Best Photoshop Tutorials

Nature inspired wallpaper in photoshop

by Sebastiano on 01/07/09 at 1:50 am

In this tutorial we will create an easy to make but cool wallpaper inspired by nature. The inspiration for this work derives from the incredible wallpaper that you can download for free at desktopography.net

Final Image Preview:

Step 1

Create a new document of the size of your screen. In my case 1280 x 800. Download this free stock of mountains and paste it into the canvas. Now we have to flip horizontal the image, so select Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. At the end duplicate the layer of the mountains and switch the layer blend mode to overlay with opacity 80%.

Step 2

The aim of this step is to apply a surreal space effect to the background. So Download this free image of a space scene and paste it into the document. Now you simply have to switch the layer blend mode to overlay. Download this image of a space light effect and paste also it into the canvas. Resize the image and set the layer blend mode on screen, so that black parts will disappear but not the light effect. You should obtain something like this:

Step 3

I think the image needs a stronger light effect in the center. To achieve this effect we will use the lens flare. So create a new layer and fill it with black. To apply the filter go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare; then set this layer blend mode to screen. Try to place the light effect in the center, because later we will place here a flying eagle.

Step 4

Download the image of an eagle. I downloaded this image from istockphoto but you can find lots of free images surfing the web. Place the bald eagle in correspondence with the lens flare.

Step 5

We need some cool light effect brushes to ornate the eagle. I have used the Quantum brushes realized by Axeraider70. However you can find lots of light effect brushes here. Now simply use the brushes to paint around the eagle to obtain a nice abstract effect.

Tip: when you use the light effect brushes, you can use the outer glow effect to obtain a soft light result. Simply right-click on the layer where you have painted and select Blending Options>Outer Glow.

This is my result:

Step 6

We can add some sparkles using brushes. So select a 5px basic brush and white (#FFFFFF) as foreground color. Open the brush option window (Window>Brushes) and set the option following the screenshots. Then paint around the eagle.

Step 7

To complete the work, create a new layer and fill it with a light purple (#f05ffd) and set the layer blend mode to overlay with opacity 20%. Finished! View the full size here.

Download PSD File (488)