Photopea Singer/Artist Poster

In this tutorial you will learn how to make a poster of an artist/singer on Photopea. This is only one way to make a poster, there are endless options. It is recommended that you choose an individual or a group who has multiple albums and a handful of songs. This tutorial is beginner friendly and easy to follow.

1. Computer/Laptop
2. Photopea

Tools & Techniques Used

1. Type Tool
2. Layers
3. Shape Tool
4. Move Tool
5. Clipping Mask
6. Adjustment Layers
7. Importing Images
8. Resizing Images
9. Opacity / Transparency

To start off, open Photopea and go to File > New > Print > Letter. Then change the size from 8.5 x 11 to 8.5 x 13. This poster size is not required, as you can choose any size you would like, but it is the size used in this tutorial.

To start off with the design, click on the type tool from the sidebar. Then click on your poster and start typing. Type all of the song titles, or your favorites if there is a large amount. When writing out all of the titles, separate each one with a character. For example, a dot, dash, star, etc. You can easily copy and paste anyone you like from this website: https://coolsymbol.com/ . Once you have written out all of the song titles you want, while the text is selected with the type tool you can choose whatever font and size you would like from the top menu. When using the type tool you will have to enter each time you go off the page to put your text on the next line. After you have completed the song titles, repeat the same process to add the artist name at the bottom of the page. Make sure the artists name is in a larger font size than the song titles.

Now find an image that you want for your background. It could be one of the album covers, a scenic photo, or a solid background. Once you have your image either copy and paste it or go to file > open & place. When your image is imported, you will most likely want to resize it to fill the entire poster size. Hold the shift key when dragging the corner of your image to keep the image proportional while resizing. It is ok if your image goes off the page to fill the background. Make sure that the image layer is below the text layers. The layers menu is on the right bottom section of the screen. To change layer order simply select the layer you would like to move and drag it up or down.

Next you are going to want to get images for each album cover. In this tutorial there are 9 images used, you can have more or less, but it is recommended to have at least 3. Import all images on a separate layer (this should happen automatically) by copying and pasting or going to file > open & place.

Now you need to choose a shape you want the album covers to go in. In this tutorial a circle is used, but any shape can work. The shape tool is a rectangle located at the bottom end of the tool bar. If you right click on this tool, it will give you the option to choose any shape you would like. To get a circle, choose the ellipse tool but hold down the shift key when making your shape, and it will create a perfect circle. You need to create the same amount of shapes as the number of album covers you have. For example if you have 9 album covers, create 9 shapes. The color of the shape does not matter and will not effect the poster. You can choose the same shape for each album cover, or different shapes for each album, it does not matter.

To put your album cover images inside of the shape, you will use a clipping mask. It is recommended to hide all album covers and shapes except one pair. To do so, you will go to the layers menu and click on the eye icon to the left of the layer name. This button hides and shows the layers. Now make sure that the image and shape you want are around the same size, if they are not simply resize them to be. Your album cover image layer needs to above your shape layer, covering up the shape. Once you have that, right click on the album cover images layer and select clipping mask. Now your image should be inside of the shape. You can move the image around inside of the shape by having the image layer selected and dragging it around with the selection tool. Repeat this process for each album cover/shape combination you have.

The poster is almost complete, only a few adjustments left! Now that all of your images are inside of your desired shapes, you can rearrange them on the poster to your liking, to move the shape and image together, select both layers. To select two layers at once, hold the shift key while clicking on the layers. Now you can choose if you would like to move your text on top of your images. To do so drag the layer to the top. In this example, the text is the top layer and has a lower opacity to see the album covers better, and create a blended effect. To change the opacity of your text, make sure your text layer is selected and click on opacity at the top of the layers menu to change to your desired transparency. Lastly, add an an adjustment layer so everything is the same color, and looks cohesive. In the example a black and white adjustment is added, any type of filter can be added. To add an adjustment layer go to layer > new adjustment layer > black & white (or any other one you would like, for example vibrance or hue/saturation). Once you have made your final adjustments to your liking you have completed your poster! You can now export the poster as any file type you would like by going to file > export as, then choosing your desired file type.