#aesthetic tutorial

okay so dimensions r a thing tumblr compresses photos like hella so i do all my still img aesthetics 900x900 is you’re trying to do this for say insta i would actually recommend jumping up to 1080x1080. pixels, obviously. idk if i have to clarify that.

so click ctrl+n or create new i’ll be doing 900x900

these r the rest of my settings i personally do not think they matter my resolution stays at 72 the only thing i’ve detected this affecting is font size. (side note notice how this pic looks all fuzzy? that’s bc it’s a ss with a boatload of pixels. and if there’s one thing tumblr hates. it’s pixels. and then it’s users. but who’s counting? tumblr is. i recommend keeping ur still images 900x900♥)

step two is collecting ur images i personally use pinterest for these bc quite frankly it’s really nice & easy to find these types of photos esp if you’re looking for a canon character bc if you type in [character name] aesthetic you’ll get stuff if you don’t quite frankly even just type in aesthetic you can scroll until you find an image you like click on that and go through like images underneath it and keep burning thru. like u probably know how to work pinterest. but i am being thorough and covering my bases. searching [color] aesthetic is also nice or even searching a character that isn’t the character you’re doing this for but who’s kind of similar that also works. i recommend esp for charmed bc their pinterest gets bogged down with screencaps and then like. charms like jewelry searching “charmed aesthetic” or “phoebe halliwell aesthetic” really just doesn’t cut it so what i’d recommend is instead of going through pins, go through boards.

bc like. big difference. other pro tips if you see a board you like, go to the person’s profile and check out their other boards bc odds are you’ll find more you like. another protip if you’re specifically doing ocs typing in oc aesthetic will get you a lot even going to the boards on that as well. yields.

so. you’ve gathered ur images. u need five. open em. i’m making an aesthetic 4 myself which you’ve probably already guessed from the fact i’m putting the finished piece at the top, but it’s not ready yet so it’s still a surprise for me. 

cropping. if ur doing a 900x900, use these setting exactly. 1080x1080 use 1080/2 x 1080/3. i’m not doing the math 4 u ♥

most important part? Delete Cropped Pixels. otherwise ur not really doing anything. crop all five images.

but them in ur document. document? psd? ur thing ♥ place them places. u do not have to commit now. leave one middle one blank. it does not matter which one. i personally like to alternate my text pieces if i’m doing a long post like what i did on my ncwotng set. some people keep them all on the same side. this lowkey bugs me i feel like it throws off the Balance but i imagine some people like The Consistency. i don’t. but w/e. it’s up to u as this is gonna be ur set. also like. as you’ve cropped these to x/2,x/3 settings they should fit nice like puzzle pieces : )

the next step i personally like doing is creating by text box with The Color™ do this bc simply duplicating one of ur images, shoving it in the empty slot, and converting into a sharp object. edit contents.

now. obvi i selected these images w a color scheme in mid. i recommend u do the same. even if it’s just vague. they don’t all have 2 fit. this is my example of my sheridan piece b4 or after. tweaking is possible. layers w masks r ur friend. i can talk about them more if need be.

But. back 2 the smart object. brush tool. paint it.

♥

the text i used was times new roman all caps 40pt font 0 spacing for the title and times new roman 14pt font 0 spacing italics for the subheading. here’s my dency b4 and after for comparison

next step is after you have your text in alright, shove everything into groups. mode on “normal”

then you can start editing. the groups let you edit things like lighting and color without touching any of the layers below it 👍

i’m not gonna do a Major coloring tutorial, for lighting i’ll usually tinker with exposure, levels, sometimes brightness/contrast. for colors, color balance + hue/saturation. i rarely touch anything else.

i’ll bring u along 4 the coloring of this one bc i’m gonna add a layer mask.

so the first thing i’m going to do bc the paper itself is already close to the vibe is i’m going to color it normal and just ignore the background

something like that. then i’m going to add a layer mask (square button w the plus sign)

and then i’m going to eye dropper a color off from somewhere else

now i was talking about the “normal” blend mode stops ur color settings from bleeding over onto other images? does not apply to painting on layers but you’re already masking this bad boy, so it doesn’t matter. just don’t say i didn’t warn u

i’d recommend using a really ridiculous blend mode to clean up ur thing at first, i’m using darken which isn’t that wild but like whatevs.

add a layer mask using this button.

select and mask

use this thing to clean up ur mask

okay so i did a lot since we last spoke

but if i impart any lesson to u. it’s: fuck around. find out. that’s literally how i’ve basically done everything. nothing’s ever really gone horribly wrong. click things. see what happens.

okay so now that you’ve kinda gotten everything figured out. change ur text box color again. i’m introducing u to ye ol trick that is not the paint brush. but. hue/saturation on colorize more yeah babyyyyy

ahaha yes. love this bad boy.

