WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello Design Cuts community. It’s Simon here on this end of the keyboard for this new tutorial. Since the new year is still young, it seemed quite fitting to use the resources in the current Gorgeous Artistic Design Bundle to build a new year’s resolution poster. We’ll accomplish this by combining the bundle’s beautiful stock photography, plus the delicate watercolor effects, along with some of the intricate textures together. Sprinkle in a few vector elements, and we’ll be done!

Now, this sounds quick, but fair warning: this is a long one. I really break down the techniques involved as well as the design principles at play, so hopefully you’ll learn a few new tricks! Pour yourself a coffee/tea (or two, or more), put some nice music on, strap on your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride!

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

STEP 0: CONCEPTUALIZING

The first step was to define the new year’s resolution to illustrate. Given my status as an independent designer working from home, the outdoors can sound pretty appealing. The resolution to explore more this year came naturally.

The second step was to go through Made by Vadim’s Go Explore Nature photo pack. The images are gorgeous, while not being too noticeably post-processed. This makes them ideal candidates to be used as part of a piece’s background.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Here are the two images I retained from my comb-through. Let’s go over the reason why I retained them.

I already knew that my piece was going to be a portrait-oriented poster. The waterfall could be a striking vertical line in the composition. The image also features a nice contrast between the mineral and dark top, and the bright, organic bottom.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

This second image came as the best option because it features a path leading to a mysterious direction. That’s an obvious but efficient visual allegory for my theme. It also features a sky that you could easily fade into a solid color, like we did in the gothic poster tutorial, or in the creative concert poster one.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The question of the background solved for now, I kept going through the bundle, “shopping” for elements to use in my motivational poster. The next supporting elements will be some of the leaves and branches drawn by Graphic Box for her Winter collection.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Charles Perrault’s Watercolor painting studio vol. 03 produces effects that are too striking to ignore. We’ll make use of it on our background, even if it’s just for a subtle overlay.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Finally, Make Media Co.’s Rustica vector pack vol. 03 will provide us with a few ornaments, along with Birch brush, a great looking typeface.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Now that the general plan of attack is established, let’s get started.

STEP 1: THE BACKGROUND

Document setup

We’ll start this one in Photoshop. Start by creating a new 18″x24″ canvas.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I’ve also placed guides marking the center of the composition, as well as a 1″ zone around the edges.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Save your file, and keep it handy for later. It’s now time to generate the watercolor version of our background image, IMG_1935.jpg.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Proceed to open Charles Perrault’s watercolor effect PSD. You’ll find it at \gorgeous-artistic-charles-perrault\Watercolor-Painting-Studio-Vol.-03\Main Effects\Main PSD Effect.psd. At first, it will look like an empty document, although with a hefty layer stack.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Navigate into the Effect 03 layer group, to find the Placeholder smart object.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Double click on the layer icon to open the layer up in its own window. Place IMG_1935.jpg in the smart object, save, and return to the main file to admire the result. You’ll find IMG_1935.jpg in \gorgeous-artistic-made-by-vadim\Go-Explore-photo-pack-45.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

It’s nice, but we need to customize the result a bit further. Open the Textures layer group, and make sure that the third one is turned on.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, head to the Color effects layer group, and make sure to activate the second one.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I like where this is heading, but the effect is too strong. Lower the opacity of the color effect layer to 50%.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Lower the opacity of the texture effect layer to 50% as well.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Once these adjustments are done, proceed to edit the settings of the brightness/contrast adjustment layer in the Color correction layer group.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And we’ve got ourselves a neat watercolor version of our base image. Save it as a JPG or PNG. You could also save a copy of the PSD, to keep the altered settings at hand should you ever need them.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Note that the Charles Perrault PSD gives your final image a size of 3000×2000 pixels. We need to save a version of the unaltered image at the same size, or else aligning them later on will be a nightmare. The good news is that Vadim’s images are cropped in a ratio allowing for that. Save an independent copy of the resized image.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

At the end of this process, you should now have a watercolor version of the base image, sized at 3000×2000 pixels, and an unaltered version of the base image, resized at 3000×2000 pixels. With these 2 in hand, let’s proceed to creating the poster.

