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We will be making this good looking smudge tag today, designed by Sly. Grab a good looking colorfull render, since that’s all the stock we will be using apart from a splatter brush and vector shape or brush. To create this tag we will be using multiple clipping masks (you should know the basics of clipping masks though we will explain the details slightly), the paint daubs filter effect, the liquify filter effect and some gradient maps. The result:

1. Start by opening a new file with your preferred size, we picked 325 pixels by 115 pixels. Fill this with a random color:

2. Paste your stock in your canvas, however don’t resize it yet:

3. Move the stock around, and softly smudge the render. Keep some sort of texture or detail in the background like shown here:

4. Repeat the previous step, however resize the render this time and move it around some more.

5. More smudging and filling up the black areas:

6. Add your render to your canvas. You can either remove the sides with the eraser tool or use the smudge tool to blend the character into the background:

7. Duplicate the previous layer, and erase most of it. Keep an interesting part of your render, and place it nicely onto your canvas. We selected the hair like shown below:

8. We’re going to create a clipping mask to cover the rest of the original black canvas. Make a new layer, and softly, then paste your render on a new layer. Smudge this layer a bit, and move it around to cover the clipping mask. Select your pasted render, and go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask (or press ALT + CTRL + G):

Smudge, move and erase the render:

After creating the clipping mask, this is our result:

9. We’re going to repeat this a few times, brush on the background, paste the original render and smudge it. You can also apply some filter effects to it, like paint daubs. We started with some spreckle brushing:

Some more brushing:

Pasting the render on the canvas and smudging, erasing and other effects applied:

result after applying the clipping mask:

10. More brushing on the sides:

Create another clipping mask:

11. Apply the image on a new layer (Image > Apply Image), and add some texture. Brush, sharpen and erase. We’ve added the texture on the left side of the canvas:

12. Add a vector shape that follows the flow of your tag. You can either use a vector brush, create a custom shape using the Custom Shape Tool (pressing U), or paste some other sort of vector.

13. Paste your render, smudge, erase and brush on top, then create another clipping mask:

14. After creating the clipping mask:

15. We’re going to fix her arm, because it looks a bit too dark. Duplicate your render, and place it on top of your layer window. Erase some of the right side where we added the vector shape and a copy of her hair. This way we brightened her shoulder a bit:

This is how we erased the render shown on a black background:

16. We repeated the previous step, to strengthen the effect. This is the render shown on a black background:

Our result afterwards:

17. We’re going to create another clipping mask, and use a vector shape with the clipping mask. Add a random shape using a vector brush, vector image, or whatever else you like:

after pasting the render and creating a clipping mask:

18. Apply the image on a new layer. We’re going to change our colors around a bit. Press CTRL + U, and play around with the settings. Experiment to get the best looking result;

Our result after playing around with the settings:

19. Hide this layer, and use a splatter brush near your focal point:

20. Show the layer again, and move it around on top of the splatter. Then press CTRL + ALT + G to turn it into a clipping mask, or go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask.

result of our clipping mask:

21. Use your gradient tool to create a light radial gradient. Make sure you have the second option selected in the toolbar:

our result:

22. Set this layer to Multiply, and reduce its opacity to about 30%:

23. We’re going to make a few adjustment layers. Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient map, and pick the purple to orange gradient. Set this layers opacity to 30%:

Result with opacity on 30% shown:

23. Duplicate the gradient map, however change the blending mode to Soft Light and set the opacity to 45%:

24. Create a black to white radial gradient, and set its layer style to Multiply on 25%:

Result shown below with blending mode set to Multiply and 25% opacity:

25. We’re going to add some sweet effect to our tag. We’re going to use the Paint Daubs filter effect and the liquify option to texture the signature a bit. Try following the flow of the tag when you’re using liquify. Erase the focal point after using the filter effects, we’re only texturing the background:

Fitler > Artistic > Paint Daubs, play around with the settings, just experiment:

select Fitler > Liquify, and play around with the background as well:

The layer shown on a black background (remember, we erased the parts covering our render and focal point):

our result:

26. Apply the image on a new layer, and select Filter > Sharpen. remove parts that come on too strong:

27. Make a new layer, and fill this with black. We’re going to make a light dot with a large soft brush to add some lighting. Set this layers blending mode Linear dodge, and reduce the opacity:

Blending mode set to Linear Dodge and opacity set to 45%:

28. Add your text, sharpen or soften areas you don’t like, and you’re done!

Thank you for following this tutorial. If you have any questions please use the comment system below, we would appreciate any comments and suggestions!