Photoshop sources that you can’t pass up

By Dirk Metzmacher

In my daily research for Photoshop Weblog I encounter hundreds of workshops on numerous pages, some of which are of moderate quality, and some of which are surprisingly good. Here I want to present the best Photoshop sources. These are websites that publish useful tutorials again and again. And with a constant high quality, too.

PSDtuts.com

Right from the start, the psdtuts.com project set standards in terms of article length and quality. Starting out as a simple blog, the page developed into a magazine with numerous contributing authors and a fee-based premium area that requires membership. Interviews, collections of great tutorials, sources of inspiration, add-ons, brush presets, textures and videos top it all off. Countless other websites with Photoshop tutorials are trying to match this role model.

Quality examples:

1. Create a High Flying Snowboard Illustration

2. 40 Mind-blowing Digital Space Paintings

3. Heiko Klug interview

4. 8 Ideas, Techniques & Tricks for your Web Design Toolkit

5. Web Fractal Brushes

abduzeedo.com

In addition to Photoshop tutorials, abduzeedo also offers Illustrator, Fireworks, CSS and even Gimp tutorials. Every week a new wallpaper is published as a changing desktop theme, or they present wallpaper collections with links to other sites. There are also interviews with great illustrators and Photoshop artists to discover. „Reader Tutorials“ allow readers to publish ideas of their own.

Quality examples:

1. Dragons Attack in Photoshop

2. 14 Brushes for Light Effects

3. Inspiration : Tragiklabs (Evergrunge) Artworks

4. Swirl Mania in Illustrator & Photoshop

5. Interview: Photoshop Master Justin Maller

PSDLearning.com

Starting out as one of numerous PSDtuts clones, PSDLearning came to find its own style in time. You won’t find any interviews, videos or other extras yet, but the workshops they offer are one-of-a-kind. For example, they show you how to create an airplane crash and then combine this composition with other elements to make a sophisticated DVD cover.

Quality examples:

1. Dramatic Movie Poster

2. Snowboard Design

3. Animated Interface

4. Photoshop Scripting

5. Fashion Shot

Tutorial9

Not only Photoshop, but also photography and blogging tutorials can be found on Tutorial9’s „cloud“. Alongside tutorials for advanced Photoshop users they also offer a School of Photoshop. It goes from preschool over kindergarten up to receiving your degree. This way you can train the basics before proceeding to the more difficult workshops.

Quality examples:

1. Amazing Retro Rainbow Curves

2. Create a Vibrant Blueprint

3. Energize Your Graphics with Abstract Energy Lines

4. Creating a Cartoon Hot Air Balloon Scene

5. Abstract Dust And Spray Effect

PSDfan.com

Another great PSDtuts clone is its namesake PSDfan. Like the original, they offer workshops, interviews and freebies. There’s even a „Members Area“ that seeks your attention. But other than their role model, they usually follow far darker themes in their program, such as zombies or blood-spattered people.

Quality examples:

1. Making the ‘Clean Grunge’ Blog Design

2. Creating Medusa

3. Design a Sleek Valentine’s Day Card

4. Design a Grungy Floating Island

5. Create an Awesome Paint Explosion Image

Worth1000.com

The Worth1000.com project is without competition. A large part of the Photoshop fan community should remember them for their constant competitions. The sometimes astonishingly good results are collected in countless galleries. And the tutorials on the website explain some ways to achieve sophisticated collages like these.

Quality examples:

1. How I created a cyborgenic leopard

2. The Making Of Lust

3. Lighting a Giant Elephant

4. How I Created Raspberry Frog

5. How I Chocolatized a Skull

10Steps

10Steps is a fairly young project. The website sometimes presents great artists, sometimes icons, shapes or brushes for download, and sometimes they hold competitions. All in addition to amazing tutorials, of course. And they also take care of providing sufficient inspiration and link tips.

Quality examples:

1. Create Architecture with Pixel Stretching

2. Create a Retro Pop Art

3. Decorate Your Own Hello Kitty Car

4. Color Effects with Alpha Channel

5. 40 Sets of Floral & Trees Brushes

3Dtotal.com

Even if 3D Total is a community for 3D artists, Photoshop is still a big topic over there, in addition to 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave and other CG specialists. The Digital Painting category is also worth a look, where the emphasis is on creating original characters.

Quality examples:

1. Clouds from Above

2. Painting Hard Surfaces

3. Texturing of Old Paper

4. Walkthrough Painting Series

5. Vanishing Point Filter