Snowboard design in Photoshop

Part I: Creating the background

1. Start Photoshop and create a new document:

2. Select the gradient tool (G) and use the following settings:

Make sure “radial gradient” is selected:

Draw a gradient from bottom left to top as shown:

3. Now we want to add some stripes to the background to give it a retro effect.

In order to do that we need to create a stripes pattern:

Create a new 10px by 10px document with a transparent background.

Using the pen tool with the brush size of 1px draw the following shapes:

Then select Edit-Define Pattern. Name the new pattern “Stripes”:

4. Close the pattern document without saving it and go back to the snowboard design document.

5. Create a new layer and fill it with any color you wish.

6. Right-click the layer and select “Blending Options”. Use the following settings:

You notice that we’re using the patter we’ve created earlier.

7. Now, in order to blend the pattern with our actual background we need to reduce the layer opacity to 20% and the fill opacity to 0%:

Part II: Creating the snowboard shape

1. Select the rounded rectangle tool and set a corner radius of 100px:

2. Create a new layer and draw the following shape:

3. Select the add anchor point tool:

4. Right-click the board layer and select Rasterize Layer. Right-click again and select Blending Options. Use the following settings:

Part III: Creating the design

1. Create a new layer. Select the brush tool and draw some shapes on the board.

2. Ctrl-click the board layer thumbnail in order to get its selection, and then go to Select-Modify-Contract and enter a value of 1px:

3. Press Ctrl+Shift+I to select inverse, select the design layer and press Delete. This way, your design will remain only on your board. Press Ctrl-D to deselect:

4. You can duplicate the board layer and create multiple designs. You may also use more colors:

Part IV: Final touches

1. We'll create some shadows to give the boards a realistic look.

2. Deselect and press Ctrl-T to transform the shape.

3. Go to Filter-Blur-Gaussian blur and apply the following settings:

4. Drag the layer below the board layer and reduce its opacity to 60%

5. Duplicate the shadow layer twice and move the new layers below the other boards:

6. You can add a border to the image by selecting Image-Canvas Size and using these settings:

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