Graphic Goodness Exercises 1: Day 10

Download PSD file Day 10

Wow! Day 10. Let's wrap up a bit what we have learned until day 9:

• copy and paste the digital papers to the working board
• rectangular and elliptical marquee tools
• move tool
• lasso tools
• duplicate layer
• type tool (including coloring and changing sizes)
• arrange layers
• transform tools
• select and cut layer to create shapes

If  you missed the Graphic Goodness Exercises 1 -  Week 1, go here.

Today using the same image as day 9, we are going to practice:

• group or merge layers
• simple drop shadow tool
• using brush tool

Ok, let's start :-)

First, open the PSD file from Day 9.  You can see on the layers list that there are a lot of layers in the document.

Now, start experimenting. Take two or more layers that you want to put in one group, or, to merge into one image.

• click a layer on the layers list
• press Ctrl button and click another layer you want to put in one group or merge with the first layer 
• click "Layer" on the menu at the top, then "Group layers" if you want the images to still be individual only that they are 'together' - or "Merge layers" if you want to merge the images into one image.
• in the sample PSD file Day 10, I merged the entire small layers to make one doll image
• repeat the steps several times until you get the hang of it

Second, let's experimenting now with dropping shadow to the images / layers

• start the practice with one layer. For example the 'Thank You' text. Make sure you're on the right layer. Now click "Layer" on the menu at the top. On the sub-menu, click "Layer style" then "drop shadow" and the layer style box will pop up
• now it's time to play with the shadow box :-) you see in the picture below, on "drop shadow structure", I chose "multiply" on the 'blend mode' box, 35% opacity, 120 degree angle, distance 5px, spread 0px and size 5px 
• repeat these steps with other layers, and try to experiment with various blend mode, opacity, angle, distance, spread and size

Third, just a quick taste to brush tools, because I want to add pinky blush to the doll's cheeks (we'll talk more about brush tools in a few days):

• click on the brush tool on the tools menu as shown in the picture below

You see in the picture above:

• when the brush tool is selected, the brush menu appears at the top of the working board
• here I set the brush size to 32, mode normal, opacity 50%, flow 100%
• and on the toolbox, you see I already changed the color to pink
• if you still have other color there, double click the color box, and another color box will appear, and you can set the color of your choice
• click on the layer where you want to apply the brush tool (in the sample, it's the face or layer 2)
• now you can 'spray' the pink paint with the brush tool to the doll's face to create blushing cheeks
• repeat these exercises. you can always click on 'Step Backward' or 'Undo' by clicking first "Edit" on the menu at the top, whenever the result of your brush-painting is not yet satisfying, and then try again and again. have fun! :-)

to be continued....