WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello designers! Renee here with a Photoshop tutorial for a nature hike poster. We’ll create a realistic wood sign using a variety of styles, photos and brushes.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL?

Watch the video tutorial below and subscribe to our YouTube channel for regular updates direct to your inbox.

Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:

Nature Hike PT

Nature Hike PT

Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebie files

The freebie pack includes a wealth of inspirational resources from Go Faster Labs, Graphic Spirit, Grut Brushes, Julia Dreams, Mix Pix Box and Pixel Buddha.

This freebie pack is just a hint of the resources available in The Inspiring Artistic Design Collection for just $29 (that’s a full 99% off). This bundle brings you thousands of best-selling, colourful, artistic elements that are just waiting to be played with.

Nature Hike PT

Step 1: Background

Open Photoshop and go to File > New. In the New Document dialog box, enter a width of 18 inches and a height of 24 inches. Set your Resolution to 300 ppi and your Color Mode to RGB.

Click OK to create the document.

Nature Hike PT

Save your file.

We’ll start with a background image. Go to File > Place Linked. Navigate to the Mix Pix Box folder and select 2.jpg. Press Place.

Hold Shift and use the corner handles to increase the size until it fills the entire artboard. Press enter when done.

Nature Hike PT

Doubleclick the foreground color swatch at the bottom of the toolbar. In the Color Picker popup, enter RGB values of 80/160/188. Press OK.

Nature Hike PT

Select the Brush Tool (b).

Open the Tool Presets panel (Window > Tool Presets).

In the Finder window (or File Explorer window on a PC), navigate to the Grut Brushes folder. Select the GrutBrush-FX-IL-Art-Shard file and drag it from the window into the Tool Presets panel in Photoshop.

Nature Hike PT

At the bottom of the Layers palette (Window > Layers), click the Create A New Layer icon. Double click the layer name, Layer 1, and rename it Blue Paintbrush.

In the Tool Presets panel, select the Art Shard brush.

Press the right bracket key (]) several times to increase the size to about 1600 px.

Click on the artboard and drag to create brushed areas. Create a rough vignette shape around the center top of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to the Go Faster Labs folder. Select WaterColor_Tex07 and press Place.

Hold Shift and use the corner handles to increase the size until the watercolor texture covers the entire artboard with no edges showing. Press Enter.

Nature Hike PT

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the FX icon. Select Color Overlay.

In the Layer Style popup, select a Blend Mode of Screen with Opacity at 100%. Click the color swatch. In the Color Picker popup, enter RGB values of 55/175/210. Click OK on the Color Picker, then OK on the Layer Style.

Nature Hike PT

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Opacity to 60%.

Nature Hike PT

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to WREATH_1 in the Julia Dreams folder. Press Place.

At the top of the artboard, increase the Width (W:) to 40%, then click the link icon between Width and Height to maintain aspect ratio. Position in the open area where we avoided painting and press Enter.

Nature Hike PT

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Blend Mode to Multiply and the Opacity to 50%.

Nature Hike PT

Our last step for the background will be to add some clouds at the top of the poster.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Layer icon. Double click the layer name and rename it Clouds.

Just like we did with the Art Shard brush, navigate to the Grut Brushes folder in Finder (or File Explorer) and this time, drag both the GrutBrush-FX-Cloud-Cotton and the GrutBrush-FX-Cloud-Griffin files into the Tool Presets panel in Photoshop.

In Photoshop, at the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Layer icon and name the new layer Clouds.

Select the Brush Tool and in the Tool Presets panel, select the Cloud Griffin brush.

Press the right bracket key (]) several times to increase the size to about 2000 px.

Lastly for setup, press d to change the current swatch foreground color to black and background color to white, then press x to toggle so white is your foreground color.

Click at the top of artboard and drag to create soft, subtle clouded areas. Drag across the same area a few times.

Nature Hike PT

In the Tool Presets, switch to Cloud Cotton. Again, press the right bracket key several times to increase the size to about 1600 px. This brush will give us much heavier clouds, so instead of swiping across, just click in a single spot, then move and click again. Do this until you’ve built a realistic layer of clouds across the top of the poster.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select the layer named 2, then hold Shift and select the Clouds layer. This will also select anything between those layers – in this case, Blue Paintbrush, WaterColor_Tex07 and WREATH_1.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Group icon. Double click the name of the group, Group 1, and rename it Background.

