CornOnCob : SwooshyLines Tutorial

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Swooshy Lines Tutorial

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make an abstract ribbon-like effect using only Adobe Photoshop.

Open Photoshop and create a new document (File > New...). Make the canvas relatively large so that you can scale down afterwards, if needed. It is always good to work larger than what you intend the final size to be so that when you scale down, everything is nice, crisp, and detailed.

Right away, create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer...). I usually keep the default background layer white and locked, just as a habit.

After the new layer has been created, select the Brush Tool (B).

With the Brush Tool selected, we need to open the Brush Palette to make some adjustments. You can do this by clicking Window > Brushes or simply by pressing F5 on your keyboard (default).

With the Brush Palette open, select a standard Hard Round Brush and make the diameter pretty small. 2-3 px.

Under the Shape Dynamics tab, be sure that the Size Control is set to "Pen Pressure" and that the Minimum Diameter is set to 0.

Next, select the Pen Tool (P).

On the tool bar located at the top, make sure that the "Paths" option is selected and that you are using the Pen Tool:

On the canvas, click and drag with the pen tool to create a nice smooth line:

Located at the bottom of the left toolbar are your foreground and background colors. Double click on the foreground color in order to change it.

When the Color Picker shows up, set R, G, and B to 126 or type "7e7e7e" as the HEX.

With the new layer selected, using the Pen Tool (P), right click on the path you created and select "Stroke Path..."

When the dialogue comes up, select "Brush" and make sure Simulate Pressure is checked. Press "OK".

Then, right click the path with the pen tool and delete the path.

You should now have something like this:

Now, open the Actions Window (Window > Actions...).

When the window shows, click the New Action icon...

Name the action and press "Record"

From this point, everything you do will be recorded to the action until the "stop" button is pressed.

Now, duplicate the layer with the line on it (Layer > Duplicate Layer...).

You will notice that "Duplicate current layer" has been added to the action.

Next, with the new layer still selected, click Edit > Free Transform.

Using your arrow keys, nudge the layer up 1 or 2 pixels. Then, at the tool bar at the top, look for the angle parameter and enter "+.05". This will rotate the layer .5 degrees.

Press the "Check" icon to confirm the transformation.

The action is now complete and we can click the Stop button right next to the record button.

Select the action that you just created and your work space should now look something like this:

Now the fun part. In the Actions window, press the play button many times to create the ribbon effect. I pressed it 43 times, in this case, but you may do it as many times as you'd like to achieve the effect you want.

Holding Shift, select every layer except for the background layer.

Then, merge the layers (Layer > Merge Layers).

The ribbon is now complete and all that is left is to make it look nice. Here, I created a new layer and used a very large and soft brush and filled it in with colors.

I then selected the Swoosh layer and brought the brightness all the way up.

I then applied the "Overlay" blending mode to the layer.

You can also duplicate the layer for a second swoosh and use the Free Transform Warp Mode () to change the shape around.

I added some color correct Adjustment layers and that's where I called it finished.

So that's about it. Of course, you can play around with it even more and get an entirely different effect. There really is no limit to the possibilities. I hope you learned something from this tutorial.

Thanks,

Dan