Design a Surrealist Cinema Logo

Open Lopsy and create a 1000 × 1000 document with a white background. Click the Background layer, set the foreground color to #EEE4CF in the Color panel's hex field, and choose Edit → Fill to get a warm paper tone.

Click the top ruler at x = 500 to drop a vertical guide. Then click the left ruler at y = 430 (the center of the badge), 66 (top margin) and 934 (bottom margin) for three horizontal guides.

Double-click Layer 1 and rename it Ink Disc. Pick the Elliptical Marquee and drag from (216, 146) to (784, 714) to make a 568 px circle centered on the guides. Set the foreground to #1B2340 and choose Edit → Fill. Press Cmd+D to deselect.

Click Add Layer and name it Keyhole. This white shape is a stencil you'll use to cut other layers, and you'll delete it at the end.

1. Set the foreground to #FFFFFF. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag from (390, 280) to (610, 500) and choose Edit → Fill for the round top. Press Cmd+D.
2. Pick the Lasso. Drag straight lines from (456, 440) to (544, 440), to (596, 642), to (404, 642), and back to the start. That's the tapered bottom of the keyhole.
3. Choose Select → Feather…, set Radius to 1 and click Apply. The 1 px feather smooths the stair-stepped diagonal edges.

Choose Edit → Fill to fill the trapezoid white, then press Cmd+D. The two white shapes overlap at the neck, so they read as one keyhole.

Click Add Layer and name it Sky. Pick the Gradient tool and click Advanced…. In the Gradient Editor, click the bar at about 55% to add a middle stop. Select each stop and pick its color in the square and hue strip:

1. A deep cerulean, about #295C9E, at 0%
2. A soft sky blue, about #7CB1D6, at 55%
3. A pale haze, about #DFEDF2, at 100%

Click Done, then drag from (500, 282) straight down to (500, 644). The sky runs from the top of the keyhole to its bottom.

The sky covers the whole canvas, so cut it down to the stencil:

1. Click the Keyhole layer and pick the Magic Wand. Click inside the white keyhole to select it.
2. Click the Sky layer and choose Select → Inverse. Everything except the keyhole is now selected.
3. Press Delete, then Cmd+D.

Now the daytime sky only shows through the keyhole.

A thin light edge makes the keyhole read as a cut-out, even at small sizes. With Sky active, open its Layer effects (the sparkle icon on the layer row) and turn on Stroke. Set the color to #F1E4CC, the position to Outside and Width to 2.

Click Add Layer and name it Clouds. Pick the Brush and set Hardness 80 and Opacity 100. Each cloud is five or six overlapping round dabs, so click instead of dragging.

1. Set the foreground to #A9BED3 and click the underside of each cloud, a few pixels lower than where the white will go.
2. Set the foreground to #FFFFFF and click the same spots again, about 6 px higher and at full size. The blue dabs that peek out below become the soft shadow on each cloud's belly.

Vary the Size between 20 and 52 so the puffs look natural. Paint a cloud in the upper left of the keyhole, one on the right edge, one small cloud at the neck and one in the stem. It's fine for clouds to spill past the keyhole edge, because you'll trim them in a moment.

Here's the surreal move: one cloud slips out of the keyhole and drifts off the badge. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag around the upper-left cloud, from (396, 280) to (506, 362). Press Cmd+C, then Cmd+V. The copy is pasted in place on a new layer. Rename it Drifter.

Draw the same marquee again over the copy and press V for the Move tool. Drag from inside the selection up and to the right, until the cloud sits across the top-right edge of the disc at about (770, 215).

Press Cmd+D to drop the moved cloud. Draw a marquee around it again, and use these steps:

1. Shift-drag the bottom-right corner handle out until the cloud is about 1.45× its size, then press Cmd+D.
2. Marquee the bigger cloud once more. Drag the round rotation handle just outside the top-right corner counterclockwise by about 10°.
3. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Repeat the clipping trick on Clouds:

1. Magic Wand the Keyhole stencil.
2. Click Clouds and choose Select → Inverse.
3. Press Delete, then Cmd+D.

Drifter is on its own layer, so it stays outside the keyhole.

The hat is the hero, so make it big. Click the Clouds layer and then Add Layer, and name the new layer Bowler. Set the foreground to #15182B and build the hat from simple marquee fills. Press Cmd+D between shapes.

1. Crown top: Elliptical Marquee from (439, 330) to (561, 434), then Edit → Fill.
2. Crown sides: Rectangular Marquee from (439, 381) to (561, 419), then Fill. This gives the dome straight sides.
3. Band: Rectangular Marquee from (439, 399) to (561, 417). Set the foreground to #D9481C and Fill.
4. Brim: set the foreground back to #15182B. Elliptical Marquee from (378, 409) to (622, 439), then Fill.

The brim pokes out past the keyhole onto the night sky. That's a second small paradox: the hat is in the daytime and the night at once.

Open the Layer effects for Bowler:

• Inner Glow: color #4B5A8C, Size 16, Opacity 70. It adds a soft sheen to the crown.
• Stroke: color #F1E4CC, Outside, Width 2. This matches the keyhole outline and makes the brim visible where it crosses the navy disc.

