Landscape – Wordpress Theme

Hello there. In this tutorial we’ll be making this wonderful landscape wordpress theme in photoshop. As always, I’ll guide you step-by-step through this and of course, I’ve prepared for you the resource pack to make it easier for you. I will also like if you can tell me what do you think about it at the end of this tutorial, like: what do you want to change or add to this theme? OK, now let’s get to work.

Here is the resource pack I used when creating this theme.

Step 1

Open your Photoshop and create a new document with the following settings:

Step 2

Zoom in until 100% by hitting Ctrl and + or by using the Zoom Tool (Z). Get your Ruler ( Ctrl + R ) and drag 2 guide lines: one at 700px an the other at 1400px.

Step 3

We split it into 3 parts. The first part from 0px to 700px will be the sky. So, in your Layer Pallets create a new Group and name it Top.

Take the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and select the 700px.

Set the Foreground color to 64cef6 and the Background color to a7f1fa. Select the Gradient Tool (G) (left click and hold down your mouse button on the Paint Bucket Tool  and then select the Gradient Tool). Make it have these settings:

In the Top group, make a new layer and name it Sky. Now, drag a line from the top of the canvas to the 700px line. Hold Shift to make it a straight line. At the end it should snap to the guide line.

Now we have the beautiful sky. I know it’s empty but we’re going to fix that.

Step 4

Make a new layer and name it Sun. Take the Ellipse Tool (U) and make a 150px by 150px white circle. To do that, go to the Ellipse Options and select Fixed Size – W: 150px
H: 150px.

Place it like I did. Use the ruler for guidance.

Right-click on the Sun layer and put the following Blending Options:

Inner Shadow – color: c95454

Outer Glow – color: fef349

Inner Glow – color: c95454

Color Overlay – color: fdff40

Now your Sun shines.

Step 5

Let’s put some clouds on the sky. Make a new layer and name it Main Cloud. Take the Brush Tool (B) and load from the resource pack the cloud brushes (Cloud_Brushes_Set_1). Select the 3rd one and in the Master Diameter put 500px.

Place it on the sky like so:

Right-click on the Main Cloud layer and put the following Blending Options:

Inner Shadow – color: 000000

Outer Glow – color: ffffff

Inner Glow – color: 999999

The result should look like this:

Make another layer and name it Title Cloud. Select the 4th one with Diameter 250px. Place it on the sky.

Copy the style from the Main Cloud layer to this layer. To do that, right click on the Main Cloud layer and select Copy Layer Style. Then, right click on the Title Cloud layer and select Past Layer Style.

Make another layer and name it Clouds. Select 2 other clouds, witch ever you like, and place them on the sky. Make one small and the other smaller, first one 100px and
second 50px.

Paste the same layer style to them as well.

Step 6

Create a new layer and name it Birds. Take the Custom Shape Tool (U) and load the birds shapes from the the resource pack. Place them on the sky with black color.

If you need to re-size them just select Free Transform from the photoshop menu Edit or hit Ctrl + T.

Step 7

In the Layers Pallet, make a new Group and name it Middle. Take the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and make a selection from 700px to 1400px. Set the Foreground color
to 2be3eb and the Background color to 085293. Select the Gradient Tool (G). In the group, make a new layer and name it Water. Now, drag a line from the 700px line to the 1400px line. Hold Shift to make it a straight line. At the end it should snap to the guide line.

Step 8

Create a new layer and name it Sand. Now we’ll be making a small island. Hide the guide lines by hitting Ctrl + ; (to make them appear hit the key combination again). Take the Pen Tool (P). Make sure it’s on Paths.

Now make a island shape path with the Pen Tool.

Right-click with the Pen Tool and select Fill Path… In Contents, use Color… ffffff. Remember! You should have the Sand layer selected when filling the path.

