier feel!