Click Ink Disc and then Add Layer, so the new layers sit under the sky. Name the new layer Moon.

1. Set the foreground to #F4E7C6. Elliptical Marquee from (306, 254) to (378, 326) and Fill.
2. Marquee a second circle from (325, 248) to (389, 312) and press Delete to bite out a crescent.
3. Give the moon an Outer Glow in #F6D58E with Size 22 and Opacity 55.

Add another layer, Stars. Click about 30 small brush dabs across the disc with Size 3, 4 and a few 7. Keep them away from the keyhole, the moon and the escaping cloud.

The big cloud should look like it came through the keyhole. Click Drifter, add a layer called Puffs, and paint three tiny clouds with the same shadow-then-white dabs. They step from the keyhole's upper-right edge toward the big cloud and get bigger as they go, from dabs of about Size 14 up to 30.

Give Drifter a soft Drop Shadow in #1B2340, with Offset X 6, Offset Y 8, Blur 10 and Opacity 35, so it floats above the badge.

Click Bowler and Add Layer so the ring sits below the drifting clouds. Name it Ring.

1. Set the foreground to #C2552F. Elliptical Marquee from (186, 116) to (814, 744), then Fill.
2. Marquee from (216, 146) to (784, 714) and press Delete to hollow it out.
3. For a gold hairline, set the foreground to #F3B35A. Marquee from (211, 141) to (789, 719) and Fill, then marquee from (213, 143) to (787, 717) and press Delete.

This leaves a thin gold line on the inside of the terracotta and a sliver of cream between the gold and the navy.

Add a layer named Bulbs and pick the Brush.

1. Click the Radial Symmetry button in the options bar and set Segments to 32.
2. Cmd-click the center of the disc at (500, 430) to move the symmetry center there.
3. Set the foreground to #F8DB94, Size 11 and Hardness 95. Click once on the middle of the ring at (500, 129).

One click stamps all 32 bulbs. Turn Radial Symmetry off again, then give Bulbs an Outer Glow in #FFD27A with Size 10 and Opacity 70.

You don't need the stencil any more. Click the Keyhole layer and click Delete Layer.

Click Ink Disc, then Shift-click Puffs to select everything in between. Choose Layer → Group Layers and rename the group Emblem. Now you can move the whole badge in one drag or adjust it as a unit.

Floating objects that cast shadows are a staple of surrealism. Click Background and add a layer called Seal Shadow.

1. Set the foreground to #1B2340. Marquee from (200, 128) to (824, 752), which is slightly lower and to the right of the badge, and Fill.
2. Choose Filter → Gaussian Blur…, set Radius to 22 and click Apply.
3. Marquee from (200, 130) to (800, 730) and press Delete. Only the shadow outside the ring is left, so it doesn't gray out the cream sliver.
4. Set the layer's blend mode to Multiply and its opacity to 28%.

With Seal Shadow still active (so you don't restyle another text layer), pick the Text tool:

• XANADU: font Playfair Display, weight Black, size 116. Set Letter spacing to 4 in the Text panel and the color to #1B2340. Click in empty canvas, type XANADU, press Tab, then Move-drag it so it's centered on the vertical guide, with its top about 55 px below the ring.
• CINEMA: font Italiana, size 34, Letter spacing 24, color #B84A26. Center it just under XANADU.

Add a Rules layer. With the Brush at Size 3 and Hardness 100, click and then Shift-click to draw a navy line on each side of CINEMA, matching XANADU's width. Finish each outer end with a single Size 8 terracotta dot.

The seal text will run along a circle concentric with the ring. Pick the Pen tool and place four smooth anchors on a 342 px radius around (500, 430). Press at each point and drag along the circle to pull out handles about 122 px long:

1. (285, 696), bottom left
2. (162, 376), left
3. (377, 111), top left
4. (715, 164), top right

Click the ✓ Commit path button to store it as a path.

Click the Rules layer so you start from a raster layer. Set the Text tool to Cinzel, weight SemiBold, size 24, Letter spacing 9, color #1B2340. Click in empty canvas near the top-left corner and type:

CECI N’EST PAS UN FILM ✦ EST. MCMXXIX

Press Tab. Then set the Path dropdown in the options bar to your new path. The line wraps around the badge, and the ✦ lands at about ten-thirty.

Add a layer called Grain, set the foreground to #808080 and choose Edit → Fill. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, pick Mono and Gaussian, set Amount to 40 and click Apply.

Set Grain to Overlay at 30% opacity. Collapse the Emblem group, then drag Grain by its grip to the top of the Layers panel so it covers everything.

Open the Emblem group's effects drawer, click Add Adjustment and choose Photo Filter. Set Density to 10. The warm filter turns the white clouds a creamy color and gives the terracotta a vintage-print feel, without touching the type.

Toggle View → Show Guides off to check the composition. Choose File → Quick Export PNG for the artwork, and File → Save Project to keep the layered .lopsy file.

For favicons and small sizes, save a simplified variant as well: hide the seal text and cut the bulbs down to 16. The keyhole and hat still read at 64 px.