You can save your shape path or you can just delete it by right-clicking on it again. To save it select Define Custom Shape… Right-click on the Sand layer and select Blending Options. Give it a Gradient Overlay:

Make a new layer and name it Sand dots. Take the Brush Tool (B) and go to the Brushes Presets window by hitting F5. Select the Brush Tip Shape, Shape Dynamics and  Scattering. Use these settings on them:

Scattering

Shape Dynamics

Brush Tip Shape

Now, with your Sand dots layer active and your Brush Tool selected, hold Ctrl and click on the Sand layer’s thumbnail (the little layers window) to make a selection around the island. This way the dots will not be drawn outside the island’s shape. Draw some of them but don’t make too many.

Turn down the opacity of the layer to 30%. You can play with the settings till you like the result. Here’s mine:

Step 9

And a Outer Glow- color: fde38b to the Sand layer.

In the Layers Pallet, right-click on the Sand layer and select Create Layers.

With the Sand Outer Glow Layer selected go to the Top Group, Ctrl click the sky layer’s thumbnail and hit the delete key. Now the glow is only visible in the water.

Convert the Sand layer to Smart Object. Go to Filter – Noise – Add Noise:

Make a new layer and name it Depth. Ctrl click the Sand layer’s thumbnail to make a selection. Go to Select – Modify – Expand and put 10px. Fill the selection with the Paint Bucket Tool (G) color ffe484. With the Depth Layer selected go to the Top Group, Ctrl click the sky layer’s thumbnail and hit the delete key.

Free Transform ( Ctrl + T ) the Depth layer, right click on the canvas and select Warp.

From the Warp drop-down menu select Wave, press the Change the Warp Orientation button and Bend it 30%.

Again Free Transform the Depth layer and drag the 3rd top point to the left until the depth fades behind the island.

Change the Blending Mode of the Depth layer to Overlay and the Opacity to 80%.

Make a new layer and name it Depth2. Repeat the process like the Depth layer but Expand it 20px, Bend it 15% or 20% and change it’s Opacity to 28%.

Step 10

Create a new layer and name it Grass. Take the Pen Tool (P) and make a path shape like this and fill it with color 94c93b:

Add the following Blending Options:

Drop Shadow – color 000000

Outer Glow – color c5d928

Stroke – color a0cd28

Right-click on the Grass layer’s Effects and select Create Layers. With the Grass’s Outer Glow layer active Ctrl click on the Sand layer’s thumbnail (the little layers window) to make a selection around the island. Go to Select – Inverse ( Shift + Ctrl + I ) and hit delete key.

Ctrl + D to deselect. Create a new layer and name it Little Grass. Again with the Pen Tool (P) draw path shapes and fill them with color 94c93b:

Add the following Blending Options:

Drop Shadow – color 000000

Outer Glow – color c5d928

Stroke – color a0cd28

Step 11

Let’s put a palm tree on the island. From the resource pack, open in photoshop the Palm Tree Vectors file (Palm_Tree_Vectors). Take the Magic Wand Tool (W) and click on
the first palm tree.

Ctrl + C to copy it and Paste it on the landscape. It will automatically be on a new separated layer. Free Transform ( Ctrl + T ) the tree to 16% width and height.

Now, zoom in on the palm tree to about 800%. The reason for this is that we want to separate the trunk from the leafs, to color them with brown and green. Take the Lasso
Tool (L) and make a selection around the leafs through the trunk. You can zoom out when necessary by hitting Ctrl – .

Press Ctrl + X to cut the leafs. Make a new layer and name it Leafs. Paste the leafs. Take the Move Tool (V) and align it with the trunk by pressing the arrow keys on your  keyboard.

Select the Leafs layer and put the following Blending Options:

Inner Glow – color c8d928

Color Overlay – color 549f42

Create a new layer and name it Leafs Spine. You can do this with a soft 2px Brush Tool (B) or with the Pen Tool (P). Draw some lines with color 94c93b.

Select the Trunk layer (rename it trunk if you haven’t done so by now) and put a Color Overlay – color 77583b.

Also make a new layer and name it Trunk Spine. With the Line Tool (L) draw some black 1px lines on the trunk to give it some detail.

Create a new layer and name it Ground mark. With the Line Tool draw a 1px black line at the bottom of the Trunk. Lower it’s Opacity to 35%.

