Gothic Brush

I own the intellectual copyright for the written tutorial.  What you make is yours, but please do not take my tutorial.  Share only my link.

This tutorial is intended for a beginner to learn about using layer blends.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Photoshop CS - CS3.  You may download a free trial at Adobe.

Remember to save as a .psd file often!

You will need a cutout or tube.

1.  Open a new, transparent image, size 400 x 400.

2.  Open your tube and resize it.  Image > resize.  Set the longest side to NO more than 400 PIXELS

3.  Select > All.  Edit > Copy

4.  Click on your new image.  Edit > Paste.

5.  In the Layer Palette, click on the bottom layer.

6.  Set your background color to black, and the foreground color to a color from your tube.

7.  Choose the gradient tool

8.  Click on the drop-down menu from the gradient toolbar and choose the foreground-to-background gradient (should be the first one)

9.  After clicking ok,  Set the gradient to linear (second arrow).  Then click on the gradient itself to edit the gradient.

10.  Click on the word NEW

11.  Then click on the top right tab (#1). Then drag the small circle (#2) to the right so that it is located at 85% (see circle)

12.  Then on your picture, left click once on the left side and draw out a line to the right side, and click one more time.

13.  Right-click on the tube (top) layer and choose Duplicate

14.  Duplicate so that you have 5 copies of your tube.  In the Layer Palette, click on all the eyes to hide the top layers, except the bottom tube layer.  Click on the bottom tube layer to make it active.

15.  Choose the smudge tool

16.  Click on the drop-down menu for the brush tips and choose the Heavy Smear Wax Crayon 20 brushtip.  Click ok.

(Note:  You can download these brushes here, if you don't have them.  Unpack them in the preset>brush folder.  Then you will have to load the brush tip by clicking on the arrow (circled in pink) and choosing LOAD).

17.  With the smudge tool, smudge out the tube layer, like so.

18.  In the layer palette, change the blend mode to Overlay.

19.  Click on the eye of the next tube layer and click  on that layer to make it active.

20.  Using the same smudge tool brushtip, smudge out this tube layer.  Make your smudges go different directions then last layer.

21.  Change the Layer blend mode to Linear Dodge

22.  On the next tube layer, UNHIDE it and smudge that tube layer out.

23.  Change the layer blend mode to Screen

24.  On the next tube layer, UNHIDe and make it active.

25.  Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, Angle = - 11, Distance = 100 to 200. 

26.  With the smudge tool, smudge out that layer.  Change the layer blend mode to Overlay.

27.  UNHIDE the top layer and click on it to make it active

28.  Edit > Transform > Scale.  Click on the lock between the Width and Height.  Then change the width = 85%  (the height will automatically change)

29.  Layer > New >Layer

30.  Choose the gradient tool.  Choose the Black,White gradient

31.  Draw the gradient from left to right.

32.  Change the Layer Blend Mode to Soft Light

33.  Image > Canvas Size.  Add 6 to the width, add 20 to the height (I had resized mine already)

34.  Add your text.

35.  Save this as a JPEG.  File > Save As

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.