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Make an "Artistic License" -- Free Photoshop Template!

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A Great Gift for Artists and Painters!

Here's a fun gift: an artistic license!

This free, customizable Photoshop template will let you personalize an artistic license for a painter or artist.

If you don't have Photoshop, you can add graphics and text to the blank artistic license below.

I'll give you tips for how to print it out and laminate it to make it look authentic! It's the same size as a credit card, so it should fit right in a wallet.

Or get my "Poetic License" Free Photoshop Template instead!

Creative Commons License © Ellen Brundige. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

Artistic License Photoshop Template

Click Image to Download Photoshop Document

Artistic License: Free Photoshop Tutorial

Dowload the Artistic License Free Photoshop Template, or, if you don't have Photoshop, here's a blank artistic license JPEG.

How to Customize Your Artistic License

Free Photoshop Tutorial

Make an Artistic License Free Photoshop Tutorial
  1. Download and open the Artistic License file.

  2. Open the Layers palette under the Window menu.

  3. Fill in the text layers: Name, Sex/Hair, Eyes, etc. You could use jokes like "vertically challenged" for HT.

  4. Find a photo of your friend and shrink it down to cover Leo's Large Photo. Trim as needed.

  5. In the Layers palette, duplicate the layer with your friend's photo.

  6. Set opacity to about 35%.

  7. Choose Transform...Scale under the Edit menu.

  8. Shrink your friend's duplicate photo and move it over Leo's Small Photo.

  9. Find a copy of your friend's signature on white or a light background. Snap a picture with a digital camera, or (better) scan it.

  10. Open the signature in a spare window.

  11. Under the Image menu, use Adjustments... Brightness/Contrast, Levels, and/or Curves until you have a white background with the signature on it.

  12. Pick the Move Tool (upper right on tool palette) and drag the signature across to your Poetic License document.

  13. In the Layers palette, change the "Normal" blending mode of the signature's layer to "Multiply."

  14. Delete or hide Leo's photos and signature layers.

  15. Print!

TROUBLESHOOTING:

  • If your computer isn't displaying all the fonts, search for them online or find ones on your computer that look similar: Big Caslon (a serif font) for "Mt Helicon", Gill Sans (a sans serif font) for "Artistic License", and American Typewriter for personal info.

  • If it's not coming out the right size, I have it at 3.37 inches wide, 2.127 inches high, resolution 300px.

Optional BACK of Artistic License

Making It Look Fancy

BACK of Artistic License

Dowload the Artistic License Side Two (you can rewrite the text), or, if you don't have Photoshop, here's a JPG of the back of the artistic license.

Printing double-sided is tricky. This will only work if your printer behaves like mine. Give it a try with a plain piece of printer paper:


  1. Print out the FRONT of the Artistic License.
  2. Remove the paper and flip it horizontally to turn it upside down. (If you flip it top to bottom, you're liable to get the back upside down from the front.)
  3. Feed it into the printer and print the BACK.
  4. Hold the paper up to light to see if the front and back match.
  5. If they seem to match, cut out the mockup with scissors to see if the front and back really are aligned.
  6. If the back is off-center, try using Canvas Size to adjust the amount of white space around the back graphic, or hide the yellow border (giving you more wiggle room), or give up and print front and back on two pieces of paper and stick them together.

If you just can't get the back to work, don't fret. It still looks cool.

Laminate Your Artistic License

Make It Look Real

Here's the WOW! factor. This is tricky, but if you can manage it, it looks fabulous.

  1. Measure your mock-up against a credit card to make sure it's small enough to fit in a wallet. My templates should, hopefully, print out correctly on your printer: 3.37in x 2.17in, 300dpi.

  2. Once you've got the mock-up working, print it out on heavy paper or photo paper. Or take it to a do-it-yourself printing service like Kinko's or Office Depot to print it there.

  3. Take your printout (and maybe a spare) to a printing service. Bring scissors.

  4. If there's an attendant who seems to have a clue, ask him/her to cut it out for you. They'll probably do a neater job than you can.

  5. Use scissors to round the corners. If you're worried about screwing up, just cut the corners off at an angle: see the photo. This was my first try; on my second try I got them nicely rounded.

  6. Once you've got a good credit-card shaped copy, get the print service to laminate it for you. It'll probably only cost a buck or two.

Example Artistic / Poetic License

Finished Fake License

Vin Scully's Poetic License

Here's a photo of my Fake Poetic License using almost exactly the same template. I did a better version later with rounded corners.

Other Photoshop Template Lenses

Free Web Graphics and Tutorials

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Greekgeek

Storyteller, fomer Latin teacher, student of mythology and the ancient world: I've worn many hats, but always I've dabbled in computers and the web.

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