Using Vector Masks

There's a fun way to create some interesting digital art, like you see below:

 Example No. 1

 Example No. 2

The idea is to decide first which background you'd like to use and open that image in Photoshop. Then, decide which images you'd like to have inside the shapes (in the examples above the custom shapes used are the stars, the bird and the fish). You will have the background as your bottom layer, you can duplicate the background if you wish one or more times. Later you will add another image, like the sky with rainbow, or the cartoon sky - you can add more than one image, like in Example No. 1, and add Layer Styles to them (like Stroke or other, or more than one). In Example No. 2, the second image is the sky (Cartoon Sky) - for the other two fish, Layer Styles (Pattern Overlay and Bevel and Emboss) were used. I will explain in class. I also added two shells and added drop shadows.

While you are selecting the top layer (the one you want to use as the shape fill), select a custom shape of your choice and then go to Layer - Vector Mask - Reveal All, then add the shape on that top layer and see what happens. You can then add "Blending Options" to that layer, like Drop Shadow or Bevel and Emboss, etc. You can also add other custom shapes without using the Vector Mask, you can simply add a pattern of your choice.

If you have any questions, please ask Mrs. Feld.

Photoshop Exercises

To date you have already learned a lot about the image-editing application, Adobe Photoshop CS5. Congratulations! You have done a great job! You have learned the importance of working with layers in Photoshop. With Photoshop you can create original digital artwork, or edit existing images, adding filters, changing colors, adding images or shapes, retouching photographs, etc. You also learned to use "Blending Options" by going to the "Layer Style" window, double-clicking the right side of your layers. You can use Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Bevel/Emboss, etc.

Layers in Photoshop are like individual sheets of clear plastic that are in a stack. When you select a layer in the Layers Palette, that layer is "active." Only one layer can be active at a time. The name of the active layer appears in the title bar of the image window. Changes affect only the "active layer" even though you view the whole image in the image window. You may find it useful to hide layers while working in Photoshop. All you have to do is click on the "Visibility Icon" or eye on the left side of the layer. You can also rearrange your layers and change their names. You can also create folders to add groups of layers and organize the Layers Panel better.

First tools to learn in Photoshop (you have already learned some of these): 

Move Tool 

Magnetic Lasso Tool 

Crop Tool 

Brush Tool 

Paint Bucket Tool 

Rectangular Marquee Tool 

Eraser Tool 

Eye Dropper Tool   
Type Tool (to enter text)
Custom Shape Tool

First Keyboard-Shortcuts to learn:

Command-O (open a document)

Command-J (create a layer)
Command-N (to create a new Photoshop document)

Command-S (save)

Command-Z (undo)

Command-T (Free-Transform, to resize objects)

Command-D (deselect - after making a selection with the magnetic lasso tool)

Command-U (Hue/Saturation window, to change colors, saturation and lightness)

Command-Shift-U (desaturate - to change a picture or layer to black and white)
Command-Plus (+) (to enlarge an entire image/picture without adding pixels)
Command-Minus (-) (to minimize an image/picture without deleting pixels)

The following are some exercises I've given to my Digital Applications Classes at SBA, please check the link (Exercise 1) and Exercises 2 and 3 below. You may want to practice what you have learned by creating these exercises: Exercise 1 (click this link), Exercise 2 and Exercise 3 (read below). You can create digital art like the exercises above, using the techniques learned in class, and the ones you will learned on Monday, July 8th - see latest entry, above.

Exercise 2 - "Like Magritte"

René Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter (1898 – 1967). His work was very modern for his time and interesting. His paintings are full of symbolism and represent a world of fantasy – a world of dreams. Go online (search in Google images) and enter Magritte. Get ideas by looking as his work and create your own original work or try to imitate his. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Mrs. Feld.

Exercise 3 - "Collage"

Using the techniques you have learned in class, you can create a collage, with images of your liking. You can look at samples online if you wish. Create a New Photoshop document first (portrait or landscape orientation) 8" x 10" (or 8.5" by 11" - no bigger than this), resolution: 100. You can create any background of choice, practicing what you already learned. Add as many images as you want. You can use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to select your images and drag them into your document, or you can use the Rectangular Marquee Tool. One technique you can use is to change the "Feathering" before you select your images - go to the Toolbar and under "Feather" enter 10 instead of 0. When you do this the edges of your images will be "feathered" - lighter. It's a nice look. You can add text to your collage (a word or a quote) if you wish. Any questions, please ask Mrs. Feld.

Welcome to Mrs. Feld's Digital Art, iPhoto & iMovie Class!

I'm very excited about our Summer Enrichment Program! Our Digital Art Course is short (three weeks - eleven days), but we will use our time wisely and learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop - the image-editing application. If time permits we will also use iPhoto and iMovie (Mac Applications). We will use Mac computers (in the Mac Lab) and we will create original digital art work. This course is an introduction to these great programs.

The goal is to cultivate artistic talent and encourage creativity, while completing some interesting exercises. We will also print some of the digital art work created. We will have fun learning and creating this "cool" work.

Photoshop is a powerful image-editing application with a wealth of tools and commands for working on digital images or bitmaps. There are utilities for retouching, color correcting, cropping, rotating, resizing and more. There is also a great number of creative filters to change, improve and customize our pictures. Photoshop is used in advertising agencies, publishing companies and many other jobs; check: possiblejobs. The latest versions of Adobe Photoshop are Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CS6.

First, you will familiarize yourself with the Photoshop "Toolbox;" especially the following tools: The Move Tool, The Rectangular Marquee Tool, The Elliptical Marquee Tool, The Magnetic Lasso Tool, The Magic Wand Tool, The Stamp Tool, The History Brush Tool, The Crop Tool, The Eraser Tool and the Type Tool.

You will learn the importance of creating "layers" in Photoshop and how to manipulate these layers in the Layers Palette (or Layers Panel, as it's sometimes called). The "Layers Palette" is your essential tool for working with layers. Photoshop's layers can be considered separate films or transparent sheets. These layers can be visible or hidden. You will also learn how to use Blending Options (a great feature to add shadows, inner glows, outer glows, patterns, embossing, and other effects on your images and text). There's a lot to learn in a short period of time; so we will concentrate mostly on creating some fun exercises while learning how to use this fun program.

Vocabulary: digital, digitize, binary, bit, byte, bitmap, pixels, resolution, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, JPEG, digital cameras, megapixels, multimegapixels. Review the handout "Digital Art." All the information we put into our computers, iPods, digital cameras and other electronic gadgets (numbers, text, sound, music, pictures and videos) is converted into "digital codes" - digital language, the language of the computers - which is really just a string of ones and zeros, or binary numbers. Since we live in a "digital" world, we must at least learn what this term means.

Also check: What Is Digital Art? | eHow.com (just click on the left side - blue)

I hope this course encourages you to learn more about new digital technologies and the many wonderful applications out there that allow us to create great digital art. Enjoy!