It’s quite trendy these days to use bright, vibrant colors with wavy lines and a silhouette of a person. This tutorial will aim to show you how to create this look. It’s the longest and most extensive tutorial I’ve written to date. I really hope you can learn from it; I know I did, by creating it!
Here’s a look at what we are trying to accomplish
Step 1
Open up Photoshop and create a new document to the size of your monitor.
Step 2
Create a radial gradient from black (#000000) to dark gray (#555555) with the gray slightly skewed to the right. Like below.
Step 3
Create a new layer above the background, call it ‘Blue Clouds’. Change the foreground color to a vibrant blue, I used #0060ff, and make the background color black. Click Filter->Render->Clouds.
Step 4
While still on the ‘Blue Clouds’ layer change the Blend Mode to Overlay, and the Opacity to 90%
Step 5
Add a new layer above ‘Blue Clouds’, name this layer ‘Pink Clouds’. Change your foreground color to a vibrant pink (I used #ff4ffd), keep the background color as black. Click Filter->Render->Clouds once again.
Step 6
Keep the Blend Mode as Normal, change the Opacity to 30%.
Step 7
OK, we’ve got some nice color and interest here, but we need to crank it back a few notches. Make a copy of the background layer and place it at the top of the layers. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 90%
Step 8
Let’s add a little more interest with some noise. While on the ‘Background Copy’ layer, click Filter->Noise->Add Noise, change the amount to 2%, the distribution to gaussian, and check monochromatic.
Step 9
Now it’s time to create the big blue wavy lines. Create a new layer at the top of the layers palette and name it ‘Wavy Line 1′. Grab the rectangle marquee tool and draw a rectangle like below.
Step 10
Grab the Gradient Tool again, change the Mode to Linear, and set the Gradient Editor to go from that same vibrant blue (#0060ff) to transparent. Click and drag out a gradient within the rectangle marquee you drew out in the previous step.
Step 11
Deselect the rectangle by pressing ‘ctrl, d’. Click Filter->Distort->Wave. Change the settings to as follows: Number of Generators 2, Wavelength Min 180, Max 630, Amplitude Min 40, Max 80. Keep the scale at 100% for both, keep the radio button on Repeat Edge Pixels. Click randomize until the preview looks the way you’d like. Click OK.
Step 12
Let’s add a little style to our wavy line. Double click next to the layer name to bring up the layer style window. Click to add an outer glow. Change the opacity to 38%, the color to white, the spread to 12% and the size to 0px, for the rest of the options keep the defaults. Also add an inner glow. Change the blend mode to overlay, opacity to 32%, color to white and the size to 40. You should end up with something like what you see below.
Step 13
Rinse, Lather, Repeat. Add another similar wavy lines on a separate layer. Alter the distort settings slightly and remember if you hit randomize within the distort options you can get a different look each time. Brighten up the opacity a bit on both the inner and outer glow. You should end up with something like this.
Step 14
Now we are going to add some music notes into the background. If you have that type of brush already go ahead and give that a try. If not go to a free brush source and pick up some. I used brushes from deviant art, you can find them here. Click to add a new layer and call it ‘Music Notes’.
Step 15
Choose the same pink color as you used earlier and select a nice music notes brush. Make it stretch the screen, and click to paint it on once. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 70%. Use the same wave filter as before. Now add one or two different brushes more. Here’s what my project looks like at this point.
Step 16
Next up, create a new layer and title it ‘Splatter’. Grab some splatter brushes and use the same color pink as before. I used splatters that can be downloaded here. Make the brush size pretty large and paint a splatter on the right side. Click to add a layer mask and use a black to white linear gradient on the mask to add a gradual fade. Also change the Blend Mode to Screen.
Step 17
Add a group to your layers and call it ‘Lines.’ Now add a layer to that group and call it ‘Line 1′.
Step 18
Grab the pen tool, at the properties at the top that appear, click to change it to paths. Now, draw a wavy line that is the width of the canvas.
Step 19
Grab the paint brush tool and change your brush to a pink soft 10px round brush.
Step 20
Click on the direct selection tool and then right click on the path you just created. Choose Stroke Path from the options that appear. Change the path to a brush and keep simulate pressure unchecked.
Step 21
With the direct selection tool still selected click on the path and hit delete to get rid of it.
Step 22
Double click the ‘Line 1′ layer to bring up the layer style window and add an Outer Glow with the following settings: Blend mode soft light, opacity 75%, color white, keep the other defaults. Also add an Inner Glow, I used these settings for that: Blend mode screen, color white, size 62px.
Step 23
Repeat adding these lines on separate layers within the ‘Lines’ group until you have a nice look. Here’s what mine looks like, thus far.
Step 24
Add a layer mask to the entire ‘Lines’ group. Make a black to white to black gradient and drag the gradient across the width of the canvas, so that the lines gradually fade at the edges.
Step 25
It’s time to add the guitarist! You can download the pic here. Once it downloads, open the image in Photoshop and drag it onto a new layer in the music document. Call this layer ‘Guitar’. Hit ‘ctrl, t’ and resize the guitarist to a more reasonable size and move him to the right side of the image.
