1. Project 7:
House Painting
Preparing the
workspace
Filling solid
areas
Painting with
brushes
Working with
patterns
Painting nature
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
2. Bitmap Images
Line drawing; only black or white
Typically 1200 or 2400 ppi
First convert to grayscale (1:1 ratio)
then
Reduce resolution (resample)
then
Convert to RGB
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
3. Color Swatches
Access in the
Swatches panel
Create new
swatches (active
foreground color)
Load built-in swatch
libraries
Import ASE libraries
from other Adobe
applications
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
4. Filling Selections
Edit>Fill to fill
selection marquee
or entire active layer
Click with Paint
Bucket tool
– Fill areas within defined
color tolerance
– Contiguous limits the fill
to areas that touch the spot where you click
– All Layers bases selection on all visible layers
– Use selection marquee to limit the fill area
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
5. Fill Dialog Box
Fill selected area
or active layer
Choose specific
color or pattern
Define fill blending
mode
Define fill opacity
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
6. Painting with Brushes
Brush options:
– Size
– Hardness
– Blending mode
– Opacity
– Flow
– Airbrush mode
– Pressure sensitivity
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
8. Painting Tips (cont’d)
Paint Behind mode
Paint Clear mode
Cloning
– Selection area
– Entire layer
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
9. Creating Strokes
Edit>Stroke
– Requires active selection marquee
– Define stroke width, color, location,
blending mode, opacity
– Location is relative to marquee
Stroke Path
– Requires existing vector path
– Uses existing tool settings
(Pencil, etc.)
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
10. Paths panel
Pen tool in Paths mode
Draw a work path
Paths panel Options menu:
– Save Path
– Make Selection
– Fill Path
– Stroke Path
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
11. Patterns
Create a pattern in a separate file
Edit>Define
Pattern
Repeated
pattern is based
on size of original
pattern file
Save custom pattern
libraries using the
Preset Manager
Pattern Stamp tool
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
12. Eraser tools
Eraser tool
– Removes pixels
from active layer
– Brush size or
standard-size block
Magic Eraser tool
– Erases pixels within defined tolerance
Background Eraser tool
– Erases pixels while trying to maintain
edges
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
13. Brush Settings
Access brush libraries in the
Brush Preset picker
Access specific brush
settings in the Brush panel
“Jitter” allows individual
parameters to vary across
the brush stroke
Save current brush settings
as a preset
Save custom brush libraries
in the Preset Manager
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
14. PDF for Print
Use built-in PDF Presets or
define custom settings
Standards
– PDF/X
Compatibility
– PDF 1.3 flattens
transparency
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
15. PDF for Print (cont’d)
Compression
Downsampling
JPEG = lossy
ZIP = lossless
Higher quality,
lower compression
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Professional Portfolio
Editor's Notes
The purpose of this project is to teach how to create an entire piece of artwork using various options for creating new pixels. We chose this house rendering for two reasons:
First, this project illustrates painting techniques without requiring a significant amount of pure artistic talent. The painting tools in Photoshop are extremely sophisticated; experienced traditional artists can create virtually anything they might create on canvas with conventional media. However, fine art skills and raw painting talent are not necessarily required to use the Photoshop painting tools.
Second, it is a realistic example of something a Photoshop artist might be asked to create. In fact, architectural or concept renderings such as the one in this project are a well-defined professional specialty.
Stage 1 of this project requires converting a bitmap line drawing to a format that can be used for color painting.
Bitmap images have one bit per pixel, which means each pixel can be only black or white. Bitmap images are typically captured at 1200 or 2400 ppi to provide enough data for high-quality output.
You can’t convert directly from bitmap to RGB (or CMYK), so you first have to convert the bitmap image to grayscale. When you convert a bitmap to grayscale, you have to define the size ratio to use for the transition. This value affects the physical size of the file, but does not change the resolution.
Still, it is usually a better idea to use a 1:1 ratio, and then use the Image Size dialog box to change the resolution of the resulting grayscale file. When you reduce the resolution from the original bitmap resolution, make sure the Resample option is checked. This maintains the physical size of the source image, simply throwing away the extra data.
By reducing the resolution before converting to RGB, you speed up the process a bit because Photoshop has less information to create.
At 1200 ppi, the grayscale image is 99.9 MB
At 300 ppi, the grayscale image is 6.24 MB
At 1200 ppi, the RGB image would be 299.6 MB
At 300 ppi, the RGB image is only 18.7 MB
Clicking the swatch at the bottom of the Tools panel opens the Color Picker, where you can define a color numerically. You can also choose the Eyedropper tool to sample a color from existing pixels in the image.
When you want to use the same set of colors repeatedly, saved color swatches to make the process a bit easier.
After you define a certain color, you can use the New Swatch option in the Swatches panel Options menu to save the active foreground color. Whenever you want to reuse the same color, you can simply click the swatch in the panel to make that color the active foreground color. This means you don’t have to keep track of the color components, or worry about sampling the wrong source with the Eyedropper tool.
