Design Tips

Tangerine Tango Sunrise?

Eloine

Apparently every year Pantone (the world authority on color) picks a color. For 2012 it’s Tangerine Tango (Pantone 17-1463). You can download the color palette from their website.

I was a bit intrigued by the color choice for this year and realized they might be right. I have been leaning towards warm charged colors for a little while now. I wondered what would have happen if I did a little color overlay on a sunrise I recently took. Below is the that tangerine tango overlay and here is a link to the original. It’s a subtle difference but see what you think!

Google web font plugin for Photoshop by WebINK

Eloine

A little while back I posted about free web fonts from Google and how I used them in a small project.

I found a nifty free little plugin for plugin for Photoshop CS5 from WebINK that allows you design with Google web fonts right inside Photoshop CS5.

First create an account with WebINK and download their plugin. Once downloaded you’ll activate it through Window > Extensions > Extensis. You will have to sign into your account.

Once loaded you will get a list of all the premium WebINK fonts but you can switch and from the drop down menu to choose some of the free Google web fonts from the list. Google doesn’t have as big a variety as WebINK and you can’t get perhaps the exact font you want from google but now you have choices.

What helps is a visual picture of what they look like. To select you must not be in the edit mode of the type. Just select the layer with the type and choose the font. The plugin will treat all type on that layer with the font you choose. This really helps when designing to actually see what the font will look like. Below is a screen grab of just how easy it is to select.

 

Vehicle graphic detail

Vehicle graphic detail

Eloine

After 40+ years Chapman’s Dog Grooming of Antioch is going mobile! Here is a closeup of part of the graphics I am doing for the mobile grooming vehicle.

The image of the dog is high resolution so it’s enough for printing on the door of the vehicle and the grass and bubbles were created in Adobe Illustrator so they could be scaled at various sizes. It’s not complete yet but I will be posting updates as the project moves along. I have to credit tutsplus for the wonderful tutorial on how to create realistic bubbles!.

2012 EPS Adobe Illustrator Calendar

Eloine

I thought I would share this 2012 calendar template I did for my parents dog grooming buisiness. After 40+ years they are now taking the business on the road and going mobile. This calendar was a handout in december and a way to alert existing customers of the change.

If you have Adobe Illustrator or another program that reads EPS files feel free to download and reuse.

 

 

[button link=”http://www.eloine.com/downloads/calendar.eps.zip” color=”silver” newwindow=”yes”] 2012 EPS Calendar[/button]

 

 

 

How to draw a vector-based jack o’lantern in Photoshop with shape layers

How to draw a vector-based jack o’lantern in Photoshop with shape layers

Eloine

Happy Pumpkin!

Since it’s season appropriate I thought I would share what I taught my photoshop class on how to make a Jack o’lantern using the pen tool and shape layers.

Below is what the final image looks like that for the most part would scalable as a vector based graphic before I turned it into a bitmaped image for display purposes here.

[button link=”http://www.eloine.com/ex/finalWpumpkin.psd” color=”orange”] Download layered PSD[/button]
vector based pumpkin

Start with a outline of what you want to do. Below is the sketch I started with and took a picture with my cell phone to get it into Photoshop.

Then select the pen tool and make sure the first icon for shape layer is selected. Then I traced around the outside of pumpkin and made sure my fill color was a dark orange. I used #964b09

To get the shadow effect I click the layer Fx button at the bottom of the layers palette and select inner shadow and make sure your settings look pretty close to mine. (Click image to make bigger)

Duplicate this layer to make a copy of your shape you just made and then go to  Edit > Free Transform Path.  This will make a bounding box around your duplicated object. Use your mouse and click and drag in from the left and the right to shrink the second oval. Repeat the process until you get to the center of the pumpkin.

You should have something close to the image below. If some of the shapes don’t look right just use the pen tool and then press  your control key and make sure your curser looks like a hollow arrow (called the direct selection tool). Then touch the edge of the path you created to activate the control points that you can move or bend.

After you are satisfied turn off all the layers that are the pumpkin so you can see the sketch and make a new layer above layers of the pumpkin and name it “face”

Using the shape tool outline the pumpkin eyes, not and mouth and make sure your fill color is white. Then duplicate my settings below for  the inner shadow replicate my settings by using this color #812c03 (Click image to make bigger)

 

For the gradient overlay your going to create a custom gradient with the colors #fff4c5, #ffdd4d and #6c1501 (Click image to make bigger)

 

After you finish with the pumpkin and it’s face don’t forget to make a little shape for the stem and put that on the layer beneath everything else.

When all done group all your layers together by clicking the folder icon at the base of the layers panel and dragging the layers in there. This is so you can flip or transform or apply various options to all the layers at once.

I made a new file and then applied a radial gradient of an orange yellow to a very dark orange for the glowing sun or moon or whatever that is. Then with the pen tool I made a shape filled with black that the pumpkin would sit on.

 

Below is the pumpkin with a new layer on top with the blend mode set to overlay and using a soft white brush I painted in some glow and then a black brush I painted in some shadows.

 

When I turn off all the layers but the one mentioned above you can see what I did to create the glow and shadow over the transparent area represented by the dark checkerboard pattern.

