Best Graphic Tutorials

Step 1:

Let's start out by creating a new file. I used a 550x900 pixels canvas set at 72dpi, and I filled my background with a black color. Now grab the background below and insert into your canvas in its own layer.

Step 2:

Create a new layer set and name it 'Abstract Lines'. Now select the brush tool and set the size to 45 px soft brush. In a new layer paint a medium sized line with # 006C6A color shade as shown below.

Step 3:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, apply the settings below to the paint line layer. If your results are thin in color just duplicate the layer and merge them both.

Step 4:

Under Layer Style(Layer > Layer Style) add an Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay blending options to your motioned paint layer.

Step 5:

Duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles attached. Position it on the right side and set the layer's blending mode to Color Dodge. Duplicate this layer so the dodge effect is thicker on the design.

Step 6:

Once again duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles. Position it as shown below, finish it off by duplicating the layer so its thicker on the design.

Step 7:

Duplicate the 'Abstract Line' layer set and merge it by going to Layer > Merge Layer Set. Make sure you have the layer set highlighted on the layers window or the merge option won't be active. position the layer design next to the original abstract line. Then set the layer's blending mode to Lighten at 46%opacity level.

Step 8:

Now duplicate the lightened layer from the last step by 3 to 4 times and position this designs all over the canvas. Make each copy unique with a different opacity levels.

Step 9:

Add a marquee selection around your canvas and go to Edit > Copy Merged. Then go back to Edit > Paste, this should add a new layer with a copy of your current design. Set the layer's blending mode to Hard Light at 49% opacity level.

Step 10:

Copy your current design as shown on step nine then use rotate option on Edit > Transform.

Results:

Abstract Lines Background.

This tutorial will go through the different steps and settings to achieve a halftone pattern.

I’ll start off with the basics:

The filter in Photoshop called ‘Color Halftone’ can be useful in many different ways. If you want to achieve a

STEP 1: Open a new document in Photoshop

Background contents: White or transparent, Size: 640×480

STEP 2: Create a new layer

Select the brush tool, and choose the default circle brush. Size: 150px, Hardness: 100%. Then simply brush a dot in the center of the canvas on the new layer.

STEP 3: Load selection of the dot

Do this by holding Shift while clicking on the square of the layer in the layers window. Another way to do this is to go to Select>Load Selection> click OK. Once you’ve done that, invert the selection by clicking ctrl+shift+i OR Select>Inverse. You should see the whole area around the dot selected.

Now create a new Layer.

STEP 4: Enter Quickmask

After creating the new layer, simply click Q on your keyboard to enter quickmask. The circle should appear to be red. Now go to Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone and use the following settings:

Now exit the Quick Mask by clicking Q once again, and inverse the selection by clicking ctrl+shift+i

STEP 5: Fill your pattern

Go to Edit>Fill or simply click shift+F5 and choose a color, then press OK. Now delete or hide the layer with the large dot.

ALTERNATIVE

This method might be easier and quicker for some. Instead of creating a shape, selecting it, and eventually deleting it, you could just create a new layer and select the Marquee tool to make that selection.

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Now that you understand how to do this, let me show you how to play around with it. Your results depend on a few factors. Let me discuss them:

Hardness of Brush:

The softer your brush is, the farther out the pattern will go and the less cluttered the circles will be. For example:

If you use the Marquee tool: You can vary the hardness of the edge of the shape by playing around with the Feather px option (found in the top bar). When the Feather is at 0 px, your shape will be solid, when you increase the feather the edges will become more and more soft (blurry).

Max Radius (in Color Halftone settings):

The smaller the Max Radius is, the smaller the circles will be and the more they will be. For example:

Another factor that will affect the result is the Screen Angle in the settings. For this type of pattern only Channel 1 is important, this will determine the degrees of rotation for the pattern.

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Now let me show you some variations of the original result which you can achieve easily.

Halftone with holes:

After completing the halftone pattern, load selection of the layer by holding shift while clicking on the square of the layer in the layers window. Once you see that animated outline around your pattern select the Marquee tool (found in the top left of your tools window). Now drag the outline to any direction (left, right, up down, or diagonal) but hold shift while doing so to keep the selection steady. Drag it in a way that the smaller circles of the selection are in the middle of the circles of the shape. Then click delete. I know that it’s a little confusing just reading it, so here I illustrate what I did.

You can go back and forth with how much of the shape you want shown.

Using on Gradients:

Using this effect on gradients also provides a cool result. This can be very helpful with Web design to make the background more interesting. To do this, in a new document create a new layer. Select the gradient tool and make sure you are using the Reflected Gradient and a Foreground to Transparent gradient (or any color to transparent).

Then make a gradient from the top of the until around the center. Now proceed to make a halftone pattern: Load selection of the gradient layer, select inverse (ctrl+shift+i), create a new layer, click Q, Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone, click Q again, select inverse again (ctrl+shift+i), fill (shift+F5), then finally get rid of the original gradient layer. If you followed these steps correctly, you should get something like this:

If you are confused, read the basic steps in the beginning of the post.

Enjoy!

I’ve recently decided to dive head first into the world of vector art using Adobe Illustrator. It’s not that I’ve never used it before, or don’t know the basics; it’s just, usually my first instinct is to open up Photoshop. However, there are so many projects that Illustrator is so much better suited for. The most obvious advantage in using Illustator is the ability to create scalable, vector objects.

This tutorial is the result of some of my experimentation in the Illustrator realm. It will go through the steps to creating a typical web icon. In this case, a pretty nifty coffee mug.

