STYLISH BLOSSOMS - A PHOTOSHOP LAYER STYLE TUTORIAL

what you need:

Adobe Photoshop (any version will do)

shape of your choice

swirly brushes of your choice

intermediate Photoshop skills required (shapes, brushes, layers, layerstyles)

Today I want to share with you an easy technique, which you can use in a variety of ways and for a diversity of projects.

Let's start right away:

Open a new image 2800x2800/300 dpi/transparent

flood fill with medium grey

pick a shape of your choice - I am using a simple flower shape for the demonstration

and apply to your workspace

rasterize the layer with the shape (right click > rasterize)

open the STYLE menu (WINDOW > styles)

load the styles you wish to use

for the demo flower I used

'MISS KITTY' PHOTOSHOP STYLES

and for the ones from the header preview additional

SECRET GARDEN PHOTOSHOP STYLES

apply the style to your shape by clicking on the style icon in the style menu

use the shape tool and add a round or elliptical shape - place it in the middle of the flower

(you don't have to create a new layer, the shape tool does that for you automatically)

rasterize the shape layer (rightclick > rasterize)

add a style of your choice to the layer

you can always pull the layer in place or scale it as necessary after you added the style

now add a little dropshadow to the center, so it won't look so flat

access the style panel easy with double clicking the layer icon

can you see 'dropshadow'? that is where you make the changes

how much dropshadow, which distance, color opacity etc.? - it is up to you and depends what you are working on, change the shadow until you're happy with the look

the basic flower is done and you could make the grey background layer invisible and merge all visible layers and save the (rather sad) little blossom

but then you would miss out all the fun!

Let's proceed to the fancy stuff, shall we?

find a brush your like, it should be something scrolling, swirly or maybe even leaf shaped?

for the next step a swirl or doodle brush with thin ends works best

add a new layer (between shape1 and shape2)

chose your brush (solid color 100% opacity)

stamp on the brush (don't adjust it yet)

duplicate the layer 4 times and group it around the center of the flower

add a layerstyle with a metallic edge (silver, gold or whatever matches your design)

I used one from my recent MISS KITTY style

now that looks a bit dull to me - so let's make it more shiny

double click the layer to access the layer style menu

turn everything off besides 'stroke'

and maybe 'dropshadow' if it fits your element (in my demo I used dropshadow)

adjust the stroke to your liking and set it on 'inside'

this will fill small sized element parts with just the silvery pattern from the stroke if everything else is turned off

see screenshot below

copy the layerstyle and past it into each of the swirl layers

(rightclick > copy/paste layerstyle )

(note: you could also apply and adjust the style to one layer and then duplicate the rest of the swirls

I left all layers open, this way the template is more versatile)

you can also add another layer on top

take a simple round brush and stamp a few dots on it (use a hard edge for the brush)

then use a layerstyle on your little dots to turn them into little fancy dots :)

whenever you are happy with the result - turn the grey layer off, merge the flower layers and save as png

save it also as psd with open layers, this way you can use it again for other projects)

you see - there are many possibilities for new and unique designs

find my latest seamless styles at ART FOR DESIGN

or at SCRAP AND TUBES STORE

if you don't like to hassle with shapes - just get one of the amazing templates at

Scrap and Tubes Store, they are perfect for layer styles

have a great time and lots of fun with layer styles

yours creatively,

Angelica S.

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Art for Design