What could be more 'refreshing' than a shower of rain? Well, we may not all agree on that. However....
In my never ending quest to get Photoshop to do what I want it to, I've been trying a number of things to provide blending or, blurring. I'm always attempting to soften edges in my illustrations. So, one thing I do is to use the blur tool and run it along edges. Simple. And, it works - a bit. I know I could take this a lot farther by simply doing edges at a very low opacity. Someday I'm going to do a piece where I take this to an extreme, maybe a ghost for Halloween. Or, maybe just to create a really fuzzy, atmospheric piece - just for it's own sake. It's coming. Someday. In the meantime, I've learned recently about applying the Gaussian Blur to individual layers and I used it quite a bit in the piece above. I love it! Here's a small section from another piece. This is not a single layer and not from the piece above (sorry) but I think it will show you what I mean.
Start with a layer. (Or in this case a section.) Go to Filter then, Blur and then to Gaussian Blur. This can be applied to a single layer in Photoshop so long as that layer is selected. You will then get a window that looks like this:
Next, you apply the blur. The thing I really love about doing a Gaussian Blur in this way is that you are given a little slider, so you can chose the amount of blurring that looks right for you. Notice above the slider (or Radius) is at 0.1 pixels. This is the starting point, so there is no blurring yet. But take a look at this!
Here (above) is what the blur looks like at 4.0 pixels. It's so nice to be able to blend and soften with a couple of clicks! There are still many times when I prefer to blend by hand, at low levels of opacity. For example, the sky in the piece at the top of this post was done that way. But, I used the Gaussian Blur on individual layers at very low levels and I like it a lot! The key, for me, is low levels. But, it's definitely something to play with - different levels for different situations, I'm sure!
I hope this little piece of Photoshop information is helpful to my fellow Digital Baby Steppers!
7 comments:
Thanks from one of those baby-steppers, Marion. SO MUCH to learn!!!!
Looks good! Thanks for the baby steps :)
Thanks for the tip! I really like to hear how other illustrators go about getting to the finished piece. And what a wonderful piece it is! I just love your style!
Thank you very much Cheryl, Elizabeth Rose and Mary Lou! I'm so glad if any of my baby steps might be helpful to others! There IS a lot to learn. I'm lucky to be able to ask specific questions at my Apple 1-2-1's and glad to share.
Thank you also for the kind words about the piece!
Thank you, Nancy!
Love this Marion, the dog is too cute.
Thanks, Karen! You are too sweet! It's always so nice of you to stop by!
Post a Comment