Photoshop : Tutorial - Using Filters and a Quick Mask to Create A Border
Posted by Jennifer | April 13, 2007 | 1 Comment
In this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a border using a quick mask and a couple of filters. It’s quick and easy and you can get all kinds of cool results by using different filters.
1. Open up the image that you want to apply a border to.
2. Using the lasso tool 
, draw a rectangular(ish) marquee around the area of the image that you want to keep. It doesn’t matter if the edges look a bit rough, that all adds to the, ahem, “character” of the piece.
3. Press Q on the keyboard, or click on the Quick Mask mode button on the Photoshop toolbar.
4. Now we’re going to apply some filters to the area we have Quick Masked. You can play around here and try out several filters to get different effects. For this example, I chose Filter > Brush Stokes > Sprayed Strokes. This opens the Sprayed Filter dialog box.
Here I set the stroke length to 18, the stroke radius to 14 and the stroke direction to left diagonal. Click OK to close this filter.
5. At this point you might like to use this jagged edge as your border or you can go on and try out more filters. Again, I chose Filters > Distort > Glass.
6. The settings used here were Distortion of 7, Smoothness of 3 and Texture set to Frosted. Click OK when you’re happy with the effect.
7. The Quick Masked area will now look quite different than when you first selected it. Press Q on the keyboard to return to Standard Mode. You’ll see the dancing ants indicating the selected area.
8. Invert the selection by choosing Select > Inverse.
9. Create a new layer and make sure that it is selected. Set the foreground colour to white and then using the Paint Bucket tool, click anywhere on the selection to fill the area. Your border should now look something like this:
By adding the white border on a new layer, you haven’t damaged your original image. Now save your masterpiece and impress friends and loved ones with your new found border-making skills.
Free Photoshop Brushes : High Resolution Tattoo Style
Posted by Jennifer | April 12, 2007 | 2 Comments
I’ve created five high resolution Photoshop brushes for your viewing pleasure! They are in Tribal Tattoo style and were created in Illustrator and then brought into Photoshop to become the fine upstanding brushes you see today. The brushes are all about 2500 pixels wide or high and have nice smooth lines. You can download them as a zip file below.
I’d be delighted to hear from you if you find them useful or like them.
Back from holidays …
Posted by Jennifer | April 11, 2007 | Leave A Comment
I’m just back from a really nice (and desperately needed!) break from work and commuting. Went to Tunisia for a week to recharge the batteries and get some sun, although the weather has been brilliant here in Ireland - sun is splitting the stones at the moment. Tunisia is lovely, particularly the south with the troglodyte dwellings and the Sahara desert. I’ve attached a picture I took of the sun coming up early in the morning in the desert. Can’t decide if this is depressing to look at now that I’m home or that I’m delighted I was there ….
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About
Hi, my name is Jennifer Farley and I am a designer and design instructor based in Ireland. Read more about Laughing Lion Design .
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