PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL BY SAURABH RAI
Color Swath
Program: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Difficulty: Intermediate Completion Time: 30 min.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
Color Swath Here is an intermediate level tutorial on Photoshop and in this we will be creating abstract wallpaper for desktop. Whatever we need to cast this wallpaper, we’ll create it right here in Photoshop, we don’t need to have any external plugin or effect or external image or any other thing.
Step 1: Let us start with creating a new document (Cmd/Ctrl+ N). I’ll go with 1280 px X 720 px and give it some name.
So we have our document ready with us, now what I’ll do is, open Gradient Editor. To open this press G on your keyboard to get on with Gradient tool and now click in control bar. Set Gradient Type to Noise, Roughness to 60+ and now click on randomize few times to get various color gradients.
2
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
3
Now with the chosen colors, draw a Radial Gradient and de-saturate it by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+U together. You can also do so by going to Image>Adjustments> Hue/Saturation Panel and you’ll get something like this:
After this, create a new layer and start painting with different colors using Brush tool (Press ‘B’ for brush tool) and set its Blending Mode to something like Multiply or you can experiment with various other modes that suits your design & color.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
4
So, up till here, we are done just with the backdrop for our wallpaper, and now we’ll proceed further towards adding more abstract designs to it. Remember…! You can always add a lot more at any step, as ‘Art is all about experimenting.’ I felt like adding some more swath rings, using the same Gradient tool with some glow effects, to my backdrop.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
Step 2: Now, let us begin with creating a new layer over your backdrop and select Gradient (Press ‘G’) tool again. Select ‘Reflected Gradient’ from Control Bar. ‘Press’ and ‘hold’ Shift key and drag the pointer from top to bottom of your document and you’ll get something like this.
Next, Press Cmd/Ctrl + T to bring up the Transform tool. Right click your mouse button to bring up the option panel for Transform tool.
5
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
Try experimenting with different options available in the option panel. Here I’ll be using three options simultaneously, namely; Perspective, Skew & Wrap to get something like this. Perspective:
Skew:
6
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
Wrap:
7
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
8
Once you are done with the abstract shape, add a bit of glamour and spice to it, by adding some colors to it, using soft edge brushes, and working on Layer Style. I ended up experimenting with my paint skills and Outer Glow & Inner Glow option in Layer Style and here is the result.
But still, whatever I’m left with, I’m not satisfied with the result. I want to it to be more spicy and glamorous and likewise . So, what I’ll do is, I select the Brush tool again. But the brush with hard edged this time, size between 40-50 and open Brush Panel. To do so, go to Window>Brush or Click on icon next to Brush Presets Icon on Control Bar as shown in the figure.
A dialogue box will come up and in their check on two different options, i.e. Shape Dynamics & Scattering and in there put control to Pen Pressure. Here you’ll see a lot of nods with different names, just don’t get confused. Try bumping those nods a little further or backward; you’ll get some beautiful shapes depending on the brush you have chosen up.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
9
You are free to choose your own brushes, something like sparkle or star or leaf or flower or anything. But here, I have chosen circular brush for illustration purpose and you can see the result in small boxes at the bottom of the panel marked with red arrows. Turn off these scary panels or put them aside. Your choice‌! Create a new layer over your shape layer and set the foreground color to white (or whichever is your favorite color) and drag the brush along your abstract shape and you might end up with something like this.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
10
Step 3: We are now almost done with our abstract wallpaper. Let’s just add some more to it as we did with our abstract shape layer, add some glow to it using Layer Style or what else you can do is, just duplicate the youngest brushed layer and add Gaussian Blur to it. A radius of 5 pixels would work good enough.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
11
You can also add noise or anything likewise, if you do not wish to go with me for choosing blur effect. You can also play with Levels, Curves, Gamma Correction, HDR Toning, Brightness & Contrast, etc. Let’s see what do we have now in the end.
Actually, not that bad as I thought, but certainly, you’ll have better result then this one for sure. Just keep experimenting at each and every step shown here, you’ll get something more awesome.
Photoshop Tutorial by Saurabh Rai
12
Blue Grass Motions Saurabh Rai | saurabh_rai@outlook.com | srbh7559@gmail.com | +91-880-054-9935