In this tutorial you will learn how to make a unique abstract plasma-like effect like this:

To be totally honest, I don’t know what the heck you could use this for, but it does look cool!

STEP 1

Create a new document, make it large 300*300+, make the background black, then make a new layer, get a soft brush out (one of the default ones) if you have other brushes out, go to ‘Reset Brushes’ give it a radius of around 80px, and hardness 0%.
Draw a white dot in the middle.

STEP 2

Get the smudge tool out, it is located directly under the eraser, and it is a pointed finger. Set the brush to 30px Diameter and 100% hardness, set the Smudge Strength to around 75%.

Ok, now when you smudge this start in the center, and drag it out, do this once, and then start at the black and drag it through the white, occasionally you will need to do 2 or 3 of the same strokes to keep it even, do this until you get somthing like this:

STEP 3

Now we’re gunna add some color, do a Hue / Saturation (CTR+U).. tick Colorize, and use settings similar to these..
Hue: 79
Saturation: 84
Lightness: -54

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STEP 4

Duplicate the layer (Right Click Layer > Duplicate) set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge or Linear dodge, depending on which looks better. Finished now!

I’m going to try and put a bit more effort into my smudging to see if I can get it to look a little bit better:

I also make a new layer, set it to overlay, and put some black grunge brushes over it. I think it looks pretty good, it doesn’t look too flash on its own, but it could be a nice edition to a piece of artwork or a forum signature.

If you need help just leave a comment here!

I’d appreciate it if you posted some of your outcomes!!

Click here to download .PSD

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