Design a Calligraphic Peacock Ink Billboard in Lopsy

1. Choose File → New, set Width 2400 and Height 800, keep the White background and click Create.
2. Click Background in the Layers panel and pick the Gradient tool. Set Type to Radial.
3. Click Advanced…. Set the left stop to #F7F0E2 and the right stop to #D8C4A0 in the Hex color field. Click the bar about 60% of the way along to add a stop and make it #EDE1C8. Click Done.
4. Drag from a little left of centre (about x 1300, y 380) out past the bottom-right corner of the canvas.

Real paper is never one flat colour. A faint, fine cloud pattern multiplied over the gradient gives it some body.

1. Click Layer 1, the empty layer Lopsy adds above Background, and double-click its name to rename it Paper Fibre.
2. Choose Filter → Clouds…, set Scale to 3 and click Apply.
3. Open the layer's effects (the ✦ button on its row) and set the blend mode to Multiply. Close the drawer.
4. Click the layer's opacity and drag it down to 7%.

Copperplate is written between ruled lines. These guides mark where the headline will sit.

1. Click the left ruler at y 215 (the cap line), y 381 (the waistline, where lowercase letters stop) and y 500 (the baseline).
2. Click the top ruler at x 1290. That's the centre of the lettering block, a little left of the canvas centre to leave room for the inkwell.

Zoom in if a click doesn't land exactly where you want. Clicking a guide on the ruler again removes it.

1. Click Add Layer and name the new layer Ruled Lines.
2. Pick the Pencil, set Size to 2 and set the foreground colour to #A88F6A.
3. For each guide, click at x 700 on it, then hold Shift and click at x 1870. Shift-click draws a straight line from the last point.

The lines sit right on top of the guides, so they're hard to see until you hide the guides at the end.

Copperplate leans at about 55 degrees, so practice sheets carry rows of slant lines at that angle.

1. Choose View → Show Grid. It's only there to help your eye keep the lines evenly spaced.
2. Still with the Pencil, click on the baseline at x 730, then Shift-click at x 944, y 195. That point is 305 px up and about 214 px across, which is 55°.
3. Repeat every 64 px along the baseline (x 794, 858, 922 and so on), ending each line 214 px to the right and 20 px above the cap line. That's 15 lines in all; the last one starts at x 1626.
4. Choose View → Show Grid again to hide it.

The slant lines stop at the baseline. Below it, the swash will need clear space.

Hard-ended rules look like a box pasted behind the word. A layer mask lets them fade out at each end.

1. With Ruled Lines selected, click Add Mask at the bottom of the Layers panel. A Mask row appears under the layer; click its thumbnail to edit the mask.
2. Press Cmd+A, set the foreground to #000000 and choose Edit → Fill. The whole mask is black, so the lines disappear and the canvas turns blue.
3. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag from x 730, y 120 to x 1840, y 600.
4. Choose Select → Feather…, enter 30 and click Apply.
5. Set the foreground to #FFFFFF and choose Edit → Fill. Press Cmd+D.
6. Click the Ruled Lines layer's name to stop editing the mask.

1. Open the effects for Ruled Lines and set the blend mode to Multiply.
2. Drag the layer's opacity down to 38%.

The ruling should be just visible: enough to say "calligrapher's sheet" without competing with the lettering.

1. Make sure Ruled Lines is selected, so the photo lands above it.
2. Drag the feather image from your desktop or Finder onto the canvas. Lopsy adds it as a new layer, shrinks it to fit the height and selects it.
3. Press Cmd+D and rename the layer (Lopsy calls it Pasted Layer) to Feather.

The scan's background isn't pure white: it drifts to pinkish grey in the bottom-right corner. Brightening it first lets one Magic Wand click catch all of it.

1. Choose Filter → Brightness/Contrast….
2. Set Brightness to 15 and Contrast to 25, then click Apply.

1. Pick the Magic Wand. Set Tolerance to 30 and untick Contiguous, so it also catches the pockets of background between the barbs.
2. Click the white background near the top-right corner of the photo.
3. Hold Shift and click the greyer background in the bottom-right corner to add it to the selection.