Now. Trick To Make Everything Super Cohesive™. put things above All of your groups.

yeah boy.

reorganize ur thing bc u don’t like how it looks.

fuck around w a lot of stuff.

it’s still cluttered.

fuck it. grab a new image.

something like that. never let the fear of striking out keep u from playing the game : )

fuck around a bit more.

vibes♥

save ur image bc u literally Have Not Done That Yet

& then remember the other thing u forgot to do

eyedropper what ur text box looks like move the whole thing to the tippity top and recolor

this is just bc u’ve fuck around a lot w a lot f different settings. this ensures that the text stays the same color u set it as.

okay final step.

turn The Whole Thing into a smart object, smart sharpen

leave out the text box tho. the sharpened text can look weird. it’s ur choice, but with these settings,, cronch.

and wallah. ctrl+shift+s save as png and bada bing bada boom baby. aesthetic

your first step is going to be making a moodboard as you normally would. Find your pictures, compile them with photoshop. @dear-indies has many moodboard and aesthetic templates at any given time :0c

once you do that and place your psd and all that good stuff, you’re going to want to make sure that your whole moodboard is one whole base layer. If this is daunting you can save and reopen as a PNG. Just make sure that you start this next step with ONE BASE LAYER.

Make a clipping mask group out of your moodboard and add 3 or so layers. This is where you’re going to doodle. This will keep you from doodling in the transparent area.

Now you doodle! As much or as little as you like :D (note: this is going to take practice to look how you want. keep trying! Experiment and play with it!)

Once you’ve doodled and are satisfied you need to open the animation window as frames and make frames from layers.

Once that happens, it’s going to look like this for a hot minute:

you fix this by clicking this

okay so now that you’ve done that, you’ll have 4 animated frames, but you only need 3.

cut this one loose. It’s going to throw your whole game off.

then select all frames and set the delay to 0.2 seconds. That’s the time I find generally works best for these edits. But again. Play around with it.

Make sure it loops forever and then save it as a gif.

idk if this is right tbh but here are my gif settings

1. find some pictures to fit the feel you’re going for. pinterest is a great place to look and you can save them to find them again later. it’s good to have a balance of scenery / objects / people / clothes / words so it’s not too heavy on just one (unless that’s what you’re trying to capture)

2. put them in a collage. you could probably use a psd in photoshop, but i just use befunky since it’s a bit easier for me to maneuver. it doesn’t really matter what kinda grid you choose, but i either use a 2x4 or a 3x3 most times. so put in all your pictures and get them arranged (my generic pattern is to do faceless pics on the top and bottom opposite corners and then two words pictures on the inner two opposite corners and then fill the rest with whatever)

like i said in 1, it really helps to have a mix of pictures of different subjects so it doesn’t look too busy and a similar color scheme also helps it mesh (but if they don’t exactly, that’s why you edit.) you can adjust the border by going to where it says spacing and the automatic size for pics is 3988x3988 which is probably bigger than you’ll ever need so just go ahead and shrink that down as much as you need. tumblr can’t open files that big anyway. pngs preserve more quality without the fuzzy effect you sometimes see on mobile images

3. edit (optional) this helps make it look real snazzy and you can either plop that sucker in photoshop and slap a nice psd on it or you can use a website like befunky or pixlr to adjust the saturation and brightness and colors and filters and all that stuff.

don’t whitewash though! i’m not an expert on coloring to avoid that but that’s what tutorials are for so here are a few i found. x x also check out the poc friendly psd tag. 

anyway, i only made slight alterations to the saturation and brightness and such in photoshop which can easily be done in the websites i mentioned earlier and now it looks a bit more dramatic and matchy

clearly you can make more drastic changes when you edit but sometimes simple works too.