If you create graphics for print or the web, you’ll find lots of useful techniques for graphic design in this tutorial. We will cover everything from building a background and blending images together to importing artwork from Illustrator. Download the line artwork that I created in this tutorial if you want to follow along using the downloader right below here. In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we’ll use a ton of different techniques to create a space themed and color poster for a club scene. We’ll build the lines for the complex artwork in Illustrator, bring it over to Photoshop, using layer styles, gradient maps, glows, opacity, text, masking, adjustment layers and much, much more! Enjoy the tutorial!
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD the vector artwork here!
Additional Resources to Download:
Woman in black: https://stock.adobe.com/stock-photo/beautiful-and-sexy-blonde-woman-with-helmet/69468799
Powder brush pack: https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/58016-free-powder-photoshop-brushes
Clouds by Mila Brush Pack: https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/2187-24-clouds
Creating the Document + Photo for the Background
I created a new document at 24 by 36 inches. I only went with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, but if I was creating this for a real printing project, I’d be working with at least 150ppi. I’m also working in RGB color mode so I can have more vibrant color, but again, for printing, this would need to be CMYK. I found a great image of a starry space scene that looked color and had lots of blue tones in it. I licensed the image from Adobe Stock and dragged it into my document and used Edit>Free Transform to scale the image up larger and made it just a little bigger than my initial PSD size.
Cutting Out and Placing the Model
I found an image on Adobe Stock of a model who is looking away from the camera that I think will work well for our club poster. To cut her off the background, I used the Quick Selection tool and selected her and then went Select>Select and Mask and added a little smoothing and also used the Refine Edge Brush to paint around her flowing hair to create a nice selection of that. Check out the full video at the top of this post to see exactly what I did here. Choose to output this as a New Layer with Layer Mask. Commit the changes here and drag her over into the poster PSD. Use Free Transform to resize and drag her into the middle of the document near the bottom.
Creating the Lines in Adobe Illustrator
I like to use Adobe Illustrator to create the lines for this poster because it’s line and drawing tools are so amazingly simple, flexible, and accurate. I created a series of circles, polygons, triangles, and stars with a white stroke of 4pt. You’ll really want to check out the video to see how complex this series of shapes and lines is. I’ll go on and copy each individual stroke and paste it into Photoshop as a Smart Object. TIP: In the video, I’ll talk about the sizing and getting all the shapes to line up exactly where we need them.
Blend Modes, Layer Styles, & Opacity to Create the Effect
The four outermost and two innermost stroke shapes I set to the blend mode Overlay and reduce the opacity to 60%. I then set a vibrant pink Outer Glow Layer Style to the inner triangles and polygon as well as a very light/desaturated yellow Color Overlay and reduce the Opacity of the Color Overlay to about 60%. Reduce the Fill Opacity of the entire layer(s) to 0%. Once more, you’ll really want to check out the video at the top of this post to see exactly how all of this is working together.
Adding Text with Layer Styles and More!
I used the free font Jaapokki (Download it here!) to create my main tagline. You can choose any nice, sharp-edged, sans-serif font and it should look pretty good. Your typeface can be very bold or very thin. Both work well. Copy the Layer Style from the lines we were just working with to get an Outer Glow and Color Overlay on this text. Reduce the opacity of the Color Overlay to about 10% and set the Fill Opacity back to 100% NOTE: set the color of your text to white. Make sure you check out the full, long, detailed video up at the top of this post to see all the tips and tricks and techniques covered along the way as we create this neon club style poster. I hope you love it!
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