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Description
A request I once answered for a guy named "Arky"; a signature of a manga character, named "Gaara" from the Naruto series.

UPDATE: Small requested tutorial regarding the effects:

First, you can get the effect of the cloudy background if you use some grunge brushes. Start with some light colours, like white, and then go more and more dark, so you get some depth with the darker colours in front of the lighter colours. If you want those hard edges, go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter and play a bit with the settings. Then, to get the diagonal stretch/line effect, go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes, and also play with that a bit, until it looks right. Make sure the lighting comes from a specific angle, like the above left angle I chose, so the left part of the sig is light and the more you go to the right, the darker it gets.

Second, Gaara himself. I cut him out a larger picture and rotated him a bit to the right, so he is in line with the lighting. To blend him in, erase some small parts at some of his edges (like at his hair). Then grab the Burn tool, and give the right side of his face and body some shadow. Make sure some of the light is still visible on the right side behind his head (as you can see), to give the sig some more depth. The spatters you see below in front of him can be made by get a spatter brush and smudge the lower parts (check tutorials for that if you are no yet experienced for that). The dotted lines you see are brushes, and make sure you use the stamp tool.

Finally, make your canvas twice as large, by going to Canvas Size and double the figures. Then grab a very large soft round brush (370px or something). For the lighting, grab a white colour and start brushing on the empty parts outside the upper left edge of the sig, so it looks like light coming in. Then do the same with black, but the outside the right lower part of the edge of the sig. To finish, add a purple/orange gradient map, reduce the opacity of this layer to 50% (or something you like) and set the layer on Soft Light. Add the name, and you're finished!

If you have difficulties following some of the steps, make sure you read some photoshop/signature tutorials regarding the specific step, or just message me!

Description
A request I once answered for a guy named "Arky"; a signature of a manga character, named "Gaara" from the Naruto series.

UPDATE: Small requested tutorial regarding the effects:

First, you can get the effect of the cloudy background if you use some grunge brushes. Start with some light colours, like white, and then go more and more dark, so you get some depth with the darker colours in front of the lighter colours. If you want those hard edges, go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter and play a bit with the settings. Then, to get the diagonal stretch/line effect, go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes, and also play with that a bit, until it looks right. Make sure the lighting comes from a specific angle, like the above left angle I chose, so the left part of the sig is light and the more you go to the right, the darker it gets.

Second, Gaara himself. I cut him out a larger picture and rotated him a bit to the right, so he is in line with the lighting. To blend him in, erase some small parts at some of his edges (like at his hair). Then grab the Burn tool, and give the right side of his face and body some shadow. Make sure some of the light is still visible on the right side behind his head (as you can see), to give the sig some more depth. The spatters you see below in front of him can be made by get a spatter brush and smudge the lower parts (check tutorials for that if you are no yet experienced for that). The dotted lines you see are brushes, and make sure you use the stamp tool.

Finally, make your canvas twice as large, by going to Canvas Size and double the figures. Then grab a very large soft round brush (370px or something). For the lighting, grab a white colour and start brushing on the empty parts outside the upper left edge of the sig, so it looks like light coming in. Then do the same with black, but the outside the right lower part of the edge of the sig. To finish, add a purple/orange gradient map, reduce the opacity of this layer to 50% (or something you like) and set the layer on Soft Light. Add the name, and you're finished!

If you have difficulties following some of the steps, make sure you read some photoshop/signature tutorials regarding the specific step, or just message me!