Make Your Own Retrowave Digital Artwork

In the early days of computing, digital art was something of a rarity. It was expensive to create and required specialised hardware and software. But as technology has progressed, digital art has become more and more accessible. Today, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can create stunning works of art. One of the most popular genres of digital art is retrowave. Retrowave is a style that takes its cues from the visual culture of the 1980s, with bold colours, geometric shapes and retro fonts. It's often used to create album covers, posters and logos. If you're interested in creating your own retrowave artwork, there are a few things you'll need to get started.

First, you'll need some software. Adobe Photoshop is a good choice for beginners, as it's relatively easy to use and has a wide range of features. Once you've got your software set up, you'll need some inspiration. A quick search on Google or Pinterest will turn up plenty of examples of retrowave artwork to help get your creative juices flowing. Once you've got an idea of what you want to create, it's time to start putting it together.

Artwork made by: @dreamfibre

Open up Photoshop and create a new document. I like to work with a canvas size of 2000x2000 pixels. Once your document is created, go ahead and add a background layer. For this tutorial, I'm going to use a solid black background, but feel free to use whatever color you like.

1. Create a new layer and use the Rectangle Tool (U) to draw a rectangle in the center of the canvas. Make sure that the fill color is set to white and the stroke color is set to none.
2. Add some noise to the rectangle. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and add a noise level of around 50%. This helps give the rectangle some texture and makes it look more like an old-school video game graphic.
3. Add a gradient overlay to the rectangle layer. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay and choose a black-to-white gradient. Set the gradient type to Linear and the angle to 90 degrees. This gives the rectangle a nice glowing effect.
4. Add another shape on top of the rectangle. Create a new layer and use the Ellipse Tool (U) to draw an ellipse in the center of the canvas. Again, make sure the fill color is set to white and the stroke color is set to none.
5. Finish with some text on top of the artwork. Create a new layer and use the Horizontal Type Tool (T) to type out whatever message you want your artwork to convey. "Make Your Own Retrowave Artwork" works fine, but pick whatever fits. Once you're happy with the text, change the font color to something that contrasts well with the background color, bright yellow works nicely.

And that's it. You've now created your very own retrowave digital artwork in Photoshop, a good starting point for experimenting further once you get the hang of the basic layers.