Putting the background images in place

Start by bringing the unaltered (but resized) version of IMG_1935.jpg in your master Photoshop document. I’ve placed it so its width matches the canvas. Photoshop tells me it’s at 43.20% of its full size.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Proceed to now place the watercolor version of the image exactly above it. Use the precise placement and size text boxes if necessary.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Change the blending mode of the watercolor layer to Soft light @ 100% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, turn off the watercolor layer for the moment. We need to erase the hard transition from the image to the background. Start by sampling the color of the sky near the top edge of the image. I got a really soft blue gray in return (#e9eeea).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Fill the background layer with that color.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The result is almost there. Now, in order to get rid of that line, we’ll leverage the power of layer masks. Simply add a layer mask to the original photo layer (Layer > Layer mask > Reveal all with the proper layer selected).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

With that done, you can simply paint in the layer mask with a big, soft brush to make the limit disappear. But that’s a bit tedious. I’m using the gradient tool to go a bit faster. Make sure to start your gradient below the line you’re looking to hide. Here’s the content of the layer mask (the top edge of the photo lines up with the middle of the piece):

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And here’s the result on the art side:

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

You can now turn the watercolor layer back on.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The line is back! To make it disappear, either duplicate the layer mask from the unaltered image, or clip the watercolor layer to the unaltered one.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Now that the basis for the background is in place, organize your layers a bit.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Adding textures to the background

It’s fun time! Let’s bring in the textures. The bundle has quite a few neat ones, hidden through the effect PSDs extras. But before we go in too deep with textures, a quick series of PSAs:

PSA #1: in this tutorial, the term “clipping” or “clipped layer” is used a few times. This means that the layer is only visible/applies to the layer directly below it. You can very quickly do this by holding ALT/OPTION down on your keyboard and clicking between the two layers. Photoshop secrets created an handy animated gif demonstration.

PSA #2: every time we’ll work with textures, we’ll follow this simple process: place as smart object, sharpen, desaturate, enhance contrast with levels, and modify the blending mode.

PSA #3: placing the textures as smart objects, and using adjustment layers to tweak them, allows us to stick to a non destructive workflow. We’ve explored in depth the numerous pros and few cons of such a workflow in this past tutorial: “How to Use Textures The Right Way.”

Now that these are out of the way, let’s press on.

The first two textures we’ll add to our background come from Charles Perrault’s extras. You can find them in \gorgeous-artistic-charles-perrault\Watercolor-Painting-Studio-Vol.-03\Bonuses\Textures. Let’s start with True Watercolor. Rose Collection (1).jpg.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I’ve placed it so it covers my whole canvas, and its the bottom edge flush with the lower edge of our piece.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Soft light @ 50% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The second texture we’ll use from this pack is True Watercolor. Rose Collection (6).jpg.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Soft light @ 50% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The next assets we’ll use are part of Graphic Box’ Winter collection bonuses (\gorgeous-artistic-graphic-box\Winter-collection+20-Bonus\20 bonus Watercolor forms). She created 20 watercolor washes, and we’ll use some of these now for subtle color staining.

The first one we’ll use is 20.png.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Make sure it fully covers the piece.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Because we want some of the color to show through, we won’t fully desaturate them with the hue/saturation adjustment layer.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Overlay @ 75% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, we’ll use 14.png, in a similar manner, and with similar intentions.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Soft light @ 50% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The last texture we’ll add to the background comes from Vintage Design Co.’s Super Strike bonus textures. It’s called Manilla 2.png, and you can find it in \gorgeous-artistic-vintage-design-co\SuperStrike\Super Strike – Textures\Papers.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

This texture only requires you to place it in your document, sharpen it, and to change its blending mode to Color burn @ 25% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Also, now that we’re done with the background, you can further organize your layers in layer groups.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

STEP 2: THE MAIN TEXT BLOCK

It’s now time to manipulate some text, and some vectors flourishes, and that means it’s time to open up Illustrator.