1. Press Delete to clear the background, then Cmd+D.
2. Set the Feather layer's blend mode to Multiply. Any pale fringe left around the barbs now disappears into the paper instead of showing as a light halo.
3. Choose Filter → Hue/Saturation…, set Saturation to 45 and click Apply.

1. Hold Cmd and click the Feather thumbnail to select the feather's pixels.
2. With the Move tool, drag the feather about 800 px to the left and 30 px down, so its left edge sits near x 145.

Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right corner handle out, about 100 px right and 138 px down. Cmd keeps the proportions. The feather grows by about a fifth, and its lower barbs now run off the bottom of the canvas.

The quill should run toward the lettering, so tip the feather back.

1. Find the small round rotate handle tethered just outside the top-right corner. The pointer becomes a crosshair over it.
2. Drag it counter-clockwise by eye, about 15°. The eye of the feather drops a little and the quill points toward the right.
3. Press Cmd+D to apply the rotation and drop the selection.

The scan is bronze and brown. A gradient in the feather's shape, set to Color mode, turns it into peacock blues and greens.

1. Cmd-click the Feather thumbnail to select its pixels.
2. Click Add Layer and name it Feather Sheen.
3. Pick the Gradient tool and set Type to Linear. In Advanced… set the end stops to #1E8C5A (left) and #3A3F9E (right). Click the bar to add a stop and drag it until Position reads 40%, and make it #0E7C7B; add another at 75% in #1F4FA0. Every gradient in this tutorial is set up the same way.
4. Drag from the top-left of the feather (x 150, y 150) to its lower-right end (x 820, y 760). Press Cmd+D.

1. Set the Feather Sheen blend mode to Color and its opacity to 60%. The barbs keep their light and shade but take the gradient's hues.
2. Choose Layer → Merge Down to bake the sheen into the feather.

The scan cuts off some barbs in a straight line along its right edge. A gradient on a layer mask fades them out.

1. With Feather selected, click Add Mask, then click the thumbnail in its Mask row to edit the mask.
2. In the Gradient tool's Advanced… editor, set the left stop to #000000 and the right stop to #FFFFFF, and remove any middle stops (select one and click Delete).
3. Drag from the cut edge (about x 790, y 615) inward to x 650, y 658, at right angles to the edge. Everything beyond the start of the drag is hidden, and the barbs fade in over about 145 px.
4. Click the Feather layer's name to stop editing the mask.

1. With Feather selected, click New Group in the Layers panel and name the group Lettering. Layers you add while it's selected go inside it.
2. Pick the Text tool. Set Size to 356, choose Pinyon Script in the font menu, and set the colour to #0D4F57.
3. Click an empty area near the top of the canvas, type Peacock and press Tab to commit.

With the Move tool, nudge the word with the arrow keys (Shift+arrow moves 10 px) until:

• the bottoms of the lowercase letters sit exactly on the baseline guide at y 500;
• the word is centred on the vertical guide at x 1290 (it spans about x 769 to x 1812).

At Size 356 the tops of the a, c and o then land on the waistline, and the P and k come up just short of the cap line.

Pinyon Script has no descenders in this word, so the baseline is the bottom of the ink.

Copperplate hairlines are lovely up close but vanish at billboard distance, so thicken them slightly before filling the word with the ink colours.

1. Click Rasterize Layer (the T button in the Layers panel footer) to turn the text into pixels.
2. Cmd-click the Peacock thumbnail, then choose Select → Grow…, enter 2 and click Apply.
3. With the Gradient tool (Linear), set five stops: #0D5C63, #1F4FA0 at 30%, #4B2E83 at 55%, #0E7C7B at 80% and #1E8C5A.
4. Drag from the top-left of the word (x 769, y 223) to its bottom-right (x 1812, y 500). The grown selection fills too, so each stroke gains 2 px all round. Press Cmd+D.
5. Add a Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 4, Blur 5, Opacity 22, colour #3B2A14.

A broad-edged pen makes thick strokes when it moves across its edge and hairlines when it moves along it. The Caligraphic Angle tip behaves the same way.

