Spider Webs in Photoshop

his tutorial will help you create a spider web effect in Photoshop. You will actually be surprised at how easy it is to achieve this effect. This tutorial should work in Photoshop 6 and 7, I have not tested it in lower versions, but as long as you have the filters needed, there shouldn't be a problem with it working. Please keep in mind that all screenshots on this page were shrunken down and saved at a lower quality so what you get will not look exactly like what is in the screenshot, but it should be in the same area.

[ the final product of this tutorial ]

Alright, let's get to work shall we?

1. First we want to create a new document. Go to File/New. In this example we will be using a 400x400 image, so to easier follow the tutorial, I recommend doing the same. You must set your background color to White.
   
2. Now you will have to set your foreground color to Black and your background color to White. If you aren't sure which way this will be, check the screenshot below.

   

3. Now we have to create a new layer to start our webbing on. After you create a new layer, right click on that layer and choose "Layer Properties". Under "Name", give your layer the name "webbing". If you aren't sure how to create a new layer, check the screenshot below, the button is highlighted in red.
   

   

4. Now we will have to draw our web. Choose the Paint Brush tool from the tools panel (or press "b" on your keyboard) and choose a smaller brush size (sizes 5 and 9 work the best, in this example I use size 9). After you have your Paint Brush tool set up, scribble a spider web pattern (or any pattern, for this example we are going to use a spider web pattern). Your scribble must be done in Black. See screenshot below for my starting image.
   
   

   

5. While you are still on your "webbing" layer go to Filter/Distort/Ocean Ripple. Use the settings Ripple Size: 10 and Ripple Magnitude: 20
   
   

   

   
   
   

6. Now we are going to apply a Gaussian Blur filter to the "webbing" layer. Go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur. Use the setting Radius: 6.3
   

   
   
   

7. We are going to find the edges of the webbing now. Go to Filter/Stylize/Find Edges.
   

   

8. Create a new layer and call it "bg" (for Background). Fill this layer with Black (Alt+Backspace). Then click and drag this layer below your "webbing" layer so that "webbing" is on top of "bg". Now you have your spider web effect!
   
   

   

9. If you want to go one step further you can colorize the web. Select your "webbing" layer and go to Image/Adjustments/Hue/Saturation. Be sure to check the "Colorize" checkbox (as seen below), then you can move the sliders around to get the webbing to the color you want.

   
   

Well that concludes our spider webs tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it and finished it without any problems.