Design a Halloween Pumpkin Patch Text Effect

Step 1

Create a new document (600X600px) and then create a new document called ‘background gradient’. Fill this layer with a radial gradient ranging from 241e3b to 071225.

Step 2

Create a new layer called ‘highlights’. Create a series of radial gradients over your canvas, (fc00ff to transparent, 00f6ff to transparent)

Then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’.

Step 3

Download this great image of a grassy landscape.

Paste it into the bottom of your image, and then apply a layer mask (layer>apply layer mask>reveal all).

Drag down a linear gradient ranging from black>transparent.

Step 4

Now apply a levels adjustment layer and hue/saturation adjustment layer.

I also reduced the opacity of my ‘highlights’ layer to 60%.

Levels Adjustment Layer

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Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Hue: 0
Saturation: -30
Lightness: -30

Step 5

Download this great stars brush set.

Apply various star brushes over your sky on a new layer called ‘stars’.

Then reduce your ‘stars’ layer opacity to 30%. Go to filter>sharpen>sharpen just to make your stars a little clearer.

Step 6

I downloaded this Cloud Photoshop Brush Set. Then I applied the brushes over my stars:

Step 7

Now download this moon brush set.

Apply one of the moon brushes to the top right of your canvas.

Then download this bat brush set. Apply the bats over your moon.

Step 8

Now type out ‘PSDFAN’ at the bottom of your canvas.

I used the following font settings:

Font: Clutchee
Size: 250pt
Color: 505050

Step 9

Apply a bevel/emboss and gradient overlay blending option:

Bevel and Emboss

Depth: 1000%
Size: 10px
Soften: 8px
Angle: 120
Altitude: 30
Highlight opacity: 19%
Shadow Opacity: 16%.

Gradient Overlay

Gradient Colors: ffd200 to ffae00
Opacity: 100%

Step 10

Create a new top layer called ‘watercolor overlay’.

Go to edit>fill and fill your canvas with 50% gray (see below).

Then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’ and begin applying watercolor brush marks over your text in black for the shadows, and then white for the highlights. Use a 20% opacity brush, and download this water color brush set.

Step 11

You will notice that your watercolor marks go outside of the boundaries of your text.

To fix this, option+click on your text layer within your layers palette. This will select the shape of your ‘PSD’ text. Then go to select>inverse and with your selection in place, select your watercolor brushes layer. Hit delete to delete all areas of your watercolor brushes outside of your text area.

Step 12

Now apply a levels adjustment layer.

Levels Adjustment Layer

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Be sure to apply a clipping mask (layer>apply clipping mask). This will make sure that your levels adjustments only effect the layer directly beneath your adjustment layer (in this case, your text layer).

Step 13

Use your pen tool to create a path within your letter ‘D’. This path line should follow the shape of your D letter’s curve.

Step 14

Select your brush tool, and select an 8px, soft, black paintbrush.

Now select your pen tool again, right click on your path line and click ‘stroke path’.

This should stroke your path line with your 8px black paintbrush.

Call this layer ‘pumpkin line’.

Right click on your path and click ‘delete path’.

Step 15

Now reduce your ‘pumpkin lines’ layer opacity to 16%. Duplicate this layer, and move it just to the right of your original line. Then go to image>adjustments>invert. This will turn your black line white. This should give the impression of depth, as each line represents shadows, and then highlights.

Step 16

Repeat this technique, until each of your letters is covered with these ’3d’ lines.

Then merge down all of your line layers into one layer called ‘pumpkin lines’.

You’ll notice that parts of your lines overlap your letters. Repeat your technique of selecting your letters, inverting your selection and deleting the overlap.

Step 17

Download this awesome grass brush set.

Use your eye-dropper tools to sample colors from your grass photo background. Then apply a variety of the grass brushes over your letters:

Step 18

Download this great photo of a pumpkin patch.

Cut out some of the pumpkin stems and paste them into your document. Go to edit>transform and use your transform tools to resize/rotate your stems to fit on the top of your pumpkin letters.

Step 19

Now create a new layer called ‘dodge/burn’. Fill your canvas with 50% gray (edit>fill).

Then use a black paintbrush to paint in your shadows (concentrate around the bottom of your pumpkins, as well as around the base of the stems). Use a white paintbrush to paint in your highlights.

You can see the dodge/burn layer set at ‘normal’ blend mode (100% opacity), and then ‘overlay’ blend mode (40% opacity).

Step 20

Create a new layer called ‘moonbeam overlay’.

Now use your path tool or lasso selection tool to form a shape like the one below, and fill it with white.

Then go to filter>blur>gaussian blur and apply a 23px gaussian blur.

Step 21

Duplicate your ‘moonbeam overlay’ layer, renaming the duplicate as simply ‘moonbeam’. Then with your ‘moonbeam overlay’ layer change it’s layer blend mode to ‘overlay’ and reduce it’s opacity to 20%.

With your ‘moonbeam’ layer, keep the blend mode as ‘normal’ but reduce the layer opacity to 6%.

This should create a nice subtle lighting effect cast from your moon over your pumpkin letters:

Step 22

Apply a curves adjustment layer. Then reduce this layer’s opacity to 50%:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome: