Creating music posters is a pretty exciting activity that almost all designers like. Many musical posters are based on illustrations. But, if you do not have time to draw something, you can create a poster using photos and textures, combining them together.
Lesson resources:
Note: using images for printing for commercial purposes, do not forget to obtain permission of the copyright holder of these images to print.
Final result:
Step 1
Create a new document size 11×17 inches with a resolution of 300 dpi. Open the tree image in Photoshop. To transform this tree into a black shape, discolor it (Ctrl + Shift + U) and then apply the Isohelii command (Threshold) to the tree layer: Image> Correction> Isohelium (Image> Adjust> Threshold). Increase the isohelial level to make the wood layer black enough.
With the tool Magic wand (Magic Wand Tool) (W), select the black area of the tree, copy this selected area and paste it into a new document. The tree should be closer to the gray shade than the black one, so apply a correction to the tree layer Hue / saturation (Image> Correction> Hue / Saturation) (Image> Adjustments> Hue / Saturation). Increase the Lightness to 25:
Apply the same steps to the image of the dried tree – turn it so that this dried tree looks like the roots of the tree.
Step 2
Now add the secondary elements. Open the bird image, discolor it (Ctrl + Shift + U) and apply to the birds Correction Levels (Image> Adjustment> Levels) (Image> Adjustments> Levels) to remove the gray sky area:
Transfer the bleached birds to the poster and place them above the tree. Turn the birds so that they fly out of the tree. For the bird layer, change Blending Mode to Multiplication (Multiply) to hide the white background behind the birds.
Now select the tool Oval area (Ellipitcal Marque Tool) (M), and while holding down the Shift key, draw a selection in the form of a circle on the layer behind the layer with the tree. Fill the drawn selection with gray (# 919191). It will be the moon.
Step 3
Add a grunge texture to the poster. Duplicate the texture 4 times, and place each copy on the poster so as to close the entire document. Merge all 4 layers with texture into one layer (Ctrl + E) and hide texture seams with tool Stamp (Clone Stamp Tool) (S).
Create a small frame around the poster using the tool. Rectangular area (Rectangle Marque Tool) (M). Now invert the selection and fill it with a light gray color (#efefef) on the layer that should be located above all existing layers.
Create a new layer between the tree and the moon and a large white soft brush to draw a light spot behind the tree. For the light spot layer, set Blend mode (Blending mode) on Overlap (Overlay).
Step 4
Now add text to the poster. For writing the text I used two types of font. To create the title, I used the font “League Gothic” – this is one of my favorite fonts. The second font that I used was “Myriad Pro Condensed Bold” (this font is in Photoshop by default. If it is not in it, use the font “League Gothic”). I posted the text as follows:
Step 5
It’s time to add color to the poster. Add a gradient map adjustment layer on top of all layers (Layer> New adjustment layer> Gradient map) (Layer – NewAdjustmentLayer – GradientMap), set the Blending Mode for this adjustment layer to Overlap (Overlay), and create a gradient as shown:
Now the poster looks more interesting and expressive. I hope you liked the lesson and the techniques that are used in it.