Step 26
Extract the guitarist by using any combination of the lasso tool, the magic wand, pen tool, etc, that gets the job done. The result doesn’t have to be perfect, all we need is the general shape. Note in my example below, I wasn’t too concerned with making the hair extraction perfect.
Step 27
Now we need to create the silhouette appearance with some awesome glowing effects, we are going to do so by adding some filters. Click Filter->Artistic->Cutout. Change the settings to as follows: Number of Levels 4, Edge Simplicity 6 and Edge Fidelity 3. Then click on the new effect layer icon to add another filter on top of this one.
Step 28
Within the same filter gallery, in the new effects layer you just created, click Stylize->Glowing Edges. Change the settings within this filter to: Edge Width 2, Edge Brightness 6, and Smoothness 5. Click OK.
Step 29
Double click on the ‘Guitar’ layer to add a layer effect. Choose Outer Glow and change the opacity to 27% and the size to 92px.
Step 30
Make a copy of the ‘Guitar’ layer by dragging it down the the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette. On the ‘Guitar copy’ layer hit ‘ctrl, t’ to bring up the free transform tool. Flip the copy upside-down and drag it to the bottom to act as a reflection. Change the opacity on the layer to 25%.
Step 31
I added the word Music to the background using similar styles we used earlier. The font is called Nasalization and can be found at places like dafont.com. Below is my final result.
What do you think?
Let me know what you think of this tutorial. I’d love to see your work, if you come up with an interesting variation! Drop me a comment below.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Slick outcome!
July 4th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Wow, this really comes to life when you put a good pattern overlay with interesting colors and blend modes. Fun stuff.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
At the Blue Cloud layer I cannot pick “overlay” — it’s gray’d out.
Any help is appreciated.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Hi Keith,
What version of Photoshop are you using? Try clicking on the move tool to get out of anything that you may be in. Also make sure the layer isn’t locked, that would be indicated by a small lock icon next to the name of the layer. Hopefully this helps, if anyone else has any advice, please drop a comment.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the reply Andrew,
I’m using CS3 v10.0.1
I tried to change to the move tool in that layer but Overlay is still gray’d out…..
The Background layer is locked, but the Blue Clouds layer is not locked.
Thanks
July 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Keith, could you email your .psd file to info@myinkblog.com so I can take a look. I’m having a tough time figuring out why Overlay would be disabled.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Juz Amazing… Never knew photoshop could be so easy for beginners… Thanks a lot and keep continuing the gr8 job….
July 16th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
That is Awesome! I am going to try it. My only problem will be the pen tool. I am not very good at that yet.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Well put together, learned so much. Now I can see the power that the pen tool possess.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Wow! Thanks for the awesome response to this tutorial. The pen tool is definitely worth learning about, it will open up so many new things for you within Photoshop and Illustrator.
July 19th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Wow, great, thanks!
I made one myself, and altered it a bit:
http://i34.tinypic.com/10f4xfa.png
Great tutorial.
July 19th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Awesome Niki, I love the result! I’m think of making a flickr group for MyInkBlog so we can post these kinds of images that the readers come up with.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:01 am
it is very nice and useful it is the most beatiful tutorial i have ever seen
August 28th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I would like to know how you made the Text At the end Transparent in the middle??? Thankyou
August 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
@Joe Claessen Change the blend mode to overlay and drop the opacity until you get the transparency you desire. Hope this helps.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Yep, when i added the outer glow it worked, thankyou
plus, here is my version
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w61/joey12310/BulgerBackGroundWORDcopy.jpg
August 31st, 2008 at 10:42 am
Fantastic tutorial! Thank you, i really had fun creating it
September 1st, 2008 at 2:31 am
It’s really a great tutorial.I ‘m a vfx student & i love to do these effects….
September 10th, 2008 at 11:02 am
im wondering wheter you could help me, i want to get the guitarist picture as the guitarist layer, but every time i open it, it comes up in another photoshop window, how do you drag it to the layer?
please help id appriciate it very much!
thanks,
chloe
September 10th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
@CNP You can either use File->Place and drop it in that way. Or with both windows open, use the move tool (shortcut ‘v’ on the keyboard) and drag and drop the file into your project window. Hope this helps!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
thanks!
it did,
thanks again!
September 15th, 2008 at 11:48 am
dude, there are many a things i’d appreciate in ur tutorial..
1. English is too gud.. dat means u’ve put ur best efforts for the language too..
2. i’ve seen many tuts but no one has ever told to make a Path via Pen Tool and actually shown it.. i knew how to make path.. but its gud for beginners too..
3. if ur thinking of making a blog or a group on Flickr etc.. plz inform me.. i’d appreciate if u take help from me in any case
waiting for ur response on akshay731@hotmail.com
regards
Akshay
September 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
hey i think my comment didnt work but ill say it again good tutorial keep up the good work
from brendan
September 25th, 2008 at 4:45 am
wow I really enjoyed your tutorial
your have good techniques in photoshop. Thanks for sharing every detail in the tutorial 
was gr8 help 