Using the Swatches panel, you also don’t have to switch to a specific tool to change the color. When the cursor moves over the panel, the cursor automatically becomes an eyedropper icon. Clicking a swatch changes the active foreground color, regardless of which tool is active.
You can use the Swatches panel Options menu to load built-in swatch libraries. These are managed in the same way that pattern, texture, and brush libraries are managed.
You can also load swatch libraries that were created in other applications and saved with the ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) format. This format enables sharing color assets across the entire Creative Suite, which makes it easier to unify work that requires multiple applications.
Stage 2 of this project explores a number of ways to add new colored pixels to an image.
The Fill dialog box (Edit>Fill) fills the entire selection area. The dialog box also includes options for changing the opacity and blending mode of the resulting fill. However, once you create the fill with a specific blending mode or reduced opacity, you can’t make changes later. Many professionals prefer to use layer-specific, non-destructive settings for blending mode and opacity rather than creating a fill with unchangeable blending mode or opacity settings.
The Paint Bucket tool fills areas based on the active options in the Options bar. Its behavior is similar to the Magic Wand tool, except that it fills areas instead of selecting them.
In the Options bar, the Tolerance setting determines how much variation is included in the fill area based on the color where you click. The combination of Contiguous and All Layers options determine exactly what is filled.
If you want to fill an entire selection area regardless of the color of existing pixels, create and select a new layer, draw the selection marquee, turn OFF the All Layers option, and click inside the selection area.
If you want to fill an area based on existing pixels, turn ON the All Layers option and then click. (We still recommend using separate layers for various fills. You can always merge layers as necessary later.)
The Fill dialog box is used to fill selected areas with a specific color or pattern. The fill area is not based on the existing content, so there is no Tolerance setting. Clicking OK in the dialog box fills the entire active selection area, or the entire active layer if there is no selection marquee.
Keep in mind that all of these painting options — Gradient tool, Paint Bucket tool, and Fill dialog box — affect the active layer. All of these options add new pixels on top of existing ones, which permanently obscures the existing layer content. Make sure you check which layer is selected before using these options. If you want to add new pixels without destroying existing content, create and select a new layer before using these tools.
Note: If you make a selection on the Background layer, pressing Delete opens the Fill dialog box, because the Background layer can’t be transparent; you have define the color that you want to appear in the area that you are deleting.
Of course there is more to creating pixels than simply filling areas. Stage 3 explores Photoshop’s Brush tool which can be used to create new pixels with almost infinite variability.
As we stressed at the beginning of this project, you do not need to be a fine artist to work effectively with the Brush tool. You do, however, need a solid understanding of how the tools work, as well as a good idea of exactly what you want to accomplish at any given stage in the painting.
When you choose the Brush tool, the Options bar options determine exactly how you will paint with each brush stroke. (See Pages 362–363 for a detailed explanation of these settings.)
We do not focus on pressure sensitivity in this project because we can’t know if students have drawing tablets. If your students do have digital tablets, you should encourage students to practice with the pressure sensitivity setting in the Options bar when a painting tool is selected.
Depending on what you need to do, changing the cursor preferences can make it easier to manage a painting job. The Full Size Brush Tip option shows the entire brush area, including the feathered area at the edge of a softer brush. The Show Crosshair option makes it easy to see the exact center of the brush area.
(Remember: On Macintosh, preferences are accessed in the Photoshop menu; on Windows, they are accessed in the Edit menu.)
You can define different blending modes or opacity for each brush stroke. However, like the Fill options explained in Stage 2 of this project, those brush settings are permanent. If you want to manipulate these settings later, paint on a separate layer and use the layer-specific settings rather than the brush settings.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should paint every brush stroke on a separate layer. You can achieve incredible artistic effects by painting directly with altered brush opacity and blending mode. But think carefully about what you need to accomplish before you decide which method is better in a given situation.
When painting, keep in mind that an active selection area limits the area where you can paint. Basically, the selection marquee protects areas outside of the marching ants.
The Paint Behind blending mode is unique to the Brush tool. It allows you to add color to the active layer without covering existing pixels on that layer. (As the name suggests, you are “painting behind” the existing pixels).
The Paint Clear blending mode is available for the Paint Bucket, Brush, and Pencil tool. It paints transparency on the active layer, essentially erasing those pixels (“clears” them).
If your painting has more than one of the same element, you should remember that you can clone pixels to save yourself time. When the Move tool is active, pressing Option/Alt while dragging makes a copy of the active selection.
•If a selection marquee is active, cloning copies the selected area onto the existing layer.
•If there is no active selection area, cloning makes and moves a copy of the selected layer.
This is an important distinction. If you clone a selection on specific layer, it remains part of the same layer. Deselecting the marquee finalizes the process; anything under the area where you moved the clone is permanently replaced by the cloned pixels.
