Incredibly Realistic Burnt Parchment in Photoshop
Imitating a physical object from scratch might seem very difficult, but we’re going to do just that in this tutorial – in a way that’s pretty easy to follow! We’ll create a piece of burnt parchment that looks incredibly real!
What We’re Making
This tutorial will show you how to create a decayed burnt piece of parchment like the example shown below.
Step 1 – Setting Up the Parchment
Open a new document 500x600px. Create a new group (Layer > New > Group) and label it Parchment. Create a new layer and place it inside the group. Place guides horizontally and vertically centered in the document. Make a selection 400x490px using the rectangular marquee tool and fill it using the color #e9dbba.
Groups and Guides
When a layer is placed inside a group it will become tabbed to the right, this way you know it is in the group!
To center the guides, select the entire document (Ctrl+A) and contract it by any amount (Select > Modify > Contract). Enable your rulers (Ctrl+R) and drag guides out until they snap in the center of the selection.
Step 2 – Dirtying the Parchment
In order to continue with this tutorial, you’re going to need some Grunge Brushes. Grunge brushes can be used to imitate dirt and decay. To learn how to install brushes, read the tutorial.
On a new layer inside your Parchment group, use a dark brown color like #735c27 to dirty the parchment. Don’t overdue it!
Then create another new layer and use a lighter brown color like #ab8e4a to create some more dirt.
Step 3 – Adding Texture and Color
Create a new layer and fill it with a dark brown color like #5f470d. Then set the blending mode of the layer to Vivid Light and set the opacity to 30%. This will help give our parchment a nice brown weathered color.
Now we need some paper texture. There are some great ones in the 99 Free Textures post here on Tutorial9. I chose the Old Aged Paper (Parchment) Texture. By placing it on a new layer, resizing it (Ctrl+T), desaturating it (Ctrl+Shift+U), and setting the layer to multiply, I can give my parchment a more realistic look.
Step 4 – Creating the Edges
Right now, all of our layers are placed inside of the Parchment group. This will allow us to easily mask all of the layers to the parchment using just one group mask.
Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, make a selection around the inside of the parchment that will give it jagged edges. Then apply the selection as a group mask. To do this, click on the Parchment group icon, then click the Add Layer Mask at the bottom of the layer pallete.
Step 5 – Creating the Outer Crisp
In order to get the burnt effect, we need to create a dark outer edge around the parchment. To do this, use a really dark brown color like #211a0a and hard small brushes around 3-5px to create an effect like below.
Step 6 – Burning the Edges
To make the burn look more realistic we need to have a transition from the dirty parchment to the burnt edges.
Duplicate (Right Click > Duplicate Layer) the layer containing your crispy dark edge. Then apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) of 2. Set the layer to overlay, and make a selection of the layer mask set on the Parchment group. Then apply the same layer mask to your current layer. Repeat the process with larger and larger amounts of Gaussian Blur until you get an effect like the one below.
Step 7 – Adding Text
Add some nice cursive script inside of your parchment. Lower the Fill of any text layer to 60%, and give it the following layer effect. Lowering the fill will cause the text to look worn into the paper, and the stroke adds a fade off burnt look around the edges of the text.
To add the RSS image, I simply placed it inside the parchment and changed the layer mode to multiply.
Step 8 – Changing the Background
Let’s add a nice background to the scene. I decided to use a nice wooden floor.
Step 9 – Adding a Shadow
To add a shadow simply create a new layer underneath your Parchment group, make a selection of the Parchment group mask, fill it with black, and give it a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) of 10-15.
Step 10 – Adding Effect
Create a new layer above all your old layers. Go to Image > Apply Image so that the layer is filled with a merged version of what was showing. Then go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and apply a lighting effect like the one shown below.
On a new layer, create a gradient like the one below using pink #b02db9 and blue #1f7bc9. Then change the layer mode to Overlay and lower the opacity to a level you like.
Experiment, Redesign, and Be Creative
I can’t stress enough how putting a little extra work into your designs can improve them drastically.
78 Comments
Excellent tutorial – everything worked well for me. Couldn’t have been happier with the finished product. Thanks!
Flag as inappropriateUnfortunately a lot of steps are missing, others are poorly described. Too bad I wasted considerable time getting into this project, before finding steps that made no sense, had no words that turned up in searches or in Photoshop help. Very disappointed. Now I have to start all over with another tutorial.
Flag as inappropriatelooks interesting, but there are missing some steps or something and i cant to do it
Flag as inappropriateAfter your jaunt to Dahab its o.k. to the machine to progress indorse home to Sharm El .
Flag as inappropriategreat post!
Flag as inappropriateHi, Tyler. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’m doing a Western-themed video, and your tut gave me the knowledge I needed to make a “wanted” poster-type background for my video.
Thanks for sharing your know-how!
Cheers,
Flag as inappropriateMichael
vist for basic training of photoshop
Flag as inappropriatehttp://training4free.co.cc/Basic%20training/Basic%20training.html
This is exactly what I have been searching for! I am glad I stumbled across this, made my life that much easier now. Thank you.
Flag as inappropriateJoel 0.0
Thanks
Flag as inappropriatewow excellent!
