How to create a trippy psychedelic poster

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to teach you how to make a funny psychedelic poster. Being psychedelic the final image will please your brain with vivid colors, that melt into each other, trippy characters and looking at the Reality from the unusual point of view.

Step 1

First you should define the subject of the future poster. I’m going to use the eating process. Usually people and worms eat apples, but worms don’t eat people and apple don’t eat anyone. To make the poster trippy and a bit crazy I’ll make the apples eat worms and worms eat people. The apples will be the humans teeth. Sound weird enough, right? Here is the sketch. I prefer using pencil and paper, but you can use any medium you like.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 2

Now it’s time to make the background coloring. I’m going to use Artrage 3, but if you don’t want to pay for this wonderful software $40.00 you can download the Artrage 2 demo. You’ll need only one layer so it will work. Press Cmd+N to create new document. Set the width to 2480 and hight to 3508 pixels (this is A3 size with resolution of 300dpi). Click Load Tracing Image and select your sketch. Set the type of canvas you like.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 3

Use Oil Brush to make a quick coloring. If you can not see the tracing image, go to Tools > Tracing Options > Show Tracing Image. Speaking of colors Artrage has a wonderful color palette that consists of RGB colors. So be prepared to lose the image brightness if you print your artwork.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

As you can see I’ve made a very rough coloring.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 4

Use the Palette Knife to smudge the brush strokes.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner
Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 5

Use a small Oil Brush about 30% and white color to add a texture to the face.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Use the Palette Knife to soften it.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 6

Export your painting as a .jpg file. Open Adobe Illustrator. Create new A4 document. I’m going to use CMYK color mode to make my final artwork printable. Place the painting inside the Illustrator file. Rename the layer to “Painting” and lock it.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 7

Create new layer “Black strokes”. Use Ellipse Tool (L) to create an horizontal-oriented ellipse. Click right and left anchors with Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift+C). Select the resulting shape and press “New Brush” icon on the Brush Panel.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Use this brush to stroke the painting.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 8

Now it’s apples time. Use the same brush with smaller stroke size (0.2 – 0.1 pt) to stroke them.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Use Pen Tool (P) to create the white teeth.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 9

Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to add the eyes to the apples and the eyes to the human.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 10

Use Pen Tool (P) to create the apple leaves. Add few the black brush strokes to them. Group the leaf and the strokes around it and make several copies or make few more leaves from scratch. Adjust the strokes anchor points using Direct Selection Tool (A). Use Eyedropper Tool (Y) to pick the colors of the leaves from the human face.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 11

Create circle using Ellipse Tool (L) (Hold Shift to make it firm.) Hold Alt and move it to the right (Hold Shift to move it horizontally). Press Cmd+D several times to make more copies. Apply the black stroke to the new objects. Use Pen Tool (P) to create the face of the worm. Use Pen Tool (P) to create the teeth. Adjust the coloring of the worm and the position of the jaws. Select all objects that form the worm and create new Art brush.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 12

Use the new brush to create several worms coming out of the apples and attacking the human.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 13

Adjust the arrangement of the worms and apple teeth. Use Object > Arrange > Whatever arrangement you need command. If you have any graphics coming out of the art board do the following: Select All (Cmd+A) and Group (Cmd+G). Create a rectangle 210mm wide and 297mm high to fit your canvas. Align it centrally both horizontal and vertical (set Align to Artboard on the Align Panel). Select All, Right Click > Create Clipping mask.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 14

Now it’s time to add the text. Remove some of the strokes from the forehead.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Add a line using Pen Tool (P)

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Using Type Tool (T) click over the line and add text. I’ve been using free font Liquidism.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Add a small banner on the bottom of the poster.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

Step 15

Make a copy of the top text and move it down a bit. Color the copies with the desired color and this is it!

Hungry apples psychedelic poster tutorial by Andrei Verner

If you like the original background artwork

You can buy a poster or a postcard with it. This can be a funny present or a decoration for your home.

Hungry apples psychedelic poster by Andrei Verner

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