I've been looking at doing me a signature over the last couple of days, and ive been messing about on Photoshop. The best background i can seem to come up with is this.



I have seen some awesome artwork on here (e.g Rhadamanthus' sig) and i was wondering how people get the designs and if possible some tips on doing it with Photoshop? Or do i need another program?

You see... You have, unlike those with "awsome artwork" used a bar as a bg (I gotta admit, I've never tried that before, hehe) Instead you should just start up with a plain white (or black) square, then you can create your own background. If you find that too difficult, just find a nice-looking wallpaper or something, and clone it into your white square. (yes, you can simply paste it, but I find cloning alot better)
If you want it to have some kind of uniqueness, clone different things into it (with low opacity).
This is a very simple way to create something worth looking at (plus it's great for those too lazy to create their own (me sometimes being one of them))
If you got questions or simply want a more detailed toturial (one that's, unlike the web-toturials, actually understandable), just pm me.

Thanks Zanian, i'll have a mess about and see if i can create some effects.

Sorry but 1 more question, is there an easier way to cut around an image (e.g a face of a character)? At the moment i use the magnetic Lasso tools but it seems to be inconsistant.

Sorry, can't help ya with cutting ('cuz I dun use that #### )
Instead, the cloning-tool prevails yet again (in case you didn't know, it's my fav tool, lol)
And another great tool that goes perfect with the cloner, is the history art brush. (though you gotta save, close, and then open again before it'll get usefull when doing time-demanding sigs)

Thanks dude, i'll have a play around.

(this is n00bism at its worst!!!! )

Well after a mess about this morning i managed to find something called the gradient tool and produced something like this



and this..



Better than i could do before anyways!! Just wanted to say thanks again to Zanian

Heres some more...





Any comments?

This one is actually quite cool. I don't know how to do that, lol. You are trying out the filters? Next time, try experimenting with patterns (select an area and go to 'Edit > Fill > Patterns', and brushes. Try things like 'scattering' and such. Those are fun.

One thing though, try to keep the pieces small, it's stretching the forum.

Thanks for the tip!

Sorry about the images! Will scale them right down next time

You pretty much go wild with Gradients on the difference blending mode to get that kind of background. You also have to decolorize desaturate it.

Speaking of that, to get good backgrounds, I suggest you try what we call "blending modes" on layers.
See that one gradient image you have? Duplicate that layer with ctrl+j, use a filter (any filter, but try dark strokes) and blend them together to see what you get.

Most of us use photoshop to get our stuff done, I think Alazuli uses (or used) PSP to get her work done, but I'm not too sure now. Blending modes is one of the most fun tools in Photoshop, so toy around with it.

EDIT Now to delve in further on blending, which is one of the most important bits of using photoshop. On the layers pallette (or window) there is a drop down menu called "Blending Modes". Thats what I mean. One of the biggest parts of using PS comes from it, from using text correctly, to stocks/renders, and, of course backgrounds. (More abstract bgs than anything else)

A good bit also comes from brushing, but its not really fun to just use 3 brushes paste a render and some text on it and blend away, or at least I think that'd get boring soon.

And don't forget a border. Generally borders can be all sorts of things, but adding a 1 pixel color border around your image with the select tool (theres a horizontal and vertical 1 px select tool, right click the normal one and you'll find it) and fill it up with color.

I am going with Vins here. Blending is very fun and the outcome could be very interesting and make your sig look pretty cool.
Look at my sig for example, I didn't do much. I used some brushes I downloaded, added a picture and blended the 12 diffirent layers I had.
I have no idea if that is much or not, but it is a bit how I mess around with photoshop, untill I am aware of what everything does.

I started out as a complete no0b, just like you, but with some little practise I could make things like this. I am quite happy with it, you should see my topic (the Pes Rapes PS topic) and see my progress.

My advice, just keep on trying and also look at some tutorials, it will help you alot and will teach you the basics, after that try making something for yourself.
Also, try to get a hand on some new brushes, it will add to your sig aswell, if used properly.

OK, my first real go at a sig. What you think? And Please... No Laughing

Large and a little ... "Square?" U shouldn't had restrict the sig by cutting into a square... But the blending is good =] a touch of a little brush here and there and its a master piece ^-^

Bloo...

Sorry bout the square, it was the only way i could get the full Nero pic in without making it too small lol.

When you say brush strokes what do you mean?

Well I like it. Of course it still needs some finishing touch and such, but for a first try, it's rather impressive ^^
Normally, in order to solve that "square" problem, I would recomend cutting the bg in half (so to say), but leaving the main pic intact. But the cool thing about what you have made, is that watercolor-reflection thingie (I really like that ^^ it's very unique), so you can't really change the bg.
You could however, make it abit smaller, extract it abit to the right, and also place the logo more to the right. (that way, it'll be more sig-ish)
And like always, if you got any questions, feel free to ask. (I don't have anything to do anyway, so everything is welcomed with open arms)