Step 2: Sign Structure

Click the Create A New Group icon again. Name the group Wooden Sign.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to Badge-label-3 in the Graphic Spirit folder. Press Place.

At the top of the artboard next to Width, enter 48% and click the link icon. Press Enter.

Position the badge just above center in the middle of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, drag the Badge layer into the Wooden Sign group.

Open the Styles panel (Window > Styles). At the top right corner of the panel, click the menu icon, then choose Load Styles. Navigate to the Graphic Spirit folder and select Woody-Styles-Freebies, then click Load.

In the Styles palette, find the style called Wood 3 and click to apply it to the badge.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette under Badge-label-3, double click Pattern Overlay. Increase the Scale to 100%.

Nature Hike PT

On the left side of the Layer Style pop-up, click on Drop Shadow. Reduce the Opacity 60%. Increase Distance to 40 pixels and Size to 30 pixels.

Nature Hike PT

Now click on Bevel & Emboss. Increase the Depth to 40% and Size to 50 pixels. Press OK.

Nature Hike PT

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Layer icon. Double click the layer name and rename it Inset Frame.

Hold Cmd and in the Layers palette, click the thumbnail image on the badge layer to create a selection around it.

At the top of the artboard, go to Select > Modify > Contract. Enter 100 pixels and click OK.

Nature Hike PT

Press Opt + Backspace to fill the selection with the foreground color, white.

Again, go to Select > Modify > Contract. This time, enter 20 pixels and press OK.

Nature Hike PT

Press Backspace to delete the color inside the current selection, then press Cmd + d to Deselect.

In the Styles palette, select Carving 2. This will give us a carved wood look.

Nature Hike PT

Next, we’ll add some text to our sign. We’re going to use Pacifico Regular – a script font readily available online for free.

Select the Type Tool (t). Click once at the top middle of the wooden sign and type: Join us for a

Open the Character palette (Window > Character) and change the font to Pacifico Regular at 120 pt.

Nature Hike PT

In the Styles palette, select Carving 2.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, drag the text layer down to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate it.

On the artboard, use the Move Tool (v) while holding Shift to drag the copy straight down to the bottom of the sign.

Nature Hike PT

Select the Type Tool and select the copied text on the artboard. Type: through nature

In the Character palette, reduce the size to 110 pt.

Nature Hike PT

Click on the wood below the last line and type: LEARN MORE AT DESIGNCUTS.COM

I’m going to use Hogar Bold at 36 pt, a premium font, but any sans serif font with a hint of playfulness will work.

In the Styles palette, click Carving 2.

Nature Hike PT

Step 3: Wooden Letters

Next up, we’ll add some big wooden letters in the middle of the sign. For this, we’ll want to use a bold sans serif font. I’m going to use Abrade Black, but any thick font will work – even Arial Black.

With the Type Tool, click once on the artboard in the middle of the wooden sign. Type: HIKE

In the Character palette, change the font to Abrade Black at 360 pt.

Nature Hike PT

In the Styles palette, select Parquet 1.

In the Layers palette under HIKE, double click Pattern Overlay. Increase the Scale to 100%.

Nature Hike PT

At the left side of the Layer Styles pop-up, click on Drop Shadow. Increase the Distance to 20 pixels and the Size to 30 pixels.

Nature Hike PT

At the bottom left of the Layer Style pop-up, click the FX icon and choose Color Overlay.

Change the Blend Mode to Color and reduce the Opacity to 75%.

Double click the color swatch to bring up the Color Picker and enter RGB values of 70/125/70.

Click OK on the Color Picker, then OK on the Layer Styles pop-up.

Nature Hike PT

Go to File > Place Linked and select Nail21 in the Graphic Spirit folder. Press Place.

At the top of the artboard, enter a Width of 3.5% and click the link icon to maintain aspect ratio. Press Enter.

Use the Move Tool to position the nail at the top left side of the H in HIKE.

Nature Hike PT

Hold Opt + Shift, then click on the nail and drag down to create a duplicate.

Note: Hold Option creates the duplicate. Holding Shift allows you to drag only in 45 degree angles – keeping things nice and straight.

Position the duplicate at the bottom of the left side of the H.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select both Nail21 and Nail21 copy. Drag them down to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate both layers.

On the artboard, use the Move Tool to drag the new copies to the right side of the H.