Creating a badge

We’re going to leverage elements from the Winter collection, as well as from the Rustic pack vol. 03, to create laurel-like flourishes. After that, we’ll use Birch Brush Regular, along with 2 other (free) typefaces, to create a badge like presentation for our resolution.

Start by creating a new Illustrator document. It can help to have it match the size of our Photoshop document, but isn’t mandatory.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, we have to track down the various assets we’ll be using. They are spread over a few files of the Winter collection (\gorgeous-artistic-graphic-box\Winter-collection+20-Bonus\Graphic elements\Eps).

In the file 02.eps, you’ll find the “fox wreath.”

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

In the file 03.eps, you’ll find two elements we won’t use right away in the piece, but that you should put aside anyways. It’s the bottle (top right), and the hat (bottom right).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

From there, we need to talk about typefaces. Both of the extra typefaces not included in the deal that I’d suggest using are League Spartan Bold (from the League of Moveable Type), and Leckerli One (from Gesine Todt, via Font Squirrel).

I found the typefaces through some of Vintage Design Co.’s demo pieces for the Super Strike PSD.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

So, with these typefaces installed, it’s time to write up our resolution.

Assembling the badge

The text of my resolution goes as follows: “Two thousand fifteen will be the year of explorations.” I chose to break the copy into three separate type objects, in order to be able to use three different typefaces.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

From there, and after a little bit of tinkering, I decided to assign which typeface to which line. The ultimate goal in these cases is to have a visually pleasing combination, that retains legibility.

I ended up with Leckerli One assigned to the year, League Spartan Bold assigned to the middle line, and Birch Brush Regular assigned to “explorations.” Leckerli and Birch both bring their own type of visual emphasis to their text block, while League Spartan allows the middle line to be more subtly present.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I was pleased with the direction, but not with the result. I decided to switch the middle line to all caps.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The contrast between the various letter shapes was now satisfying, but not their size relationships. I reduced the League Spartan line down to 48 points tall, with kerning set to optical, and tracking to a value of 50. This helps the letters to be grouped slightly tighter (optical kerning), while at the same time spreading them out more for better legibility (tracking set to 50).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

We’re closer to the desired effect: “two thousand fifteen” and “explorations” are visually forward, while the middle line draws back some. In order to match the strength of the year, I increased the size of “explorations” to 84 points tall, set its kerning to optical, and its tracking to 250.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

With the lines balanced visually, I could proceed to some embellishment (remember that we’re building a badge), and gave them a mirror arc warp of 35%. This creates a visual container for the text.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

After some additional fumbling with the space between the lines, the foundation for our badge is ready.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Embellishing the badge

The result so far is neat, but not enough. That’s where the “fox wreath” comes into play. What’s great with vector resources is that you don’t have to always use the full element that you’re given. You can always pick apart bits and pieces, and remix them into something that fits your needs.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

We’re precisely going to exploit this by using only the following groups of elements to build laurel branches of sorts for each side of our badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Let’s start by the right side. After ungrouping the copy of the fox wreath, select the elements I’ve highlighted in orange, and paste them on the right side of your badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Do the same on the left side.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Now, for these elements to act as side ornaments, they need to be of the same eight, and aligned on the same horizontal line. I’ve sized my elements to be 5″ tall. The neat thing in this case is that they’re similar, but not identical, which reinforces the “hand-made” vibe of our piece.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Ultimately, the position of the ornaments depends a lot on personal taste. I would however suggest to keep the text centered within both “laurel branches.”

