Digital Zen Doodling (Part 3 of maybe 5)

I’m thinking maybe nobody’s really gung-ho about digital Zen doodling, but I’m going to press on. Can’t possibly just leave it unfinished, right? I didn’t get any guidance on which space to fill next so I made an executive decision.

Many of the steps for this shape are the same as for the others, so I probably won’t be as wordy as I can be. 😉 The Magic Wand Tool option I used here is the one that has the fairy-princess-looking icon with the yellow six-pointed star at the tip. I just clicked inside the desired target on the main Mandala layer with it to Select the edges of it. (I’ve outlined it in red just for visibility – the marching ants are hard to see.)

Yep, you guessed it. I popped a New Layer above the Mandala layer for the changes I want to make on this shape.

By using Edit>Copy (CTRL/CMD>C) I can Duplicate only the shape inside the marching ants. The active layer for this step must be the Mandala layer.

With the New Layer active Edit>Paste (CTRL/CMD>V) will drop a perfect Copy of the shape right there.

I’m going to make some um… concentric isn’t quite the right word, but let’s go with it… lines inside the shape. So again, I CTRL/CMD>Clicked on the Layer Thumbnail to Select the edges of the shape (in red for visibility only).

For ultimate Editability (did I make up a new word?) the Stroke (Outline Selection) should be on its own Layer.

Let’s use Black (hex code 000000), 10 pixels for the Width and put it Inside the Selection at 100% Opacity.

This may seem repetitious (duh!) but you really can’t do anything else unless you Select>Deselect (CTRL/CMD>D) whatever is surrounded by marching ants.

Yeah, you guessed it. I’m just going to Select those edges again… so that I can make more outlines. CTRL/CMD>Click the Thumbnail, then Select>Modify…>Contract to make the Selection smaller.

I want the new outline to be smaller, but still leave room for at least one more decrease, so I had to try a couple of numbers in the box before I settled on 30 pixels. (Remember, CTRL/CMD>Z is always there to Undo whatever isn’t working.)

I’m keeping all these outline Strokes on the same layer. Elements has remembered my settings so I can just Edit>Stroke (Outline Selection…)

… and click OK.

I repeated those steps one more time.

Let’s add some colour. I tried with the Paint Bucket, filling in the gaps between the black outlines, and it was UGLY. So I went down to the white shape Layer and tried again. Fail.

This method has never let me down. 😉 Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color…

This menu opens. I know from previous fails that I have to tick the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask box, otherwise I’ll just have a solid colour fill the whole screen.

When the Color Picker opened I chose a bright orange.

To solidify everything I Activated both the orange and the striped layers and Merged them.

Then I decided I should connect up the corners. I used the Pencil Tool the same way as in the last installment. Click the Tool at the starting point, hold down the SHIFT key then click at the end point.

Last steps were to make 7 Copies of the orange stripy shape, Move and position them into their assigned spots and Merge the whole kit and caboodle.

Progress to this point. I like it a lot! I’m thinking hard about how to fill the large centre circle. Could be fun!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experiment, it’s that my vision is really not what it used to be, even with appropriate correction. The cursor is getting harder and harder to see… and giving me mild headaches. There may be some hard choices coming for me. 🙁 But I can absolutely see well enough for a Challenge Spotlight next week! Will one of your layouts be given a starring role?

Digital Zen Doodling (Part 3 of ???)

Have you processed everything from Parts 1 and 2 yet? Today’s edition will be using a lot of the same processes as the others did. Many of the steps will be familiar for more experienced PSE users. As I mentioned at the end of Part 2, today I’ll be filling in the diamond-shaped (or is it kite-shaped?) spaces. As you can see in the screenshot below, I have the Composite Layer active – the layer with all the various shaped spaces where I put the Copies of the petal shapes. I’ve Zoomed in (using the CTRL/CMD>+ shortcut) on one of the diamonds. Using the Magic Wand Tool (set to Magic Wand and not to any of the other Tool Options) I clicked in the middle of that shape.

I made a Copy (CTRL/CMD>J) of the diamond shape, which lives alone on its Layer; Then I added a New blank Layer above it where I created the “veins”. By putting the veins on their own Layer, I can later make changes to JUST the veins without messing anything else up. Do you remember how to make lines in PSE? Using the Pencil Tool set to oh, about 8 pixels, and the colour of your choice, click your starting point. Then hold down the SHIFT key and click your end point. Voilà! a straight(ish) line! Now, you might be able to see that there are some marching ants visible in the screenshot, and you might be wondering why… Well, that’s to make sure the lines I’m creating don’t stray outside of the shape I’m filling. See how the top is pointed and the sides are curved? I got the marching ants going by CTRL/CMD>clicking on that white diamond shape while the new Layer was the active one. The Pencil won’t draw outside the shape!

With the marching ants still working, I used the Paint Bucket and a medium blue to Color Fill in some of the spaces created by the veins. Then I went a bit darker with the blue and Color Filled closer to the centre.

Next I want to add a line of white dots on the inside edge of the diamond. To do that, I again dropped a New Layer on top of the veined, blue diamond, then Selected the outside edge of the white diamond Layer  by CTRL/CMD>clicking on it. Select>Modify>Contract will make the Selected edge smaller.

This pop-up let me choose how much I wanted to shift that edge. I chose 8 pixels.

It’s hard to see the new edge in the screenshot, but it’ll be easily spotted after the next step. You might have figured out that I’m creating a Guideline…

I verified that I’m indeed working on a BLANK layer here.

Do you remember this part? I’ll add a Stroke to the Selection to create that Guideline. Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection

This Stroke can be pretty much any colour I want. It just has to be visible so I can put my dotted trim on it. I’ll be Deleting the Guideline Layer later. The settings are 2 pixels, Color is a turquoise, and the Location is Outside.

ALWAYS remember to Deselect! Elements won’t let you do anything until you do! You can either use Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D to do it, but make sure it gets done!!

You’ve probably predicted that I’ll put my dotted outline on its own Layer, and you’d be correct. I used a small (3-4 pixel), hard (meaning sharp not fuzzy edges), round Brush and white to dot my way around the Guideline. Then I Merged (CTRL/CMD>E) all the diamond Layers together.

This part makes digital Zen doodling so much easier than the paper-and-marker version. I made a total of 8 diamond Layers (CTRL/CMD>J), then Moved and Rotated into position each one over a diamond shape on my Composite Layer. Then I activated all of the diamond Layers and the Composite Layer so I could Merge (CTRL/CMD>E) them all.

Here’s a close-up. Now I’m going to ask YOU to decide which shape I should fill next – the heart or the smaller petal. AND… what colours should I use?

Many of the concepts I’m using for this massive project can be used when creating any layout. Selections, Strokes, Filters, Brushes, they’re all basic tools!

I finally have my *new* new glasses and they’re great! Good-ish vision at all distances is something I took for granted, but no more!! Of course, life chez ObiJan is never dull. We had a catastrophic washing machine failure last week… one of the springs supporting the drum (front-loader) snapped. It sounded like a truck had driven into the garage door! The drum landed on top of the drain pump and hose. Fortunately, it didn’t create a leak, but the repairman (Daniel, he’s been her before 🙁 ) couldn’t guarantee that the pump wouldn’t fail too. So. New washer arriving tomorrow. Now I must find the source of the funk that has been assailing my nostrils all morning…