Design an Op-Art Surf Club Iron-On Patch in Lopsy

1. Choose File → New, set Width and Height to 1400 and click Create.
2. Click the top ruler at x 700 to drop a vertical centre guide.
3. Click the left ruler at y 700 (the centre) and again at y 740. The second guide is the horizon.
4. Drag your denim photo from your desktop onto the canvas. Lopsy fits a big photo to the canvas and puts it on its own layer.
5. Double-click the new layer's name and call it Denim. The new document's Background and empty Layer 1 stay underneath, hidden by the photo.

The patch is four stacked discs, each a little smaller than the one below. Seen from above, they make the edge, the lettering band, a coral keyline and the art area.

1. With Denim selected, click New Group at the bottom of the Layers panel and name it Patch. Everything from now on goes inside this group.
2. Click Add Layer and name it Merrow. Pick the Elliptical Marquee in the toolbox. Drag from 120, 120 to 1280, 1280 to make a circle. Set the foreground colour to #E9DFC7 and choose Edit → Fill.
3. Add a layer called Band. Draw a circle from 152, 152 to 1248, 1248 and fill it with #161517.
4. Add a layer called Coral Ring. Draw a circle from 260, 260 to 1140, 1140 and fill it with #D85B3A.
5. Add a layer called Sky. Draw a circle from 270, 270 to 1130, 1130 and fill it with #EEE5D0. That leaves a 10 px coral keyline. Keep the selection for the next step.

1. Add a layer called Rays. Your Sky circle should still be selected.
2. Set the foreground colour to ink #161517.
3. Choose Filter → Sunburst… and set Rays 72, Length 150, Width 50 and Taper 0. Set Center X to 50 and Center Y to 44. That's 44% of the way down, which puts the burst at 700, 616, where the sun will go.
4. Click Apply. Sunburst only paints inside the selection, so the rays stop at the coral ring.

Width 50 makes each ray exactly as wide as the gap next to it. Equal black and cream is what makes rays like this flicker.

All 72 rays meet in a muddy point. Cut a clean hole there:

1. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag a circle from 485, 401 to 915, 831. That's a 215 px radius around the sun's centre.
2. Press Delete, then Cmd+D to deselect.

The cream gap that's left will frame the sun.

The sun starts out big, in the middle of the canvas. That way the Lens Distortion in a later step has room to work. You'll shrink it into place afterwards.

1. Add a layer called Sun.
2. Draw a circle from 100, 100 to 1300, 1300 (a 600 px radius) and fill it with pure black #000000.
3. Choose Select → Shrink…, enter 50 and click Apply. Fill the smaller selection with pure white #FFFFFF.
4. Shrink by 50 again and fill with black.

Use pure black and white here, not ink and bone. You'll recolour the sun later, and pure values keep the next step exact.

Keep going: Shrink 50, fill white, Shrink 50, fill black. Stop after the eleventh shrink. You'll have twelve rings, black on the outside and white at the centre. Deselect.

1. Add a layer called Wedges and draw the same 600 px circle again.
2. Set the foreground colour to white and choose Filter → Sunburst…. Set Rays 16, Length 150, Width 50, Taper 0 and Center 50 / 50. Click Apply, then deselect.
3. Open the layer's effects (the ✦ button on the row) and set Blend to Difference.

Difference flips the rings to their opposite colour wherever a white wedge covers them. The result is a polar checkerboard. Choose Layer → Merge Down to bake it into the Sun layer.

1. Choose Filter → Lens Distortion…, set Strength 100 and Zoom 100, and click Apply.
2. Run it a second time at Strength 80.

Barrel distortion pushes the outer rings together and leaves the middle alone. That's how a sphere looks when it curves away from you, and it's Vasarely's Vega trick. The disc also shrinks noticeably, from a 600 px radius to about 390, because the outer rings get pushed off the edge.

1. Drag a rectangular marquee just around the sun (read its edges from the rulers).
2. Switch to the Move tool (V).
3. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right handle up and to the left until the box is about 370 px wide. Cmd keeps it in proportion. The top-left corner stays pinned.
4. Press Cmd+D to commit.

1. Cmd-click the Sun layer's thumbnail to select its pixels.
2. With the Move tool, drag the sun into the middle of the halo. Its selection box's middle handles should line up with the vertical guide and with y 616 on the left ruler.
3. Deselect.

1. Cmd-click the Sun thumbnail again. Then click the Rays layer and add a layer called Sun Colour. It goes between Rays and Sun.
2. Fill the selection with coral #D85B3A and deselect.
3. Select the Sun layer and set its Blend to Multiply. White multiplied by coral is coral, and black stays black.
4. To exaggerate the bulge, choose Filter → Liquify…. Set the mode to Bloat, Brush Size 360 and Pressure 35.
5. Press on the sun's centre for a moment and give it a tiny wiggle, then click Apply.

Bloat only works inside its brush circle, so the sun's outline stays put.

The sixteen wedges still pinch together into a grey pinwheel at the centre.

1. Stay on the Sun layer and zoom in twice (Cmd+=).
2. Draw a small circle, about 26 px across, centred on 700, 616. Fill it with black.

