Inspired by a screencap of an NFL video game I have created a simple desktop wallpaper featuring Peyton Manning and will show you how it was done. First we’ll crop Peyton, make the background grungy, then create the headlining/name banner. Be sure to use the NFL players and wallpaper for your personal use only.

It’s good to note before we start that I’m using Photoshop CS3 on a PC.

1. First I grabbed the high resolution picture of Peyton Manning off of blogs.nfl.com and brought it into Photoshop.

2. Using the Lasso Tool (Ctrl+L) go around the outline of Manning.

3. Now create a new document the size of your screen resolution. Mine was 1680×1050.

4. Go back to the lassoed Manning. Using the Move Tool (V), drag the selection of Manning to your new document.

5. Resize (Ctrl+T) and move it so that it fits into your canvas like below.

Now we’ll create the dark shadow behind Manning.

6. Duplicate the Manning layer (Ctrl+J) then hide the top Manning layer by clicking on the eye next to the layer in the Layers Menu.

7. Select (Image->Adjustments->Levels) then drag the right bottom arrow all the way to the left, making both of the output levels 0, turning the image black. Click Ok.

8.Select (Filter->Blur->Motion Blur) Angle set to 90 degrees, Distance to 144 pixels, then click Ok.

9. Now do it again but with the Angle set to 0 degrees.

10. We’re done with this layer. You can now make the Manning layer above it visible again.

11. Using the Rectangle Tool (U) create a rectangle above your locked Background Layer covering the entire canvas with a color of #252925.

12. Drag the plaster texture image onto the canvas making sure its layer is directly above the color background layer we just created in the previous step. I downloaded my plaster image from cgtextures.com, in the white plaster section.

13. Remove the plaster brownish color. Desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U).

14. Change the Blending Mode to (Multiply), letting the grungy texture mix with the dark green background rectangle.

15. Create a new blank layer on top of the others.

16. Using the Marquee Tool (M) make a rectangle by dragging your mouse from the left side of your canvas to the middle of the eight in Manning’s Jersey with a height approximately of 160 pixels.

17. Create a gradient that starts out black and fades to transparent. Use the Gradient Tool (G). Go up to and click on the gradient bar at the top of the screen to edit the gradient. Click on the second thumbnail (Set Foreground to Transparent), then click right below the gradient in the middle to create a black color stop (#000). Then click above the gradient to create an opacity stop (Opacity 100%) for the black color.

18. Now using a diagonal line, drag your gradient tool from the bottom left of the Marquee to approx. Manning’s eyeball. You can now deselect with the marquee tool.

19. Set the Blending Mode to (Overlay) and its Opacity to (62%).

20. Use the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and type Peyton. Set the font to Helvetica, size to approx. 68px, and color #cbcaca.

21. Use the Horizontal Type Tool (T) again and type Manning. Set the font to Helvetica, size to approx. 122px, color #ffffff.

22. Arrange them over your gradient as shown in the pic below.

23. To finish off the wallpaper I grabbed a generic colt horseshoe, re-sized, and rotated it, then moved the layer directly above the grunge layer to allow the grungy effect pass through.

Final Image Preview:

Download Wallpaper – 1 JPG – 1680×1050

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.