Making of the Magical Heroes of 10Steps.SG
| Let us do something different this week! We will be creating a game poster with magical theme. This tutorial shows how to draw a sword from scratch and also introducing some of the latest high quality brushes on the internet. |
Preview of Final Image |
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| Create a document of size 595×840 pixels. Download a nice texture from Texture Lovers. Place the texture into the document and go to Image > Adjustment > Desaturate. |
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| Create a new layer above the texture layer. Rename this layer as Radial Gradient. Make a green to blue radial gradient like what I have done below. Feel free to replace mine with other preferred colors. |
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| Set the Blend Mode of Radial Gradient to Soft Light. Download Dragon Tattoo Designs from Photoshop Free Brushes. Select Dragon 23 and paint it on a new layer with black color. Set the Opacity of this layer to 60%. |
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| Let us start drawing a sword. Create a new layer and rename it as Blade. Using the Pen tool, make a shape of half blade as shown below. |
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| Right-click on the Blade and go to Blending Options. Choose Gradient and key in the settings below. |
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| Repeat the same step for the other side of the Blade. But adjust the gradient slightly so the blade center will be visible. |
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| Create a new layer and at the tip of the Blade, draw a small rounded rectangular shape with color #4f5c4d. |
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| Paint a small highlight on the rounded rectangle with #c8cbb0. |
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| Repeat similar steps for remaining parts of the sword. You can let your creativity flow on how you want the sword to look. I am doing a simple one for this tutorial. |
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| Create a new layer and rename it as Sword Handle. Create a vertical rounded rectangle. Right-click on the layer and select Blending Options. Choose Gradient and key in the settings below. |
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| Create a new layer and rename it as Pearl. Draw a small grey oval at the intersection on the sword. |
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| CTRL-left click on the Oval layer to load selection. Go to Select > Modify > Contract. Set the Radius to 1px and hit OK. Make a vertical linear gradient (white to dark grey) in the selection. |
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| With the selection still active, go to Select > Modify > Contract. Set the Radius to 1px and hit OK. Make a vertical linear gradient (dark red to light red) in the selection. Paint a small white highlight at the tip of the red oval. |
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| Create a new layer above the Sword Handle. Using Pencil tool with 1px and black color, draw the strips like what I did below. Right-click on this layer and choose Blending Options. Choose Drop Shadow. Set the Blend Mode to Normal and color to white. Set the Opacity to 50% and Angle to 90 degrees. |
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| Download Extremely Abstract Brush from Qbrushes. Select one of the flare brushes and paint it white behind the sword. Right-click on the layer and choose Blending Options. Select Outer Glow and key in the settings below. |
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| Repeat the same for more flare with some other colors. |
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| Download Lightning Brushes from Qbrushes. Paint some lightnings behind the sword using the same blue outer glow applied for the first flare earlier. |
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| Back to the dragon tattoos that you downloaded right at the start. Choose the dragon that I used below. Create a new layer above the sword and paint the dragon on it in white. Resize so it fits nicely around the sword. |
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| Apply the same blue outer glow to this dragon. Erase some parts of the body to reveal the sword. The purpose is to make the whole scene looks like a dragon is circling around the sword. |
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| Select the Eraser tool and set its Opacity to 50%. Erase some parts of the dragon so there is an uneven level of transparency. Pick the Smudge tool and set its Strength to 40%. Set the size to 100px and start smudging areas of the dragon so it looks a bit blur and dreamy. |
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| Download Celtic Garamond the 2nd from Dafont. Type in your text above the sword layer. |
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| Make the "Heroes" red color and apply the following layer styles to it. Do the same for "of" word. |
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| Let do a simple gold effect on the "10Steps.SG". Apply the following gradient to it. |
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| Merge these texts together into a single layer. CTRL+left click on this text layer to load a selection around it. Create a new layer below this text layer and rename it as Text Outline. Go to Select > Modify > Expand. Set the Radius to 1px. Fill the selection with black on Text Outline layer. |
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| CTRL+left click on Text Outline layer to load selection. Create a new layer below the Text Outline layer and rename it as Text Border. Fill the selection with black on the Text Border layer and key in the settings below. |
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| And there you have it! I hope this tutorial will be useful for your learning. Have a great weekend everyone. Cheers! |
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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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21 Comments | Write a Comment
Hi,
great Tutorials! I just wanted to point out that at some points (not only in this tut.) it would be better to use a layermask instead of the erase-tool.
Just to make sure you can edit it later.
I don’t know why, but I first tought this is gonna be a long tutorial, but you kept it simple. great design. keep it up!
Thanks Serban. I always try to keep my tutorials simple. Glad you enjoyed this.
I wish we get more great tutorials in future
Definitely will have, buddy
Nice tutorial, will be helpful to many.
nice work dude!!! ur my new idol!!:)
Aha nice work man. Keep up.
great works. not so realistic but still very good tuts.
Amazing tut
very true..
good job