Nature Hike PT

Repeat this exact same process for each of the remaining letters. Select the two or four most recent nail layers in the Layers palette. Drag them to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate them. On the artboard, use the Move Tool to drag them to the correct position on each letter.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select the topmost Nail layer. Hold Shift, then select the bottommost Nail layer.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Group icon. Name the group Nails.

This is a handy little trick. Instead of applying a style to each nail layer, we’ll apply it once to the entire group.

With the Nails group selected in the Layers palette, go to the Styles palette and select Nail Heads 1.

Nature Hike PT

Step 4: Sign Hardware

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to Rope1 in the Graphic Spirit folder. Press Place.

At the top of the artboard, enter a Width of 35% and click the link icon. Press Enter, then position at the top right of the artboard so it looks like the sign is hanging from the rope.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, drag Rope1 to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate it.

On the artboard, drag the duplicate to the left side of the wooden sign.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select both Rope layers. At the bottom of the palette, click the Create A New Group icon and name the new group Rope Under.

Drag the new group below the Wooden Sign group (and above the Background group) in the Layers palette.

Go to File > Place Linked and select Rope9.

At the top of the artboard, enter a Width of 8% and click the link icon to maintain aspect ratio. Press Enter.

In the Layers palette, drag the Rope9 layer to the very top above the Nails group.

On the artboard, position the rope knot on the left side about where it looks like the rope should attach.

Nature Hike PT

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the FX icon and choose Drop Shadow.

Leave the Blend Mode on Multiply and the Opacity at 100%. Change the Distance to 25 pixels, Spread to 0% and Size to 30 pixels. Press OK.

Nature Hike PT

Hold Option + Shift and use the Move Tool on the artboard to drag a copy of the knot to the right and position over the right rope area.

Nature Hike PT

Go to File > Place Linked and select Nail9. Press Place.

At the top of the artboard, change the Width to 15% and click the link icon. Press Enter, then position at the bottom left of the wooden sign.

Nature Hike PT

In the Styles palette, select Nail Heads 2.

Nature Hike PT

Hold Option + Shift and use the Move Tool on the artboard to drag a copy of the nail to the same relative position on the right side of the sign.

To keep it from looking like an exact copy, we’ll rotate the screw slightly. Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate. Use the corner handles to rotate the screw in either direction as much as you want. Press Enter when done.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select both Nail9 layers and both Rope9 layers. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create A New Group icon. Name the new group Rope Above.

Step 5: Leaves and Flowers

We’ll fill out the rest of our space with real leaves and flowers.

In the Pixel Buddha freebies folder, open Flowers-Boom-Freebies.psd.

In the Layers palette, turn on the SunFlower-3 layer by clicking the empty space to the left of the folder icon.

Go to Layer > Duplicate Group. In the pop-up under Destination, choose the main layout file we’ve been working in and press OK.

Nature Hike PT

Back in the main layout file, use your Move Tool to drag the Sunflower to the left side of the H in HIKE.

Nature Hike PT

Go back into the Flowers-Boom-Freebies file. Turn on the SunFlower-2 group, then go to Layer > Duplicate Group. In the pop-up, select the main layout file and press OK.

In the main layout file, position the new sunflower after the word HIKE, towards the bottom of the E.

Nature Hike PT

In the Flowers-Boom-Freebies file, turn on the Flower-7 group, then go to Layer > Duplicate Group. In the pop-up, select the main layout file and press OK.

In the main layout file, position the little green flower above the i in HIKE.

Nature Hike PT

In Flower-Boom, duplicate the Flower-10 group to the main layout file.

In the main layout file, position Flower-10 at the bottom left corner of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

Hold Option, then click on Flower-10 on the artboard and drag to the right to make a copy. Position this one a little lower.

Nature Hike PT

Use the Option + drag technique to make another copy to the right of the last one.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select original Flowers-10 group and drag it to the Create A New Layer icon at the bottom of the palette.

Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. On the artboard, drag the reflected copy to the right side of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

In the Flower-Boom file, duplicate the Leaf-8 group to the main layout file.

In the main layout file, drag Leaf-8 to the bottom left of the artboard.

Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate. Use the corner handles to rotate the leaf slightly to the left – about 10 degrees, then press Enter.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, drag Leaf-8 to the Create A New Group icon. With the new layer selected, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

On the artboard, drag the reflected copy to the right bottom corner.

Nature Hike PT

In the Flower-Boom file, duplicate the Branch-6 group to the main layout file.

