6 Steps to a Better Shadow in Photoshop

Here's a quick Photoshop tip. If you want a better shadow than Photoshop’s built in Drop Shadow effect this shadow technique will do the trick. For most times the drop shadow effect is enough but this alternative technique gives you a more real shadow. In 6 steps your designs can have a realistic shadow that is easy to work with and will cause your creations to pop out and demand attention ( I’ll be working with a Mac and Photoshop CC version 22.4.2 ). If you don't use shortcut keys yet, start using them, they save tons of time. Here's a link to a list of popular default shortcut keys from Adobe. #Photoshoptips

---

Check out the Marching Ants link to find out more about selecting in Photoshop

Step 1. I’ll use this text to work with, ( Arial Black, 77pt, green) but you can use this technique on any kind of text, object, brush stroke, or wherever you would use a drop shadow.

Select the text by holding down the command key and clicking on the text Layer thumbnail, you'll know it's selected when you see the Marching Ants around around the text. Create a new Layer below the Text Layer and fill it with black by hitting the option and delete keys, hold down the command key and hit the D key to deselect the text (before you fill the layer make sure your foreground and background colors are at default by hitting the D key).

---

Step 2 creates a sharp shadow

Step 2. Name the new layer you just filled Lighter Shadow and select that Layer. I want the light to come from the upper left so the shadow will be going down and to the right. I also want the text to really pop out. I achieve this by increasing the distance between the text and the 'shadow'. With the Lighter Shadow Layer selected, hit the down arrow key a few times to move the black 'shadow' down. Since this will be the lighter and bigger part of the shadow I’ll hit the down arrow key about 10 times down and hit the right arrow key about 10 times. If you hold down the shift key and hit the arrow key it will move in increments of ten.

---

Click on the Gaussian Blur link for some cool info

Step 3. We’ll blur this layer, but first up go to Filter and click on Convert to Smart Filters. This way you can preserve the Layer's editability. Go back to Filter and down to Blur then to Gaussian Blur. Since this will be the lighter part of the shadow I'll increase the Gaussian Blur to 20 px. Of course, you might use a different number according to what effect you want. For more of a pop out effect from the shadow you want to have more blur and distance. It might take some tweaking to get it just right , which can easily be done because of Converting the layer to a Smart Filter.

---

Copying layers is a great time saver

Step 4. Now to add the darker part of the shadow to make it look more real. Select the Lighter shadow layer and hold down command key and hit the J key to make a copy of the layer. Rename the copy Dark Shadow and move the darker 'shadow' in towards the text by using the up arrow key. Hit the up arrow key about 5 times or so, next hit the left arrow key about 5 times, also. Then double click on Gaussian Blur on the Dark Shadow layer to bring up the Gaussian Blur dialogue box. Reduce the blur to somewhere between 6 px and 8 px, depending on what looks best to you.

---

What are Blending Modes? Find out by clicking the Blending Modes link below

---

The Multiply Blending Mode is a great way to clean up any dark colors

Step 5. After some tweaking to get it just the way you want it, we can clean up this shadow by selecting both shadow layers at once by holding down the shift key and clicking on both the lighter Shadow and Dark Shadow Lay. Then click on the Blending Modes option to access the drop down menu and click on Multiply.

---

Managing the shadow Layer fill is a great way to get the perfect look

Final Tweaking: If you think the shadow looks a little too strong you can decrease the Fill on the dark Shadow Layer, I decreased to 50% and then I decreased the Lighter Shadow Layer Fill to 90%. It’s easy to move the shadows around and do additional adjustments as needed and even add a third mid tone shadow for more realism.Now that’s a nice looking shadow, a shadow you can’t get with the built in Drop Shadow Effect.

Written by Wendy Wittner | Illustration, Graphic Design | June 2021

Rainbow Ribbons and Strokes in Adobe Illustrator

Create and save multi-colored Brushes.

Rainbow Strokes and Brushes in Illustrator. In this tutorial you'll learn a quick way to make and save a multi-colored Brush that can be used as a stroke and can be customized using Illustrator's tools.

This is a great size to use for a Facebook banner

Create your document, any size is fine, let’s do a banner size of 1700 x 620 px, RGB color and a resolution of 72. Decide ahead of time how many colors you want to use for your Brush, for this example I'm going to use four colors. Make sure your Stroke is off.

Make a Square

For four colors we need to make four squares. Start creating the first square. Grab your rectangle tool and double click on the Art Board to bring up the Rectangle Options menu and type in 50 px for Height and Width to create a 50 x 50 px square.

Make sure your square is Selected before going to Effect

Grab your Selection tool, (the shortcut key is the v key) go to Effect click on it, then go to Distort & Transform from the drop down menu. Then select Transform to bring up it’s pop up Menu.

Use the settings in the image above to get these results.

Make sure Preview is on to see your changes. Type in the number of Copies you want. I put three to get four squares, including the original square. Since the square is 50 px, type 50 px in Move Vertical option and click OK. Now you have what looks like a straight up and down rectangle, it’s really four squares tight up against one another. When you Select this ‘rectangle’ only the top square will look selected. We’ll need to separate these squares by Expanding and Ungrouping them in order to color them.

Expand your Transformed square first

To Expand your square keep your square selected and go to Object then select Expand Appearance. The rectangle turns into four squares.

Expanded and Ungrouped squares

Ungroup the squares by keeping them selected and going up to Object then to click on Ungroup. The shortcut key is Shift + Command + G. Now the squares are ready to color.