Make a new layer and name it Shadow. Take the Brush Tool (B) and draw a black shadow where the Ground mark is. Erase the excess from the top with the Eraser Tool (E) and put the layers Blending Mode to Multiply and Fill to 60%.

Make a new layer and name it Leafs Shadow. Ctrl click the Leafs layer thumbnail and fill it with black. Drag the shadow all the way to the trunks bottom. Ctrl click the Sands layer thumbnail, Select – Inverse ( Shift + Ctrl + I ) and hit delete. Now turn the Opacity of the Leafs Shadow layer to 20%.

Step 12

In the resource pack there is a creature. Open it in photoshop, select it with the Magic Wand Tool (W) and paste it on the landscape. Free Transform it to 30% width by 30% height. Rename the layer Creature and place it on the island like this:

Make a new layer and name it Shadow. Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw a selection around the creature.

Fill it with black and change its Opacity to 20%.

Step 13

Load the Summer Beach brushes and on some new layers draw some seashells and a starfish, place them on the island and give them the following Drop Shadow:

Step 14

We’re going back to the Top Group. Make 2 new layers, load the clouds brushes, draw 2 clouds from the Creature to the Main Cloud like the Creature is thinking of something and past the Clouds style to them.

Step 15

Create a new layer and name it Mountains. Load the Vector Mountains brushes and draw some small mountains, right above the water at the skyline.

Put a Gradient Overlay:

Step 16

Back to the Middle Group. Make a new layer and name it Water Shine. Repeat Step 9 and create a new Scattering Brush. Make it a 1px white brush. Draw some dots on the water in front of the mountains. You can adjust the size of the brush to 2px and after you drew them use the Eraser Tool to make them look nice. Lower the Opacity to 90%.

Step 17

Load the bottle image in photoshop from the resource pack. Select it with the Wand Tool and paste it on the landscape. Rename the layer to Bottle. Free Transform it to 8% and rotate it to 29 degrees. Place it like this:

Load the Water Brushes from the pack, select the last one from the first raw and draw it with white on a new layer beneath the bottle. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light  and erase some of it till you get this result:

Now, we want the bottle to be in the water so, take the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and make a selection on the bottles bottom.

Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool, hold down the Shift key and draw the first circle then hold down Alt key and draw the second one till you get a wave like selection.

Hit the delete key. Now take the Eraser Tool with these settings:

—

Erase a bit from the bottle till you get a nice fading effect. Adjust the settings of the eraser so it will look like this:

Step 18

Make a new Group and call it Bottom. With your Ruler active ( Ctrl + R ) drag a new guide line to 1800px.

Make a selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool from 1400px to 1800px. It should snap to the guide lines. Create a new layer and name it Water. Set the Foreground
color to 085293 and the Background color to 034577. Select the Gradient Tool (G). Now, drag a line from the 1400px line to the 1800px line. Hold Shift to make it a  straight line.

Step 19

Create a new layer and name it Bottom ground. Load the Vector Mountains brushes and draw some medium size white mountains.

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection all the way to the bottom. Fill the selection with the Paint Bucket Tool, color white.

Right-click and select Blending Options. Pun a Gradient Overlay:

And a Bevel and Emboss:

Convert the layer to Smart Object and add some noise.

Step 20

Create 3 layers and name them Rock1, Rock2 & Rock3. With the mountains brush still active draw a shape on each layer. Free Transform, rotate, flip them as you like. Place them beyond the Bottom Ground layer. Rock1 and rock2 have 30% Opacity and Rock3 has 60% Opacity.

Step 21

Make a new layer and name it Sea Grass. Grab the Custom Shape Tool (U) and from the Shape select Grass 3. Make it width 60px and height 80px with color 8cb869. Place it
like this:

Give the layer an Inner Shadow – color 5a886b:

Duplicate the layer by dragging it to the New Layer icon.

Place it here:

Take the Lasso Tool and make a selection around the grass like this:

Press delete.

