Floral Ornaments Background

Create a stunning black floral background – in this tutorial we will construct the floral ornaments using free brushes. Then put the whole thing together using more free brushes and Photoshop’s blending options. This is suitable for Photoshop beginners.

Resources:

Floral Brushes II by ~hawksmont at deviantart.com

Swirls and Flowers brushes from qbrushes.net

Deadly Tron Grid Brushes from brusheezy.com

Step 1

Create a new file using the following settings:

Step 2

Create a new layer

Select the Brush tool and Floral Brushes II

Set the foreground colour to black

Select flower3 brush, set the size to 400px

Click once on the canvas

Ctrl + T to transform the object

Rotate the image similarly to that shown below:

Move this floral to the top left of the canvas

Step 3

Create a new layer

With the Brush tool and Floral Brushes II again

Select flower1 brush, set the size to 350px

Click once on the canvas

Ctrl + T to transform the object

Rotate and move the floral as shown below:

Select the Eraser tool and erase the leaf that is overlapping the original floral

Step 4

Create a new layer

Select the Brush tool and Swirls and Flowers brushes

Select decorative3 brush, set the size to 200px

Click once on the canvas

Ctrl + T to transform the object

Rotate and move the swirl as shown below:

Select the Eraser tool and erase the stem part that is too long

Step 5

Merge the 3 floral layers together

Ctrl + T to transform the object

Set the width and height to 70% using the Transform Controls on the top toolbar:

Now rotate the floral a little so it is almost horizontal, as shown below:

Rename the layer ‘floral’ and turn off the visibility

Step 6

Fill the background with black

Create a new layer above the background layer

Set foreground colour to brown #AA9464

Set background colour to dark brown #403306

Select the Gradient Fill tool and Foreground to Background gradient

Set to Radial gradient

Drag the cursor from the centre to the top of the canvas

Filter>Blur>Motion Blur – apply the following settings

Reduce the layer opacity to 75%

Rename the layer ‘gradfill’

Step 7

Create a new layer

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool

Set a fixed size of 1280 x 250px as shown below:

Place the cursor in the top left corner of the canvas and click once

Set the foreground colour to very dark grey #181818

Select the Paint Bucket tool and fill the selection

Duplicate the layer

Drag the copy to the bottom of the canvas

Merge these 2 layers together

Rename the layer ‘frame’

Step 8

Create a new layer

Set the foreground colour to white

Select the Line tool

Set the width to 10px

Holding down the shift key to keep the line straight, draw a line across the canvas along the bottom edge of the top part of the frame

Create a new layer

Draw another line along the top edge of the bottom part of the frame:

Step 9

Double click on the top line layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay, Stroke and Bevel & Emboss settings:

Copy and paste the layer style to the bottom line layer

Merge the 2 line layers together

Rename the layer ‘lines’

Step 10

Restore visibility to the floral layer

Duplicate the layer

Select the Move tool

Use the arrow keys to move the image to the right (so it stays in line horizontally)

Duplicate the layer

Use the arrow keys again to move this floral to the right

Align the 3 florals as shown below (they should be off the edge by 1 or 2 pixels either side):

Step 11

Double click on the floral layer in the layers palette and apply the following Gradient Overlay and Drop Shadow settings:

Copy and paste the layer style to the other 2 floral layers

Merge the 3 floral layers together

Move the florals so they are along the top line – about 2 thirds above and 1 third below the line

Duplicate the layer

Step 12

Ctrl + T to transform the object

Right click within the transform box and click Flip Vertical

Right click again within the transform box and click Flip Horizontal

Drag the florals down and place them along the bottom line to match the placement of the ones above

Step 12

Merge the 2 florals layers together

Drag this layer below the lines layer in the layers palette

Step 13

Create a new layer above the frame layer

Set the foreground colour to white

Select the Brush tool and Deadly Tron Grids brushes

Select grid17 brush, set the size to 1290px

Place the brush in the centre of the canvas and click once

Make the frame layer active

Select the Magic Wand tool and click in the centre part of the canvas

Make the grid layer active and hit the Delete key

Reduce the layer opacity to around 8%

You can now right click on any layer and click Flatten Image

The finished project:

I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow – as it wasn’t too easy to write!! As with all my tutorials, you will see many ways you can change or modify my settings to create something unique for yourself. This one lends itself to using different colours, a different floral construction, different gradients – the list is endless… let your imagination run wild and have fun!!