Add a vintage feel with custom brush strokes

08 I’ve coloured the different items of clothing on separate layers in black (hit D to make your main colour black). I then attached a Hue/Saturation layer from the Adjustment Layers panel (if you can’t see this, go to Window>Adjustments). Make sure your layer is selected and click the Hue/Saturation icon, then click the bottom left icon to attach the Adjustment layer to your selected layer. Mess around with the sliders until you like the colours. The colours don’t really matter at this point but make sure they’re contrasting.
 

09 The reason I colour this way is because it’s a lot easier to edit. This saves time and is very non-destructive. Do the same with the background layer. I’ve now dragged in a brush swipe from a previous document and given it some colour. I don’t want it to be straight, so I went to the Transform mode (Cmd/Ctrl+T) and clicked the left icon in the top bar (top left of the screenshot), which enabled me to pull from certain anchor points and warp my brush stroke. If you’ve warped it too much, hit Escape at any point and restart. We’ll next put some hand-drawn type over the top of the stroke.
 

10 Here, I’ve experimented with different shapes, brush strokes and type treatments. Try doing a sheet of shapes instead of brush strokes. In the bottom right corner I’ve created a water droplet and duplicated the layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J). I moved it slightly to create a shadow and make it stand out against the white brush stroke underneath. I also dropped a larger brush stroke in behind the drawing with a colour similar to the background, so it’s more subtle but adds depth. This, along with some other similar strokes, is going to represent wind in the final version.
 

11 As you can see it’s starting to take shape. A lot of my work is vintage-influenced, so the language in my type reflects this. Another great way to make things look vintage is to offset the colour. If you look at the flag shape on the right, I did the outline in black, then used the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) on a different layer to make a selection around the flag and filled it in (Shift+F5). I moved this layer slightly to give the effect of offset colour. I then dragged and warped some more brush strokes underneath to make the offset colour really stand out.
 

12 Another great use for the brush strokes is to add wear and tear. Drag them into the document and bring them to the top of the Layers panel, above all other layers. Duplicate the Hue/ Saturation layer attached to your Background layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J) and attach it to the layers you just dragged in. This makes the brush stroke work in the opposite way – instead of looking like a stroke of paint it looks like paint has been scraped away. Remember not to overdo it though, because you still want people to be able to read your advert.
 

13 The advert is really filling up now. I’ve added some more subtle strokes behind all the elements and an arrow at the bottom. I’m happy with the layout and all the typography. It may take you a while to get your type how you want it, but persevere as it will eventually come. Sometimes it’s best to have an hour or so away from it and come back to it with a fresh head.
 

14 I’ve added a few final touches: a few leaves to emphasise the autumn link and a squirrel. I’ve also added another brush stroke to make the squirrel and arrow stand out, and help even out the whole document. Now for the magic bit. Go to your very top layer and click Channel Mixer in the Adjustments panel (don’t connect it to any layers). Play around with the cursors (there’s a drop-down menu with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black options). You should now see the colour of the advert really come to life.
 

15 It might take you a while to get right. If it goes wrong just delete the Adjustment layer and create a new one. You may even have to go back to some of the original Hue/Saturation layers to tweak a few colours. I settled with the orange and grey colourway as I thought it represented autumn and cold weather.