Step 22

Let’s make some ground marks for the grass. Create a new layer and name it Ground mark. Take the Line Tool and draw a small 1px black line. Put the layers Blending Mode
to Multiply and Opacity to 40%.

Give it an Outer Glow – color 000000:

Duplicate the layer and place it under the second Sea Grass layer.

Step 23

Make a new layer and name it Bubbles. Load the bubble brushes (bubblebrushes) from the pack, select witch one you like best and draw them with white color behind the Sea Grass. Lower the Opacity to 65%.

Do the same for the other Sea Grass layer.

Step 24

Will place some coral. Load from the resource pack the coral brushes (FMCoralBrushes). Make 2 layers. The firs one name it Coral pink and the second name it Coral blue.
With the Brush Tool draw a coral of your choosing on each layer.
Coral pink color: cea4e0
Coral blue color: b7d7f4

Put the following Pattern Overlay on both of them. Select the Granite pattern (first raw – 4th one).

Convert both corals to Smart Object. Add noise:

Step 25

Let’s add content to the theme. First go to the Top Group. Create a new group and name it Content. Create another one and name it Big Cloud. With the Horizontal Type  Tool (T) write Latest Designs – color 191817 – with the following setting inside the Main Cloud:

Then, add some text – color 7f7d78 – with the following settings:

Create a new layer and name it Design1. With the Rectangle Tool draw a 80px Grey d2d2d2 square with the following stroke – color b5b5b5:

Duplicate the Design1 layer 3 times. Arrange the layers like so:

Make another layer and name it Left Circle. With the Ellipse Tool draw a 30px by 30px circle. Give it the following settings:

Inner Glow – color ffffff

Gradient Overlay

Stroke – color a3a09e

Create a new layer and name it Left Arrow. Use the Custom Shape Tool to draw it. You can choose from the stock witch ever you like. Make it a 10px by 14px color 007de2. Duplicate the layers and from the menu Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal, to make the Right ones.

Step 26

Now we put the title. From the pack install the font in your windows. With the Horizontal Type Tool write your website title with these settings and place it inside the Title Cloud (the one above the palm tree):

Drop Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Stroke – color a3a09e

Add a slogan under it or a welcome message – color 928d88.

Put a Hello in the small cloud – color 928d88.

From the Icon-Cloud folder, drag on the canvas the twitter and rss icons. Put them below the Main Cloud and draw some curved lines with the Pen Tool or Brush Tool.

Step 27

In the Middle Group make a new group and name it Content. Create a new layer. Take the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) with the Radius 10px, draw a 480px by 160px Grey e2dddc shape. Add the following Blending Options:

Inner Glow – color ffffff

Stroke – color a3a09e

Put the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light. With the Rounded Rectangle Tool make a 100px by 100px Grey e2dddc shape for the gravatar. Add this Stroke – color a3a09e:

Write the title, short description, comments and post tags next. For the title use font size 18px and color 191817. For the short description use font size 13px and color e6e6e6. For the comments and post tags use font size 13px, color b5b5b5 and icons from df_On_Stage_Icon_Set found in the pack.

Step 28

The post date. Load the Ink Brushes from the resource pack. On a new layer draw a splash with the brush and place it on the left of the post. Make the Blending Mode of the layer Overlay. Write the Month with font size 18px and Day with font size 13px color e6e6e6.

Duplicate the Content group 2 times. Arrange them like so:

Step 29

Add some Sea fish. Load in photoshop the Ponyo Vectors. With the Lasso Tool cut the fishes you want to put in the water. First take the squid and place it left to the ink
splatter. Add some bubbles above it. Then cut the small fish, the fat fish and the jellyfish and place them in the water.

Step 30

Go to the Bottom Group. From the Ponyo Vectors cut the scorpion like creature and place it on the bottom ground. Re-size it and add the following Drop Shadow:

Step 31

Make a new Group and name it Content within the Bottom Group. Write the Popular Posts, Friends, About me section, Site links and Copyright. Use icons from the pack to style the links.

Well, that’s it, hope you like it. I know it’s a long tutorial but I think was worth the time. What do you think ?