Creating a Vibrant Album Cover in Photoshop

In today’s tutorial I will show you how to create a vibrant album cover using Photoshop. The tutorial is really simple and easy to follow and has a pretty sleek outcome. We will only be using the tools Photoshop provides for us and with this create something unique. Hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Artist: Jacques van Heerden // An1ken
Occupation: Digital Artist
Portfolio: www.an1ken.net
Blog: www.creativeoverflow.net

Final Preview:

Tutorial Requirements:

Time: 20-30mins
Difficulty: Beginner
Brushes: Grunge | Splatter

Step 1:

Open up Photoshop and create a new canvas with the size 2000 x 1500px, now create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (CTRL+ SHIFT+N) and fill it with Purple #8a39c2. Now right click on your new layer and select Blending Options, or Double Click on your Layer. Now select Gradient Overlay from the side panel and use the settings I used below and you should have the same outcome that I do below.

Step 2:

Now set your foreground color to Light Purple #b690d0 and grab your Custom Shape Tool (Shift+U) and right click on your canvas, this will bring up a Selection panel. Make sure you have All your shapes present in the Custom Shape tool, if you aren’t sure click the small arrow on the top right of the box and then select “All”. Append your selection IF prompted, if not then don’t worry about it. Scroll down the shapes and select the Illusion type circle, I have marked it below.

Now Create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (CTRL + SHIFT+N) remember to check that your foreground color is still #b690d0 and then Create Your Shape On your Canvas, but make the edges overlap your Canvas. It will be a pretty big Shape. At the moment you will only see a outline, these are called Paths. To fill the Path select your pen tool and right click on the canvas and hit Fill Path. Then right click on the canvas again after you have filled your path and select Delete Path. My screen shot below shows you the size of my shape before I deleted the Paths.

Set the blending mode of your Shape layer to Soft Light, it should start looking better. Now go up to Filter>Distort>Twirl set the Angle to 286 degress and hit OK. Now Press CTRL+F or go to Filter>Twirl, using the Shortcut (CTRL+F) it repeats the last effect used. Here is my result so far.

Step 3:

Now create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer and set your foreground color to Light Purple #c379d7 and select your brush tool. For this step your going to need Grunge Brushes and Splatter Brushes, Come up with something unique, remember to keep the foreground color #c379d7. Here is my outcome after adding some brushes.

Step 4:

Here comes the part where you transform the entire piece, you wouldn’t think something so simple would be able to pull it off. Here it goes. Go up to Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient FIll now hit OK when prompted. Use the settings below that I used to see the result. The gradient used is a default Photoshop Gradient. I have pointed it out below.

Now Hit OK and there you go. Effect achieved.

Step 5:

Now to add the little details. Create a New Layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) and set your foreground color to Black #000000 now go to your brush tool and choose a 15px hard brush and now select your pen tool. With your Newly created layer selected draw a line 45 degrees between the two colors. Now right click your pen tool on the canvas and hit Stroke Path. Make sure you have chosen Brush and that simulate Pressure is turned off. Make sure to delete the path when you are done.

Now Create another New layer and select your Circle Marquee tool and draw a circle in the middle of the canvas and fill it with Black #000000. Now go to Select>Deselect and then grab your Type Tool and make sure your Type Color is White #FFFFFF and position your type in the middle of The black circle and your done. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.