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

So, we have “branches,” but something is still missing. The good news is that all of the pieces we need are in the Rustica vol. 03 vector pack (\gorgeous-artistic-make-media-co\Rustica Pack Vol. 3+Birch Brush Mini\Rustica Vol. 3 Vectors\CreativeMarket_RusticaPack3.ai).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

We’re going to leverage some of the flourishes, as well as some of the branch designs, to create some dividers at the top and bottom of our badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Let’s start with the top elements. We’ll use the branch design for that, but instead of coupling it with the star currently in their middle, we’ll use the paw print that’s located in the middle of the elements we’ll use for the bottom.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Bring them into your design, and start by roughly aligning the paw print with the branches.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The paw print is currently too big compared to the branch. I reduced its size by approximatively 25%.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I’m not entirely satisfied with the angle of the branches. Give them a mirror rotation of 15°, so they point towards the bottom more.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Proceed to realign the paw print.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Finally, increase the width of the ensemble so it goes slightly over the width of the middle line of text. This is equivalent to 8″ in my document.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Proceed to the final spacing and size adjustments between the branches and the paw, and switch the color to black, like the rest of the badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Finally, proceed to spacing adjustments between the top divider and the rest of the badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

It’s time to follow a similar process to construct the bottom divider ensemble. Remember to swap the paw print for the star. I’ve chosen to make the width of both dividers identical (8″).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And our badge is now complete. Its current width is approximatively of 14.65″, but that will get adjusted later in Photoshop anyways.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Quick break: putting additional elements aside

Remember the bottle and hat I asked you to save aside earlier?

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Additional elements are going to join them in now. You’ll want to grab the fire, the camping lamp, and the highlighted flourishes. We’ll use all of these for corners and borders later on.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Bringing the badge in the design

This is where the tricky part begins. Paste the badge as a smart object in Photoshop, and give it its own layer group.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

We could leave the copy floating in the sky like this, but the piece would feel rather unfinished. So we’re going to use some of Graphic Box’s watercolor shapes to give it a background.

Start by placing 10.png in your document, behind your badge smart object.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The watercolor shape should be placed big enough so its edges reach the guides placed at 1″ of the canvas’ edge. I’ve also slightly rotated the element so it looks straighter.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

After giving the watercolor piece its own layer group, this is what my layer stack looks like.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, duplicate the watercolor smart object, and change the copy’s blending mode to Multiply @ 25% opacity. This helps to increase the contrast and presence of that main watercolor element.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, we’re going to add a splash of red in the blue. Add 9.png into your design.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I’ve sized it so it sits behind most of the text.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Change its blending mode to Color burn @ 75% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

To add some contrast to the bottom part of the watercolor stain, we’ll finish by adding 18.png in the piece.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

It sits behind the lower part of the badge.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Change its blending mode to Color burn @ 50% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The stain is looking nice, but the text is unreadable in black. Give it a color overlay of #e9eeea (the light gray we sampled at the beginning to extend our background).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

With that done, we can see that the stain is still overpowering the piece. We’re going to fix this by doing two things. The first one consists of lowering the opacity of the layer group containing the watercolor shapes down to 75%. This will actually allow some of the background texture to interact with the ensemble.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The second part of the solution is to use a hue/saturation adjustment layer clipped to the same layer group (possible on Photoshop CS6 and above). We’ll boost saturation a little bit, but mostly we’ll lighten the stain.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And here’s a look at what your layers should look like now.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

STEP 3: CORNERS AND BORDERS

Remember the various vector elements we saved in the file we used to prepare our badge? This is where they come in handy.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The corners

Let’s start by the corners. Paste the hat, the camping lamp, the bottle, and the fire, each at a corner of the piece. I suggest going clockwise from the top left, in this order. Each element is 2″ tall.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The elements aren’t that visible at this point. Give the hat and the lamp a color overlay of #7f4024. I sampled this burnt orange somewhere in the photo, so the elements will still “fit” the piece’s color scheme.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The elements at the bottom (bottle and fire) on the other hand, will receive a color overlay of #e9eeea, to contrast with the darker bottom part of the photo.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And we have our corners!