1. Select Sun and add a layer called Sea Colour, so the sea sits above the sun.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag from 260, 740 (on the horizon guide) to 1140, 1140 and fill with bone #EEE5D0. This hides the bottom of the sun.
3. Draw the reflection as a trapezoid with the Pen (P). Click (don't drag) at 640, 740 and 760, 740 on the horizon, then 860, 1140 and 540, 1140 at the bottom. Click the first anchor again to close the shape.
4. Open the Paths panel (its button is on the narrow strip at the far right of the window), click Path to Selection, then Delete Path (the selection stays). Fill it with coral.

The reflection is narrow at the horizon and widens toward you, the way a real one does.

1. Choose View → Show Grid and set the grid size slider in the options bar to 8px. Showing the grid also turns on Snap, so marquees land on grid lines.
2. Add a layer called Tile. Drag a marquee from 92, 92 to 124, 108 and fill it with ink. That's a bar 32 px wide and 16 px tall.
3. Drag a marquee from 92, 92 to 124, 124 (a 32 px square) and choose Edit → Define Pattern.
4. Deselect, then delete the Tile layer with the trash button. The pattern stays in the session.
5. Choose View → Show Grid again to hide it, and untick Snap.

1. Select Sea Colour and add a layer called Sea Lines.
2. Draw the same rectangle as before (260, 740 to 1140, 1140) and fill it with white.
3. Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick your tile, leave Scale at 100 and click Apply.

The stripes go on a white layer, not a transparent one, so the next steps can treat them as a black-and-white image.

Deselect and set the Sea Lines Blend to Multiply. The white disappears, the black stays, and the coral reflection shows through between the stripes.

1. With the Rectangular Marquee, draw the sea rectangle again (260, 740 to 1140, 1140).
2. Switch to the Move tool, click Mesh Warp in the options bar, set the grid to 5 × 5 and tick Preview.
3. Leave the top and bottom rows of handles alone. Drag every handle in the second row up about 70 px, the third row about 95 px and the fourth about 70 px.
4. Nudge the handles in the second and fourth columns down a few pixels and the middle column up, so the stripes swell gently.
5. Click Apply and deselect.

The stripes now crowd together near the horizon and open out toward you. That's Riley's rush of depth.

1. Keep Sea Lines selected and choose Filter → Liquify….
2. Set the mode to Twirl CW, Brush Size 230 and Pressure 80.
3. Press at 450, 965 and keep wiggling the pointer in tiny circles until the stripes curl round into a wave.
4. Switch to Twirl CCW and do the same at 950, 965. This gives a mirror-image eddy.
5. Click Apply.

Keep both eddies clear of the reflection.

Liquify resamples the pixels, so the stripe edges come out soft and slightly ragged. Because the layer is pure black and white, you can rebuild them:

1. Filter → Gaussian Blur…, Radius 3. This rounds off the raggedness.
2. Filter → Threshold…, Level 128. This snaps everything back to black or white.
3. Filter → Gaussian Blur…, Radius 1. This anti-aliases the new edges.

1. Cmd-click the Sky thumbnail and choose Select → Inverse.
2. Select Sea Lines and press Delete. Then select Sea Colour and press Delete. Deselect.
3. With Sea Colour still selected, add a layer called Horizon. Pick the Pencil (N), set Size 8 and ink as the colour.
4. Click at 260, 740, then hold Shift and click at 1140, 740 to draw a straight line along the horizon guide.
5. Trim the line's ends the same way: Cmd-click Sky, Inverse, Delete, deselect.

1. Select Sea Lines so the text lands above the art.
2. Pick the Text tool (T). Choose Rubik Mono One at size 66, with bone #EEE5D0 as the colour.
3. Click in the empty denim at the top-left, type RIPTIDE POINT and press Tab to commit.
4. In the Text panel, set Letter spacing to 6.

The lettering band runs from radius 440 to 548, so the middle of the letters should sit on a 494 px circle. With caps about 48 px tall, the baseline goes on a 470 px circle.

1. Pick the Pen tool (P). Press at about ten o'clock on that circle (345, 392) and drag a little along the curve to pull out a handle.
2. Add three more anchors the same way over the top (at about eleven, twelve and one o'clock), and a last one at about two o'clock (1099, 451). Always drag each handle along the circle's direction.
3. Click ✓ in the options bar to keep it as a path.
4. Select the text layer and choose that path from Path in the Text options bar.

If the word isn't centred over x 700, draw the arc again, starting a little further round, and pick the new path.

1. Click the Sea Lines row first, so the new settings can't restyle RIPTIDE POINT. With the Text tool in Rubik Mono One, set size 58.
2. Click in empty denim and type SURF CLUB ★ EST 1966 (paste the ★ if it won't type), then press Tab. Set Letter spacing to 1.
3. For upright text along the bottom, the path must run left to right under the circle, with the baseline on the outside. Use a 518 px circle (494 plus half the cap height). With the Pen, start at about eight o'clock (271, 990), add anchors under the bottom and end at about four o'clock (1166, 927). Click ✓.
4. Bind the text to this path from the Path dropdown, as before.

