Making Shiny Calligraphy

In this photoshop tutorial we’ll use shapes, gradient, and some layer styles to create a sparkling and shiny Arabic calligraphy. You know what’s calligraphy?

Calligraphy (from Greek ?????? kallos “beauty” + ????? graph? “writing”) is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering (Mediavilla 1996: 17). A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is “the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner” (Mediavilla 1996: 18). The story of writing is one of aesthetic evolution framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and materials limitations of a person, time and place (Diringer 1968: 441). A style of writing is described as a script, hand or alphabet (Fraser and Kwiatkowski 2006; Johnston 1909: Plate 6).

Wikipedia

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. You can view the final image preview below or a larger version here.

Step 1

First create a new document by choosing File > New, enter 1400 px 1200 px as high and as wide. Now we create a background for our calligraphy. Here, I use red with a gradient consisting of 3 color # 410 101, # 980 303, and # cd3f00. We will get pictures as follow.

Step 2

Time to choose calligraphy will be used. Here I use this calligraphy, you can also use the other. Open the image with photoshop, press Ctrl + A to select all sections, press Ctrl + C to copy, go to our document and press Ctrl + V to paste, name this layer ‘calligraphy’. Then press Ctrl + T and set the size and position of calligraphy to fit into place.

Step 3

In step 3 we’ll add some Layer Effect on layer calligraphy.

• Drop Sahadow

• Inner Sahadow

• Outer Glow

• Inner Glow

• Bevel end Emboss

• Color Overlay

• Satin

• Stroke

For more details about Layer Effects can be seen in the PSD file provided below. Then change the fill layer of calligraphy to 17%.

Step 4

Now we will give a white gradient to our calligraphy. Press Ctrl and click on the calligraphy layer thumbnail to create a new selection.Create a new layer and name it gradient, select the Linear Gradient from white to transparent gradient and drag from lower left to upper right in a state of active selection. Then change the Blending Mode of this new layer to Overlay. We get the following picture.

Step 5

Create a new layer and name it ‘highlight’. Make a selection like the previous step select the Linear Gradient from white to transparent and drag the gradient from top to bottom.

Step 6

With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) create a elliptical selection like the following picture.

then click the ‘Add Layer Mask’ at the bottom of the layer palette and change the Opacity to 40%.

Step 7

Now we add the sparkle in calligraphy. Create a new layer named ‘sparkle’. Make sure your foreground color white # FFFFFF. Select the Polygon Tool and change the settings as follows. Add some sparkle on the edges of the calligraphy.

The Final Result

Until here we have made a sparkle and shiny calligraphy using Photoshop. I hope you enjoy this tutorial, please subscribe to Grafisia RSS feed or simply share this tutorial to your friends.

Download PSD file