In the main layout file, position Branch-6 in the open space between leaves on the bottom left of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

Duplicate the Branch-6 layer (using either Option + drag or by dragging the layer to the Create A New Layer icon).

Position the duplicate on the bottom right side of the artboard in the space between leaves.

Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate and use the corner handles to rotate to the left about 35 degrees. Press Enter when done.

Nature Hike PT

Hold Option and drag the branch to the right to create a duplicate. Position the duplicate in the far right corner.

Nature Hike PT

In the Flowers-Boom file, duplicate SunFlower-4 to the main layout file.

In the main layout file, drag the new sunflower to the bottom left corner. In the Layers palette, drag the SunFlower-4 group below the Branch-6 group so it’s slightly hidden behind it.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, find the SunFlower-3 group. Drag it to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate it. Drag the duplicate group to the very top of the Layers palette so it’s above everything else.

On the artboard, position the sunflower on the bottom right side with the leaves.

Nature Hike PT

Go into the Flowers-Boom file one last time. We’re going to make a fresh duplicate of Leaf-8 (that hasn’t been rotated) onto the main layout file.

Position the new Leaf-8 in the middle bottom of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, find SunFlower-2 and duplicate the group. Drag the new group to the top of the Layers palette. Position the flower over the leaves in the middle bottom of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

Now we’ll give the illusion of more leaves by adding some color behind the existing leaves and flowers.

In the Layers palette, click the Create A New Layer icon. Name the new layer Extra Leaves.

Drag the new layer just above the Background group.

At the bottom of the toolbar, click the foreground color swatch to the open the Color Picker. When the Color Picker opens, hover over the leaf images to see the Eyedropper tool, then click on a mid green color on one of the leaves to sample it. Mine is RGB 73\107\50. Press OK.

Select the Brush Tool (b).

At the top left of the artboard, click the downward facing arrow to the right of the brush thumbnail image. In the Brush Preset panel that opens, click the settings icon at the top right of the panel. Choose Load Brushes.

Navigate to Woody-Brushes-Freebies in the Graphic Spirit folder. Press Load.

Select the Leaf 6 brush. Press the right bracket key on the keyboard several times to increase the size to about 1600 pixels.

Drag the brush along the bottom edge of the artboard, moving up just a little as you approach the sides of the artboard.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, duplicate the Flower-10 group. Drag the new duplicate below the Wooden Sign, above the Rope Under group.

On the artboard, position the duplicate over the rope on the top left side of the sign.

Nature Hike PT

Now find the first Leaf-8 group and duplicate it.

Go to Edit > Free Transform. At the top of the artboard next to Width, enter 75% and click the link icon to maintain aspect ratio.

In the Layers palette, drag the group below the Wooden Sign group.

Position the leafs at the top left of the wooden sign.

Nature Hike PT

In the Layers palette, select the two most recent groups (the leaves on top of the ropes at the top left of the artboard). Drag them to the Create A New Layer icon to duplicate them.

Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. On the artboard, drag the duplicates to the right side of the wooden sign.

Nature Hike PT

Step 6: Final Touches

Let’s make sure people have the information they need to join our nature hike.

Select the Type Tool and click once at the top middle of the artboard over the clouds. Type:
Saturdays at 7amSunset Park

In the Character palette, change the font to Hogar Bold (or whatever font you used for the designcuts.com text earlier) at 48 pt.

Click the color swatch on the Character palette, then use the eyedropper to sample a bright, sky blue from the background.

Open the Paragraph palette and select Center Text.

Nature Hike PT

Nature Hike PT

For our final step, let’s brighten the whole piece up just a little.

In the Layers palette, select the very top layer or group.

Open the Adjustments panel (Window > Adjustments). Click the icon for Hue/Saturation.

In the Properties panel that opens, increase the Saturation to +20 and the Lightness to +5.

Nature Hike PT

And we’re done! Thanks for joining me to create this fun, nature hike poster using various layer techniques and tons of styles. I hope you’ve gotten a sense of the complexity of layer styles and how far they can take you.

Nature Hike PT

Nature Hike PT

Remember that whether it’s your outcome for this tutorial or something new you’ve made, we’d love to see your designs on our Facebook page.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I always look forward to hearing from you!

There’s still time to check out The Inspiring Artistic Design Collection to bring your design work to life with world class quality tools, from some of the greatest designers in the industry for only $29.