Continued… A picture is worth a thousand words, but this might be worth a few more… learn how to make this artistic type effect that’s bursting with colour
Follow part 1 of this tutorial
Once we’ve created the type, Ctrl/right-click on the layer and rasterise the text so that it converts from an editable layer to an image. You can’t go back now and edit the text – so make sure you’ve spelt everything correctly!
We will now turn the type into its very own brush! To do this all we have to do is select a word layer and click Edit>Define Brush.
Give each of your brushes a name. Everything you create will be stored in the Brush tool selection. Now repeat steps 13-16 for each word, it is
Go back to your original portrait document and create a new layer. Click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to do this. Then click on the Brush tool and choose a brush we recently created.
Now we get to see what our brushes look like so click on Window>Brush to load the brush palette. Here we need to select Brush Tip Shape and experiment with the Spacing, Angle and Diameter of the brush.
Start filling in the image with the word but try not to be too heavy handed; use this as space to experiment and always ensure you’re on the right layer.
Continue experimenting with all your brushes and start building up the portrait. Try out different sizes and your other custom made brushes.
Create a new white layer and drag it below your typography elements. Hide all the layers except the black and grey one, Ctrl/Cmd+A to select everything and Ctrl/Cmd+C to copy. Click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
When you have added a layer mask to the typographic layer, hold Alt/Opt and click on the new layer mask thumbnail. This ensures you’ve selected the right element. Ctrl/Cmd+V to paste the black and grey layer in the mask.
Deselect the layer (Ctrl/Cmd+D) and then click off. You’ll notice that the black and grey layer gives a really ghostly addition to the typography. This just helps keep the structure of the layout – you are free to remove it if it doesn’t work with your composition.
Now we’re at the stage where we can add a gradient effect. To do this we need to go to the Layers palette and click on the FX icon. Click on Gradient Overlay to view the dialog box.
Now that the Gradient Overlay dialog box is open, click on the gradient colour and the Gradient Editor will open enabling you to play with different effects. Stay here for a while till you think you’ve got it right.
You can easily finish here, or you could continue on playing around with even more colours. Be sure to keep saving your file, though, so you don’t lose your hard work.
You can still carry on experimenting and achieve lots of different variants. For example the Background layer here is placed on top of the type and the blending mode set to Darken to give a really cool effect. Go forth and experiment!