1. Click Add Layer (with Peacock selected) and name it Swash.
2. Pick the Brush and click the brush-tip thumbnail at the left of the options bar to open Brushes.
3. On the Presets tab, click Caligraphic Angle.
4. On the Shape tab, set Size to 44, and type 2200 in the Taper box (the slider only drags to 1000). Click the Angle dial down and slightly left of its centre so it reads 105°. The preview shows the nib as a short line rising to the right at about 30°.
5. Close the window and set the foreground to #0D4F57.

Taper shrinks the brush over the first 2200 px of a stroke, so a stroke starts at full width and gets steadily thinner. Strictly, copperplate is written with a pointed pen; a broad-edged swash is a deliberate choice here, because it reads from much further away.

Draw one smooth, continuous stroke:

1. Start right at the end of the feather's shaft, around x 782, y 650.
2. Sweep right under the headline. Let it sag gently to about y 672 between x 1100 and x 1300, staying well clear of where the small type will go at y 720.
3. Rise through x 1720, y 600, and finish with a flick up and to the right that ends at x 1932, y 492, past the end of the k.

Where the stroke runs nearly level it's broad, because it crosses the nib. On the final rise it runs along the nib and the taper has done its work, so it ends in a hairline. Undo and try again until the curve feels like one confident movement.

1. Cmd-click the Swash thumbnail.
2. In the Gradient editor, set #0D5C63, #1F4FA0 at 35%, #5A2D91 at 65%, #0E6F78 at 85% and #0F8F6A. It's the headline's ink with a deeper violet and a greener tail, so the long stroke doesn't look like a stretched copy of the word.
3. Drag from the start of the swash (x 782, y 650) to its tail (x 1932, y 492). Press Cmd+D.
4. Choose Filter → Gaussian Blur…, set Radius to 1 and click Apply. A single pixel of blur takes the stamped edge off the stroke.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Gold Hairline.
2. With the Brush, open Brushes and click Hard Round on the Presets tab. On the Shape tab set Size to 4 and Taper to 900. Close it and set the foreground to #C9A24A.
3. Draw a line that follows the swash about 40 px above its centre, from x 960, y 624 to x 1760, y 560. Keep the gap even all the way along, so it reads as a deliberate second stroke.
4. Cmd-click the Gold Hairline thumbnail. In the Gradient editor set the gold stops #9C7A2B, #E8C66A at 30%, #A8832F at 55%, #E3C060 at 80% and #9C7A2B, and drag along the line from end to end. Press Cmd+D.
5. Add a Drop Shadow: Offset X 1, Offset Y 2, Blur 2, Opacity 30, colour #3B2A14.

The alternating light and dark stops are what make flat yellow read as metal.

1. Keep Gold Hairline selected. (If a text layer is selected, changing the font restyles that layer instead.)
2. Pick the Text tool. Set Size to 51, font Cormorant SC, weight SemiBold, colour #4A3B2A.
3. Click an empty spot near the top, type IRIDESCENT FOUNTAIN PEN INK, press Tab and rename the layer Subhead.
4. Open the Text panel from the panel toolbar on the right and set Letter spacing to 8.
5. With the Move tool and the arrow keys, centre it on x 1290 with the tops of the capitals at y 720. That leaves about 28 px of air under the swash and 47 px above the bottom edge.

1. Click Gold Hairline again, then make a new text layer: Size 44, Cormorant SC, SemiBold, #4A3B2A. Type PLUME & FEATHER INK MAKERS, press Tab and rename the layer Maker.
2. Set Letter spacing to 12 and centre the line on x 1290 with its capitals starting at y 96.
3. Select Gold Hairline, click Add Layer and name it Maker Rules.
4. With the Pencil at Size 3 and colour #C9A24A, click at x 590, y 110 and Shift-click at x 790, y 110. Do the same from x 1791 to x 1991. Both rules are 200 px long and stop 30 px from the text.
5. Cmd-click the Maker Rules thumbnail. The Gradient tool still holds the gold stops from the hairline, so drag it across both rules from the left end to the right. Press Cmd+D.

