Tutorial Details
- Programs:Adobe Photoshop CS3+
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Estimated Completion Time: 3 Hours
Step 1
The first thing you need to do is create a new document (42 x 42 cm at 300 dpi, RGB color). Draw a circle using the Ellipse Tool (E) Double click on its layer to bring up the Layer Styles. Bring down the fill Opacity to 0% and add a Stroke. You can now use this as a guide for your artwork. This is a pretty large document, so you might want to keep that stroke width to about 10 px.
Step 2
Use the Line tool to create a few guides. These will define the spacing between the rows and x-height of your characters. Rotate them by -10 degrees. You'll likely play around with the proportions throughout the drawing process.
Step 3
We're now going to create the brush used to write out the text. Create a new brush and use the following settings.
Step 4
You can now start to draw the letters. I can only explain the technical aspects of this part, because the style and consistency of the letters depend on your lettering skills. Do look up terms like 'script', 'lettering', 'calligraphy alphabet' online to get an idea of how to shape each letter. Overall though, we're going for traditional calligraphy.
Step 5
Try to keep all text near the center, and swirls toward the exterior. Use the circle as a guide to keep your letters faithful to the layout.
Step 6
Deciding where to link words and rows is important. Too many ligatures can hinder legibility if used for more than letter-to-letter. Here I've made it row-to-row. Do keep this to a minimum.
Step 7
Write the final portion of the phrase. Once again, keep the circle layout intact.
Step 8
It's now time to process the handwritten text. Expand all visible layers (you might want to back up the file before you do this) by pressing Command/Ctrl + Option + E.
Step 9
Change the brush settings so that the roundness is now only 20%. Reduce the Opacity of the lettering to about 20%.
Step 10
Pick up the Pen Tool (P) and trace your first portion while keeping the original lines as a guide. Do this in Path mode. Find ways to make it more fluid and improve though. It's easier to do this with the Pen Tool, than by hand.
Step 11
Change to the brush tool and press Return. This will stroke the path with the brush you've made.
Step 12
Repeat this process for the rest of the letters. Make sure to create a new layer for each stroke. This will make things much easier when it comes to shading.
Step 13
We'll now work with clipping masks. Create a new layer, fill it with white and make it a clipping mask for the stroke.
At this point I also changed the background color to red, so that the strokes remain visible.
Step 14
to create shadows, imagine the twisting movement of the ribbon. Then trace with the Pen Tool in Path mode wherever the ribbon would be shaded.
Step 15
Right-click, select Make Selection. Press OK, create a new layer as a clipping mask, and click on the Add Layer Mask icon on the bottom of the Layers Palette.
Step 16
Draw a linear Black to White gradient as seen in the image below.
