a creative moodboard tutorial
i had a question in the gc about my moodboard process so today i'm making this and walking yall through it if you're interested! idk if it's the best way to do it but it's what works for me so hopefully it's helpful :)
inspo > finished graphic
part one: layout setup
i start with a canvas that is 1080px wide (double tumblr's post width of 540px) by 1500px high. i just like that ratio. i find it easier to start bigger, crop height as needed, and export to 540px wide, but if you'd rather start at 540px, go for it!
next i figure out what kind of vibe i'm going for. i look at pinterest, canva, tumblr, or whatever to look at layouts and see what might fit what i want to do.
i picked this one off pinterest and resized it to fit my canvas width; doesn't matter if this is blurry cause it's just a reference.
now we figure out our smart objects and their layout. this moodboard for example has 3 rectangles in the "background", and 2 circles and 2 rectangles in the "foreground", and some words and elements layered in. so i'm going to lay out my background first, then the foreground, to keep the layers in order. i do this by:
using the marquee tool to create a rectangle or circle
creating a new blank layer and filling the shape (colour doesn't really matter)
repeat until all your shapes are how you want them
once all shapes are placed, i convert the layers one by one into smart objects. i like to do this at the end of laying them out so that if you need to change the size of a layer as you go, it won't make whatever you put in the smart object look funky.
hopefully the colouring helps make the "foreground/background" stuff a little more clear! basically it just helps my brain to think of the layout like this.
when it comes to spacing, i usually try to keep it even, but of course this depends on style! one trick i do for this if i want equal spacing between my boxes is, after i've created my smart objects, i add a 10-20px stroke in white (or whatever your background colour is) to each one, aligned to the outside. this helps with lining everything up visually. the only annoying thing with this is (at least in my version of photoshop) the corners will be rounded, but i just pop a little square over top of them as needed.
if i'm leaving my background plain, i just stick with the stroke; if i'm using a texture, i use masks to make the outline transparent so the texture will show through.
part two: images
i, like many other people, have about a million vibe inspo boards on pinterest. i usually try to go to places like unsplash or pexels first, since they have free-to-use images and usage rights from pinterest are murky at best, but ultimately this is a moodboard i am making for fun to post on tumblr dot com that is likely only going to get a few notes and is definitely not making me any money so... yknow. do whatever sparks joy. i'm not your mom or your ethics professor.
once i decide on images, one by one i open the smart objects and paste in the images i want. before you resize, convert the image to its own smart object so if you decide you want it bigger again at some point, it won't be blurry/pixellated. ask me why i started doing this 🫣
for rectangles, you don't have to do anything special; for circles or other shapes, you're going to have to ensure that your photo is using your base shape layer as a clipping mask, otherwise it'll just show up as a rectangle. right click your photo layer > create clipping mask, and repeat this for any adjustment layers you add.
tada! i also threw in the little art piece on the side for decoration now cause i had it in my bookmarks and knew i wanted to include it.
part three: colouring
this is the fun part! first i tweak all the images individually so they feel like they go together. the theme of this one is daycare teacher buck au, so mostly going for light, bright, and airy.
tip: this is easiest (imo!) if you have your photoshop window tiled or pop the smart objects out into new windows when you open them, so you can put them next to each other. that way, when you save the smart object, you will see how your changes are looking with the whole graphic without having to swap windows or close and reopen the object!
now that i have my colour values somewhat evened out (at least to a point i'm happy with to start), i put a gradient map over the whole thing. find a gradient that fits your vibe, and then set it to overlay or soft light and play with the opacity. sometimes i go back into the smart objects and tweak the individual colouring a little more as needed! it's subtle, but i think this does help unify the colouring across the different photos.
this is the point where i start adding the extras. textures, text, go nuts.
"mr evan" uses the alphabet bead font by cheeky bones
doodles are from a png pack from here
star sticker png from here
paper texture from here
permission form i made myself but it uses myriad pro and almonde fonts
tommy and their hands are screenshots from the show; the pic of oliver is from a photoshoot of his that i found on pinterest, i just edited the background to fit the theme a bit better
all other photos are from unsplash/pexels
sometimes when i'm done this stage it will look off-center depending on what i've added. if that's the case, i select everything but the background and adjust the placement until it looks right!
and there you have it. hopefully this is somewhat helpful! if you have any questions or some parts make no sense please let me know!
