tutorial: true blood banner

[green]

You can make this! Just follow the tut which is under the cut.

Start by making a plain image. Mine is 600x400. Fill it with a medium gray.



Next, make stripes with the selection tool and fill them with a lighter gray.



Next, find a nice texture photo you like. I chose this one: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1271619 Add the photo as a new layer and move it around/resize it until it looks good. Set the layer to multiply and set the opacity to whatever you like that looks nice.



Make a new screen layer and do a gradient fill with a fading white on top. Move the layer around to wherever it looks best. I duplicated the layer.



Play around with the curves layer to get it to the right dark/light amount. I used input:172 output:33.



If you want it to be colored, you can go over it with different colors on your paintbrush on a color layer, or you can add a color texture. I just played around with a new color balance layer.



Now you're ready to add a picture. I used this one: http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID29830/images/eric_northman.jpg and set it to multiply, then went through and erased where I didn't want it seen. Then I put the layer under the color balance layer so it would match better.



I added this photo for texture: http://lebstock.deviantart.com/art/headline-may-1869-23095580 set to multiply and at 4% opacity.



The black was a little too plain for me, so I added a scratch texture: http://chandang.deviantart.com/art/Scratch-Texture-54915337 set to screen at 22% opacity.



Add text and a little graphic squiggle around Eric and you're done! (I didn't like the color so I color balanced it closer to cyan and got this)



♥comments are gold
♥if you use this tut, please show me what you made!