Christmas Tree
1. Open a new file that is 8 inches height and 11 inches
wide, 300 resolution, RGB mode, and a white
background.
2. Choose the gradient tool from the tool box and then go to
the options bar at the top and click inside the gradient to
access the gradient editor.
3. Make a 2 color gradient from a nice rich green, the light
color green needs to be on the left side of the gradient
and the dark green needs to be on the right side of the
99bd2b
gradient. Click Ok to close the gradient editor box and
the click Ok again. If you would like to use my greens my
light number was 99bd2b and my dark # was 111604.
4. In the option bar at the top choose a radial gradient. Click
and drag from the middle top of the document to the bottom of the document to
create a radial gradient.
5. Click on the new layer icon in the layers palette.
6. Go to the toolbox and find the custom shape tool. The
custom shape tool is with the rectangle tool.
7. In the option bar choose the shape layers option
8. In the option bar at the top find the word shape and click
on the small arrow pointing down. Choose the all option
in the pull down menu.
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9. It will ask you if you want to replace the current symbol and you can
click on OK.
10. Scroll through the symbols and about ¾ the way down you will find
a circular symbol that is named registration
target 2.
11. Hold down the shift key and click and drag
to make the shape (try to get the shape as
big as it will let you make it).
12. Go down to the very bottom of your
Photoshop window (on the left side) and
find a small number that is a percentage
telling what percentage the window is
scaled down to. In the box replace the
number with 20 and hit enter. What should
happen is that your document should be
very small.
13. In the menu bar choose Edit > transform
path > scale. Scale the symbol so that the
rays are centered in the upper middle section with the outer circle being off of the
document.
14. If you didn’t already you will need to hit enter to end the
scale task.
15. Go back to the small number on the bottom of the screen
and put in 30 and hit enter. You should be back with a
bigger document.
16. Change your foreground color to white
17. In the layers palette make sure the layer with the symbol is
selected. Look right above this layer and put the fill to 0.
18. At the bottom of the layers palette choose the new layer
style icon (FX). Choose the gradient overlay option.
a. Blend mode is Linear Dodge (add)
b. Opacity 44%
c. Gradient is Foreground to
transparent (Click in the rectangle
to choose a gradient)
d. Style is radial
e. Angle is 122
f. Scale is 40
g. Click OK
19. In the same place you found the layers
palette and the channel palette look for the
tab that says paths. Click on that path tab.
20. You will see the path for the custom shape
selected in blue. Click anywhere in the gray area to
deselect the path. This should remove the white lines
around the custom
shape.
21. Click back to the layers tab.
22. Choose the new layer icon in the layers palette. We will delete this layer in the
end so make sure you put the lines for the Christmas tree on their own layer.
23. Choose the brush tool from the toolbox
and choose white as the foreground color.
24. Draw the outline of the Christmas tree.
We will only use this outline to fill with
stars and then delete the outline. As your
drawing put the top of the Christmas tree
inside the radial custom shape. Make
sure the lines for the Christmas tree are
going on their own layer.
25. In the layers palette click on the new layer
icon. The tree lines are the only thing on
layer 1. You should now be
on layer 2
26. In the toolbox choose the custom shape tool.
27. In the options bar choose the shape option
28. Go up to the options bar and choose the shape pull down
menu. Choose the star shape from the menu.
29. Fill the tree shape with the stars. To make a
star click and drag a little shape. Hold down
the shift key so that the stars will not be
distorted. Click and drag to make another one.
You will start to notice that each one is being
placed on its own layer. If you want the star to
not be distorted at all hold down the shift key.
Make sure to vary the size and make lots of
stars.
30. Click off the eyeball for the line around the
tree
31. For the star on the top of the tree choose the
new layer style icon in the layers palette.
32. Draw a star on top of the tree.
33. Choose the outer glow option. (FX).
Adjust the spread and size how you
would like it.
34. Go back up to options bar
and look for the snowflake
shapes.
35. Create a new layer
36. Draw snowflakes around
your tree using different
opacities. Look up in the
options bar to change the opacity for each
snowflake. I used 10%, 20% and 40% for different snowflakes.
37. Create a new layer by clicking on the create a new layer icon in the
bottom of the layers palette.
38. Choose the brush tool. In the toolbox.
39. On the right side of the screen choose the brush picker.
40. Click on the small arrow on the top right side and choose the
calligraphic brushes from the menu.
Replace click Yes, Save click NO
41. Choose brush 45
42. Drawing with the calligraphic brush draw
some ribbons crossing the tree. You may
need to practice a couple of times.
Start by dragging
your brush down and
slightly to the right
Keep going to the
right
End by taking your brush
and drag down and
slightly to the left
43. One you have the ribbons drawn ON THEIR OWN LAYER, go to the new layers
style icon at the bottom of the layers palette, choose the gradient overlay.
44. Choose a green to white gradient for the gradient and click Ok. You may need to
adjust your sliders several times. (If you prefer you could also try and red to white
gradient or even a yellow to white gradient).
45. Adjust layers if you need to. If the starburst is a little off, go to that layer adjust the
position.
46. If you wanted to you could go to the little star layer (the ones that fill the tree) and
put a very small outgrow layer style on them.
47. You could add some text.
48. Save your file as the green Christmas tree.
49. Save your file as a jpg file
50. Save your file in your portraits folder.