Final chicklet

This intermediate tutorial assumes that you already have these skills:

• creating and saving documents
• selecting and using tools
• viewing and using panels (palettes)
• working with gradients
• setting the layer opacity
• creating text

Below is a typical set of old school chicklets.

Old School Chicklets

Now here are some new school chicklets, which can be found at Mashable.

New School Chicklets

I was inspired by Mashable’s chicklets to make my own colorful versions in my BluLob sidebar.

My Chicklets

They take up more room, but boy are they attractive. A few well-placed and well-designed chicklets will have more impact than a giant cluster.

It helps to grab a copy of the original logo for whatever you link to. Let’s make a giant “f” chicklet like Mashable uses for Facebook.

Source File

Here’s a large Facebook logo. Click the image below to get the full-size verison:

Facebook Logo - click for a larger version

Part One: the Logo

We’re going to work with a nice, big image size so it is easy to work with. Later we’ll reduce its size for the Web. Starting with a large file gives us a lot of options when we want to make it smaller. Enlarging a small image = bad. Ensmalling a large image = good.

1. Open the Facebook logo in Photoshop.
2. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a rectangle around just the letter “f”.

Copy the letter f

3. Press Ctrl+C (Mac: Cmd+C) to copy the pixels to your computer’s clipboard.
4. Start a new document that is 300px by 300px, 72 pixels/inch with a white background. Save the file.
5. Press Ctrl+V (Mac: Cmd+V) to paste the letter f on its own layer above the background. Name this layer “original f”

Paste the letter f

6. Use the Magic Wand tool to select the white pixels of the letter f.
7. Press Ctrl+J (Mac: Cmd+J) to copy the pixels to a new layer at the top. Name this layer “white f”.

Copy the white f to a new layer

8. Turn off visibility of the “original f” layer by clicking on the eye icon on its left edge.
9. Your white f probably has a blue fringe remaining around it. Make sure the “white f” layer is still active, and go to Layer > Matting > Defringe…
10. Enter a width of 1 pixel and click OK.

Defringe

11. Click on the fx symbol at the bottom of the layers panel and select Bevel and Emboss.
12. Use the following settings and click OK:
    • Style: Emboss
    • Technique: Smooth
    • Depth: 50%
    • Size: 2px
    • Direction: Down

Bevel and Emboss

13. We need to make the letter f bigger. Press Ctrl+T (Mac: Cmd: T) to enter the Transform mode.
14. Make the letter about 200 pixels tall (you can use the Info panel to see the H value). Hold the Shift key down while you drag from any corner of the transform box.
15. Leave space all around it, and room at the bottom for the text that will say “Facebook”. Press Enter (Mac: Return) to complete the transformation.

Transform mode

16. The edges look a tad blurry. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…
17. Set the Amount 100%, the Radius to 20px, and click OK.

Sharpen

Next: the Chicklet

Spot Color cat

What are Spot Colors?

Freesia Pantone 14-0852

Spot colors are made by mixing basic ink colors together in specific ratios using a formula guide. The formulas are usually assigned numbers, such as those of the Pantone® color system. Each spot color gets a separate plate. When colors overlap, the color underneath will either be knocked out or overprinted. When a color is knocked out, it will not be printed at all in the area underneath the second color. When a color is overprinted, both colors will be printed in that area. It’s usually a safe bet that black will safely overprint any ink. Because printers inks are translucent, this is not always the case with colors lighter than black. You may end up with a new combined color you didn’t want.

Prepare a Drawing for Spot Colors

There are many other uses for spot colors in Photoshop, but I’d like to demonstrate by creating my own drawing. You can do the same, or find an image you can trace over. You will need skill with the Pen tool for this particular technique (but not to use spot color). If you want to skip this part and get on with the spot colors, you can download the PSD file.

1. Create a new document. I set mine to 1000px by 1000px, with a white background color. If you are doing an image in all spot color, like I am, it does not matter what color mode you choose. If you are making an image with CMYK plus a spot color, choose CMYK.

New Document

2. Add a new layer and draw an image on it. I used the Pencil tool (located in the flyout menu for the Pen tool). This drawing is just a rough sketch for what we will draw with the Pen tool. This is my cat Athena.

Rough sketch on a new layer

3. Select the Pen tool. Up in the Control panel, click on the icon for Paths (not Shape layers).

Pen tool set to Paths

4. Draw your main outline based on your rough sketch. Think in terms of creating the largest shape which can be filled in with a block of solid color. This will create a new Work Path in the Paths panel (if you cannot see the Paths panel, go to Window > Paths.)

Draw the main outline

4. Double-click on the words Work Path in the Paths panel. Give the path a descriptive name. I named mine “cat shape” Click OK.

Rename the Work Path

5. In the Paths panel, click in the gray area below your new path. This will deselect the current path. We want to add new paths, not add to the existing one.

Deselect the current path

6. Create paths for the other main shapes. I drew around the eyes on one path, around the pupils on another path, and around the nose on the last path.

Create paths for remaining shapes

7. Again, deselect the paths.
8. Now draw path segments for the bits of black outlines we still need. HINT: To finish one line segment before beginning another one that does not connect to it, Ctrl+click (Mac: Cmd+click) somewhere in the image window away from your paths.
9. These segments should all go on the same path, because they will all be outlined in black.
10. Name the path.

Paths for the remaining outlines

11. Save your file.

Next: Creating Your First Spot Color

Tiki God Preview

Your feedback is encouraged and much appreciated!

What You Should Know First

• The Photoshop CS4 Workspace
• The Photoshop Color Picker

Source Files

You don’t need to use these, but they may come in handy.

1. Tiki Head Paths .PSD (61KB)
2. Wood Texture .JPG (349KB) (Thanks to cgtextures!)
3. Eye Texture .PSD (248KB)

Part One: Create the Head

1. Create a new file (File > New). Use the settings below.
2. If you do not know how to use the Pen tool, I recommend you download the file #1 above and open it in Photoshop instead. Then skip the steps that involve drawing with the Pen tool (start with Step 8). I have provided the paths for you.

New Document Settings

3. Select the Pen tool.
4. In the Control panel, click on the icon for Paths (not Shape layers).
5. Use the Pen tool to draw an outline for your Tiki head.
6. Stay on the same work path in the Paths panel, and draw openings for the eyes.
7. In the Paths panel, double click on the words Work Path and rename the path head outline.

Pen Path for Head Outline

8. In the Paths panel, click on the Load path as selection icon.

Load path as selection

9. Open your file with the wood texture (you can grab file #2 above). (Thanks to cgtextures!) I took a photo of plywood and fiddled with it a bunch in Photoshop.
10. Select > All
11. Edit > Copy

Wood Texture

12. Go back to your tiki file.
13. Edit > Paste Into. This pastes your wood texture onto a new layer and uses your outline selection to create a layer mask.

Paste Into

14. Rename the layer face (double-click on the words Layer 1 to make it editable).
15. Click on the layer thumbnail which contains the wood texture.

Select the Thumbnail

16. Save your file.