How to: draw graffiti in Photoshop

By Elena Santos on 23 April, 2008

Some people consider graffiti to be an artistic expression while some others believe it's just another form of vandalism. Whatever your opinion is about it, I'm sure you'll like this easy Photoshop tutorial with which you can learn how to apply original graffiti effects to any wall in your photos. Let's get started!

1. First of all, graffiti must be a pixel-based image. This means you can't draw it right on the wall with the font tool, or use pre-defined shapes. So in this first step we'll create the graffiti image by opening a blank document, writing something on it with any cool graffiti font you have and saving it as a PNG file. In my example I also added a stroke effect to make it more realistic.

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

2. Open the wall image and paste the graffiti image on it as a new layer.

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

3. Now click on Edit > Transform > Perspective and apply a perspective effect to the graffiti to make it fit the wall in the most realistic way possible. If the graffiti is too large for the wall, use the Free transform tool (Edit > Free transform or Ctrl+T) to resize it.

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

4. Change the graffiti's layer blending mode to "Overlay".

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

5. We're almost done! As the graffiti still looks too "perfect" to be real, we'll need to apply some blurring. Duplicate the graffiti layer and apply a Gaussian blur filter with a value of 5 pixels to this duplicated layer.

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

6. Finally, select the layer you just blurred (by clicking on its thumbnail while pressing the Ctrl key) and press delete. In this way you'll erase the contents of the layer, but keeping the blurred borders, which is exactly what we want.

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

7. As a final touch, I erased the graffiti in those areas where the wall is torn down, but you may not need do that. You can also lower the opacity value of the graffiti layer to around 80, so that it blends with the wall in a more realistic way. Your graffiti is finished!

How to draw graffiti in Photoshop

Comments

  • alisha alisha

    hi plz cud u tell me wer i could download adobe photoshop from thank you x

    • Sent on 24 Apr 2008
  • Tom Clarke Tom Clarke

    Hi Alisha. You can download the trial version at Softonic: http://adobe-photoshop.en.softonic.com/

    • Sent on 25 Apr 2008
  • wgn_white wgn_white

    How about the full "free" version? Where should I have it? Thank you...

    • Sent on 26 Apr 2008
  • Tia Tia

    Full Free version? That's called Pirated software.

    • Sent on 26 Apr 2008
  • yo yo

    hei,i cant even make 1 step ;( what should i do first?can you make something like movie?

    • Sent on 14 Jul 2008
  • Shashanka N Shashanka N

    Well, this is the best graffiti tutorial I have read in some time! The best one might I say!! Anyways, I would love to try this out right now...

    • Sent on 15 Aug 2008
  • panky panky

    weh............. gawat man........... ajarin dong........

    • Sent on 09 Nov 2008
  • BeBo BeBo

    yo dis iz sick son.

    • Sent on 11 Mar 2009
  • whatever whatever

    great tut. thank you

    • Sent on 16 Mar 2009
  • VARUN VARUN

    gr8 thanx sir.....now i can also show my frndz my gud picz...thanks sir

    • Sent on 21 Apr 2009
  • stephenartiste stephenartist<br />e

    Hi!I like what you do and esplaine in this web site.It is my first time to visit this site but i can say that your work is very amazing. With all my respect.

    • Sent on 11 Aug 2010
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