The inkwell gets its own feather. Copy the big one, but leave out the barbs along its cut edge: Copy takes the layer's own pixels, not what its mask shows, so the cut edge would come back.

1. Select the Feather layer and Cmd-click its thumbnail.
2. Pick the Lasso, hold Alt and draw around the strip to the right of the scan's cut edge: from about x 722, y 280 across to x 1010, down past the bottom of the canvas, and back to x 878. Alt subtracts it from the selection.
3. Press Cmd+C, then Cmd+D.

1. With Feather still selected, click New Group and name it Inkwell.
2. Press Cmd+V. The copy pastes in place inside the group. Rename it Quill.
3. Click Flip Horizontal in the Move tool's options bar, then press Cmd+D.
4. Choose Filter → Hue/Saturation…, set Hue to 18 and click Apply.

Mirrored and pushed toward blue, it no longer reads as a clone of the big feather.

1. Cmd-click the Quill thumbnail.
2. With the Move tool, hold Cmd and drag the bottom-left corner handle up and to the right until the quill is a little over half its size.
3. Press Cmd+D to apply.

1. Cmd-click the Quill thumbnail again.
2. Drag the round rotate handle outside the top-right corner counter-clockwise by eye, about 55°, until the eye is at the top and the shaft points almost straight down.
3. Press Cmd+D to apply.

Drag the quill with the Move tool so the bottom of its shaft is around x 2190, y 561. The bottle you're about to draw will cover the lower part, so it looks as if it's standing in the ink.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Bottle Shadow. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag a flat ellipse centred on x 2185, y 770, about 410 px wide and 40 px tall. Fill it with #3B2A14, press Cmd+D, run Filter → Gaussian Blur… at 10, and set the layer to Multiply at 50%.
2. Click Add Layer and name it Bottle. With the Lasso, drag round a straight-sided bottle, moving in straight lines from corner to corner: the foot runs from x 2026 to x 2334 at y 765, the sides go straight up to y 549, the shoulders slope in to y 477, and the neck runs from x 2137 to x 2223 up to y 431.
3. Set a Linear gradient of #0A3238, #0E6F73 at 22%, #2A9C98 at 34%, #0B4A5A at 50%, #1D2F66 at 80% and #120F2E, and drag from the left side of the bottle to the right. The light band left of centre is the glass catching the light.
4. Press Cmd+D and add an Inner Glow: Size 16, Opacity 45, colour #03171A.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Bottle Lip. Drag a Rectangular Marquee from x 2127, y 413 to x 2233, y 435, and fill it with a left-to-right gradient of #0E5C62, #5CC4BE at 30%, #14707A at 70% and #141A40. Press Cmd+D.
2. Drag an elliptical marquee for the mouth, centred on x 2180, y 414, about 92 × 14 px, and fill it with #071C20. Press Cmd+D and give the layer a Drop Shadow with Offset X 0, Offset Y 4, Blur 5, Opacity 55, colour #03171A.
3. Click Add Layer and name it Glass Highlights. Pick the Brush, choose Soft Round in Brushes, set Size to 26 and Taper to 0, and use white.
4. Paint a stroke down the left side of the bottle from y 743 up to y 554 at about x 2050, and a short curve along the left shoulder toward the neck. At Size 9, add a thin stroke down the right edge at x 2319.
5. Set the layer to Screen at 70%.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Label. Drag a Rectangular Marquee from x 2064, y 583 to x 2296, y 715 and fill it with #F3EAD6.
2. With the marquee still active, choose Select → Shrink… 8 and fill with #C9A24A.
3. Choose Select → Shrink… 2 and fill with #F3EAD6 again. That leaves a thin 2 px gold rule 8 px inside the edge.
4. Press Cmd+D and add a Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 3, Blur 4, Opacity 45, colour #06181C.