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Borders

It’s time to assemble a top and bottom border from the rest of the elements we’ve set aside. Head back to your Illustrator file. We are going to combine the pair of shovels, the pair of paddles, and the pair of arrows to produce a top and bottom border.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Start by increasing the width of the arrows to 10″, and duplicate it, in order to have two pairs handy.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Let’s give the pair of arrows destined to the bottom border a quick horizontal flip, so they’ll visually participate to “end” the poster.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, let’s adapt the paid of shovels/nut combo in the middle the arrows for the top border. The arrows are 10″ wide. The shovels element 2″ wide, and bottom aligned with the arrows.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Paste that ensemble into your Photoshop document. Give it the same color overlay than the top corner icons (#7f4024).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The bottom border building process is the same.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Once ready, paste it into your Photoshop document as well, at the bottom this time.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Give it the same color overlay than the bottom corner icons.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And we got ourselves a frame of sorts, with our corner, top, and bottom elements.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

After a little bit of layer clean up, this is where we are at.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

STEP 4: GLOBAL TEXTURES

This is the last stretch, I promise! In order to visually unify the whole piece, we are going to add four additional textures to the composition.

The first one is Shiny Gold Foil 4.jpg, by Studio Denmark. We are going to use it as a noise texture.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

I’ve placed it so the bottom right corner of the texture and of the poster align.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Soft light @ 35% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The next texture is True Watercolor. Rose Collection (4).jpg, from the Charles Perrault bonus texture pack we used at the beginning.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Blending mode: Soft light @ 35% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The last two textures come from Vintage Design Co.’s bonus textures for the ExposureX2 PSD. You can find them at \gorgeous-artistic-vintage-design-co\ExposureX2\ExposureX2 – Textures\Film Grain (PNG).

First, we’ll use Film-Grain-01.png.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Place it so it covers the complete poster.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Then, after sharpening it, simply give it a color overlay of #7f4024.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Repeat the process for Film-Grain-02.png, but give it a pure white color overlay.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And here is the snapshot of the layer stack so far.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

STEP 5: HALFTONE EFFECT

The last touch to the poster is to give it a halftone effect. It’ll add a bit more depth to the poster, and will emulate a cheap print job.

Start by creating a merged copy of all visible layers (CTRL/CMD+SHIFT+ALT/OPTION+E). I renamed that layer Halftones.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Transform that layer into a smart object (Filter > Convert for smart filters on Photoshop CC).

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

We’ll apply a halftone effect from the Filter gallery (Filters > Filter gallery > Sketch > Halftone pattern). I’m using values of 8 for the dot size, and 35 for the contrast.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Next, we need to change the effect’s blending mode. Double-click on this symbol in the layer palette.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Change the blending mode to Soft light @ 100% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Finally, change the layer’s blending mode to Lighter color @ 35% opacity.

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

And we’re done!

WRAPPING THINGS UP

Wow, that WAS a long one. You should treat yourself to a warmer for that coffee or tea that you’ve been drinking. I hope you had as much fun following along than I had writing.

Aren’t all these mockup kits amazing? I put this one together in less than a minute!

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Any technical questions left unanswered? Please use the comments below, and I’ll reply to them!

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial

Don’t forget to grab the Gorgeous, Artistic Design Bundle! The 1,000+ ensemble of creative items is available for a few more days only, at 93% off regular price. If you have the bundle already, I hope that you enjoy your new resources, and that this tutorial gave you a sense of what you can accomplish with them.

Finally, we’d love to see your tutorial outcomes! Please share them with us on the Design Cuts facebook page. We’ll share the best ones with the whole community.

That’s all folks! Until next time, cheers!

The gorgeous artistic design bundle demo tutorial