Lastly I thought this image needed a spooky tree. I could have drawn it but being the Fall it was so much easier just to shoot a picture of a barren old branch.

 

I then went to image > color range  and shift + clicked  areas of the sky to make a selection of everything else but the branches. (click image to make larger)

 

I then when to select > inverse  selection to select only the branches. I pasted that into Adobe Illustrator and then told it to trance the image. I could have done that with Photoshop but it takes up a lot of RAM because it’s not as clean a trace. The other option would be just to fill this area with solid black to make a silhouette and that would have achieved the same appearance. It just wouldn’t have been scalable. That is an option though if you don’t have Adobe Illustrator.

Next just choose the blend mode of darken  to make sure none of the white shows over the orange sky and only the black.

 

 

Lastly I used brush number 134 and varied it’s size, scatter  and turned off color dynamics in brush presets to make the black grass.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and can find it useful when making other things!

How to draw a cute ladybug in Photoshop

How to draw a cute ladybug in Photoshop

Eloine

 

Step by step

LadybugWhen drawing from scratch I usually  draw my little cartoons with a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop but I decided to not stick with what was familiar to me and try to do the whole drawing in just photoshop. I used mostly used shape layers tracing a drawing that I sketched out on paper. I will show you below the steps from inspiration to completion on how to create this bug on the right. Hopefully you can take these steps and create your own cute little creature using these techniques.

Sketching the idea

Step 1

I still have trouble drawing on screen. There is nothing wrong with it if you can do it but I like to rough out an idea on paper and then scan or take a photo of the basic idea using that as a reference.

Use elipse tool to draw the body

Step 2

After you have imported the image select the Ellipse tool or press the U key and make a circle for the body. This will be the most bottom layer above the layer that is being traced.

Use anchors to pull the shape out

Step 3

Not that this is not a scientific drawing but a lady bug body isn’t perfectly round so to give it some identity I used my Direct Selection Tool (A) to click the path of the circle and this revealed the anchor point with the various handle bars. I could then stretch them to reshape the bottom of the bug.

In addition I clicked on layers style icon at the bottom of the layers palette to bring up the gradient overlay. I thought a dark brown to black radial blend would give it an illusion of depth by giving it a slight shadow under the area where the wings will be.

Use the pen took to create a shape layer

Step 4

Next I selected the pen tool and made sure that a new shape layer was selected versus the paths. Then I traced the outline of the drawing for the first wing noting that one wing would overlap the other. After creating the initial curves I can then click on each anchor point and adjust the curve by rotating the control bars associated with the anchor points as mentioned in step three.

click on layer effect to add both inner and outer shadow

Step 5

I can now apply a layer FX by selecting a slight inner shadow where the wing curves and a drop shadow where the wing rests on the body.

Make one wing overlap the other

Step 6

Draw the second wing the same as above and then position it underneath the left wing so that one shadow appears to overlap the other.

Make each shape and group them together

Step 7

I traced the shape of one foot with the pen tool and then duplicated and stretched each foot by hitting the transform tool to match the drawing. This will make 6 duplicate layers so it’s best to group them all in one folder called foot by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the layers pallet.

Use the pen tool to create the legs

Step 8

I created each angle of the leg by using the line tool in the shape block of the tool box. I could have joined each segment into one but I like to keep each section editable. Again I grouped these layers together as well.

Use elipse too to create the head and add a gradient overlay for the face shine

Step 9

Using the ellipse too I matched the head shape and put it on the layer below the wing. I added a gray to black gradient overlay to the face so the smile would show and add a suggestion that light is coming up from the white ground below.

Draw a circle filled with gray for the eye shadow depth and stroke it

Step 10

Make a circle for the eye and fill with gray and a stroke of black. This will be the outer part of the eye.

Add two more elipse shapes with no stroke, one white and one black

Step 11

Add a white circle slightly smaller and move it up so the outline is thicker on the bottom than on the top.

Add a small dot for the pupil.

Add the right eye and change the layer stack order. Draw a custom shape for the mouth.

Step 12

Duplicate layer with the outlined eye and shrink (transform) it a little to make it look like it’s further away and move the layer order to below the head.

 

Combonation of the shape layer and layer mask to create a group of dots.

Step 13

Add more circles for the dots on the bug with the elipse tool.

For the dot that goes over the right edge I made a selection of the right wing and inverted the selection. Then applied it as a layer mask to visually cut off the edge of the dot. It’s still there if you get rid of the layer mask but hidden from view.

A little highlight and curly antenna and we are almost done!

Step 14

Lastly a little shine suggestion with a shape of white at 50% transparency on top layer.

The curly antenna was drawn with the pen tool as a path and then stroked as a path.

Lastly I decided this would be a cute little accent for my RSS feeds as my follow me bug. I used the custom speech bubble shape and smooshed it around with the direct selection tool. The font I used is an old one called giddyup std. I liked how it matched her little antenna!

 

Beginning Photoshop CS5 hands-on course in Antioch

Eloine

I will be teaching 6 hours of hands-on training in Adobe Photoshop CS5 at the Antioch Recreation Department. You’ll start with a basic introduction of the interface to feeling comfortable with many of the tools. You’ll fix photos and create your own artwork from scratch.



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