1. Cmd-click the Label thumbnail, click Add Layer and name it Label Shade. Make a gradient of #3B2A14 at 70% opacity at both ends and 0% at 28% and 72% (use the Opacity strip under the colour picker for each stop). Drag it across the label from left to right, press Cmd+D, and set the layer to Multiply at 35%. The label now looks wrapped round a curve.
2. Make a text layer: Pinyon Script, Size 62, #0D4F57, Peacock. Rename it Label Name and centre it on x 2180 with its top at y 605.
3. Click Label Shade first, then make IRIDESCENT INK in Cormorant SC SemiBold, Size 18, #4A3B2A, Letter spacing 2. Rename it Label Small and centre it on x 2180 with its top at y 681.
4. Click Add Layer and name it Glass Glint. With the Soft Round brush at Size 14 in white, paint one stroke from x 2086, y 742 up to x 2088, y 575, across the label's left side. Set it to Screen at 30%.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Tag String. With the Pencil at Size 2 in #4A3B2A, click at x 2224, y 461, then Shift-click at x 2238, y 515 and at x 2252, y 540.
2. Click Add Layer and name it Tag. With the Lasso, drag a luggage-tag shape in straight lines: a point at x 2232, y 540, then x 2254, y 512, x 2342, y 512, x 2342, y 568, x 2254, y 568 and back to the point. That's a tag about 110 × 56 px with a pointed left end. Fill it with #F3EAD6 and press Cmd+D.
3. Drag a 10 px circle with the Elliptical Marquee at x 2252, y 540 and press Delete to punch the hole. Press Cmd+D.
4. Give the tag a Stroke with Width 2 in #C9A24A and a Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 3, Blur 4, Opacity 40, colour #3B2A14.
5. Type No. 7 in Cormorant SC SemiBold, Size 28, #0D4F57, rename the layer Tag Text, and centre it on the tag at x 2300, top y 531.

1. Select the Tag layer and Cmd-click its thumbnail.
2. With the Move tool, hold Cmd and drag the round rotate handle outside the top-right corner clockwise by one snap. Cmd snaps the angle to steps of 15°. Press Cmd+D to apply.

1. Click the Tag Text layer. With the Move tool, a text layer shows its own transform handles, so you don't need a selection.
2. Hold Cmd and drag its rotate handle clockwise by one snap, the same 15° as the tag. The rotation applies when you release.

The tag is so small that turning both about their own centres leaves the lettering where it should be.

1. Select Swash, click Add Layer and name it Ink Splatter.
2. Pick the Spray tool. It paints with the Brush's current tip, which is still Soft Round from the highlights, so the dots come out round. Set Size 90, Density 22, Opacity 95, Softness 5, colour #0D4F57. Click once at x 790, y 632.
3. Set Size to 46 and Density to 12, and click at x 752, y 612 and x 836, y 612.
4. With the Lasso, draw three small teardrops, 20–30 px long, pointing up and to the left away from the stroke, around x 742, y 636, x 774, y 598 and x 726, y 662. Hold Shift for the second and third. Choose Edit → Fill.
5. Cmd-click the layer's thumbnail and fill it with a gradient of #1F4FA0, #0E6F78 at 50% and #0D5C63, dragged from the upper left of the spatter to the lower right. Press Cmd+D and set the layer opacity to 85%.

1. Click the Lettering group row and click Add Layer, which puts the new layer at the top of the group. Name it Grain.
2. Press Cmd+A, fill with #808080, and press Cmd+D.
3. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, set Amount to 22, pick Mono and Gaussian, and click Apply. Set the layer to Overlay at 36%.
4. Click Add Layer and name it Vignette. Make a Radial gradient of #7A5A35 at 0% opacity at the left stop and at 55%, and at full opacity on the right stop.
5. Drag from x 1250, y 400 to well past the bottom-right corner, around x 2760, y 900. Set the layer to Multiply at 18%. The edges should warm slightly, not turn brown.

Groups move as one, so it's easy to try a layout change and take it back.

1. Click the Inkwell group row in the Layers panel.
2. With the Move tool, drag the bottle 60 px to the left. Everything in the group moves together: the quill, bottle, label and tag.
3. It crowds the swash's tail, so press Cmd+Z. Cmd+Shift+Z and Cmd+Z flip between the two positions if you want to compare them.

To finish, choose View → Show Guides to hide the guides. Choose File → Quick Export PNG to save the billboard, and File → Save Project to keep the layers.