There are two possible ways to create a stroke (line).
The Stroke dialog box (Edit>Stroke is similar to the Fill dialog box. The difference is that it creates a line around the edge of the active selection marquee, based on your choices in the dialog box. The stroke pixels are added to the active layer.
The Stroke Path option is available in the Paths panel Options menu when an existing vector path exists. Choosing this command opens a dialog box where you define which tool to apply the stroke.
Important note: Because the Stroke Path option uses existing tool settings, it is important to make sure those settings are accurate before you call this command.
A selection marquee is, by definition, a closed shape; the Stroke dialog box, then, can only be used to apply a stroke to a closed shape. Because the Stroke Path option can be applied to any vector path, you can use this option to apply a stroke to an open line segment (i.e., one that is not part of a closed shape).
When you use the Pen tool in Paths mode, you create a work path, which is a temporary vector path that exists only in the Paths panel.
As long as the work path remains selected in the panel, every new shape or line you create is added to the existing work path. If you deselect the work path in the panel and then draw a new path, it replaces the previous work path.
When you create a path that you want to be able to access later, you can use the Paths panel Options menu to save the path as a permanent part of the file. Saved paths can be accessed in other applications (such as InDesign) to clip the image; only areas within the path area will be visible in the placed image.
As with many other types of assets, Photoshop includes a number of built-in pattern libraries. These can be accessed in the Pattern picker (in the Options bar) for any tool that allows pattern fills.
If none of the built-in patterns will solve a particular need, you can create your own pattern design in a separate file and then define that file as a custom pattern. This is the focus of Stage 4 of this project.
When creating a pattern, it is important to remember that the pattern artwork will be repeated. In the example of this house painting, the pattern artwork contains well-planned lines and edges in such a way that they repeat to create the overall appearance of a Spanish-tile roof.
When you open a different pattern library and replace the current contents of the picker, your custom patterns will be lost. If you want to be able to reuse your custom patterns, it is a good idea to save a custom pattern library (using the .pat extension).
If you use the Pattern Stamp tool to “paint” with a pattern, the Aligned option determines how the pattern is applied:
•Off = each stroke paints the pattern independent of previous strokes
•On = each stroke “reveals” more of the pattern in line with previous strokes
Although not technically part of this project, the Eraser tools can play an important role in many painting projects.
Options for the three tools are explained on Page 390. You should review this information so you will know what is available when you need to remove pixels from a layer.
The Brush panel offers a wide range of choices for creating custom brushes — the focus of Stage 5.
The various options are described in detail on Pages 396–397; we will not repeat them here.
The important thing to point out is the “Jitter” setting, which is available for many of the different dynamics. Increasing that setting allows the specific option to vary over the length of the brush stroke. This is one of the keys to creating random elements such as the bushes and leaves in this house painting.
After you have taken the time to define the many custom brush parameters, you can choose New Brush Preset in the Brush panel Options menu; this saves the brush so you can access the same brush settings again later with a single click.
You can then use the Preset Manager to save a custom brush library with the .abr extension. (This follows the same general principle as saving a custom pattern library.)
The PDF format offers several advantages, both for sending the file for client approval and for final output purposes:
•PDF files can work on both Mac and Windows operating systems.
•PDF files can contain all the information needed to successfully output a job.
•PDF file data can be high or low resolution.
•PDF files can be compressed to reduce file size.
•PDF files can be placed into a page layout in another application.
Notice the word “can” in each of these statements. There are just as many ways to create bad PDF files as there are advantages to the format. The exercise on Pages 401–403 explains the most common error in saving PDFs from Photoshop — reducing resolution and/or applying too much compression.
Adobe applications include a number of built-in PDF presets, which store a variety of output settings in one click. The presets are adequate for many applications, and they at least provide a good basis to create a PDF file with all of the necessary information.
Compression and the associated reduced file size is one of the advantages of the PDF format, especially when the PDF file is intended for digital distribution. For printing applications, however, that same advantage can be a disadvantage. If you don’t understand the compression options, you could create a file with low-resolution images that would look fine on screen but terrible in a commercially printed document.
The Compression options in the Save Adobe PDF dialog box determine the quality of raster images in the PDF file.
The first menu in each section can be used to downsample image resolution for any image with more than a defined effective resolution. For most print applications, you can safely downsample to 300 ppi. For digital applications, you can usually downsample to 72 ppi to reduce the file size.
The Compression menu defines the type of compression that is applied. JPEG is a lossy method, which means data is thrown away; this method can cause visible artifacts in print quality, especially if you apply a high amount of compression. ZIP compression is lossless; no data is thrown away, so quality is typically better than with JPEG, but file size is larger.
The Image Quality menu determines how much compression is applied. This can be confusing because choosing a higher setting in this menu results in lower compression. Just remember: Higher quality = lower compression = larger file size (and vice versa).
