Design a Grungy, Rock & Roll Gig Poster

Step 1

Create a new document (600X700px). Paste in this old paper texture.

Step 2

Call this first layer 'old paper texture'. Reduce it's opacity to 30%.

Step 3

Apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer and a levels adjustment layer.

Settings below:

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Hue: 0
Saturation: -60
Lightness: 0

Levels Adjustment Layer

57 / 0.87 / 255

Step 4

Now download this great free High-Res Sunburst Vector Set.

Paste it into your document, making sure to position it centrally.

Call this layer 'sunburst', and then change it's opacity to 20% and change it's layer blend mode to 'multiply'.

Step 5

Now apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer (settings below).

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Lightness: 0

This grayscales your sunburst, but also your entire image! You only want this adjustment layer to effect your sunburst shape, so simply go to layer>apply clipping mask:

Step 6

Paste in this guitar photo.

Crop it so that only the parts shown below remain. Then change this layer's blend mode to 'overlay'.

Call this layer 'guitar 1?.

Step 7

Download this incredible High-Res Watercolor Brush Set.

Then with your 'guitar 1? layer selected, go to layer>apply layer mask>reveal all.

Use various brushes from your watercolor brush set, set to black (000000), 100% opacity, and start painting over the edges of your guitar image. Because you have applied a layer mask, painting over these areas in black with mask off the edges of your guitar image.

The watercolor brush that you're using means the edges will be very rough and artistic!

Step 8

Apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer, and be sure to apply a clipping mask, so that it only effects your 'guitar 1? layer, rather than your entire image.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Lightness: 0

Step 9

Now duplicate your 'guitar 1? layer, calling the duplicate (you guessed it!) 'guitar 2?.

Go to edit>transform>flip horizontal to flip your duplicate guitar image. Then reapply the same adjustment layer settings. If needed reapply clipping masks where needed:

Step 10

Now type out some text to fill your poster.

I used a variety of fonts (see diagram below), including:

Chunkfive
AW Conqueror Carved
AW Conqueror Inline
Birch Std
AW Conqueror Slab

Step 11

Use your line tool to draw a black, 1px line above and below your bottom line of text.

Merge your two line layers together and call your merged layer 'divider'. Reduce this layer's opacity to 50%.

Step 12

Paste in part of a texture from our great Premium Texture Set: Tint.

Make sure that this texture layer is beneath your text/guitar layers, but above your background/sunburst layers. Call this layer 'tint texture 1?.

Step 13

Move your 'tint texture 1? layer to the top of your canvas. Reduce this layer's opacity to 55%, and then use the same masking technique that you used on your guitar layers (being sure to use your watercolor brush set for masking).

Step 14

Now apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer (settings below). Be sure to apply a clipping mask so that this adjustment layer only effects your tint texture 1 layer.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -80
Lightness: -30.

Step 15

Now repeat this technique, but placing your texture over the texture specifying your supporting band. You can duplicate your tint texture 1 layer and hue/saturation adjustment layer, and then just adjust your layer mask.

235ea7

Step 16

To give your image a final bit of impact, we're going to apply some final adjustment layers as top layers.

Gradient Map Adjustment Layer

Gradient ranging from: 235ea7 to ad9c57
Blend mode: Hard Light
Layer opacity: 50%

Levels Adjustment Layer

56 / 1.00 / 233
Layer Opacity: 100%

Channels Adjustment Layer

(see diagram below):

And We're Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome: