Best of the Web – February

Mar 3rd in Web Roundups by Sean Hodge

There was a lot of great Photoshop and design work out there this past month. Hot fashion, cartoon monkeys, the cosmos, grunge design, and posters, among other things! Here is the best of the Web from February: tutorials, freebies, and articles!

Author: Sean Hodge

Hi All! I recently moved to the outskirts of Orlando, Florida. I'm the editor of Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+. Also, visit my blog AiBURN where I feature some of my creative work and ideas. Or follow me on Twitter: @seanHodge.

Tutorial Wrap

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  Sparkling Model in Photoshop

  This tutorial fuses some great techniques that Fabio has shown here and puts them to good effect in other tuts. These sparkling effects are combined to make a model glow. Can't go wrong with that.

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  Drunken Monkey Photoshop Tutorial

  This is an awesome tutorial that covers the whole creative process of making this Drunken Monkey character, which of course includes the Photoshop work. Don't miss this one.

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  Urban City Scene on Grunge Background

  While the techniques in this tutorial aren't super-advanced, the results are good. If you've done some similar work, you should be able to skim this tutorial, but if you're a beginner, this tutorial will be a great find. The tute uses lots of different brushes to achieve a vector-style look overlaid on a cut-out cityscape.

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  Photoshop Expertise

  This tutorial covers blending multiple photographs together to give your photos an artistic look.

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  Tutorial - Realistic Texturing and Detailing

  This video tutorial is about 9 minutes long. In this tute, you'll learn how to apply texture from a photo to the flat surfaces of an object. It also covers using the Brush Tool to add that little bit of fine-tuned realism.

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  Complex Collages

  The finished results in this tute are a little different, but interesting. I can imagine using these collage techniques in a fantasy design to good effect.

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  Awesome-Up Your design with A.B.

  The techniques and final effect in this tutorial are Ok. The concept behind the tutorial is really good though. It should inspire you to take some of the knowledge you've been gaining about making cool effects in Photoshop and apply it to your Web designs.

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(FREE!) Download Picks

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  Free Cosmic Photoshop Brushes

  High-resolution Photoshop brushes made from NASA's Hubble pictures.

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  Free Hi-Res Spraypaint Photoshop Brushes Set Two

  This is the second set of high-quality Photoshop Spraypaint Brushes put out recently by Spoon Graphics.

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  Featured Freebies - FF Unit Rounded Bold

  This font is described as friendly without loosing its precision. It's a carefully-crafted, rounded font.

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  Circular Halftone Patterns

  This is a halftone pattern I put out recently to promote AiBURN. Follow the link below to jump over to Vecteezy to grab the set.

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  Photoshop actions: 124+ Free Photoshop Actions to Boost Your Designs

  This article links off to some cool actions. Actions allow you to just click a button and Photoshop will perform a bunch of recorded steps. So you could turn just about anything into an action. There are some cool actions here worth trying out.

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Article Wrap

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  Breathtaking Typographic Posters

  Smashing Magazine always has comprehensive posts with huge lists of content and resources. This one on Typographic Posters is no different. Also, if you've been following Veerle's What is Graphic Design Poster Contest, you'll notice that some of the winners made this Smashing list. The second-place entry with the huge 3D watercolors is fantastic.

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  15 Snazzy Snowboard Designs

  Small collection of some really cool snowboard designs. These kinds of short, visually-interesting posts are great for design inspiration.

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  How to Improve Your Photoshop Skills

  Some great advice over at Abduzeedo about things to focus on to learn Photoshop. These are all very practical tips. I like number two especially: Don't be Disappointed. Most designs that are getting some heavy Photoshop treatment will have an ugly duckling phase. Have the confidence to stick with it until you have yourself a swan.

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  Graphic Design Magazines

  If you're thinking of subscribing to a design magazine, this is a good roundup of mags available out there.

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  Ode to the Napkin

  The site Doodlage is all about doodling, of course! Some interesting concepts on every coffee house junkie's favorite sketchpad, none other than the napkin.

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  Sunday Type - Fruity Type

  A great roundup of interesting uses of typography. Gotta love the type umbrella, very cool.

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