This tutorial will show you how to create a beautiful, intricate Arabesque design wallpaper using some free resources and Photoshop's blending options.

Resources:

Arabesque Brushes from deviantart.com

Golden Metal Gradients from deviantart.com

Tainted Love Gradients Download Here

Fantastic Creatures font from dafont.com

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Step 1

Open a new file using the following settings:

Duplicate the layer – name it ‘gradient’

Step 2

Double click on the gradient layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay settings:

Reduce the layer opacity to 20%

Step 3

Create a new layer

Select the Brush tool, Arabesque brushes, brush 2, foreground colour black

Click once on the centre of the canvas

Rename the layer ‘pattern’

Step 4

Create a new layer above the background layer and fill it with red or a bright colour

Turn off the visibility of the gradient layer

Create a new layer below the pattern layer

Select the brush tool, foreground colour white

This next part will take a long time and is pretty boring!

You need to zoom well into your image and paint inside the lines of the pattern – not including the shield in the middle.

TIP: Use [ and ] to enlarge and reduce the size of the brush as you work.

Your image should end up looking like this:

Rename the layer ‘inner pattern’

Step 5

Create a new layer

Paint as in Step 4, but this time the shield only

Your image should now look like this:

Rename the layer ‘shield’

You can now delete the red layer

Step 6

Double click on the inner pattern layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay settings:

Reduce the layer opacity to 80%

Step 7

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

Step 8

Double click on the pattern layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Bevel & Emboss and Drop Shadow settings:

Step 8

Create a new layer

Select the Type tool and Fantastic Creatures font, size 130pt, foreground colour black

Type an upper case D – or choose another creature

Right click on the layer in the layers palette and click Rasterize Type

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

The finished project:

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I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and played around with the settings, colours, etc to achieve your own version.

Please leave any comments you may have below. Also, please share your work with us by leaving a link to your version in the comments section.