Let’s click on this “New Project” button.
We have some templates here and some built-in sizes, but we will add our own.
Let’s set 1920 width by 1080 height in pixels, which is the standard for YouTube thumbnails.
Lastly, you can change the image's background color, but I will leave it to white.
This is the main interface.
Let’s quickly go over it.
This is the toolbar where we find all the tools.
On the top, you will find options of the selected tool.
To the right, we have layers, history, swatches, etc.
This here is the “Move” tool that moves objects.
We can’t move this layer because it is locked.
The toolbar is full of other options, and honestly, you won’t be using all of them.
So let’s download an image and open it in Photopea.
I need a Brave browser icon.
I will do a quick Google search and find an image.
We can see the blue colored Brave icon.
We can copy it from here and paste it in Photopea, but I will download it this time to show you
how to open computer images.
I will open it in a new tab and save it on my desktop.
Now, in Photopea, click on File and on Open to open this image.
Next, we will remove the background.
There are multiple ways to do that, and the simplest way to remove the white background
is the magic eraser in this eraser option.
Right-click on it and select “Magic Eraser.”
With one click, you can delete the same color in the image.
If I click on the white background, it will delete it.
However, we have a problem.
Let’s undo the last move by holding down the CTRL and Z keys.
The problem is that because the background on this beta text is white also, Photopea
is deleting that as well.
In this case, we can’t use this magic eraser.
We will use the quick selection tool in this menu to select the logo and remove the background.
With this option, I will click on a part and it will select the same color part.
You can see that it has selected the icon.
However, it hasn’t selected the beta background.
I will click on this area to add it to the selection.
Now it has selected the whole icon.
Next, we will go to this “Select” option and click on “Inverse.”
This will deselect the selected and select the part that was not selected before.
Which means that our background is now selected.
Now, we hit the delete key to delete it.
Next, we will remove the selection.
To do that, go to the same “Select” menu and click on deselect.
Now we will choose the “Move” tool and drag this logo with the mouse button clicked,
then hover over the main project, and drop it here.
You can see the icon layer, but it is behind the background layer, so we can’t see it.
Drag this layer and drop it on the top.
Move it and place it in the middle.
Alright, so I want to add some color to the background layer.
To do that, first, we will unlock it by clicking on this lock option.
Next, we will right-click on it and click on the first “Blending Options.”
Here we have many tools to take this layer to the next level.
We can change this white color in this “Color overlay” menu.
But we want to add a gradient overlay, so I will click on the option next to it.
Photopea has added the black and white gradient.
Here we will change its properties.
The first thing is changing the colors.
We will click on this gradient color, which will open up this window.
Here we have two color sets.
The top ones are the opacity of the bottom colors.
We will double-click on this black dot and change it to something like blue.
Let’s double-click on this guy and change it to green.
The colors are vertical.
Green is on the top and blue is down the bottom.
I want to make it left and right.
To do that, use this angle circle.
Alright, this icon looks smaller than the image, so we will increase its size.
But before we do that, let’s change this layer’s name to “Icon” by double-clicking
on it.
Now, we will go to Edit and select the “Free Transform” option.
You will see this blue box here.
You can select and drag any of those to change its size.
Once you are happy, click on this checkmark to confirm.
Now I want to add some shadow to the icon.
To do that, right click on the “Icon” layer and click on “Blending Option.”
This time I will enable “Drop Shadow.”
We can already see the shadow, but let’s tweak some changes.
If the blend mode is something else, change it to Normal.
You can play with others and see if anything else looks better.
We can change the shadow color from here.
Let’s set it to “white” and set the strength 100.
You can change the shadow direction with this angle option.
Let’s set it to 90.
I don’t want it to spread for now.
Let’s increase its size to something like 190.
Maybe add 10 in the spread.
It Looks great.
Click OK to close it.
Alright, the gradient looks good, but I want to add a background image as well.
For that, let’s go to Pixabay and search for the “Internet.”
I like this image because it’s blue.
We will simply right-click on it and copy it and go to Photopea, go to Edit and select
the “Paste” option.
Photopea will paste the image on a separate layer.
I will move this image to the center.
Then we will change its size.
Let’s go to Edit and click on Free Transform.
This time while dragging from a corner, you will hold down the ALT key.
This will resize the image from all corners without changing its position.
Let it cover the whole area.
We will call this layer the background layer.
Drag it down to the bottom.
We will change the name of the previous background layer to “Gradient.”
Now to see our background image, we will reduce the opacity of this gradient layer to something
like 60.
With this, we can see both layers.
Alright, it’s time to add some text.
We will click on this “Text” icon to add.
Now you can click anywhere to add the text, or click and drag the mouse to set the text
area.
Let’s write “Brave Review.”
Press the CTRL and A keys to select all.
Change the text size from the top to something like 75.
Then we will change the font to something bold.
I know a font that will look great.
I like it, but let’s change the text color to white.
You also have some other options here.
Now, click on the Move tool so we can move this text.
I want to add background to this text.
To do that, I will click on this tiny “New Layer” button and it will add a new empty
layer.
We will move it before the text layer, so the text will be on the top.
Now, I will click on this select option.
The rectangle will be here by default.
I will add a selection covering the text.
Then we will go to “Layer,” then “New Fill Color,” then Color Fill.
Here we can choose a color.
This time, I want to select a color from the image.
To do that, I will click anywhere on the image.
This will fill the selection with the chosen color.
So I skipped the video and added some text.
The process is the same.
Now, I want to change the appearance of this text, so I will go to “Blending Options”
and, this time, add a stroke.
Increase the size a little bit and set the opacity to 100.
I won’t change the color because it looks great.
Now, I will add some shadow as well.
This looks a bit more.
Reduce the size of it.
OK, this is better.
Once you are happy with the design, go to File and save the PSD file, which can be opened
in Photopea and Photoshop.