Grunge: concrete grafitti

[Arika]

Alright ladies and Gentlefolk. I dont have a scanner or anything, so you get step by step explination o the process. Here goes.

Step 1: You start with a solid color that is similar to that of concrete in a city (white or offwhite, maybe grey) and you add verious imperfections on the white in a dark brown color. I use brushes with varying opacities to them and focus on Vertical lines, and the look of dirt.


Step 2: Use a brush that resembles dirt or any grunge brush to make another layer of dirt effect. Notice that I use lighter and darker shades of brown, and also the blue shades because blue and purple were my secondary colors on the sig. (I think this step could be it's own sig)


Step 3: I got a stock that was already brown and white that I used here, but you can always use the coloration tool to get it to whatever color your looking for. I cleaned up the edges and did stock work on it, and then I put it on a layer UNDER the dirt layer in step two. Then I used the filter on the dirt layer from step two and switched it to *OVERLAY*


Step 4: Here I used the same brush as the dirt layer in step two, but I used my secondary color which I chose to be blue. This blue dirt layer is on top of all the other layers thus far and will come into play more later. I also darked it up by using the filter and setting it to *MULTIPLY*


Step 5: Here's where it gets a bit interesting. On top of the blue layer I put my other stock image and colorized it to be light brown. Then I used a layer mask and lightened the area around his shoulders with a round soft brush. But at the back of his head I used the same dirt brush again at a high opacity so it left the sharp lines that make the stock look likes its been chipped away.


Step 6: I use my shadowing and highlighting brush to darken the Stocks. I switch the color to black and brush were I want to add shadow and use the filter and set it at *OVERLAY* or *BURN* depending on how dark I want the shadows to be.


Step 7: I use the same shadowing and highlighting brush to make highlights by switching the color to white this time. I put the white where I want the highlights to go and use the filter and switch it to *OVERLAY* or *DODGE* depending upon how bright I want it to be. By the way, if I want the shadowing and highlighting to look really smooth I use motion blur or just regular blur to get it that way.


AND THAT'S IT. Aside from the border and the text, but you can put your own touches and stuf there. that how I do the look.

My Highlighting and shadowning brush: You can see how its round and how you can get alot of different levels of opacity with it. thats why I like it, it can be see through or solid. some times I Hlt or Sdw with colors other that white and balck so it gets a tinge of color, but not often.


Dirt Brushes: These are some of the grunge brushes I used for the dirt and concrete effects on the sig. The one on the far right is the one I used most. It's also the one I used when I was doinf the layer masking to get that chipped away looking effect.



And thats all for that style, oviously no two sigs will look the same and it's all up to your creativity. you'll find that most of my sigs techniques arent really complicated, but different from most other peoples style.