Color and make your squares smaller

Select each square one at a time and apply a color to each one. I used four colors available from the Swatches panel. We need to make these squares smaller otherwise you'll get big complicated brush. Select all the squares and while using the Selection tool, click and drag the squares while holding down the Shift key to re-size smaller. I made the squares bigger at the beginning for easier handling.

Drag your Squares into Brush Panel to create a new brush

Open your Brushes panel, make sure all of the squares are selected, then click and drag them into the Brushes panel. When the Brush Type pop-up menu comes up choose Art Brush then OK. If you don't want to use Art Brush try out Pattern Brush. The Scatter Brush might be interesting.

Art Brush Options Panel

The Art Brush Options pop-up menu opens up to give you control over how the Brush works. Name your Brush leave the Key Color as is (it looks like it doesn't have all the colors but it will when the Brush is used) and use the settings in the above image to get the same results as in this tutorial.

In the future you can change how your new Brush works by double clicking on your Brush in the Brushes Panel to open up the Brush Options pop-up menu.

The Brush tool, Ellipse, Spiral, and Arc tool

Grab your Brush tool and click your new colored Brush in the Brushes panel. Click and drag to create ribbons of color. Experiment with the Ellipse tool and create a circle then click on your new colored Brush or create spirals with the Spiral tool . Wonderful! Treat your Brush strokes as you would any other type of Stroke, change the pt. Size, vary the Profile or keep it Uniform. As a Stroke you can even use the Width tool to stretch its limits. The shortcut key for the Width tool is Shift + W.

Save Your New Brush for Future Use

You can save your new Brush to use in any Illustrator document. Make sure your new Brush is selected in the Brushes panel. Go up to the hamburger menu on the top right of the Brushes panel and click on the menu, in the drop down menu select Save Brush Library...

The pop-up Save dialogue box opens, Name your brush and select Save.

Access Your New Brush

To get your Saved Brush, create a New Document then open the Brush panel, click on the hamburger menu and hover your cursor over Open Brush Library, hover on User Defined and you’ll see the name of your brush, select your brush and it’s automatically loaded into the Brushes panel. You can also load your Brush into a custom Preset Document, then it will be available without needing to retrieve it from the Brush Library. For instructions on how to do this, see my tutorial called Design Faster, Speed up your Workflow.

Written by Wendy Wittner | Illustrator, Graphic Designer | June 2020

Design Faster, Speed up your Workflow

Take control of Adobe Illustrator and create your own Preset Document.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant when starting a new document in Adobe Illustrator it would automatically come with your color pallet, your custom designed symbols, the right color space, the right size document and resolution, and in points, pixels, or inches, whatever you use most? You can have this and more with control over Adobe Illustrator's Preset Documents.

One of my own custom built Preset Document.

Illustrator's print Preset Document choices

What is a Preset Document and what does Illustrator have to offer.

A Preset Document in Illustrator is a document that is set or adjusted beforehand to facilitate use, whether you want to use it for mobile, web, print, or film and video. The choices are limited and often times you end up adding everything you need for your project after you've created a new document and this slows down your workflow. Templates are different and won't be covered in this article.

How to get to your Library folder

Where are the Preset Documents located on your Mac?

It's important to know where your Preset Documents live in order to save new presets or delete older ones that have out lived their usefulness. Preset Documents are located in a folder called New Document Profiles. To get there you need to start with your Library. There are two ways of getting to the Library folder on your Mac.

1. You can open the Finder window and select Go from the menu bar at the top of the screen while holding down the Option key to reveal the Library folder option in the dropdown menu, then select Library. 2. Open the Finder window and select Go to open Go to Folder, type in ~/Library and select Go. When you get to your Library select it and you're 4 steps away from the New Profile Documents folder.

The long journey to your New Document Profiles folder.

Follow the Path

To follow the path to the New Document Profiles folder first select Library go to Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator > en_us scroll down to New Document Profiles select it, and there the preset Documents live.

If you have more than one version of Adobe Illustrator, you need to find out which version you’re currently using. Open Illustrator, select Illustrator in the search bar and select About Illustrator, when the pop up window shows, look for the little number towards the upper left under the title Adobe Illustrator. I’m using Adobe Illustrator 24.

Find the Adobe Illustrator version number here.

Make it.

Now that we know where we need to save our custom Preset Document, we can start building it. It's okay to try out different options you'd like to see on your Document Preset. If you don't like it after a few trial runs, save your new and improved document and go into New Document Profiles and delete the old one, if you wish.

Plan what you'd want and what you don’t want in your own custom Preset Document. Consider the RGB or CMYK color space, size, resolution, number of art boards, customize your color pallet, symbols, and brushes, you can add and change anything in your document that would speed up your design process. After creating and customizing your new document, you're ready to save it to New Document Profiles.

Drag your New Preset Document from your desktop.

Save it.

With the newest version of Adobe Illustrator cc I’ve found no direct way to save your document to the New Profile Document folder, but it’s not difficult to do once you know where they are kept. When you are finished making all of your changes, go to File> Save As, then name your document. Save your document to your Desktop then close it in Illustrator.

Follow the path to your New Document Profiles folder and open it, and drag your newly built custom Preset Document Illustrator file from your desktop into the New Document Profiles folder. You now have created your own custom Preset Document that is easily accessible from Illustrator.

There it is!

Access it.

How do we access a custom built Preset Document? Open Illustrator go to File > Create New, when the New File pop up window opens, look to the right side and bottom of the window for More Settings, select it and another window will open, got to Profile, select the arrow for the drop down menu and there you’ll see your custom Preset Document in with Illustrator’s built in Preset Documents. You did it! You now have control of Illustrator’s Preset Documents.