Signature Stop, Photoshop signature tutorials, renders, tag tutorials and signature backgrounds!

Welcome to this basic Signature render tutorial. We’re going to use renders to create a good looking signature, teaching you the basics and techniques to add depth and flow to your signature. You can download a copy of the render used here (edited by Neuron, check out his deviantart if you like, he’s an awesome designer!). The outcome is a rather basic, yet good looking outcome depending on the stock you use. We provided all of the files needed to create this image. Try not to just recreate the signature though, use your own creativity to get a result you like!

Start by opening a new file, our size was set to 425 by 175 pixels.

Add a render to your background. You can download the render we used Here. Place the render nicely onto the signature, resize and erase anything if needed.

Now grab the render you want to use, preferrably with a matching color, (You can download the render we used here) and place it somewhere on your tag. We’re going to resize this and set the blending mode to soft light:

To resize the render, select the layer and go to Edit > Transform > Free Transform:

As you can see, the render was turned upside down and resized a little.

On your layer panel, select the blending mode, and scroll down to Soft Light:

This will blend the tag into the background:

Now add the render again where you want the focal point to be:

Find a good looking render that matches with the color of your stock (you can find ours Here). Rotate it, resize it, and most of all, make sure you place it following the flow of the main character:

Here’s an image to illustrate the flow of the signate at this point. As you can see, the render we added sort of follows the main character.

Add another render, (you can download this one Here) and resize or erase if necessary.

Add the render we used before again, however try to use a different portion of it.

Here’s an image to illustrate the flow of this tag:

We’re going to use a splatter brush (we have some nice splatter brushes up for download in this tutorial) to brush a little next to our character. Tap once or twice (make sure you’re not using the same brush twice) with a dark color selected with the eyedropper tool from your canvas. Our splattering was done to the left of our main character.

Add a part of the render we used before on top of the splattering we just did, rotate it to showcase a different angle of the render:

Add some more splatters on your canvas, don’t overdo it though:

Reduce the opacity of your brush a little (for example, put it to somewhere around 80%) and grab a light color from your canvas with the eyedropper tool:

Now brush with the light color (ours was red) on the bottom of the signature. This makes it seem like the character is jumping or exploding out of something if the flow was done correctly.

We’re going to add some shading and depth to the signature by using the image we have now and changing the blending mode to Multiply. Create a new layer, and select Image > Apply Image. This will merge all the layers we have on one new layer:

Now set this layers blending mode to Multiply in the layer panel:

This will darken the signature you have now, our result at this point:

Grab the eraser tool, and erase some of the middle area covering out stock. Make sure you use a soft brush as to maintain some of the depth without leaving sharp edges:

Result after erasing some of the middle part:

Reduce the opacity of this layer, our opacity was set to about 25%:

We’re going to use a black to white gradient map to add some more depth. Do this by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map:

Your gradient map should probably have these settings already, however if they don’t , select black to white. Then, set the blending mode to multiply:

After setting the blending mode to Multiply:

The signature has some bad looking sections in the corner because of the first render we added.

Create a new layer, and use the eyedropper tool to select a color from the background. Now tap your brush a few times, covering these sections (alternately you can use the clone stamp tool if the colors vary a lot).

Create another gradient map (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map):

We’ve set this layer to Darken, and reduced the opacity to about 30%-40%

We’re going to add some decorations for the text, creating three squares in different colors and applying a gradient on them:

Here’s a picture of the squares zoomed in without the gradient overlay:

With the squares selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay, and add this setting (optionally, you can also add a drop shadow):

Result:

Now add the text itself, the text was modified by right clicking the text layer and selecting Rasterize type, then using the eraser tool to delete some sections.

The text result:

We’re going to add the final touches using the burn and dodge tool. Select either one of these tools, and play around with the settings in the toolbar:

For example, start with the highlights:

Use the dodge tool on the character, and the burn tool around him (make sure you apply the image on new layer first) :

If you slightly overdid it, reduce the opacity of this layer a little. Our result:

Create a new layer, and apply the image ( Image > Apply Image ). Now either use Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen or the sharpen tool to manually sharpen your outcome:

Which gives us our final result:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. This signature was made by the very skillfull artist Neuron. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments below.