Lesson 7: Feathering and Smudging

[SkySilver]

There is a lot you can do with feathering. Although I will teach you only one way in which I use it in my banners. Once you know this, you can go off and be creative with your own ideas.

Feathering:

On your tool window, choose a background color... any color you like but do not choose white.

Open a new banner image – File, New... this time, go to ‘background contents’ and choose ‘background color’. Then click ok.

Open an image. Size it so that a recognizable area of the picture fits in the 300x105 banner image.

Copy and paste the image into the new banner project.

Using the Elliptical Marquee tool, create an oval around the area of the image you wish to see on your banner. (Do this on your banner project. NOT on your opened image.) Make sure that the oval is away from the edges of the image.

Go to Select and then click Inverse.

Go back to Select and then choose Feather. Enter a value between 5 and 40. I suggest using either 5 or 10 for now. Then click ok.

On your keyboard press the delete button. See what happens to the image. The lower the number you select, the more of the image will be removed. This is one of those things you have to play with to get the desired look. Remember that you can undo any actions by retracing them in the history window.

Once you’re satisfied, go to Select and click on Deselect.

Smudging:

To demonstrate this, open any image you like. Choose the smudge tool. It’s the 7th tool down the left side of the tool window. It looks like a hand with a finger pointing downward.

Go to a section of the image where there are two different colors right next to each other. Click on one color and drag it toward the other. See what it does. This tool is very helpful when you want to make two images blend with eachother.

Assignment: Use the feather method I showed you to create a banner with an image on a color background of your choice. Add anything you want to it.

I've attached a few images in case you guys want to use them. ;)

[TaysatWesir]

I followed your directions then applied border with filter matching that of the text filter called conte’ crayon and inner and outer glow to Mut’s face.

http://mysticwicks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=56730&stc=1&d=1133396991

[Storm Moon]

Here's mine. I really enjoyed this assignment :D

[SkySilver]

I followed your directions then applied border with filter matching that of the text filter called conte’ crayon and inner and outer glow to Mut’s face.



That looks great! I love how you apply the same blending options to the text and border... :thumbsup:

[SkySilver]

Here's mine. I really enjoyed this assignment :D

Wow, that is absolutely lovely!

I am so proud! My students are doing so well.... :floating:

[purple dragon]

i skipped a couple of assignments but i'll go back to them when i have time.
anyway here's mine.
56744 ... it was the dragon picture...

[TaysatWesir]

That looks great! I love how you apply the same blending options to the text and border... :thumbsup:

Thanks! :)

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_8_11v.gif

[SkySilver]

i skipped a couple of assignments but i'll go back to them when i have time.
anyway here's mine.
56744 ... it was the dragon picture...

Did you follow the instructions in the assignment...? Because it just looks like you cropped it and applied a filter to it.

[SkySilver]

Thanks! :)

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_8_11v.gif

Ahh! I love that smiley... :D

[Faery-Wings]

The faery on the left was done with feathering, the one on the right smudging.

[SkySilver]

That is very nice... the colors are so soothing too! :) Makes for a good advertisement of her site.

[Luminessence]

Here's mine. I did smudging on the image; I liked the way it came out, kind of dreamlike. I'll do a feathering one later.

[SkySilver]

Yeah, that does look sort of dreamlike. I like it!

Just be sure to do the feathering one... that's the assignment you'll need in order to complete this lesson.

[Ice Rose]

here we are, i inverted the color on another one of my drawings because she wasnt colored and then used feather as instructed with a purple background i made seethru then applied smudge to it before pasting it over my drawing...

[argento_occhi]

As soon as I read the word feathering, I heard the word Tem in my head. So, Tem's the inspiration this time. Tem is one of the Creator Gods, one of the most abstract. Not knowing much about Him nor what to do to represent Him, I tracked down some offerings and some info about Him. When I read about the blue lotus in connection to Him, that's when inspiration struck. There was a blue lotus on a dark background.

So, as to how I made it. The lotus has inner and outer glow and a shadow type thing. Inner shadow I think. Copied it onto a dark background and feathered it (once I realised I was doing it wrong). I smudged the border to give it a spiral galaxy look to blend the dark with the white. The text is bevelled and embossed with a satin blend. I quite like this one.

Argent

[Luminessence]

And here's one with feathering :)

[TaysatWesir]

As soon as I read the word feathering, I heard the word Tem in my head. So, Tem's the inspiration this time. Tem is one of the Creator Gods, one of the most abstract. Not knowing much about Him nor what to do to represent Him, I tracked down some offerings and some info about Him. When I read about the blue lotus in connection to Him, that's when inspiration struck. There was a blue lotus on a dark background.


That’s lovely banner! :)

[SkySilver]

here we are, i inverted the color on another one of my drawings because she wasnt colored and then used feather as instructed with a purple background i made seethru then applied smudge to it before pasting it over my drawing...

Wow, that looks really cool. :)

[SkySilver]

As soon as I read the word feathering, I heard the word Tem in my head. So, Tem's the inspiration this time. Tem is one of the Creator Gods, one of the most abstract. Not knowing much about Him nor what to do to represent Him, I tracked down some offerings and some info about Him. When I read about the blue lotus in connection to Him, that's when inspiration struck. There was a blue lotus on a dark background.

So, as to how I made it. The lotus has inner and outer glow and a shadow type thing. Inner shadow I think. Copied it onto a dark background and feathered it (once I realised I was doing it wrong). I smudged the border to give it a spiral galaxy look to blend the dark with the white. The text is bevelled and embossed with a satin blend. I quite like this one.

Argent

That is gorgeous! _handclapp

[SkySilver]

And here's one with feathering :)

Perfect... That looks lovely... :D

It goes well with your name too.

[Ice Rose]

i wanted to do another one with feathering because you couldnt really tell with my last,so here it is::

[SkySilver]

Another very nice one... :)

[halfwaynowhere]

i used 2 images, put them next to each other, and smudged them together. i merged those layers together, and applied the feather technique to them...

[SkySilver]

Pretty! :)

[Briana]

I did a bunch of messing around w/ this one...so I hope I have all the steps. I did the feather (5). I had to recrop the pic larger to see the part of the pic I wanted. I then used the Smudge tool to clean it up (there were some straight lines on the exterior of the pic...btw...love that tool). I added a Border: Gradient Overlay. I did 3 different Texts - Bevel & Emboss on the first two...simple italic on the name of the band who I got the lyrics from. (This is one of my favourite pics by Luis Royo).

[GothicNymph]

ok here's mine. i did the feathering (5) then added the text and played around with it and decided that it looked interesting using all of the blending options

56860

[SkySilver]

Great job, Briana and GothicNymph... Those banners look pretty!

[Dragonsheart]

Heres mine, something a little diferent for me.
56887

[SkySilver]

That is absolutely beautiful! And yes, it isn't your usual style. :D Very well done indeed.

[Dragonsheart]

That is absolutely beautiful! And yes, it isn't your usual style. :D Very well done indeed.

Thank you very much. :flowers:

[Geministar]

I just did exactly what you said with this one,added the color background and did the feathering and then I smudged it in a little better where the white and the pink went together on the sides. I really like the feathering, it makes the images blend in with the background and makes it look a whole lot better!

[SkySilver]

Another lovely banner... :smile:

[Shatril]

Sorry this is late, the Holidays did me in. I will finish this this week,.

Shatril

[SkySilver]

Wow, that's lovely. :)