I spent the first part of my morning fine tuning old designs and editing stuff for my dad, so I only have this tutorial for today. No worries though, this design compensates for my lack of blogs. Today’s Photoshop User tutorial discussed designs with only two colors. I used more than two colors, but I kept them in the same color family. The point is to create a design using dark and light colors for a two tone effect.

Start your design with a blank layer and fill with color. I chose purple. Use the lasso tool to draw whatever shapes your little artistic heart desires. Fill those shapes with a darker color than your background and drop the opacity. To create the random Pacman-style shapes, I created a new document and saved my design as a brush preset. This isn’t necessary. You can choose a brush already in your brushes panel, but for a unique design it’s always a good idea to create your own. Adjust your brush presets and brush on. Select a lighter color similar to your background, lock your layer’s transparency and apply a gradient. Drop the opacity so your brush strokes (or shapes) are barely visible. Now open an image with high contrast. A lot of gray area won’t work well for this effect. Adjust the threshold of your image. Using a non-continuous magic wand click on a black part of your image, then move your black-and-white image onto your colored design. Your image will be on its own layer. Select a dark color keeping with the theme of your design, lock the layer’s transparency and option+delete to fill your image with that color. I added text and adjusted the placement of my image for a better effect.

If you couldn’t already tell, I love this design. Between the threshold and two tone designs, I feel like it’s got an Andy Warhol vibe. Now all I need is this design printed on a giant canvas.

I liked this design so much I did it in four different colors. Which one is your favorite? Do different colors elicit a different feel?

♥ BB