Step 1

Start by pulling up Illustrator and creating a new document. Grab the pen tool and draw out the shape of the mug, something like what you see below. You will have the best results if you use just 4 anchor points. Don’t worry about the colors yet; you can just use a black stroke if that helps you see what the shape looks like.

Step 2

Begin adding the colors you are going to use to your swatches palette. If it’s not open click Window->Swatches. The first thing I did to help me organize my swatches was add a ‘new color group’ I called mine coffee. For the reds of the mug, I used 3 variations (#E3D8BA, #B52025, #4A141A). For the blues of the saucer and inside of the cup I used these 3 (#D0C7DA, #5067B0, #100E19). For the coffee itself I used (#87604C, #553827, #0D090C). The colors of course are merely suggestions, you can use whichever colors suit your needs.

Step 3

Click on the coffee mug shape you created. Set it’s stroke to none and change the fill to a radial gradient going from the dark red to the medium red. You set that using the gradient palette. Then select the gradient tool to skew the highlight slightly to the top left, by clicking in the top left area and dragging toward the bottom right.

Step 4

Grab the ellipse tool and draw an oval at the top of your mug shape, something like below.

Step 5

Add a linear gradient to the ellipse that goes from the lightest blue to the mid blue and back to the light blue. Use the image below as a reference. Note: you can drag you color swatches into the gradient palette to use them as the color stops.

Step 6

With the ellipse you just created selected hit ‘ctrl, c’ to copy it and then hit ‘ctrl, f’ to paste it in the same spot in the front. Hold down shift and alt, click and drag one of the corners inward until your copied ellipse is slightly smaller than the original. Change the fill to a linear gradient that goes from dark blue, to mid-blue, to light blue, back to the mid-blue.

Step 7

Now we’ll make the coffee in the cup. Hold down alt and click and drag the top ellipse. This will copy and paste the ellipse; you can drag it into place. Once you have it positioned, change the color to the lightest brown.

Step 8

Select the new coffee ellipse, hold down shift and also click to select the inner ellipse of the cup. Open up the pathfinder palette (if it’s not visible click window->pathfinder). Click the divide icon to separate the coffee fill where it meets up with the lip of the cup.

Step 9

Right click on the coffee fill ellipse and choose ungroup. Click somewhere else on the canvas to deselect the shapes. Click back on the lower shape and then click delete, leaving just the coffee fill shape above the bottom of the lip.

Step 10

Now we are going to make the shadow on the coffee. Select the coffee fill you just created, copy and paste it to the front (using ctrl, c and ctrl, f). Fill the new ellipse with a linear gradient that goes from the darkest brown to the mid-brown.

Step 11

Grab the pen tool and make a curved line where you want to separate the shadow. Use the image below as a reference.

Step 12

Select both the line and dark coffee ellipse, click to divide the two using the pathfinder pallete option just like before. Ungroup the objects and delete the bottom shape.

Step 13

In this step we are going to create the highlight on the mug. Grab the pen tool yet again and draw something like the shape below, fill it with the lightest brown.

Step 14

Add a blur effect to smooth out the highlight. Click Effect->Blur->Gaussian Blur. Change the amount to 16px.

Step 15

These next few steps will deal with creating the handle of the mug. They are the trickiest of this tut. First off, grab the pen tool and draw an ear shape like below, fill it with the medium red and send it to the back (Object->Arrange->Send to Back).

Step 16

Use the pen tool to draw the inside part of the handle. Then use the divide tool in the pathfinder palette just like in previous steps. Delete the inside part of the handle. You should now have a shape like below.

Step 17

With the pen tool draw a shape like the one below for the shadow on the handle.

Step 18

Give your shadow shape a light gaussian blur (I used 12px). Open up the transparency palette change the mode to multiply and the opacity to 90%.

Step 19

Repeat these steps to add a second shadow on the right side of the handle. This time I used darken for the blend mode in the transparency panel.

Step 20

Next up is the highlight on the handle. With the pen tool draw a white shape like the one below.

Step 21

Add a light gaussian blur (I used 8px). Change the transparency blend mode to lighten at 75% opacity.

Step 22

Now we are going to make a drop shadow underneath the mug. With the ellipse tool draw out an oval slightly wider than the width of the mug. Fill it with a gray to black radial gradient. Change the blend mode in the transparency panel to multiply. Send the shadow to the back and place it to the bottom right of mug. Your shadow should look like the one below.

Step 23

Using the same steps as before add another shadow. This one for the handle. This time use a gray to white linear gradient, and place it behind the mug but above the other shadow so that they overlap and help with the illusion of depth.

Step 24

Draw an ellipse for the saucer underneath the mug. Fill it with a radial gradient from light blue to medium-blue. Change the stroke to the lightest blue and set it to 5px. Send the saucer to the back.

Step 25

Add another drop shadow using similar techniques, drop it behind the saucer.

Step 26

Now we will create the line on the saucer. Add an ellipse with no fill and a light blue 3 px stroke. Place it behind the mug and the mug shadows, but above the saucer. Change the blend to overlay in the transparency palette.

Step 27

Now we are going to make the steam coming off the coffee. With the pen tool draw an ’s’ shape above the coffee. Make sure the fill is set to none and the stroke is 1px. Change the stroke color to a medium brown. In the transparency panel change it to multiply at 58% opacity. Within the brush palette click on the small arrow to bring up the brush options. Hover over Open Brush Library->Artistic->Artistic_Watercolor. Choose the third one from the top, or play around with some of the other brush options.

Here’s My Final Result