Make a Sketchy Wallpaper for this Christmas
This tutorial will show how we can create a sketchy wallpaper for Christmas this year! We shall cover watercoloring, pencil sketching and some simple lighting effects. It will be good if you are working with a pen and tablet.  |
Preview of Final Image |
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| Create a document of size 800×600 pixels. Make a new layer and create a gradient like what I did below. The colors used are, #02314F – #48C0ED – #001847 (from top to bottom). |
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| Select the Brush tool and open up its Presets Brushes. Load the Wet Media Brushes and click on Append. Pick on the Watercolor Fat Tip. |
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| Select the Gradient layer you made earlier and create a Layer Mask on it. Fill the mask with black and set the foreground color to white. Increase the Brush Size to 120px and Opacity to 60%. On the mask, paint several random horizontal strokes as shown below. Rename this layer as Sky. |
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| Make a new layer above the Sky layer and name it as Snow Border. Using the same brush as the previous step, set the foreground color to white and Opacity to 100%. This time paint around the bottom area of the document. You can also touch up on the left and right borders. |
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| Create a Levels Adjustments layer and set the values to 11, 0.5, 255. |
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| Create a new layer above the Snow Border and name it as Slope. Reduce the Brush Size to 4px and Opacity to 100%. Sketch a slope like what I have done below. There is no hard rules on how to do the sketching, but will be much easier if you are using a pen tablet. |
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| Create two slopes roughly the same size and place them side by side. |
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| Create a new layer above the Slope and name it as Huts. Increase the Brush Size to 50px and Opacity to 50%. Briefly dot the areas on the slopes that you want the huts to be. |
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| Then set the Brush Size to 4px and Opacity to 100%. Sketch a few huts like what I have done. |
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| Create a new layer and name it as Snow. Using the same Brush settings, paint a few dots around to document. |
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| Create a new layer and name it as Glitter. Draw a cross using the Pencil tool and fade the 4 corners with the Eraser. |
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| Rotate the glitter to 45 degrees and duplicate several of it around the document. |
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| Create a new layer and name it as Lens. Draw a large white circle and using the Eraser tool, fade the circle from its center point. |
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| Duplicate several of this Lens layer and position them randomly over the document. |
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| Create a new layer and name it as Santa Claus. Using the Brush tool with Size 4px and Opacity 100%, draw a brief outline of a Santa Claus. |
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| Create a new layer below the outline and paint the white areas. Move your pen or mouse in circular motion so as to make the sketchy effect. |
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| Repeat the same for the red areas. |
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| Let us fill in the skin areas. |
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Follow by adding in the glasses  |
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| Then we paint in some highlights and shadows. |
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| Now select the Brush tool and pick on the preset Star 14 pixels brush. Open up the Brush Palette and key in the following settings. |
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| Lastly, create a new layer and write your Christmas wishes to complete the design. Apply Outer Glow to the texts for a better result. That is all! Hope you enjoy the tutorial. Thanks for reading. |
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I am Johnson Koh, a graphic and web designer in Singapore. Founded 10Steps.SG in August 2008 with the purpose to share my experiments and interesting design news. Related Posts
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48 Comments | Write a Comment
Nice tutorial! Thanks.
I love it! It is unique it has style ! 10 from me!
Замечательный урок!)
Great tutorial – thank you
great job…
thanks,this Tutorial is gooder
Respect, very nice tutorial! If you want some XMas-Tutorials more, don’t miss Photoshop – Winter-Tutorials
When I saw the title of your post, I didn’t think I would really see a step-by-step tutorial! Thought you would just add one or two graphics just to help. Wow! I’m amazed! Not only did you a great job but highly useful to me as I’m a PS idiot and definitely save your page on my computer so that I can refer later!
Thanks and have a very merry Christmas!
This tutorial is featured on Top 50 Christmas Photoshop Tutorials
Liked it.
SUCH AN AMAZING WALLPAPER IT WAS AN I LOVE IT AND THE MAIN THING U DID IS U HAVE PUBLISHED THE TUTORIAL FOR THE PEOPLE TO STUDY HANDS-OFF BUDDY
My recent purchase of a gift card for a grandchild’s birthday was calculated to be quick, easy, and practical. Since we are a family of readers, the Gift Card fit all my expectations and needs! Thank you for being so reliable (and predictable!)
Классный урок по рисованию!
В принципе работать здесь нужно только кистями 
Tutorial added to thewebtuts.com
wow..You explain so well in just easy steps..thanx a lot. Happy Christmas..
nice
..never fail to make us wow 
..mer xmas
Let it snow let it snow let it snow
Thanks and merry xmas to u too!
merry X-max
Nice wallpaper btw 
Thanks buddy!
You got a really useful blog. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Take care, Nicholas Brandy ~ tinypocketpeople
Thanks a lot Nicholas. Hope to see you around often!