Set the bottom line in the same face as the top one. Size it and space it so it spans roughly the same angle. Two different typefaces fight on a badge this small.

1. Select RIPTIDE POINT and add a layer called Star L.
2. With the Pen, click the ten corners of a five-point star about 72 px across, centred at 206, 700 (in the band at nine o'clock). Click the first corner again to close it. As with the reflection, use Path to Selection and Delete Path, then fill with coral.
3. Draw a marquee around the star. With the Move tool, hold Cmd and drag a round rotation handle just outside a corner. Turn it a quarter turn counter-clockwise, so a point faces out of the patch. Cmd snaps the angle to 15° steps.
4. Cmd+D to commit. If the star has drifted off centre, nudge it back with the arrow keys.

1. Cmd-click the Star L thumbnail, press Cmd+C, deselect and press Cmd+V. The copy pastes in place on a new layer. Name it Star R.
2. Drag it straight across with the Move tool to 1194, 700.
3. Marquee it and turn it 180° with the rotation handle, so it points right.
4. Commit, and nudge it until it's centred in the band.

1. Select Merrow and Cmd-click its thumbnail.
2. Run Sunburst with #CDBFA2: Rays 120, Length 150, Width 35, Taper 0, Rotation 0, Center 50 / 50.
3. Run it again with #FBF6EA, changing only Width to 14 and Rotation to 2. This puts a highlight beside each stitch.
4. Filter → Add Noise…, Amount 30, Mono.
5. Filter → Motion Blur…, Angle 60, Distance 10. The streaks slant the stitches the way an overlocking machine wraps them.
6. Deselect.

Open the Merrow layer's effects and turn on:

• Inner Glow in #5E4E33, Size 12, Opacity 65. This darkens the outer lip so the cord looks rounded.
• Drop Shadow in #050B18, Offset X 3, Offset Y 5, Blur 6, Opacity 75. This is a tight contact shadow.
• Outer Glow in #061024, Size 40, Opacity 40. This is a wide, soft ambient shadow.

Close the drawer.

Select Band and give it an Outer Glow in #2A2116, Size 9, Opacity 70. The glow falls on the inside of the merrow, so the cord is now shaded on both sides.

Real embroidery shines along the direction of its stitches, so each area gets its own grain. All three texture layers start as thread grey #808080.

1. Select Horizon and add a layer called Sea Thread.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag from 250, 250 to 1150, 1150 and fill it with grey.
3. Filter → Fibers…, Variance 24, Strength 40. Fibers always run up and down.
4. Switch to the Move tool, hold Cmd and turn the square a quarter turn with a rotation handle, so the fibres run sideways. Deselect.
5. Trim it to the sea: Cmd-click the Sky thumbnail, then hold Option and drag a rectangle over everything above the horizon to subtract it. Choose Select → Inverse, press Delete and deselect.
6. Set Blend to Overlay and the opacity to 30%.

1. Add a layer called Sky Thread above Sea Thread.
2. Cmd-click the Sky thumbnail, then Option-drag a rectangle over everything below the horizon to subtract the sea.
3. Fill with grey and run Filter → Add Noise…, Amount 60, Mono.
4. Filter → Radial Blur…, Amount 40. Radial Blur always centres on the canvas, a little below the sun, but under the rays nobody can tell.
5. Deselect. Set Blend to Overlay and the opacity to 35%.

1. Select Star R and add a layer called Band Thread.
2. Cmd-click the Merrow thumbnail to load the whole patch. With the Elliptical Marquee, Option-drag a circle from 260, 260 to 1140, 1140 to cut out the art. The band and the merrow edge are left.
3. Fill with grey, then repeat the Add Noise 60 Mono and Radial Blur 40. Deselect.
4. Set Blend to Screen and the opacity to 16%. Overlay does nothing on pure black, but Screen lifts faint highlights out of it.

1. Select Merrow and pick the Dodge/Burn tool (O). Set Mode to Burn, Exposure 14 and Size 44.
2. Drag along the middle of the cream edge from about three o'clock, round the bottom, to nine o'clock.
3. Do a second, shorter pass over the bottom.

Within one stroke, Burn doesn't build up when you go over the same spot again. The second stroke does add to the first, so the darkening is strongest at the bottom and fades toward the sides.

1. Select Denim and add a layer called Vignette.
2. Select the whole canvas and fill it with black.
3. Draw a circle from 0, 0 to 1400, 1400 and choose Select → Feather… 160.
4. Press Delete, deselect and set the layer's opacity to 45%.

The edges of the denim fall into shadow, which pushes the patch forward.

A patch ironed on by hand is never quite straight.

1. Text on a path has to be flattened before it can turn with other layers. Select each text layer and click Rasterize Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel.
2. Click the Patch group's row with nothing selected on the canvas. The Move tool draws one box around everything inside the group.
3. Drag a round rotation handle outside a corner about 6° counter-clockwise, then press Cmd+D.

Hide the guides (Cmd+;), save the project with File → Save Project and choose File → Quick Export PNG.