Grunge Background
Creating a grunge background
First thing I started with was a relatively large file in general banner dimensions, a 2:1 ratio of length:width. Within that then, I decided on the size of the actual banner, and filled the space around that with solid black. This would be my outline layer, and remain at the top at all times. It basically acts as a border that blocks out anything unwanted from the banner, but can be turned on or off whenever you want to see the whole area.
Next I made a new layer and filled it red. This would just be the background colour. Ontop of that, I made a black layer and chose a colour that would stand out on red, but still be within the same end of the spectrum. Yellow worked well. Using several grunge brushes, I worked up some wild stuff on the layer. Filling it with about 70% yellow and enough black to show through, I set the layer to
50% Opacity.
Ok now the next layer adds a bit more texture and direction to the image. Fill it with a red shade. Something with a little less saturation. Something like #AE4C4C would be fine. Make sure you fill the whole screen with this, not just the area shown within the black border. Head to Filters > Noise > Add Noise. About 50% is good, and make it Monochrome and Gaussian. Now lets go back to filters, but this time head for Blur > Motion Blur. I just an almost vertical angle of 70° and 100 length. If you've been following you shouldn't have any semi-transparent edges showing, but if you do, duplicate the layer a few times until they vanish, and merge all the layers into one.
Now lets hit the Levels (Cmd+L), and bring the dark and light markers a little closer together to bring out the black and white in the image more. If it's a little bright, then go into Hue/Sat (Cmd+U) and bring the Saturation down a little. Set this layer to
Darken.
Ok Next up lets add some colour to this beast. Pick some colours, they can be anything at this point. I used some pale orange and blues and a bit of yellow. I used my own grunge brushes for this part (which I've linked at the bottom of the tutorial), but you can use anything that has a bit of an organic feel to it. Just fill up some space with the brushes, without going over top. I used mostly orange and yellow since they complimented the red the best, and a little blue. This layer is then set to
50% Opacity.
A new layer now, and we're adding some more colour. This time I used some pinks, blues and greens. Nothing too vibrant, but enough to show up. I used my own brushes again, for an organic look again. Just fill up some space on the layer, and then set it to about
75% to 80% Opacity.
Now the next layer adds some real meat to the image. I used a pretty big brush for this, and rotated it around to fit over the image (you'll find it in my sets, it's big and vertical). I used a semi-saturated red, specifically #A92525, for this, and set the layer to
80% Opacity and most importantly
Vivid Light. Now doesn't that look good?
Almost done now, I used some more of the same brushes to make some messy effects over the image, in solid black this time. I set this to
Soft Light. I then duplicated that very layer and set the copy to
50% Opacity. There we go, all finished! If you're unhappy with anything, then go back and play with the opacity levels, or dry changing the saturation on your colour layers. All that's left to do is Select your Border layer and Invert the Selection. Not go to Edit > Copy Merged to get the whole thing onto your clip board and drop it into a new file on it's own.