Flag as inappropriateGreat post, i’m am sure somewhere along the way i will be able to put this one into practice!
Flag as inappropriatethe what of the paper…. of potho side in the world
In of a Fantasy in Game of Fantage
I konw of the paper in the side
Flag as inappropriateThanks for your post , Great post.35
Flag as inappropriateThanks for your post , Great post.28
Flag as inappropriateThanks for your post , Great post.23
Flag as inappropriateExcellent post. Thanks
Flag as inappropriateすごいです！！！！
Flag as inappropriateとても参考になりました。
Great guide, thanks very much.
An alternative way to center guides is to go to View -> New Guide… and in the position box, type 50%. Repeat for the other direction and you’ve got your perfectly centered guides.
Flag as inappropriatedaaaamn you’re hot. ;)
Flag as inappropriateHow do I add color to the layer? Im a newbie…..All these things are really alien to me. Somebody help! ^_^
Flag as inappropriateoh ,god . its so beautiful , i like you design
Flag as inappropriategreat tutorial! thanks so much, but i’m stuck at step 6. please help!
im trying to finalize the blur and the wording threw me off a bit.
Then apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) of 2.
[to the copy correct?]
Set the layer to overlay [fine here],
and make a selection of the layer mask set on the Parchment group
[just select the layer mask?].
Then apply the same layer mask to your current layer.
[this is where i'm confused. apply to which current layer? the copy? do i just drag it in there?]
Repeat the process with larger and larger amounts of Gaussian Blur until you get an effect like the one below.
i did add the parchment layer mask into the copy 2 (of the burned edge) and tried to do the Blue over and over with no effects.
Flag as inappropriateWow its look like an old paper from BC! hahaha
Flag as inappropriatewith all due respect… you call it Incredibly Realistic? Come on… Using the burning tool would give you better effect. But good, well explained tutorial, thank you for sharing :)
Flag as inappropriatevery well i want to try one of them too.
Flag as inappropriateGreat article. Thanks for sharing.
Flag as inappropriatevery nice…
Flag as inappropriatethanks
Thank you, thank you, thank you! There are so many “scam” tutorial websites out there; this is the first one I found that was real, and did *exactly* what I was looking for. I can’t thank you enough for providing this incredibly valuable service — and for free! Kudos to you. I will be subscribing.
Flag as inappropriateReally nice. Yep. i like nice :P
Flag as inappropriateLove the effect, but I don’t have photoshop. I have elements. I could do everything up to the layer mask. Thanks for putting the tutorial out there. It was fun to learn about the brushes and making the paper, even if I couldn’t do the burn. Thanks!
Flag as inappropriateWell done!
Flag as inappropriateIt’s easy to do it, thank you man!
wonderful tutorial
Flag as inappropriatebut i have note about edges :)
Simple N cool !!! : )
Flag as inappropriate@Jana: Make sure that you create the dark edges using 3-5px hard brushes on a separate layer than the paper, this way you can perform step 6 correctly.
Flag as inappropriatewhen I’m creating the edgesI don’t really get a separate imag elike that? also how does the next step – brush – works…
Flag as inappropriate@Stacy: In regards to “how to apply effectively”, I’ve got no concrete examples — but I do think that creating a theme that heavily employs a style like this would do wonders :)
It just carries that old-time, classic effect — and the end result feels very polished. I might use it myself in some WordPress Themes of my own in the future.
Flag as inappropriateI really enjoyed this tutorial. It was very easy to follow, and it introduced a lot of ideas that I knew how to do, but wasn’t exactly sure how to apply effectively. Also, I didn’t know about Image>Apply Image. I’m going to use that a lot in the future :) Thank you!
Flag as inappropriatePretty cool effect Tyler! I liked the gradient overlay to finish things off, but found the grunge brushes+paper texture a bit overused and not too original. That’s not to say that I’m not guilty of this myself, but I’d like to see a more more original techniques to balance things out. I did like the tutorial overall though, just trying to be constructive :)
Flag as inappropriate@Gabriel- GlassSphere: I’m glad that you found my tutorial unique! Also, using lighting effects and adding those few extra steps in after you have your creation can make it look SO much better!
@LBrother: Nothing feels better than knowing I inspired someone to create their own unique work of art. I’m glad to help in any way I can!
Flag as inappropriateOh God.This is so beautiful.
Flag as inappropriateI will definitely try it!
At first: Thanks for the tutorial, I’ve been waiting for this for weeks ;D
To the Tutorial. When I looked at the end result, I wasn’t very “amazed”. I mean it’s great, but not my style. So I wanted to try if I could do something similar. And now this is my favourite tutorial because you inspired me. Thanks!
I’ll post my result into the forum when I’ve finished.
Flag as inappropriateWell done,
LBrother
Thats really neat. I’ve never seen burnt paper achieved without using the burn/dodge tool before. The lighting effect filter really makes everything pop out.
Flag as inappropriateGuess I was wrong.
Flag as inappropriateOh well
Great tutorial !
This effect is incredible Tyler. Very well done. It’s got a very realistic feeling to it which I wouldn’t expect to see achieved with so little effort!
Flag as inappropriate